With the roller season coming up and two roster spots available, the Screaming Squirrels recruited two new players.
Jeff Ford comes to the Squirrels from the Wolf Pack, a one-time B league team that was demoted to C midway through the 2003 season. He led them in scoring and was one of the top scorers in the league. The Squirrels are 4-0 against the Wolf Pack – often blowing them out – but are happy nonetheless to be adding another sharpshooter to the roster. “He is the same size as me but less fat,” says defenseman Desi Richelson, who recruited Ford. Outside of hockey, Ford is the lead guitar player for the band Yoko Says No, and has a degree in chemical engineering from Penn State.
Tony Richelson, younger brother of Desi, is also joining the team. He is a veteran of the Montgomery Midget league and played three years for the Good Councel Falcons in high school. He quit for a few years, and recently decided to return. “He is speedy and shifty,” Desi says. He will probably be playing defense.
Ford and Richelson will replace longtime Squirrel/Devil Andrew Lutzky and roller/ice speedster Juan Canchasto. Both Lutzky and Canchasto will still be on the roller roster as substitutes, providing depth that the Squirrels lacked during stretches of games last summer. Canchasto is expected to be returning to the ice team for the fall/winter season, if not sooner. Lutzky is expected to be playing Sunday morning pickup at New Carrolton with regulars Ed Bager, Kit Watson, Ben Sumner and Philip Van Der Vossen.