Jersey left it all on the table
Talk about a weekend that had some excitement...Jersey was just that.
Heading down to New Jersey I always expect the unexpected. But...then; is it really unexpected? Mike Stoever is one of the great rink owners in the country. He's one of the nicest, funniest guys to ever sit down and have a conversation with. The "janitor" is always at the rink, and he is so hands on with his organization and the day to day operations. Hanging around him, you're guaranteed a laugh or two per hour. But it will NOT be a laughing matter if we don't see the Cougars in Kalamazoo this year!! ;). We know we will see them there with bells on and it will be a great opportunity to rap it up with "Stoeve" one more time.
Jersey was kind to us this weekend. We got a high of 78 degrees on Thursday when everyone flew into Philly and although the weather outside got worse and the hail storm on Saturday night was not kind, knocking out power for about ten seconds, the hockey was phenomenal.
Charlie Yorder and the Typhoon were in the house, Vio and the Roadrunners were there. Kevin Santos had his CDM Selects program, Dennis Ferry and the PA Predators won the peewee division and of course, the Cougars were home!
The hockey saw everything, from three straight championship games that went into extra time on Sunday to the brawl on Saturday after a physical game between Kamagraf Exile and MR2 Selects. The South Jersey Beast played an awesome tournament and were very competitive and will continue that in the right division this summer as they have committed to playing at nationals this year.
The adult division was extremely competitive as there was not one game that ended in a mercy. In reality, all teams would have probably been happy with two semis and one championship. The division could have went to any team. The best part for me was seeing Thomas Stahl back in action. We talked about alot, and he told me this was his second event he has played in since being back. He remembered rinks he has played in and didn't look bad at all after being out of the game for a while. One of my favorite players is Ben Stewart. He was playing on three teams this weekend and making an impact on all three. At a certain point (after the peewee championship) he came up to me and Joe and guaranteed he would get two more gold medals and he did just that.
Sunday brought confusion, I guess, as Joe and Dave couldn't figure out how to sign into the back end of our website, but it took "Downtown" to get things going again. Unfortunately, they both just forgot that '.com' usually goes at the end of an email address when signing in. I guess everyone wasn't blessed with the "downtown" type of intelligence. Other than that the weekend went very smooth. It's always great to get back into the swing of things when it comes to regional events and see the faces you feel that you just saw yesterday even though it's been a while.
I do have to say though, the Dellamortes continue to impress. The brought some SLAMMIN' cannolis for the staff and are always there to provide a laugh. Mr. Dellamorte gets a rise out of picking on me, I am convinced- gotta love the guy though. Thank God Ann Marie is so nice because she evens the two out!! Jirak's mom found someone new to talk to every thirty seconds because she is so excited the minute she walks into a hockey rink and Deena Collella (Mikey's mom) is not complete until she can do something for you. This is just how our sport is! Usually everybody wants to help everybody. Do we all have our moments? Absolutely! You can't make everyone happy all the time, but we generally have great people in this sport.
Well, I won't write more than the novel I already have...I just wanted to wrap up the weekend. For more of a specific breakdown of scores and results check the website and the award winners are on the results page! So, until next time, I'm signing off!!
- "Downtown" Georgie Brown
IG, Twitter and Snapchat: Downtowngebrown