Sorry Rahil, apparently I'm a slow writer...
What day am I up to now? Oh yeah, Day 3. Once again I woke up well before the alarm clock. I don’t think this was due to anxiety or nerves but there was definitely a sense of anticipation flowing through my veins. How does one prepare for a day like this? It’s not quite a championship day because we still had the semis to go through but you have to hope/plan/think the day is going to end in a big celebration. Then again who am I kidding; how often have I ever been in a position to realistically win a major championship in this sport before so how would I really know what it should feel like?
Well I went about my business like I normally would with maybe a bit more of a bounce in my step. Eat breakfast, shower, shave, pack my bags, load the car; I’m also pretty sure that somewhere in there I got dressed and did a few other things. Then I sat and waited. I was ready to leave for the fields at 7:30am but I didn’t have to be there for another two hours. So maybe I had a bit of nervous energy to burn off after all. I sat around and read a few chapters of the book I was into, watched the end of Invincible on my iPod to get me in the mood to have a little success story of my own and sat around some more as I waited for go-time to approach.
Finally I just gave up and decided to head to the fields. Eric and Shaggy would be playing with Goat in their Quarterfinal so I figured I’d go and watch a bit of that. Bobby and Matt were looking for an early ride to the fields so I obliged them and we were off to the Polo Club one more time. After fifteen traffic-less minutes, one random smile/wave from a cute girl on ICE and a short argument over whom the lucky recipient of her affection was, we were at the fields. In the end we decided the girl thought Bobby/Matt/I was someone else… how disappointing to our egos (but between you and me, she was definitely looking my way).
Our semi final was a rematch against Troubled Past. From here on in we could only have pool play rematches because the teams from pool A wiped out the teams from pool B in the quarters. At least we knew what we would be up against the rest of the way. This game was basically a carbon copy of our pool play game. We took half 8-5 and the next thing we knew it was 9-8 for them. We fought back and ended up winning 17-15 (yikes!). This game was not really that much fun to play in; Troubled Past are fine except for 2 or 3 players who are absolute pricks. The worst of them, and I have no qualms naming them, are Aaron Switze and one of the Monohan brothers (I think it’s Kevin). He deserved to be trampled by a polo pony but I didn’t see any around. If I’m going to be calling out people like that I should clarify that the other Monohan brother (the red-head) was an awesome competitor, was great to play against and was really spirited. I was covering Aaron during one point and he was in the endzone getting ready to make a cut. As he started his cut I positioned myself in a way that he ran into me, prematurely ending his cut. He started yelling, “you prick, that’s a bullsh*t move. I know because it’s what I do!” He threw out a few other expletives and curses on top of that. He just wasn’t a very nice guy to play against. Of course every call they made was justified and every call we made was the “same old cheap, bullsh*t”. Bad Monohan got our nicest, quietest guy, Rick, so riled up that after he scored a point he spiked the disc right next to Bad Monohan. Of course, much shouting ensued in the general direction of Rick. The best part was that all of our guys who came on the field to celebrate the score formed a human wall blocking Bad Monohan from getting to Rick. It was quite amusing seeing Bad Monahan trying to fight through 30 DoG players to get to Rick. I’ve never seen a sore loser like Bad Monohan.
We did make life more difficult for ourselves in the semis than they needed to be. Troubled had a few chances late in the game to actually take the lead but they just kept handing the disc back to us. It was only at about 11s that we got the lead back and we didn’t get a break to push ahead by two points until the last point. Thankfully we were able to work the disc upfield and I was able to score the winning point. What a relief that was! Next stop, after a 2 or 3 hour break, the finals.
I went and sat with Tito and Chowder for a few minutes near the back of our endzone. They had made the trip down from Ottawa to watch the tournament. Oh, and beer; to watch the tournament and drink copious amounts of beer. From what I saw they did both of those things very well. They were watching the Capitals play Zeitgeist in a consolation semifinal. I had some time to burn so I sat and chatted with those guys for a while. Chowder was already on beer number 5, Tito on 4 ½ and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t much after noon. Chowder was also kind enough to share with me the funniest joke I have ever heard about women’s ultimate. Something about having one hour left to live…
I also had a chance to watch some of my buddies on Goat exceed all expectations by playing in the open semifinal. They were really, really excited by that; and I think that might even be an understatement. Unfortunately for them this is where their run ended. They lost to Johnny Bravo 15-11, I think. I’m not too sure because I couldn’t stay around to watch the end of the game… something about having to warm up for the upcoming final. The beauty of Masters is that the final is played on Saturday afternoon, right in front of the beer tent while all other games are done. Not only is it a showcase game but it’s the only game that allows you to the chance to go into Saturday night’s parties with a gold medal around your neck.
When warm-up time rolled around I didn’t want to get going. I was happy to sit on the sideline and be lazy. My legs felt heavy, my arms felt unresponsive and I didn’t want to get off my butt. It was a feeling unlike any other I’ve ever experienced because I knew that I wasn’t that sore or that exhausted. I was pretty sure it was all in my head. Once I made the conscious decision that I was going to have myself a big game and play hard it was easier to get going but it was still a feeling that I had to fight all game. It was very strange to say the least but I’ll get back to this later, maybe in the next post.
There were so many people watching the game when it started. The beer tent was pretty full and there were people at pretty much every spot around the field. The crowd only got bigger once the Jam-Sockeye semi finished. I don’t think that I could accurately assess how many people would have been watching but I would have to say it is the largest crowd that I’ve had the chance to play a competitive match in front of. Or maybe it just seemed that way because the field was surrounded by a crowd as opposed to having everyone concentrated in a grand stand on one side of the field (CUPA, take a lesson from the UPA when choosing venues for finals). In any case it was a good venue for me to play what I thought was my best game of the tournament. All of the Goat guys had scored some pretty good seats in the beer tent with a prime view of the fields so I had my own cheering section. Early in the game I made a pretty big grab for a score right in front of those guys which was a lot of fun and every time I would walk out to the line they would cheer me on loudly.
I don’t think the game was ever in doubt; we started to pull away slowly but it wasn’t all that comfortable a lead. We were having a bit of trouble breaking their offense consistently so we couldn’t get more than a few points ahead of them. Surly was definitely looking to huck and had been successful hitting their key guy, Turtle, on a couple of occasions. Finally on one point I poached off of my guy a bit deep in anticipation of the huck. As soon as Turtle took off down field I left my guy on the far side of the field to give chase. Turtle had no idea I was coming in on his blind side and before he went up I jumped way above him and ripped the disc out of the sky. He was so surprised he didn’t come away with another easy score. I got the disc moving pretty quickly and ended up scoring the point at the other end, beating one defender and another O player to the disc as all three of us laid out for it. It was a pretty demoralizing point for Surly and it really got our guys fired up. After that it was a cake walk as we opened up a huge lead.
On the last point of the game Surly tried another huck to Turtle and once again I got over him and blocked the disc. I got every second pass as we worked the disc upfield until we got to the endzone where Matt passed to Larry for the game winning score. I was hoping to catch that pass but I guess I can’t ask for everything. And so it ended, game, set and match, 15-9, DoG won it all... again for most guys, first time around for me!
Post match fall-out to follow... and possibly some pictures.
DF
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
UPAs Day 2
Strangely enough, of all the days I was UPAs day two is the one that I remember the least about. I’m not sure if it is because my recollection of events across all days is starting to blend together. It probably also has a bit to do with the fact that I felt like day two was the day that I had the least impact on the outcome of the results.
Like each day at UPAs the weather channel was calling for a high probability of thunder showers. Like each day at the tournament the weather looked pretty good on the morning of day two. Our first game, in the blazing sun, was against Boneyard from North Carolina. They had a few ex-Ring of Fire players that everyone seemed to be worried about. I never felt like they were a threat to us and we cruised to a comfortable 15-9 win. I played a handful of points throughout the game, mostly early on, but don’t recall anything spectacular. That was probably because I was more concerned with making sure that my calf was no worse for wear following the cramp I had at the end of day one. Thankfully it wasn’t too sore; after a good warm up I barely felt it and by the end of the day I had forgotten it had even been an issue. This was one of the few games that we would get all weekend to open up some playing time to some of the other guys on our 31 man roster and I wasn’t about to complain about that. I do recall the game ending rather quickly and having to search for a patch of shade to claim as my own to seek some relief from the sun. Thankfully the temperature was just in the mid twenties (Celsius) because the November sun in Florida is really, really hot. It wouldn’t be too long before we would all be wishing for the warm sun.
