“The name kind of says it all,” said Mike Chase with the knowing smile of someone imparting a simple fact of life as we stood among shelves upon shelves of ornate and varied types of trophies, because for this week’s edition of Punching the Clock, I had shambled on over to ‘The Trophy Guy and Sports Connection.’
I had to agree with Mike, however. Located at 22 S. Broad St. in Norwich, The Trophy Guy is indeed a pretty self-explanatory name as the business provides people with quality and professional service in regards to awards, plaques and ... well, trophies. The business also boasts the largest selection in the area as well as having the only awards showroom within a three county radius. Mike takes great pride in being able to show his customers a large array of what he can offer them, not through a catalogue as most places do, but through substantial examples of his work which can be picked up and examined.
Another point of pride for Mike is his use of a state-of-the-art engraving laser which allows him to work with acrylics as well as other mediums which can rarely be provided by others in his industry.
On most days, The Trophy Guy is a one man rodeo, with Mike manning the phones, greeting walk-in customers, and building the actual trophies. When I arrived, however, he was being aided by his son, Andrew. Shortly after Mike had acquainted me with some of the basics of the business he was forced to rush off to handle an incoming customer, leaving me in the back to help Andrew assemble an order.
The order included a selection of fifteen trophies for an upcoming Norwich softball tournament. While the pieces of the trophies had already been measured and cut to length, it was left to Andrew and I to assemble said pieces to form the final product. Each of the trophies we worked on were made up of eight parts (or at least mine were). For each of the miniature statues it was necessary to line up all of the parts, starting with a golden man swinging a bat, of course, followed by a column approximately half a foot tall, an ornate sheet, and then finally the base; all held together with a nut on the bottom. A decorative ‘number one’ then had to be attached to the right side of the bat-swinging-man on the pedestal.
One of the major challenges of assembly? Getting everything lined up right. More than a few times I had to loosen up the nut to make adjustments when I noticed that the guy on the top was facing the wrong direction.
After awhile I felt I had done enough damage and so I left Andrew to tactfully correct my countless mistakes ... without me in the room.
Talking to Mike some more, I learned a little about how he got into the trophy trade. For more than 20 years he had traveled for work, while at the same time always taking opportunities to coach sports back home.
“I got tired of traveling so much and I thought, ‘Geez, a lot of places around here have a need for trophies, if I open a shop and do it right this could really work out,” he told me. And it has. In January of this year The Trophy Guy celebrated its five year anniversary and business has been going strong ever since.