Cake, Death, or Defeat

I put some thought into some way we (Cake or Death) could have been considered the winner of the indoor tournament last Saturday so I could title this post "Cake or Death Wins Come Inside Where It's Warm!" but I couldn't think of anything even remotely feasible, given that we exited in the semifinals by virtue of a loss to the team that lost in the finals. Instead, I'll give credit where credit is due: to St. Johns University.

I'll bet you didn't see that one coming.

SJU is a bit of an enigma. Somehow they produce solid talent year after year despite having a team that is hardly competitive. Wade, Schwa, Dave Klink, and Moss are the players that immediately come to mind. There are others, but those are the standouts. Two of them even made Sub Zero (though both declined the opportunity). Only 5 players from the U of MN have made Sub Zero (though 2 of them are not the same caliber players as the other 3). The difference? If I'm not mistaken, SJU has never made the top 10 at Regionals, whereas the U of MN hasn't missed the top 9 since I started playing in 1999. Additionally, my Hopkins High School boys effectively tied SJU last weekend with an 8 man rotation that did not include one of our captains.

Seiler made the same observation about Iowa State, but I don't think that it's equivalent. Iowa State is WAY better than SJU and has a much more impressive history. That said, Iowa State sure does produce some high caliber ultimate players. Rachel Derscheid and Lana come to mind. Hmm. That's all I can think of right now.

All that said, I was joking. SJU doesn't deserve any credit. It wouldn't surprise me if an Iowa State women's alumni team beat the current SJU team. Seriously. Why all the bitterness toward SJU? I'm just a little irked over some calls the SJU team made against my Hopkins boys and the overall poor spiritedness of that game. I was really proud of my boys for the way they handled it, though. Way better than the way their coach did.

The finals was interesting. Seemed like everyone in the field house was rooting for the Small Packages. Big cheers for SP scores, only cheers from their own team when Anna Nicole (Sub Zero) scored. Maybe it was due to the somewhat insensitive name of their team. Even if she was a bit of a mockery in her time on this planet, was it appropriate? Even if it was appropriate, was it funny? I dunno, who's to say their motives weren't innocent and it was actually a tribute to her legacy. It was still weird that there wasn't anyone cheering for Anna Nicole. Someone had mentioned that the Anna Nicole team was made up of a bunch of jerks, but that just wasn't the case. Pat, Naz, Truesdale, Schmellzlzlzly, KG, etc. are all some of the nicest guys around. If it were about personality, it must have been the Todd Owens effect, who, by the way, will have a dedicated post in this blog at some point.

In any case, the out of towners seemed to have home field advantage with the crowd on their side. Down to a 6 man rotation, they were really only behind during 3 points of the game. Two of those were at the end of the game, though, and the crowd did not see their heroes successfully defend their championship. There was some speculation afterward about the Joe Brisbois impact. I don't think there's any arguing that he alone can make up for 2 points.

How did I do? In the games where I was trying, I did well. Zero turns and a few good D's -- including a nice deep D where I made up a lot of ground against a Karsten backhand huck. In the games where I was goofing around, I had 4 turns and got served in the air 3 times by high schoolers. My backhand huck flew solidly. The forehand just sucks.

There aren't any more indoor tournaments for me to play this year. Thank goodness. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to officially retire from indoor tournaments. Until December.

SMRT Wins Minneapolis Winter Mixer!

I dedicate this post specifically to 3 world class ultimate players and worlder class people. Wait, did I say that right? Anyway, this one goes out to Dave "that water spill was Lou's fault" Karsten, Shawn "I downloaded Screech's sex tape" Walding, and Kevin "I blog more frequently than Joe's Brother" Seiler (the player, not the indoor coed team with the same name). It is expressly not dedicated to David "I like to play with my Wii" Bequette.

Moe (doing busiiness as SMRT) once again proved its pool play supremacy by defeating all of its pre-bracket opponents at the indoor Winter Mixer at the Midtown Y in Minneapolis this past weekend, including the game against the Seilerless, Brisboisless, Lunless, indoor version of CLX. By securing the top seed in its pool, SMRT also secured an easy path to the finals, having to go through only CSBSJU to reach the championship. It also set up an exciting CLX+randoms vs. CLX+ringers semis matchup. As last year's results might have predicted, the team with the Open division superstars fell to the coed cohesiveness in thrilling fashion (a one point victory), setting up a rematch of SMRT against the previously mentioned CLX squad. I was one of the exactly 3 men who said they would continue playing for SMRT. The 1 woman who had never played before didn't want to play on, leaving us with just 2.

Playing savage, we won the flip and received. We proposed a game to 1, but that proposal was evidently rejected because we scored first and were handed no trophy at that point. Next, they scored, then we did. Up 2-1, Becky changed his mind about playing and jumped in. CLX scores. Then, someone on the sideline blows the horn. I'm not sure who, so I'd say it was officially unofficial. Universe point, Becky still in, we get broken and CLX goes up 3-2 (Becky +/-: -2 in 2 points played). The SMRT men return to the line. Meanwhile, the SMRT women are taking off their shoes and CLX is crowning themselves champions. We insisted we wanted to play without our women, 5 on 3, but CLX refused and declared victory, citing the officially unofficial horn blow as the end of the game. But you know what I call refusal to play? Yup! Forfeit! Hence, the title of this post.

Something tells me not even my mom would side with me on that one.

Oh well, I had a really good tournament -- especially for someone who was ready to retire from indoor ultimate a year ago. All day, I had one turnover on a huck that went a little long and bendy. In the 2 CLX games, I had 2 pretty good D's (one in the air against Russ Barr and one clever poach D), 1 other not so impressive D, and was involved in the scoring on 4 of our 11 points (including catching a deflected disc in the endzone where I let the girl D it because I thought she was my teammate Gizmo catching the goal).

The verdict? Indoor still hurts. My knees especially. I rested my knees for 12 weeks after the end of the outdoor season hoping that I could walk up and down stairs without pain. The respite worked. I was pain free. But after just one indoor stint at the end of December, my knees were sore again. It always amazes how I can be playing, sprinting, lunging, and generally killing my joints and feel no pain, but just walking two days later can sometimes be a chore.

So for now, it appears there are 3 ways for me to deal with knee soreness:

1) Rest (Ice, Compress, Elevate)
2) Play Ultimate
3) Ibuprofin

One of those options is really good for my joints (#1). Too bad I'm most diligent about the other 2.