sundodger 2008 [day 1]
ah, sundodger. what kind of weather would you throw at us this year? in years past, we've had torrential downpours, near-freezing temperatures, gusty and constant winds. it has been remarkably unpleasant playing this tournament and yet, it always seems to be one of the most fun tournaments of the year. how is this possible? well, i think it has a lot to do with being early in the season, having a LOT of teams around, and having a fresh look at the season's possibilities. we get to play a lot of new and different teams and test our mettle. and while the weather does suck, and suck hard, at least we can take comfort in the fact that the other teams have to play in the same shit we do.
the first thing that merits mentioning is breakfast. we stayed at a hotel that offered a full breakfast. so i started off my day with at least five strips of bacon, a carton of yogurt and a cup full of fruit, a healthy dose of coffee and orange juice, and a couple of slices of delicious carbohydrates. i decided to forego the cheese danish, expecting a pretty brutal day on the field--and brutal it most definitely was.
we had just eleven players for this tournament: joe, bryson, david, russell, henry, erick, tevon, andrew, wes, francis, and adriel. i decided i would play too, to make things easier (or maybe harder?) on the rest of the guys. so we were twelve strong at the start of the tournament, and ended up being roughly 10+ by the end.
day 1:
game 1: oregon x: order of the phoenix
i have to give them credit for having a pretty fucking intimidating nickname, and a captain with more beard than our entire team put together. yes, dusty was on the opposing line, decked out in fancy u of o gear and ready to get dirty for the whole game. it was encouraging to see both of u of o's split squads playing their best guys. in the past, their top-tier players have sat out these fall tournaments, but their presence in these games would give us more of a challenge and a bit more respect as well.
our first cheer was: "barack barack barack barack OBAMAAAAAAAAA joe biden!" for instructions on how to complete this cheer with the correct cadence, please see one of the eleven players who were at the tournament. after winning the flip and electing the pull, the game was off.
we faced a pretty steady diet of wind in the first five rounds on saturday, and the most brutal was probably in this game. the first half was marked by a stiff wind moving straight down the field, which turned the contest into an upwind-downwind game immediately. the second half wind made a minor transition into more of a cross wind which presented an entirely new grou pof challenges for our players.
"fish had the dropsies" this game, and the wind didn't help much either. we put ourselves in good shape early on, staying close with the ducks. after the half, we lost some momentum and things began to unravel for us. dusty was pretty fantastic on defense, often sagging off his man to get poach layout ds in the center of the field. we never really did a good job of adjusting to the man in the beard, and continued to throw away from open players. the lack of motion on offense led to some quick turnovers, and they were poised to take advantage.
defensively, our marks were shoddy at best. it should be said that we were marking pretty solid throwers, but for the most part they broke us at will, and were able to use both sides of the vertical stack to their advantage. the result was a loose and unsure downfield d. dusty threw us a couple of bones by making erratic upwind hucks that immediately caught the wind and flew out of bounds, but we were rusty in our early morning contest and failed to roll the momentum back the other way. in the end, they put us away with an 11-5 or an 11-6 victory, and we looked ahead to a more promising game in the second round.
game 2: pacific
there was no doubt what to expect out of this game. pacific has one big thrower who likes to turn himself to spin cycle before unleashing deep hucks. their receivers will clutch the disc to their chests to make sure on completions. in short, their offense is ugly and our defense has a hard time playing against an ugly offense.
we used a progressive mark to try to stop jacob from getting off favorable hucks, and this seemed to work by and large. he almost never had a first look deep, and we were able to force them underneath and make turnovers as a result.
again, the wind was largely upwind/downwind for the game. we were able to get a quick upwind break and hold the pedal to the metal for the downwind advantages as well. we took half at 6-2 and never looked back, rolling over pacific with an 11-4 final. this is probably a game that both teams would like to forget, and we put the victory past us and prepared for the third round match-up with western washington x.
game 3: western washington x
doing this write-up really reinforces the importance of having some type of stat sheet to be able to refer to in order to tell the whole story. since i don't have that, you're going to have to bear with me on the details.
