Vegas

I wondered if playing an ultimate tournament would change my sleeping habits.

They didn't.

I wondered if I'd be able to leave the 5/10 table at the Bellagio poker room in time to make it to the game on Saturday morning.

I was! But only with enough time to get an hour of sleep.

I wondered what it would cost to have a stripper meet me in a field at 10:00 on a Saturday morning wearing a cheerleading outfit.

Too much.

Saturday, despite being out of shape, having had just one hour of sleep in an uncomfortable chair, having had no breakfast or lunch, and having been dehydrated, I performed better than any day than I played wearing a Van Buren Boys jersey. That fact no doubt reaffirms the Becky/Lou conspiracy, which I'll expand upon in a future post.

Sunday, I had another good day, not as good as the first, but still good.

I had a deep D, one on one, on Hector. I was on the force side, not guarding him, and a huck went off and I tracked it down, muscled for position, and knocked it out of the air with my left hand. I also D'd up Chicken with a half layout on an upline cut to the break side. "Oh, nice D," he said. I did not expect to hear him say that. Especially after receiving a "I don't think so" and a chuckle when I proposed a VBB/Bravo jersey trade to him back in October.

I got scored on twice on the weekend, both were really nice hucks that needed the back line to be toed by the receiver. No thrown goals allowed.

I also had as many point blocks this tourney as I had all season with VBB: two. One was after one of my two turnovers (a bad OI 30 yard throw) on the weekend. The other was against the Colorado squad on game point.

My other turn was into a really good poach by Pokey. And by really good poach, I mean really bad clear by a receiver on the break side. Pokey still made a nice one handed catch D.

I also had 0 drops and 1, maybe 2, nice grabs. 3 thrown goals, 2 received.

Red Bullsworth made the best play I've seen him make yet, with a nice layout, belly flop, painful-looking grab on the break side. It topped his previous best play of eating 4 pounds of lobster by a small margin.

Also, you may have heard that the Monte Carlo went ablaze on Friday. A teammate exchanged these texts with Ells:

Oosh: The monte carlo is on fire dude!
Ells: Literally or figuratively?
Oosh: It's burnin up man!

Thanks, that really cleared things up. When we saw the smoke billowage ourselves, it was finally clear that Oosh hadn't been talking about the dance floor.

On my favorite topic (stupid misunderstandings of the rules), one player called violation this weekend for the apocryphal rule about not being able to speed up your pace as your walking the disc up to the goal line (Rule X.A.). I hate this misconception, but it's one of the biggest. Please, if you're reading this, tell 5 ultimate players that this is not a rule and ask them to tell 5 players as well.

After the point, I was talking with the guy about it:

DB: I'm pretty sure it's a rule.
Lou: It's not. I'm not pretty sure, I'm sure.
DB: Well, I'm pretty sure.
Lou: That's not sure enough to make a call on the field.
DB: It doesn't matter, I guess, because I just fouled the guy anyway to stop him from making any play ... so it's a wash either way.
Lou: You do realize that fouling intentionally is against the rules?
DB: Yes. So?

Ugh. I just walked away at that point.

In one other interesting moment, the Colorado guys hid one of their defenders on the sideline after pulling, making our team believe there was a receiver wide open in the endzone. Upon the huck, the defender easily jogged out to D the disc. That's just dirty.

I like it.

Vegas in Trouble

Now that Papagiorgio is officially going to the club tournament in Vegas this weekend, they have renamed it Vegas in Trouble.

Updates to the logo are forthcoming.

We're having a party at the 4000 square foot mansion we rented. Pools, ultimate players, Ellsworth, Nickels, Vegas. Debauchery guaranteed.

The cultimate guys are staying with us, which is gunna be a blast.

This will be my first real PT since winning Club Nationals. The knees are really no better than they were all season. I've tried doctors, medication, and physical therapy. I'd try prayer, but I've heard it requires kneeling, which seems counterproductive.

I've never gotten a single good night's sleep in while in Vegas. I wonder if playing a tourney will change that. I wonder if I'll be able to leave the 5/10 table at the Bellagio poker room in time to make it to the game on Saturday morning. I wonder what it would cost to have a stripper meet me in a field at 10:00 on a Saturday morning wearing a cheerleading outfit.

Van Buren Boys Win the UPA Club Championship!

Admittedly, I don't know much about ultimate or how tournaments work, but what I do know is that it's just like my mom always used to say: it's not whether you win or lose, it's how good your timing is when you win.

Dave says "Plan sounds good Kev, I'm in!"

The Van Buren Boys, of course, reinforced this principle in early September by losing 5 games and winning just 2 to finish higher than our initial seed at CHC. I don't think it needs to be said that we planned our entire season around this principle. The ultimate community at large is undoubtedly aware of Kevin's recruiting platform: We're going to put the least amount of required effort, time, and wins into naming the team, designing jerseys, and qualifying for Nationals, but we're going to get it done. Truth be told, most of us were stunned to read Kev's email about practices being scheduled in June and promptly put an end to that kind of thinking by not showing up. After that, we were back to our minimalist approach toward qualifying for Nationals.

Initially, the plan was to win 0 games and qualify, but teams like Zebra Muscles, Mephisto, and Hustle no doubt had heard of our plan, adopted it, and were just simply executing it better than we were early in the season. Plus, the VBB braintrust had been unable to find a 0 wins path to Nationals that didn't include mass disqualifications and they had foolishly put the only guy capable of disqualifying his own team on our roster. Regardless, had a scheme like that been attempted, the UPA evidently no longer disqualifies the entire team for playing an ineligible player in the series, just the captain, and the plan would have failed miserably.

