Ping Pong Pandemonium

Well this was different for a change.

For weeks I have been hearing about how some of the other neighbors here like to play Ping Pong. And the fact that they really get into it.

I actually stuck my head in to take a look, but I refused to join in the play.

I haven’t played the game since I was able to stand. So I didn’t know for sure what it would be like playing from a wheelchair.

I would continue to run into one of the people that likes to play, and he finally was able to twist my arm last weekend to at least give it a try and see how I felt about playing.

So for about an hour and a half I played with the guy. No score kept, no pressure. Just casual back and forth. And a couple of hints and tricks taught along the way.

He invited me to play a few days from that point and I accepted.

Little did I know that he was putting together a tournament of sorts.

So I showed up for my first match.

The match was a little bit different than usual. Ten games to ten points. So essentially the first one to reach 100 wins. But with brief breaks in between after someone reached the first and the next set of ten. And so on.

First match was won 100-89.

My second match? Well, that was a forfeit. And here’s where the controversy begins.

I was first told that my opponent wasn’t able to make the match due to conflicting schedule. Then I was told that my opponent just was not able to make it when they scheduled the match. Had it been earlier in the day, they might have.

So quickly I was in the final match. And I was told that it would be a while before that was to be played because my opponent had a strenuous schedule and they would schedule the match as soon as they could.

During that wait, I would find out the truth behind the forfeiture of my second match.

The winner of that match would go on to play someone that really excels in the game. And so my opponent automatically assumed that they would play against that person. And that leaves their insinuation that they would have beaten me. And they were certain of it happening before even meeting up with me.

Talk about a bunch of bullshit.

But I finally met the final opponent before playing him. I watched him play against someone else, who were just playing for fun.

It was a very fast paced game. I started to worry, but then I realized that worrying wasn’t going to do me any good.

So the day came where I was in my final match.

The match rules had changed again.

Five games to ten. Instead of ten. So the first person to reach 50 points.
No trash talking to your opponent.
No foul language or profanity.
Only need to be ahead by one point to win.

If caught using foul language or profanity, your opponent would be awarded one point no matter where you were in the match. You were not allowed to even curb the language down to words like “heck, darn, shoot.”

I would be penalized only twice on that rule. Because I know you are reading this, wanting to know how badly I lost to this.

The match was well underway but my opponent received a phone call and had to stop playing and leave.

I was doing great up until that point. I was told that the remainder of the match would be played at a later date. Starting with the score with how the first part had ended.

I don’t know why there was no forfeit. I guess they didn’t want it to end like that.

But it didn’t end by reaching 50 points either.

The last and final part of the match got started. And my opponent noted that there was a crack in the ball, but it was still good enough to be played with.

I was finding it simple for whatever reason to mount a comeback and get ahead in the score. And then his serve came to me and I gave it back. Then his volley went higher than he had anticipated, and I slammed the ball into the back corner of the table. My point!!!

But…. that broke the ball. Match over.

It was finally finished, winning with a score of 19-16.

The guy who orchestrated the whole gathering was kind of pissed off the ball broke as it was his only one that he had. But he held it back and I could tell that he was trying hard to do so.

My opponent just grabbed his belongings and walked out.

Later in the evening, I ran into the guy who started this mania in the first place and he came up close and admitted that my final opponent decided that he was going to “take it easy on me.”

I don’t know what it is about these opponents doing these things. It’s crap!! And even though I won, it doesn’t feel like a victory to me.

I didn’t earn anything. No trophy or anything. Just some bragging rights. And yet knowing what I know now, bragging rights seem worthless.

At least I was invited to come again in a few days to play around. No score, no pressure. Just play until either person can play no more.

 

2012-13 Season Ending

This past Saturday, was the ending to the 2012-13 sledge hockey season. The team got together and went bowling and had an awards ceremony. I was not there, but this is the award I received.

It was very unfortunate that this passing season I had not been able to get much time to be on the ice and participate with the team. But I did what I could.

Between getting sick, being in the hospital again, and wiped out from babysitting my niece… it just added up to short season for me.

Nevertheless I am hopeful for this coming summer. Even though we won’t have ice time locally, we have been invited to join our brothers and sisters in Houston.

