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| July 16, 2004
By Irish#19
Day One: In My Mind, I Never Stop Seeing Them Compete
|  One of the things I like about competition is that it celebrates the good part of competition.
It has its wins and its losses, but we all live to see another day. Those of us who have seen war, never stop seeing it. We never forget the sounds, the smells, but also we remember the bravery of the common men and women within it. But war, or perhaps conflict, is a good metaphor for what we do here at NARCh. We are in the business of conflict resolution based upon the scoreboard, and you know, it is just a whole heck of a lot of fun, eh?
But it is also a place where fair play can succeed and where playing within the rules is still allowed, and that is why I love it so much. NARCh, like any competitive sport, is a competition but instead of celebrating the worst of us, we celebrate the best of us and if we do not end up in the winner’s circle, we can learn lessons about life and hope, as well as success and dreams. Like I said, it celebrates the best in us.
It is competition. It is a positive form of competition. It brings out the best in us.
Arriving at the rink it is not what you would expect. This arena is more homey, with a lot more for the younger players and siblings to keep busy in. The rinks are good sized, and over all I think I will call this a more informal and homey NARCh, and a place where families can come and easily spend the day. The facility staff has been very nice and helpful.
There is a concession stand, but check out the Hippo Joe’s bar and Grill. They have Buffets there that are very good and better than your typical rink fare. Breakfast is at 6:30am, Lunch starts at 12pm to 2pm and Dinner is at 5-7pm. I recommend it.
Anyway, food out of the way, on July 16, 2004 it brought out the best in the players that took the stage. Those that started today started us all down the road of NARCh 2004 and I for one would like to thank all the players, and parents, and coaches…
What most impressed me on Day 1? The Babes on wheels…jk The girls.
Girls:
The most memorable part of the day was watching the girl division play. These gals have gone way past the beginning stage and rival many male teams at this point. Standing outside the enclosed portion of the facility that used to hide the ice rinks, one saw an uncommon amount of pony tails -- until it dawned on you that these were females and then you felt really stupid for thinking, “Gee these girls play like the boys.” I wondered if that would offend them or make them feel good, and then I decide probably a little of both. But I was old, and young girls have a wonderful way of letting the grandpas of the world get away with acting like we are grandpas.
Back to the story here. What I had stumbled on was a game played by our country’s best, and that was why I was so impressed. Lately off their London, Ontario appearance as Team USA were Jill Szandzik, Ashley Cottrell and Rachel Thull, sporting Bordercats Jerseys. Opposed to them were USA teammates Goalie Heather Gunther, Michelle Vittress, Catherine Santos, Amanda Davenport and Sandra Harris of the Jersey Jaguars.
In the Distaff USA Square off, the Bordercats popped in three to the Jaguars zip, to win. Scoring started with Rachel Thull getting a little help from the Jaguar Defenseperson, who helped deflect it in. The next goal came with about 2 minutes left in the first half, Gabby Gardner cut high right, and used a screen to cross corner low the shot into the back of the net. The first period remained 2-0 as it seemed that the Jaguars were trying to push the play ad the Bordercats were content to counter punch and take advantages. The New jersey Jaguars seemed in the second to want to slow the game a bit, perhaps looking for open area on the rink, but the Cats again were up to the task and took away the lanes playing excellent body. Chelsea Rapin got the third goal for the Bordercats in the second half of play, to finish up the scoring.
Also playing are Cincinnati’s own Eagles, who did very well against the TMDs, and tied the game. If you can get up that early tomorrow you will see some great action at 6:15am when the Cincinnati Eagles take on a favored Bordercats. TMD will play the Jaguars at 10:30am to see who gets into the proverbial driver’s seat.
Atom Gold:
The little dudes and dudettes are always a favorite of mine, and the age group I love to coach.
On the first day they did not let me down.
The PAL Thunderblades looked strongest to me overall, and they posted a plus 12, with 18 goals for and 6 against. The Tour Blast also performed well, as did the Bordercats, all winning both their games today and posting, respectively, plus 7 and 9. So, while tomorrow is a new day, I see these teams as very strong.