western washington took it from us from the start. we started on defense and got a big upwind break to begin the game on a huck from me to henry. up 1-0, we were looking at a downwind field in front of us and the opportunity to get a second break and put us up by two. the western washington women had all trickled over to the field which ramped up the intensity of at least one of our players (me), and our defense seemed to feel that intensity all over. western had a swirly cutting system and a bunch of newer players trying to get open for their more experienced handlers. this led to frequent and unsure under cuts on the open side, one of which led to a pretty spectacular? layout d from myself on a come-from-behind bid on an underneath cut. after the d, we were able to work it in to score downwind for a 2-0 lead and big momentum.
but we wouldn't stop there. after pulling back upwind, we got another d and were able to work it with a big huck to henry, who skied the shit out of two western defenders and then threw the short score for a 3-0 lead. we had the mojo and they had to call a timeout.
after they called a timeout, they scored two in a row and then pulled to us heading upwind. this was maybe the best point of the game. they decided they were going to come down in a defensive zone. saying that we shreded this zone is like saying that peter steinberger is kind of smart. we absolutely destoyed this zone, breaking it in about 12 passes, each one gaining yardage. none of our players ever stopped moving, we never got a stall above a 2 count, and we scored easily. they never threw a zone again that game. that's the way you do it! that's the way you debate!
the rest of the half was marked by some back and forth trading. i started to play like a little bit of an idiot on offense, throwing too many deep looks and making some silly decisions. after a particularly long point, we had a turnover and were looking at a downwind field to take half at 6-3. i called a timeout, and we called the following play:
the stack would be around 30 yards downfield from the handler, just at the front of the goal line. when the disc was tapped in, i would swing the disc to david and cut upline for the flick. when he hit me, i would throw it to bryson for the underneath gainer, and bryson would look to continue to henry for the score.
when we tapped in the disc off the timeout, everything went exactly as planned. the play was perfect, executed as called, and we took half 6-3.
the early points of the second half led to a bit of an offensive deficiency on our part. we had a hard time moving the disc across the field when we were working it upwind, and found our offense pinching into a smaller half of the field on the flick side. our offside handler generally didn't get to touch the disc, and the cutters tended to push over into this side of the field, clogging everything. the importance of having good throws in the wind was immediately apparent to joe and myself as we watched from the sideline. too often, we took less advantageous throws because we looked off swings that we were less comfortable making.
i noticed that our offense really suffered when we got tunnel vision. i was point blocked a couple times because i stared down my target, and all the blunders of the handlers in some crucial upwind points could be chalked up to looking at specific people in specific places. as we start to understand that we don't need to win it all with one throw, we'll start to get better as a unit.
the game ended in a final of roughly 11-7 or 11-8. the outcome was never really in doubt. my personal favorite play was when joe had the disc on the goal line heading down wind, saw a clogged front corner on the backhand side, looked at me at the front of the stack, and threw it out to space. truly, gentlemen, you can see the advantage of knowing your teammates, their comfort zones, and their on-the-field tendencies.
a couple of in-game notes:
henry made a catch worth mentioning in the opening points of the game, toeing the line and reeling in a long huck that i had thrown just a little bit too close to out-of-bounds for comfort. i tried to execute green smoke to bryson, and at the exact moment i started to throw the backhand, a huge gust of wind game up and forced the disc into the ground. tevon balled as usual, and david was probably the mvp of the game, with a really solid fundamental grasp of what we needed to do as a team. he calmed us down when we got excited and reminded us where needed to be mentally. good work by the heady senior.
game 4: university of puget sound
i came back from taking a shit and found our team struggling. the wind had really kicked up to start this game and we were in a battle with ups to determine who was more incompetent with the frisbee. we had a very hard time moving the disc offensively, and the game had devolved into a turnover-fest. with us moving upwind, we turned the disc over on the goal line more than a couple of times, and given their incompetence (and more than passable goal line defense for us), we were able to stall them out and get the turns when we needed them. eventually, i think ups scored. and i called a timeout.
for some reason we had lost a lot of momentum. maybe it was the fact that the clouds had moved in and the sun was completely gone, or it could have been the result of nerves as wes's parental unit was joined by andrew's, who rolled up with a stove for prepping homemade zucchini soup for us. some girl who was probably? henry's girlfriend was also hanging out on the sideline and was noticeably frustrated by the fact that henry wasn't taller than he already is. or maybe just the fact that we couldn't move the disc. at any rate, the timeout seemed to right the ship.
we started to move the ball much better from side to side and the result was a wide open field. erick came through pretty big by being able to go in and out of the handler position, and he was extremely active with his feet. he became a reliable target in this game and dominated the defenders that ups put on him.
