Holck is the sports director and sales manager at WHOU (100.1 FM) in Houlton and was doing his first game this season after undergoing a triple heart bypass at Bangor’s Eastern Maine Medical Center on Oct. 28, 2015.
“My mother (Isabel) died the last week of September so I thought I was under some extra stress,” said Holck. “I experienced a tingling in my arms and I had some shortness of breath.
“I went to Houlton Regional Hospital and they put me in an ambulance to Bangor. The next thing you know, I’m having a triple bypass,” said Holck. “It was totally unexpected.”
He had a minor setback that required a four-day hospital stint, he said, but other than a cold he has been fighting the past few days, “I feel a lot better. I’m getting stronger every day.”
This will be Holck’s 18th year calling high school games in Aroostook County and during the basketball tournaments in Bangor, Augusta and Portland.
He pointed out that the irony of his return to broadcasting comes in a game involving his former broadcast partner Terry Cummings.
Cummings is the Presque Isle High School boys coach. He was Holck’s color analyst for his first broadcast 18 years ago.
Tim Tweedie, his current color analyst, filled in for him as the play-by-play man recently.
“I’m glad to be going back to play-by-play because I suck at color,” quipped Holck, who was the recipient of the electronic media award at the annual Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association convention last year.
He said his doctors have given him the OK to go back to work on a limited basis.
“I’m going to ease into it,” said Holck. “We’ll see how it goes (Wednesday night). Maybe I’ll do a game on Friday. We’ll see how I respond after (Wednesday). It’ll be nice to do Houlton’s home opener.”
The 57-year-old Holck said his station is doing 45 regular-season games before heading to the tournaments to do several more.
His station also live-streams 90-95 regular-season basketball games on the Internet.
He said he has been doing a lot of walking and has dropped 20 pounds.
“And I’ll start my first rehab class next week,” he reported.
He is hoping to return to full-time status after the holidays.
