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| August 5, 2003
By Matt Koleski
A Cat’s Eye Look Back At The 2003 NARCh Finals
|  I am writing this from my poolside table in Naples, Florida just outside of Estero where this year’s NARCh Finals are taking place.
NARCh is the largest hockey tournament in the world and this year has over 350 teams participating throughout Platinum, Gold, and Silver divisions. I am here representing the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse and the Detroit Roller Hockey Association (DRHA), which operates the largest inline hockey leagues in the country. I will be coaching the seven Tour Bordercat teams, which were formed several months ago for the purpose of competing at this event. I am also here in support of the many other Detroit area teams, most of which call the Fieldhouse home.
Rather then simply recap games and note who scored at what time I thought I would take a more light-hearted approach at covering the Finals. This idea came from Kevin Houle, president of the DRHA who along with his brother Ken have given me the opportunity to coach these teams and spend two weeks in Florida with all of the teams. Other then the fact that it is July and I’m in Florida I think this is a good thing, right. Originally I felt I would be able to reveal some of the behind the scenes things that happen within a team while parents aren’t within shouting distance or at arm’s length but I think I will honor that time honored tradition that says, “What gets said in the locker room, Stays in the locker room”. And for fear of revealing a bit too much about some of our Bordercat players, possibly leading to a grounding or worse, I will try to watch what I say.
The first team to take the Florida floor would be the Atom Gold squad (8 & under). These guys are made up mostly of 95’s and some 94’s who are experiencing inline hockey for the first time. It should be noted that a number of the parents on this team seem to have some “on the road” experience and are enjoying this trip immensely. They have definitely let their hair down or reached their comfort zone, however you want to put it; I’m just glad that the Bordercat 87’s had plenty of Bantam Gold games in the evening and late at night or I would have been right in the trenches with them. I think it is very important that all the parents on the team get along as anything other than that will spill over to the kids and how they treat each other. Well, this seems to be no problem with this group. They are a lot of fun to be around.
ON to the hockey, the Atom Gold’s are off to a 3-0-1 start, good enough for the 2nd seed going into tomorrow’s semi-finals. The only blemish coming to the 1st seed, Gulf Coast Storm, who we tied 3-3. Scoring details aren’t important here as all these guys know is that they’re one step away from playing for the championship. The subject of who is doing NARCh Skills has not even come up, thank God.
NARCh Skills is an event where each team gets to pick two “snipers” and one fastest skater who, along with their goalie, compete in a scoring and skating competition. I guess I don’t have a problem with how the festivities are actually run but personally, as a coach, you hate to upset the six to eight kids that didn’t get chosen to do an event. Yes, it is up to the coach to pick the kids. The four kids that are picked actually get over-excited, which affect how they play their remaining games, and the rest of the team just seems to lose confidence in themselves. With the Atom Gold team I could have drawn names out of a hat, which I plan to do with other teams if they want to participate, and would have done very well in the Skills. But because these individual performances weren’t important to the parents, they weren’t important to the kids and the TEAM is much better off. (By the way there is no I in ‘team’, although our older kids joke that there is a me in ‘team’). And what about the kids that get eliminated from the skills early when they’re too young to simply appreciate the fact that they got to do it at all. Last year two of my players that lost cried for the remainder of the day after taking early exits in the skills. I’m not bashing the skills because I think that some teams may clearly have three players that simply belong there and have the support from the rest of the team members. If this is the case then I say let’s do it.
This was the case in the Bantam Gold skills as Chad Spezia, whose only miss came on a shot he attempted with his stick behind his back, won the sniper competition. Very rarely does the most skilled player win these events because of nerves and mismatches with the goalie but in this case the cream rose to the top. Chad is actually a PeeWee playing up in Bantams and I had the privilege of spending the first 36 hours of the trip listening to his hockey stories, him ripping on anyone or anything, or him just talking non-stop in the van, the hotel, the rink, wherever. One would say he’s pretty pumped up to be here, I guess. By the way, the Bordercat 87’s are 2-1 and somehow preparing for a 12:05 am game. Only at NARCh is this considered acceptable. They have beaten both Oakville and Mission St.Louis. They lost to Mission Marvel (CA) 3-2.