henry and ups's tall kid went toe-to-toe a couple times. this seemed to be their sole offense and the tall kid made henry pay once, just a point before i decided to give henry an opportunity upwind and jacked a floaty huck into a crowd hoping he'd bring it down. i was almost surprised when he did, but not really, as he reasserted his dominance as the tallest man on the field. the girlfriend was pleased.
russell rocked a few upwind hucks that hit their targets, and the requisite couple of failed upwind hucks also followed. for the most part, a pretty dominant handler performance. one thing we have to work on is the solidity of our decision making without joe and david on the field. as we mature as a team, we'll be much better moving the disc up the field with short and quick throws.
along those lines, joe introduced the word "plinko" to the team for the first time in a year and a half. he said it was something from jeopardy, though i'm pretty sure it was from the price is right. we want to move the disc with short, quick throws, bouncing it around before the defense has a chance to set. hopefully we'll get better at this in the future.
in the second half, we rolled. we really clamped down on defense and took the energy we had gained from the timeout right into the second half. i must say that i had a pretty bitchin' layout d on an upline cut by a handler, and (maybe fouled a kid with) another layout d near the endzone. the wind started to calm a bit too, and we crammed it in both upwind and downwind, never really looking back. i think the half ended something like 6-4, and the final was around 11-4. that's how you stomp a team, berserk!
after the game, we adjourned to the portable stove and everyone (even, gluten-free kellogg) had some delicious soup and bread. thanks to mrs. lynch for this wonderful treat on a nice afternoon.
game 5: some high school kids. mostly boys. one girl.
this game was ugly from the get-go. and not because we couldn't play ultimate, but mostly because we were just dominant. we sent the disc deep early and often on offense, and on defense we were significantly more athletic and faster than the other team. this comes as no surprise, considering that many of them were junior high school kids and one was a junior high girl, but i am happy that we at least kept up the intensity despite the talent level of our opponents.
the women's team came over to watch us play a little bit, and lindsay encouraged bryson to do something exciting. bryson immediately obliged by cutting deep on the next point for a backhand rip by russell. bryson laid out near the back of the end zone (highest i've seen him get on a bid, in-game... it actually looked like a layout), and caught the disc for the score. it was dubious whether he was in or not, but the high school captain said "that was awesome. i don't care if he was in. goal."
other highlights of the game include:
particle finding a guy to guard who looked exactly like him, and then skying the shit out of him on defense in the end zone (i got to see the facial expression of mad science on this d, and it was amazing).
henry telling me at halftime that i was done playing for the day, only to see me return two or three points later when i got bored throwing the disc into a nearby soccer goal.
me foot-blocking and then beating deep the high school captain who was like 6'3" and pretty goddamn fast.
him one-upping me by working me on a point later in the second half where we both laid out in the endzone on a cross-field break, and he caught the score just past me. i took this opportunity to touch his ass, disguised as an encouragement of effort. (seriously, it was a sweet fucking catch.)
an all freshman-and-sophomore point that ended in some pretty lazy offense but ultimately, a score for the good guys.
another all freshman-and-sophomore point.
kicking russell off the field for the all freshman-and-sophomore point.
ultimately (get it?) we won the game 11-6, or something close to it.
4-1. a good day of ultimate.
post-game highlights
usually, these write-ups leave out the time in between when ultimate stops on saturday and when ultimate begins on sunday, but it would be a damn shame if we didn't talk about what was perhaps one of the most fun nights post-ultimate that i've seen (at least in consideration of the level of exhaustion for all of us).
joe, david and i found an extremely unsafe tool shed near one of the baseball diamonds and, in accordance with tradition at sundodger, made this the safest goddamn tool shed you've ever seen. it was a powerful good time.
andrew's little brother brought his leftover halloween candy, so 12 berserk wandered around for the next couple hours sucking on dum dums, downing laffy taffy, and railing ground up smarties.
the sun had finally come out when the game ended, and for the first time in 3 years at this tournament, we got our post-saturday pizza. we basked in the glory of our win(s), ate delicious food, and discussed the day's mvp and spirit winners. apparently my f-words were too frequent, though i will still maintain that i was a classy motherfucker on the field that day. tevon won the prize: a pink fuzzy hat from five ultimate. bryson was voted the mvp of the day after some complex elimination style voting. i thought he voted well, but an editorial aside is necessary here: david jackson played like a fucking baller all day on saturday, kept a cool head, and was a fantastic leader. he got my vote. starfox is pretty cute too.
