when i look back on my inaguaral club season, one conversation comes to mind that seemed to repeat itself whether it was with kelly and sara, in my mind, or with whomever else. if you had told me two years ago, or even last year, that i’d be playing with phoenix this season i would’ve laughed and told you you were crazy. verbatim, crazy.
tryouts were a week after nationals, the quarters game was still playing through my head. i decided in colorado that i would tryout, i wanted to get out of quarters at nationals, i wanted to do it with seaweed and it just so happened kelly and sara were movin on down to carrboro and had an air mattress* i could sleep on. i missed the saturday to try and will my spring league team to tournament victory, we lost in quarters (im cursed!) so i settled for drinkin beers with old dudes and spectating. after scrimmaging for the most part on sunday, i opened my phone that night to a message saying “skeet/skeet”. and the road to getting out of quarters began! fast forward to terminus, tournament win, fast forward to WCC, loss in finals (dropped first pass/threw away another for the loss…i forgot how it was being a rookie) onto Labor Day.
I started the tourny by missing my flight. i was 2/2 in that category on the season so there’s really nowhere to go but up. seriously, a flight at 5:20 am is ludAcris. we get to sunny cal and tool around highway 1, stopping to see the big waves you hear about from storybooks and they didnt disappoint. onto the next morning, we had later rounds and luckily the place we were staying had blue crush on dvd, maybe even vhs. we made a drinking game out of michelle gonzalez’s character. drink anytime she cops a tude. drinking water, we got hydrated for the day to come. up first was…nemesis? this was my first club tournament playing an elite club team other than ozone. we had history with them from last natties, it was a game everyone was anxious about, whether you knew who they were or not. it was a little windy and we traded points for the most part but they came away in the end, next was…schwa? we won, after that was…undergroud? we won that, but not without a fight. i dont remember saturday very well, so this all could be wrong. Sunday, i do remember sunday. We played fury, slackjaw first or showdown i think, but we did play fury. It’s always interesting to go into a game without knowing anything about your opponent (except that they’re good, really good). There are obvious disadvantages, but there is also an advantage. you dont have anything to lose and you dont have any perconceived expectations. no one accross that line knows anything about you, thats the best situation you can be in if you take advantage of it. for me, that’s how labor day went, nothing to lose and no expectations to have to live up to. all this plus a couple cans of coca cola made for a great tournament, we ended up losing to molly brown in the 3/4 consolation game on universe. ouch. we wanted that one back bad. prom night, tequila shots, the warf, sallys fishwhich, SFO seeya cali!
onto fusion, probably the most peaks/valleys tournament for me personally. ever. i dont know what it was but i was either on or off and when i was off it was uGly. BUT we ended up 6-2? (loss to riot who forfeit their games or something so they were out of finals contention, loss to nemesis who we’ve yet to defeat). played MBT in pool play, won by a small margin, met up again in finals, our D line was on like we hadn’t seen yet. win 15-7, onto dos equis and NC meets wisco meets blackout** skipping sectionals to save space, win slim against sweet t swingin. onto regionals, hot metal game one at least 4 turns in the first 2 points from ME. ew ick ah that feeling is the worst, snap out of it. fast forward to finals: scandal, they break and roll, we answer back. they control the pace until too late in the second half. we made a run but it wasnt enough. 1st regional final loss (that is to say, on an established and organized team) bitter sweet. regionals is my favorite tournament, the best games ive ever been apart of have been regional finals or games to go, there really is nothing to lose at that point. nationals or god knows what.*** we make it, were going to sarasota. practice, chemistry now more than ever.
three weeks, four weeks? somethin. sarasota is here and alan owed me money. on the way to the airport, already running a tad bit late, we stop by dicks to settle our debts. run in and grab some soccer pants YES! run out. run in to ILM, check in closed, run to security to catch the flight, ugh laptop, shoes off shoes on, boardings over, seats taken…next flight is out in an hour. it worked out kind of nice, i got to see mako and chit chat with her over a sandwich. stmlb, ya know. perfect. team meetings and a good night sleep later we’re on field 30 warming up getting ready for revoLOUtion. knowing girls on this team from college, the midwest is a pretty relentless place to play ultimate, it seems. they have heart and play hard, which is always dangerous for teams who overlook them: leading to a few upsets that weekend, nice. next is ozone, what a game. very offensively dicatated on both sides, we fight and fight and fight until its 16’s and theres a universe line on. one broken mark after another and they work it 70 seemingly effortlessly. bad taste. 17-16 ozone. next is riot, 15-8 maybe. 1`-2 on the day and thanks to some revlove we get the 2nd spot in the pool. friday is fury then brute. i had the disc on the goal line to break for 7s and throw it away and they go 70 for half, i still want that one back. they control the game from there and we face brute next. out of the block kelly gets a layout d on the first couple of throws. there’s our momentum, finally. that play carried on into quarters, kelly kept it up with a sweet off man d. in the four seasons ive played with her i’d never seen her play so well. and this girl is my idol, she’s the reason i play ultimate and the reason i can play on a competitive team. ive seen her make huge plays. but these were…huger(yeah sorry). anyway, we take half 8-3 and contrary to our previous second half out-of-the-gate perfromances, we maintained that lead. until 10-6, then it became an unforgettable game. so much drama packed into a 2 hour period. 14’s. 16-14 (i think) BOOM! out of quarters for 3 seaweed (with one spectating).
semis vs. riot, we have em at 6’s, they break for 6-8 half and take it from there. ive never been so happy after a loss, it wasnt the fact that we lost, but that we were there, in semis, right were we wanted to be. there was no disappointment, finally. onto car bombs at mr bigs, 4 nonblondes singalong, lots of phlove and the daquiri deck. the rest is blurry and filled with headaches and hangovers.
onto the college season, my last hurrah…maybe
the next one wont be as long, unless i write it next april. seeya
*no longer in commission, i blame killdares and jenny koll
**that may only have been me but i will lump sum everyone, we were all AT LEAST train wrecks with the exception of sara, bless her heart.