Game two was to be our last pool play game and we had already locked up first place in pool A. Mileage beat Troubled Past in a tight game to start Friday and claimed second, Troubled was guaranteed third and Surly was safely ensconced in the last playoff bound spot. Boneyard and Ironwood were respectively locked in the fifth and sixth position. With the top four spots coming out of pool A already set before the last game it made things interesting as game plans came down to balancing resting the top players for the quarterfinals while not losing to a team ranked lower. We seemed to get the balance right. Our last game was against Surly, the Minneapolis based team. Dave Brown, DoG’s D captain, told me that depending on how things were going, he was going to try to “shut me down” early on. It was one of the few small moments that made my weekend, knowing that I was worth saving for the more important games. I don’t know if I’ve ever been benched to save me for a big game before. It was a pretty cool feeling and I’m pretty sure I let out a noticeable smile that Jeff picked up on. I played two of the first three points, we started to pull away and that was it; I was shut down for the game, being rested for the quarterfinal! We won the game 15-8 and I recall being a force on the sidelines. I do recall thinking to myself after the game that I felt Boneyard was a better team than Surly. I guess Surly was also resting their big players because they did a good job of proving that thought of mine wrong as the tournament progressed.
I could go into detail about how the other pool shook down but that would require another few blog entries alone. Suffice it to say that going into the last game only one team was out of the running; Miami, OLD SAG, A&B and Big Sky were all fighting for the last three spots in quarters with Old and in the Way having locked up first place. In the end A&B got screwed over by Old and in the Way’s decision to roll over against Miami. Miami got in and A&B went to drink “loser beer” from the truck. More on loser beer later.
Once the craziness of pool B settled itself we found out that we would be taking on OLD SAG and their 37 man roster in the quarters. That was one mess of a sideline 31 guys sporting DoG jerseys and 37 wearing OLD SAG colours. Of course masters players come with a certain amount of baggage; wives and kids. Once you added that all up there were well over a hundred people on the sidelines. The sidelines actually played quite a role in this game as it turned into a battle of whose sideline was louder more consistently. Early in the game OLD SAG was doing a better job but our sideline brought our team back to life after half and helped carry us to victory. This win truly did belong to the voices on the sideline more so then any other game I’ve ever been involved in.
You would think that a roster of 37 players versus 31 would be an advantage but in the end I think we used more guys than they did. The one advantage they did have was youth. On average I would say that they were quite a bit younger than we were. The tempo of the game was much quicker than any of the previous games of the tournament. It wasn’t going to be as easy as it had been for me to get “impressive” blocks in this game as it had been up to this point. I felt like our defense wasn’t getting as many chances to score as we had in other games and our efficiency was also a bit off. When we did get the disc OLD SAG brought a lot of pressure on us. I recall one point where I had the disc on the sideline and I didn’t have very many options except for Jeff Brown, who was completely across the field. I tried a big break force cross field flick knowing full well that I was going to get bumped. Sure enough as I released I was pushed backwards onto my butt and was able to call foul and reset the count (the throw that came out was also a piece of crap). If they just would have maintained the pressure but stopped committing the unintentional but dumb fouls they would have been able to really cause us some problems. Our O line was also having a bit of trouble with their pressure and we ended up down 8-6 at the break. We were playing mostly man on D and we weren’t doing much to stop them.
This was the first time all weekend that I was really worried that things weren’t going to go our way. The weather was playing it’s part as well by becoming much more ominous. You could tell that there were some major storms not too far off and at some point in the game the rains came. Thankfully with it came some wind; advantage old Boston guys. We switched to zone and clawed back into the game. Some of the guys will say that was the key to the turnaround but I still think the inspirational key were the two lesbians from the Philly women’s team who were making out on the sidelines in the rain. It looked like they were huddling together to stay warm and things got a bit too hot. Most probably our turnaround was due partly to our sidelines picking up the volume, our defense playing some stronger zone and the 45 minute lightning delay.
At about 12-11 there was some lightning in the area and we were all herded into our cars to wait it out. This must have been hell on families and friends back home who were trying to follow the games by refreshing the UPA score reporter website every five seconds.
The break was just long enough to let every muscle in my body tighten up. I don’t know if it was the cold rain but I hadn’t been feeling tight or sore until I had to start warming up after the rain delay. I was having so much trouble getting moving again that I was worried that I would be done for the day. After trying jogging and a dynamic warmup, I decided that the easiest way to deal would be to just jump into the game without warming up. Thankfully the first point was a D point so I got a chance to get out there right away. It was pretty tough getting the legs going to chase down the pull but once I beat inertia’s grip on me everything was fine.
I didn’t realize how close we were to the end of the game and was surprised when we scored to win the game 15-13. I was still feeling mentally out of the game near the end until Marshall came up to me, helped me focus a bit and told me to take charge out there. The next point, which turned out to be game point, was a pretty good one for me. I picked up my play on D and managed to get in the way of a receiver on a huck causing him to lose focus and drop the disc. Unfortunately we turned the disc over but I was able to block the ensuing huck that came up. Again we turned the disc over and OLD SAG hucked it once again into my hands. We finally managed to work the disc upfield and I forced my legs to get me open enough to be quite involved in the offensive flow of the point. We finally managed to punch the disc in for the win. I was getting ready to walk back to the line for another point but everyone around my started to shake hands. While I’m thinking this is a weird thing to do when the score is only 13-12 a few of my team mates were nice enough to indicate that we had already reached 15 and DoG was still alive in it’s quest for glory.
Thanks to the weather delay it was already pretty late when we were done and once again we made it back to the condos after the sunset; no swimming again. Instead I went with Mark, Eric and Val for a lovely dinner at Capt Brian’s. It was the best seafood that I have ever had and was not to be confused with the crap I ingested at Capt Curt’s. Back at the condo’s after an interesting conversation with Alex, Marshall, Jim, white-trash Tory and her two year old son Gino (don’t even ask about those two) it was time to go to bed and get ready for what was looking to be a big day three. More on that later.
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Like each day at UPAs the weather channel was calling for a high probability of thunder showers. Like each day at the tournament the weather looked pretty good on the morning of day two. Our first game, in the blazing sun, was against Boneyard from North Carolina. They had a few ex-Ring of Fire players that everyone seemed to be worried about. I never felt like they were a threat to us and we cruised to a comfortable 15-9 win. I played a handful of points throughout the game, mostly early on, but don’t recall anything spectacular. That was probably because I was more concerned with making sure that my calf was no worse for wear following the cramp I had at the end of day one. Thankfully it wasn’t too sore; after a good warm up I barely felt it and by the end of the day I had forgotten it had even been an issue. This was one of the few games that we would get all weekend to open up some playing time to some of the other guys on our 31 man roster and I wasn’t about to complain about that. I do recall the game ending rather quickly and having to search for a patch of shade to claim as my own to seek some relief from the sun. Thankfully the temperature was just in the mid twenties (Celsius) because the November sun in Florida is really, really hot. It wouldn’t be too long before we would all be wishing for the warm sun.
Game two was to be our last pool play game and we had already locked up first place in pool A. Mileage beat Troubled Past in a tight game to start Friday and claimed second, Troubled was guaranteed third and Surly was safely ensconced in the last playoff bound spot. Boneyard and Ironwood were respectively locked in the fifth and sixth position. With the top four spots coming out of pool A already set before the last game it made things interesting as game plans came down to balancing resting the top players for the quarterfinals while not losing to a team ranked lower. We seemed to get the balance right. Our last game was against Surly, the Minneapolis based team. Dave Brown, DoG’s D captain, told me that depending on how things were going, he was going to try to “shut me down” early on. It was one of the few small moments that made my weekend, knowing that I was worth saving for the more important games. I don’t know if I’ve ever been benched to save me for a big game before. It was a pretty cool feeling and I’m pretty sure I let out a noticeable smile that Jeff picked up on. I played two of the first three points, we started to pull away and that was it; I was shut down for the game, being rested for the quarterfinal! We won the game 15-8 and I recall being a force on the sidelines. I do recall thinking to myself after the game that I felt Boneyard was a better team than Surly. I guess Surly was also resting their big players because they did a good job of proving that thought of mine wrong as the tournament progressed.
I could go into detail about how the other pool shook down but that would require another few blog entries alone. Suffice it to say that going into the last game only one team was out of the running; Miami, OLD SAG, A&B and Big Sky were all fighting for the last three spots in quarters with Old and in the Way having locked up first place. In the end A&B got screwed over by Old and in the Way’s decision to roll over against Miami. Miami got in and A&B went to drink “loser beer” from the truck. More on loser beer later.
Once the craziness of pool B settled itself we found out that we would be taking on OLD SAG and their 37 man roster in the quarters. That was one mess of a sideline 31 guys sporting DoG jerseys and 37 wearing OLD SAG colours. Of course masters players come with a certain amount of baggage; wives and kids. Once you added that all up there were well over a hundred people on the sidelines. The sidelines actually played quite a role in this game as it turned into a battle of whose sideline was louder more consistently. Early in the game OLD SAG was doing a better job but our sideline brought our team back to life after half and helped carry us to victory. This win truly did belong to the voices on the sideline more so then any other game I’ve ever been involved in.
