On Friday March 5th, I took a trip to the Trade Winds Plaza, at 749 Saybrook Road in Middletown. My objective was to attend the official ribbon cutting ceremony of Home Team Supply, and have a few words with the owners: Mark Soll and Joe Tarallo.

In spite of the blustery weather, there was a good turnout of well-wishers there for the festivities, including Middletown Mayor Domenique Thorton, Chamber Of Commerce President, Larry McHugh, and Nancy Waterman, South Middletown Division Chair.

In addition to the ribbon cutting ceremony on the 5th, Soll and Tarallo had two more days of merriment planned for Saturday and Sunday as well, including much food and libation, a caricaturist, a face painter, and "Rocky," the official New Haven Rock Cats mascot.

As soon as Mayor Thorton stepped in the door and spied the massive display of medals, trophies and award plaques, her first words were: " It's going to be great having a local place to get all this stuff!"

"This is a really positive business for this area," said Chamber President McHugh as he meandered through the racks of hats, team jackets, warm-ups, and other sports paraphernalia. They've got a great range of products here. Their connection to the youth leagues will help them out tremendously, too."

After the festivities, I sat with Soll and Tarallo in their office and asked them some particulars about the business, such as how it got started, how they met, and exactly what their range of products was.

Mark began by saying that the business evolved in several stages. "I was in fund raising and Joe was in a screen-printing enterprise called 'INKIT TEES.' Then we merged and bought some engraving equipment and trophies."

Their first location, basically a warehouse sort of affair, was on 134 Main Street Extension. When they realized that they wanted to expand their activity to include other products, they started construction of the present facility in May of 2003.

The result of their efforts is Home Team Supply, a retail showroom that specializes in a variety of products, not all of them having to do with sports. When I inquired as to the scope of their merchandise, Mark responded saying that, "We sell trophies, plaques, hats, sweats, jackets, team wear, and jerseys. We also deal in licensed apparel as well as custom screen printed and custom uniforms."

"We do custom stuff, plus regular clothing for the walk in traffic," Joe added. "In addition to the trophies and sports attire, we have hospital scrubs and fireman's shirts we embroider."

I asked Mark if they embroider items not purchased at Home Team Supply, and he replied in the affirmative. "Sure, we do jackets, shirts, and any other kind of customized embroidery and screen printing. You bring it in, and we'll embroider it."

Mark and Joe have been chums since their little league days, and now look forward to offering the Middletown community something that it's desperately needed: a local place to get trophies, medals, plaques, sports clothing, et cetera.

Their website: www.hometeamsupply.com should be operational shortly, giving customers yet another source of information and ordering. So, when it comes to all kind of great, custom goodies, I guess you could say that thanks to Mark Soll, and Joe Tarallo, Middletown will definitely have the home team advantage.