You're the rookie, I'm MVP
The beginning of this month marked the official end of my rookie year of playing ultimate. I went back to the same tournament that started me down this crazy quest of chasing plastic circles all over the country, Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge. Some of my Hayride teammates and I picked up with the Arkansas women's team, SoCo. Super fun girls. We did really well, losing in the semi-finals, and now I'm pumped for this upcoming club season. We got a little taste of club level of competition in Baton Rouge during our semi-finals, and I'm ready to start playing good teams again. (Why is Fall so far away?) I will say that, though last year I started the dancing on the bar at the party, I had a very poor showing the entire weekend when it came to the party. I'll admit it, I was lame. I slept on the ride down in the PARTY VAN, and only showed my face for one song at the party Saturday night before going to bed.
Day one was cake. We won all the games in our pool quite easily, though TSUnami probably could have given us a run for our money if they had played lines to win. It seemed like they were giving their new players more experience rather than keeping all their ringers in. The great thing about the first day was our field. It had about 3 big muddy puddles that provided an excellent venue for some laying out at the end of the day. The last point we played on Saturday became the "layout point". We put a line on who was still clean and the rule was that everyone had to layout before we could score, which was pretty funny because it caused girls to layout for discs that were not layoutable.
I'm also going to give some props to Callahan from day one. He made the most spectacular catch I've ever seen and probably will ever see. Yeah, that's a bold statement, but it was a bold catch. The disc was put in the corner of the end zone, and somehow it managed to get through two defenders who were layout criss-crossing through the air. And also somehow, Cally managed to dive into that mix, snatch the disc, and land in. When all three fell, there was a brief silence by the crowd in anticipation of what the heck just happened. I was expecting a major injury. But Cally popped up, disc in hand, catching the game ending point.
That night, we had crawfish, and they were deeeee-licious. Though Jeffy Bear was uncomfortable eating something with a face.
Then there was the party, and for the brief period I was there, it was great. And from the stories I heard the next morning, it was excellent. Except the part where my teammate fell into a fire and severely burnt her hand. I was awoke at 4 in the morning to an emergency trip to Wal-green's to tend to a marbled, singed hand. You see, some boys (mainly Karl) started playing in the fire, which inspired my (sober) teammate to jump across it. Problem was that pesky fire ring tripping her and causing her to brace herself on a piece of metal that had been holding burning fire for hours.
How to play in fire:
How not to play in fire:
I was a little disappointed in myself with day 2. I take back everything I said earlier about my throwing in Vegas. I think I found a mental issue (good thing it's my only one). My throws were awful. I will say I am pleased with my defense though. I even had my first layout d, which was exciting and came at a crucial point in the semis. Yes, I'll say what you're thinking, I'm a badass. Good thing I'm humble. Anyway, again, we won the first two games quite easily on day 2 to get us to the semi-finals. The fields we played on for those first two games were just pure mud, and smelly. Luckily, we got to move to less muddy fields for the semis, which turned out to be one of my favorite games I've played yet. We played Wisconsin Madison, and Hayride had seen a lot of that team as Madison Jazz at Heavyweights. That was a tough game there, so I knew our cake walk had ended. We lost 10-8 in the cap. We did so well with them because our defense was on fire (just like Amanda's hand). I was really proud of our girls, they brought the heat (I can't stop now with the fire puns, help!). It was obvious Wisconsin had played together a lot. Their offense was so much prettier and organized and just flowed, unlike ours. Our cuts were crowded and we never were able to find a flow, and those girls were good. They had only had 3 points scored on them by a team until us, so their defense was tough also. I am now 100% convinced the key to a successful team is playing together as much as possible. I guess that's pretty obvious though. The only thing that kept us in that game was how much we stepped up our defense. It was glorious, like my layout d!
On the way back home, we stopped at a random sports bar in Alexandria to watch part of the Superbowl. We were the white minority there, which was made even more obvious by singing along with Tom Petty during the half time show. The entire bar collectively laughed at the scene as the whities were Free Fallin'.
