Honk If You Have Your Own Tournament Series

[johnny2suede]

Are You kidding me? Another tournament series? Just when I thought the sport was going through some sensible consolidation and purged Triple Crown, here comes another tournament...World Amateur Inline Hockey Series. And Rich, you consider this major news? In what sense?

Ok, let's figure a chronology of tournament series. I'll lead off and get it started:

1. USAC/RS (Later changed to that more elegant sounding USARS) Nationals
2. Koho Cup (Later to become Tour Pacific Cup)
3. NARCh
4. Six Pac

Now this board has a heavy subscription of historians in the sport. Pick up from number 4 and let's see who can take us through Roy's WAIHS, like in WOZ.

The winner gets a license plate holder that reads:

HONK IF YOU HAVE YOUR OWN TOURNAMENT SERIES

PS. Don't agrue with the first 4, that is 100% accurate. You will show your ignorance if you dare to debate that.

[sixpacusa]

Wow, I appreciate the Recognition! Thanks you Johnny2suede!

However, The ranking order as I remember may be

1. USARS
2. Pacific Cup (Tours no longer a sponsor)
3. NARCH
4. AIRHS (a break up between Paul and Todd)
5. Six Pac USA

I do know that Top Cat (Patty worked with us locally as a rink operator in 96) and Coastal Cup spawned off of the Six Pac Concept. There are others as well. TOHRS came in somewhere around here too, perhaps Tony can set us straight.

This will be a fun post to watch. Clocking 13 years in the biz...it will be funny to see who remembers what! Thanks again Jonny2suede



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sixpacusa on 03/17/05 08:58 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

[Rebecca]

IROC - Inline Roller Hockey of Champions, organized by Anthony Legotti after his split from Todd Melton (Long Island/Eastern states) for about 2 years around 1997

Big One Tournement Series - Organized by Chris Rallo out of Maryland/VA/DC area. Lasted about 2 years, around 1998. Not a fan here of Mr. Rallo. If anyone ever runs into this guy, they may want to post on IHC.

Unknown name (Can't remember this one) but orgnaized by a duo out of Florida (prior to TORHS), a young guy named TJ something. Operated on the east coast. Don't think this series is around though the partners could be. Recall this one for about 2 years also around 1996/7. This was a decent series. Anyone remember the name? I thought for some reason that these guys had one of the first V-From sponsorships, but I could be wrong. I don't even think it was called V-Form then, it was pre-V-Form possibly.





Rebecca

http://www.collegerollerhockey.net/bb/files/avatar_stallion.gif

[NLane]

Doesn't Iron man have a national event?

[Bliz]

This new series is an international event, is it not.

[johnny2suede]

AIRHS first tournament was late 1995, Six Pac was in operation then. TORHS started after the 1998 NARCH FInals in Atlanta, where Tony and Laura lived at the time and saw the event and are still trying to clone it.

[SpiderRat]

Tony and Lori not only cloned it, they made it better. I remember playing in the TORHS national in Chicago in 1999, thinking, TORHS is going to be better than NARCH one day. Sure enough, TORHS has become better than NARCH.

Blah Blah Blah, Shoot the puck already

[Brooklynite10]

I disagree. NARCH is still a step above TORHS. Ask the NHL.

[johnny2suede]

"TORHS has become better than NARCH."

Every year, about twice the number of teams attend the NARCh Finals than the Torhs Finals. And the same is true for Winternationals. Guess those teams don't hallucinate as well as you do.

[sixpacusa]

With out going back to old schedules, I believe you are correct on AIRHS starting a few months after Six Pac. Do you remember when Triple Crown started?

Who are you Johnny2suede? How far back do you go? I began on the rink level in 1992.

