Project for Awesmoe 2019 -

Once again, it's the time of year where everyone tries to be extra awesome in this month. You never know exactly who's watching! [Santa?]

So for this year, I've gone and talked about the project for awesome 2019 video as the Chace Numata Scholarship. It was started as a return back to the Erie community for the outpouring of respect from the fans, teammates and alumni.

In November of 2019, the Erie Otters of the OHL hosted a Scholarship night where they featured their neighbor Erie SeaWolves efforts. They designed a jersey that looks like a baseball jersey most commonly worn in UPMC Park next door. I thought the design looks really nice and melds the two teams well with a non clustered design. I'm sure they are going to be a huge collectors item that people will want to grab quickly.

You can check out my video I've done for this year's event, but of course, you should pretty much consider donating to the Scholarship fund.

Penn State Posts Victory in Pegula Premire

Penn State University dominated the ACHA while I was a undergrad student there during the early 2000's. Under the tutelage of Joe Batista, the quaint hockey rink housed a lot of memories for me as well as the team. Now that the team has been upgraded and introduced to the Division 1 level of sports, it's time to make many more memories in the new Pegula Ice Arena.

I've had the honor of serving as the Public Address announcer in the Greenberg PSU Ice Pavilion for womens' hockey and now that I've come to see what the mens and womens teams have developed into, it's become an exciting time. When I was in Penn State back in April of 2013, there wasn't much to report on. The arena was still waiting to be built and the land around it still needed to take shape.

Fast forward to today where the Penn State Nittany Lions men's hockey team have christened the new 6,000 seat arena with a big win over Army. (Yes, even I didn't know Army had a hockey team too.)

Go check out the game report by Go PSU sports with all of the game highlights at the new arena.

[Via: Go PSU Sports]

Heinz Field Potentially A Winter Classic Host Location

Despite rumors that the January 1, 2011 Winter Classic game will be played at Heinz Field, the NHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins have already not officially confirmed it to be true. I, for many Pittsburgh hockey fans, have been excited by this news in the same way since the announcement that the city was getting a new arena.

I suppose my criticisms of the past winter classics have made their way towards the NHL brass about putting hockey games on baseball fields. It just isn't conducive to lines of sight than a natural bowl that a football field provides. And there is always the attendence availability to consider. The Pittsburgh fans here have gobbled up available tickets to just about anything Steelers or Penguins. No doubt that a Winter Classic will be sold out in under an hour.

With the popularity of the Winter Classic continuing on the rise, there is reportedly many host cities in line to get the newest January 1st tradition. It would also be great to see the major city of New York lose out to Pittsburgh in hosting the event. I'm sure that a lot of special interest money (read: Steinbrenner) will be pushed "all in" to attract a major holiday event. But Pittsburgh has the better bargaining power of matching up the two biggest rivals this sport has ever seen.

[Via: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Second Pittsburgh Area Ice Rink Colapses

Perhaps this is a Culmination of a suicide pact with the area's historic landmark ice rinks. If the Mellon Arena (formerly Civic Arena) goes, then they all go!

Even though the old rink on the south side of the city had not been used for 8 years, the Neville Ice Arena also met a terrible demise under the winter circumstances. Perhaps it has been like a suicide that the building had to escape the limbo of abandonment and the same of reported vandalism. According to the story, Neville Ice arena's lease owner didn't live up to the contract. It has left the city to scramble finding a suitable owner to do something with it or have it demolished completely.

But with the rise of hockey in the area, perhaps this is a developers opportunity to rebuild a rink that could house a Penguins practice facility as well as develop more talent to the Pittsburgh area. I see kids wanting to play hockey more now with the recent Penguins success.

[Via: Pittsburgh Post Gazette]

Pittsburgh Area Ice Rink Colapses

While the snow continues to fall around the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, the problem builds into bigger issues of safety and public well-being. This morning, a Western Pennsylvania suburb averted a more tragic situation by escaping a roof collapse at the landmark Rostraver ice rink.

Emergency responders were called to the scene Sunday at about 3:30 p.m. Witnesses said that the roof above the rink started to cave in between hockey games, as children suited up and a Zamboni swept the ice.

The ceiling crumpled about 10 minutes later, she said. The delay allowed everyone to get out safely.

The ice rink is over 40 years old and is host to many sporting events as well as attract a lot of national touring groups.

The collapse wrecked nearly one-third of the building, though, felling a portion of the roof about 100 feet long and opening half of the rink to the sky.

No word as to weather or not the rink would be rebuilt for future use, but for now, the rink will sit there.

Let this be a lesson to all the old historic "barns" in Canada in hope that they will be maintained and sustain the weathers that may come in the future.

[Via: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Merry Christmas 2009

Here is a special message that I recorded just for all my readers!
I am going to go on a little holiday vacation to get a lot of my other writing and video projects done that are probably long overdue. So, enjoy all the fun and excitement that comes with this time of year. But whatever you do, please do it with safety in mind!

Gov. Rendell Eats His Words.... Again

Gov. of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, who I believe runs this state like a mafia outfit, had to eat his words recently by making good on the bet that he made with the Gov of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm.

As it is seen there in the picture to the right, Gov. Rendell donned the Detroit colors and dined on some Michigan-made sausage and Faygo pop. (Which you can get here in Pittsburgh).

This news tidbit is at least some comfort that our less than prestigious Gov. has a humbling moment.

[Via: Yahoo! Sports]