2014 Camp Cup Roller Hockey Tournament
Recently, Skate Safe America in Bethpage, NY, hosted the first ever Camp Cup Roller Hockey Tournament that was sponsored by roller hockey industry leaders Alkali Hockey and Labeda Wheels. The tournament consisted of two divisions — an 11th grade and under division as well as an Alumni division. The 11th grade division had a total of 4 teams guaranteeing each team would play at least 3 round robin games and the alumni division had a total of 10 teams guaranteeing each team would play at least 4 round robin games.
Timber Lake was represented extremely well at the tournament as they were able to put together one 11th grade and under team as well as 2 Alumni division teams. The 11th grade and under team was the majority of last year’s Gordon Cup team. The Timber Lake – Black alumni team was made up of most recent and current counselors such as Louis Coniglio, Mark Fischer, Marc Schwartz, Greg Ehrlich, Cole and Cameron Friedfertig. The older Timber Lake alumni team, Timber Lake – Green had alumni such as Brett Liberman, Ashton Moss, George Passaro, Travis Yablon (last year’s program director), Scott Schwartz, Ben and Keith Fischer.
The first puck drop was at 8am where the Timber Lake – Black alumni team squared off against Camp Wah-Nee. Since the first game, Skate Safe America was packed and filled with a ton of energy. Throughout the day, many current campers, counselors and alumni came to the rink to cheer on their camps. Many notable TLCers came to cheer on all three teams including Zach Cohen, Jordan Evans, Austin Brown, Fabio Del Carlo as well as Robbie Gothelf and the one, the only – Jay Jacobs!
Before Robbie arrived, the Timber Lake – Green alumni team was 0-2. Robbie was not fond of the record so he decided to hop behind the bench and coach. Robbie coached the final two Timber Lake – Green team games and helped lead them to victory in both! (Unfortunately, they did not qualify for the playoffs due to tie breaking scenarios…)
However, the Tigers 11th grade team did qualify for the playoffs earning the #2 seed with the help of coaches Zach Cohen and Jordan Evans. This meant they had to play Camp Lokanda in the semifinals. The boys jumped out to an early 6-0 led by Ethan Scher scoring a hat trick! TLC won the game 7-1 and had a meeting with Camp Equinunk in the finals. The finals was a back and forth game with both teams trading goals. TLC would take the lead, then Equinunk would tie it up. Equinunk would take the lead, then TLC would tie it up. It was a nail biter! In the end, TLC fell a little short losing 9-7 to Equinunk, but the boys fought extremely hard. Timber Lake’s own, Ethan Scher, won the finals MVP and received a set of wheels from one of the tournament sponsors, Labeda Hockey.
Equinunk, Lokanda, Starlight, Greylock, Wah-Nee, Pontiac and Summit were the other camps that participated in the amazing and successful event. Players from all teams had an amazing time and they all cannot wait until next year’s Camp Cup Tournament!