One of my old teammates reminded me today that this is the 4th year of Midwest Throwdown. I still remember that first year as if it were yesterday… In many ways, I feel like that tournament defined me as an organizer. We lost our primary field site partway through Saturday as melting snow made the fields unplayable. Our backup field site suffered the same fate, and we were forced to move to our backup backup fields. That night, Balls, Becca and I went to Starbucks to report scores and rework the format for the 3 fields that our backup backup site could accommodate. Then we got a phone call from the Rec Sports Director telling us that they had double booked the fields with soccer tryouts and that we were going to lose 2 of the fields for a good chunk of the day. I don’t know how, but we somehow managed to rearrange the schedule to get games in on Sunday. I distinctly remember calling Court and telling her that Bella would have to play a 6:45 AM game, and her being incredibly gracious about it. And when we walked out of the Starbucks late that night, it started snowing… things really couldn’t have gotten worse. Except they did on Sunday when my team lost in Quarters in a truly embarrassing game and later that day, the coach of an unnamed team lit into me and had to be held back by the captain of his own team. One of my first interactions with Tasha was immediately after that. I stood there crying, trying to explain to her that they would have two byes in a row because their scheduled opponent had left the tournament. I remember her telling me that they’d stick around as long as needed to play whomever, and just being thankful for her kindness about the inconvenient situation.
There will certainly be circumstances in the future that necessitate that a tournament be canceled, but I think that organizing experience helped me to develop a refusal to fail. It instilled this (perhaps irrational) fear that anything can go wrong at any time and taught me to think through all of those possibilities and game plan for them… not because I want to run amazing events (which I do), but because above all, I don’t want to disappoint my friends who attend these events.
Throwdown has taught me a lot about myself over the past few years, both as an organizer and as a person. Working with Wash U has been an incredible experience, as they have gone from being my regional rivals to some of my dearest friends. Their investment in the college women’s ultimate community is admirable and it’s been so much fun watching them take ownership of the tournament and really strive to grow it, both in size and competitiveness. I feel blessed to have been part of that process and to have such loyal friends who support everything I do. Thank you Abby, Sam, Sarah, Naomi, and WUWU. This tournament has a special place in my heart, and I’m looking forward to v. 4.0.
