It's been about a year and a half since the Rubes last hoisted a runner up banner at the Super Rink in Blaine. Tonight, they begin the quest for #5.

After back-to-back runner up titles in 2007, the Rubes have had quite the drought. So why has it been so long? Well... I am guessing that age and weight have something to do with it. The Rubes have also had a bit of turnover in that time as well. At least one or two players! Maybe it's this new website? We have not won a thing since we redesigned the site. Or maybe it's just that we need to start cheating? Bring in 20 year old whipper snappers? Steal Bryan from the Mud Hens? Who knows!!!

Well... Regardless, the Winter playoffs start tonight at 8:50 with a match up against The Under Achievers. The Rubes are 2-0 against them this session, but we all know that does not mean much come playoff time.

In order for the Rubes to stop their 2 game losing streak, they need veteran Bacardio to get back on his game.

It's seems like Bacardio has been with the Rubes for so long that we have watched him grow up from a kid to an adult. But he is actually not an original Rube. He first started playing as a sub with the Rubes back in the summer session of 2004. A few sessions later in the Spring of 2005 he became a full time Rube. Monday night he will play in his 125 game as a Rube which will tie him with Boob for 4th all time. He is currently #2 on the all time scoring list with 213 career points.

These last two sessions at the SuperRink have been a bit of a struggle for him. He used to average almost 2 points a game. For Fall and Winter he has averaged 1.17 and 0.71 ppg. I huge drop for his standards. It appears he really misses his former linemate Sagard. Sagard, the all time leader scorer for the Rubes, has moved on to bigger and better things and only comes back to play a few times a year. When they were together they were a machine. Now that machine has broken apart and appears to have died.

"I thought I could keep my game on top when Sagard left, but I just have not gotten in synch out there" Barcardio said in a recent interview with USA Hockey. "It's time for me to forget about Sagard and to get back in to the game that I love."

The Rubes hope to get Bacardio and the team back on track Monday night when they face the Banana Hammocks at the SuperRink in Blaine. It's family night at the rink, so the Rubes are hoping a record crowd will show up and help get them back on in to the win column.

Getting to know "The Rube"
When the boss told me that I would be interviewing Jup, I was assuming that we would have a nice sit down after a game with a cold Coors Light. However, when Jup called and told me to meet him at his house I was a bit taken aback. The Cotner Family Estate is not what one would call a convenient trip.

As I make a left out of Waconia heading south, my Tom-Tom starts blurting out, “Columbus was wrong! Columbus was wrong!” It is an eerie feeling when you don’t know where you are or where you are going and you only have enough food in the car for a week. As the road turns from pavement to gravel, the missile silos start dominating the landscape. In the event of a nuclear event, I somehow feel comforted to know that this desolate place will be the first to go.

Unlike his fellow Rubes’, Fear and Bacardio, sprawling estates, Jupiter’s 9000 acres may be vast, but it is also very unassuming. Pulling up the house, Jupiter and his wife, Z, come out to meet me on the unfinished porch.

I look over and see their two lovely daughters playing on their favorite yard apparatus, a propane tank alligator that is painted like a stick of Fruit Stripe gum.

“Glad you could make it. I hope you didn’t have any trouble finding the place”, Z says politely. I thought about describing my GPS unit’s reluctance to allow me to go down this path, but I knew the technology was lost on them. Sitting down on the patio with them makes you see why Jup has lived in this area for as long as he has. It is a quiet and serene place, some would say too quiet, but that is the charm.

Seeing how happy he and his family are, one would wonder why Jup makes the 105 mile round-trip trek once a week just to play hockey for an hour. He is almost always slower than the other team. Typically overmatched when goes into the corners. He has no discernible hockey skills that set him apart from his opponents, or teammates for that matter. Yet, he comes back every week, ready to play the best he can and enjoy the time with his friends.

He tells me that the time and money he spends playing hockey just makes him appreciate it that much more. He has learned to appreciate many things in life, considering the rocky start to him and Z’s life together. They started out with very little and have worked very hard to have the land and family they have.

Their relationship started slow, but soon progressed to the point where Jup planned a special evening out that ended in a very unique wedding proposal. The wedding was small, with just a few close friends and some family. The reception was a little more raucous and saw the bride not only lose her last name, but her dress was last seen on the side of a milk carton.

The first house they moved into was not much to look at, but it provided them the opportunity to move the house anywhere they wanted. “There were many months we had to change our driver’s license so much that they wrote our address in pencil”, revealed Z.

Looking at what they have now, you can see that it was worth it. The house that they are in now was built strictly by Jup’s own hands and was decorated by Z. It is rare when you find two people with such similar tastes.

Their two daughters, Alyssa and Sami are their lives. These have to be the two luckiest girls in the world to have been blessed with their mother’s looks, and not their father’s. To see these two parent is truly something special. Not only do they have a lot of fun with the girls, but they also have very constructive learning time. They also discipline in a very unique, if not illegal, way.

Jupi If it weren’t for the fact that the County does not budget much for travel expenses, Child Services would be paying a visit on a daily basis.

Sitting down to dinner with the Cotner’s, I felt like Andrew Zimmern. Jup assured me that everything on the table was “harvested” from their backyard. It was not what we were eating; squirrel brains, jackalope testicles and scorpion kabobs. It was more the fact that everything on the table was caught by the kids. At an early age, Jup and Z teach the girls that they need to be productive members of the family. A role they seem to have taken on wholeheartedly.

Relaxing by a campfire with some of Jup’s fine homemade hooch was just the way to cap off a fabulous day. It was truly a pleasure to be welcomed into Jup & Z’s home and be allowed a peek into a private life that few know. Even though I needed my passport and a couple changes of clothes to get there and back, I will remember this day forever.