You would think that a roster of 37 players versus 31 would be an advantage but in the end I think we used more guys than they did. The one advantage they did have was youth. On average I would say that they were quite a bit younger than we were. The tempo of the game was much quicker than any of the previous games of the tournament. It wasn’t going to be as easy as it had been for me to get “impressive” blocks in this game as it had been up to this point. I felt like our defense wasn’t getting as many chances to score as we had in other games and our efficiency was also a bit off. When we did get the disc OLD SAG brought a lot of pressure on us. I recall one point where I had the disc on the sideline and I didn’t have very many options except for Jeff Brown, who was completely across the field. I tried a big break force cross field flick knowing full well that I was going to get bumped. Sure enough as I released I was pushed backwards onto my butt and was able to call foul and reset the count (the throw that came out was also a piece of crap). If they just would have maintained the pressure but stopped committing the unintentional but dumb fouls they would have been able to really cause us some problems. Our O line was also having a bit of trouble with their pressure and we ended up down 8-6 at the break. We were playing mostly man on D and we weren’t doing much to stop them.
This was the first time all weekend that I was really worried that things weren’t going to go our way. The weather was playing it’s part as well by becoming much more ominous. You could tell that there were some major storms not too far off and at some point in the game the rains came. Thankfully with it came some wind; advantage old Boston guys. We switched to zone and clawed back into the game. Some of the guys will say that was the key to the turnaround but I still think the inspirational key were the two lesbians from the Philly women’s team who were making out on the sidelines in the rain. It looked like they were huddling together to stay warm and things got a bit too hot. Most probably our turnaround was due partly to our sidelines picking up the volume, our defense playing some stronger zone and the 45 minute lightning delay.
At about 12-11 there was some lightning in the area and we were all herded into our cars to wait it out. This must have been hell on families and friends back home who were trying to follow the games by refreshing the UPA score reporter website every five seconds.
The break was just long enough to let every muscle in my body tighten up. I don’t know if it was the cold rain but I hadn’t been feeling tight or sore until I had to start warming up after the rain delay. I was having so much trouble getting moving again that I was worried that I would be done for the day. After trying jogging and a dynamic warmup, I decided that the easiest way to deal would be to just jump into the game without warming up. Thankfully the first point was a D point so I got a chance to get out there right away. It was pretty tough getting the legs going to chase down the pull but once I beat inertia’s grip on me everything was fine.
I didn’t realize how close we were to the end of the game and was surprised when we scored to win the game 15-13. I was still feeling mentally out of the game near the end until Marshall came up to me, helped me focus a bit and told me to take charge out there. The next point, which turned out to be game point, was a pretty good one for me. I picked up my play on D and managed to get in the way of a receiver on a huck causing him to lose focus and drop the disc. Unfortunately we turned the disc over but I was able to block the ensuing huck that came up. Again we turned the disc over and OLD SAG hucked it once again into my hands. We finally managed to work the disc upfield and I forced my legs to get me open enough to be quite involved in the offensive flow of the point. We finally managed to punch the disc in for the win. I was getting ready to walk back to the line for another point but everyone around my started to shake hands. While I’m thinking this is a weird thing to do when the score is only 13-12 a few of my team mates were nice enough to indicate that we had already reached 15 and DoG was still alive in it’s quest for glory.
Thanks to the weather delay it was already pretty late when we were done and once again we made it back to the condos after the sunset; no swimming again. Instead I went with Mark, Eric and Val for a lovely dinner at Capt Brian’s. It was the best seafood that I have ever had and was not to be confused with the crap I ingested at Capt Curt’s. Back at the condo’s after an interesting conversation with Alex, Marshall, Jim, white-trash Tory and her two year old son Gino (don’t even ask about those two) it was time to go to bed and get ready for what was looking to be a big day three. More on that later.
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Friday, November 16, 2007
UPAs Day 1
I better put all of these thoughts down on paper before I forget. I am a Masters player after all so my memory must be fading.
Things started out well when Eric and I arrived in Tampa. The guy we were supposed to meet was there, the line-up at the rental counter was non-existent, there was no traffic on I-75, the Under Armour outlet was easy to find and best of all, the Sea Club II happened to be located right next to the PBC on Siesta Key. Not only were our condos clean, they were half the price of the PBC. The only scare we had on the day before UPAs were the sketchy looking raw oysters at Captain Curt’s (which I avoided) and the bottom of the six pack holder giving way in the grocery store leading to the untimely demise of six bottles of beer. I got a good night of sleep too which was a nice thing to get before the big show. Maybe I’m too used to having to sleep in rooms with 7 other guys, half of whom are on the floor but it was nice to get a bed to myself in a room with one other guy who wasn’t even there yet when I went to sleep.
Thursday arrived and I was feeling great; I was well rested, well fed and… I guess I can’t really ask for more. The weather was perfect; it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too sunny. The fields were about a 15-20 minute drive from Siesta Key and everyone was saying that traffic would be killer on Thursday and Friday morning but that didn’t materialize and we got to the fields on time. We broke out our brand new jerseys and shorts for the first time and finally looked like an organized bunch. I started to warm up (sort of) and I must tell you the fields are amazing. The grass is so soft and well maintained. I was just really excited for the tournament to start. I was a bit worried that I wasn’t feeling nervous. I expected to have some butterflies but I was feeling quite calm. It’s good for my focus but I was a bit worried that it would mean that I would have a really low energy level during the course of the day. In the end I had nothing to worry about (maybe because I was playing against old guys).
Our first game was against Ironwood, a team from Arizona. They were not very good and we rolled them quite handily 15-6. I’m not sure if I had a turnover in that game or if credit for it would go to John Bar. I threw him a breakforce backhand up the sideline and he milked it way too far; so far that he was a yard out of bounds when he caught it. One of the nice things about the fields in Sarasota is that they are all lined and they also have a line 3 yards outside the field to mark a buffer that should be left between sideline gear/fans and the field. Well John Bar thought the buffer line was the sideline so he took a few more steps than he could afford and the end result was a turnover. It was my fault for putting him in a spot where he had zero margin for error but I felt like he should have easily caught the disc in bounds. For that reason I will happily hand the turnover to him and I remained at three turnovers in the entire fall season. Fortunately for me that was the closest I came to a turnover all weekend so I managed to end the fall season with all of three turnovers in four tournaments, one of those being UPAs. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Our next game was a tight one against Mileage from Dallas, Texas. In the end we only won 15-13 but I never felt like the game was that close. I remember two things from this game. One was being covered by some 6’4”, 250lb guy who fouled the sh*t out of me when I had the disc. At one point I called five fouls on the guy before I managed to get a pass off. How ridiculous is that; I’m not one to call a lot of the bumps that happen but he fouled me five times on the same mark. I’m fairly certain they were quite intentional but whatever. The other thing that I remember is that I started to get on track defensively in this game. I didn’t play a single O point all tournament so I figured I had to earn my keep on defense. It was just after half and it was still a close game when I had a nice little run to put the game out of reach. We put a zone on them and I was one of the deeps along with Paul Greff. We managed to get Mileage pinned on the far sideline and from my deep position I could see the handler looking for the cross field hammer. I inched closer in and was just sitting on the throw. The second the handlers arm cocked back I broke on the impending throw. It was a bit of a gamble but I was pretty sure that the hammer was going to go up and thankfully it did, otherwise I would have looked like a bit of a fool. I did find it a bit amusing that I had to run by two of my team mates to get to where the throw was going but I guess they weren’t anticipating the same thing. I got to the handler just slightly before the throw did and didn’t just get the block but somehow I caught it too. We worked the disc up the field and got the score. On the next point I did the same thing on a hammer thrown to a popper in the middle of the field and we had ourselves a comfortable lead. On the following point I tried the same thing again but was a moment too late and ended up looking like a fool as Mileage worked it up with no opposition. Well two out of three ain’t bad. At least I managed to get the turns to build up our cushion that allowed us to cruise to the win.
Our third game of the day was against Troubled Past, the number one team in the tournament. These guys were so well prepared for the tournament that they had two physios/massage therapists on their sidelines just waiting to help their players work through any knocks. They were quite good-looking so I’m pretty sure that those old guys were actually spending more time than they really should have been getting their “aches” worked on. Aside from that these guys were a bunch of complete pricks. It was a chippy game, apparently there is a lot of history between DoG and these guys (old Double Happiness). Even though we had close games with them none of the DoG guys were scared of them. One of my team mates (to remain unnamed) even said to me, “These guys want to lose because it’s easier for them to complain about not winning than it is for them to actually win.” In the end that statement proved quite prophetic as we edged them out for a 17-16 win. Considering we took half 8-5 and let them back into the game in a big way it wasn’t the greatest performance but at least we won the game. We played just well enough to barely beat them. Our offense was pretty clean (except when we let them back in the game) but our defense had some trouble capitalizing on their mistakes. I played about half the game due to a calf cramp that I got when I had to push off my left leg in a very awkward way to catch a swing pass from Zas. I managed to catch the pass but I had to take myself off. Jeff Brown, our D captain, shut me down after that. It was a bit stressful watching the rest of the game but I was surprisingly not worried about the end result. We had the disc at 14-13 to win the game but ended up letting them tie it at 14s. I got a bit more worried at that point but we managed to trade the game out to 17-16.
