Ulrich Gets Into The Grind From Hockey To Snowshoe Softball, Grinders Have What It Takes

For most people, softball can be difficult, even with cleats on their shoes. For others, snowshoes are required to offer a sufficient challenge. Among the latter are Todd Ulrich and his recreational sports club, the Grinders.

Ulrich, an independent sporting goods salesman, is the founder and captain of one of Spokane’s premier recreational sports organizations. Aside from playing with the Grinders in hockey, modified pitch softball and - yes, snowshoe softball - he is in charge of organization, scheduling and fund-raising for the club.

Ulrich’s sports background includes 1-1/2 years of playing hockey at Michigan State and four years as a starting linebacker for Whitworth College. His competitive drive and the close friendships he developed through athletics in his youth inspired Ulrich to found the Grinders in 1986, he said.

“I’ve been involved in sports since I was 6. It’s been a really big part of my life since,” he said. “It’s always been a really great way to get guys together. I’d rather do that than go to a bar with 10 guys. The competition breeds adrenaline.

“I always liked that feeling of adrenaline, getting a high through sports vs. other things.”

But, said Ulrich, competition can be taken too far. “I really think guys have a problem if they take a win or loss in recreation sports too seriously,” Ulrich said. “If they dwell on it too long, I really think they need help.”

The Grinders can take losses as seriously as the next team. It’s that competitive fire. But through the years, there haven’t been nearly as many defeats as victories.

Their most impressive achievement, which Ulrich refers to as “the pinnacle of the Grinders,” came last spring, when they placed fourth at the Amateur Softball Association Men’s A modified national tournament in North Carolina.

That sort of success, he said, perpetuates itself in recreational sports. When a team wins as much as the Grinders, it attracts the better players and gets better every year.

“You ask any rec team in town, and they know who we are,” he said. “After you get success here in town, you get guys coming up to you and saying, ‘Hey, can we play for you?”’

This gives Ulrich the luxury of choosing who plays for the Grinders. Their talent monopoly eventually drove the Grinders out of flag football, a sport which they competed for seven years.

“In 1989 and ‘90 we won the city championship. … It got to the point where nobody wanted to play in the AA league (Spokane’s highest level), because they didn’t want to get beat,” he said. “Also, Sundays kind of became a different day for me, with family and church commitments.”

Not that his family necessarily minds his sports commitments. Ulrich’s 4-year-old son, Cash (his father calls him a future Grinder), already skates and passes the puck around with Todd’s teammates before hockey practice.

Ulrich described his son’s attraction to sports by saying, “It’s like having a parrot around the house. You do something and he just copies it.”

Hockey is Cash’s first sporting activity, much as it was his father’s first love. Ulrich grew up in the Seattle area playing in the Snow-Kings youth program. He also played junior hockey with Seattle’s Northwest Americans, and was a member of the senior Spokane Chiefs.

While hockey is his favorite, snowshoe softball is certainly the most unusual sport he’s played. It’s also the one in which the Grinders have experienced the least success.

“We’re sort of like the Buffalo Bills of snowshoe softball,” Ulrich said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Monkey business Twelve Monkeys, a Spokane team comprised of former junior Braves and members of the Grinders, went 5-0 and won the Northwest Classic last weekend among a field of 40 teams. Led by goalie Trent Levins, brother of NHL player Scott Levins, Twelve Monkeys defeated Raymond, Alberta, 4-2 in the championship game after shutting out the defending champion Grinders 3-0 in the semifinals. The Grinders finished third. Levins, tournament MVP, allowed just two goals.