May 29

The weather took a sharp upturn on Wednesday, daytime temperatures were in the 80s. In the afternoon the ladies and I made one final trip to the Sovereign Center for the conclusion to this championship season. Doors opened to the public at 5:30, the Kelly Cup parade stepped off at 6:00. It formed in the parking lots of the VF Outlet Center in West Reading and proceeded along Penn Avenue crossing the city line into Reading on Penn Street and straight ahead to the arena. The inside festivities started at 7:00, general manager Mark Wallace took the stage and introduced several local dignitaries. After the club's usual game-time intro video played I took the mic from my usual spot at the penalty bench and introduced the players, coaches and support staff individually. That was followed by a special end-of-season video featuring footage from the Cup-clinching game in Stockton. From there radio broadcaster Mark Thompson took over as on-stage emcee and brought each player forward to personally address the crowd. The night concluded with an autograph session on the arena floor (the ice having been removed the day before). All in all it was a great experience which will be remembered for a long time. In the interests of history, here is the Royals' 2013 Kelly Cup championship roster-Goaltenders: #1 Mark Owuya, #30 Riley Gill. Defensemen: #2 Dominic Jalbert, #3 Bryant Molle, #4 Mark Mitera, #6 Patrick Wellar, #8 Brock Shelgren, #9 Dustin Stevenson, #20 Brett Flemming, #25 Bobby Shea. Forwards: #5 Nikita Kashirsky, #10 team captain Yannick Tifu, #12 Julien Cayer, #13 alternate captain Kirk MacDonald, #14 T.J. Syner, #15 Stanislav Galiev, #16 Ian O'Connor, #19 Barry Almeida, #23 Evan Barlow, #24 Joel Champagne, #26 David Vallorani, #28 alternate captain Ethan Cox, #29 Alex Berry. Head coach Larry Courville, assistant coach Tim Branham, goaltending coach Darren Hersh, athletic trainer Brian Grogesky and equipment manager Pat Noecker. It was once said that members of championship teams walk together forever, after twelve years of waiting the Royals fanbase will make that trek as well. Take care, thanks for reading.