Another Season, Another Club Team

This my 8th season playing club ultimate ushers in yet another club team to add to my resume: The Van Buren Boys. Not once have I played consecutive seasons for the same club team. I did play for Moe in 2003 and 2006, and it remains as the only team with which I have played 2 seasons.

Year 0: U of M B team
I had been on the team for literally 6 days when I played at UPA Club Sectionals for the first time. This is year 0 because I literally had no idea the context in which I was playing. I was simply told I could play in a tournament that weekend if I paid something like $35. I didn't know where the money was going, I just knew I wanted to get into shape again and compete for something. Jason Curtis was our fearless captain and Dave Perry screamed at me a lot in the games about all the things I was doing wrong. It didn't matter to him that we were a B team and I had only been playing for 6 days. It reminds me that last summer in TCUL, Dave Perry melted down in a game so badly and for such an absurd reason, that both my and his team asked him to leave. That's the only time I've ever seen someone's own team ask that someone to leave midgame.

Year 1: Zero
At this point in my career, Minnesota such a riff raff organization and ultimate was so much younger than it is today that I wasn't even really aware of the difference between some independent tournament that Gustavus would host and the UPA Series. Ultimate was ultimate to me. The leaders of our team didn't really explain the context of our competitions as it related to our team goals. I don't know if we even had team goals then. In any case, a few of our resident team leaders put together a club team that would come to be known as Zero -- because, as they explained it, we were to be better than Sub Zero. I had no idea who or what Sub Zero was. Oh yes, and we were a Mixed team. I honestly cannot remember how we finished that year or who we played. My complete lack of comprehension of our competitive context is probably to blame. Nonetheless, I'm relatively sure that had we played Sub Zero, they would have beaten us.

Year 2: Yellow Number 5
A handful of mostly U of M boys. I was duped on to this team, being told I would be something like the 12th man. Well, for 1 of the tournaments, I was the 7th. We picked up a couple Quebequians that stalled in French at FUCT. I also broke my rib (the first time) in a summer league game this year, then reinjured it 2 more times by coming back too early. That year in TCUL, I had the worst loss of my ultimate career, having been ahead 14-7, and losing 17-15. Club wise, I think I actually played the series with the Minnesota college team and I have no idea how we did. I still was a little unaware of what "club" ultimate was all about.

Year 3: Hot Action/XXY
In what would become maybe the second biggest mistake of my ultimate career, I ended up making the cut on Hot Action, only to quit a few days later because I wasn't having any fun on the team. As a matter of fact, I was miserable. I ended up joining Paul Norgaard's Mixed team, XXY, with aspirations of qualifying for Nationals. Well, of course, Hot Action went on to qualify, and we didn't even make it to a game-to-go. The team was, however, the germinating seed of what would become the Nationals qualifying Flaming Moe team, with Wade, Vu, Rita, Paul, Rachel, and me. The SJU/SBU portion of the group really helped catapult the team into contention, not only by themselves being awesome, but by helping to recruit the excellent talent that seems to come from there.

Year 4: Flaming Moe
This season was the first crossroads of my career. So much stuff happened.

I'm told that I was the last to make Flaming Moe this year (2003) and that the captains vehemently disagreed on whether to take me. This season was also the closest I ever came to making Sub Zero. I made it to the last cut, but as was revealed to me, it basically came down to me or a still wet-behind-the-ears Dan "Q-tip" Miller. At the time, I felt disappointed. I was surprised, too, especially since some of the friends that I did have the team felt I was going to make it. But in retrospect, I'd have taken Dan over me, too. It certainly paid off for Sub Zero and I'm sure Wisconsin wouldn't complain, either. I still can't help wondering what would have been different for me had I made the team. As it was, I learned more about handling in just those tryouts than cumulatively in the rest of my career (somewhat because, before the tryouts, I hadn't done much handling at all). Looking back, I find it very telling that I very nearly made Sub Zero, but I also very nearly got cut from Flaming Moe.

Around the same time as tryouts, Minnesota asked me to captain the team in 2004. I accepted.

By the end of the Moe season, I was on starting line and playing all the key points. My best memory of the team is probably making the upwind layout catch on the first point of the Sectional finals against Hot Action, then getting a celebration injury when the team rushed the field toward me. Wade, who had thrown the break throw to me, raced into me and drilled his shoulder into my jaw. It hurt for about 3 weeks, but regardless, that moment was one of the most exciting of my career.

At Regionals, we lost just two games, both 11-10, one in pool play and one in the back door bracket semi. In the back door bracket, we were up 10-7, too. Had we called a time out, killed some clock, we'd have won 10-9. It begs the question, is killing the clock with a time out a noble way to win a game in ultimate? I say when your season on the line, when months of hard work can be punctuated so bitterly and so disappointingly, who gives a shit about nobility. Just win.

In the end, Moe took 7th at Regionals, having lost just those 2 games. It sparked a small debate on RSD that enlightened me and infuriated a couple Moes.

It seemed like the season for me was littered with moments like the ones in the Woody Allen film Match Point. The tennis ball hits the tape, bounces up, and can come down on one side or the other. One side, good fortune. The other, perhaps defeat. Is it better to be lucky or good? Or, perhaps in my case, would it have been better to have sucked than to be unlucky?

I have a feeling some anonymous commenter will say that the events of my season weren't because I was unlucky. Seriously Kev, just log in and make those comments. I know it's you.

Years 5-8 (FOE, Ding Wop, Flaming Moe, Van Buren Boys) yet to be detailed . . .