Meet Ellenton area hockey players, team Argentina members Neil and Ronald Sosa
ELLENTON, Fla. — Get to know the Sosa brothers, Neil and Ronald, who are members of the Argentian national hockey team and play at Ellenton ice hockey arena.
Neil Sosa: Part of our background is that our parents are from Argentina and as the popularity of ice hockey continues to grow around the world the NHL, along with the Argentina Ice hockey Federation, are now competing in international tournaments in men’s ice hockey, women’s, and youth.
My brother and I grew up in both Brooklyn, NY and NJ, playing and crazy about ice hockey, and we found out about the Argentine ice hockey team through trading online. To our delight, we found out that Argentina had an ice hockey team. College brought us to West Virginia University where we played Division 1 ACHA ice hockey for 4 years; then graduated and began our careers. Currently we Play at Ellenton ice hockey arena weekly.
After contacting the Argentina hockey association we were invited to attend 1 week of pre-tournament practices in Miami to try out for the Men’s National team. After working hard we made the National team as brothers on the same defense line.
We competed in round-robin play and our team Argentina were 4-1 in Round Robin play and earned a spot in the finals where we finished 2nd place; the highest finish at the Miami LATAM cup for Argentina. It was an amazing opportunity to be exposed to other Latino hockey players and help promote and grow the sport to countries in Latin America and help young kids like ourselves be exposed to the amazing exciting sport of hockey.
This year the NHL supported the tournament and invited team Argentina to play in the Florida Panthers arena in Miami to showcase hockey in Latin America as the NHL works to grow the beautiful game of hockey to new parts of the world and “non-traditional” hockey markets. Representing my heritage and the country my father immigrated from was an honor my brother and I will carry with us our whole life and this year was extra special as my father is battling cancer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
My brother and I look forward to wearing the National Argentina jersey again in future ice hockey tournaments and send a special thank you to the Argentina Hockey Association of Inline and Ice Hockey as well as head coach Dicky Haiek, our parents, our wives, kids and friends who helped support my brother and I on this amazing opportunity to represent Argentina.
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