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Feb

Scottish Ninjas head to USA Pond Hockey Championship

Rob in Official Team Scottish Ninja Wear

So it was a (mostly) chilly weekend for one of your humble Scottish Ninjas creators as Rob attended the 2011 Labatt Blue/USA hockey Pond Hockey Championships in Eagle River Wisconsin. 250 teams from 4 countries play a total of 480 games from Friday till Sunday… I wish I had a stat on how much Labatt’s Blue was consumed; but each game nets you a free case of beer so that’s almost 6,000 cans of victory beer alone!

This was the fourth year for Rob’s team in the novice division; this time in the spirit of the Scottish Ninjas we decided to rock a jersey with a modified Scottish Ninjas logo (the lads are wielding hockey sticks instead of swords) and go…. yes folks… kilted!

We stayed at the Eagle Waters resort again with our local Seattle buddies (who play for Eagle Waters Resort). They also sported kilts at various events throughout the weekend. However without the Kilt acquiring powers of John “Doc” Hixon and Troy Buduan we would have been freezing our nuts off (literally). We also can’t miss the rest of the contingent of players, party-ers and honorary Scottish Ninjas… Al, Jeff W, Jeff B, Capt Purple, Darryl, Tom, Marchand “Shawni” , Keri and Wisconsin Dave; it wouldn’t have been the same without ’em!

For you fashionistas… We were predominantly wearing Utilikilts, but Rob’s traditional family kilt made an appearance and even one Sportkilt (for the lovely Andrea) which had all the lads swooning! We’re happy to report that all of em stood up to the beating as did the custom skin tone socks.

l-r (back) Dave Burke, Dustin Swisstack, Roger DiFilipo, Rob Mullin (front) Andrea Dasovich, "Jersey" Dave Miller and Dan Lund.

The Ninjas played three games and were able to put one win on the board against “PBR Me”. We think we held our own and made it challenging for our losses to “Hooters” and “Drunk and Looking to Score” the team that eventually won the whole novice division.

During the weekend we received a ton of great feed back ranging from thumbs up to “awesome dude!” to “awww..man… we were gonna wear kilts!”. Team members were stopped countless times to pose for photos with people and even a few videos…

Thankfully the up-kilt videos were kept to a minimum as no one really asked if we were regimental. Which stung… just a little.

We also still made it out Sunday afternoon for our annual post event Seattle team pickup game (with a tip o’ the hat to the spirit of “Big Earl”), that was a bit of a slush-fest due to the record high temp of 44 degrees (6 degrees C).

Experience being a Scottish Ninja pond hockey player for yourself thanks to Jersey Dave for his amazing Hockey Helmet Cam… since the Kilt-Cam footage was a bit much (even for us!)

Scottish Ninja – Ice Lagers vs. PBR Me

Be sure to tune into Sunday Feb 20th for NBC for the Hockey Weekend Across America broadcast as they will be showing two NHL hockey games and a special segment about the Pond Hockey Championships. Who knows… if you’re lucky you may even catch a glimpse of a Scottish Ninja!

Needless to say it was a fantastic weekend of hockey and we look forward to the Ninjas and the rest of the gang returning to that frozen lake in 2012. In the mean time… enjoy some more photos from the weekend.