Rookie receiver Dan Musielewicz not only has provided some touchdown receptions, but he's also been involved in some of the team's craziest TD celebrations. Musielewicz chatted about those and made a conscious decision to keep his "invisible moment" clean in this week's "Quick Count."
When you're not playing football, what takes up your time?
I just got hired as a full-time coach at Tri-State, wide receivers coach. I'm the academic adviser to the football team. My normal degree is in teaching anyway. I had been teaching and coaching in the offseason.
Do you have any pre-game rituals?
Bill (Skelton), (Keith) Recker and I do, it's called the Hillsdale dynamic flex. We do a whole bunch of weird skipping things. Usually everybody makes fun of us. But that's what we always do before every game. Nothing weird, though.
Bill and Recker said the same thing.
It's a Hillsdale thing.
The little dances you guys do in the end zone, are those choreographed ahead of time? The jump rope and the leap frog?
Yeah, the jump rope, we talked about it on the bus when we played Sioux Falls at Sioux Falls, a month and a half ago, we were thinking about some things to do. We came up with leap frog and we did leap frog. We did the jump rope at Sioux Falls, and we did it here.
Oh, you did it there, too?
It was just on one touchdown, and we just looked at each other and said, 'Jump rope, jump rope! All right, let's go!' It was hilarious.
Do you have anything else in the bag?
We've talked about some different things, but that'll come out on Saturday. I've got some good ones. I thought Rocky (Harvey) was going to steal mine the other day when he went up to propose. It was my idea to jump up in the stands and just walk up and sit by a random person. Stay up there. I was like, 'He's stealing my idea!' He kept walking, and I was like, 'What is he doing?'
What CD is in your car right now?
It is Jack Johnson's new one, the Curious George CD from the movie.
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I played basketball in college, too. I guess that would be a surprise. I guess I don't look like a basketball player because I'm tiny and white.
Did you play a lot?
I didn't play a whole lot. The starting point guard got hurt and blew his knee out the second game of the season. The assistant coach was a younger guy, and I had played with him in a whole bunch of camps in high school. So he's like, 'You're good enough. We need you. Why don't you come out?' I ended up playing in five or six games and had a couple points here and there.
Was it just one year?
Yeah, my senior year. My first points were a three-pointer. I banked it in. It was sad. Everybody was clapping and going nuts. I couldn't stop laughing. It was the last minute-and-a-half in the game. For a minute-and-a-half, I was just laughing. I looked like such a putz.
What was your favorite toy as a kid?
I liked my bike. I always rode my bike because we kind of lived out in the country, and we had back roads by creeks and stuff like that. I would always jump my bike over the creek and build little jumps. I was, I guess, a little X-Games guy.
What's a TV show you can't miss?
"The Simpsons." I've got to watch "The Simpsons." At 6 or 8, I'm trying to watch it. Especially now with how busy my schedule is, I can barely watch it because I'm always doing stuff. Sometimes they're both re-runs. You can tell which ones are re-runs by the front when they run into the couch and have all those different things they do. You can tell, 'Oh, I've seen this one before.'
Do you use myspace?
I don't do myspace. I have a Facebook account.
What has been your worst fan experience?
It's a Freedom fan. When I played in Peoria last year, we were (at the Coliseum). I was standing along the boards and felt something hit my hair, and I put my hand back and someone spit chew in my hair. I had to take a towel. I looked up like, 'C'mon, man! I know you guys hate me, but geez.' Nothing's been really bad this year for the most part. Usually everybody picks the easy names to make fun of. They're like, 'I'm not going to make fun of that kid.'
Did you ever find out who it was?
No, I had no clue because it's packed back there. I don't know if it was on purpose or what.
Do you have a video game system?
I do. I have a PlayStation2.
What's your favorite game?
Star Wars: Battlefront. The second one is better. I could play those for, I think my brother and I would play in the winter at night til like 2 o'clock. We'd play for like five or six hours. Sometimes on Sundays we'd play like eight (hours). It's so bad. My mom would bring us up lunch. "Thanks, mom!" (and) keep playing.
So do you like Star Wars?
Yeah, I do like Star Wars. I actually have the original tapes that my brother taped back in the 70s when it first came out on TV.
What's your favorite hang-out spot in Fort Wayne?
I do like the dollar beer Wizards games. But for the most part, I'm at Legends. Those guys are cool over there. I like Piere's. Hooters, too. We do go to Hooters a lot. We get a percentage off. I know some of the girls who work there.
I've never been.
You should go. It's actually pretty good food. The Philly steak and cheese. My girl comes to Hooters with me all the time, loves it. She actually brings her nephew and her sister. Her little nephew is 2 years old.
Favorite sports moment you were not part of?
The first time I actually tailgated was this past year when I didn't play college football. My younger brother was playing. He played at Adrian College, actually with (Freedom quarterback Randy Hutchison) when Hutch played. My family, we were at the game and me and my older brother were sitting in the end zone because there wasn't stands in one end. So we folded our folding chairs and sat in the corner. The drive started on like the 20. I said, 'You know what would be cool? If Joel scored - my little brother's name is Joel - in this end zone.' He had like a 40-yard touchdown pass. It was in the end zone, and we both ran in the end zone and jumped on top of him and celebrated, all three brothers. It was cool.
What is your older brother's name?
Adam. I have another older brother and an older sister. I have a big family.
Do you have a nickname?
Moose.
Who is your closest friend on the team?
I have a couple of them. I've known Hutch for awhile because he's from close to my hometown. Recker and Bill, obviously, I've played with forever. I'm starting to know (roommate) Doug (Daniel) pretty well. It's going to stink because I'm going to move to Angola, and he's going to stay down here. I was a fraternity brother with Recker, too. So we were really close. I lived across the hallway from him for like three years.
If you could be invisible, what would you do?
I'll keep it in the sports world. I heard a story once about the workout that Jerry Rice and Joe Montana did together. It was a guy who came to Hillsdale and spoke, and he spoke about one of their practices that they did just those two before the all-pro game. He said they kept running the same route. It was a corner route to the end zone. They completed it every time. He ran it like 100 times. He came over and was like, 'Guys, you're running the same route every single time, what's the deal?' This kind of gives me chills. He says, 'Well, for the first 10, 15 times, we throw the route just regular, how we would run it. Then for another 20 times, Joe closes his eyes and throws the ball. The other 15 times, Jerry will close his eyes. Then the last 15 times, we'll both close our eyes and throw the ball.' And they completed every single one of them. The guy said he didn't see a drop. So those are two of the best players that ever played the game. I want to see how they do that. I'd be invisible and if they work out together and nobody was there, I'd want to be invisible and just watch them do that so I can learn. That was a pretty cool story. It's all about trust, timing, feel.
- By Stacy Clardie, The Journal Gazette
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