Written by JW

I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who helped to make the free agent scrimmage a success, and a super fun day.

My faithful co-organizers:

Sam “A free agent scrimmage requires free agents to show up” Nrrs – For getting the ball rolling and emailing all the free agents detailing what they needed to do, and what the ethos of BTSH is. Sadly, none of the rest of us even thought to email the free agents in advance. One of us didn’t need new players for the Gremlins and just wanted to play for 4 hours straight, but that person shall remain nameless.

Sam ended up being unable to make it to the scrim, but the whole thing wouldn’t have happened without him.

Isaac “That guy who is a Caps fan” Stwrt – For doing PLENTY, including ending up fielding way more questions from free agents than I did (because I was barely able to tear myself away from playing), causing one of them I met later on the bench to say to me “Wait, are you the Caps fan, or it’s the other guy?”. The free agents of course all loved Isaac. We all love Isaac.

The goalies:

It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun a day without you guys, and I don’t mean just on the rink.

Craig “I just came to get out of the house” LCmbe – We missed you, buddy. Welcome back.

Coach “Ok, ok, I’ll stay on another 20 minutes” Pgdn – For stoning Rich 4 or more times in a row, point blank, even when I purposely stopped playing defense to let Rich have the shots. The crowd went wild.

Dave “Let’s keep playing” GDR – For making Coach keep playing until we almost had to carry him to the bar.

Pat “You’re going to make me play now, aren’t you JW?” Brch – For easing back into it. You looked as sharp as ever man.

Campbell “I’ll play as long as you need me” Wver – For logging the most minutes. Ahh, to be young again. I remember those days. (Faintly.)

Charlie “That free agent goalie” O’Dnnll – For causing everybody to be like, “who the hell is that free agent goalie?? He’s really good.” (Email him when you need a sub, captains.)

Zach “I’m on the Demons” Lwis – For showing up and stoning all his Demons teammates, who were playing against him most of his time slot.

Scott “I hope I don’t pull something” Hse – For showing up early, playing well, and NOT pulling something. (Phew.)

Ed “I already went running today” Pdjil – He earned the Corey Winters Award all over again on Sunday.

Dave “I bleed Rainbows blood” Grnwld – He got a W on Sunday, if you ask me.

 

The opening crew:

Scotty “I’ll just carry all the damn nets myself, J Dubs” K. – For, ya know…doing just that.

Isaac “Why are you guys so slow at this??” Stwrt – For setting everything up way faster than the rest of us.

Alex “Can we play yet, JW? Can we play now? Well, NOW can we play?? I’M READY TO PLAY” Frey – For being the new JW when it comes to wanting to play ALL day and never come off the rink. He did show up early to help set up. But we know why he really showed up early.

Brad “I identify as a defenseman” Pllock – He wasn’t part of my originally scheduled opening crew, but he showed up early and we put him to work. Thanks man.

The photographer:

Hector “Coach is saving my life right now” Mlndz – For jumping INSIDE the net behind Coach, while gameplay was going on, in order to get some great photos. (Coach kept him safe.)

He also took a bunch of other photos during the day (we wanna see them, Hect!). I wish someone had taken a photo OF you, inside the net behind Coach.

 

The Dan Hopper:

For teaching me MANY years ago that if you bring a red shirt to the free agent scrimmage, later in the day when the free agents start to fizzle out you’ll get way more playing time if you join them.

I of course did so, as I have done many years in a row, but this time, as soon as I did it….the booooos rained down from the entire BTSH bench, HARD, and the booing and heckling continued my entire first shift with the free agents, I chirped back with things like “plaaaaaying time”, and “I’m pulling a Dan Hopper”, and “I make no apologies for this”. The whole scene was really a sight to see, I wish someone had it on video. Then Roxy and Tia took a cue, and did the same thing. Isaac got 3 photos of it, below. I am so sad that the well kept secret is finally out…but, we had a good run, Hops.

The BTSHers who showed up to play the free agents:

(I really want to mention something else about my playing time here, but I am stopping myself.)

Instead I’ll just say this:  We needed you, and you delivered.

 

The closing crew:

Alex “How many tacos did you just eat, JW???” Frey

Jamie “I found the missing glove” B.

Danielle “Hurry up Jamie, I want to go eat dinner. John had like a million tacos and I still haven’t eaten” Hsltn

Marcella “It’s cold out here, let’s go to the bar now” Clsn

Rob “Walker is so hangry right now, someone get him pizza” Wlsh

Liz “I know where everything goes” Byln

Brad “I still identify as a defenseman” Pllock

Jerome “Who left this weird water bottle??” Rmos

Thanks a ton y’all, closing up is always the worst part.

And, last but certainly not least…the free agents:

Thanks for coming out. We hope you had fun. If you didn’t get on a team, teams will always need subs throughout the season.

(Oops, this article was supposed to be short. Thanks again everybody!)