A few weeks back, Neumann Club Ice Hockey celebrated a huge win over Farmingdale State College in style. “Style”, being a broken-down bus and a 9+ hour journey to get from New York to Aston, PA.
The Neumann V Farmingdale State game ended around 11 P.M. on November 2nd, with Neumann securing the 6-3 win. Neumann then boarded the bus expecting to be home in 3 ½ to 4 hours, but they were painfully mistaken.
Shortly after getting on the bus, the lights went out and the driver began to panic.
A long night was ahead of them. This was the beginning of what would be 6 hours stranded in New York, waiting for a solution.
This wasn’t the first time Neumann’s Hockey Club had bus troubles. There had been two New York trips in the weeks prior to this one. The first time, the bus showed up late, dropping off the team ten minutes before a game. The second New York trip was to Hofstra, which took over five hours to return home, even though it was expected to only take 3 hours.
Sophomore winger, Tommy Angelone, thought Neumann’s bus troubles would be over after already having two problems: he was wrong.
“All of us on the bus were laughing because we have had bad experiences on the buses this year,” said Angelone. “We had no clue what was wrong with the bus, and we knew we had a long night ahead of us.”
To add to the bad luck, it was daylight savings that night: an extra hour to be stranded. As if 8 hours wasn’t enough.
“We were bored out of our mind,” Angelone mentioned.
Despite the bus troubles and overwhelming bad luck, the team made the best of their situation.
To cure the boredom, the Neumann Hockey Club had to keep themselves entertained.
The boys began passing the time with some friendly competition outside of the bus.
They started off playing some football for around 2 hours. After that, some soccer was played. Once they got tired, they headed back onto the bus to make some TikTok videos and enjoy some pizza.
“We had a good time until about 3 am. That’s when everyone got really tired, and people were starting to crash out,” Angelone claimed.
The Hockey team was desperate for a night’s rest at this point, “we just wanted to go home and sleep in our beds,” said Angelone.
Although the guys were tired and wanted to go home, this was not a negative experience as a whole. There were plenty of positive takeaways.
“This was a good bonding moment,” Angelone says.
The team bonded all night playing games and making videos. They even took pictures and uploaded them to their teams Instagram page, to document the madness.
Another thing that helped the team pass the time, victory mindset. “We had a big win that night over a tough opponent which made it better for us,” Angelone pointed out.
The team eventually got moving at 5 A.M. and left for Aston, where they returned home around 8 A.M.
The Neumann Hockey Club took what could have been a horrible night and made it better.
The 9+ hour fiasco had everyone bored and tired, but the team didn’t let that define the night.
Activities, bonding, fun, and most importantly, a winning celebration took place over the course of those 9+ hours.
Despite making the best of their situation, the team would most likely appreciate no more bus troubles for the rest of the year.
