USA Hockey Adult Hockey

Special to USAHockey.com

Any discussion of sports in North Carolina usually begins and ends with ACC basketball.
Names of players such as Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson, James Worthy and David Thompson tend to dominate the conversation.
But after the seventh annual USA Hockey/LaBatt Blue Pond Hockey National Championships in Eagle River, Wis., five more names should be added to the list of prominent sports personalities: Scott Hausauer, Paul Mills, Andrew Bell, Dave Casey and Joe Martell.
This quintet comprised the Carolina Snipers, who captured the championship in the 30-plus Bronze Division. (Brothers Al and Will Grieshaber also play for the Snipers but were unable to make the trip this year.)
“Most of the guys on the team moved here [to the Pinehurst area] from northern parts of the country,” Hausauer said. “As a result, we grew up with ice hockey. We’re very big on the game. It’s in our blood.
“When you look back at it, it’s almost like being a kid again.”
Hausauer recalled what it was like playing pond hockey in northern states before he relocated to North Carolina.
“We’d walk down to a frozen pond with a few of our friends,” he said. “We’d strap on our skates and grab our hockey sticks for a little backyard fun.”
The style of play that’s indigenous to pond hockey is what attracted Hausauer and his teammates to form the Snipers.
“It’s four-on-four with a running clock,” he said. “There are snow banks for boards and you use shovels to clear off the playing area. That’s what we had to do.
“It’s a speed game with two 15-minute halves and running time and no goalies. The nets are only four inches high, but you can’t beat it. It’s great fun.”
What wasn’t “great” was the temperature, which, when the wind chill was factored in, dipped to minus-20 degrees for one of the Snipers’ games.
Any mention of minus-20 degrees in the Carolinas might send residents scurrying to find winter coats. But the bone-chilling temperatures didn’t have an adverse effect on the Snipers, who were 3-0 in pool play and earned one of the eight quarterfinal berths.
That accomplishment alone was significant because in each of their previous two trips to Eagle River, the Snipers had failed to advance out of pool play — going 2-1 each year.
“We were very determined this year to make it to the playoffs,” Hausauer said. “That was our goal, and we really worked hard to attain it.”
That hard work was apparent in their first game in pool play when they whipped the G Men, 15-1. Beating that team was significant because the G Men are one of the well-known teams that competes in the tournament, and they have been featured on an NBC program about the Pond Hockey Championships.
After moving out of pool play, the Snipers beat Tyranena Brewing 9-5 in the quarterfinals and edged the Jersey Patriots 6-4 in the semifinals.
When they stepped on the ice for the championship game, the Snipers wound up beating the Bladey Bunch for the title.
“The guys on the team met each other when we were playing in-line hockey at Rassie Wicker Park [in Pinehurst],” Hausauer said. “It’s amazing how well-run the tournament is, especially when you consider there’s nearly 600 teams and I don’t know how many players, and something like 24 rinks on Dollar Lake.
“The site was amazing. We hadn’t seen anything like it. And there’s no doubt that we’re definitely going back next year. We have every intention of trying to defend our title.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.