Richard Young is a ferocius forward with aspirations of going to bigger things.  The 18 year-old enforcer says the time he has spent with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL has already been rewarding.  Young is a character and someone I really enjoyed listening to.  He touched on everything from growing up in Philadelphia to how important his teammates really are to him.  Here are the highlights of my interview with Young:

Paneech:  Do you prefer to be called Richard or Rich?

Young:  You can call me anything you want to.  Alot of people call me Youngie or Young.  I also still get Rich and Richard, so take your pick.

Paneech:  Tell me about your road into hockey and how you got hooked up with the Phantoms organization.

Young:  I was born in Philadelphia.  Growing up, my stepdad would take me out back into the alleyways and we would play street hockey.  I would normally play goalee.  We then moved out to Jersey where I started playing alot of roller hockey.  A guy saw me and thought I should play ice hockey, so I went out not even really knowing how to skate.  My stepdad stayed with me and pretty much taught me everything I know.  I then played for the Little Flyers, which was a great organization and I really had fun.  I got a call from Jason Koehler asking me if I wanted to come and play in the USHL. 

Paneech:  I see scouts at the games, some from the pros, some from colleges.  It seems like they hide there identities, but you know they are there.  Does it affect you?

Young:  I don’t think about college because I don’t have the best GPA in the world.  I love the game, I love the boys (* Young refers to his teammates as the boys), I just love it.  The Lewiston Maniacs in the Quebec Hockey League and I kept contact for most of the Summer.  They were interested in me coming up and trying out at their camp.  I told them I was more interested in trying out for the USHL Phantoms.  They understood  and told me to stay in contact to let then know how everything was going. 

Paneech:  How do you like this level of hockey so far?

Young:  It’s a big step from the East Coast.  Hockey is not too big out there.  Coming out and playing with boys who are bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter has been fun.

Paneech:  You are racking up alot of penalty minutes.  Do you like having the repuatation of the playground bully?

Young:  I almost pattern my style after Eric Lindros and the whole tough-guy act.  When I want to, I try to put some finesse into the game.  I try to keep the boys on their feet, keep the intensity level up and going.  I try to create some life when we go down by a goal, I would do anything to help my team.

Paneech:  I was at the Tri-City game this past weekend and you got a penalty for what looked like a clean hit.  The hit happened behind their goal and the player you bumped stayed down.  You then went to the penalty box and were jawing across at a Tri-City player also in the penalty box, what kind of stuff gets said?

Young:  He wanted to go, wanted to fight.  At the time, I really didn’t want to fight because I was having a good game, was getting some shots on net, was battling, and it was 3-3 so I didn’t really see a reason to fight.  It was more important in that situation to get the puck in the net and get a win.  It wasn’t too hard to restrain myself, I just laughed at the kid.  I asked him earlier in the game if he wanted to go in the first period and he said no.  I asked a couple of other guys if they wanted to go and they said no.  There is no reason to fight with under five minutes left in the game because that is when everybody turns into a tough guy.

Paneech:  So what you are telling me is that you guys can kind of script when you fight before it happens?

Young:  If somebody skates by and asks me if I want to fight when I am on the bench, I tell them no every time.  If we are jockeying for position on a draw, I won’t.  To me it has to be a heat of the moment thing.  If somebody is taking cheap shots or running their mouth at one of our players, then I say yeah, lets go.

Paneech:  How short of a fuse does Richard Young have?

Young:  Depends what kind of day you catch him on.  Sometimes it takes alot, other times it takes just a little. The maddest I ever got at a hockey game was probably that overtime loss we had in Lincoln.  We were outplaying, outshooting, and outgrinding them and they caught a lucky bounce and we lost.  I was pretty upset and was grateful that the boys were able to pick me up and tell me that it was okay, we would have another shot at them someday.

Paneech:  What was the most penalty minutes you ever got in a game?

Young:  Last year in the AJ, my first fight.  My captain was jumped, so I went in and grabbed the kid.  I ended up with a little over 30 penalty minutes when it was all said and done.  10 for fighting after a whistle, 5 for fighting, 10 for facemasking, and 10 for being an instigator.  I got a little bit.

Richard Young (in blue) works on his fighting skills at practice

One Word Answers

Best Cartoon Ever Made:  The Hulk.

Best Defenseman In The NHL:  Mike Green.

Favorite Fruit:  Watermelon.

Toppings On A Pizza:  None, just the cheese and sauce.

Best Musicians Out There:  Aerosmith.

Name The Four Beatles:  (laughs) I don’t know one.

Favorite Restaurant In Youngstown:   Golden Corral.

Favorite Sport Other Than Hockey:  Lacrosse.

Favorite Character On Family Guy:  Peter.

One Word To Describe Coach Mainhardt:  Papa Bear.

Notable Quotes

• “We are getting lazy when we go up a couple of goals, it is something we need to work on, to just stay on it.  We need to stay on top, keep grinding, and just start putting teams away.”
• “We feel like we can compete with and beat anybody.  If they feel they can just come in and walk all over us, they have got another thing coming.”
• “Everything we do, we do as one.  If you do something wrong, the whole team knows about it and you get punished by 23 other guys.  They don’t let you live anything down.”
• “I put my boys in front of myself and I never put myself first.”

One Response to “Youngstown Phantoms Profiles: Richard Young”