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.