January 16: U of O Hat Tournament [Eugene, OR] "Black Prince" - Named after J-Rad's spirit (in a bottle) of the day, Dark Prince had no clear weaknesses on the squad, so the games went smoothly. We were only 1 point shy of going undefeated. The thing that really struck me was how at home I felt at this event. I felt like everyone was a friend, regardless of if I really knew them. That warm fuzzy ultimate feeling is back, and I have to much love to give.
March 20-21: Sundodger [Seattle, WA] " OSU 'Big Iron' Blue Ribbon Bandit Beavers" - My first (and likely last) college tournament was a(nother) low point for the OSU open team . Well, any time a team considers me a "ringer", you've got to wonder what they've got to begin with. Anyway, a poor 2-3 showing on Saturday with wins over MoHo (Juniors plus some Ducks) and UW-B and losses to Berkley, Stanford-B and UBC left the Beavs in the beer bracket for Sunday's games. Although in no way satisfying, the team romped Western Washington and UW-B (again) in the loser's bracket. I appreciated the chance to play with the Beavs (since I practiced with them all winter), but I think my college career will end with this single fiasco.
March 27-28: Gandy Goose III [Bend, OR] "skin&bones" - Our first tournament of the year showed the winter rust. Also, losing against my Corvallis comrades was tough to swallow. The tournament is best summed up by a conversation I had with Jackson Frisbie (the young son of Tom & Sue) a few weeks later. He said I should come play with their team because they were better than my team. I told him that we were working on it and that we would get better as the season went on. His response was roughly, "I'm not talking about the whole season. Maybe you could just play with us for a little while so that you can learn some skills." Ouch.
April 10-11: Mud Bowl [Eugene, OR] "Butterknife / Hot Knife / Hatchet / Axe (Eugene Machine)" - Short and fast guys playing frantic D made the weekend. Wins over Boise and Two Cowboys (Portland) were relatively easy chances for the team to warm up. The other two pool play games were tough losses to Tribe and another strong Seattle team. Finishing 2-2 (3rd in the pool) pitted us against the Portland "A" team starting the single elimination round Sunday morning. We came out hard and kept the score tight. Based on watching me play, Phreaker gave me the suggestion to use long cuts to set up return cuts. Two points later, I went into the game, made the cut we had discussed, got the disc from Gutter, turned upfield and hit Jose with a huck for a score. Phreaker didn't have any advise for me during the rest of the game. However, the damage was done and Hatchet was pumped. For the first time ever, Eugene beat this squad of P-town boys in an inspiring game. Semi-finals saw Axe go up 5-1 on Tribe, but the Seattle boys made use of an amazing huck game and won out 15-9 to go on to an easy finals win. This was my best open showing ever, and I hope to continue playing with these guys even though I am moving to Portland. Well Jackson, maybe I do have some skills after all.
April 17-18: Onionfest [Walla Walla, WA] "skin&bones" - A depleated squad allowed us to pick up Yuka [Japan], Hal [Eugene] and Mike McCarroll [Bend]. Saturday's first two games were relatively easy wins over Vincent "Meat Pie" Vega [Seattle] and G-Spot [Corvallis], setting us up for our toughest matchup of the day with Albino Squirrels [Seattle]. The early part of the game saw the Squirrels go up with hucks to open players. Their women were dominating. We revised the plan, got our women to relax on offense and responded to make the game close by halftime. The second half was a battle with team exchanging points, leaving us tied at 14. Game point. Squirrel's disc. Several passes brought Seattle past midfield and had everyone wondering what we would do to stop the seemingly inevitable score. Well, let me let you in on a little secret. I am beginning to learn how to love crunch time. The whole game had everyone thinking we could win against this excellent team, and I have no fear about being the one on the field who might have to make it happen. My man made a break to the home side but didn't do it aggressively. Ooops! Who is that laying out and cleanly knocking plastic to the grass? That would be Shiv. A few more throws and send it long and high for Lehner. Game over. Bones win.
