Reporting from Torhs MAC Championship...

[Mtour71]

Yesterday, NCRHA official Tyler Sollberger was spotted wearing a peach/orange colored Polo shirt made by Ralph Lauren. Today, he is wearing a Yellow polo. J Crew is unhappy about Tyler's favoritism towards the Polo brand and will be blaming him for the drop in sales.

[RichardGraham]

Hi MTour,

Unless Ralph Lauren and J Crew have teams in the event, then it's not a problem. However, Ace Jerseys is probably a bit ticked off. ;)

[JLambertUMSL]

In more relevant news from the TORHS MAC championship, UMSL verbals Kyle Novak (CBC '11) and Jimmy Steger (Francis Howell '08) of the '92 All Americans won MVP and MVG of the Bantam division, respectively. Novak scored twice in the 3-2 championship game win.

Steger barely outdueled future UMSL teammate Ryan Sheridan, a rising sophomore, and last year's UMSL B co-starter, who was outstanding in net for the underdog Cobras despite throwing up all over the rink with about nine minutes to play and the game tied 1-1. The game was delayed about 20-30 minutes for puke cleanup.

[Arch Enemy]

And in other news from nobody really cares what kyle novak or jimmy steger did in the torhs qualifier.Probably not even jimmy steger or kyle novak.When will the youtube video of the awards ceremony be up?

[GoRangrHky]

Wow, you're really getting freshmen in HS to make their college decision based on roller hockey. How many have you picked off from the 10u group?

[JLambertUMSL]

Wow, you're really getting freshmen in HS to make their college decision based on roller hockey. How many have you picked off from the 10u group?

When I get an email out of the blue, unsolicited, from the "all-time leading scorer" of the State Wars '92 division and the leading scorer of the high school league -- as a freshman -- who's also a AAA ice hockey player and goes to a high school whose graduates are pretty much guaranteed to be accepted to UMSL, and the purpose of that email is to ask about UMSL and to tell me how excited he is to get through high school and come play roller hockey for UMSL, it's not really something I'm going to ignore. Piss off.

[JLambertUMSL]

And in other news from nobody really cares what kyle novak or jimmy steger did in the torhs qualifier.Probably not even jimmy steger or kyle novak.When will the youtube video of the awards ceremony be up?

The topic was the TORHS qualifier, jackass. I wouldn't have posted anything about it unless George or whoever's using his computer hadn't come on here just to yank my chain.

You're supposed to put two spaces after a period, by the way. Generation Y can't we f-ing read or write anymore?

[William Bourque]

Wow, you're really getting freshmen in HS to make their college decision based on roller hockey. How many have you picked off from the 10u group?

Why not? A bunch of High School kids know they are going to be attending college at the state system of education. So why is making the choice of UMSL going to draw a sarcastic reply. UMSL is one of 4 Missouri schools (Mizzou, Rolla and Kansas City) with over 60,000 students in the system. And there are 9 state schools in the entire state. Why choose one without a hockey team, when there is one with a hockey team.

That would be like me criticizing kids that are in High School for choosing to go to West Chester to play Roller Hockey, there are a bunch of them, Why are they going there i ask them? Its close to home and its the biggest state school. There are 14 state schools in PA, but only 4 of them have hockey teams. And you pretty much get the same education at all the schools anyway.



When I get an email out of the blue, unsolicited, from the "all-time leading scorer" of the State Wars '92 division and the leading scorer of the high school league -- as a freshman -- who's also a AAA ice hockey player and goes to a high school whose graduates are pretty much guaranteed to be accepted to UMSL, and the purpose of that email is to ask about UMSL and to tell me how excited he is to get through high school and come play roller hockey for UMSL, it's not really something I'm going to ignore.

I wish we got those types of emails, but being in the middle of nowhere is a huge negative for the school.

[Dave Garland]

I agree with Bill. There is nothing but positives when a high school junior/senior contacts a school and is interested in the inline hockey team.

This is especially true when the school offers solid academics and offers some kids the opportunity to attend a college. Maybe inline is their primary passion. There is nothing wrong with selecting a school that meets all of the factors you are looking for in a college (i.e. academics, specific programs, cost, sports, etc.)