But I did want to point out a couple of players. And, I hope to do this each day. But from the Mission AKS Empire program, I was very impressed with the Atom AKS players, and in particular Javier Umanzor (#44) and Scott Savage (#99). Both had all the skills you would expect of a platinum level player. Special recognition should go to young Savage as I saw him dominate the rink when he played, excellent vision, and a good sense for what was going on around him. He took the skills fastest skater, so he also had the speed to carry out what he wanted to do. Remember that name. You should hear a lot more of it in times to come.
Mite Gold:
More in depth look at the 10 and under guys and gals tomorrow, but today they also started the round robin play. A somewhat surprising Philly revolution took command of the division with 2 wins, and a 16 goals for and 1 goals against performance. Also looking strong are the VS Hyper Roadrunners, who also won both their games and posted a plus 8 on the day. Other contenders seem to be AMB Yellow, Mission Force and Mission AKS 95 who went undefeated in their first day of action.
By the way, I watched another excellent players from the AKS program. It was the 93’s Captain, Eric Taylor. A definite standout in the division.
I hope to have more a little later in the week on the mighty mites.
Midget Gold:
Midget Gold finished up its first two games, and there were some surprises.
Craig Suyeushi’s Nor Cal Riot posted two easy wins. They played Iowa Spirit and Team Visteon (MI) and posted an impressive 19 goals for an 6 against, for a day leading 13. However, all the undefeated teams were impressive on the day, CCM’s Devil Dogs posted 14 goals for and 4 against. Chula Vista Golden Eagles scored 10 to 6 against. Motor City Roller Dogs had an impressive one goal against in two games, with five goals for, showing their early dominance. Water City Serpents played Team St Louis to a 5-3 win, and Detroit Thrashers to a 7-5 win, and so to some their 12 goals for and 8 goals against may seem mediocre until you factor in their opponents and then you see a team that could win it all.
This division will get tighter and is up for grabs at this point.
Junior Gold:
Junior Gold is just starting, and more to come.
I would comment briefly here that the UK teams are doing very well. The English have invaded America, and they are accounting well for themselves.
I saw the UK Desert rats play perhaps the favored team in the Junior Division, Corona’s Knights, and Corona jumped up quick and by the end of the first they had popped in 4 goals. However, it was not that one sided. The Rats did break down and leave some Knights alone in front of the net and they beat Quinn Cagguila of Toronto with some unmolested pin point shooting. But if they were to tighten up their defensive play and become a little more confidant without the puck, I think you will see them become more and more successful. I cannot recall the final score, but in the second the Rats did tighten up and stopped Corona cold before the very end, when the Knights got two more goals.
All in all, however, the Desert Rats had some good scoring chances and if they were to ask me why they lost the game – other than the obvious difference in goals – would be that they played a heavily favored team that was faster. When crunch time came, the Knights were able to get behind the Desert rat defense and take on their goalie, who can actually play in the 16 under division by the way, and beat her.
Kudos to the Knights who played well today, but also extra kudos to the Desert Rats and all the UK teams that only get better and better every time I see them. I would LOVE to see the UK NARCh Regional next year as I think the British Are Coming again and I expect to see them medal in the next 12 to 24 months.
Senior Gold:
You always know when the seniors show up, because there are always a great many half bored girlfriends in the stands trying desperately to look interested and hoping that it will all end soon. The older boys started today and we will cover them more later.
Item of interest from Seniors: An unexpected grandparent’s death turned around a car of Grizzlies, and to be able to make the player rule, coach Denis Jelcic laced up his skates, and skated with his team! Reinforcements are on the way and our thoughts and prayers go out to the player and his family that lost their loved one.
Cincinnati Teams:
Local teams fared well.
It seems the team that Cincinnati Eagles girl’s team have the best chance to medal. They played a strong Team Mission Detroit, that vies for the title of Detroit’s best. Tomorrow morning the Eagles will face perhaps the best girl’s team in the tournament . It will be tough, but the Eagles have already shown they can play at that level.
Although in the won/loss department, Atom 8under Projoy Cincy Storm skated against Tour Blast, considered one of the top Gold team, and dropped by only a goal, 2-1.
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