And so ended my first day at UPAs. I was hoping to get the full experience of UPAs, which meant a dip in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the day but the schedule is setup now such that by the time we got home it was already dark and time for some dinner. The most I got was some stolen hot tub time over at the PBC.
Day two details to come later.
DF Read more!
Things started out well when Eric and I arrived in Tampa. The guy we were supposed to meet was there, the line-up at the rental counter was non-existent, there was no traffic on I-75, the Under Armour outlet was easy to find and best of all, the Sea Club II happened to be located right next to the PBC on Siesta Key. Not only were our condos clean, they were half the price of the PBC. The only scare we had on the day before UPAs were the sketchy looking raw oysters at Captain Curt’s (which I avoided) and the bottom of the six pack holder giving way in the grocery store leading to the untimely demise of six bottles of beer. I got a good night of sleep too which was a nice thing to get before the big show. Maybe I’m too used to having to sleep in rooms with 7 other guys, half of whom are on the floor but it was nice to get a bed to myself in a room with one other guy who wasn’t even there yet when I went to sleep.
Thursday arrived and I was feeling great; I was well rested, well fed and… I guess I can’t really ask for more. The weather was perfect; it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too sunny. The fields were about a 15-20 minute drive from Siesta Key and everyone was saying that traffic would be killer on Thursday and Friday morning but that didn’t materialize and we got to the fields on time. We broke out our brand new jerseys and shorts for the first time and finally looked like an organized bunch. I started to warm up (sort of) and I must tell you the fields are amazing. The grass is so soft and well maintained. I was just really excited for the tournament to start. I was a bit worried that I wasn’t feeling nervous. I expected to have some butterflies but I was feeling quite calm. It’s good for my focus but I was a bit worried that it would mean that I would have a really low energy level during the course of the day. In the end I had nothing to worry about (maybe because I was playing against old guys).
Our first game was against Ironwood, a team from Arizona. They were not very good and we rolled them quite handily 15-6. I’m not sure if I had a turnover in that game or if credit for it would go to John Bar. I threw him a breakforce backhand up the sideline and he milked it way too far; so far that he was a yard out of bounds when he caught it. One of the nice things about the fields in Sarasota is that they are all lined and they also have a line 3 yards outside the field to mark a buffer that should be left between sideline gear/fans and the field. Well John Bar thought the buffer line was the sideline so he took a few more steps than he could afford and the end result was a turnover. It was my fault for putting him in a spot where he had zero margin for error but I felt like he should have easily caught the disc in bounds. For that reason I will happily hand the turnover to him and I remained at three turnovers in the entire fall season. Fortunately for me that was the closest I came to a turnover all weekend so I managed to end the fall season with all of three turnovers in four tournaments, one of those being UPAs. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Our next game was a tight one against Mileage from Dallas, Texas. In the end we only won 15-13 but I never felt like the game was that close. I remember two things from this game. One was being covered by some 6’4”, 250lb guy who fouled the sh*t out of me when I had the disc. At one point I called five fouls on the guy before I managed to get a pass off. How ridiculous is that; I’m not one to call a lot of the bumps that happen but he fouled me five times on the same mark. I’m fairly certain they were quite intentional but whatever. The other thing that I remember is that I started to get on track defensively in this game. I didn’t play a single O point all tournament so I figured I had to earn my keep on defense. It was just after half and it was still a close game when I had a nice little run to put the game out of reach. We put a zone on them and I was one of the deeps along with Paul Greff. We managed to get Mileage pinned on the far sideline and from my deep position I could see the handler looking for the cross field hammer. I inched closer in and was just sitting on the throw. The second the handlers arm cocked back I broke on the impending throw. It was a bit of a gamble but I was pretty sure that the hammer was going to go up and thankfully it did, otherwise I would have looked like a bit of a fool. I did find it a bit amusing that I had to run by two of my team mates to get to where the throw was going but I guess they weren’t anticipating the same thing. I got to the handler just slightly before the throw did and didn’t just get the block but somehow I caught it too. We worked the disc up the field and got the score. On the next point I did the same thing on a hammer thrown to a popper in the middle of the field and we had ourselves a comfortable lead. On the following point I tried the same thing again but was a moment too late and ended up looking like a fool as Mileage worked it up with no opposition. Well two out of three ain’t bad. At least I managed to get the turns to build up our cushion that allowed us to cruise to the win.
Our third game of the day was against Troubled Past, the number one team in the tournament. These guys were so well prepared for the tournament that they had two physios/massage therapists on their sidelines just waiting to help their players work through any knocks. They were quite good-looking so I’m pretty sure that those old guys were actually spending more time than they really should have been getting their “aches” worked on. Aside from that these guys were a bunch of complete pricks. It was a chippy game, apparently there is a lot of history between DoG and these guys (old Double Happiness). Even though we had close games with them none of the DoG guys were scared of them. One of my team mates (to remain unnamed) even said to me, “These guys want to lose because it’s easier for them to complain about not winning than it is for them to actually win.” In the end that statement proved quite prophetic as we edged them out for a 17-16 win. Considering we took half 8-5 and let them back into the game in a big way it wasn’t the greatest performance but at least we won the game. We played just well enough to barely beat them. Our offense was pretty clean (except when we let them back in the game) but our defense had some trouble capitalizing on their mistakes. I played about half the game due to a calf cramp that I got when I had to push off my left leg in a very awkward way to catch a swing pass from Zas. I managed to catch the pass but I had to take myself off. Jeff Brown, our D captain, shut me down after that. It was a bit stressful watching the rest of the game but I was surprisingly not worried about the end result. We had the disc at 14-13 to win the game but ended up letting them tie it at 14s. I got a bit more worried at that point but we managed to trade the game out to 17-16.
And so ended my first day at UPAs. I was hoping to get the full experience of UPAs, which meant a dip in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the day but the schedule is setup now such that by the time we got home it was already dark and time for some dinner. The most I got was some stolen hot tub time over at the PBC.
Day two details to come later.
DF Read more!
Friday, November 02, 2007
Feeling Good
Long time, no something or another. It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog but I figure it’s time to get going again.
First I’ll give a brief explanation as to why I haven’t been updating as often as I may have wanted to be doing so. I haven’t been inspired to do so. Not the greatest of explanations but that will be all you’ll get out of me. It’s been a really long summer; ultimate took up way more time than I wanted it to (again), family health crises popped up (we’re all rooting for you Ben), work got out of control and… I think that is pretty much it.
It is now the first of November and I am sitting in front of a computer feeling ridiculously refreshed. Ultimate took up a lot of my fall but in a good way, Ben seems to be doing pretty well (http://benjaminskira.blogspot.com) and work has calmed down in a big way. On top of that I have only been in the office seven days over the past three weeks. Not a lot of work combined with lots of play makes for a happy Daniel.
Since we all agree that the summer was a write-off I’ll get into the nitty-gritty details of what has me feeling so good these days.
On Oct 11, after a busy day of work following up many prior busy days of work, I left the office and went to the airport to catch my flight to Vancouver. Purpose of the trip, coach the McGill women’s ultimate Frisbee team at the Canadian University Ultimate Championships. My expectations for the team were relatively low compared to our 2005 when we finished as the top ranked women’s program in the country and 2006 when we took home the silver medal. My goal was to make it into the semi-finals but I knew even that would be a challenge. There were a lot of young, inexperienced girls on the team this year and they were going to have their hands full with the more experienced teams from such obscure places as UBC, Saskatchewan, U of T and U of A. In the end they exceeded my own and I think even their own expectations by making it to the finals against an exceptionally talented but unfortunately arrogant UBC team. I don’t think the score of the final necessarily represented how well our girls played but the most important thing is that they had a whale of a good time and exceeded expectations. Score a big one in the feel good department.
On the Monday I had the good fortune of not having to fly back to Montreal to sit behind my lovely office desk but rather I got to board a flight bound for beautiful San Francisco. Next stop on my whirlwind tour of North America was the Meritage Resort and Spa in lovely Napa. This leg started out great as I was flipping through the EnRoute magazine and to my great surprise, when I got to the section where they highlight hotels from around the world and right there was the Meritage. It took a turn for the worse when we pulled into the hotel which looked like it was located in an industrial area of the valley. My first impressions of Napa weren’t great as you approach it from the south through a predominantly industrial area. My hopes were raised again when my boss explained that the “real” Napa Valley is north of the town of Napa and not anywhere near where we were. Things kept getting better when the big boss, Rick Wood showed up. Rick has a passion for the Napa Valley and its wines and I was hoping to get a chance to share that experience with him.
