The 12 and Under Mission Cooler Selects team from Alpharetta earned second place in the gold division, and the 12 and Under Slapshots Selects squad from Cumming took home second place in the silver division of the Coastal Cup Inline Hockey Tournament Series held March 5-6 at the Supergoose Sports facility...
SAVANNAH, Ga. – The 12 and Under Mission Cooler Selects team from Alpharetta earned second place in the gold division, and the 12 and Under Slapshots Selects squad from Cumming took home second place in the silver division of the Coastal Cup Inline Hockey Tournament Series held March 5-6 at the Supergoose Sports facility.
“It’s been a great season,” said Jake Plancon, who has owned and operated the nine-year-old tournament series for the past two seasons. “The growth of the tournament has been unbelievable. It has really evolved over the past few years. We can always count on a very competitive field no matter which city is hosting. The Cooler and Slapshots teams are always very competitive.”
Each of the 10 host facilities commit to send teams to play in the tournament it hosts, but also send a team to at least one other city during the season. Plancon, who said some teams play in more than two events during the season, hopes the tour will expand to 12 cities next year to include the Asheville and Raleigh, N.C. areas.
In Savannah, the Cooler team lost to the host Supergoose Sports squad in a sudden-death shootout following a scoreless overtime and shootout session.
“We lost to a super team,” said Jeff Jenkins, an assistant coach for the Cooler team. “We are the top two teams in our division, and both teams played a great game. It was a great tournament with wonderful hosts.”
The Cooler roster for the tournament included Evan Anheuser, Daniel Butts, Ricky Fiorillo, Chad Hardy, Zack Jenkins, Ryan Miller, Mickey Salva, Brandon Schultheis and Chris Snyder. Joel Stephens serves as the team’s head coach, and Darin McDonald joins Jenkins as the team’s assistant coaches.
The Slapshots team, which won its division at the Charlotte event held Feb. 18-20, includes Mitchell Barnes, Alex Brissette, Kyle Britt, Connor Colburn, Drew Donnelly, Andrew Harris, Ryan Pangrazio, John Russo, David Sosa and Julien Verdon. Matt Barnes and Bert Pangrazio serve as the team’s co-head coaches.
“We’ve been fielding teams in this tournament for more than six years,” said Greg Harris, who serves as manager for the Slapshots team. “We enjoy being part of the Coastal Cup series. There are plenty of talented teams that are involved in the event. The Savannah folks do a great job hosting.”
The 10-city tour continues at the ThunderSkate facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla., April 1-3. Slapshots Sportsplex in Cumming hosted the first event of the 2004-05 season Oct. 8-10, and The Cooler in Alpharetta hosted the season’s fourth tournament Dec. 10-12. The season wraps up with tournaments in Myrtle Beach, S.C. from April 8-10, and at Greenville Pavillion in Taylors, S.C., from April 22-24.
The Ninth Annual Coastal Cup Championships will be held in Apex and Morrisville, N.C., from May 13-15.
For more information on the Coastal Cup, click here!