Joe's Secret Turkey Recipe

How do you get the perfect Turkey Tournament?

Here are the following ingredients:

48 Players
8 Teams
6 hours of ice
4 games
16 pizzas
A few pitchers of beer & Gatorade
1 foam divider
2 refs (partially sober)
Jerseys for each player
NHL Center Ice on TV

Have Alien Hockey take the above ingredients, mix them all up the night before Thanksgiving, and what do you have? A successful 1st Annual Alien Turkey Tourney!

I was nervous at first not knowing how it would run, but after it was all said and done, the reviews were all positive. We made some decisions on the fly, and modified rules as we went on, but everyone had a blast getting to know some new players from different teams & leagues.

The Grey Team took the championship with an undefeated record of 4-0. The team consisted of Blaine Barker as goalie, Bart Brandon, Liz Bryant, Scott Chopard, Mike Kielty & Hardy Whiteman. They beat the Purple Team (which was undefeated as well going into the championship game) by a score of 4-1. Although we had standings, you couldn't tell from the attitudes of the players as to who was in first or last as even the 7th & 8th place game had all smiles.

I was very pleased to see that every player participated for the right reason. New friendships were made, everyone got plenty of ice time, and a fun social atmosphere was what it was all about. Throughout the night, many offered their thanks to me and asked how soon we would do another one because of its success. I appreciate everyone's thanks to me for putting this event on...however, I need to thank everyone for making it a success.
A big thanks to:

• Every player that signed up played and made this event possible
• Scott Anderson for coming up with the idea of playing hockey the Wed before Thanksgiving
• Zac & Mark for taking the time to ref (and not play) to help keep order
• Aaron Clutts, who although could not play, still designed our logo
• Tony Hansen for updating the website with schedules & rosters
• Plaza Printers for getting our jerseys done on time
• Stephanie of MISF & her staff for allowing us the use of the facility and helping serve concessions
• All the friends, family & fans that came out to support the players either by cheering or taking some other small parts in making the event go smooth.
• My family for giving me the night "off" from home prior to Thanksgiving to make sure things ran well
• I'm sure I missed someone, so please feel free to add in comments to this blog entry anyone else that made this a fun time.

We know we are doing it again next year, but more importantly, have already been discussing doing another one even sooner. What we need to make these even better is all of the participants telling others how good of a time it was. We hope to make each future one bigger & better. Once again, thanks for your support of this event...gobble...gobble.