As luck would have it on Tuesday night we had a free night and the Canadian team went out for dinner at Celadon, a nice restaurant on the water in Napa. Rick took charge of the wine list and ordered a 2004 Cliff Lede Claret with dinner, a bottle of 2002 and 2003 Far Niente Dolce dessert wine. The Claret was phenomenal. I’ve never been a huge fan of red wines but that is probably because most of the red wines I’ve tasted are cheap and tasted more like grape juice. So it was love at first sip with Cliff Lede. I’ve also never been a fan of dessert wines and I’ve actually had some good ones before. While I’ve not been converted to dessert wines the Dolce was extremely drinkable. Of course at $90 a bottle one would think that it should be quite good. The cool thing about the Far Niente wines is that the labels are made from real gold leaf so you know they are putting some care into their product.
The trip got even better when Wednesday rolled around and as luck would have it the Canadian group didn’t have to attend any of the meetings until 4:30pm. I’ll give you one guess as to what happened next. Yup, we (Max and I) piled into Rick’s rental truck and were taken for a day to remember. We started at Coppola’s upscale winery, Rubicon, moved onto Beringer to see the lovely grounds, came back down to Cliff Lede and then finished off at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Rubicon definitely worth the $25 fee to see the winery and indulge in a 5 wine tasting. We actually tasted 7 wines thanks to our generous host. This was a top notch outfit and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Napa. Beringer is touristier but also worth the trip as it is one of the oldest and most spectacular wineries in the area. Cliff Lede was worth it for the wine but the people were a little less friendly. I found that surprising especially considering that they are owned by a Canadian. By the time we got the Stag’s Leap I was all tasted out and didn’t really care to try more but Max and Rick said it was really good as well. This winery is less about the facilities and more about the wine. In the end I finished the day with a bottle of 2005 Cliff Lede Claret and a bottle of 2004 Beringer Cab to take home. Darn Canada customs and their two bottle limit. In the end I think the limit is probably a good thing as I seem to have developed a taste for higher end wines in the $35-$90 a bottle range. The moral here is that I need a higher paying job to be able to sustain my new habit.
I was finally back in the office on October 19. One day of work and then the weekend; I could get used to this life. I had to be at work the following Monday and Tuesday but that was really just passing the time until Tuesday night. That was when Eric and I had to drive down to Burlington to catch our Wednesday morning flight to Sarasota. Daron was nice enough to put us up for the evening and then the real fun started on Wednesday. Our flight left on time as did our connection from Atlanta. We were in Tampa by noon and by 1:00pm we were on the road to Sarasota with John Bar as another passenger.
You might be wondering what I was doing heading to Sarasota for the weekend at the end of October. Eric, John Bar and I were on the way to the UPA Championships of course. I picked up with DoG this fall and have been playing masters ultimate with them since the beginning of September. We qualified for UPAs and now it was time to show up and play. This was huge for me because for the past 12 years I’ve been trying to qualify for this tournament and I finally did. I had hoped to get a shot to play in the open division but at this point I’m not going to be picky. UPAs is the absolutely biggest ultimate tournament in the World and I needed to go. By playing for DoG I figured I’d be able to ride the coat-tails of some of the legends of the game and qualify for “The Show”. Little did I know that I would be the game changer on their roster. I was just looking forward to getting a chance to play and learn from so many of the guys who kept destroying teams that I played on when I started out. By the end of this fall run I was the guy they were putting on the field to make the big plays for them. How cool is that!?!?!?! I’ll give you more details of the tournament later but the highlight of the tournament was after we won (YES, WE WON!!!!) the final, we were all huddled up and I’m surrounded by the likes of Parinella, Alex, Dick Brown, Seeger, Cameros, Zazlow, Coop, Paul Greff, etc. and Steve Mooney calls me out in front of all of these guys as the team MVP and gives me a high five. That right there is a moment I will never forget and is probably the highlight of my ultimate career.
Of course we won the masters division final, the partying starts which was fun and went on way too long, or not long enough depending on your point of view, we watched some high level ultimate on Sunday and then we had to come home. Eric and I got to the airport only to find out that our flight was overbooked by 25 people. What nearly turned into a nightmare scenario was saved by the US Airways woman at the gate who found us an alternate flight back to Burlington which actually arrived before we were scheduled to get there. On top of that we both got a flight voucher out of the deal.
Now you can see why I’m feeling pretty good right now. It’s been a long time coming but I finally feel like I’ve been able to recharge my batteries. In the next few days I’ll do a review of UPAs and post it for all to read. I’ll tell you all about the awesome stuff (the fields, the beach, the weather, the games, the gold medal) and the bad stuff (having the tournament end). Until then I’m going to go and drink a glass of nice wine, look at the silver medal the girls earned for me, wear the gold medal I won for myself and keep that silly smile on my face.
Dan Read more!
First I’ll give a brief explanation as to why I haven’t been updating as often as I may have wanted to be doing so. I haven’t been inspired to do so. Not the greatest of explanations but that will be all you’ll get out of me. It’s been a really long summer; ultimate took up way more time than I wanted it to (again), family health crises popped up (we’re all rooting for you Ben), work got out of control and… I think that is pretty much it.
It is now the first of November and I am sitting in front of a computer feeling ridiculously refreshed. Ultimate took up a lot of my fall but in a good way, Ben seems to be doing pretty well (http://benjaminskira.blogspot.com) and work has calmed down in a big way. On top of that I have only been in the office seven days over the past three weeks. Not a lot of work combined with lots of play makes for a happy Daniel.
Since we all agree that the summer was a write-off I’ll get into the nitty-gritty details of what has me feeling so good these days.
On Oct 11, after a busy day of work following up many prior busy days of work, I left the office and went to the airport to catch my flight to Vancouver. Purpose of the trip, coach the McGill women’s ultimate Frisbee team at the Canadian University Ultimate Championships. My expectations for the team were relatively low compared to our 2005 when we finished as the top ranked women’s program in the country and 2006 when we took home the silver medal. My goal was to make it into the semi-finals but I knew even that would be a challenge. There were a lot of young, inexperienced girls on the team this year and they were going to have their hands full with the more experienced teams from such obscure places as UBC, Saskatchewan, U of T and U of A. In the end they exceeded my own and I think even their own expectations by making it to the finals against an exceptionally talented but unfortunately arrogant UBC team. I don’t think the score of the final necessarily represented how well our girls played but the most important thing is that they had a whale of a good time and exceeded expectations. Score a big one in the feel good department.
On the Monday I had the good fortune of not having to fly back to Montreal to sit behind my lovely office desk but rather I got to board a flight bound for beautiful San Francisco. Next stop on my whirlwind tour of North America was the Meritage Resort and Spa in lovely Napa. This leg started out great as I was flipping through the EnRoute magazine and to my great surprise, when I got to the section where they highlight hotels from around the world and right there was the Meritage. It took a turn for the worse when we pulled into the hotel which looked like it was located in an industrial area of the valley. My first impressions of Napa weren’t great as you approach it from the south through a predominantly industrial area. My hopes were raised again when my boss explained that the “real” Napa Valley is north of the town of Napa and not anywhere near where we were. Things kept getting better when the big boss, Rick Wood showed up. Rick has a passion for the Napa Valley and its wines and I was hoping to get a chance to share that experience with him.
As luck would have it on Tuesday night we had a free night and the Canadian team went out for dinner at Celadon, a nice restaurant on the water in Napa. Rick took charge of the wine list and ordered a 2004 Cliff Lede Claret with dinner, a bottle of 2002 and 2003 Far Niente Dolce dessert wine. The Claret was phenomenal. I’ve never been a huge fan of red wines but that is probably because most of the red wines I’ve tasted are cheap and tasted more like grape juice. So it was love at first sip with Cliff Lede. I’ve also never been a fan of dessert wines and I’ve actually had some good ones before. While I’ve not been converted to dessert wines the Dolce was extremely drinkable. Of course at $90 a bottle one would think that it should be quite good. The cool thing about the Far Niente wines is that the labels are made from real gold leaf so you know they are putting some care into their product.
The trip got even better when Wednesday rolled around and as luck would have it the Canadian group didn’t have to attend any of the meetings until 4:30pm. I’ll give you one guess as to what happened next. Yup, we (Max and I) piled into Rick’s rental truck and were taken for a day to remember. We started at Coppola’s upscale winery, Rubicon, moved onto Beringer to see the lovely grounds, came back down to Cliff Lede and then finished off at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Rubicon definitely worth the $25 fee to see the winery and indulge in a 5 wine tasting. We actually tasted 7 wines thanks to our generous host. This was a top notch outfit and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Napa. Beringer is touristier but also worth the trip as it is one of the oldest and most spectacular wineries in the area. Cliff Lede was worth it for the wine but the people were a little less friendly. I found that surprising especially considering that they are owned by a Canadian. By the time we got the Stag’s Leap I was all tasted out and didn’t really care to try more but Max and Rick said it was really good as well. This winery is less about the facilities and more about the wine. In the end I finished the day with a bottle of 2005 Cliff Lede Claret and a bottle of 2004 Beringer Cab to take home. Darn Canada customs and their two bottle limit. In the end I think the limit is probably a good thing as I seem to have developed a taste for higher end wines in the $35-$90 a bottle range. The moral here is that I need a higher paying job to be able to sustain my new habit.