As a matter of fact, in about two weekends from now the Blades will be going to Houston to participate in a few scrimmages with the team in Houston. They are being kind enough to put us up in a rather nice hotel and even giving us the opportunity to socialize and join in fellowship at a Houston Astros baseball game on Saturday evening.

All three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will have the chance to still do our thing even after the official Blades season closer. And I think that is going to be such a fun and awesome time. If you are in the Houston area or are going to be then we will be playing the second weekend of May.

There’s also talk among the more prolific players of the Blades to put together a Bowl-a-thon soon. Hoping to make it into a fund raiser where the team will bowl and collect donations at a few pennies per pin that was played. I have done something like that before. And even though bowling is not really an interest of mine, this really sounds like a fun event. So to some of you who know me and follow my hockey career closely: Save your pennies for me!!

Of course I think it would be hilarious if we had someone donate $1 per pin and then find ourselves a ringer. But that’s just me. I don’t like bowling too much and I think that my best game was something like 160-170. But that was over a decade ago.

Ice time may be done for us here locally. But I think that if we can get to Houston at least once or twice a month during the summer months then we will be in terrific shape for the next season.

I only hope that some of the other team members can continue to come up with excellent ideas for fund raising like this. Bake sales are great, but good grief it takes a lot more than people can imagine. This is new and exciting for the team.

 

 

2012 USA Hockey Disabled Festival- Road To Bronze

So then let’s get right to it!!

Participating in this tournament meant that we were guaranteed to play at least four games. Five teams total in the division. And so this is my experience and perspective for the road to winning the Bronze Medal.

Game #1- G.L.A.S.A. vs. TSH. Final score: 13-1.

Yep, you read right. It would be the largest margin of defeat that we would endure. Many things were a factor in this eye-opening game. #1- We had never played in a tournament like this before. #2- We did not have a goalie. Instead, someone volunteered to take up the position who in their own hockey experience, never played that position before. We were unarmed with very little defense to protect our goal. We had a lot of mistakes and basically this game, we took the loss. Team leaders and supporters continually reminded us that we did score one goal, and ruined Chicago’s shut out. We would shake the cobwebs off, learn from our mistakes, and move on.

Game #2- Buffalo vs. TSH. Final score: 2-1 (SO).

Victory. We had someone coming in as a goalie this time, and that player actually plays goalie. We also had our first taste of what it was like to be winning in regulation, but Buffalo came back and tied it which caused the game to go into sudden death by a shoot out. It began with a three man shoot out for each team, and it was still tied. So then each team went to the bench and each player took a shot at the goal until a player scored. My chance at the goal didn’t get off the ice and into the air and so it was easy for the goalie to just put his glove down and stop the shot from going in.

Ending the first day of competition with a WIN was a great feeling. Our tired bodies enjoying the fact that the first game of the second day would not be until the afternoon.

We had a player in goalie, who actually was a goalie. The player was actually playing for TWO different teams in the entire tournament. My hat goes off to him for being so tough!!

Game #3- Minnesota vs. TSH. Final score: 7-0.

Personally this game was probably the beginning of my physical and mental exhaustion. It was unfortunate that minutes before the game against Minnesota, I would find out that my brother-in-law had passed away the night before and I had no idea about it. Team supporters were discussing the sad news and assumed that I had already known about it. But I had not. I was fortunate enough to be able to concentrate on the game while I was on the ice long enough to put aside the sudden news of my family’s tragedy.

Minnesota was a team of all teams. Expected to win it all. (And they did.) We played them very tough. At that point, any other team that Minnesota played… they gave them a serious beating. But when they played us, Minnesota had fewer goals scored against an opponent. And we held them to seven.

If there was a game that I would have guessed we would have been beaten 13-1, it would have been this one. But I was wrong and I’m glad that I was.

One memory that really sticks out in my mind is that while we were getting beat by Minnesota, a female player scored on us and she turned around and filled the entire ice rink with her giggling and laughter, so proud of herself for scoring a goal. Everybody there heard it. She was bouncing up and down in her sled… it was a priceless moment for her. I had to skate by her and tell her “nice shot!”. I’m sorry, but it was too cute and funny.

Game #4- Florida vs. TSH. Final score: 1-0 (SO).