The final pool game saw two tired squads scrap for the first half as Mike fired up his old Boise buddies with typical "elite" banter. (Did I mention the "weakest line" incident from the previous game. Oh well, maybe if you ask me in person.) Anyway, the bitching was going and the game was not going our way. However, we began having Matt "I'm injured" Hopkins start calling subs and took some of the bad emotion out of the game. The turn was complete after halftime as we went on an 8-1 run and won convincingly. My highlight was a slightly floating huck from Lehner that my defender (who had 4-6 inches on me) misread and allowed me to pull from the sky. Bones win. 4-0 in the new black uni's!
Sunday dominance was not to be. Although we picked up a rising star in "I'm almost 20" Amadee(ville Horror), seedings did not favor us as we faced the REDiculous team from Seattle (with Tom "He's in the magazine!" Barno and "Sweet" Caroline) that beat us (despite a broken nose) with relative ease. We heckled the Flying Lentils (with Kama, Shar, Peter, Stockman and Shelley) as they lost to REDiculous in the semifinals and took the MoHo home with the first successful Bones weekend of '99 under our belt.
May 1-2: NW College Regionals [Eugene, OR] - Stacy and I showed up Saturday morning only to learn that they didn't need observers until semifinals (or so they thought.) We got some goodies and watched the Beavs most of the day. I observed for the SantaCruz/UVic game without the power of misconduct fouls and had to help keep the teams from fighting after a UVic player jumped on the thrower who had an otherwise uncontested throw for a score. The next day, Stanford wouldn't start their early game with UBC until they had an observer. (It's not because they're both Canadian...both UBC and UVic have players who use aggressive marking and fast counts regularly.) My only full observing game was the Stanford/UVic semifinal. Although there were some heated arguments (including a tough call that Stacy had to make as a linesperson on a disc caught between a players legs), everyone pretty much behaved. Stanford beat Santa Cruz for first place in an excellent front door final, and Santa Cruz came off a backdoor bye to beat UCDavis for second place. The Stanford guys were on the sideline joking that "(I) was the worst observer ever." I was really glad to see that the cleanest teams (Stanford, Santa Cruz and even UCDavis, even though they will not be in Boulder) were also the best and that they won out in the end.
May 8-9: Scram, Pup! [Corvallis, OR] "Spirit This!" - The idea for this squad started at the 1998 Klienman with a conversation between Kellie "Texas" Hamby, Chris "Cowboy/Krusty/Seedless" Sheridan and Jeff "Shiv" Flynn. Chris still had access to his seeds and Jeff was not yet giving anyone the Shiv, but we all knew that having a team of loudmouths who knew that heckling a friend was sometimes even more endearing than any traditional encouragement you might have for them. Thus, "Spirit This!" was born. I won't go through the details of our evolution, selection of Ashland as an inaugural site, denial of entry, "ringer expatriation", nor the rebuilding of the squad, but I will let you know that the first incarnation of Spirit This was a success. We went 3-1, losing only to Skin&Bones in a well fought game.
Highlights of the day were:
You may also be amused by Chuck's epic poem recanting the skin&bones weekend.
I also went back and collected emails that recant the initial rostering of SpiritThis!
Of special interest is the Benedict Arnold treatise by Kellie "The Texas Playboy" Hamby.
May 15: Gnarly Gnines [Blaine, WA] "Gnine Gninth Edition Flynns a Flickin' (aka Pigfuckers)" - Gutter, Roach, Winston, Shar, Farring, Stacy, Kramer, Marya and Shiv went 7-2 as the best team that I have put together. It was great fun, great spirit and great play (although our two losses came in the morning before we were really warmed up and used to each other.) Amusing highlights included Ray's "where's the disc" fooling of Winston, Marya's "There is no rule..." rule, Gutter's efforts to wipe out all worms and the Roach/Shar pigfucking/handclapping cheer. We ended up 3rd in the pool of 10 and 5th of 28 overall. Stacy was so psyched, she wrote a poem to the team Tuesday.