I was finally back in the office on October 19. One day of work and then the weekend; I could get used to this life. I had to be at work the following Monday and Tuesday but that was really just passing the time until Tuesday night. That was when Eric and I had to drive down to Burlington to catch our Wednesday morning flight to Sarasota. Daron was nice enough to put us up for the evening and then the real fun started on Wednesday. Our flight left on time as did our connection from Atlanta. We were in Tampa by noon and by 1:00pm we were on the road to Sarasota with John Bar as another passenger.
You might be wondering what I was doing heading to Sarasota for the weekend at the end of October. Eric, John Bar and I were on the way to the UPA Championships of course. I picked up with DoG this fall and have been playing masters ultimate with them since the beginning of September. We qualified for UPAs and now it was time to show up and play. This was huge for me because for the past 12 years I’ve been trying to qualify for this tournament and I finally did. I had hoped to get a shot to play in the open division but at this point I’m not going to be picky. UPAs is the absolutely biggest ultimate tournament in the World and I needed to go. By playing for DoG I figured I’d be able to ride the coat-tails of some of the legends of the game and qualify for “The Show”. Little did I know that I would be the game changer on their roster. I was just looking forward to getting a chance to play and learn from so many of the guys who kept destroying teams that I played on when I started out. By the end of this fall run I was the guy they were putting on the field to make the big plays for them. How cool is that!?!?!?! I’ll give you more details of the tournament later but the highlight of the tournament was after we won (YES, WE WON!!!!) the final, we were all huddled up and I’m surrounded by the likes of Parinella, Alex, Dick Brown, Seeger, Cameros, Zazlow, Coop, Paul Greff, etc. and Steve Mooney calls me out in front of all of these guys as the team MVP and gives me a high five. That right there is a moment I will never forget and is probably the highlight of my ultimate career.
Of course we won the masters division final, the partying starts which was fun and went on way too long, or not long enough depending on your point of view, we watched some high level ultimate on Sunday and then we had to come home. Eric and I got to the airport only to find out that our flight was overbooked by 25 people. What nearly turned into a nightmare scenario was saved by the US Airways woman at the gate who found us an alternate flight back to Burlington which actually arrived before we were scheduled to get there. On top of that we both got a flight voucher out of the deal.
Now you can see why I’m feeling pretty good right now. It’s been a long time coming but I finally feel like I’ve been able to recharge my batteries. In the next few days I’ll do a review of UPAs and post it for all to read. I’ll tell you all about the awesome stuff (the fields, the beach, the weather, the games, the gold medal) and the bad stuff (having the tournament end). Until then I’m going to go and drink a glass of nice wine, look at the silver medal the girls earned for me, wear the gold medal I won for myself and keep that silly smile on my face.
Dan Read more!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Seasons of Frustration
I thought the winter was sucky. It was too warm for too long. We couldn't do wintery things like go skiing or skating for the longest time. Winter finally decided to kick in some time in February. I got my motivation up enough to go skiing a few times but once March started to draw to a close it was time to look forward to spring. Winter, of course, had a different idea. I think Jack Frost signed a short term lease in the Northeast because he just did not want to leave. Today, April 18th, is finally a warmish, sunny day. We had snow on and off for the better part of the last week. The things that I am looking forward to doing outside, well I can't start doing them yet due to the conditions. I don't feel like biking over an ice patch, I don't feel like hiking through snowy-slushy mud and I most definitely don't feel like playing ultimate in the snow.
We were supposed to have competitive spring league but sure enough the elements are conspiring against us. We can't use Forbes Field tonight because it is still 90% covered in snow. I'm sure the McGill athletics department is exagerating that number a bit but I still don't want to play on a field 60%-70% covered in snow.
Point being, this winter sucked and now this spring sucks.
It wouldn't be so bad if I had been smart enough to shift my expectations... had I planned on winter being from Febraury to mid April I would have been fine but my seasonal expectations did not match the actual seasons outside. Do I shift my expectations for next year or do I hope that in this time of Global Warming that next year will be back to normal?
Whatever, it finally looks like a gorgeous day outside, I'm going to go outside and play and it better not snow on me.
DF Read more!
We were supposed to have competitive spring league but sure enough the elements are conspiring against us. We can't use Forbes Field tonight because it is still 90% covered in snow. I'm sure the McGill athletics department is exagerating that number a bit but I still don't want to play on a field 60%-70% covered in snow.
Point being, this winter sucked and now this spring sucks.
It wouldn't be so bad if I had been smart enough to shift my expectations... had I planned on winter being from Febraury to mid April I would have been fine but my seasonal expectations did not match the actual seasons outside. Do I shift my expectations for next year or do I hope that in this time of Global Warming that next year will be back to normal?
Whatever, it finally looks like a gorgeous day outside, I'm going to go outside and play and it better not snow on me.
DF Read more!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Before the Season Ends…
The stars finally aligned and I did it… I went skiing for the first time this winter. I feel like lots of factors have conspired to keep me off the slopes; first we had no snow and then when we did it was -20 degrees and the reality is I’m turning into a fair weather skier. Whatever, I finally got off my duff and headed to the slopes with about a million other Montrealers. Thankfully not all of them headed to Mont-Tremblant like I did but it seems like about half of them made it up there.
Courtney and I were invited to a friend’s place just north of Tremblant, in Labelle. We decided to head up on Friday night during the tail end of the big storm that rolled through. I managed to make an observation on the difficult drive up; Canada shouldn’t limit SUV purchases for environmental reason but rather because most people who own them are too dumb to drive them. Why do I say that? Because far too many people were driving like their SUVs were magnets on a metal road. How smart do you think these people felt when they ended up in the ditch; and a lot of them did. So aside from seeing a lot of mayhem on the roads it was an uneventful, white-knuckle, drive up.
The conditions on both Saturday and Sunday were awesome. There was lots of fresh snow on the ground and the weather was perfect for skiing; a mix of flurries and some sun. It felt good to be out on the slopes and I had a fun time hanging out with our small group. Even though the parking lots were full, thanks to the huge lift capacity I don’t think that we ever had to wait more than ten minutes to get on a lift. I haven’t completely forgotten how to ski but it did take a few runs to get back into the swing of things. By the end of the day I felt like a natural again; I was smoothly rolling through the moguls, carving some tight arcs on the smooth parts and even catching a few of the last spots of powder on the sides of the runs. As much fun as the skiing was it is too bad that Tremblant doesn’t have better terrain because that would really put it in a class by itself in the Northeast.
It was nice to not have to drive back to Montreal on Saturday evening. Props definitely go out to Adrielle and Emma who had a nice warm batch of chocolate chip muffins waiting for Courtney, Danielle, Bre, Sally and myself when we got back to the chalet. There are few things that compare to sitting on a couch in a chalet in the middle of nowhere, drinking wine by the fire, knowing that you don’t have to deal with the crush of people on the roads heading home.
I do wish that I was in better shape because my legs were burning by the end of the weekend. That thought brings me out of my bubble and back to the reality that the ultimate season is about to start and I need to get back into shape. Time to call the gym and get that membership I’ve been putting off for so long. Or maybe I should just enjoy the ski season as long as I can and get out a few more times… that sounds like a better plan right now. Read more!
Courtney and I were invited to a friend’s place just north of Tremblant, in Labelle. We decided to head up on Friday night during the tail end of the big storm that rolled through. I managed to make an observation on the difficult drive up; Canada shouldn’t limit SUV purchases for environmental reason but rather because most people who own them are too dumb to drive them. Why do I say that? Because far too many people were driving like their SUVs were magnets on a metal road. How smart do you think these people felt when they ended up in the ditch; and a lot of them did. So aside from seeing a lot of mayhem on the roads it was an uneventful, white-knuckle, drive up.
The conditions on both Saturday and Sunday were awesome. There was lots of fresh snow on the ground and the weather was perfect for skiing; a mix of flurries and some sun. It felt good to be out on the slopes and I had a fun time hanging out with our small group. Even though the parking lots were full, thanks to the huge lift capacity I don’t think that we ever had to wait more than ten minutes to get on a lift. I haven’t completely forgotten how to ski but it did take a few runs to get back into the swing of things. By the end of the day I felt like a natural again; I was smoothly rolling through the moguls, carving some tight arcs on the smooth parts and even catching a few of the last spots of powder on the sides of the runs. As much fun as the skiing was it is too bad that Tremblant doesn’t have better terrain because that would really put it in a class by itself in the Northeast.
