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Punahou alum
back in business



By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.com

Mike Maciszewski has returned to football and is on the front line of building a new team from scratch following a two-year absence to attend graduate school.

Maciszewski, a 1992 Punahou graduate, is the director of Football Operations and Communications for the Colorado Crush, an Arena Football League expansion team that plays its first game next spring.

He conducted the Crushers' first open tryout Aug. 24 and had 265 hopefuls show up and participate in a series of drills. There are three more tryouts scheduled.

He writes the team's press releases, conducts news conferences and deals with the media.

It's been a whirlwind couple of months since he was hired by the Crushers.

He worked for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars for two years after graduating from Harvard, moved to the Cleveland Browns Trust and was retained by the Browns when the new franchise's ownership group was named.

His main duties with Jacksonville dealt with the salary cap, player contracts and the database that contained every detail of each contract and analyzing previous drafts in preparation for the next one. With the Browns he expanded his experience by getting involved in scouting.

However, Maciszewski felt it was necessary to obtain more education on the business side and returned to school, although he admits there is no class called NFL 101 in graduate school.

He graduated in March from the Anderson School at UCLA with a master's degree in business administration. His return to football became easier because of an independent study report he wrote at UCLA.

"I wanted to do something that would allow me to really focus on what I wanted to learn about the industry I wanted to get back into," Maciszewski said. "I knew the Arena Football League was gaining momentum and popularity and that the NFL had an option to purchase 49 percent of the league.

"The report would give me the opportunity to better learn the business side and to bridge the gap with what I was learning in the classroom. I used it as an opportunity to speak with people in both leagues, to pick their brains and talk about ideas I had."

One of the people he talked with was Michael Young, a former player who works in the Denver Broncos marketing department and handles special projects. They hit it off and kept in touch, and that led to Maciszewski's employment when the new franchise was awarded to the trio of Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen, former Denver quarterback John Elway and Stan Kroenke, owner of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center in Denver.

"I'll be working with coach Bob Beers, a former Broncos scout, and Elway to stock the roster," Maciszewski said. "John is very active with the team. He's the president, CEO and general manager. His favorite saying is people have to wear a number of different hats.

"With NBC involved, the Arena Football League will have 70 games on TV next year and that's more than the NBA and NHL combined. We're starting the season earlier, a week after the Super Bowl. The thinking is we want to give football fans a way to get over Super Bowl depression."

Maciszewski said things have moved quickly since he joined the Crushers, but it's been a neat experience. There is the expansion draft in October to prepare for and a media guide to publish. There won't be any quick trips home to Hawaii soon for the former quarterback.



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