Can you chronologically list the major contenders in date order? I think that would be an interesting fact for people to see. Here is my best shot -

USARS
PACIFIC CUP
NARCH
SIX PAC USA
AIRHS
NHL Breakout (Bauer days)
USAHIL
TORHS
COASTAL CUP
TOP CAT
NHL Rules (RS Sports)
TRIPLE CROWN
ECHO
2HOT4ICE (ATLANTIC CUP)
HOT SHOT HOCKEY
AAU (USARS)
CONTINENTAL CUP (Top Cat)

Rebecca can you cut and paste and add in your knowledge of omitted venues?

[SpiderRat]

Better doesn't always mean more. Did you attend last years finals? I did, TORHS was better in my "hallucinating" eyes. Better venue, better times, better prizes, better talent. Look at the Pro series for example. Man, can't somebody have an opinion around here???

Blah Blah Blah, Shoot the puck already

[SpiderRat]

I give NARCH one year before the NHL dumps them.

Blah Blah Blah, Shoot the puck already

[Falcons77]

WOW!! I havent heard Rallo in years!! Would be interesting to see whats up with that....

[roye]

I completely understand the oversaturation of Inline Hockey Tournament series here in the US. If you noticed I am actually not running an additional Tournament series but rather using exisiting events as qualifiers for one event.

This event was created specifically with the thought of international competition in the United States.

And by the way the first tournament I ever played in was the Rollerblade Cup in 1992 in Missasugua, ONT. There were 12 teams from NY, MI, FL, Canada and Mass.

[shadow]

I am not trying to correct anyone, but I believe Sixpac is in their tenth year anniversary. Take a look at their regional flyers?

USAC/ USARS started inline in the early 80's
Then followed some hometown Tournaments (mom&Pop's)
North American Roller Hockey Championship Started by Dave Fromm. (circa 1993)
Triple Crown (circa 1993) Outdoor Ball
Koho/Pacific Cup
NARCH (1994)
Six Pac (1995)
AIRHS (1996)
NHL Breakout
K?HA -USA Hockey Inline took over in 1996
USAHIL - 1996
RHI-A short lived
AAU (1998)

The rest are flip a coin as to their dates of start are alomost to close to guess. Most of these evolved between 1999 and 2002. IT almost seemed as, once The Demise of AIRHS came many other series sprouted up.

ECHO
TORHS
2HOT4ICE
TOPCAT
NHL Rules
HOT SHOT
COASTAL CUP
Continental Cup (2003)
State Wars (2005)

All of these tournaments have played a Major role in the sport of Inline Hockey. Some did not do it much good but did not harm it, they were just plain fun.

In my opinion for what it may or may not matter the ones to watch are AAU, 2HOT4ICE, Torhs and of course NARCH.
I am sure if any of you really wanted the facts you could contact the owners of each one and they would be glad to help.

As far as a new tournament series, did we need one, NO but on the other hand NEW Blood doen't always hurt. Some poeple wait and learn form other fortunes and mistakes a like.

[Rebecca]

I really enjoyed this topic. If you want to bicker over NARCh vs. TORHS or whatever, start a new thread.

Where were we?
Lets all come up with one major list we can agree on chronologically

My question is, do we include CRHL and NCRHA in it, and the 8 Member organizations that compose Collegiate Roller Hockey? I would rather say no, because we are not really a tournement series.

Rebecca

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[Brooklynite10]

&quot;New blood&quot; could not hurt unless they call themselves a &quot;National Tournament&quot;. There should only be one &quot;Nationals&quot; so that there is a clear cut &quot;National Champion&quot;. Take college basketball and March Madness for example. There is the NCAA and the NIT tourneys. The reason this works is because there are all the BEST teams in the NCAA and the other good teams in the NIT. If both tournaments had some of the BEST teams and some of the good teams, it would not be one of the biggest running sports events in history. This past Winternationals, NARCH and TORHS had their events running on the same weekend. They created a split of the BEST teams in the sport, which created 2 decent tournaments istead of one GREAT EVENT. In order for roller hockey to grow to it's potential, I believe it needs that one GREAT EVENT. This would work too; NARCH - labeled as our sports "NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS", TORHS - labeled as our sports "MONEY TOURNAMENT SERIES".