Next step, try to concoct a scheme to win just 1 game at Regionals and qualify. And it nearly worked! The UPA helped out tremendously with this plan by announcing that Regionals would be held in a state that only 8 people have heard of. It was conceivable that all but 1 or 2 other teams would either get lost trying to get there or just stay home. Sadly, 13 other teams showed up and it was time for plan C.

Heading into Regionals, we were 0 for 12 against teams ranked 39th or higher. We knew there were 2 ways we could win just 2 games against similarly ranked teams and get to the big show. One was to beat Machine in pool play and then win in semis, but since we were relatively sure Machine would qualify and that beating them would be, let's face it, hard, we decided on beating top 39 teams on just Sunday. So that's what we did. And our season was unofficially a success.

But we still had 7 games yet to lose.

Photographic evidence of our Championship

Which brings me to the title of this post . . . we won Nationals! Don't ask me how or why, I'm not a great tournament-format mind, but immediately after the last game on Sunday, they clearly announced our name over the loudspeaker, promptly handed us a trophy, and crowned the Van Buren Boys champions, despite losing every single game of the tournament.

No wonder nobody takes this sport seriously.

I'll end the suspense.

CHC was rough. Two wins, five losses and yet we beat our seed. That's winning at the right times.

Tensions were high in the Sub Zero game. At least on their side. I think it was even more unnerving for them to hear that we were at times laughing when they were yelling. Their first goal was close to a clap spike type of catch and arguments ensued. At one point, as a result of a foolish call by one of our players that was to our DISadvantage, one handler of theirs announced loudly to the sidelines his deliberate intent to cheat in retaliation. And of course, Shane did what Shane does best. If you can't beat 'em, injure 'em. We lost by 2, the same amount of drops we had in the endzone.

We were up 8-5 on Frontline, when they caught fire and took 10 of the next 12 points. Winning the first half doesn't seem to bode well for the Van Buren Boys.

I had 3 Ds, 2 goals thrown, 1 received, and 3 throwing turns. I D'd up Truesdale near the goal on a huck and we collided, which took me out for the tourney (though I did play one more point in the game). I couldn't walk without a limp for a week and, 3+ weeks later, the bruise on my thigh is still visible. That's probably the second worst collision I've had in ultimate. I don't think Dave even fell over.

A lackluster Sectionals was filled with a lot of off-the-field fun. The Volley Ball Boys made a Saturday appearance. Saturday night: fires, arrests, an impeccable impersonation of my walk, and super dogs. What else is there?

I had 3 Ds, and 9 goals (7 thrown, 2 received). I think only Wes outscored me (in one game, he had 4 goals received in 5 points played). I had a goal in every game but one. I was perfect on throws until the 7th game. Then I lost focus for a minute and had 2 in one point. On the first, my cutter was wide open and going to the endzone, but stopped his cut right as I threw. Bummer. The second was a backhand huck to the leader of the Wolfpack that the wind pushed out of bounds. And in the finals, I had another throw to him that would have been a goal, but Kevin got a really sweet D on it.

Regionals upcoming and although I'm not conveying it well in this post, I'm ridiculously excited. I've never been so excited for a tournament. Ever. The team excitement level, too, is off the charts. We've got a steep hill to climb, but as the video below proves, nothing is impossible. Plano East is down 41-17, with 3 minutes to go. Be sure to watch it through to the very end.

Droppier by the Lake

After Cooler, it appears the Van Buren Boys have two options:

1. Cross our fingers and hope it doesn't rain at Regionals
2. Cross our fingers and hope it rains at CHC, Sectionals, practice, and Regionals

I'm hoping for option 1.

Writing this now, I'm fearing that I'll run out of synonyms for the word "drop." As a sign of things to come, we dropped a pass on the first point of the tournament and continued to fumble with regularity throughout the weekend. As a team, I've noticed we fail to catch easy passes with higher frequency than our opponents, but this past weekend, we did it (to borrow an expression from my mom) like it was going out of style.

So ... why? I have many many thoughts on the matter, but with the growing number of Sub Zero, Machine, and BAT "spies" eying this blog, that information will present itself in a less public forum.

I can't believe I'm censoring my blog, but it's got me thinking that we'll probably only ever see any seriously relevant information trickling down from the Sockeyes and Furiouses of the ultimate world 5 years after it's obsolete.

In addition to the rising stock in Dropsie Corp. (copyright K. Seiler), we had other weaknesses that were exacerbated in the rain, but our defense remained very strong. No doubt, we were the strongest defensive team in Delafield. Hmm, maybe that's presumptuous given that I didn't get to watch Kablammo en route to their Mixed B Division Championship. Regardless, no team outplayed us on defense. I fully expect that trend to continue.

Personally, I played OK. The line: 5 turns, 6 thrown goals, 2 received goals, and (ugh) 0 defenses. The lowlight is that I had 66% of the team's total turnovers early on. My turns:

• Backhand to BJ that did not bounce because I was throwing downwind (stupidity)
• Backhand to Man Crush that did not bounce for same reasons (extreme stupidity)
• Forehand huck that went sideways and directly into the crowd (wet disc, weak grip)
• Backhand huck that floated forever (could have done without the hitting myself on the back swing)
• Backhand huck that got footblocked loudly and theatrically
  

On the positive end, I laid out on O once on an upline cut and caught the disc left-handed (something I'm not all that good at). Again, 0 drops. I shut down a TON of dumps, at least half, maybe as much as 2/3. I never got scored on and the guy I was marking never threw a goal. In the Machine game, my guy only touched the disc once, but it got sent back because he wouldn't admit the disc hit the ground before he caught it.

