Frost Heaves to bring ABA to Barre, Vermont

Author: Andrea M. LaRocca

No longer just a winter frustration, frost heaves are enjoying newfound fame as the namesake of Vermont's first pro basketball team. On Dec. 14, 2005, Alexander Wolff, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated (SI) and a Cornwall, Vt. resident, unveiled his plans for the state's newest minor league team, the Frost Heaves, at a press conference in Barre, Vt. One day earlier, Wolff also announced the team's birth in an SI article entitled "Scorecard: Heaves, Ho!," which featured a playful illustration of Wolff wearing a furry bomber hat and waving a foam "Go Heaves" finger.

Wolff is the president and general manager of the Frost Heaves, and his wife Vanessa is the assistant general manager. In the five weeks since the press conference, the Wolffs have devoted themselves to the founding and publicizing of the upstart team, and the Frost Heaves already have an extensive Web site and merchandise line. "Rather than a basketball team right now, we essentially have a T-shirt line," joked Wolff.

The Frost Heaves will compete in the American Basketball Association (ABA), and the team's first season will begin in early November 2006 and last until early March 2007. The season consists of 36 games, 18 of which will be played at home. According to Wolff, the Frost Heaves will play in two "lovely old historic gyms in Vermont downtowns," the Barre Municipal Auditorium, a vintage Depression-era court better known as "the Aud," and the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington. Each gym seats about 1,500 fans, and Wolff hopes that each court will get equal playing time, with half the home games played in Barre and the other half played in Burlington.

Equally important as the basketball that will be played, however, is the Frost Heaves' overarching mission. Wolff said that the team will be "run by Vermonters for Vermonters," and he is molding the team in the shape of Vermont values, such as sustainability and local and community connections. Accordingly, Wolff hopes to market locally produced concessions at the games and to focus on minimizing the team's carbon offsets.

Wolff also plans to innovatively integrate the Frost Heaves with the Internet. Fans who join an online community, "The Bump in the Road Club," will receive regular updates about the status of the team and will eventually be able to affect team decisions through voting. Said Wolff, "It will be like a reality series with a participatory democracy piece built in." He will also continue to chronicle the Frost Heaves' evolution via the Frost Heaves website and SI.com.

"We're trying to meld the old Vermont - as in the historic downtown gyms we will play in - with the new Vermont - as in the high-tech development and Internet that Burlington is known for. We're using the team as a way to demonstrate what's possible in Vermont," said Wolff.

Overall, Wolff said that the reaction from Vermonters and from basketball fans across the country has been encouraging. "It was essentially on a whim that I conceived the idea to start a basketball team, and then I had to fill in the reality of it and figure out how it could work in Vermont," said Wolff, who first daydreamed about a Vermont hoops team over a year ago. "It's in the realm of possibility. The venues are here, the scale is here, the tradition of basketball is indeed here and there's a track record of success for minor league sports in Vermont." Wolff has been in contact with the Vermont Voltage, the state's minor league soccer team, and the Lake Monsters, the state's minor league baseball team, as well as the University of Vermont and the Vermont Basketball Association.

"It's been very gratifying how willing to help people in Vermont have been," said Wolff. He also noted that several fans outside the state have been supportive, offering to donate season tickets to a local Boys and Girls Club in one instance. "It's kids who will be sitting in our millionaire's row," said Wolff.

With kids on the sidelines and team slogans that proclaim, "Stop by our hardwood on a snowy evening" and "We're gonna be the bump in their road," the Frost Heaves plan to keep the fun in the game. But according to Wolff, the team will be professional - in the Vermont way. "There's certain bases that we have to cover seriously, and as we cover those bases it will liberate us to take a little more puckish approach, " he said, "Obviously just the name of the team shows that we're not taking ourselves completely seriously, and that's what minor league sports are. We're mom-and-pop business, not big business."

Looking forward to the next few months, Wolff said that the most immediate Frost Heaves plans include "to raise capital to fund the team and then hire a coach. Then we'll work on putting together our roster and game schedule." He predicts that a coach will be chosen in the springtime and that try-outs will be held during late summer into early fall. "We're not going to limit our recruiting to just Vermont, but preference will be given to players with local connections," said Wolff.

Sporting an official Frost Heaves sweatshirt, Wolff most recently brought his message about the new team to the J-Term course, "Coaching Young Athletes," which is co-taught by Dee Rowe '52 and Head Men's Hockey Coach Bill Beaney. Rowe, who is the former men's basketball coach at University of Connecticut, said of Wolff, "He is a brilliant intellect who has an incredible passion for basketball. He's a delightful guy who is captured by the mission to bring a pro basketball team to Vermont. He's traveled the world, and now he's bringing the world to Barre."

"I have every hope and expectation that he'll make it very successful," said Rowe, who has also put himself on the list for a Frost Heaves T-shirt and who hopes to attend the team's opening game.

For more information about the Frost Heaves or to purchase merchandise or tickets, visit www.vermontfrostheaves.com.