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| August 4, 2003
By jeff garcia
How The Tour NorCal Mavericks Got Ready For NARCh Gold Finals
|  How do teams get ready for the biggest hockey tournament in the world? Do they "sike" themselves out? Do they kick back and go out to hooters every day? Honestly what do teams do to pump themselves up for finals? Well I don't think anyone can answer that question, but this is how the Tour NorCal Mavericks got ready for NARCh Peewee Gold.
As we arrive into florida the mood is in just "chill" mode, most of our players are competitive(i mean you have to be to play at this level), however they don't show it like crazy competitive kids do, you know listening to some hardcore rock our rap/hip-hop music, banging their heads against the wall, you know those kinds of things.
Now my attitude as the goalie was to just "sike" myself out, go crazy, and play like a wildman. Of course do any and everything to win. however this was my first year at NARCh so i wasn't completely sure of that attitude, because i didn't know what it was going to be like and what the skill level of the teams that would be there would be.
Now i have to take a sentence to aknowledge those players on the team who i think are the most competitive because i appreciate it being a very competitive player myself.
1st: captain Sean Dickson 2nd: Adam Johnson(aj) 3rd:myself Jeff Garcia. These players although the most competitive had the slowest start as the tournement began. We play our first game and lead 3-1 against team breakaway, the breakaway came back and tied the game and that was the result. 2nd against the twisted wristers resulted in a loss 3-1. These are both games we definetly should have won!!! As we go into the lockeroom we engage in an intense conversation by the great coach of NorCal Gregg Smith.
Of course the first things that come out are "okay boys, two wins we should of had and we didn't get them, the next two games are must wins!!!!". So we play our next two games and win against the projoy renegades and the stallions. Going into the playoffs the "one game at a time" motto really kicks in. Game one is a win against twisted wristers. Game two is against the number one seed York Region Magic Windows, now we all watched them play their other games and i had to say the team didn't know how to prepare.
As the game is being played we are getting terribly beaten 5-1 and i'm watching some of the craziest goals get scored on me by some of the craziest snipers i have ever seen!! however our great coach found their weakness in their goalie and we attacked with all players and scored four goals to tie the game. Over time starts, they make a rush, one down the middle, one on the boards, both of our forwards backchecking, the pass is late and the rusher doesn't get good wood on it and i make the sliding save. Faceoff, won by us, defense passes, forwards rush, one down the middle, one down the boards, defense passes to side, now to middle, just recieves the pass, the shot through the five hole to win it in overtime. WOW!!! We were pumped, the team heads back to the hotel and to unwind and get that game out of our heads some us decide to head over to HOOTERS with the great Mike Solkov on FT. MYERS BEACH.
Alright, semi-final game against the mission raiders. The game starts out not that great, a quick 3-1 lead for the raiders. Then it turns into 4-1 and i get put in. quickly they score a goal and it just kept on going till it was 7-1. I was making bad decisions not making saves giving up weak five hole goals everytime.
This game the team did not click at all and the goalies did not show up to play. Another big factor i think that contributed to the 7-1 loss was the bigheadedness. The big win the day before i don't think left all of our head including myself whick is why i advise my team and every team in the world to NEVER LET ANYTHING GET YOUR HEAD AND STAY THERE!!!!!! So we go home shocked about the loss and with fourth place. We went further than anybody expected us to go, however to a player like me that doesn't matter, what matters is what i expect of myself and what we as a team expect of us.
So all in all i think it was a good year and a great run through NARCh. One teammate who i really want to thank and we all should thank for cooperating and being a great team player is Mark Solkov. A lot of times during the season he was let known he wouldn't get alot of playing time, he came all the way to florida with his family and the team and he knew he wouldn't get a whole lot of playing time. Throughout the tournement his job was to take short 30 second shifts to give our defensemen quick breaks when needed. He was the only player we had to take that job and besides that anyone who cooperates with that deserves some credit. It shows his maturity as a player at his young age, so thank you Mark.
Well thats my article, i'm Jeff Garcia-goalie #29 for the Tour NorCal Mavericks and that is how we prepared, delt with situations, and played the world's greatest roller hockey tournement-NARCh.
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