Awards list:

• Biggest Ho award: Mike Lun, for his inspirational lay out callahan in the Madison game that should have pumped us up enough to make a comeback win.
• Boob award: Becky, for his extraordinary leaving of Milwaukee with all of Gibbs's stuff and most of Smellsworth's stuff.
• Biggest Saver award: Lou, for his outstanding receipt of a "one free chain with purchase of chainsaw" coupon.
• Doege award: Karl Doege, for his notable performance in persistence despite being told "save it for the 18 year olds" and "don't you ever fucking do that to me again" at the bar.
• Lead Foot award: Smellsworth, for his unbelievable speeding down of a hucked disc that looked like he didn't have a chance to D, but did. (Honorable mention: Lou, for getting pulled over by a sheriff after being clocked at 47 in a 25).
• Sport Bean award: Joe Nickels, for his outstanding efforts in defense and exemplary usage of electrolytes.

I have more to say, but this has been in draft format since August 17. It's time to post.

Nice Try

The artist and player formerly known as The Baron already wrote a masterful summary of the Van Buren Boys experience at MUDI. I know all of you are dying for more, so here we go.

First, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how I wish this tournament's name hadn't changed to MUDI. Every time I say or hear it, I think of the "I say tomato" song: "I say Muddy. You say Moody." I know it can't be Aquatennial anymore, but I just wish Greggae would have found some loophole and named it something like Aqua Ten Event Loophole (a.k.a. Aqua Ten E.L.).

My fingers can hardly keep up with all my thoughts of the good things about this weekend. Again, just a solid, all around, fun-having weekend.

Friday night, Amesians and Kansians arrived at my house for dinner. I never use canned sauces for my pasta anymore and I think it surprised a lot of people to see me making a homemade sauce. That pleased me. As did hearing that people liked it. I immensely enjoy cooking for people. Making the mini pizzas at Nationals was one of the coolest parts of the trip for me last year. Anyway, we ate, then others showed up and we took a walk down the street for pool, darts, NBA Jam, Buck Hunter, Karaoke, and Gibbler's strip tease.

We met our expectations of Saturday victories, going 4 for 4. We had the perfect game, no goals scored on us, 0 turns. TBA and Ding Wop both gave us a little more than we thought they had. And then the St. Cloud young team scored one on us ... er, okay okay, scored one on me.

On the day, I had 4 D's, though Becknasty kindly pointed out that one of them kind of came right to me. I got scored on once, the only goal in our 13-1 win. I threw 5 goals and caught 1. Zero turnovers.

Saturday night, I saw Rosco's place for the first time. What a cool house! For a while, we sat in front of a campfire listening to fireworks (note: not as cool as watching them). I regaled teammates with stories of the Tranny Patrol, my old magic days, and shared an exact figure of how much I lost on those two hands of poker while we counted out chip stacks. Kevin killed me at poker with his notably disciplined hand selection. Wimer then buried our team early in a game of spades with some extravagant bidding so Kevin got to win .... again.

Sunday morning, my man crush and I drove out to the fields on our way to face Goose Egg. I said to him, "we better be careful with them, they can beat us if we don't take it seriously." Sure enough, they go up on us 5-2, then 6-3. We fight our way back to 11-11 and Kev calls some big lines to lead us to the win. I had 0 D's in this game, a few shut downs on the dump, and allowed one thrown goal by J-Rod. Again, 0 turns.

And now for the get-to-know-ya portion of my blog:

• If you weren't there for it at Rosco's, I revealed to everyone that in high school, I performed magic for cub scouts, third grade classes, and the like. When challenged about the authenticity of my story, I proceeded to fail at a few flourishes with a plastic deck. Once I got my hands on a Bicycle deck, however, I was truly, extraordinarily, amazingly impressive with my 4 types of one handed cuts and 0 magic tricks demonstrated.
  

Madison was next. Maybe they were fatigued from their one point win against Climax, but they put up no fight at all. I got 0 D's. Twice, though, I poached well that resulted in a wild throw for a turnover. I also turned it over for the first time in this game. Then again the next point I played. I made a really poor decision on the first one on a swing to Rob and on the second, I tried to hurry it into Joe's hands in the endzone, only to overthrow him by about 3 field lengths.

And then, the long-awaited Sub Zero game. I'd never played in front of such a large crowd before. Ding Wop played Sub Zero in the sectional final in 05, but the crowd size was not as large or as interested. I think players in the region had been anticipating this game as much as we had. One, they wanted to see if Van Buren is for real, and two, they apparently wanted to see Sub Zero lose, quite reminiscent of Come Inside Where It's Warm.

We pull. Two throws later, Jimmy's huge block of Todd Owen's huck attempt can be heard from fields away and is echoed with a thunderous roar from the crowd. We pick up, and a few throws later, we're in the endzone with an upwind break on the first point. Again, the crowd is roaring.

We pull. Same line for us, but this time, Zero methodically works it up the field and scores on an upline cut. The crowd is deafeningly silent. Even though we had talked about it in the huddle about how there were a lot of people wanting to see us win, it wasn't until Sub Zero scored that it became obvious just how lopsidedly the support favored VBB.

Up 7-6 and receiving with the wind at our backs, fatigue had set in. Sub breaks us twice to take half and to return to serve. And the remainder of the game was much of the same. They go on an 8-2 run to win 13-9. Their depth dominated us. As it probably should have; they had a larger roster and have had just a few more practices than us.

