Senior Men 3rd in Chicago

The Golden Jets senior men traveled to Chicago to play in an outdoor tournament marking the end of the competitive season for the club. The team, pictured above, consisted of:
(standing, left to right) John Godoy, Som Seif, Simon Porter, Jovan Ilijic, Zak Kappos,
Milos Radojcic and (seated, left to right) Jamie Halla, Bobby Djurdjevic, Julian Filice,
Alan Chung, Trevor Robinson, Marko Brasic.

Due to the long drive, the Golden Jets couldn't play on Friday night and therefore had to play 3 games in 8 hours on Saturday. Unfortunately, the 3rd game of the day was going to be against the #1 seed in the tournament.

The first game was against a new senior club in the Chicago area. As expected, the Jets started off sluggishly in the first half but then pulled away in the second half to win easily by 17-4.
The second game was against Dynamo, an Atlanta team that had won most of its competitions in the southeast USA. However, Dynamo only came with 8 players which hurt their swimming game and the Jets cruised to an easy 14-3 victory. In the first two games, coach Gross elected to go with two lines of six players for alternating quarters to give maximum playing time to all players while trying to save something for the third game.

The third game was against the top seeded NWO team that had only played one easy game seven hours earlier and thus had three more hours of rest than the Jets got. Early on, however, the Jets shocked NWO and led 4-2 one minute into the 3rd quarter. However, playing the 3rd game and with the strong sun directly in their eyes for the entire second half which made seeing anything on offence or defence nearly impossible, the Jets came up empty the rest of the way and lost a very close 4-5 game.

With no crossover, the Jets could not play their way back to the gold medal and were paired against Chicago United in the game for third place on Sunday. Playing in a constant drizzle, the Golden Jets played an outstanding defensive game led by Trevor Robinson's dozen saves and
captured 3rd place with a convincing 4-1 win.

It was a pleasure to have a Golden Jets alumnus, John Godoy, rejoin the team for the tournament. John was a Golden Jet for many years (and a UofT grad) until he moved to Chicago in 2004. Another hilite (or maybe lowlite??) was the time spent Saturday and Sunday for lunch
at a local submarine sandwich shop. Jamie Halla, displaying more intensity than ever seen in the water, tried in vain to beat the famous arcade game Galaga. However, he did crush the other Jets players who tried their hand. At least the food was really good and really cheap (Som told the owner she should raise her prices)!

Finally, the players got to experience deep dish Chicago-style pizza at the team dinner Saturday night at the famous Chicago landmark of Uno Pizzeria. As usual, no one who ordered a pizza for themselves (not counting the individual size) could come close to finishing it.

The tournament was a great way to end the year. Now it's time off to relax before training starts in earnest on Tuesday, September 7 in conjunction with UofT.