The Greatest Moments In Trogdor History
#13. "If At First You Don't Succeed, You Ain't Playing Trogdor"
"First times" highlight 2011
It's a good day to be a trogdor player. A new venue (St. Avila), two rookies eager to take the game by storm (Jesse and Alex), first trogdor scored by a female player (Natascha) and a first ever prize for MVP (Alex). And this was just the 3rd annual Louis Riel Classic! Trogdor is scheduled to be played outside of Manitoba for the first time ever, spreading the game to outside of Winnipeg. Many new people are anxious to play and learn the game, growing the player base. While the previous years have been slumping, 2011 is looking like a promising year with many "firsts" to come and history to be made.
#12. "Shattered Dreams"
"The Gatorade explosion"
While playing, people do not want to have things on them. Wallets, phones, various assorted objects, they weigh you down, and there's always the chance that they can get lost in the snow, or even broken. For these reasons, everyone keeps all of their belongings in a pile located in a corner of the net, so they're not in the way. This is called the "depository". Dan Schwartz had a bottle of Gatorade in said pile, just waiting to refresh his owner inbetween plays. Mark Woods kicked the ball. Just a harmless little kick. Nothing overly powerful, just a simple passing play. It happened to make its way over to the depository. Impact. The bottle exploded. There were shatters of plastic lying all over the snow. It didn't make sense, but the results don't lie.
#11. "Kevin's Antics"
Trogdor's Sean Avery
Trogdor can be violent enough in the best of times, but sometimes it can get quite out of hand. Kevin "Anger" Andrich became known around the league for his questionable play. Most notably being his unorthodox usage of frozen Mars/Snickers bars as weapons. While physical play is a part of the game, he would take pleasure in attempting to sideline players with forceful frozen strikes of terror. He was also known for his constant ploys of finding loopholes in the sport. One of the more known events was Kevin wearing cleats. While claiming that it would give better traction (in the snow?), it was very apparent that the cleats were used for shin damage to his opponents. Cleats were officially banned by the NTL later that day. Kevin's antics caused much grief, but at the same time allowed the little things in the rules to be ironed out, ultimately leading to a better game.
#10. "It Takes Skill to Miss Like This"
Ferguson Takes the Term "Above the Bar" a Little Too Literal
We all want to get trogdors. Scoring a trogdor is a big deal, especially during a big game. Sometimes they are toughly earned, sometimes they are stolen away and sometimes an open net and a clear shot presents itself. At Le Trog 06, the ball was shot towards the net, beating the keeper but not the post. The ball bounced towards the middle of the net about one meter max from the goal line, right at Robert Ferguson's feet. All he needed to do was tap it home, but alas he was excited. He gave it a hearty boot, while in the process rising it very quickly. Somehow he put it off the crossbar and over the net. The most amazing thing about that play is that it was missed OVER the net and from SO close. Nonetheless it was a gift from the trogdor gods, harshly declined in the most spectacular way. Some legends claim that Ferguson meant to do what he did, refusing a free trogdor, while at the same time displaying amazing ball skill. Some claim that a banana peel was under his foot and made him slip. Only Ferguson really knows.
#9. "The Dan Zimmer"
Vertical Adventures gone bad
Le Trog 06 brought us many stories to reminise. Such as this one, where "Uncle" Dan McClelland aparently asked himself, "Can man act like an ostrich while playing sports?" The atmosphere was passionate, with people playing hard to earn the coveted NTL Bowling Pin. Unfortunately for Uncle Dan, Mark Woods was a little too passionate. With Dan challenging Mark for ball control, Dan decided to run at Mark head-first. Mark swiftly countered with a Don Zimmer, and to much hilarity, Dan was, inverse vertically Don Zimmered into a snowpile coincedently there. This wasn't the first hilarious injury by this man, and it certainly won't be the last.>
PICTURE
#8. "Man Hit In Eye With Football"
Jon Placed on the 'Eye-R'
The setting was somber and the mood was dim. Tragedy was destined. Jon Dixon valiantly playing aggressive, challenged Kevin Andrich. Kevin, electing to play the "kick n' pray" shot instead of showing agile prowess, unleashed a booming kick. The force of the shot, scary enough to a battle hardened dungeon keeper, was blocked by Jon. The funny part was that he was only at most a metre away from Kevin, meaning the ball rose almost perpendicular to the ground. The ball struck him in the left eye, breaking his glasses and the hearts of all the trogdor players present. Along with his eye injury he lost his glasses lens and after a failure search, the festivities ended out of respect for Jon.
#7. "Clownin Around"
This Was Definitely a Laughing Matter
The year was 2006. William Hatton was leaving for 2 years and a tournament in his honor was to be played. The mood was sombre. Everyone was sad to see him leave, but at least there was this last day. Mark Woods must have been the saddest of all. For you see he decided... to DRESS AS A CLOWN! Yes, on a day filled with sadness the players on this day had a reason to laugh oh so very hard. Everyone saw Mark's car show up, however when they saw the colourful hair piece and the white and red face paint pop out of the car, they weren't so sure it was him. Sure enough it was Mark doing what only Mark could do. A highlight moment was him getting hit in the nose, starting a nosebleed. A clown with a nosebleed... oh so funny!