waiting for much of the crew to return from frisbee central, the elders threw a disc on the soft grass (you know you're way too obsessed with ultimate when you throw for twenty minutes after playing five straight games), and joe had us in stitches near the end as he faked huck after huck to bryson, instead throwing to one of us a few feet away, all in one motion. yes, i know that makes no sense, but it was awesome.
we returned to the hotel and wes passed out immediately. i don't think his entire body even made it to the bed--only about 83%. joe, david and i had an ice bath (no, not together... the body heat would mess up the cold), and it was wonderful. and then, the best western came through in the clutch. we had free passes to the health spa just across the road, and for the next two hours, the smarter members of the team enjoyed the hot tub, steam room, dry sauna, relaxingly warm play pool, and chillingly cold lap pool.
i had the following dialog with a woman in the hot tub:
"why are you all here in burlington?"
"we're here for an ultimate frisbee tournament"
"oh that's funny"
"why is that funny?"
"i just think it's funny."
"you mean funny weird?"
"no"
"so how is it funny?"
"it's just funny to me."
"if i told you we were here for a soccer tournament, would you think that was funny?"
"no"
"i see. what do you do for a living?"
"i'm a landscape architect."
"that's hilarious."
she then lectured me on the inappropriateness of sarcasm in the hot tub setting, or something like that--i wasn't really listening.
finally, we made it out to "el gitano" for dinner, and holy shit was this place awesome. the portions were huge, the chips were fantastic, and everyone left with a full stomach. joe and i made a bet before the food arrived: if each of us finished our entire meal, then we would be even. if neither finished the meal, then we would be even. but, if one of us finished and the other did not, the finisher would be owed $3.
joe spent the duration of the meal heckling me, as i struggled to finish my entire burrito. when i finished the burrito (but still had some beans and rice on my plate), he slowly worked on his fajitas, arguing that he "wasn't even close to being full," and that he was "still really hungry." he insisted i eat all the rice, beans, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, garnish, and whatever the fuck else was left on my plate. when i had finally cleaned it all up he said, "i'm so full. there's no way i'm finishing my meal."
i could barely walk back to the hotel.
all in all, a great... great... great day. day 2 coming soon.
the first thing that merits mentioning is breakfast. we stayed at a hotel that offered a full breakfast. so i started off my day with at least five strips of bacon, a carton of yogurt and a cup full of fruit, a healthy dose of coffee and orange juice, and a couple of slices of delicious carbohydrates. i decided to forego the cheese danish, expecting a pretty brutal day on the field--and brutal it most definitely was.
we had just eleven players for this tournament: joe, bryson, david, russell, henry, erick, tevon, andrew, wes, francis, and adriel. i decided i would play too, to make things easier (or maybe harder?) on the rest of the guys. so we were twelve strong at the start of the tournament, and ended up being roughly 10+ by the end.
day 1:
game 1: oregon x: order of the phoenix
i have to give them credit for having a pretty fucking intimidating nickname, and a captain with more beard than our entire team put together. yes, dusty was on the opposing line, decked out in fancy u of o gear and ready to get dirty for the whole game. it was encouraging to see both of u of o's split squads playing their best guys. in the past, their top-tier players have sat out these fall tournaments, but their presence in these games would give us more of a challenge and a bit more respect as well.
our first cheer was: "barack barack barack barack OBAMAAAAAAAAA joe biden!" for instructions on how to complete this cheer with the correct cadence, please see one of the eleven players who were at the tournament. after winning the flip and electing the pull, the game was off.
we faced a pretty steady diet of wind in the first five rounds on saturday, and the most brutal was probably in this game. the first half was marked by a stiff wind moving straight down the field, which turned the contest into an upwind-downwind game immediately. the second half wind made a minor transition into more of a cross wind which presented an entirely new grou pof challenges for our players.
