The Mercury News: Defenseman Ruggiero makes power play on `Apprentice'

January 14, 2007

By Jo-Ann Barnas

Detroit Free Press

(MCT)

DETROIT - In a field of competitors that includes five attorneys, a business owner and an Internet executive, Angela Ruggiero's background as a three-time Olympic women's hockey medalist is singled out in a surprising way in Sunday night's season premiere of "The Apprentice."

She gets a hug from Donald Trump.

At least, that's part of what's included during a 20-minute clip of the opening episode posted Wednesday on NBC's Web site and at Yahoo!

Set for the first time in Los Angeles, the reality TV series features Ruggiero of Harper Woods and another Michigander - Unionville native Heidi Androl - among 18 candidates vying for a spot in Trump's organization.

Sunday's 90-minute premiere starts at 9:30 p.m. EST. The series, filmed last summer, will return to its regular time slot of 9-10 p.m. Sundays on Jan. 14.

Ruggiero lives in Oyster Bay, N.Y. She was voted onto "The Apprentice" in an NBC online poll during the Winter Olympics in Torino, where the defenseman was a member of the bronze-medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team. Ruggiero, who turned 27 on Wednesday, now works for the New York Islanders and is training for the upcoming women's world hockey championships.

Androl, 26, resides in Santa Monica, Calif., where she's a national and international sales manager in the aerospace industry. She's also a former Miss Beverly Hills and Miss Hawaiian Tropic, according to a recent article on her in the Bay City Times.

In a twist, the winning team each week will live in a mansion while the losers will have to sleep in tents and use outdoor showers and port-a-potties in the mansion's backyard.

Androl and Ruggiero figure prominently in the season premiere, at least in the sneak-peak of the show. Androl is named as one of the project managers for a task involving running a car wash and selects Ruggiero to be a member of her team.

Which team wins? Who's fired? You won't find out from Ruggiero and the other contestants - their lips have been contractually sealed. Angela's mother, Karen Ruggiero of Harper Woods, told the Detroit Free Press: "I'm intrigued just like everybody else. I want to know what happened."

Karen Ruggiero, a real-estate agent, said she's having friends over Sunday night for a party to watch the premiere. Wednesday, she viewed a clip of the opening episode.

"I'm nervous!" she said.

Angela Ruggiero graduated cum laude from Harvard in 2004 with a degree in government. She has been in the real-estate business. Sunday, Ruggiero will be on a plane to China for a two-week mission for the Islanders' "Project Hope," a program to help develop youth hockey in that country.

Karen Ruggiero said she has been instructed by her daughter to tape the first two episodes, which no doubt will include the Trump hug in the season premiere. In the scene, Trump alludes to Ruggiero's Olympic accomplishments and warns the other candidates: "Tough competition, folks."