Some highlights from the game:

• Jimmy's block of Todd Owens
  
• Charlie's eruption of "it's down it's down it's down!" followed immediately by a calm "oh, okay" with a what-did-I-do look on his face when told that it was up in an equally eruptive manner
  
• Ben's hand block of Todd
• Karsten catching everything
  
• Todd's gratuitous air spike following a play in which he was not even remotely involved
  
• Ross faking the air spike, in mockery of Todd, followed by a 90 second ovation by the crowd

Personally, I didn't do a whole lot, except try really hard and shut down 3 dumps. I had a small layout catch to save a dump. I laid out 3 other times. Two were really really close ones that I thought were all mine when I saw them go up, but missed them by inches. The third was just a desperate, try-to-be-a-distraction-to-cause-a-drop attempt (the one time I got scored on). Again, 0 turns.

On the weekend, I had just 2 turns, 0 drops, 2 received goals allowed, 1 thrown goal allowed, 4 D's, 6 goals, and a bunch of "nice try's." The layout I had underneath while I was guarding Truesdale was probably my best in 2 years, only I missed the D. Regardless of the outcome, it felt amazing. In general, my body is doing great. No soreness, a little fatigue (especially since Fridays are my hardest workout day right now), but 10% of my skin is decomposing somewhere on the field with all the horse manure. After being denied a cortisone shot from the Doc last Tuesday, he gave me a different NSAID to replace the 1600 mg of ibuprofin I normally take on tournament days and my knees feel brand new. No doubt, my ability to play at a higher level than I have a long time was a result of the pain-free running. I left the fields wanting to play MORE because I hadn't driven home from ultimate in about 2 years without a throbbing right knee.

If this post bored you, replace "right knee" with the body part of your choice and comment with "nice try."

The Proactive UPA

To answer George's question regarding how can RC's (and indirectly, the UPA) be more proactive, I have a few undeveloped ideas. I think the biggest thing they can do is not only remove any financial risks assumed by the tournament directors, but also help them profit.

I think long gone are the days of players resenting other players making a buck off of ultimate -- given the service provided is of a high quality. Look no further than Rob of UltiVillage for evidence of that fact. The guy is obviously turning a profit, else he'd have given it up long ago. Either that, or he's got a sugar mama and is the hardest working volunteer in ultimate.

I have no idea how much Rob is making, nor do I care, nor has any real resentment toward the profit he's making amassed. Why? Because he's providing an extremely valued product. We players value PT, probably more than video footage, which is why I've never really heard much backlash against steep tournament fees (at least not for a couple years). Even Potlatch, the world's biggest and most expensive (from a registration fee perspective) tournament, no longer has "why is the registration fee so expensive?" on their FAQ page. I guess it's not asked very frequently anymore.

Of course, they do publish their $5k+ deficit budget, so maybe that's why no one's asking.

Regardless of the profiting, let's face it, tournament fees are the smallest of the tournament expenses for individuals. I typically spend $20+ on travel, $40+ on food, and $20+ on lodging. Yes, I've spent less than that at tournaments. At some point, every ultimate player has put 7 people and all their gear in one minivan, only to meet another car at the hotel to share one room that by Sunday morning makes you wish you were in a gas station restroom because you need relief from the odor. But now, I'm employed and prefer to sleep without feet next to my head and on a soft surface. As such, being that my club team is 14+ players, it's rare to see my share of the tournament fee more than $20.

With that in mind, after having a conversation with Greg Williams over the weekend, I know he's lost a lot of money over the years putting on tournaments. And I know he's not alone. It's a lot of work and a lot of risk. The UPA needs to assuage that risk to promote the likelihood that a TD will step up and run a good tournament AND not lose any of his or her personal money. Frankly, it's ridiculous for the UPA to ask a person to put dozens of hours into a thankless job that will also potentially leave his or her wallet hundreds of dollars lighter.

How does the UPA do that? I don't know exactly, as I've not seen every budget of every UPA tournament and I've only personally directed one tournament (it wasn't UPA sponsored). Maybe they already do this, but if the UPA were willing to assume some of the financial risk of every UPA Championship Series tournament (in exchange for capitalizing on a percentage of their profits), I'm sure individuals would be more willing to step up. The UPA Event Hosting outline doesn't explicitly address who pays and who profits.

It was not long ago that tournament fees were regularly just $100, but those were the kinds of tournaments run on "ultimate time." The transition to better run and more expensive events happened quickly. Maybe the trend needs to continue.

Bottom line, TDs need not be afraid of making more money and UPA should not only encourage them to make a buck, but help them do it (by promoting the event and supporting the TD's decision to do so). For tournaments such as Regionals, with literally 1000 players, an extra $5 per player goes a long way toward the TDs' pocketbooks, without affecting the individual player's budget. This is especially true in the Central Region this year. A centrally located regional tournament could save hundreds of individuals literally hundreds of dollars each. I know I'd gladly rather choose to personally pay a TD $200 for a tournament within driving distance, than spend $400 on a plane ticket and rental car. Now multiply that by 10 teams of 20 players each.

Is there a TD out there willing to put in a good bid in Chicago and get paid $40,000?

Tulsa spelled backwards ...

The "official" word on Central Regionals is that it will take place in Tulsa, whose state's abbreviation is ironically "okay." It will require roughly 10 hours and 33 minutes drive time for me and my Minneapolis counterparts to get to Tulsa. Taking a rough guess at the average drive time of the players on elite teams competing for spots at Nationals, I'd say it's around 12 hours. Yikes.

