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Lomurno holds keys to future

These are precarious times for the Wichita Thunder, coming off a disaster of a season during which it finished dead last -- and dead is the appropriate word -- in the Central Hockey League's Northwest division.

The Thunder has a new coach, Brent Bilodeau, who undoubtedly will overhaul the roster. You wonder whether team mainstays Jason Duda and Travis Clayton, almost as much a part of Wichita as Kellogg and Broadway, are locks to return.

There is also a new general manager, but it seems strange to call Joel T. Lomurno (he likes the middle initial) new.

He has been with the Thunder for 16 years, having started as an unpaid intern. He figured he'd be around for a year to learn the ropes of professional hockey and then lasso another job in a more romantic locale.

Except Lomurno fell in love with Wichita, served the Thunder in a variety of capacities and now, after all these years, is wearing the GM hat. We'll soon find out how it fits.

Lomurno is a huge Cincinnati Bengals fan and an almost-as-huge Chicago Cubs fan. On Sundays during the fall, you'll find him with other Bengals fans at a watering hole.

His deepest passion, though, is hockey. More specifically, the Thunder. It killed him to watch the team suffer so badly last season, especially the 4-26-2 road record.

At some point, you wonder why you're even renting the bus to leave town.

Lomurno steps in as the Thunder faces a huge challenge. It's not going to be easy getting back into the mix in a tough division that includes Colorado, Rocky Mountain, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Business at the Kansas Coliseum was pretty good last season, but if there's one thing Lomurno has learned about Wichitans, it's that we have little patience for losing.

The Kansas Coliseum will be a ghost town if this thing doesn't turn around quick.

"I'm just going to say this is not going to change me in any way, shape or form," said the affable Lomurno. "Except, obviously, I'm going to have a closer eye on the organization. Now I'm the one who has to keep track of the players, the staff, the money, the morale. It's an added challenge, but I'm very excited."

Lomurno was promoted earlier this month when Chris Presson resigned. It was an obvious move, but Lomurno has been passed over before when he looked like a good candidate.

Not this time.

Nobody has more knowledge of the Thunder's inner workings than Lomurno, 37, who grew up in Moorestown, N.J., and played hockey at La Salle, in Philadelphia.

The East Coast kid, though, found his calling in Wichita and if the Thunder doesn't get better, it won't be because Lomurno didn't try.

"We have to do better in every facet of this organization," he said. "We have to win and continue to increase revenue. Our staff knows that and it's up to them to help make that happen. Everybody in this office has to be on the same page or they're not going to be a part of it. Ultimately, though, I realize things do fall on the GM and the coach."

Lomurno's first act as general manager might be his biggest. He plucked Bilodeau from the ECHL, where he had been an assistant for three years in Las Vegas.

The inability to sign talented players, Lomurno believes, has been the biggest reason for the Thunder's slide.

"Our recruiting has been awful," Lomurno said. "When Derek Laxdal was here as coach, every year we had three, four or five great rookies who were part of the soul or our team."

That soul has gotten much older and much slower and Lomurno would like to see an infusion of younger, faster players.

But he'll leave the personnel decisions mostly up to Bilodeau, who has already met with the team's cornerstone players, Clayton and Duda, who are 33 and 32, respectively.

Clayton was the Thunder's second-leading scorer last season while Duda missed 22 games with injuries.

"You can't judge players on your roster solely by what they do on the ice," Lomurno said. "You need leaders."

Clayton and Duda are leaders and warriors and guys who will know when it's time to hang up their skates. Thunder fans never want to see them go.

"Our team was so bad last year that they really had no one to play with around them," Lomurno said. "Now, am I saying both of them will be back? Absolutely not. That's up to the coach."

Lomurno will concentrate mostly on the business side, on making the Coliseum a fun place for fans. He knows, though, that winning is a heck of a lot more fun than the alternative and that fans won't stand for too many more seasons like the last one.

"You'll never find me hiding in a corner at a Thunder game," said Lomurno, who in the past has mingled with fans during intermissions while also handling some radio work. "I have every intention of still being on the concourse during every intermission. I know people will say stuff; I've been in the middle of that ever since I've been here."

What they'll say depends on what they're seeing on the ice. Lomurno knows the Thunder has to be better. Now he's in a position to help make it happen.