How soap hockey went from a Tampa man's bachelor party to ESPN
TAMPA, Fla. - Nick Pletcher needed the right vibe for his 2021 bachelor party, but he knew his friend group wasn't the wild, bar-hopping type.
"We'll do that stuff, but we really just wanted to hang out," he said. "We're sportsy."
He considered flag football, wiffle ball and kickball until he happened across a video from Norway of guys playing hockey on a huge, slippery, soap-covered tarp. This, he thought, is it.
Next to a rental cabin in north Georgia, Pletcher and his friends laid a tarp and played their first game with almost no preparation.
They tripped on branches and rocks beneath the tarp, which they'd simply hammered into the ground with a mallet. They accidentally flung soap into each other's eyes. With no barrier, the ball flew into the nearby river, forcing them to jump in to get it.
By the end, they were bruised with "insane looking" bloodshot eyes.
"Man, did we have fun," said Pletcher, 31.
On Saturday, Pletcher will play in and produce the 2026 Big Boy Soap Hockey Tournament at the Gibtown Showmen's Club in Riverview. Eight teams will compete in rough-and-tumble, 10-minute, 3-on-3 games to see who takes home their championship cup - a large, gold-colored rubber duck with soap-bubble embellishments.
The tournament will air on a national cable network in the summer. The 2025 tournament was broadcast by ESPN as part of its offbeat "ESPN8 The Ocho" programming.
Pletcher describes soap hockey as something akin to the competition show "Wipeout." It's rooted in humor, but actual athletic competitiveness is what makes it work. The "Big Boy" is a callback to Pletcher and his friends' Big Boy Sketch Party comedy group, but also to the idea that they're basically adult children, or "big boys," playing a silly game.
There have been refinements since those early days. They've dialed in a type of high-quality soap that doesn't dry up in the sun and found specialized sticks that don't whip the soap into their faces.
One of the fledgling sports' unique facets is "power players," where each team, once per game, gets to bring in a ringer off the bench for two minutes. This year, those ringers will be Canadian hockey influencers from On the Bench. "They're much better at hockey than us," Pletcher said.
New this year: power-ups that let the teams to do stuff like make the other team temporarily swap out their sticks for pool noodles.
The players remain mostly Pletcher's longtime friends who live in Tampa.
"The guys are taking it really seriously," he said. "People have family flying in from across the country. I've got people calling me telling me how they've been training, working out, eating right."
Tom Useglio led the tournament in saves in 2025 and is returning in 2026. The competitiveness is real, he said.
"I was really upset when we didn't win," said Useglio, who played college hockey for Division III at the State University of New York Maritime College. "We respect each other, but we definitely want to beat each other. ... I'll play for as many times as they do it."
The road to ESPN started with that bachelor party, which created a tradition for Pletcher and his friends. A couple times a year, Pletcher, who lives in Atlanta, would visit his hometown of Tampa. They'd set up the tarp outside his parents home.
In the meantime, ESPN hired Pletcher, who owns a video production company, to shoot college basketball content. They hired his company again to shoot an adult big wheel race for ESPN8 The Ocho.
Originally created as a joke for the movie "Dodgeball," ESPN8 The Ocho isn't a full network, but a block of tongue-in-cheek sports programming airing on ESPN's existing channels.
"We had our foot in the door with ESPN and filmed a couple things with them," said David Akridge, a player and co-producer of the tournament. "And then we connected the dots, like, wait a second, they have a whole joke sports section, we have a joke sport. This is either a recipe for success or disaster."
They pitched soap hockey to ESPN. Network officials were cautiously interested but wanted to see footage.
Pletcher found a Tampa park to film in and organized a trip south with friends and crew. A fiasco ensued.
His car broke down near the Florida border. A mechanic told him the engine was totaled. "So here we are," he said, "loading all this crazy gear into a rental."
They arrived in Tampa late, got a little sleep and reached the park they'd scouted to learn that the water - essential for soap hockey - had been turned off. They drove around in search of another park and got everything set up, including the camera equipment, just in time for a storm.
The rain stopped with time to film just three games. But when they started editing, it was clear they had something.
"Instantly you could see the humor, but also the competitive part of it," Pletcher said. "(ESPN) immediately loved it."
That 2025 tournament has been airing on ESPN News several times a month ever since. Pletcher often hears from people who want to know how they can join the league. He has also heard from TV producers, he said, about investing in and expanding the league.
"Those things take time, but look at the Savannah Bananas," he said, speaking of the popular exhibition baseball team known for comedic stunts. "I could see us becoming something like that for hockey."
Akridge said the whole thing is still surreal.
"I'll be out eating with friends, and you look up at the TV," he said. "There's us, sliding around on soap in front of an entire bar full of people. It's very weird."
If you go
The 2026 Big Boy Soap Hockey Tournament starts at 10:30 a.m., Saturday at the Gibtown Showmen's Club at 6915 Riverview Drive, Riverview. There will be food trucks on site. Spectators are encouraged to bring chairs. Admission is free.
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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 2:42 AM.