Another game that went into a shoot out. The three man shoot out produced no results and both teams actually went through their entire benches before finally our team cycled through to the top again and then scored, ending the nail-biting overtime period. My chance to win it all had failed because I skated too close to the goal and the puck didn’t have a chance to gain any speed or air to get passed their goalie.

This game was essential for us to win. If we would have lost, we would have been sent home. But we won, and then an hour or so later, we were back on the ice once more to play in the semi-finals. Going into it with a record of 2-2. A few players from Florida congratulated us on our win and one even said that it was worth the elimination to have been a part of the extended and grueling overtime period as he laughed about it.

Game #5: Semi-final- G.L.A.S.A. vs. TSH. Final score: 2-0.

Wretched bloody game 5!!!

Again we played Chicago. We knew what they were capable of doing. But our team was showing huge amounts of improvement with each game played whether we won or loss. And it was our third game that we played in eight hours. As SIX MINUTE CENTURY says in their song: “Through the flames, we abide. Weary, we march on.”

This game should have gone into our third shoot out of the tournament. But there was one major problem. The officials didn’t know what they were doing!

Chicago’s first goal was crap. They took a shot at the goal, and our goalie stopped it. But then the player who had taken the shot ran right into our goalie and knocked him over. The puck sputtered behind our goalie and then Chicago tapped it in. But it should not have counted and the call should have been “goalie interference”.

Being down early kind of worked its way into our mentality, but we stuck to it and fought our hardest. Even though we did take shots at the goal.

And that kind of irritates me as well. The website that keeps tracks of the stats throughout the entire tournament said we had NO shots on goal. I had a couple, so that’s bull. One game, I’m not even listed on the roster and I was there playing. And they had me as goalie for the first game, which I was not. But I will digress and get back to game five.

With less than two minutes left in regulation, the most unbelievable chain of events happened that contributed to the 2-0 loss. And yes, I took this very, VERY personal!!

Let me draw your attention momentarily to the image of hockey sticks that is used when playing the sport of sledge hockey. The metal picks on the end of the stick are the device to help propel a player across the ice as they remain seated in a sled. These picks are very sharp and they have to be, to be able to dig into the ice and move the player along.

I was in the offensive zone and Chicago was trying to get it away. I struggled in a physical battle for the puck and fell over in the sled.

Falling over happens a lot, that’s just how it goes. But what DOES NOT happen, or SHOULD NOT happen is that these sticks are used as a weapon.

I was stabbed in the back with a stick with the metal picks coming down into my body. I did have the essential protective gear and equipment on. But with enough force behind the swing… I felt it.

I’m laying there on my side, fighting to get the puck and I’m stabbed! I noticed that an official was near by and I took advantage of it and screamed out bloody frickin’ murder when the offense happened in order to get the attention of the officials. So yeah, I played it out and whined on the ice.

The play was called dead by the whistle, “Slashing” was called for a penalty for G.L.A.S.A. #23. They made it a five minute penalty rather than a common two minute penalty because of the seriousness of the offense.

BIG PROBLEM though!

#1- The scoreboard showed that the five minute penalty for our team and not Chicago.

#2- Player #23 was NOT pulled out of the game to sit in the penalty box, instead they pulled out someone else.

Again with the cheating and stupid officials because they were idiots and didn’t know what they were doing.

With only less than two minutes left, we pulled out our goalie and had six men on the ice. Chicago got the puck and scored on our empty net to make the score 2-0.

It was #23 that scored on the empty net, and he should have been pulled out of the game in the penalty box. But no. That clinched their victory over us.

G.L.A.S.A. would go on to face Minnesota in the Championship Game. And we were going to the Consolation Game. In which we met up against Buffalo again.

Game #6: Consolation- Buffalo vs. TSH. Final score: 3-0.

Third place on the line. Our game continued to improve more and more. We were not called for the same kinds of mistakes as we had been in our first two games.

We jumped ahead early 1-0, and we never looked back. Buffalo took out their player from the goal and he played as a forward late in the third period. But we would score twice on their empty net late in the game, clinching our victory and Bronze Medal.

