Bobo’s 2005 Vail Diary

 

Thursday 6/23

 

With our bags packed for Vail, we loaded up two cars and drove into NYC for the NYC showing of the Keeper Of The Kohn at the Pioneer Theater.  Peter and David Gaynes were on hand.  The audience loved the film and asked Peter lots of questions.   

 

Friday 6/24

 

I met Peter at LaGuardia Airport for our flight to Denver.  We had breakfast before the flight.  Peter didn’t finish his orange juice and “insisted” on putting the half full container in his carry-on luggage.  I tried to warn him that the lid wasn’t a screw on lid, but he didn’t listen to my counsel.

 

The flight was rather uneventful.  However, Peter left his new book about the Intrepid (purchased at the Intrepid museum during his stay in NYC) on the plane.  Not surprisingly, he stubbornly insisted that he could return to the plane (after passing through security) to fetch it.  I had to find someone “official” to tell him that we couldn’ go back to the plane and that he would have to wait and call the Lost and Found. 

 

When I was loading Peter’s luggage into the rental car I noticed that his carry-on bag was soaking wet.  You guessed it – orange juice.  He then proceeded to spread all of the wet papers, including $100s in Travelers Checks on the back seat of the car to dry!

 

That evening we had a light practice at Ford Field.  There was a light on and off rain that evening.  This pattern persisted through Sunday.  

 

Saturday 6/25

 

Our day started with a great practice including a full field scrimmage at Donovan Park.  Although we couldn’t pit Masters against Supermasters since many of the Masters players hadn’t yet arrived, we did manage to have some spirited play.   

 

Several families (Wheeler, Sideli, Ladd, Burchard, Kenyon, and Fox) took the gondola to top of Vail mountain for lunch.  And many rode their mountain bikes down the trails.

 

Sunday 6/26 – Game Day #1

 

The Supermasters squad played in four15 minute running half games.  The division consisted of 17 teams divided up into 4 conferences.  The top two teams in each conference would go on to play for the championship.  The bottom two teams in each conference would play for the consolation championship.

·        Game #1 (9:40 AM) against the WOOFS was a good warm-up and we won with the score 5 – 3

·        Game #2 (11:40 AM) against the Elder Statesmen (Hobart alumni) was a heart breaker.  Although we were up 3 – 0 at the half, we lost 4 – 3 in OT.  (The Elder Statemen went on to place 2nd in the tournament)

·        Game #3 (1:00 PM) against AirForce was a low scoring game, but we won 2 – 1

·        Game #4 (2:20 PM) against TapRoom (2nd place finish in 2004) was a tight game until the second half.  We were tied 1 – 1 at half time, but TapRoom managed to pull away and we lost - final score 4 -1. (TapRoom went on to place 1st in the tournament)

 

Of note, during the first three games, the referees changed the time-out rules each game.  There was much confusion and not surprisingly, we incorrectly called a timeout during the game against the Elder Statesmen.  They went to score.  This goal was critical since it put us into OT play.  We nearly had to pull Burch off of the referees!

 

Two wins and two losses knocked us out of the championship division and we were relegated to the Consolation bracket.

 

The Masters squad played in a single 12 minute stop clock quarter game at 4:00 PM.  The game was played on a fast artificial turf field.  The Masters squad came our roaring, scoring 4 unanswered goals in the first quarter.  However, Team Meineke was able to regroup and fight back.  The two squads traded leads for the rest of the game, but Meineke ended up on top winning 8 – 7.

 

The day closed out with the Rocky Mountain chapter alumni reception at the Sonnenalp Resort.  Peter Boucher ’76 hosted the reception in honor of President Ron Leibowitz.  Peter spoke fondly about his 1976 trip to Aspen, CO with Will Graham ’76 to play in the 2nd annual Shootout Lacrosse Tournament.  After that year the tournament transferred to Vail, CO.  Although it took Will another twenty years to return to Vail in 1997, the rest is history.

 

Of particular note, is the fact that Peter Kohn coached 5 games during this very long day. (Erin attended Steve Monniker’s wedding on Saturday and he didn’t arrive in Vail until late Sunday evening.)  It was a challenging day for Peter.  In fact, he almost became a casualty.  During a midline change in one of the Supermasters’ games, Paul Henderson ’82, ran hard into the substitution box just when Peter was asking the score keepers how much time was left.  Peter hit the ground real hard.  You should have heard him “yelling” at Paul!