Alternatively, they can always spend $250+ on a plane ticket. Sorry Big Ass Truck.

Maybe it's less time or money for some of the teams not competing for a Nationals bid, but what's the drive time or price tag threshold for teams not playing to advance? How many teams who are going to win two games or less will drive 6+ hours to attend, particularly since the Regionals format tends to "eliminate" teams in fewer games?

I said it far more concisely on RSD, but a distantly located Regionals does not promote growth. It hinders it. Let's face it, some teams have a greater vested interest in Regionals. The UPA's efforts should tend to cater to those loyal, committed groups.

Timmy's point about players in the region whining needing to step up to put in a bid is valid, but becoming less legitimate by the minute. The UPA is now generating a 7 figure revenue. Granted, it's still run heavily by volunteer work. But the fact is, as ultimate (and the UPA) matures, more and more players are graduating into more administrative roles (Greg Williams, George Cooke, that one observer guy with the mustache and aviators, etc.). As a UPA member, I expect the UPA to begin leveraging these resources more effectively to improve competition. More precisely, rather than accepting the best submitted bid, they need to be more proactive to ensure excellent bids are submitted.

Here's to hoping the Ultimate Revolution puts it into action.

Boozetown Invinationals

Van Buren Boys have recorded their first victory of the season. You can stop holding your breath now.

First game, point trading to 10-10 against GOAT, cap goes on. We pull, GOAT scores the next two. We had so many drops in this game. And our non-existent offensive scheme was running like we practiced it: not at all. At 11-10, GOAT threw at least 7 passes that were high and floaty that we failed to knock down and were caught by someone other than the intended receiver. Nonetheless, they scored the upwinder. We lost. Maybe it's funny to say, but I think the game was just a few mistakes away from us winning by 5 or 6.

The second game belonged to Truck Stop. Our offense was still firing on no cylinders and we had even more drops and plenty of throw-aways. It felt like we were in reach most of this game, but it just wasn't happening. 15-11 loss.

Third, we had Zebra Muscles. Right away, we determined that they weren't capable of a good forehand huck so we slapped on a forehand force and protected the deep. Forcing a lot of throws, they'd eventually turn it. Perhaps not the greatest individual defensive effort, but good defensive scheming resulted in a historic win (the first) for the VBB. 15-2.

Play-in game to the quarters, we had HOV. These guys had a bit of a chip on their shoulder. They were losing and spiking on us. They also once picked up the bricked pull, walked about 2/3 of the way to the brick, then sprinted the last 1/3 away from the mark. We later comically did a similar thing and our team laughed while they asked us, "it's not illegal, why are you whining about it?" I guess I'm kind of glad they thought we were whining instead of what we were actually doing: namely, mocking them. We didn't take this game seriously at all (and we probably should have, because I'm sure it could have gotten out of hand), but we wound up winning 15-10 anyway.

Quarters, we got Boston. Their O line turned it 0 times. Their D line probably turned it around 5 times. 15-4. We barely put up a fight. I hope that teaches us to warm up better.

Fifth place semis, we had Mephisto. Again, we weren't really taking them all that seriously, but we managed to come up with a couple breaks early on and took half 8-6 when we started to realize how good these guys were. In fact, in the second half, their O line had 0 turns. Our O line had a few, but still managed to convert on 7 of 7 chances to win the game for us, 15-12.

Then all but 9 of our players left for the airport. Good thing we didn't make the finals! Pike wanted a game. Badly. We agreed to a game to 13. With about the junkiest zone I think we'll play all season, we forced turns early on and jumped out to a 3-1 lead. We gave back a few breaks, though, and had just a 1 point lead at half. Kev assigned me to the deep in the zone because, as he put it, if I remember correctly, I am so good in the air and so quick on fast breaks. He'll probably talk a lot about it in his blog. Anyway, we ran out of steam after being ahead 9-8, allowing a 4 point run, then rattling off a couple before losing 13-11.

My personal play roller coastered. At the first practice I attended, given the competition, I thought I was drafted way too high for our scrimmage, but my captain revealed that between a certain other blogging VBB and me, "Lou just makes sick catches, so I had to pick Lou." The thing you've got to get comfortable with on the VBB, is that everyone exaggerates a million times an hour. Well, everyone but me, I haven't exaggerated in a thousand years. But the point is, I guess I've made an early impression that I make some cool looking catches. It was really just one catch past Dave "when is Tai's next birthday" Karsten on a floaty pass to another handler. Regardless, I guess I've never felt that to be big part of my arsenal. Nevertheless, I did make a neat catch really early in the first game as a result of my poor upline cut. And yet another tournament has gone by without a drop. Last season I had 0 drops and I think the same is true of 2005, but my 2005 blog records were lost when I moved out from my old internet and into the new google, so I can't say that with 100% certainty.

My two other big streaks came to an end, though. I got handblocked in our game against GOAT and threw a callahan in our game against Boston. I can't recall the last time I got handblocked and I can't recall ever throwing a callahan. For the callahan, I made a weak attempt to stop the roll on a high pull, the disc made like an olympic vaulting gymnast and stuck the landing: Zero bounce. And zero bounce equalled zero stopping, but not before I touched the disc ever so insiginifantly. It rolled out the back and I had to take it on the back endzone line. I tapped it in and immediately threw to Mike, who was immediately cutting upline. His cut was so good in fact, that he froze his defender, who's surely blogging about the easiest callahan of his ultimate career at this very moment. I really don't understand why I'm so bad at stopping the roll sometimes. My last season in baseball, as shortstop, I had 0 errors. Good luck finding someone to help you work on that skill, Louis.

