D-3 National Tournament at Park City, UT - May 16 - 18, 2008
by Bobby Stewart

The D-3 National Tournament was advertised as an event to showcase some of the best young teams in the country, and it did not disappoint.  Teams represented included the top 20 Sin City Skulls, the Northridge Knights, Denver Blue, and the host Utah Scorpions.

   
       Scorpions Josh Wheeler powers by Eric Wolfe of Sin City

The first game of the tournament featured the Skulls and the Scorpions continuing their rivalry in front of a packed house.   The heavily-favored Sin City Skulls led by Ed Olson planned to steamroll the Scorpions in front of their home crowd, but the Scorpions had plans of their own. The Scorpions were ahead in the game for the majority of the first three quarters, but the Skulls came from behind and narrowly defeated Utah by 2 thanks to great play from their veterans and deep bench.

The Utah Scorpions were then pitted in a back-to-back match-up with Denver Blue.   Denver was led by Joy Rondeau, arguably the best female player in the world, and Josh Stapen a starting 2.0 for the Denver Harlequins.   Denver clearly was expected to dominate this game but it was obvious that the Scorpions came to play.  The game went back and forth throughout and ultimately took overtime to decide.  Denver came out victorious despite great play from rookies Matt Lund, Bobby Stewart, and Josh Wheeler of the Scorpions. 

Third was the game between the Sin City Skulls and the Northridge Knights.  The Knights had help from superstar 0.5 Mike DeYoung from the Northridge Kings but it was not enough to fend off the Sin City Skulls.  Despite the many years of experience from Northridge players such as Terry Luxembourger, the Skulls showed why they are a top 20 team with a double-digit victory.

Day 2 started out with the Northridge Knights playing against the Denver Blue.  Denver won the game by a comfortable margin but the Knights continued to fight throughout.  Shortly after this game, the Northridge Knights faced against the young Utah Scorpions.  The Scorpions got into the win column with a double-digit win against a much more experienced opponent. 

The third game of the 2nd day was the most exciting game of the tournament that pitted the Sin City Skulls versus the Denver Blue.  As if the excitement of regulation wasn’t enough, this game had not one, but two overtimes to witness.  After intense back and forth action, the Sin City Skulls narrowly maintained their unbeaten streak with a gutsy performance. 

This was the end of the preliminary round of a very unique tournament set-up.  The schedule for the final day event placed the number 1 seeded Skulls against the 4th seeded Knights for game one.  Game two would pit the number 2 seeded Denver against the number 3 seeded Utah.  The winners of each game then faced off as the losers were eliminated.  This format guaranteed that the final game would be for the Championship.

The first game of the final round featured the Knights playing against the Skulls.  Despite an inspiring effort by the Knights and their veteran team they couldn’t hang on against the onslaught of the Skulls midpoint frenzy.  The following game between Utah and Denver was a relatively close one with Denver pulling away thanks to great adjustments from their first meeting on day 1.  Dave Hosick was the player of the game with an unbelievable performance.

Due to having finished first in the preliminaries, the Skulls earned the right to have a break before the championship game while Denver was playing Utah.  This was costly for Denver as they had to play back to back games.   The valiant effort by Denver Blue fell slightly short as they ran out of steam versus the refreshed Sin City Skulls.  Congratulations to the Champion Sin City Skulls for winning their first tournament in franchise history!

Overall this tournament was a smashing success.  The hotel accommodations were first class, the food was superb, the gymnasium and location were second to none, and media coverage was widespread.  Special thanks go out to all of the sponsors, volunteers, teams, and everyone else who played a part in making this a memorable event.  This tournament clearly demonstrates the need for a D-3 National Championship!!!!