Saturday Morning Salt Creek Sports Center Update

This weekend our NARCh Schedule takes us to another great city, Chicago.  Palatine if we’re going to be exact.  I’ve been to this facility before but many years ago and I barely remember it.  Now it goes by Salt Creek Sports Center and the place is way better than I every remember it.   It has newer Sport Court Flooring.  It’s a very clean facility and well lit.  Sometimes you walk into a rink and get a sense that people really don’t care much about the upkeep.  This is not one of those.  I’m very impressed and happy to be here.

What made this event a reality is the fact that some organized programs planned well ahead of time to attend.  Peter Dale with Farm Tough out of Wisconsin, Rob Kooker with Xplosion out of Iowa, and Robert Kluzek with the Energy out of this facility were all part of the process.  They have teams through all age groups and agreed in the Fall that they would have their programs play if we were to come here.  Once we sprinkled in some other local teams, we had a sold out tourney. 

With only one rink you max out at about 26 teams, and that’s going long hours each day and starting in the afternoon on Friday.  We hardly ever have NARCh Events at single rinks, so it’s a bit odd not having so much going on juggling between rinks .  I’m not complaining though, it’s refreshing to slow down a little and be able to engage in more conversations with parents.

New Yorkers are super proud of their pizza, and Alex and I got a good one at the rink last Saturday Night in Bethpage.  I’ve had 2-3 people approach me and tell me I have to try the pizza place they recommend, so Nick and I are excited to get a good Chicago style pie tonight.

Happy Birthday shout out to Peter Dale.  Peter is great for the sport and has done an amazing job building his Farm Tough program.   He’s also offering a great College Prospect Camp this summer and very excited that it’s full.  I believe he has a spot for 2 more goalies, but other than that it’s full and kids will be attending from all over the country.  Farm Tough will be well represented at the West Coast FINALS, as they’re bringing teams in every age group from 6u – 18u!  The Wisconsin families are going to have an absolute blast in So Cal and will remember it forever.

Long time NARCh Employee Jeremy Ellis lives here and made his cameo this morning jumping on the rink to ref 3 games.  He’ll be back to help tournament direct for a bit tomorrow before his family obligations.  Always great seeing and chatting with Jeremy, he’s such a beauty.

We’re heading into hour 3 of our 18 hours of hockey today, so there’s a lot of great action ahead of us.  As always, we’ll be posting pictures and videos from the tourney through our social media.

More updates to come later…