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.