It was nice to not have to drive back to Montreal on Saturday evening. Props definitely go out to Adrielle and Emma who had a nice warm batch of chocolate chip muffins waiting for Courtney, Danielle, Bre, Sally and myself when we got back to the chalet. There are few things that compare to sitting on a couch in a chalet in the middle of nowhere, drinking wine by the fire, knowing that you don’t have to deal with the crush of people on the roads heading home.
I do wish that I was in better shape because my legs were burning by the end of the weekend. That thought brings me out of my bubble and back to the reality that the ultimate season is about to start and I need to get back into shape. Time to call the gym and get that membership I’ve been putting off for so long. Or maybe I should just enjoy the ski season as long as I can and get out a few more times… that sounds like a better plan right now. Read more!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Something Different for a Change
Last week I had the opportunity to get out to a great little event that I’m sure not many of you have ever heard of. It’s called Festiglace and it takes place in the small town of Pont-Rouge just outside of Quebec City. It is one of the largest ice-climbing festivals in Canada. I got to go there with work, since we are the title sponsor of the event, I think The North Face is even in the official name of the event but all anyone ever calls it is Festiglace.
If you like the outdoors (in the winter) and participating in / watching “extreme” sports this is one event that you should go watch at some point. There were 24 of the best ice climbers in the World on hand to compete and countless other climbers just having a fun weekend on the cliffs. Of course as you approach the site the first thing you ask is where is this friggin’ event going to take place. All around is nothing but farmer’s fields and forests. It’s as flat as all the girls you went to school with in grade 3. Even as you get out car you can’t help but wonder where the climbing will happen… and then you start walking down. Into a gorge or canyon or whatever you want to call it. Once you make it down the harrowing staircase and to the base of the gorge, then you realize where the climbing will happen. On both sides of the river are 40 to 50 meter high cliffs with ice falls sporadically spaced along them. It’s quite an impressive venue.
If you like the outdoors (in the winter) and participating in / watching “extreme” sports this is one event that you should go watch at some point. There were 24 of the best ice climbers in the World on hand to compete and countless other climbers just having a fun weekend on the cliffs. Of course as you approach the site the first thing you ask is where is this friggin’ event going to take place. All around is nothing but farmer’s fields and forests. It’s as flat as all the girls you went to school with in grade 3. Even as you get out car you can’t help but wonder where the climbing will happen… and then you start walking down. Into a gorge or canyon or whatever you want to call it. Once you make it down the harrowing staircase and to the base of the gorge, then you realize where the climbing will happen. On both sides of the river are 40 to 50 meter high cliffs with ice falls sporadically spaced along them. It’s quite an impressive venue.
Aside from being a useless fool on Saturday because I was sick on Friday night I had a great time. I got to watch some amazing athletes performing in their element, spend some time outside on a beautiful weekend and meet some phenomenal people. I had dinner on Saturday night at the same table as two people who have been to the top of Mt Everest, Greg Childs and Mario Dutil. How cool is that? Speaking to them, it is interesting how they have completely differing views on climbing but are both so appreciative of the opportunities that they have to go climbing. Mario especially was beaming about how lucky he is to be able to live the lifestyle that he lives but not in an arrogant manner which we have to listen to all too often these days. He has a passion for his sport and for life that was refreshing. Usually this kind of enthusiasm is something found in the youth of our generations but this guy just cleared 50. It’s refreshing to know that “cynical old man” is not something that we have to turn into.
Probably the coolest event to watch was the speed climbing on Sunday. The competitors raced up an ice pillar and the quickest person up was the winner. They used nothing but their ice tools and crampons. It was most impressive to watch as these guys raced up the ice pillar faster than you or I could run up stairs. The winner, a Ukrainian named Evgeniy Krivo-something-or-another, won with a time of 39 seconds. Think about that for a second… 40 meters of sheer vertical ice in 39 seconds. It’s hard to imagine without seeing it.
A sport for me to try in the future? I don’t think so. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it but to get to be any good requires an investment of lots of time and money. Right now I just don’t have the time to invest in it, which would frustrate me. I would enjoy the climbing but I wouldn’t have enough time to commit to it to really improve and learn the skills and techniques to become really good… and then I would become bitter. Rather than start a sport I couldn’t really commit to I would rather wait until a point in my life when I would have the time to commit to it.
Regardless of whether you climb or not, Festiglace is a fun outing for anyone who likes the outdoors. At worst you can always take the $40 helicopter ride down the gorge. Now if you don’t find that exciting, you don’t have a pulse.
DF
Read more!
Probably the coolest event to watch was the speed climbing on Sunday. The competitors raced up an ice pillar and the quickest person up was the winner. They used nothing but their ice tools and crampons. It was most impressive to watch as these guys raced up the ice pillar faster than you or I could run up stairs. The winner, a Ukrainian named Evgeniy Krivo-something-or-another, won with a time of 39 seconds. Think about that for a second… 40 meters of sheer vertical ice in 39 seconds. It’s hard to imagine without seeing it.
A sport for me to try in the future? I don’t think so. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it but to get to be any good requires an investment of lots of time and money. Right now I just don’t have the time to invest in it, which would frustrate me. I would enjoy the climbing but I wouldn’t have enough time to commit to it to really improve and learn the skills and techniques to become really good… and then I would become bitter. Rather than start a sport I couldn’t really commit to I would rather wait until a point in my life when I would have the time to commit to it.
Regardless of whether you climb or not, Festiglace is a fun outing for anyone who likes the outdoors. At worst you can always take the $40 helicopter ride down the gorge. Now if you don’t find that exciting, you don’t have a pulse.
DF
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Mephisto Meeting Notes... Before the Fact
Mephisto is having it’s annual pre-season meeting tonight. The point of the meeting is to inform prospective new players and returning players what is the plan for the upcoming season. Most people just want to know what the schedule for the season is going to be. Others want to know everything about the upcoming season. I guess you could say I will be leaking some of this info before it’s truly out in the open but since I don’t think this involves any issues of National Security I won’t feel too guilty.
This year looks like it might be a bit different from previous seasons. We will start later in the season; tryouts will only start in May and be completed by CUT which is usually (in it’s two year history) the first weekend in June. On the flip side we will be done at Nationals, which this year is a bit earlier than normal, Aug 9-12. That means we will have a very small window in which to come together as a team. I’m still not sure if such a short season will be good or bad for our team. On the one hand we won’t have as much time as usual to practice as a team. This could be a bad thing seeing as how we don’t have tons of guys who are phenomenally talented ultimate players so we will take some time to emerge as a solid unit. On the other hand the shorter season will allow guys to maintain their focus through the short summer season. Guys won’t burn out and the intensity should be higher throughout the season. That will be a big plus and should outweigh the disadvantages of a short season… assuming of course that every one remains fully committed to the team for the short period that we ask of them.
To help with the point I mentioned in the previous paragraph about not having the most phenomenally gifted players, we are going to put more of a focus on individual improvement through coaching. It’s difficult to do when your coaches are playing as well but it is something that needs to be done if you don’t want your players to stagnate at a certain level. Guys will get more “green lights” this season to work on things that aren’t necessarily within their comfort zones.
What will be the best part of this season is that it will be cheap… or at least cheaper than last year. We don’t have to fly anywhere and we won’t need to drive too far for all that many tournaments. That will be a nice change from spending a fortune last year on ultimate. I’m still wiping the scars from last season from my bank account. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets about last season at all, it was awesome but it was very expensive and there are only so many times that you can go through a season like that on my salary.
Perhaps the biggest change that we will need to deal with this season is with personnel. We are losing a bunch of players from last year. The biggest loss will be Sam Kennedy (not so much losing him but losing him to our “arch-nemesis” Goat sucks). But there will be a bunch of new faces that will make up for that. Every year we lose a bunch of players and somehow we always make it through those losses. I don’t think this year should be any different. We have a few prospective players returning ex-team mates that will potentially add a lot of depth to this team. Of course we’ll never know until the season gets underway but it looks good right now.
We’ll see if my guarded optimism remains after tonight’s meeting…
DF Read more!
This year looks like it might be a bit different from previous seasons. We will start later in the season; tryouts will only start in May and be completed by CUT which is usually (in it’s two year history) the first weekend in June. On the flip side we will be done at Nationals, which this year is a bit earlier than normal, Aug 9-12. That means we will have a very small window in which to come together as a team. I’m still not sure if such a short season will be good or bad for our team. On the one hand we won’t have as much time as usual to practice as a team. This could be a bad thing seeing as how we don’t have tons of guys who are phenomenally talented ultimate players so we will take some time to emerge as a solid unit. On the other hand the shorter season will allow guys to maintain their focus through the short summer season. Guys won’t burn out and the intensity should be higher throughout the season. That will be a big plus and should outweigh the disadvantages of a short season… assuming of course that every one remains fully committed to the team for the short period that we ask of them.