May 29-30: Slugfest [Corvallis, OR] "Skin&Bones'" - The last tournament of the spring season saw an enlarged s&b squad (8-9 of each gender!) having trouble getting a game flow. Saturday was a bit rough with 4 losses, but we came back on Sunday, practiced some of our new defenses and won the beer bracket with the defeat of Promise Breakers and a hard fought revenge win over DJ Stall Count. I organized the tourney and have only a blur of memories. See cool pictures in the Corvallis Ultimate image gallery.
June 19-20: Solstice [Eugene, OR] - I didn't go. My mom turned 50 on Saturday the 19th, so I went back to Texas and surprised her showing up for the festivities. It's the first such sacrifice I've made since I started playing like a madman, but it was definitely worth it.
June 26-27: Gender Balance [Orcas Island, OR] "Obi-Wan Come Blow Me" - A totally different experience than last year, but still an amazing event. This year, in addition to having Ray Birkes and a crew of great women from Victoria, I was lucky to meet Darrel from Berkley. [Although I can't forget Matt and Nicole, two great new friends.] Now, I've played (and cheered) with some great spirited folks. Kelley Hamby, McKinley, Chris Sheridan, Stacy Hubbard, Doug Oetter and Jared Cahners come to mind. Darrel takes it, as they say, to the next level. Anyway, our cheers were amazing all weekend. As far as results go, Ray summed it up best when he told me he had "never seen a team run so hard and lose so much." Playing with the kids of ObiWanComeBlowMe was the most fun I've ever had not winning a single game. Outside of the field of play, it was a spectacular weekend as well. Driving up with Tara in Su-bitch, hanging out with the Oregon crew and generally being amazed at how many great people I have come to know in the last two years all give me warm fuzzies. Another eternal highlight of the weekend was Rindercella, the story of a Pransome Hince (Tara) who finds his lue trove (Rindercella - Oetter) at the bancy fall despite the distraction of the Sticked Wepmother (Sheridan) and the Sad Blisters (Jesse and myself.) We'll also hold a special place for Gutter's unique performance as the Gory Fadmother. Author and narrator, S-to-tha-mutha-fuckin'-tacy was "Outstanding!" Yea Oregon!!!
July 10-11: Potlatch[Kirkland, WA] "skin&bones" - Playing with Skin & Bones is often an emotional rollercoaster. This weekend, the coaster was almost always up. After a rough start against Dick Trickle (southern kids), the Bones got it together for a strong first round and impressive games against Condors '77 (Albino Squirrels - Seattle), MrFreezie (Vancouver) and Caliente (Bay Area+). I had one of my best weekend performances ever not so much highlighted by any particular play but by consistant high level contributions. [Although the hand block late in the game against the Condors' best handler was pretty nice.] My personal gratification came from a feeling -- nay, a knowledge that there were skilled, fast handlers that I could [almost] completely shut down. There's no subtle spin that I can put on the fact that there were a number of players this weekend who were just simply not going to get the disc when I was guarding them. Anyway, I hung out with an old friend from high school Saturday night and camped out in a far corner of the fields to wake up well rested Sunday.
I woke Sunday, crawled out of my tent and took a mosey over to the Bones MoHo. BD was already pumped and intense as he yapped something about being in A pool and playing Legion of Doom. It didn't matter. I felt great and was ready for a game against anyone. It turned out to be true that we were the 16th seed in A Pool and scheduled to play last year's champs, a collection of 6'+ Furious George men and Goo women. Another team had requested the chance to take our spot, but the Bones unanimously agreed that we wanted to play with the big boys. Although we only scored 4 to Doom's 15, we had a solid game and were happy with the result. My highlight was guarding a guy who was about 6'6" on a huck. I had position, but he pulled down the disc. (Who would have guessed?) After the match, I again checked my vertical against him. It turns out that when I jumped, I could get my wrist to the tip of his outstretched hand. The only trouble is that he was standing on the ground. Oh well. In the consolation round, we played another solid match against eventual consolation winners, Wild Bloody Fly (Stanford Reunion), losing 15-12 but very much in the game all of the way. The Bones are slowly growing toward something, and this weekend, it looks like something good.
July 17: Corvallis Mid-Season Hat Tournament [Corvallis, OR] "Delicious" - About a half-dozen Disco Inferno folks ended up on the same squad, so this didn't feel quite as "hat" as usual. We had some strong players but had trouble with clogging for a fair part of the day. It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and, if nothing else, I got to wear two different full length dresses.
