Wockey Pool X - Xtreme Xhilaration Xylophone X-Ray!

Welcome!  If you are reading this it means you either are an official entrant into Wockey Pool X OR someone who stumbled across one of the strangest corners of the internet and are now staring at it as one would a car wreck on the freeway.  Either way, you’ve made a horrible mistake, but one you can’t possibly turn back from now.

 

This year, we have 360 brackets entered into the Wockey Pool, breaking last year's record by just two brackets!  As always, Wockeyites have proven their flair for the creative when it comes to the naming of their brackets.  There were several nominees for the Wockey Bracket Name of the Year Award, which ironically is a terribly non-creative name for that award.  Here were some of the standouts:

 

Is this your homework Larry? (Andy Brammer) - Andy uses subtleties anyone can appreciate in a bracket name.  Who is Larry?  Is he doing Wockey instead of his homework?  Can Wockey be blamed for failing America’s children...again?  We don’t have the answers to any of these questions.  And we sort of like it that way.

 

I’m fat and stink - what are you doing later (Chris Goodman) - Chris had his usual slew of solid bracket names this year, but this one stands out for a few reasons.  Notice the lack of proper punctuation at the end of the name.  Observe the perfunctory manner in which he delivers the line, as if simply stating the obvious will convince the question’s recipient to overlook the distasteful nature of the person asking and agree to do something with him later anyway.  And what would that something be??  On second thought, maybe I’m thinking about this WAY too much…

 

I pity the Pool who don’t play Wockey!

My Wockey Picks > Your Grandma (Chris Walker) - Another consistent contributor, Chris first does solid work with a Wockey homage to Mr. T.  I like the grandma one even better because it’s ridiculous that someone would state that their picks are better than your grandma.  Ridiculous, but not necessarily untrue.

 

Do it for Cullen, Gordo, Nodl, Lasch, Roe and the rest (Jody Norstedt) - As a St. Cloud State alum, the sense of pride this year’s team instills in me is something I haven’t felt from a sports team in a long time.  Another SCSU grad, Jody, nails it with this name.  If St. Cloud can win the whole thing this year, we’ll all think back to the teams of the past that built the program up to this point, and we’ll all be smiling together as we watch the Huskies lift that trophy.  Or we’ll collectively curl into the fetal position when St. Cloud gets upset by Ferris State in the first round.  Actually, that’s much more likely to happen.  But it still doesn’t mean this next name doesn’t carry some truth to it…

 

Gophers Would Be Better With Bob Motzko As Their Coach (Brian Anderson) - There was less Gopher bashing in the names than I would have expected this year.  But each one still made me smile.  A lot.

 

Puck_Head’s Bracket #1 (Justin Maas) - It’s good to accept your fate before it hits you.  That way any finish in the top 359 seems like a victory.

 

Did you really Quack at the Principal? (Nicholas Wenck) - Another solid reference from decades ago, and as everyone knows Mighty Ducks was a movie based off a true story about the first Wockey Pool.  

 

There were several other quality bracket names out there this year, but the only one that made me...err, the committee...laugh out loud upon reading it was this one:

 

That came out of your navel?! (Robb Fritz) - It’s funny, right?  And I did laugh out loud at first.  But then something quite unexpected came over me.  As someone who discovers fresh belly lint in my umbilical hole on a daily basis, this name really struck a nerve.  It got me emotional, quite frankly.  Those of us who suffer through this debilitating condition have been quiet for too long.  But no more!  Robb’s bracket name has given me the courage to stand up and shout from the Wockey mountaintop that WE ARE STILL HUMAN!  We are not freaks of nature!  We simply have excess hair around our slightly protruding bellies that collect fluff from the clothes we wear.  We are normal members of society, just like people with excessive ear wax, unusual amounts of eye boogers, and the completely rational need to rub bird poop on their face!

 

So congratulations to Robb for winning the Wockey Bracket Name of the Year Award.  For earning this prize, Robb will receive an all-inclusive round trip paid vacation to spend a week with this guy.

 

As it is the tenth year of Wockey, I’d like to add a little wrinkle in order to celebrate this milestone achievement.  I am planning to -- for the first time on this site -- let you, the real heroes of Wockey have a voice.  Wockey started in 2007 with 16 people and a dream.  Over the years, many of you have Wockey experiences that have shaped who you are today, that have given your life meaning and substance.  I invite you to share those memories with the rest of the Wockey community in what I’m titling, Wockey Whimsies.  E-mail [email protected] with your Wockey story -- be it lighthearted or serious, lengthy or brief, true or a complete pile of BS -- and I’ll share it as a way to keep the Wockey magic alive over the two week break between the end of this weekend and the beginning of the Frozen Four.

 

North Dakota and Northeastern have dropped the puck and Wockey is on!  Good luck to all of you chasing that money and that sweet Wockey Champion’s prize this year.  And better luck avoiding the dreaded Puckhead!

 

Your Limpish, Languished, Lint-Filled Wockey Commish,

Alex