Vol 3_No 1 Guts.indd - Rubber Magazine

Local talent from Page 8
Melissa Zehrbach was the only
Arizona player to compete in
the Women’s Platinum division at
the 2007 NARCh Finals. Zehrbach
played for the CanAm Selects, who
fi nished fourth in the division, missing
out on a medal in a 3-0 loss in
the bronze-medal game.
“It was fun but nerve-racking to
play Platinum at Finals,” Zehrbach
said. “We had a good tournament
though considering a lot of the team
were mostly ice players.”
Two more former Tour Outcasts
Inline Hockey
Heartbreakers roll to gold at Jr. Olympics
By Alex Dodt
The AAU Jr. Olympics returned to
Detroit over the summer and the
Arizona Heartbreakers walked away
with the state’s only championship,
while Team Excalibur brought home
three bronze medals.
The Heartbreakers 12-and-Under
team entered as the sixth seed in the
Tier II bracket of the AA division.
After starting their run with a 6-3
victory over the Tour Bandits in
the quarterfi nal, the Heartbreakers
knocked off top seed Great
Britain, 7-4, to set up a meeting
with second-seeded Storm Surge.
“We had a tough draw and it
was even tougher because we only
had fi ve skaters,” Heartbreakers
coach Javier Zuniga said.
Tough draw or not, the Heart-
rbreakers took care of Storm
Surge, 8-5, in the championship
round.
“Everyone on the team contributed
because they had to with so
few skaters,” Zuniga said. “It was
awesome.”
Three Excalibur teams win
bronze.
While they did not bring home
a championship from the 2007 Jr.
Olympics, Team Excalibur had a
strong showing collectively, with
three teams fi nishing third place in
their respective divisions.
“Excalibur had a good showing at
the Jr. Olympics this year,” Excalibur’s
Dave Marmorstein said. “We
didn’t win a division but all of our
teams played well and brought home
many medals.”
Team Excalibur ‘94 earned the
bronze medal in the 12-and-Under
AAA division, making them the
fourth Arizona team to medal at the
The Arizona Heartbreakers celebrated an AAU 12-and-
Under AA championship at Jr. Olympics.
AAA level this summer. The’94s lost
5-2 in the semifi nals to the Tour OC
Blades ‘94, the top team on the West
Coast. In the bronze-medal game,
Excalibur cleaned up nicely and beat
the Skatetown Swords, 8-0.
“The ‘94s showed, in their fi rst
year of playing at that level, that
they can play with the best,” Marmorstein
said.
In the 16-and-Under AA division,
Team Excalibur ‘01 fi nished their
players, Tyler Marek and Long
Duong, made a big impact in the
Bantam division at Pacifi c Cup and
NARCh Finals.
At NARCh, Duong led New
York’s Mission Snipers to a fi fthplace
fi nish and made the prestigious
NARCh All-Star team in the
process.
“The Snipers were a great team
to play with,” Duong said. “It wasn’t
a team of superstars. Everyone was
unselfi sh and moved the puck around.
I was proud of how well we did.”
Marek played for the Western
Capitals Gold, but his team suffered
very successful year that started
with an AIHA state championship
and a Pacifi c Cup Bantam AA title.
In Detroit, Excalibur earned the top
seed going into the playoffs and got
into the semifi nals by beating Tour
Bandits, from
Pennsylvania. Mission Fusion would
end Excalibur’s run in the semifi nal,
though. The ‘91s continued Excalibur’s
dominance in the bronze
medal games, blanking Team
Advanced Care 3-0 to bring home
some hardware.
“This fi nished a great year
for the ‘91s,” Marmorstein said.
“They won Pacifi c Cup and then
to win a medal again at the Jr.
Olympics was great.”
The always-successful Excalibur
women’s team lost a close
one in round robin play against
the eventual champion Tour OC
Blades and just barely missed
earning a spot in the championship
game by losing a goal differential tiebreaker.
In the bronze-medal game,
Excalibur matched up against local
rivals, Rollerplex Panthers, and shut
them out 3-0 to win Excalibur’s third
bronze medal of the tournament.
“The Excalibur women always
do a great job representing the
program,” Marmorstein said. “They
came so close to the championship
game, but they did well to bring
home a medal.” ❂
a couple heartbreaking overtime
losses at regionals and nationals.
At Pacifi c Cup Finals, the
Capitals lost 3-2 in overtime of the
championship game against Mission
Velocity. In the Bantam quarterfi nal
at NARCh, Marek and the Capitals
had one of the tournament’s most
exciting games when they lost 2-1
in double-overtime to the eventual
champion Revision Black Ice ‘90.
Marek said losing twice in overtime
was a hard pill to swallow.
“But we had a really tough draw
and almost didn’t even make playoffs,
so it wasn’t too bad,” he said. ❂
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