Greetings and welcome to December! Today's been a pretty slow day around here, so I wanted to try and get as caught up as I can for this week. First of all, many, many thanks to all the fans who helped make our WMHK 89.7 FM Sixth Annual Teddy Bear Toss a success! It doesn't hurt at all that Owen Fussey let everyone toss their bears just 40 seconds into the game, but WMHK and the Inferno collected nearly 700 bears for the event. Those toys will go straight to local emergency responders and handed to children following tragedy.

As those of you who were at the game on Saturday undoubtedly noticed during the second intermission, our Zamboni was met with some "technical issues." OK, a T-shirt got stuck in the Zam's elevator, and none of the accumulated snow was making its way into the collection bin at the front of the machine. So, Charlie, our ice operations guy, had to shut down the Zam and figure out what the deal was.



If you look closely, Charlie's legs are sticking out directly underneath the blade. Kinda looks like he got run over, though.  Even though our Zam was inoperable for the rest of the night, we luckily had the Colonial Center's machine on hand just in case a alternator belt situation on our Zam worsened. So, (a cut hand and nicked knuckle later) Charlie was able to get himself out from under our Zam, he ran to the back of the Coliseum and used the Colonial Center's Zam to finish the ice. While it was a pain, at least it wasn't as bad as this.

In other news, new defenseman Dan Glover made his way to Columbia and participated in his first practice this morning. I haven't had a chance to meet up or talk with him, but I have heard that his name is pronounced GLOH-ver, not GLUH-ver. He'll be in the lineup on Wednesday night against Johnstown.



Some of the Columbia Inferno team went to Pine Ridge Middle School last week to participate in the Big Brother program.  Eleven players ate lunch with ten students from the middle school and then played a game of touch football.  The players will serve as the students’ mentors for the next four months.  Their next visit to the school will be December 11. I'll post some more pictures of these meeting when they become available.

Finally, I have a few game/action shots from the last several games. If you have any digital photos or anything from a team function or game, please email them to me at ajbembry@columbiainferno.com. I would really like to get some more fan photos on this site.



Jeremy Hall scoring his first goal of the year against Charlotte last week. Photo by Steve Weart.


Tyson Marsh trying the backhanded wraparound against Augusta on Saturday. Photo by Juan Blas.

That's all for today. I'll try to get some more info later this week....