Late as usual. I know you’ve all come to expect it.
These last few weeks have been hell and will continue to be hell until May 10th. After that, it’ll be 5 days of goofing off with my roommate (whom I’ve lived with since freshman year) and just about anyone else that’s around before graduation. But just before giving a presentation on nucleosynthesis (yeahhhhh…..), Dr. Tinsley went ahead and told me that this blog showed up on his Google alerts…which reminded me that I needed to post at least once, if not twice, before the semester is over (and of course, led me to turn bright pink at the idea of someone I actually know reading this blog). I also received a reminder from one of the guys on the team about how I needed to update (wait, guys on the team read this blog…? They know it exists!?!?!). So this post goes out to you, Fully.
The College Conference Recap:
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this tournament. It’s always been the one tournament that we build up towards, and it’s always the one at which we seem to do our best at in comparison to everything else we’ve done during the year. Won’t lie, though –I don’t think I could have said that for this tournament. Maybe it was because the weather kind of sucked for a while. Or that we were in Kansas (wtf). Or because we were in a DI division conference instead of a DIII conference and were against teams that had years of development under their belts in comparison to our team. I hate saying this, but regardless of all the possible reasons, we just did not play our best. And for this being my last tournament with this team, it just, well… it just sucked. It was as if something were amiss. Things just weren’t flowing like they have been. It was like we were all at 70% instead of the usual, 100%-give-it-our-all that we’ve gotten so used to giving. I had such high hopes after MWTD. I think we all did, but it just didn’t pan out at the tournament. Yeah, I’m being Negative Nancy, but the truth’s the truth. And I’ve heard this sentiment from a lot of girls.
We lost every single game that weekend. I could say that we were never shut-out, but sadly, we were, once, to the number one seeded team in our pool.
I’m not trying to say that our team didn’t, and doesn’t, work hard. It certainly does. They’ve put up with a lot of my yelling, my sprints, my throw-downs… I’ve fussed at them so much and yet they’ve still put up with me. And they have improved so much as players and as a team (I’d count myself in this but not being able to play makes me feel like I haven’t improved at all this year). I look at girls who could hardly throw a flick, now do a huck flick down the field. I’ve seen girls who have never played frisbee before this team, play as one of our solid handlers. I’ve seen these girls bid and layout. I’ve heard communication and seen flow, when it felt like we could never do any of those things before. I don’t know what happened that weekend. It just didn’t click, and I think that’s ok. Because looking back on this season, I’ve realized that we’ve won at least one game at every single tournament other than at conference. We went from being a team that never won games, to winning a game here and there. It doesn’t seem like much, but I think it is, for us. I guess now my hopes are that this team has an even greater desire to push themselves and each other and take their play to the next level, now that they know what all they can do.
I think for me, personally, that weekend was hard. I played, popping as many prescription and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories that my liver could take, but I certainly couldn’t play my best. I felt disconnect from the team, having to do my own set of stretches and warm-ups in hopes of being able to play. It was frustrating, knowing that I couldn’t run as fast or make the best cuts. It felt weird being on the field, especially on offense, as I didn’t have all the confidence I needed to make those throws. My IT band hurt, more so than it has ever hurt before. It was hard to keep my spirits up, frustrated at my body for not being efficient like it used to be.
It was hard not to cry at some points (shut up). The last point of my last game, I went out with a v-line. It seemed like a really long point as I tried to stick to my girl as tightly as I could. I’ve always loved defense. That satisfaction of predicting movements, both disc and player, and of getting the D. Finally, she scored on me, and I could see it happening before it even did. The pass was made and I couldn’t move that leg any faster. Went for the layout D, only to flop on the ground, my band in the most pain I had felt all weekend, my face in the grass. I stayed there for a while as it sunk in that my last point was over, and I had given it up. Well, shit. Two of my teammates came over as I started to sob (seriously, shut up). To think I gave up my last game point, all because of a stupid injury. I HATE being scored against.
If there’s one thing that I noticed about the team that weekend, it was the positivity. They kept each other’s spirits up, and always maintained an active sideline. Those things may seem so trivial, but they’re key to building the foundations of a team. And we finally have that!
Tonight is Nebo, the annual end-of-the-year party. I get to had out awards to all my little babies. Throw a disc of a cliff. Watch a slideshow. Dance on an ottoman. Expect one more post, and then this season, and my job, will be officially over.