How sweet it is

I have been counting down the days, first I took note when Sandblast was announced. Then we attempted to put a Valpo team together for it, which failed. Then I had to bide my time until I could find a pick-up team since it is ultimate and organization is normally the afterthought. Cree wanted me to put a bid out for the two of us, which I was happy to do. I placed pretty much an add on rsd and got about six responses in ten hours, took the first one and apologized to the other teams. There were a few emails back and forth about the tournament, but a team can't really mesh over emails unless you already knew each other. From the time I arrived at camp, I was counting down the days until I would be able to play beach ultimate (my favorite way to play ultimate). And then it was here and now it is gone, which is sad, but it was one of my favorite tournaments of my life.

First really awesome thing, my captain applied for jersey sponsorship, and we got it, oh yeah! We had sweet jerseys that fit well and looked great. It was really just a waterfull of fun after that. I arrived at the pitches, found the team and we all started joking around with another. I love it when the tone is set great from the start. Most of the team had played together in the Chicago leagues, we had a few guests, one player from Texas, one from Lousiana, one from Michigan. These three were all linked to someone on the team somehow, and then there was me and Cree, the youngest players on the team, but it never felt awkward (unless someone was intentionally trying to make you feel awkward, which became Oren's job after he sliced part of his toe off).

The first day we went 3-1, we had a couple really close games which shouldn't have been close. Our last game on Saturday was for the bracket play, and since we won, we were in the quarter finals of the spirit division (meaning it was not as competitive and probably more fun for me at least). How hot was it you ask? Really, really hot. Ok, that is not an answer, but the only thing which made that day not so great is that the lake was closed.

After going out to Piece with my friends from college (that sounds weird, past tense now) I woke up crazy early on Sunday not feeling so well, but still excited to play more Frisbee. Sunday was amazing. I would be sitting on the sidelines thinking, man, I could just sit for the rest of the day, but then when it was my turn to go it, my feet started in a sprint towards the endzone and giant smile would appear on my face. We played well Sunday, well enough to the spirit division champions! Two universe point games (meaning the teams were tied at 12-12 or 14-14 and the last point determined the winner) and one of the greatest games of my life were played on Sunday. Not to down play the final, but the semi-final was amazing for me. So yeah, we won and the lake was open! During the half-time of the semi game, JW turned to me and said, "Foot race to the lake to cool off?" (I had asked him this earlier in the day), and we turned and ran, and accidently ran through another teams field while they were playing (But really, they were about to pull, we didn't run through a group of people, but the funny part is we were telling everyone who was not at the beach for the tournament to go around the fields, sometimes they listened, sometimes not).

It was good to win, it was good to play with a good team, it was good to have a lot of fun playing frisbee again. When I am not organizing and can joke around with my teammates, what a great time. It reminded me of playing with Mother Tongue again, and that makes me smile. Thanks How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.

(And for you non-ultimate players, if you got this far on the post, way to go!).


And to name off the people that you don't know:
Front row: JW, Oren, Vickey, Lori, Carrie
Back row: Jim, Matthew, John, Dan, Drew, Aaron, Nicki, Coco, Cree