Pond hockey still a riot for 50-year-old
He hadn't played hockey outdoors in below-zero weather since he was a kid, but 50-year-old Dave Bressler of St. Charles said he had a smile on his face the whole time.
That whole time was as one of six members of The Clowns, a team of middle-age players from the Fox Valley area competing last month in the 2008 LaBatt Blue USA Hockey Pond Championships played on a lake in Eagle River, Wis.
The Clowns won two games before losing 18-8 to The Outlaws, a team from Elmhurst, but that didn't matter to Bressler and his teammates.
"It was just a riot," said Bressler, who convinced his hockey pals to enter the tournament and stay in his nearby cabin during the event. "They had 18 rinks set up, and the rinks are smaller, so it was just like playing outside when you were a kid."
Bressler said the games feature four players, with no goalie. "The goal is 6 feet wide and 8 inches high," Bressler said. "And you can't lift the puck in the air. If the puck goes in the air or out of bounds against a snow bank, it is a turnover to the other team."
Bressler said the event featured 140 teams from 24 states, but he found it most interesting that Bill Ford, the chairman of Ford Motor Company, was playing with a team Ford sponsored.
A holy honor: Father Dan Deutsch thanked parishioners at Holy Cross in Batavia last weekend for helping him receive a high honor in the Catholic Church.
He'll have to change his voice mail greeting on his phone to Monsignor Dan, rather than Father Dan, as the Holy Cross pastor has received that designation from Rockford Diocese Bishop Thomas Doran.
"It's an honor that the bishop would submit my name to the pope for this consideration," said Monsignor Deutsch, who grew up on the west side of St. Charles and has been in the priesthood for 14 years, with seven of those as pastor at Holy Cross.
"It's really a papal honor and it designates the recipient as a papal chamberlain or part of the papal household," Monsignor Deutsch added. "It's also a validation of the vitality and spirit of the people of Holy Cross, and I thanked them for that."
The recognition generally comes to pastors of large parishes, or those who oversee a Catholic school, or have other responsibilities in the diocese. Monsignor Deutsch fills that bill on all counts.
"I have known since last October and I told my parents, who were thrilled, but knew they had to keep it a secret," Monsignor Deutsch said.
Popular party: This appears to be a natural as a popular event if you are in charge of a senior citizen center -- offer a St. Patrick's Day dinner.
The Geneva Senior Center in Wheeler Park did that, and the response was such that arrangements had to be made for two seatings Monday afternoon.