Stat wise, I didn't keep track as well as I should have. I'm pretty sure I had about 5 turns on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Except for the hucks (2 for 4, I think), I think they were all D'd up, rather than uncatchable passes to an open man.

For D, I was good and bad. I barely ever got to guard handlers and when I did get to, I did well. There were a lot of people on the team competing over who got to guard handlers, and it wasn't that important to me to fight for it. On receivers, I was doing well guarding the underneath, but I was handing out free trips to the endzone like a travel agent with an overstock of gift certificates. It got ugly. The big problem for me was that our opponents were just smarter than I'm used to. What would frequently happen is that my guy would be 30 yards from the disc and I'd be shutting him down underneath AND there was another receiver (and his defender) deeper than me. Then the deepest cutter would clear quickly underneath, someone would get open for a 15-20 yard gain underneath, have no mark for a couple seconds, and I was toast. So one second I was doing really well, but the cutters and throwers would move quickly and smoke me. I'm going to need to start anticipating that faster since it happens much much faster in Open than in Mixed. Of all the times I was scored on, though, only 2 were up wind. One was a break. The other, I had help over the top that was right there. Oh yeah, and one time in the Zebra Muscles game, my guy caught it deep off a huck, but not in the endzone and I should have peeled off to guard the receiver, but I stayed on the mark and BOOM ... footblocked the guy, my second one of the day. His team was really pissed at him for not calling a time out, but who can blame the guy when he's got 2 on 1 at the goal line. I guess I did lead the team in point blocks, so that's good. And during one point, a disc was floating up and the opponent's two tallest guys were there, as well as Joe Brisbois and I D'd it -- ahem, well, COLLEGE D'd it. It got caught after my deflection. Oh, and I guarded Kurt Gibson for a few points and he never touched the disc.

In all, the flashes of brilliance are a sign of things to come for VBB. And I personally had an amazing time about which I hope to say more in another post, since this one is about twice as long as it should be already.

Bottom line, the Van Buren Boys have now arrived, but have much work to do. You can commence holding your breath now.

Hopkins: A season in review

The Hopkins season has ended and we failed to become 3 time defending state champions. All in all, the season was a good one in which most began the season all thinking this was a "rebuilding" year. Our team was composed mainly of players who last year lost at State to Como Park in a Chumpionship bracket game. No disrespect to Como Park, but no one will argue that they are contending State Champions any time soon. Maybe I'm still mad that I didn't get a hot dog from them at the Granite City Letdown ... I mean ... Granite City Classic, which was officially the worst tournament I've ever attended.

Story time: games were to begin at 9:00. At 9:10, there was an impromptu captain's meeting in which about 75% of the important information was discussed. Then "is there a girl's schedule?" was asked. "Um ... ", a dramatic pause, "... yeah, I think so, there should be," was the response. Still, no full schedule or maps were out for the boys and the first round was to end at 10:00 because there were 9 rounds in this one day event. That's right, we had 8 games and 1 bye. We began our game at round 9:35. We did manage to complete the game before 10:00, however, with a winning score of 11-0. The rest of the game were not all that different, including the finals against Cathedral in which we won 13-3.

Cathedral went on to be given the 1 seed at the State tournament, forcing a semi final between the two best teams (by far) in the state, Hopkins and Cretin-Derham Hall. We lost. Despite an 8-6 lead at half and receiving with the wind at our back at half, CDH went on a 6-2 run to defeat us 12-10. In the other semi, Mounds View (a team that we easily defeated in pool play) defeated Cathedral. CDH went on to win a well deserved state title in a 15-3 domination of Mounds View.

On the girl's championship game sideline, John Sandahl was asking about whether we had played CDH before (somewhat in reference to the seeding) and I said we had and we lost by 2. I added that we had defeated Cathedral 13-3 two weeks earlier. "Yeah, but there were missing their best player," John said.

"John, we were missing our two best players," I countered.

The next thing he said really surprised me. [closed circuit to Greg: do not read this next sentence] Greg Arenson, our captain, and one of the finest high school ultimate players in the country was standing directly between John and me as John replied, "Eric Johnson is way better than anyone on your team."

Greg says, "Gosh, thanks a lot, John."

I then said, "John, Eric played today and they lost to Mounds View."

"That's true," he conceded. He didn't add anything further and slowly walked away.

This addresses (on the surface) a point I've been making a lot this season: one player in ultimate cannot elevate a team as he can in most other sports (especially the 4 majors). I'll dedicate an entire post to this later.

Back to the item at hand, back in September, knowing our squad, it would have been hard to believe we could come as far as we did, but with such massive improvement from some of our guys, we did fight our way back toward the top of the pack at State. A third place finish was not indicative of our strength and more a product of some really poor seedings as I think everyone would agree we were at least the second best team there. Even at Nationals, we were about the 6th or 7th best team there.

With that in mind, I'd have to call the season a success. At times, the talk nationally was that Hopkins was "a joke" because we "lost everyone that was good" and other similar notions. But we overcame that and picked it up to be in the pack of some National caliber teams. We survived losing a very strong senior class AND a changing of the guard in the coaches' positions. We nearly doubled the number of participants in our program, which necessitated replacement of 3 coaches who left and recruiting one more. I learned a ton as a coach, too much to mention here, but I will outline it in another post. Not to mention, we strengthened an already very strong group of sophomores and juniors, as well as solidified some younger talent (and their learning structure) to prevent future "rebuilding" years. In fact, if you ignored wins and losses, and took only into account everything else that this team is about, this season was probably the most successful Hopkins has had.