"fish had the dropsies" this game, and the wind didn't help much either. we put ourselves in good shape early on, staying close with the ducks. after the half, we lost some momentum and things began to unravel for us. dusty was pretty fantastic on defense, often sagging off his man to get poach layout ds in the center of the field. we never really did a good job of adjusting to the man in the beard, and continued to throw away from open players. the lack of motion on offense led to some quick turnovers, and they were poised to take advantage.
defensively, our marks were shoddy at best. it should be said that we were marking pretty solid throwers, but for the most part they broke us at will, and were able to use both sides of the vertical stack to their advantage. the result was a loose and unsure downfield d. dusty threw us a couple of bones by making erratic upwind hucks that immediately caught the wind and flew out of bounds, but we were rusty in our early morning contest and failed to roll the momentum back the other way. in the end, they put us away with an 11-5 or an 11-6 victory, and we looked ahead to a more promising game in the second round.
game 2: pacific
there was no doubt what to expect out of this game. pacific has one big thrower who likes to turn himself to spin cycle before unleashing deep hucks. their receivers will clutch the disc to their chests to make sure on completions. in short, their offense is ugly and our defense has a hard time playing against an ugly offense.
we used a progressive mark to try to stop jacob from getting off favorable hucks, and this seemed to work by and large. he almost never had a first look deep, and we were able to force them underneath and make turnovers as a result.
again, the wind was largely upwind/downwind for the game. we were able to get a quick upwind break and hold the pedal to the metal for the downwind advantages as well. we took half at 6-2 and never looked back, rolling over pacific with an 11-4 final. this is probably a game that both teams would like to forget, and we put the victory past us and prepared for the third round match-up with western washington x.
game 3: western washington x
doing this write-up really reinforces the importance of having some type of stat sheet to be able to refer to in order to tell the whole story. since i don't have that, you're going to have to bear with me on the details.
western washington took it from us from the start. we started on defense and got a big upwind break to begin the game on a huck from me to henry. up 1-0, we were looking at a downwind field in front of us and the opportunity to get a second break and put us up by two. the western washington women had all trickled over to the field which ramped up the intensity of at least one of our players (me), and our defense seemed to feel that intensity all over. western had a swirly cutting system and a bunch of newer players trying to get open for their more experienced handlers. this led to frequent and unsure under cuts on the open side, one of which led to a pretty spectacular? layout d from myself on a come-from-behind bid on an underneath cut. after the d, we were able to work it in to score downwind for a 2-0 lead and big momentum.
but we wouldn't stop there. after pulling back upwind, we got another d and were able to work it with a big huck to henry, who skied the shit out of two western defenders and then threw the short score for a 3-0 lead. we had the mojo and they had to call a timeout.
after they called a timeout, they scored two in a row and then pulled to us heading upwind. this was maybe the best point of the game. they decided they were going to come down in a defensive zone. saying that we shreded this zone is like saying that peter steinberger is kind of smart. we absolutely destoyed this zone, breaking it in about 12 passes, each one gaining yardage. none of our players ever stopped moving, we never got a stall above a 2 count, and we scored easily. they never threw a zone again that game. that's the way you do it! that's the way you debate!
the rest of the half was marked by some back and forth trading. i started to play like a little bit of an idiot on offense, throwing too many deep looks and making some silly decisions. after a particularly long point, we had a turnover and were looking at a downwind field to take half at 6-3. i called a timeout, and we called the following play:
the stack would be around 30 yards downfield from the handler, just at the front of the goal line. when the disc was tapped in, i would swing the disc to david and cut upline for the flick. when he hit me, i would throw it to bryson for the underneath gainer, and bryson would look to continue to henry for the score.
when we tapped in the disc off the timeout, everything went exactly as planned. the play was perfect, executed as called, and we took half 6-3.
the early points of the second half led to a bit of an offensive deficiency on our part. we had a hard time moving the disc across the field when we were working it upwind, and found our offense pinching into a smaller half of the field on the flick side. our offside handler generally didn't get to touch the disc, and the cutters tended to push over into this side of the field, clogging everything. the importance of having good throws in the wind was immediately apparent to joe and myself as we watched from the sideline. too often, we took less advantageous throws because we looked off swings that we were less comfortable making.
i noticed that our offense really suffered when we got tunnel vision. i was point blocked a couple times because i stared down my target, and all the blunders of the handlers in some crucial upwind points could be chalked up to looking at specific people in specific places. as we start to understand that we don't need to win it all with one throw, we'll start to get better as a unit.