July 31: Sluttin' Up [Seattle, WA] "Everything" - Tara adeptly averted a near-miss with Dammit (my car) while driving Subitch (her rig) to breakfast Saturday morning, and our team did the same on our quest in this year's event. Paired up with a batch of Microsoft college interns, "Snowmobiles and Boats (Turn Me On!)" lost an opening match by just a pair at the time cap. "Regrip Special: $2.50" started out decently in the second pool play match but got caught in a daze as "PocaWonka", a strong group powered primarily by college and juniors men's players, romped us 11-3. Complete catastrophy was avoided with a sound game as "3 Pickles" finished up pool play with a win. The bye time was spent constructively practicing layout catches off of a conrete pier into Lake Washington. We returned to the fields to learn that we were the 8th seed in the single elimination championship bracket and would therefore face the #1 seed. (We were also proud that Tara won $25 for the Luau in the cookie contest.) Tied at 5's, 6's and 7's, "Extra All" managed to pull out the upset win. Semi's included the 3 top teams from our pool, and we faced a rematch with "PokaWonka". Things were tight all of the way as "Free Mint" stepped it up to improve on our previous poor showing. The strategy to use our women more and more paid off as we squeaked out a tough 11-9 win despite losing Andy mid-game with a foot injury. The team took a day of ultimate and wrapped it up into "Everything" to face Danielle (who had formed her own team when it was unclear whether SunnyDDawgs would return this year) and her compadres. Everyone played hot, and we were tied at 4's when Kramer was knocked out cold for nearly a minute after an ugly 4-way collision when too many people went for plastic in too small a space. Although we had an ambulance out to check up on him, I don't think the throw could be labeled a "hospital pass" so much as a case of unfortunate crossing cuts. Marc was okay but out for the day. We played with 4 women when we had the chance, making up for a shrinking men's roster, and the teams traded points as the sun set. A hard cap of 9pm was put in place, and the teams were tied at 8's at 8:55. Love Potion #9 scored, and we called it a game. (Then we played another and they scored again, but that didn't really matter.) Marc "Knockout" Kramer and I agreed that the last points didn't affect how much we pumped on our day's performance. Everyone contributed significantly, and the whole team grew to find their style of play. Draeger was unstoppable on catchs in the end zone and never made a bad choice with his throws. Dave, Wes and Alex were running machines, uncoverable on O and tenacious on D. Judith, Aurora and Sara were cool-headed while handling. Kramer and Jesse played hard D and were able to do what they do best as they broke out of their Beaver molds. Andy and Tara, as usual, were unstoppable no matter where they were. Betsy and Tina grew into solid mid players with decisive cuts and calm, capable throws. I was just happy to see it all come together. This was easily my favorite tournament of the year thus far! (Next year, we're going to win the cookie contest AND finals!)
August 7-8: Spawnfest [Blaine, WA] "skin&bones"- 90% of the game is mental. After an aborted trip in Linus's Mini-Mo, Linus, Marya and I arrived at the Ferndale Moho camping site to the tune to "Ring of Fire" and I bedded down under the Moho's big spare tire. Saturday's games went well. The focus of the weekend was developing our new offense, and after a tough loss to "Kibosh", we did a good job of practicing the Punisher. A very cometative match against a Seattle squad that included "Timid" James from UW, Dillion and a lot of experience showed that, when they don't get psyched out before the game, Skin&Bones can beat some good crews. Easier wins against "Hunker Housers" and "Sasquash" rounded out the day, leaving us ranked 7th on Sunday matched against "Cordoroy Growl", the team we lost to in a tough semi-final last year. A late breakfast at Denny's left the team rusty for the first half of the game, but we were happy with our late game performance. The highlight of the game (of the weekend?) was Hamby's layout catch of a huck just shy of the goal line. Less could be said about our breakdown in the consolation match with "What's In the Pot?" However, good spirit prevailed for me, as I was awarded a Margarita wine cooler by our opponents for fine sportsmanship and a sick layout catch for a score on a blade-like huck from McGhee.
