TAMPA, Fla. — Some bachelor parties go to the city, and some go to the beach. Nick Pletcher had his bachelor party up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in north Georgia and had to get creative.

“I would have been surprised if we ended up in somewhere like Vegas,” Pletcher’s friend Matt Barron said.

“I wanted to get us something to do that was unique and I was looking up stuff and I happened upon this video from Norway of these guys playing soap hockey on this huge blue tarp that they put soap and water on, and yeah, they were skating around playing hockey on it and I was like, ‘Wow, this is perfect’,” Pletcher said.

They had a blast and started to get together a couple times a year to play the game.

Then, while Nick was working at ESPN as a video producer in 2024, he helped fill in for ESPN 8’s “The Ocho,” which is a special broadcast of obscure sports. He pitched soap hockey to his bosses and made a proof of concept of all his buddies playing it. After weeks of waiting on ESPN’s decision, they got good news.

“I was with all my buddies when I got the email back that was like, ‘Hey, this looks interesting; we want to do this,’ and we were all so excited. The fact that all of us goofy guys would be on national TV was pretty wild to us,” Pletcher said.

“The Ocho” gave them ad spots to sell, and they got sponsorships to help fund the production. They set a date to tape the event, played a whole tournament and crowned a champion, had fans come out and even had a drum line for extra energy.

“I remember the first time someone scored and the drum line started going nuts because they scored. We all just looked at each other like, ‘This is crazy that we’re doing this, and there’s like eight cameras filming all of this,’ so it was just a really cool experience,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher did not play in the tournament, as he took on commissioner duties.

However, his brother Tyler was on the team that won the championship. He said this soap hockey experiment made him feel like a kid again.

“Wanting to be creative and have some fun with the boys, come up with a new sport. We all like to be creative in that aspect, so it’s a good connection of all the guys coming together, just wanting to compete, and finding a new game. Really, just like what we did as kids, we’ve been doing that since we were 6 years old,” Tyler Pletcher said.

“The soap does not discriminate on who it takes out, and you will be a victim at one point or another; it’s crazy. Sometimes you look like a cartoon character trying to run on ice. It looks like you’re running in place,” said Barron, who also plays in the league.

Year No. 1 was a success, and now they have big plans for Year No. 2. They are thrilled to get back on ESPN 8 “The Ocho” and make soap hockey the next big thing.

“You think of basketball, you think of Harlem Globetrotters. Baseball, you got the Savannah Bananas selling out football stadiums. Hockey doesn’t have that parody yet, and we could be that parody, so that’s the selling point right now,” Tyler Pletcher said.

What started as a game at a bachelor party turned into their chance to shine.