Written by JW

Comprised of both the 3 on 3 tournament, and the All-Star game/skills competitions, this was a BTSH Sunday like no other. Many stars arose (and surprisingly zero Not Stars, at least that I saw/heard about, someone correct me if I’m wrong about that) but I had to whittle it down to only 3…….oh, and a bunch of honorable mentions. 

Without further ado, let’s see who we’ve got. 

3rd Star: Free Agency

Some free agents were new, and didn’t know many people. Some (such as myself) are old and just didn’t have the motivation or energy to put a team together. It’s fun to just roll the dice and see who you end up playing with. Some were only able to make it last-minute, so they jumped in as free agents. However all of us got here, we ended up with 3 free agent teams. I loved my team (which Cheeky curated), and I saw that the other 2 free agent teams were out there having a blast as well. One of those free agent teams even beat multiple stacked teams and went on to WIN THE WHOLE DAMN THING. This star is especially for you, the Fried Pork Dumplings. Your win was the cherry on top of a great day. Wait, no, the All-Star game was the cherry on top. So I guess your win was whatever comes just beneath the cherry on a sundae. I don’t know, I don’t eat desserts. Congratulations on the win. 

2nd Star: The Refs

It’s a thankless job. Nobody really WANTS to do it (except Lee, apparently?). But, somebody’s gotta do it. And some days somebody’s gotta do it A LOT. With a shortage of refs, those who did ref had to put in some serious extra time this week. Apologies if I missed any of you: Yetter reffed a bunch of games, I also know I saw: Cheeky, Sarah, Hicks, Eli reffed one of my games last-minute, even Jessica got stuck reffing her first game ever. Glanzer and I deemed her performance……adequate. (She actually did a really great job reffing, but I refuse to admit it). Lee easily reffed the most games of the day, including jumping in to assist the aforementioned rookie ref during the All-Star game. Thank you all for your service. 

1st Star: The Organizers – Cheeky, Jack, Russo, Jessica

Y’all knew who was getting 1st Star. But if you weren’t there, you don’t know how much they deserve it. From the conception of the idea, to the planning, to the setting up, to the execution of the idea, to the closing down……they did it all. Jack, for coming up with the idea, dealing with the bracketology (that’s a word, right?), Russo for setting up AND closing down and all that comes in between, Jessica for making sure the All-Star game happened (complete with beer mines, replacing face-offs with chug-offs, and all the usual hijinks), and last but surely most – Cheeky, for doing a ton of the heavy lifting and (on a personal note) writing a rad theme song for my team. I think you need to lay that track down at some point. In addition to all this, all 4 of them did all the behind-the-scenes things that none of us ever see, as well as all the game day things that were visibly apparent. I myself know a bit about organizing a rain date tournament, it’s incredibly stressful but also well worth it because everyone had an awesome time on Sunday. So, is this Fab Four more legendary than The Beatles? Probably. I actually wouldn’t know, I’m more of a fan of The Who. What are The Beatles? Thank you all for putting together a super fun day. 

I stupidly forgot to get a photo of all 4 of them together…

Honorable mentions:

The goalies – The goalies actually almost got 2nd star over the refs. There was also a bit of a goalie shortage and they had to play a TON, never once complaining. Friedman and Cam even went the extra mile and played the All-Star game at the end. Maybe the goalies should have gotten 2nd star? Who writes this stuff anyway?

The opening crew – Scotty K., Jessica, Jeff from the Demons, Casca were even earlier than me, they were building nets when I arrived (Jessica lost at the net-building competition AGAIN), Russo for opening up, etc. I definitely forgot some people here.

The closing crew – Russo, Hogg, Dana, Campbell, Ramy, Charlotte from Math Rot. I definitely forgot at least 2 people here.

Caitlin – For taking Charlotte to urgent care when Charlotte broke her finger AGAIN. (frowny face.)

Campbell – The GWG in the All-Star Game, after having to chug 2 Clawmines he knocked over.

Cherie put up 89mph and Gabe put up 94mph in the hardest shot competition. And to Rich for stealing a radar gun.

That’s all folks. Actually, one more thing. This was easily the photo of the day:

See you next year.