In other action the Labeda Militia, from Detroit, have found themselves in the PeeWee Gold championship. They’ve been led by goalie, Mike Ferguson, Shane Barry, Ryan Lemke, and Bryan Douroujalian (don’t even try to pronounce it). The team is headed up by Adam Weber and Lance Hyndshaw from Halan’s Hockeyshop. (Halans is located inside the Fieldhouse and is there for all of your roller hockey needs; maybe they’ll give me a deal now). Stay tuned.
The Motor City Rollerdogs are also in Bantam Gold and are off to a great start as well at 3-0.
HOLY MOZA!!! Without the exceptional goaltending of Joey Moza the Atom Gold team may not have been “going to the ship”. At least that’s what I think the chant was after their huge semi-final victory over the SIHA Stallions 5-3. The boys also gave Joey a big Hip, Hip, Hooray! In the locker room, which I hadn’t heard anyone do since one of my tee-ball games in 1971; I think it was against the Cardinals. They also shouted Joey, Joey and what a great feeling it is to know that a bunch of 8 year olds just realized they won a game not because of who scored the goals but because of the great play of their ‘newly born leader’, Joey. One save came with the score tied 2-2 and yours truly botching up a line change which gave the Stallions a clear breakaway. I’ve yet to see a nicer glove save in any of the games I’ve watched, including Pro, and that may be close to 100 games now.
Unfortunately, the Bordercats Atom Golds’ fell short in the finale as they lost to a very strong Gulf Coast Storm team who also had an exceptional goalie. With only seven players the boys simply ran out of gas but happily accepted the silver medal for 2nd place.
The Mite Platinum Bordercats came to Florida after a disappointing 0-4 showing at TORHS in New York a week earlier. You would never have expected them to come out as they did in their first game as they surprised even themselves with a convincing 5-1 win over a good LasVegas Tour Rebels team. After a couple of setbacks to the Tour Smoke (NY) and the Nike OC Blades (CA) the mites would need a win in their last game to have any hope of making the 5 team playoffs. After falling behind 3-0 to the Weston Wizards (FL) the boys would do what they have always done, which is never quit no matter what the score may be. Sure enough, Zach Mudge would get things going with two critical goals on two great shots. “Mudgee”, as they call him, is brand new to roller hockey this summer as is his buddy and teammate Matt Lining; both have a great scoring touch and with a couple more season of roller under their belt will be very fun to watch in future tourneys. The Cats would tie the game midway through the second half and finally with just over 4 minutes to play Tyler Spezia would get the eventual game winner. This was fitting as Tyler played 4 great games even though other teams continuously pounded him, as they knew #7 was the one to watch. The mites needed losses from Hyper Detroit and Las Vegas to get into the field of 5 and while Hyper Detroit obliged with a loss of 1-0 to finish the week at 1-3 the St.Louis Tour Blast could only manage a tie against Vegas 4-4.
The mite BorderCats sat right behind the St.Louis net as the tying goal went in and they sank in their seats as their playoff hopes went down the drain. Watching the kids from above was very disappointing to watch but they stuck together and quietly walked out of the arena. But 2-2 and a goal away from the playoffs was a great achievement for a team comprised of four 93’s and four 92’s. The other Detroit team, Belle Tire pulled out a nice win in their last game to go 1-3 along with Hyper. That made the Bordercats the top mite team out of Michigan and 6th place overall. Although they were just 2-2, I may be more proud of this team then any other I have coached. Over the last month these nine players truly became a team. (St.Louis would go on to beat the Nike OC Blades for the championship)
Labeda Militia wins in OT. Ryan Lemke scored the winning goal in overtime to lift the Militia over the Mission Raiders 4-3. Ferguson was once again stellar between the pipes and Shane “iron-lungs” Barry continued to lead the team up front. This would be Michigan’s first Gold medal in 2003.
The Bordercat 85’s playing in Bantam Platinum advanced to the playoffs with a 2-1-1 record. Disappointing by the standards that these guys set for themselves but somehow I think they have forgotten that they are playing without three of their top players in Nino Musitelli (shoulder surgery), Dominic Miani (broken arm), and Cory Elkins. They made the trip with just 5 players and ha
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