Who are you?
My name is Ryan Pavlik and I am the captain for the Sloth Fathers. In mens tournament ball hockey I’ve been apart of a few different clubs. I started with a team called Strictly Business at around 19 years old. After moving on from Strictly Business I moved to the South Jersey Kings run by EBHL Hawks Captain Matt Marotta. After contract negotiations failed I took my talents to South Jersey Supreme for a classic “one and done” tournament. When I heard about the legendary coach Bobby "MF" Jones, I had to take my opportunity to join Jersey Fresh. Fresh did not work out but discussions with Eric Gladfelter and other jersey hockey players lead to a new team being created. The Sloth Fathers were formed and started getting players from Jersey Fresh, Supreme and bringing the youth into tournaments. Sloth is a wonderful family that enjoys crushing beers, hot dogs, and Charlie Novelli's self esteem. Sloth fathers have made a good run in A and C tournaments. Sloth will never give up.
What has been your experience so far in EBHL?
My experience in EBHL has been everything I’ve ever wanted in a mens league. Playing in big mens tournaments is always great but the gap from tournament to tournament is too far sometimes. You go from May to December not playing in a legit mens A Tournament. EBHL is the most competitive league that South Jersey has to offer. It’s run by a passionate core of ball hockey players. These guys know exactly what players in the league are looking for and they provide that. EBHL was also an awesome experience playing on a small rink 4v4. It was a different type of hockey you were playing there. The rink was super small and you got a bunch of grown men running around. Its a very face paced, competitive and physical game of hockey. EBHL has also brought a community of ball hockey players together. Most teams now are creating twitters and having fun on there. Anyone whose played in past seasons always looks forward to April for EBHL to start up.
What is your expectations for your team?
My expectations for this team are what they have been the past 2 years in EBHL, a Championship. We lost in the finals our first year and the semi finals last year. This year with the league expanding to 5 on 5 we had to add some players. We added some veteran ball hockey players in Keith Allen, Scott Young, and Steve Rodier. We also added some younger players in Ed Barrett and Ryan LaSerre. The new guys to EBHL are all familiar with the way we play so the chemistry should all be there from game one. As a team all we can look to do is to be competitive, have fun, and smile. Thats the secret to our success. When we do those three things I think you’re gonna see a really competitive and good Sloth hockey team at the end of the year holding that trophy up.
What’s your personal goal for the season?
My personal goal every year is to win MVP. Obviously that’s extremely hard accomplishment to win year in and year out but when you look at the season as a whole I really just want to help put my team in the best position to win. I have always taken pride in setting people up for easy tap in goals, ask Chaz Novelli. Other than that, I’m looking for my biggest and best year yet!
Whats a bold prediction for the season?
A bold prediction coming from myself is that for the third straight year the Sloth’s will have the MVP of the league and possibly the best coach EBHL has ever seen.
What do the Sloths need to do different this year to win it all?
Sloths is a big mixture of players. We have extremely talented players on this team, we have guys who run hard all game long, and then we have guys that just love to have fun. Its hard to compare prior years to this year since EBHL is no longer 4v4 on a smaller rink. I believe in order to win and make a run this year we are going to have to be a really strong defensive team. With a boat load of talent on some of these teams it could be very possible to take a shift off and be down 3-0. If the Sloth’s can be one of the best defensive teams in EBHL I think you’ll see us deep in the EBHL playoffs this year.
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