sports

In Case You Were Wondering: The Hockey RV in Courthouse

By ARLnow.com

If you caught a glimpse of this RV parked outside the Court Suites Hotel in Courthouse, you may have wondered what the heck it’s doing there. If you count yourself as a hockey fan or a video game nut, you may have also been tempted to go up and knock on the door.

The RV is on a tour of the U.S. and Canada to promote the “real hockey experience” of playing NHL 2K11 on the Nintendo Wii.

It’s here in Arlington in advance of two promotional appearances this weekend: Saturday at a GameStop in Rockville (14929 Shady Grove Road), and Sunday at a Best Buy in Alexandria (5901 Stevenson Ave). Both appareances will take place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

DC is among a handful of hockey meccas on the east coast where the RV is making a stop. The two weekend appearances are the only items on the official schedule, but with the RV crew staying so close to the Caps training facility they have to be planning on going over there and witnessing a real real hockey experience, right?

The $150,000 Soccer Ball

By ARLnow.com

Q: What’s round, inflated and costing an insurance company $150,000?

A: The soccer ball that hit a sprinkler in a Washington-Lee High School hallway and ruined the brand new gym.

The Washington Examiner has the story of how the insurance company is trying to recover damages from the parents of the kid who kicked the ball.

Team USA Wins, Arlington Celebrates

By ARLnow.com

From Rosslyn to Ballston today, pockets of soccer fans could be seen celebrating Team USA’s amazing stoppage-time win against Algeria in the World Cup.

At Piola in Rosslyn, a sizable crowd jumped to their feet when Landon Donovan knocked in the game’s only point following a rebound off Algeria’s goalkeeper. Fans watching the game at Summers Restaurant in Courthouse, who had been bracing for a tie that would have sent the U.S. back home, celebrated wildly.

Along Wilson Boulevard, two cars passed by with horns honking and with passengers holding American flags out windows.

Having grabbed the top spot in Group C, the U.S. team will advance to the next round to face the runner-up of Group D. That game will be held Saturday afternoon.

Parks Dept. Repairing Courts at Virginia Highlands Park

By ARLnow.com

Completing today’s Pentagon City news trifecta, the county is fixing “major cracks” on the basketball and tennis courts at Virginia Highlands Park.

The cracks, which developed over the winter, were causing safety concerns on three of the six tennis courts and on the basketball courts. The work is expected to wrap up by the end of the month, a Parks Department spokesperson says.

The ARLnow.com World Cup Guide

By Ashley Houghton

Lessons we learned while gathering information about local bars and their World Cup specials:

  • Irish pubs cannot stand France.
  • Irish pubs cannot stand England.
  • Irish pubs are likely to ask “Wait, why do you need an excuse like the World Cup to drink?” when asked about their World Cup drink specials.
  • Even British pubs are hesitant to say that they’re supporting England in Saturday’s match against the U.S.
  • There are too many ridiculous eating and drinking opportunities to avoid soccer for the next month.

Soccer is a game meant to be watched with a large group of loud and inebriated fans, so go ahead, summon your old middle school soccer ambitions and yell out those rare soccer-related phrases you remember from the matches (“CORNER KICK!” and “STRIKER!”).

ARLnow’s list of places to watch the World Cup in Arlington is after the jump. The tournament, by the way, kicks off (get it?) at 10:00 a.m. Friday with host country South Africa versus Mexico.

Photo via Facebook: Piola Restaurant all decked out for the World Cup.

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The Burger Joint Creates the Strasburger

By ARLnow.com

The Burger Joint, which recently opened its first Arlington store in the Lyon Village Shopping Center, has unveiled its latest menu item: the “Strasburger.” It’s — of course — an homage to rookie Nationals pitcher and new local hero Stephen Strasburg.

The sandwich features a beef patty, a hot dog (for Strasburg’s pro debut with the Phoenix Desert Dogs), “Syracuse orange” cheddar cheese (for his promotion to the Triple-A Syracus Chiefs) and 14 pickle slices (for his 14 strikeouts last night).

In what could be described as a tribute to Strasburg’s record-breaking $15.1 million contract, the Strasburger costs a whopping $10.99. But what you get is pretty tasty.

The burger, which has garnered plenty of local media attention, follows a long and storied tradition of naming sandwiches after sports stars whose last name ends in “burg” or “berger” (see: The Roethlisburger).

Let’s hope that The Burger Joint’s Lyon Village store can — as a tribute to Strasburg’s fast ball — speed up service. It was taking a full half an hour for burgers to be made around lunchtime last Thursday.

