Gaining momentum here in Jersey

Seeing that our national event is in Aston, PA this year, it was imperative that this weekend's regional in Sewell, NJ was awesome- and it's shaping up to be just that.  

Iceworks in Aston, PA (location of 2014 Nationals) is only a half an hour from the rink we are hosting our regional at this weekend.   Choice Inline has always been a great venue for one of our biggest and most exciting events of the year.  The fact that Mike Stover and his family run this rink make the weekend even more interesting than it already is.  If you have ever met Stover, then you know he is the life of the party and one of the funniest guys you will ever meet.  He runs a good ship at his rink as well.  It is always clean, well staffed, professional and friendly.

This weekend we have 29 teams battling it out in five divisions and the hockey so far has been great.  Every division is at least 5 teams and the majority have six in them.  EVERY SINGLE TEAM here is talking about Nationals being a "home tournament" for them and they are loving it.  

As long as I have been coming here, I had never really got to experience the area.  Last night we made the trip to Atlantic City.  It was my first time there and it was AMAZING.  The nightlife is great, the casinos are vibrant and overall it was just FUN!!  It's only an hour away from Aston and everyone should take advantage of whatever time they will have to get to AC during nationals.

The tournament is running smooth here.  This now makes back to back weeks for me where the adult division is truly competitive and intense.  Last week, Texas; this week, Philly.  Team Express and the Nightmare played to a great 2-1 finish just a little while ago and Neumann is about to hit the floor as they prepare for college nationals next weekend.  Kevin Sontos has his CDM Selects organization here in full force, Mike Rosimini has the Cougar organization thriving and his son is even coaching teams now.  Charlie Yoder couldn't make the trip but he made sure his Hershey Typhoon organization was well represented here.

Tomorrow, Jason Muro and Vio show up with their squads... enough said.  The weekend is about to get REAL interesting.  More teams will begin play tomorrow as well, so let's talk then.  For now, I'm gonna finish the night with some good hockey and dream of slot machines!!