To help with the point I mentioned in the previous paragraph about not having the most phenomenally gifted players, we are going to put more of a focus on individual improvement through coaching. It’s difficult to do when your coaches are playing as well but it is something that needs to be done if you don’t want your players to stagnate at a certain level. Guys will get more “green lights” this season to work on things that aren’t necessarily within their comfort zones.
What will be the best part of this season is that it will be cheap… or at least cheaper than last year. We don’t have to fly anywhere and we won’t need to drive too far for all that many tournaments. That will be a nice change from spending a fortune last year on ultimate. I’m still wiping the scars from last season from my bank account. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets about last season at all, it was awesome but it was very expensive and there are only so many times that you can go through a season like that on my salary.
Perhaps the biggest change that we will need to deal with this season is with personnel. We are losing a bunch of players from last year. The biggest loss will be Sam Kennedy (not so much losing him but losing him to our “arch-nemesis” Goat sucks). But there will be a bunch of new faces that will make up for that. Every year we lose a bunch of players and somehow we always make it through those losses. I don’t think this year should be any different. We have a few prospective players returning ex-team mates that will potentially add a lot of depth to this team. Of course we’ll never know until the season gets underway but it looks good right now.
We’ll see if my guarded optimism remains after tonight’s meeting…
DF Read more!
Friday, January 05, 2007
Looking Forward to 2007
After a ridiculously long 2006 season I think I needed some time away from Frisbee. When I say away from frisbee I mean not even thinking about the damn sport; some people spend way too much time obsessing about our sport but that is another topic for another time.
Now it’s time to start moving forward and planning, or at least thinking, about the 2007 season. We need to decide which tournaments to go to, plan our practice schedule for the season, plan the tryout schedule and most importantly evaluate how we can improve on our 2006 results. The first step for accomplishing that is the good old break down of the previous season. Mephisto will be getting together in a few days to go over what worked, what didn’t work and what we can do better moving forward. It’s my dad’s birthday on the day of that meeting so I won’t be there to hear everything firsthand and to share my thoughts so I’ll start by putting my ideas onto “paper” here.
Things that worked in 2006: Well it’s no fun blowing smoke up your own a**. No one wants to hear all the positive, feel good stuff from last season but I’ll throw a few things out there anyway. As usual, Mephisto came together very well at Canadian Nationals. We finished a clear second behind Goat. We weren’t quite good enough to give them the game that we wanted to in the final but we were clearly ahead of all the other teams in the tournament. At no point did any team aside from Goat have a chance of beating us. We also came together in a similar way in Australia at World’s. I think that we performed very well this season considering how many new players we had on our roster which was a huge positive. Our move to a more Montreal based roster (for the summer season at least) was huge. It was really helpful to go to practice and be able to split into as many as three teams. It’s so much better than trying to replicate game conditions in a game of 5 on 5.
So now on to the fun stuff; things that I think need to be different in 2007.
First off it will be nice to have one focus only, that being Canadian Nationals. It will allow us to deal with one roster for the season. In 2006 it was tricky managing the Nationals and the Worlds roster. It meant that we rarely had the chance to go to a tournament with our complete team because we essentially had two different rosters.
Not having to deal with Worlds will also allow us to have a pared down schedule. Down time is healthy and we didn’t have enough of it last year. By the end of the season pretty much everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. We were playing 3-4 times a week from April until November.
I think the biggest change we need to make is with respect to individual play. We need to crack down on errors. I don’t know if we were too accepting of drops and throwaways, if some players just lack some basic skills, or if we didn’t have the depth to really penalize players for their “liberties” with the disc. The reality is that if you want to compete at the top level there is no room for the simple mistakes. Turnovers happen often enough that we can’t afford to gift the disc over as well. The best example of this is from our game against Thong at World’s. We were up a bunch and Shaggy passed the disc to Frank for an “easy” score. Frank dropped the disc and instead of us going up by 4, Thong scored and it was a 2 point game. In the end it’s not Frank’s fault that we lost the game; had Seb not dropped the pass on double game point who knows what the result would have been… but had Frank not dropped that pass we wouldn’t have had to worry about being in a double game point situation in the first place because at worst we would have been saved by the cap. In 2007 we need to make sure that those errors don’t happen anymore.
From an individual point of view the team has to make sure that everyone is in top form for the season. With so many things to work on at practice it is difficult to spend time trying to get guys in shape when they should be doing that on their own. The reality is that most people are lazy and only work out at practice so don’t do any extra work to get in peak shape. Again, to compete at the top level we need to be in the best shape possible or else we’ll get run into the ground by the teams we play.
Lastly, our mental focus needs to be improved. How you do that I’m not quite sure since I’m no shrink but we need to get better. All too often we play down to the level of the opposition or we play inconsistently following a big win or loss. That needs to change. We need to have the focus to finish teams off when we have the chance in order to conserve energy. We managed that well at Nationals but had trouble with that at pretty much every other tournament. I’m sure that comes from how the team is managed and I want to make sure that the team’s management makes a big effort to improve this aspect.
Aside from that I think things ran quite well last year but I guess we’ll hear more from everyone at our meeting. I’m sure there are some “obvious” improvements that some guys see that to me don’t seem like a big deal.
Oh yeah, I miss Australia. I need to go back there for a bit longer in the near future.
DF Read more!
Now it’s time to start moving forward and planning, or at least thinking, about the 2007 season. We need to decide which tournaments to go to, plan our practice schedule for the season, plan the tryout schedule and most importantly evaluate how we can improve on our 2006 results. The first step for accomplishing that is the good old break down of the previous season. Mephisto will be getting together in a few days to go over what worked, what didn’t work and what we can do better moving forward. It’s my dad’s birthday on the day of that meeting so I won’t be there to hear everything firsthand and to share my thoughts so I’ll start by putting my ideas onto “paper” here.
Things that worked in 2006: Well it’s no fun blowing smoke up your own a**. No one wants to hear all the positive, feel good stuff from last season but I’ll throw a few things out there anyway. As usual, Mephisto came together very well at Canadian Nationals. We finished a clear second behind Goat. We weren’t quite good enough to give them the game that we wanted to in the final but we were clearly ahead of all the other teams in the tournament. At no point did any team aside from Goat have a chance of beating us. We also came together in a similar way in Australia at World’s. I think that we performed very well this season considering how many new players we had on our roster which was a huge positive. Our move to a more Montreal based roster (for the summer season at least) was huge. It was really helpful to go to practice and be able to split into as many as three teams. It’s so much better than trying to replicate game conditions in a game of 5 on 5.
So now on to the fun stuff; things that I think need to be different in 2007.
First off it will be nice to have one focus only, that being Canadian Nationals. It will allow us to deal with one roster for the season. In 2006 it was tricky managing the Nationals and the Worlds roster. It meant that we rarely had the chance to go to a tournament with our complete team because we essentially had two different rosters.
Not having to deal with Worlds will also allow us to have a pared down schedule. Down time is healthy and we didn’t have enough of it last year. By the end of the season pretty much everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. We were playing 3-4 times a week from April until November.
I think the biggest change we need to make is with respect to individual play. We need to crack down on errors. I don’t know if we were too accepting of drops and throwaways, if some players just lack some basic skills, or if we didn’t have the depth to really penalize players for their “liberties” with the disc. The reality is that if you want to compete at the top level there is no room for the simple mistakes. Turnovers happen often enough that we can’t afford to gift the disc over as well. The best example of this is from our game against Thong at World’s. We were up a bunch and Shaggy passed the disc to Frank for an “easy” score. Frank dropped the disc and instead of us going up by 4, Thong scored and it was a 2 point game. In the end it’s not Frank’s fault that we lost the game; had Seb not dropped the pass on double game point who knows what the result would have been… but had Frank not dropped that pass we wouldn’t have had to worry about being in a double game point situation in the first place because at worst we would have been saved by the cap. In 2007 we need to make sure that those errors don’t happen anymore.
From an individual point of view the team has to make sure that everyone is in top form for the season. With so many things to work on at practice it is difficult to spend time trying to get guys in shape when they should be doing that on their own. The reality is that most people are lazy and only work out at practice so don’t do any extra work to get in peak shape. Again, to compete at the top level we need to be in the best shape possible or else we’ll get run into the ground by the teams we play.
Lastly, our mental focus needs to be improved. How you do that I’m not quite sure since I’m no shrink but we need to get better. All too often we play down to the level of the opposition or we play inconsistently following a big win or loss. That needs to change. We need to have the focus to finish teams off when we have the chance in order to conserve energy. We managed that well at Nationals but had trouble with that at pretty much every other tournament. I’m sure that comes from how the team is managed and I want to make sure that the team’s management makes a big effort to improve this aspect.
Aside from that I think things ran quite well last year but I guess we’ll hear more from everyone at our meeting. I’m sure there are some “obvious” improvements that some guys see that to me don’t seem like a big deal.
Oh yeah, I miss Australia. I need to go back there for a bit longer in the near future.
DF Read more!
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