#bellesville

(Publisher's Note: This ageless feature debuted a couple of years ago, but it has been updated for this afternoon because it's a great story about two terrific local residents and the family they have raised.)

“You don’t think you’re taking her to Canada, do you?”

That was the question local businessman Tom Fato immediately posed to Brock Woods after the former pro hockey player asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

“It’s a true story,” confirmed Brock, a native of Belleville, Ontario, who now serves as the color analyst for Nailers broadcasts. “That is exactly what Cari’s Dad asked. It was a simple conversation, really. I came into the kitchen, and I still had my winter coat on because it was November, but I was sweating bullets because of how nervous I was. I sat down with him, and I popped the question. And that was his first response … ‘Well, you don’t think you’re taking her to Canada, do you?’

“I immediately told him that wasn’t our plan at all, and then he wanted to know what my plan was as far as making a living and things like that,” he said with a chuckle. “I told him my family was in the trucking business and that I planned to get into that business, too. And the rest is history.”

Well, according to Cari, there’s a little more to the story.

It took Brock only six months to propose to Cari Fato.

See, Woods moved to the Friendly City one season after the Wheeling Thunderbirds had transplanted from North Carolina and into the Wheeling Civic Center in 1992, now known as Wesbanco Arena. According to the Nailers’ history book, “Brock played three seasons for the Thunderbirds from 1993-96, and finished with 37 goals, 85 assists, 122 points, 639 penalty minutes, and a +34 rating in 193 games. He is one of six defensemen in team history to record at least 10 goals and at least 100 penalty minutes in the same season and is the only blueliner to achieve that feat in three different seasons. Woods also served as the team's captain during the 1994-95 season.”

In fact, a little more than three years ago, Woods joined former head coach Peter Laviolette in the Nailers’ Hall of Fame.

“But I wasn’t a hockey fan back then. Not at all. I didn’t meet him because he was a hockey player, either,” Cari insisted with a smile. “I met him because I went to Wheeling College and there was a bar called Mac’s down the street from the school. Brock and his friends would come there and take all of the seats. That’s where I kind of met him, at Mac’s, but then I didn’t talk to him again for a year or so.

“It wasn’t until a year later that I really met him at TJ’s (Sportsgarten). I would be there playing pool with some friends, and he would come in after games with his teammates,” she recalled. “He would send a guy named Louis Dumont down to me with a drink every time. I’d look up and say thanks, and he’d wave, and then he started to come down to talk, and then we realized we liked each other. A lot.”

And then the non-hockey fan laced up skates for a first date.

“We actually did go ice skating on our first date, and yes, I showed up,” giggled Cari, who was a 28-year-old physical therapist before joining the Fato family’s Straub Automotive at The Highlands. “Of course, all of the kids who were there knew who he was and that was pretty fun. And, of course, we held hands while we skated. It was our first date.

“And then I think he took me to Bob Evans after that,” she said with a grin. “Believe it or not, yes, Bob Evans. But hey, we didn’t have a lot of money back then, and it wasn’t about the food anyway.”

Brock was inducted into the Wheeling Nailers Hall of Fame last March.

Believe The Hype

That is him. The Hall of Famer who starred in the Nailers’ “Why Not Us” video released in 2024 as Wheeling headed into the ECHL’s Kelly Cup Playoffs against the Indy Fuel.

The Nailers struggled that season and finished in third place with a 38-28-4-1 record and 81 points, but Brock was impressed that season, last season, and this season, too.

“They had a lot of very good players that year, but it’s a development league, and we’re affiliated (with the Pittsburgh Penguins), so that’s what happens. We lose our best players because they move up,” Brock explained. “I'm happy the team is still here in town. I think it’s great.

https://youtu.be/ClRVOVBUojU?si=N36KJSQuhkWqMIb1

“The improvements to the arena have made the rink a great place to play, so that part of the game has changed quite a bit. And I get it. There’s got to be more than just the game these days for people to go, and that’s across the board with sports,” he said. “It’s really impressive that the franchise has stayed here in Wheeling. That doesn’t happen very often on this (ECHL) level, but the city loves its sports teams.”  

That has included, in fact, the girls’ basketball team at Wheeling Park High and the hockey club team at Wheeling Central Catholic. Cari and Brock’s three children, Shanley, Tommy, and Lala, each have excelled in athletics. Shanley and Lala both are 1,000 scorers for the Lady Patriots, and the eldest played her college ball at W.Va. State, while the youngest has fully recovered from knee surgery and is now playing for the University of Maine.

The Woods kids - Shanley, Lala, and Tommy.

Their son? Hockey, of course. Tommy played Juniors for a few years and is now studying pre-med and playing for the D-1 Club Team at West

“One thing I know now is you have to love the sport because it’s an everyday thing these days. If you are going to be dedicated, you do it,” Cari said. “Our two girls absolutely love basketball, and Shanley played on the college level, and now Lala (is doing) the same, and that’s going to be a great adventure for her. That’s going to be the dream come true.

“And Tommy has been so dedicated to hockey,” she said. “He (played) juniors, and now he's at WVU because his goal was always to go college at some point. It’s all about working hard, and all three of them certainly do that on a daily basis. We’re so proud of them.”

Oh, and yes, indeed, the Woods family has taken several trips across the border and into Brock’s native land of Canucks.

“That’s the funny thing about how my Dad reacted to Brock when he asked to marry me – I love Canada, and I love it when we make those trips,” Cari said with a broad smile. “And ya know, Brock wanted to ask my Dad after only three months of dating, and I told him there was no way my Dad would go for it after just three months.

“So, he waited until it was six months, and here we are today.”