Cornhole League Coming to Clarendon Grill

By ARLnow.com

If you’re a fan of the beanbag-tossing game of cornhole, Clarendon Grill (1101 North Highland Street) is the place to be tonight. The bar will be hosting pick-up cornhole games starting around 7:00 p.m. There will also be free passes to the new movie Despicable Me, courtesy of the Arlington Athletic and Social League.

For the serious cornhole competitor, AASL still has a few spots open for its summer cornhole league at Clarendon Grill. Now in its second year, the 10 team league plays six regular season games on Tuesday nights. The season starts next week on June 8.

Registration costs $20 and includes a free t-shirt. Plus there’s cheap beer for league members.

Photo courtesy AASL/CHASE Sports Group. Disclosure: ARLnow.com has worked together with AASL on a marketing initiative.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Flags In at Arlington National Cemetery — Service members from each branch of the armed forces placed decorative flags in front of Arlington National Cemetery’s quarter million graves yesterday. “Flags In” has been a Memorial Day weekend tradition at the cemetery since 1948. See more photos here.

Remembering Arlington’s Forgotten Baseball Phenom — He was considered one of the greats of his day, although he was never voted into Cooperstown. George Hartley McQuinn, born in 1910, was a six-time All-Star who spent 12 years playing professional ball. In his rookie season, McQuinn went on a 34-game hitting streak. Take that, Ryan Zimmerman. Plus, McQuinn was an Arlington resident who opened a sporting goods store in Clarendon after he retired from the game. He would have turned 100 on Saturday. Read more about him here.

School Board Member Has Breast Cancer — Arlington School Board Vice Chairman Libby Garvey announced last night that she had a lumpectomy on May 17. She was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this month, following a mammogram. Garvey will continue receiving follow-up treatments over the next several months and is expected to make a full recovery.

Photo courtesy Arlington National Cemetery.

Good News for Brainiacs, Jocks at School Board Meeting

By ARLnow.com

Planetarium supporters were out in force at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

About two dozen sign-holding, banner-unfurling and speech-making residents came to ask the board to keep the David M. Brown Planetarium open.

During his budget presentation, superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy acknowledged the “Save the Planetarium” movement, which has attracted nearly 3,000 fans on Facebook.

“There seems to be strong support for retaining this program,” Dr. Murphy said.

One proposal that Dr. Murphy suggested he was open to was a private endowment, to be created by planetarium supporters.

“The door is open and the collaboration is ongoing,” Dr. Murphy said, hinting at the possibility that the planetarium could remain open for another 12 to 18 months to “see if there is a community groundswell with a commitment of resources.” In other words, supporters would have up to a year and a half to raise sufficient funds for a planetarium endowment.

If that was encouraging news for the planetarium brainiacs, Dr. Murphy also delivered good news for the jocks (we use both terms in jest, of course). A proposed sports participation fee, which would have charged student athletes $50 per high school sport or $25 per middle school sport, has been withdrawn from consideration.

Dr. Murphy said the school system has identified a substantial source of “one-time money” that will allow the board to roll back certain proposed cuts.

While about half the audience at the board meeting consisted of planetarium supporters, another vocal group made up most of the other half. At least a half dozen people, many of them students, made speeches urging the board not to trim instructional time at the Arlington Mill High School Continuation Program. The program lets working students in their late teens and early twenties — especially immigrants — complete their high school education on a flexible schedule.

DC Broomball Team Heading to National Tourney

By ARLnow.com

To answer your first question, broomball is a game that’s similar to hockey. It’s played on an ice rink, with players wearing specially-made shoes instead of skates, using specially-made “brooms” instead of sticks, and smacking around a ball instead of a puck.

To answer your second question, the game is especially popular in Canada and the upper midwest, but yes, DC has an active broomball league. The league has four local teams that play and practice at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Ballston.

Then there’s the travel team, made up of the most hardcore players from each team.

The “Nomadic Hordes,” as the team is called, is flying to the national championships in Blaine, Minnesota today. It’s the first time an all-DC team has gone to the national tournament, which features 69 teams and 1,100 players.

Despite the team’s relative newcomer status, DC Broomball league commissioner Ryan Schradin likes their chances.

“The talent is phenomenal,” Schradin said of his 12 “Hordes” teammates, four of whom hail from Arlington. He says they’re a physical team, unafraid of hitting the ice and the boards hard, which actually happens fairly often.

Last month the team scrimmaged the grizzled veterans of the Baltimore Broomball Club and lost by a very respectable score of 0-1. If the Nomadic Hordes can keep up with Baltimore, Schradin says, they have a good shot at beating the two Minnesota teams they’ll face in the first round on Friday.

“We’re going to go and play our game,” Schradin said. “We feel pretty good.”

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