PICTURE
#6. "Drunkle Dan Bagging"
Dan takes one for the team
The infamous "Uncle Dan" McClelland shows up to Louis Riel Classic I... drunk. A promising start by any means. After some less than stellar gameplay on his part, he finished the day with a bang. The opposing team had the serve, and William Hatton was taking it. Dan came up to play D in his very unorthodox style. He stands legs spread, facing the ball. Will warned him that if the ball hit him, it was going to be completely his fault. Dan waved it off. The ball was kicked. Direct hit. Dan falls to the ground, and play ceased, due to the fact that everyone was laughing too hard to continue. Well played Dan, well played.
ACTUAL FOOTAGE ON YOUTUBE
#5. "The Louis Riel Miracle"
One Miracle. One Ace. One Win.
It was the first ever Louis Riel Classic on the first ever Louis Riel Day and it didn't disappoint. Playing at the historic Rena Arena, the games were fierce and hard fought. One game in particular was reaching close to one hour long, going back and forth. Nathan Boutin's team was at +2 and the other team scored. Both teams by now are tired and sore. Nathan goes to the service box and declares his request for a "Louis Riel miracle", essentially asking for the spirit of Louis Riel to help him score an ace and win it for his team. Needless to say the serve was accurate and powerful, no doubt guided by the essence of Louis Riel himself. Right to the bottom corner of the net. "Nathan" (Louis Riel) scored the ace and won the epic game. That play became known as the "Louis Riel Miracle".
#4. "The Nathan Trip"
5.0 on the penalty minutes scale
This happened on the very day that Trogdor was born. It was not the very first game ever played, but the second. Nathan Boutin was running at close to a full sprint, when Mark Woods caught his scent. Mark suddenly came out of nowhere, stuck a leg out to trip him, with the additional shove to the upper body, to make the fall that much harder. It definitely was a hard fall, indeed. Nathan hit the ground, and no joke... the ground rumbled. The vibration could be felt a ways a way. His momentum then proceeded to force him to slide. He literally slid all the way across the goal line, from one end of the net, to the other. This was on dry grass. Painful. This occation was the first time to ever give out a penalty longer then two minutes. Mark received five minutes for his actions. It might seem like he got off lightly, but it was an essential stepping stone into the current penalty system.
#3. "The Tyler Chow Massacre"
'Brace' for impact, the Tyler Chow story
Injuries are always funny to everyone who isn't involved. Especially when it involves Tyler Chow. The ball somehow ended up going off course a little bit, and it went off to the side. A race for the ball then followed, between Tyler and Mark Woods. Mark got to it first, but that didn't stop Tyler from going for it. A little battle ensued, and somehow, the top of Mark's head ended up colliding with Tyler's face. Really hard. Mark's head hurt a bit, but Tyler wasn't feeling too good. His braces got horribly bent, he had a couple of chipped teeth, and his mouth just generally wasn't the greatest. And oh, the blood... There was a lot of it. Staining the snow everywhere. And it all happened in his first ever NTL game. Now that's what I call a promising start to a career...
#2. "The Wheel Kick"
The kick heard around the world
Mark Woods and Nathan Boutin battled it out for the ball behind the net. Mark kicked the ball towards Nathan, with the appearance of simply giving it up to him. Nathan decided to capitalize on this seemingly free gift. As he started to run towards the the front of the net with the ball, Mark used... "The Kick". It could be described similar to a cartwheel, somewhat. He jumped, threw both hands on the ground, and catapulted his legs up over his head, and into Nathan's back, with the force of an F-7 tornado. Nathan was left gasping for air on the ground. This rare moment was even caught on tape.
#1. "The Dan Schwartz Ace"
The physics defying goal of the century
It was during one of the Round-Robin games at the beginning of Le Trog 2005, and Dan Schwartz decided to take the next serve for his team. Dan is not usually one to take a lot of serves. But he did this time, and it stuck in the minds of all who had the priviledge to witness it. There were a total of six people in front of the net, including the goalie. You would think that it would be difficult with that many people to score an ace. He then proceeded to kick the ball, and it started to fly. Mind you, it was moving quite slow. It went a short distance, then hit the ground, bounced up entirely over the head of the first defender, hit the ground again, bounced over the swinging leg of the next defender, placed itself on the ground, and very slowly rolled its way just barely across the goal line, somehow beating the Dungeon Keeper. Everyone just stood there with their jaws dropped. Mindboggling. Simply unexplainable. If you saw it, you know what I mean. If you didn't, you can never fully understand how amazing that play was.