[Mtour71]

from the looks of the email that kyle novak posted on myspace as a bulletin.. unsolicited seems like a bit of a stretch..

im sure there are a ton of AAA ice players who want to play some sort of pro hockey that will go to UMSL. it just makes sense. seriously, there are so many players that have jumped from the NCRHA to the NHL/AHL/ECHL that scouts for the Atlanta Thrashers have been spotted at a few of UMSL's practices..

by the way, they were videotaping those practices too..

[JLambertUMSL]

from the looks of the email that kyle novak posted on myspace as a bulletin.. unsolicited seems like a bit of a stretch..

im sure there are a ton of AAA ice players who want to play some sort of pro hockey that will go to UMSL. it just makes sense. seriously, there are so many players that have jumped from the NCRHA to the NHL/AHL/ECHL that scouts for the Atlanta Thrashers have been spotted at a few of UMSL's practices..

by the way, they were videotaping those practices too..

Whatever he posted on myspace was my response to his unsolicited message. It's not a stretch at all -- it's the truth. (And for the record, I told him not to do that anymore.)

The youngest player I've ever contacted unsolicited asking about college plans is Tallo, back in April 2005, when he was a sophomore playing for Howell Central. (I keep records of all this stuff.)

Anyway, "recruiting" Kyle is probably pointless. Even though roller is what he really loves, he likely will never play college roller because he's too talented not to pursue opportunities in ice hockey.

[Dave Garland]

I know James is nutty (aren't we all?) but I think it is great he videotapes pretty much everything. It is easy to make fun of, but honestly is really a good thing and give inline at least some more visibility.

[JLambertUMSL]

I know James is nutty (aren't we all?) but I think it is great he videotapes pretty much everything. It is easy to make fun of, but honestly is really a good thing and give inline at least some more visibility.

I don't really videotape practices. I brought my digital camera to a few UMSL practices this year, but that's about it. I videotape stuff because nobody else does, and somebody should. Does that make sense? I have no interest in the technical aspects of it, nor do I particularly enjoy watching games through a camcorder.

[snipe123]

Why Would you scout a freshman?

[William Bourque]

Why Would you scout a freshman?


Honestly, Why wouldn't you? Isn't it good for the sport if the college teams get more involved with High School kids. It helps the kid stay in the sport, knowing he can play for his University (even if it costs money).

[TSUMoody89]

You're supposed to put two spaces after a period, by the way. Generation Y can't we f-ing read or write anymore?

Actually, James, I might be mistaken, but I think either APA or MLA changed their standard to one space after the period. So Generation Z will have to develop some brand new way to appear computer illiterate on message boards.

[RichardGraham]

Dane,

You are correct. AP Style is one space. Two spaces was the style for manual typewriters and old people like James. ;)

[JLambertUMSL]

Why Would you scout a freshman?

Because scouting is fun and I like roller hockey.

[JLambertUMSL]

Actually, James, I might be mistaken, but I think either APA or MLA changed their standard to one space after the period. So Generation Z will have to develop some brand new way to appear computer illiterate on message boards.

That's news to me. If the AP stylebook has changed, it's been within the last two years, because last time I took a newswriting class was spring '06. I'm amazed. It must be a conspiracy...Rupert Murdoch wants to save money on paper....or those damn tree-huggers want us to use less paper....or college professors want a five-page paper to be a paragraph longer because there's less space after a period....

Anyway, nobody's ever going to approve the use of ellipses/ellipsis....but I don't care....it's easier to pound out a bunch of periods than to actually break your thoughts into coherent sentences...three periods....or four........it adds a little bit of tempo to your writing. SPACE SPACE Don't you think?

[JLambertUMSL]

Honestly, Why wouldn't you? Isn't it good for the sport if the college teams get more involved with High School kids. It helps the kid stay in the sport, knowing he can play for his University (even if it costs money).

Absolutely. I think it's pretty cool that college roller hockey is even on the radar screen of a player like Kyle Novak.

Anyway, knowing who the players are doesn't mean I'm personally actively recruiting them. My hands are pretty much off of the active recruitment process. My brother handles that. All I do is send an email here and there. For the most part, I do the scouting (because I enjoy going to rinks and watching games a lot more than he does), my brother does the recruiting (because he has much better "people skills" than I do). We sort of work as a team. And it's worked out pretty well.