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Dylan’s Tae Kwon Do Class

:: Tags: Dylan, School, Sports

As part of the after school enrichment program, my wife and I signed Dylan up for some Tae Kwon Do classes at the River School. The classes were  held right in the River School Gym, so there was no need to worry about transporting him to another location in the afternoon, and the instructor, Master Jason Yoo, came highly recommended for his skills working with young children. Dylan really seems to like it and I hope that he sticks with it. I took several years of taekwondo as a kid myself and truly enjoyed the way that it challenged me and made me more disciplined in everyday life. If nothing else, it will be a great form of exercise for Dylan moving forward.

Nationals Home Game

:: Tags: Dylan, Evening Out, Friends, Fun, Photo, Sports

Now that my son Dylan is a little older I’ve been meaning to take him to a Nationals baseball game, but for one reason or another we just haven’t had the time. Yesterday my brother called me up out of the blue and said he had a friend who worked for a company that was a huge sponsor of the Nats and that she could hook us up with tickets for the next home game. It was a very last minute thing, but jumped at the opportunity… and everyone had a great time including Dylan who got to hang with the boys at the ballpark and chow down on a huge box full of Thrashers style boardwalk fries!

ALL CAPS!

:: Tags: Awesome, Dylan, Hockey, Sports

So guess who just won the NHL Stanley Cup Championship? That’s right… these guys… The Washington Capitals!!! I was born and raised in Northern Virginia and have been a native my whole life, so it should come as no surprise that as a hockey player myself, I’m a life long fan of my hometown team… the Capitals! It feels like I’ve waited a life time for the Caps to find the right chemistry to make a true run at the Cup, but as early as January this year I knew we had something special happening on the ice. Here’s a shout out to all the players, coaches and staff for the Washington Capitals… Congrats Boys!! WE ARE ALL CAPS!!!!

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The Fox Class Soccer Team

:: Tags: Awesome, Dylan, Friends, School, Sports

Here are a couple of pictures from Dylan’s school soccer team which he played on for one season. His current school doesn’t have any sports teams, so some of the parents from his class put together a Saturday morning soccer team to compete in the DC Stoddard Soccer League. I think this gave him just enough exposure to team sports to get him interested and I know he really enjoyed playing with his classmates. Hopefully he will continue to participate in competitive team sports and become more of a team player in the future.

Doug’s Broken Collar Bone

:: Tags: Hockey, Sports, Surgery, WTF!!

As most of my readers know, I love ice hockey, but as we all know it is a rough, competitive sport that is played at an extremely fast pace. Even though we wear lots of protective gear and take extra precautions to safe guard ourselves against injuries, they still happen. I myself have been playing hockey at the competitive adult level now for over twenty years and yes, I’ve had my share of injuries over the years. Normally you go home after the game with just bumps and bruises, or maybe the occasional sprain, torn muscle or even a dislocated shoulder. However, this week I got to add a new page to my dossier with my first ever broken bone!


The aftermath of the surgery on my left clavicle – Virginia Hospital Center – Arlington, VA.

With only about 5 minutes to go in the third period, I was on the fore check in the offensive zone going hard for a loose puck in the corner, when I was tripped up by another player and found myself sliding head first into the boards. Trying to prevent a direct head impact with the boards, I started to turn my body as I was sliding and thus ended up with my left shoulder squarely impacting the boards instead. I knew instantly after the collusion that I had done some kind of damage to my shoulder, but was not sure exactly what it was. I was able to skate back to the bench under my own power and then pulled myself from the remainder of the game so that I could go to the locker room and remove my shoulder pads to inspect the damage. Sure enough, it was obvious that I had broken something in my shoulder. There was nothing protruding through the skin, but every time I tried to lift my arm I could see the broken bone pop up like it was trying to break through.

After changing out of my gear, I went home to let my wife know what had happened and then drove myself to the hospital to have it checked out by a doctor. The X-rays reveled that is was in fact a broken left clavicle and it would take surgery to correctly repair it. I was lucky enough to get scheduled right away for the surgery and also to have one of the leading shoulder surgeons in the area do the work. The surgery went well and took just under two hours… and now I have a titanium plate and 7 screws holding my collar bone in place so it can grow back together correctly. Oh yeah, and I will have another nice scare to show off!
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Fairfax Hockey League Champs

:: Tags: Awesome, Friends, Hockey, Sports


Fairfax Hockey League 2016-2017 ‘D1’ Division Champions – Fairfax, VA.

“We are the champions… We are the champions… We are the champions… of the FFHL!!” Yes, we did it again… the D1 Fairfax Bulldogs Hockey Team has won another Winter Championship in the Fairfax Hockey League! There is nothing better than sharing a 10 to 1 win with your hockey brothers in the championship game! I think we will be moving up a division next season because we are clearly too good for this one!
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The Diamond Club at Nationals Park!

:: Tags: Evening Out, Food, Friends, Sports

I have to send out a big thank you to the family who donated the Nationals tickets to the RS annual fund action this past spring. Julie and I had the winning bid for the ticket package which included four Diamond Club Passes and great seats just behind home plate. With four tickets in hand, we decided to make it an adult evening out, so we arranged for a sitter and invited our dear friends Steve and Melissa B. to join us for the game. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun catching up over beer, good food and a ball game! Too bad the Nats lost, but we still had a blast!

One Rough Hockey Game

:: Tags: Friends, Fun, Hockey, Sports

My adult league hockey game this past Friday night turned out to be one of the roughest hockey games I’ve had in quite some time. They say you tell how hard you’re playing by the amount of rubber left on the blade of your stick and also by the amount of blood you leave on the ice. Well folks, I had both. A ton of shots, several assists, a goal, two or three blocked shots and even a skate blade wound to the back of the leg! Even though he caught me up high on the leg, the cut wasn’t that deep thanks to my wrap around pads, so I’m not too worried about needing stitches or it getting infected. However, I do hope that the blood washes out of my socks. Anyway, it was an awesome game and an even better win!

Tropics Playoffs – First Round

:: Tags: Friends, Hockey, Photo, Sports

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The Tropics goaltender, Joe Harris, standing tall between the pipes!

The Ballston Tropics Hockey Club started out their 2012-2013 winter playoff run with a game against their old friends the Clusterpucks. After beating the Pucks 4-2 in the first round, the Tropics would go on to be eliminated in the second round by the Rocco’s in what would be called the worst officiated hockey game ever! I’d like to thank Jen Harris for the fantastic photos she has taken of the team this past season!!

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The KCIHL Champions…!

:: Tags: Friends, Hockey, Sports


The Ballston Tropics Hockey Club – 2010 & 2011 KCIHL C-1 Division Champions

For the second season in a row, the Ballston Tropics Hockey Club has taken the championship in the KCIHL Adult Ice Hockey League C1 Division!  That’s right… two championship titles in a row for me and the boys and we’re currently working on a third!! You can check out what’s happening with the guys on the teams Website at www.ballstontropics.com! Lets Go Tropics!!
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