Planning and preparing

I wanted to continue my thank yous before I talked about how our preparation for Minnesota is going.  There have been a lot of donations from people that I don't know and I'm sorry if I don't mention you, but it doesn't mean we're not grateful.  With that being said, I want to say thank you to the Woyshners and also too the Mcginnis's.  Without your donations and everyone else's we wouldn't be able to go.

Now on too the craziness.  Since we are a very responsible young group of men, we decided that we would go to Panera to talk about our preparation.  We wanted to talk about costs, flights, scheduling, and packing.  It was a nice thought that we would be all business but for 90% of the conversation it was simply about  hockey.  We did fit in that 10% of important stuff which made it possible for 4 of us too purchase airline tickets the next day.  Fortunately, Bendog, Bryan, Corey and I got tickets on the same flight.  Chazz will be flying on a different airline, he said something about being too cool for us, or something like that.  Talking about too cool, Tyler Woyshner has not yet decided if he can make it.  Actually, he's in quite the dilemma.  He plays for Drexel and would have to miss some key games if he skips for Minnesota.  He assures us all he's going to talk to his coach and make it happen, I'm not convinced.  I would completely understand though, it's a tough situation.  

So now that the important stuff seems to be coming together, how do a bunch of indoor ice hockey players and roller hockey players prepare for their favorite sport played outdoors? Not just outdoors but on a lake in below freezing weather.  Corey's dad had suggested going to our roller hockey rinks at night while its cold in our under ware.  Nice try Mr. P but we aren't that close of friends.  I don't think there really is a way to prepare for that kind of weather.  Hopefully once we hit the ice and start skating we won't even notice -__-.  One way to deal with the cold, would be our attempts to grow beards. If you don't know anyone who plays hockey you won't understand a hockey player's fascination with beards.  My bet is that Narb(Bryan) ends up with the best beard.  Nothing beats a blond hair here or there.  In reality I might end up with the best one only because I've been growing it since thanksgiving.  We all know Corey Isn't called Sasquatch for nothing though.  He could shave the night before we fly and still have me beat.  It doesn't come without a price though, I'm pretty sure my girlfriend and mother think I look homeless.  Fortunately they understand, kind of sorta.  

You may not know but this tournament doesn't use regular goal nets that your use to seeing in hockey.  They use a wooden goal that's 6 inches off the ice and its 6 feet long.  There are 2 slots that are a foot long that you have to slide the puck into for a goal.  At Panera one of our "tough" decisions was too make one and bring it to our roller hockey rinks to practice.  So we did without hesitation.  What other way to practice than incorporating usual basketball games into pond hockey practicing games.  Around the world and knockout were our choices and we played until 12:30 at night.  Sasquatch was the victor of Around the World but he struggled late in the game when he had to make his last shot and couldn't take the mock cheering from the rest of us. Bendog was...well Bendog might want to practice some more.(I'm going to get yelled at for that comment)

I'm probably forgetting some stuff that should be said, but I think it's safe to say the boys are getting excited for this trip.  Flights are bought, hotel rooms are reserved, and we are always playing and practicing so that is never a concern.  Can't wait to share more about this trip and experience with you all.  If I don't write anything in the next few days, have a Merry Christmas.

-bSmith

Pj's Fundraiser

December 14TH 2012

If you didn't know, my friends and I will be taking our hockey skills to Minnesota this January.  I wanted to document this awesome adventure as much as I can, so in the days leading up to and during the tournament I will be keeping this blog.  We will be competing in the U.S. National Hockey Championships, the title makes it sound like we have accomplished more then we actually have.  See, to play in this tournament all you have to do is sign up, but it fills up quickly with more then 200 teams and most of the people who compete are from Minnesota.  We will be the only team as of now from New Jersey, and we will be taking: Ben Doganeiro, Bryan Rudolph, Corey Pedersen, Chazz Briggs, Tyler Woyshner, and myself Ben Smith.  I would assume if your reading this blog you know me and my group of friends, but if you don't know us, we live and breathe hockey.  It's in our blood and when we heard about this tournament 3 years ago we knew we had to make it happen.  So in my group of friends  we all go to college except for one lucky guy, Ben.  He's also known as BenDog but as of last night he wants us to just call him Doggy(you'll get use to all of our stupid nicknames through these blogs), he has just recently graduated from Penn State.  Being students or recently graduated students makes it hard to come up with the finances to travel to Minnesota.  Fortunately we live in a great town with great people who have made our friendships possible through the Moorestown Ice Hockey Club.  We have all played for the club during our Middle and High school years except for Chazz, who even though never played ice hockey for the club, has been heavily involved in the town's recreational hockey.  The club reached out to us when they heard about what their alumni players were trying to accomplish in Minnesota and they wanted to help.  Graciously, they hosted a fundraiser at Pj Whelihans for us last night.  Pj's does a dine and donate so as long as you said the check was for the club, we would get a percentage back.  Before arriving to the restaurant I wasn't worried but I was wondering how much we would get and how much it would or wouldn't help us get to Minnesota.  So I had gotten to the restaurant and I watched as friends and faces I hadn't seen for a long time came in and I started to look at this whole event differently.  If Tyler Pedersen is reading this, he will give me crap for this being corny and sentimental, well Ty I promise this will be the only corny one, the rest will be all about hockey.  As I started to look at things differently I realized this fundraiser really doesn't have to do with how much money we raise at all.  The whole trip to Minnesota is about being with the friends that we had built relationships with for the past decade by playing hockey.  So as I sat at the table looking at all the friends I had made over the years through this sport, and I looked at the parents behind me who had always greeted me after games telling me how well I did or "You guys will bounce back after that tough loss", and I realized that I am just happy to have this connection with this great group of people.  Its a kind of connection I don't think I'll ever have with another group.  I have to say thank you to the Moorestown Ice Hockey Club for creating that and I think its safe to say thats on behalf of our whole group.  If you know me personally, you'll know that I lost my father about 7 years ago and on the day of his funeral our Varsity team had a big playoff game.  When I saw about every member of the club including my teammates attend the funeral that morning I knew I had something special here.  Without that support I wouldn't have been able to play that night, and by the way we won that game after being down 3-1 and Mike Weaver probably had one of the club's craziest goals ever. That's why we want to go to Minnesota to represent this state and more importantly this town.  Each one of us has a personal reason for loving this club and this sport.  We seriously are a crazy group of hockey fanatics.  After drinking some beers and stuffing our faces last night at the fundraiser we decided playing roller hockey in 30 degree weather would be a good idea, this is a usual occurrence, I have no complaints.  That also reminds me to say thank you to the town and to Mr. Briggs who allows us to turn the lights on to our rinks every night to play roller.  I hope you enjoy reading these posts, helps me enjoy the moment and hopefully gives you some insight to this experience.  Sorry if my grammar is bad, it's never been my strong suit.  What can I say I'm a hockey player, be happy its not filled with just profanity.

-bSmith

www.uspondhockey.com