August 14-15: Klienman Eruption [Portland, OR] "skin&bones"- Some of the most difficult battles are psychological. At Klienman, skin&bones found just two such hurdles and overcame them. The first challenge came in the form of maintaining intensity. Like most teams, skin&bones has had a problem playing "down" to the level of less skilled opponents. This has resulted in painfully close but often relatively easy wins in the past. This weekend, the bones kept up the intensity, allowing only 9 points in the first 3 games against Promise Breakers, Desert Lorax and Sugar, including a blanking of the Lorax. Similarly, after splitting the first 4 points with Green in quarters on Sunday, the Bones tightened up and went on to cruise to a 15-6 win over a talented Team Green.
The second psychological battle was one of intimidation. Everyone, at some point in their athletic development, must overcome this issue to be a top performer. I gave my "everyone poops" rambling talk to outline the fact that everyone has to earn our respect, and even when they've done that, it just means we should be that much more pumped up to play hard against and challenge them. Whatever we did to prepare Saturday, it worked. In a tough battle, we beat Pigs in Space, the [percieved] dominant Portland (and therefore, Oregon) crew 13-10. They made a lot of mistakes, but we also forced a lot with tenacious D and grunted out some great points with intense but smart offensive efforts. Sunday's rematch in semifinals had nearly the same total number of points, and our team even had slightly fewer turnovers. However, the Pigs brought their "A" game, allowing us only half (5) of the D's of Saturday's (11) effort. Pigs won 15-7, making a big run in the middle of the game. Well, the Bones did it once. They'll do it again. (Just not that game.)
Also check out the statistical review of the weekend. (Thanks to Kellie Barnes for the data.)
August 21-22: Get Ho [Eugene, OR] "skin&bones"- After a rough start and loss to Ashland+'s "Fat Bullet", skin&bones came out of the bye to get back on track with a 15-1 win against Eugene's "Organic Panic (Throw, Don't Throw)". The tightest match of the day was a rewarding and well-spirited contest against Davis's "Hot Valley of Love" that was won with our every-changing and well-executed defenses. It was really rewarding to hear the other team talking feverishly on the sideline about how to beat the many different looks we gave them. Finally, the day ended with a great match against Stacy and Oetter's "Hubcap". We held tight with them until around 8 after which time their juggernaut pulled away to win on their way to the championship match on Sunday.
Many of the s&b folk had to run off on Sunday, so I was looking to pick up on Sunday. At the party, Amy Vandervliet tried to bribe me with beer to join Tacky Paw on Sunday, but I let it be known that the way to my heart was not the brownest of ales but instead the many-colored (and flavored) mistress known as the wine cooler. With only 5 guys on their roster, I decided to join a group of college kids for some good Sunday fun only to have Amy show up just before our first game with a bag of Wild Berry Segrums Wine Coolers. Damn, no luck. However, after a loss to Hot Valley, we faced Tacky and lost in a tight match despite the efforts of our ringers (Ben of UofO, Nick of OSU and Brandy [?] of Sneech and Schwa fame), we threw away too many disc to continue in out quest for wine bracket dominance. However, this gave Tacky the chance to pick me up for the consolation finals against the host's pickup team, GetHo! Tacky went down 6-3 in a game to 9 but somehow came back to tie it at 8's. After working it to within a foot of the score against our zone, GetHo called a timeout. We came out with a "play real hard" man, and I got the layout D on the line after teammates denied the first few cuts. However, my drop on an easy one at midfield put us back on D where, once again, I pressured BD on a tough sideline catch to get the turn. However, we turned it over one last time before BD caught the winning huck from Sadie as I panted in his wake. It was a great game to end the weekend with.