And next year, we're not going to have to ignore wins and losses.

College Central Regionals

College Central Regionals has come and gone and again the top 3 teams were Wisconsin, Carleton, and Minnesota, with Minnesota on the outside looking in. All in all, it was a fairly boring weekend. Even the most exciting game, CUT vs. Minnesota semi, was frustrating to watch. With CUT ahead 9-8, there was a 2 turnover, 25 minute point in which there were rarely 2 consecutive passes without a stoppage. Minnesota did have the lead 11-10, game to 13, but CUT scored 3 of the next 4 to win.

The most interesting part of the weekend for me was that I was an official observer for the first time. In all, I did 4 games, including the finals. I had been scheduled to do the Whitewater-Minnesota game, but Whitewater understandably denied my role as an observer. "He used to spike it on us," was their quote, I believe. That I spiked it on them often, regularly, or even more than once is not true. That I spiked it ON TOP of one of the their players exactly one time is 100% true. We had had a series of heated games against Whitewater from 2002 to 2004 and I scored 2 throws after another big rules argument at Hallowinona 2003. I meant to stand up and spike it but the disc accidentally flew out of my hands and right into the Whitewater player. That's the closest I've gotten to getting into an ultimate related fight. What's especially funny/stupid about all that is the previous Spring, one of their players basically punched me while marking me. There used to be a video of it on the U of M site that showed exactly what happened, but it's since been taken down. Bottom line, I footblocked Scotty "the Body" and he punched the ground a bunch of times, got up, put the mark on me, and slapped the bottom of the disc and slapped it into my face. I didn't even raise my voice. I just said "what was that?" No answer and play continued. So, lesson is, make bad calls and I will retaliate foolishly, punch me in the face and I won't care.

The Championship wasn't much of a game. Heijman made a couple nice catches. Dan Miller made some good D's. Goldstein turned it over a few times. Goldstein also subbed out on an injury time out where his legged got rolled over on game point on the doorstep of an upwind score. He called in FOTY mentionable Sam Kanner, who proceeded to throw it away, then later drop a pass. Michael Arenson for FOTY.

For me, the most interesting moment in the game was when Shane "who else here hates" Hohenstein got hit by someone else. He was looking to throw deep as his mark was catching up and he pump faked the throw. His mark ran into him pretty hard. Total accident, but the Wisconsin sideline EXPLODED. F-bombs started flying and both teams were exactly one comment away from receiving a Team Misconduct Foul. I don't currently have a strong opinion on Shane one way or another, but the times I've played against him in the past (2 years ago), he was as reckless a player as I've ever seen. I just found the situation immensely ironic. If my memory serves me correctly, Shane stayed on the field and his defender took an injury. How dare you hurt someone by standing in an avoidable spot in their path, Shane. How dare you.

St. Johns expanded their growing reputation of unnecessarily pissing everyone off. You can now append Iowa State, Iowa, and UMD to the list of teams that dislike St. Johns.

Overall, a pretty boring weekend of college ultimate. Is it too soon be looking forward to next year?

The State of High School Ultimate

Hopkins Hurt attended what is arguably the most prestigious high school tournament in the world last weekend: Paideia Cup. From Wikipedia:

To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was "the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature." (1) It also means culture. It is the ideal in which the Hellenes formed the world around them and their youth.

The Paideia School is a neat private school system that started out as a small school wanting to challenge kids differently than they had been, by introducing new creative and intellectual challenges they hadn't seen elsewhere. The school later began to consume the neighboring housing and converted it to classrooms, as well as constructed their own new classroom buildings, which makes for a very eclectic campus environment.

For the first time in team history, the team lost every game of a tournament, going 0-5. I was thoroughly surprised by what I saw from the other high school teams, with the exception of us and Paideia, the other teams strictly played a field position game. I'm not sure if it was a conscious strategy decision by them or not, but the teams would just huck, huck, and huck. I had never seen a high school team huck as much as our first opponent, Columbia, did. At least not until our second opponent, North Hills. And then, our first game on Sunday against University School of Nashville (Grassburn) was almost comical. If they caught a D near their own endzone, they would at times literally just wind up like a pull and throw it to no one. I'd never played in a game like that before.

Actually, that's not true. It's close to the exact strategy I used to lead my team to back-to-back TCUL championships.

There's only 2 ways to overcome the field position strategy: one, execute the exact same strategy (only better); or two, play a solid possession game. In the windy, rainy, cold condition, possession just wasn't an option. We had to resort to playing the field position game in the Grassburn game, too, only we didn't execute it well at all. By the end of the game, Grassburn had scored 7 of their goals with a combined yardage of 0 yards on those scoring drives.

I'm looking forward to college regionals in a couple weeks to see if this strategy is being utilized more in the college division, too, since the level of turnovers for most college teams is high enough that it would be a very effective strategy. Maybe I can even talk Becky into convincing his team to do it at sectionals as an experiment. I can't imagine that the 6th best team in the Northwoods wouldn't succumb to a field position game (if executed properly).

Speaking of, my predictions for the Northwoods qualifiers are, in order, Carleton, Minnesota, Winona, Olaf, GOP, and St. Cloud.

Go lucky dogs!