 

Monday 6/27 – Game Day #2

 

The Supermasters squad played in two 20 minute running half games:

·         Game #1 @ 8:00 AM vs. Behind the Back was a romp.   Our offense broke out with 10 goals.  Behind the Back only scored once. We won with the final score 10 - 1

·         Game #2 @ 11:00 AM vs. Tri-City Canadians was a bit closer, but we came out on top and we won with the final score 4 - 1

These two wins put the Supermasters squad into the consolation championship finals on Tuesday.

 

The Masters squad played in a regulation 12 minute stop clock quarters game.  Bright Futures forfeited the game due to a lack of players.  However, the tournament organizers assembled a group of players, some of whom were Elite division players, to give our guys a game.  Although the final score, 11 – 7, wasn’t in our favor, we were credited with a win and the guys had lots of fun playing against great competition.  This win put the Masters into the Consolation Championship finals on Tuesday.

 

Monday evening was movie night.  We had two showings of the Keeper Of The Kohn, 6 PM and 8 PM.  The 6 PM showing was following by a pizza party and John Burchard’s birthday party – sheet cake and all.  The showings were in the Kenyon condo.  You should have seen how many people we packed into Chip’s living room!  There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.  Garrett Gifford parent’s stayed for both showings.

 

Tuesday 6/28 – Game Day #3 – Consolation Championships games

 

The Supermasters squad played the Magic Wands @ 2 PM for the Consolation Championship.  The Wands scored 5 unanswered goals in the first quarter.  Although the defense held them to only one more goal in the next three quarters, our offense was never able to strike back.  We only scored one goal and we lost 6 – 1.  The Masters squad joined us on the sideline after the game for beers.

 

The Masters squad played Lax Gear @ 10 AM for the Consolation Championship.  The boys came out roaring, scoring 12 unanswered goals in the first half.  Lax Gear did manage to get themselves righted in the second half and they did score 5 goals, but the game ended with us winning with the final score 14 – 5.  Scotty Seymour ’88 had two goals and three assists.  Chad McClennan ‘88 also had two goals.  The Supermasters squad cheered on the youngsters and they sure are glad that Scotty and Chad will be moving up next year!

 

We help our now traditional final night dinner at Los Amigos @ 6:30 PM.   A 6 PM downpour didn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd.   There were plenty of Margaritas and several rounds of Tequila shots.  Will Graham ’76 was the Masters of Ceremonies this year and gave a heart rendering talk. 

 

Will asked me to retrieve the “holy words” (Park School Song lyrics) from the secret hiding place under the balcony. To my shock and dismay, a jokester(s) replaced the lyrics with a slip of paper on which was written – “Bobo wears girl’s underwear”.  I read the note out loud and then proceeded to drop my pants to “prove” that Bobo doesn’t wear girl’s underwear.  The crowd roared though some say that their kids are still in shock and some parents will have to send their kids to counseling.  I sure am glad that I bought a comprehensive liability policy last year!  The guys who were guilty of the prank handed over the sacred document and we continued with the ceremonies.

 

Will then introduced the big act for the night – Peter Kohn who took the stage at around 8:00 PM.  Peter started off with all three verses of Park School Song and then he invited up the Masters squad to join him in a round of Dinah.  This was a Vail premier performance and we welcome its addition to our tradition.  Pete then followed with a solo performance of a song only know to the Masters team - ? My Machine.  He closed out with a thundering performance of Cheer Boys Cheer.

 

Quickly leaving the stage, Peter assembled the conga line of kids for a trip to the ice cream shop.  He left behind the rest of us to settle up the bill.  The waitress totally screwed up and put all of the meals on one bill.  We have always had separate bills for each table.  This posed a significant logistical problem, but one of our club members who asked to remain anonymous grabbed the bill and paid the entire amount!   

 

We then joined up with the kids and Peter bought many of us ice cream.  Between the meal and the ice cream we used up 10 of Peter’s cameras.  Stay tuned for some great photos. 

 

After ice cream and lots of hugs and promises to be back next year, the group broke up and we all went back to our rooms to back.

 

Peter will stay in Vail and he will be managing Team Gutman and Team Wild.

 

Wednesday 6/29 – Fly home – But we’ll be back in 2006 for our 10th Tournament!