the game ended in a final of roughly 11-7 or 11-8. the outcome was never really in doubt. my personal favorite play was when joe had the disc on the goal line heading down wind, saw a clogged front corner on the backhand side, looked at me at the front of the stack, and threw it out to space. truly, gentlemen, you can see the advantage of knowing your teammates, their comfort zones, and their on-the-field tendencies.
a couple of in-game notes:
henry made a catch worth mentioning in the opening points of the game, toeing the line and reeling in a long huck that i had thrown just a little bit too close to out-of-bounds for comfort. i tried to execute green smoke to bryson, and at the exact moment i started to throw the backhand, a huge gust of wind game up and forced the disc into the ground. tevon balled as usual, and david was probably the mvp of the game, with a really solid fundamental grasp of what we needed to do as a team. he calmed us down when we got excited and reminded us where needed to be mentally. good work by the heady senior.
game 4: university of puget sound
i came back from taking a shit and found our team struggling. the wind had really kicked up to start this game and we were in a battle with ups to determine who was more incompetent with the frisbee. we had a very hard time moving the disc offensively, and the game had devolved into a turnover-fest. with us moving upwind, we turned the disc over on the goal line more than a couple of times, and given their incompetence (and more than passable goal line defense for us), we were able to stall them out and get the turns when we needed them. eventually, i think ups scored. and i called a timeout.
for some reason we had lost a lot of momentum. maybe it was the fact that the clouds had moved in and the sun was completely gone, or it could have been the result of nerves as wes's parental unit was joined by andrew's, who rolled up with a stove for prepping homemade zucchini soup for us. some girl who was probably? henry's girlfriend was also hanging out on the sideline and was noticeably frustrated by the fact that henry wasn't taller than he already is. or maybe just the fact that we couldn't move the disc. at any rate, the timeout seemed to right the ship.
we started to move the ball much better from side to side and the result was a wide open field. erick came through pretty big by being able to go in and out of the handler position, and he was extremely active with his feet. he became a reliable target in this game and dominated the defenders that ups put on him.
henry and ups's tall kid went toe-to-toe a couple times. this seemed to be their sole offense and the tall kid made henry pay once, just a point before i decided to give henry an opportunity upwind and jacked a floaty huck into a crowd hoping he'd bring it down. i was almost surprised when he did, but not really, as he reasserted his dominance as the tallest man on the field. the girlfriend was pleased.
russell rocked a few upwind hucks that hit their targets, and the requisite couple of failed upwind hucks also followed. for the most part, a pretty dominant handler performance. one thing we have to work on is the solidity of our decision making without joe and david on the field. as we mature as a team, we'll be much better moving the disc up the field with short and quick throws.
along those lines, joe introduced the word "plinko" to the team for the first time in a year and a half. he said it was something from jeopardy, though i'm pretty sure it was from the price is right. we want to move the disc with short, quick throws, bouncing it around before the defense has a chance to set. hopefully we'll get better at this in the future.
in the second half, we rolled. we really clamped down on defense and took the energy we had gained from the timeout right into the second half. i must say that i had a pretty bitchin' layout d on an upline cut by a handler, and (maybe fouled a kid with) another layout d near the endzone. the wind started to calm a bit too, and we crammed it in both upwind and downwind, never really looking back. i think the half ended something like 6-4, and the final was around 11-4. that's how you stomp a team, berserk!
after the game, we adjourned to the portable stove and everyone (even, gluten-free kellogg) had some delicious soup and bread. thanks to mrs. lynch for this wonderful treat on a nice afternoon.
game 5: some high school kids. mostly boys. one girl.
this game was ugly from the get-go. and not because we couldn't play ultimate, but mostly because we were just dominant. we sent the disc deep early and often on offense, and on defense we were significantly more athletic and faster than the other team. this comes as no surprise, considering that many of them were junior high school kids and one was a junior high girl, but i am happy that we at least kept up the intensity despite the talent level of our opponents.
the women's team came over to watch us play a little bit, and lindsay encouraged bryson to do something exciting. bryson immediately obliged by cutting deep on the next point for a backhand rip by russell. bryson laid out near the back of the end zone (highest i've seen him get on a bid, in-game... it actually looked like a layout), and caught the disc for the score. it was dubious whether he was in or not, but the high school captain said "that was awesome. i don't care if he was in. goal."