Mo[vi]e on DVD

Moe appears in 3 "highlights" on the UltiVillage DVD. I'm in one of them allowing my guy to cut up field on the break side while I poach the dump. Of course, an easy break to my guy is followed by an easy huck to a wide open receiver. I'm bummed because that was the point after I made a similar play where, instead of essentially allowing a goal, I intercepted a pass on the dump followed by a forehand to Jeanine for a goal and the break. Why couldn't THAT play have made the highlight reel?

Also not making the video was Jake's awesome spike that literally bounced higher than his head (I realize that's not saying much) and would have been the best clip in the spike montage, had it not been left on the cutting room floor.

I learned later that the pass I intercepted was intended for a man I spent considerable time on the phone with in 2004 after my eligibility stupidity: Josh Greenough. I wish I had known. I'd have liked to have a conversation with him.

So ... I bought the team package DVD set from UltiVillage, which was supposed to guarantee Flaming Moe 5 minutes of highlight footage on the DVD. Rob reneged on his promise due to our failure to have any important games of interest to the general ultimate viewing audience beyond Thursday. In an effort of good will, he did provide DVDs of all the Moe footage he captured. How do I feel about that? Well, the 3 clips that made the final cut are among those that portray Moe the most poorly of all the footage. I don't feel good about that. I don't blame him, but I still feel cheated, since I wouldn't have made the team package purchase without the 5 minute guarantee. He asked me about it, but I've not yet responded and I am undecided on how I will.

Which brings me to ... I have several of the DVDs available for $35 ($13 cheaper than ordering from UltiVillage). If you want one, email me at hotlou@gmail.com.

UPA Championships

I thought I'd better write about the UPA Championships while it's still fresh in my mind.

I actually feared this delay in posting may occur considering the ensuing lack of interest in ultimate that invariably follows the end of the season. Having realized my fear, I took the precaution of recording my stats in a planner after each game. Problem was, that planner belongs to a girl whom I'm no longer dating. She was, I believe, one of about 3 non-ultimate playing, non-familial spectators at the UPA Championships. Why is that? I have lots of ideas, but that's for another entry, scheduled to be written in October.

Of 2009.

Anyway, so I don't know what my stats were, but I remember going into the last game having fewer turns and more Ds than games played. I also scored a lot. The last game I had a lot of turnovers, though. The entire team did. The game was frontloaded with double digit turnover points. I wasn't on the field for any of them, thankfully. That visit to turnover town, though, caused the time cap to go on just before half time (I believe). Three of my turns in the game were all intended for the same handler, one of which was a downright comical 3 yard dump that probably floated in the air for 5 seconds and was at a catchable height during the entire flight, but was not caught. Ugh. I also had one other overthrow and several punts (something we did too little of, considering the turnfest that it was). Overall, I was very satisfied with my play. I had a lot of touches, I got some clever Ds, I got scored on once, I allowed 2 thrown goals, and I small amount of turns relative to how often I touched the disc and compared to the rest of the team.

For the team, Thursday obviously sucked. We lost all 3 games.

Brass Monkey is the only team we played all year that we could not beat. No way, no how. They overmatched us in just about every way and came to play, in addition to an overwhelming sense of nervousness on our team. It felt like everyone had jitters except for me and Mike.

In our game against Briefcase, we actually led 9-4, and ended up losing 15-12. They went on an 11 to 3 run on us, complements of our O line, who just could not seem to convert. There was a turn on just about every point and a lot of fatigue. And we just seemed to stick with them break after break after break.

It sucked, but I had to miss the Deliverance game. The landlords for our lodging were threatening to kick us out if I didn't pay that day. I left immediately after our Briefcase loss, but with the long trip, the traffic, and the construction, I didn't return until we had already been virtually eliminated. We had to win by more than 3 to avoid needing some serious luck to make the play in game. Deliverance already had 12 points by the time I had my cleats back on. I played my first point of the game when we trailed 14-12 and a huck to my guy was caught over me for a score. In retrospect, I should have told our landlord to shove it. They already had my credit card and we were paying around $3k to be there. The customer is always right. Especially when that customer is me.

Our next 4 games did not feel like Nationals at all. We were at the Thanksgiving dinner kids' table equivalent for fields; the intensity was low; and there was hardly anything at stake (although, I think our victory over the Flycoons did take away a wildcard from the Northwest). For me, my memorable moment was when I made an inspirational timeout speech about how I would not get broken, only to be broken moments later by the classic falling-over backhand. I will say in my defense, however, that the receiver was left completely open on the break side. The intent of my speech wasn't to give permission to leave the receiver wide open.

All in all, I had a good time. A quick highlight summary:

• We stayed in a 5000 square foot penthouse on the beach (pictured above)
  
• We left Nationals with a 4 game win streak
• One night, we cooked mini pizzas from scratch
• The open finals game was phenomenal to watch (Chase layout, that Jimmy Chu D (almost), the accidental catch, and a greatest)
• Playing well, scoring a lot
• Purchase of a 5 ultimate hat
• Learning to love the jacket that I bought even though I didn't like it but I wanted to buy some tourney merchandise
• Taking 2nd in spirit (I had a feeling we might be up there)

Lowlights:

• Spending (basically) an elimination game in traffic in a van
• Moving our best O line handler to D, when our O was already not performing well and our D was already awesome
• Losing Sam to burn out
• Losing to Briefcase
  
• Losing at Scrabble anagrams
• Losing at liar's dice, the game I taught everyone
  
• Picking up a Becky so drunk he could not dial his own phone
• Dyeing my hair blond, only to remember 5 days later that I was to be in 2 weddings in the following 8 weeks
• Jenni's drunk boyfriend pissing on the carpet in the middle of my room in the middle of the night for about 5 minutes
  

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.