One more note, don't fall asleep in the Party Van. You might just wake up to an emergency hand burn, or you could wake up to find that your driver picked up HITCH HIKERS!! It's never a good situation to wake up to find a strange man and woman next to you. Luckily, they were only with us for about 60 miles. Oh yeah, and luckily, they didn't rob and/or murder us.
Day one was cake. We won all the games in our pool quite easily, though TSUnami probably could have given us a run for our money if they had played lines to win. It seemed like they were giving their new players more experience rather than keeping all their ringers in. The great thing about the first day was our field. It had about 3 big muddy puddles that provided an excellent venue for some laying out at the end of the day. The last point we played on Saturday became the "layout point". We put a line on who was still clean and the rule was that everyone had to layout before we could score, which was pretty funny because it caused girls to layout for discs that were not layoutable.
I'm also going to give some props to Callahan from day one. He made the most spectacular catch I've ever seen and probably will ever see. Yeah, that's a bold statement, but it was a bold catch. The disc was put in the corner of the end zone, and somehow it managed to get through two defenders who were layout criss-crossing through the air. And also somehow, Cally managed to dive into that mix, snatch the disc, and land in. When all three fell, there was a brief silence by the crowd in anticipation of what the heck just happened. I was expecting a major injury. But Cally popped up, disc in hand, catching the game ending point.
That night, we had crawfish, and they were deeeee-licious. Though Jeffy Bear was uncomfortable eating something with a face.
Then there was the party, and for the brief period I was there, it was great. And from the stories I heard the next morning, it was excellent. Except the part where my teammate fell into a fire and severely burnt her hand. I was awoke at 4 in the morning to an emergency trip to Wal-green's to tend to a marbled, singed hand. You see, some boys (mainly Karl) started playing in the fire, which inspired my (sober) teammate to jump across it. Problem was that pesky fire ring tripping her and causing her to brace herself on a piece of metal that had been holding burning fire for hours.
How to play in fire:
How not to play in fire:
I was a little disappointed in myself with day 2. I take back everything I said earlier about my throwing in Vegas. I think I found a mental issue (good thing it's my only one). My throws were awful. I will say I am pleased with my defense though. I even had my first layout d, which was exciting and came at a crucial point in the semis. Yes, I'll say what you're thinking, I'm a badass. Good thing I'm humble. Anyway, again, we won the first two games quite easily on day 2 to get us to the semi-finals. The fields we played on for those first two games were just pure mud, and smelly. Luckily, we got to move to less muddy fields for the semis, which turned out to be one of my favorite games I've played yet. We played Wisconsin Madison, and Hayride had seen a lot of that team as Madison Jazz at Heavyweights. That was a tough game there, so I knew our cake walk had ended. We lost 10-8 in the cap. We did so well with them because our defense was on fire (just like Amanda's hand). I was really proud of our girls, they brought the heat (I can't stop now with the fire puns, help!). It was obvious Wisconsin had played together a lot. Their offense was so much prettier and organized and just flowed, unlike ours. Our cuts were crowded and we never were able to find a flow, and those girls were good. They had only had 3 points scored on them by a team until us, so their defense was tough also. I am now 100% convinced the key to a successful team is playing together as much as possible. I guess that's pretty obvious though. The only thing that kept us in that game was how much we stepped up our defense. It was glorious, like my layout d!
On the way back home, we stopped at a random sports bar in Alexandria to watch part of the Superbowl. We were the white minority there, which was made even more obvious by singing along with Tom Petty during the half time show. The entire bar collectively laughed at the scene as the whities were Free Fallin'.
One more note, don't fall asleep in the Party Van. You might just wake up to an emergency hand burn, or you could wake up to find that your driver picked up HITCH HIKERS!! It's never a good situation to wake up to find a strange man and woman next to you. Luckily, they were only with us for about 60 miles. Oh yeah, and luckily, they didn't rob and/or murder us.
posted by April at 11:54 AM
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