When it was all said and done, our team couldn’t have been happier. There was a bit of a discussion about had the officials not cheated during the semi-finals, of whether or not the Silver Medal would have been “given to us”. Well I said that we would have received the silver for sure, because we were not going to beat Minnesota, but we had earned the right to play for it.

All in all, everyone on the team, the coaches, the parents, the supporters were happier than pigs in mud about our tournament results. Not one person complained or groaned about our performance during the Consolation Game.

So now we know what its like to travel. We know what it is like to travel AND participate in a tournament and play at a higher level than what we have ever done before in the past. We have that knowledge, experience, and a higher ability to play with other teams from across the nation. Something that none of the team players had ever had before.

We know that we can do it now. And we have proven that. Coming home after a victory is always a plus. Third Place couldn’t have been any sweeter. It is going to be something that everyone is going to remember for the rest of their lives. Because I know that I sure will.

 

 

First Sledge Hockey Tournament

“Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”~ Bill Russell

I can finally say that I have some experience playing sledge hockey at a much higher level than ever before. This past weekend, I made the difficult decision to go ahead and go out of town to play at the 2012 USA Hockey Disabled Festival in a tournament with players from both my team and the team from Houston put together as one rowdy bunch on the ice.

It was a break that I was so desperately needing, considering the month I’ve gone through. And even though I did have so much fun playing in the tournament, I cannot escape the realities of life and human existence.

But I have that experience and I am glad. I believe that from the tough and difficult weekend of playing the game, we did pretty good!!

The team ended up had a record in the tournament of 3-3 and received 3rd place. And when you consider that the combination of people of two teams who have never practiced together, never played together, and barely knew one another, never played in any kind of tournament before, and learned with every game that we played and we end up winning 3rd place? That’s pretty awesome!!!

As you can imagine, I am exhausted from it all. But so happy. I’m not sure what is in store for us as far as awards are concerned. I’m told that the people holding the tournament ordered whatever it was they were going to give as awards were back ordered. I’m pretty excited about it.

There is talk about possibly going to next year’s tournament in Philadelphia. Someone estimated that it would cost us about $8,000 to do it. So they want fundraising like mad until then.

 

 

 

Exhausted Contentment

“I know that I’ve overfed myself trying to prop myself up because I’m exhausted.”~ Geri Halliwell

Exhausted, I am. But I’m happy that I am exhausted.

The team went to Houston to play. Gearing up for a tremendous opportunity as we prepare for a tournament.

Getting up at 4:45 in the morning was probably the hardest part of all. Considering I just couldn’t sleep. My body was probably too excited and thinking about the day in Houston.

Going to Houston was a great opportunity as well. The Houston team has definitely improved since November. Being out there with them today proved that they were getting better and better. I was actually glad that they were going to join forces with us as we march onto the icy battlefield in Dallas in a couple of weeks.

The Houston team is very smart, and very quick. Some of these guys were difficult to keep up with. It was definitely a bigger challenge than was in November. One of the tougher match ups that we’ve had in a while. It brought OUR game up to a higher level I think.

Some said to me once they knew that I was home safely, that they couldn’t see the benefits of traveling down there and spending all of that time on the road, only to be on the ice for a little over an hour. I said to them, “You’ve never seen sledge hockey before.”

But that’s what we did. Down and back in one day. And now for me personally, it is a time for healing and reflection and preparation. The next two weeks are virtually event-free and then we hit the “big time” in Dallas. Guaranteed to play four games in two days, and more if we reach the semi-finals.

This is what the team has been wanting to do for a long time. And I really can understand why. It was just too much fun. I think that long trips like that though, can be a lot more fun when you are in the midst of good company. Time flies!!

I’m hoping we do well in Dallas. The Houston coach reminded us that we will not be joining forces and going there to win, win, win… but to have as much fun as possible. I think he’s got the right attitude. Win, tie, or loss- it should be a great and tremendous opportunity for us to play in such a place and in front of many more people.

But for now, I am completely exhausted. I shall rest, start healing my hockey wounds which are very minor, and get ready for a weekend of a lifetime! Then after that, I’ll be able to skip to Houston on my own and see SIX MINUTE CENTURY play another show. I can’t tell you how excited I am for that.

Stay tuned. More sledge hockey news coming your way!!