other highlights of the game include:
particle finding a guy to guard who looked exactly like him, and then skying the shit out of him on defense in the end zone (i got to see the facial expression of mad science on this d, and it was amazing).
henry telling me at halftime that i was done playing for the day, only to see me return two or three points later when i got bored throwing the disc into a nearby soccer goal.
me foot-blocking and then beating deep the high school captain who was like 6'3" and pretty goddamn fast.
him one-upping me by working me on a point later in the second half where we both laid out in the endzone on a cross-field break, and he caught the score just past me. i took this opportunity to touch his ass, disguised as an encouragement of effort. (seriously, it was a sweet fucking catch.)
an all freshman-and-sophomore point that ended in some pretty lazy offense but ultimately, a score for the good guys.
another all freshman-and-sophomore point.
kicking russell off the field for the all freshman-and-sophomore point.
ultimately (get it?) we won the game 11-6, or something close to it.
4-1. a good day of ultimate.
post-game highlights
usually, these write-ups leave out the time in between when ultimate stops on saturday and when ultimate begins on sunday, but it would be a damn shame if we didn't talk about what was perhaps one of the most fun nights post-ultimate that i've seen (at least in consideration of the level of exhaustion for all of us).
joe, david and i found an extremely unsafe tool shed near one of the baseball diamonds and, in accordance with tradition at sundodger, made this the safest goddamn tool shed you've ever seen. it was a powerful good time.
andrew's little brother brought his leftover halloween candy, so 12 berserk wandered around for the next couple hours sucking on dum dums, downing laffy taffy, and railing ground up smarties.
the sun had finally come out when the game ended, and for the first time in 3 years at this tournament, we got our post-saturday pizza. we basked in the glory of our win(s), ate delicious food, and discussed the day's mvp and spirit winners. apparently my f-words were too frequent, though i will still maintain that i was a classy motherfucker on the field that day. tevon won the prize: a pink fuzzy hat from five ultimate. bryson was voted the mvp of the day after some complex elimination style voting. i thought he voted well, but an editorial aside is necessary here: david jackson played like a fucking baller all day on saturday, kept a cool head, and was a fantastic leader. he got my vote. starfox is pretty cute too.
waiting for much of the crew to return from frisbee central, the elders threw a disc on the soft grass (you know you're way too obsessed with ultimate when you throw for twenty minutes after playing five straight games), and joe had us in stitches near the end as he faked huck after huck to bryson, instead throwing to one of us a few feet away, all in one motion. yes, i know that makes no sense, but it was awesome.
we returned to the hotel and wes passed out immediately. i don't think his entire body even made it to the bed--only about 83%. joe, david and i had an ice bath (no, not together... the body heat would mess up the cold), and it was wonderful. and then, the best western came through in the clutch. we had free passes to the health spa just across the road, and for the next two hours, the smarter members of the team enjoyed the hot tub, steam room, dry sauna, relaxingly warm play pool, and chillingly cold lap pool.
i had the following dialog with a woman in the hot tub:
"why are you all here in burlington?"
"we're here for an ultimate frisbee tournament"
"oh that's funny"
"why is that funny?"
"i just think it's funny."
"you mean funny weird?"
"no"
"so how is it funny?"
"it's just funny to me."
"if i told you we were here for a soccer tournament, would you think that was funny?"
"no"
"i see. what do you do for a living?"
"i'm a landscape architect."
"that's hilarious."
she then lectured me on the inappropriateness of sarcasm in the hot tub setting, or something like that--i wasn't really listening.
finally, we made it out to "el gitano" for dinner, and holy shit was this place awesome. the portions were huge, the chips were fantastic, and everyone left with a full stomach. joe and i made a bet before the food arrived: if each of us finished our entire meal, then we would be even. if neither finished the meal, then we would be even. but, if one of us finished and the other did not, the finisher would be owed $3.
joe spent the duration of the meal heckling me, as i struggled to finish my entire burrito. when i finished the burrito (but still had some beans and rice on my plate), he slowly worked on his fajitas, arguing that he "wasn't even close to being full," and that he was "still really hungry." he insisted i eat all the rice, beans, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, garnish, and whatever the fuck else was left on my plate. when i had finally cleaned it all up he said, "i'm so full. there's no way i'm finishing my meal."
i could barely walk back to the hotel.
all in all, a great... great... great day. day 2 coming soon.
posted by Fish at 2:32 PM
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