Team captain and leader Rob Gibson had called our strategy the 'rope a dope'. We were going to get the other teams to let their guard down by not performing too well during the round robin portion of the event. With only 4 teams in the tournament, this was a good strategy, because we could not be elminiated until the playoffs. The team had been saving their best game for last.
It was the first time I ever won anything in the CBHK. I had played in four seasons during my time in Korea and never even played in the final of a competition.
After I booked my flight a few months ago, one of the first things I did was get in touch with league members to find out how much I was going to be able to participate. I was hoping at the very least to play in a few games of pick up. In my wildest dreams, I was hoping that I would somehow make it onto a team for a tournament, to get into some competitive action.
It was either luck, or poor planning on someone's part that made things work out for me. It was May long weekend in Korea because of Buddha's birthday. Many of the foreign teachers in the Seoul area were headed out of town to places like Busan, which is renowned for its beaches. I can only imagine how bad the traffic heading out of town must have been.
Among my many teammates was an old friend of mine, Terry Kearnes. I like to bug Terry and call him old man, even though he is younger than I am. It was a pleasent surprise to see good ol' Kearnsey when I arrived at the rink. He was with his wife, who is pregnant and expecting their first child. (congrats and all the best Kearnsey!!!)
Kearnsey had been my teammate on three different teams in the CBHK. Our captain, the french bastard, Shawn Amirault, was the only captian brave enough to draft me. Unfortunately for Shawn, he is known as the Dan Marino of the CBHK, because he racked up a lot of points, but never won the big game.
The best chance we had was in my second season. We were up one game to zero and tied at two with about a minute left in the second game, when Shawn decided to leave Gordo unmarked so he could score the game's winning goal. We ended up losing in three. (Shawn won the best defensive forward trophy at the banquet that night - I always felt he should have given it back - sorry Shawn, you know I still love you)
Kearnsey and I couldn't help but think of our old captain as we both finally got to taste sweet sweet victory. We both joked that Shawn must have been the piston that wasn't firing to make that engine run.
It had been a long hard day. I was so sore that I didn't do anything for the next two days. My body needed the time to recover.
I got a pretty sweet gash on my leg and a very nice sized bruise on my stomach from when I got down to block a shot in the semi-final in order to preserve a one to nothing victory over the heavily favoured and star studded Team USA.
It felt extra sweet going through the hand shake line. As I shook hands with Gordo, I couldn't help but blurt out how proud I was to have finally beaten him. His team had knocked my team out of the CBHK playoffs twice, and in the only other tournament I had been in, it had been his team who had knocked out my team.
Revenge felt sweet. Take that Gordo!!! (i joke i joke)
cheers
rymr
ps. CBHK stands for Canadian Ball Hockey in Korea. For more information check out their website:
http://www.cbhk.org/
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