[Brooklynite10]

One event doesn't represent a full body of work. NARCH has a great history and has produced 10 times the number of great events that TORHS has. The only reason TORHS is still running strong is because of a cash prize that is dangled in front of everybody eyes, not because it is a better tournament then NARCH.

[BkHdTpShlf]

Why do we always start this narch vs. torhs thing? We all end up playing at both events and have a blast every year. Yes narch definatly had their worst showing last year but both series will have their ups and down. I know winning both feels great, torhs because of the cash and narch because of the prestige. See you all at Nationals.

Darrell Interbartolo

[MDE3]

if they would agree to work together on their scheduling, they would both benefit.....

[Brooklynite10]

I totally agree. For them to have their Winternationals this year on the same weekend was obsurd. I don't even agree with back to back weeks, like they usually are. 3 weeks or 1 month apart would produce the best Nationals possible.

[Werewolves9]

Ask Stio the V-Form/Quickchange guru.

[Superstar9]

good call.... well said

Street

[Shut_Up_and_Play]

The same weekend thing is all Narch. I have worked for both companies on the national level and Narch has always put their tournaments right behind their competition. They did it with AIRHS too if you recall.

Also, Narch's overall competition is much higher and better than TORHS. TORHS's national competition seems to revolve more around good house programs that seem to fall apart after a couple of years rather than the Narch dynasties that have really refined their game.

[CoachFoo]

Now we have the Front Range Inline Series in Colorado. This tournament series is run by a multitude of teams.

[thefloridacup]

Hi Rebecca,

Perhaps you are refering to The Florida Cup Series. It was not a national, just a state wide series. It was founded by me, Paul Smith with my partner Roger Cherton in 1996. Roger stayed with me for about a year or so and I purchased his interest in the corporation. I with my family ran it for about 2 more years before selling it to the owners of the Igloo facility in Ellenton, Florida.

As far as I know the series is still around, but sometimes the events are combined with other companies events held in the state. When I started the series there was only Narch, Airhs, and triple crown (which were all outside events). Even as a state event we had our copycats. There was a guy from a rink in sarasota that started a series, even trying to use the name of Florida State Cup. Another group out of Orlando tried to put something together as did the Mission Rep with a rink manager from Ft Myers. They all failed in about a years time. Koho was also starting to sponsor rinks to have their own series too.

During my last year owning the series, V-Form did become a sponsor of mine. The only TJ I knew was on an adult team in Ft Myers. Maybe he got involved after I sold it. Everyone wanted to get into the tournament business once we established ourselves. They all found out it's not an easy thing to do. It certainly can't be your only source of income. Other business interests and time limitations forced me to sell the series. We were also the first series to hook up with USAInline. Actually we were sanctioned by NIHA in Miami before they were bought out by USA Hockey. Anyone remember them? AAU was just getting involved in the sport. They wanted me to run their events once I sold the Florida Cup. If I had the time I would have kept my own company.

In my opinion, Narch was always the best series around. It's hard to beat the original...ask my old competitiors...if you can find them...lol

[Rebecca]

Hello Paul, thanks for posting!!

It is likely that this is indeed the series I am thinking of. I was involved with them briefly in about 1996-7 by doing referee assigning for a few events that year and also timekeeping. I do not recognize yours or Roger's names and most definately there was a TJ. He was young and he was the assistant to the other man who's name I cannot think of (good looking late 30s to mid 40s maybe). At the time though, you are correct in that only AIRHS, NARCh, and Triple Crown were prevalent. I began working for AIRHS shortly after assigning for these guys. This was about the time I was developing my crew of officials.

I love this old history!!!

Rebecca

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[ctthunder32]

Theres also the ECRHA events. East Coast Roller Hockey Assoc.. They have been having tourneys in the Mass, RI area for 8 or 9 years. Its no Torhs or Narch but many of the guys from the New England area teams (Storm, Thunder, Rink rat) have played and still play in them. There are 5 or six events each summer. Worth a place on the list because they have been around for so long.