Never in history. While the ducks paddled on the Columbia River the gulls played on the ice.
The Bantam AA San Diego Jr. Gulls Amateur hockey team, that is, skated off with the 1st place title, Pacific District Tier II Champions 2001.
"This is the first team in the Gulls organization to have ever accomplished this," said Head Coach Rob Powell.
The annual tournament, which took place March 15-18 in Tri Cities, Washington located along the Columbia River 3 1/2 hours east of Seattle, saw 22 teams from Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget AA divisions.
Rainy weather with a peek of the sun found the "hockey moms" touring the wineries, the "hockey dads" testing their talents on the local golf courses while the team kept their skills intact with floor hockey in between gametimes. Assistant Coach Rich Eaton kept them focused.
The first game the Gulls faced was against the Alaska All Stars, trouncing them 6-0. The second day they plastered the Oregon Jr. Hawks 7-0. The third day they downed the Seattle Junior team with a 9-2 victory with the help of Giancarlo Silva's hat trick.
At the end of the prelims, the Gulls' goal differential of 20 was head and shoulders above the competition. In the semi-finals the Gulls defeated the local favorite Tri-Cities 6-3 to make the finals.
Although beating the Alaska All Stars looked like a cake-walk for the Gulls in the first game they faced some tough opposition from them in the finals. Alaska narrowly beat out San Jose in overtime in the semi- finals the previous night. They came back strong for the last game in hopes of garnering the championship title. The Gulls dug in for a shut-out while Dane Ludolph and Raymond Macias burried 2 goals in the Alaskans' net, prompting a Gulls' dogpile as they revelled in victory at the sound of the final buzzer.
The Gulls offense led by high scorer, Jared Goodrich, racked up an impressive 27 goal total. The astounding defense intimidated the opposing teams throughout. NetMinders, Thomas Billick and Ian Nakazawa were walls, allowing only 5 goals in 5 games for the entire tournament.
Hearing the twill of the Meadowlarks in the Washington meadows, there was still no sweeter sound than the homegoing Gulls' chatter, savoring their 1st ever win in the West Coast Regional Championship.