August 28: Corvallis City League Final Tournament [Corvallis, OR] "Disco Inferno"- Carrie Marie Flynn, fresh off the plane from San Antonio, joined the Inferno to fill out a thin women's line. Following a stomp by Booty, we had a great rematch against DieTotenHosen but lost it by a few despite the Flynns' ability to rip through the Hosen zone at will. Finally, we grabbed the few Booty kids that were left to play Disquick in the "they're going to finals no matter the outcome of this game, so let's beat 'em good" semifinal match. Ben "the Legend" Wiggins and I were paired in the subbing system, and one of us scored (or assisted) on every one of our offensive possessions. Included in the frivolity were high release pushies, mid-field thumbers and yea-there's-a-bunch-of-traffic-but-ben's-gonna-hit-shiv-for-the-easy-score-through-the-pack-anyway tosses. Well played, Disco!
September 24-25: Oregon UPA Sectionals [Corvallis, OR] "skin&bones"- This was a very difficult year for the Bones. Many roster changes as well as higher expectations than last year fed the fire. However, everything came together at sectionals. After a warmup win over Ruach, we faced Bend's Road Head. This was a great game, with teams trading points the whole way. Tied at a capped game point, I got the winning throw from Lehner to score against dave Caplan, who had scored the winning point against me during last year's semifinal. We trotted into a game with Hubcap to decide the pool's champion. With heaps of raw talent on the Hubcap roster, I expected a really tough match. Early mistakes from Hubcap and clean play on our side opened a lead that grew to an astounding 7-1 halftime difference. For me, the game was a fog. My brightest memory was identifying their clam on one point and looping in after BD to overload the D and get an easy 15 yard pass for an immediate cross-field huck to Crank streaking up the opposite sideline. Hamby didn't believe I had seen the play and got lucky but then admitted that I must have better eyes than him. It was the first time I remember being in a zone where I percieved things almost unconsciously. It would happen again in the most important game of the weekend.
We took Sponge Worthy in quarters to end Saturday but couldn't get fired up Sunday morning and lost to Road Head in a game that we never got into until it was too late. We played well to take out Tacky Paw in the backdoor bracket and were to face Fat Bullet what was believed to be the "game to go". They had just taken Hubcap by 1 in an intense match and came out strong against us. Once again, everything clicked for the team. We stayed focused on ourselves. Highlights for me were a point where I threw 3 scores (or was it 4?) because the first ones were called back for various reasons. Taking a 2 point mid-game lead, the Bones came together in the second half like never before. We scored all but 1 of the points and had only 1 turnover. I had several scores that I can't describe as anything more than I saw an opening and threw something perfect. The two that stood out were a long down the line pass to BD around his defender but short of Troy poaching in the endzone. The other was a forhand score to Merde in the opposite corner of the endzone. Once again, the game was a blur to me. Instead of thinking about plays, I just made them happen. It was possibly the best game I've played yet. In the backdoor final, we met Road Head for the third time of the weekend. Once again, we traded points, but as on Saturday, we scored the final score at the cap. It was the best weekend of Bones ultimate to date.
Also read my sectional coordinator review that I sent in for the UPA newsletter.
October 9-10: UPA NW Regionals [Blaine, WA] "skin&bones"-
October 16-17: Humboldt Harvest [Arcata, CA] "Barf(lies) in Space" - Saturday started off with an embarassing loss to a strong U of O team but finished with a good game (but another loss) to a strong Mothership squad. Sunday saw the partiest team in the land looking a little rough against last year's champs, Magic Bus, but I felt better than I had Saturday and played a breakout game with no turnovers, plenty of scores and some solid D. Although my drinking was lacking entirely, I hope I will be invited to join the Barflies again. The most rewarding part of ultimate is not a win but acknowledgement from peers that I've played a great game. This was one of the most rewarding games I've been involved with. This weekend also reminded me how much I miss playing with different groups of people.
October 30: Scare-Up [Ashland, OR] "Damn Demons" - I joined Corey, Theresa and Linus to leaf a ragtag group of folks to a respectable day of ultimate. Hat tournaments may not be the highest quality games, but they're often the best spirited. However, the real highlight of the weekend was the party assemblage. The Corvallis crew was bug-centric with a Cow, poddle and my lil' duckie thrown in to the mix.
December 5: PUFF Hat [Portland, OR] "???" - It's march 2000 as I write this, and I have to confess that I don't remember squat about this event other than a vague memory of slightly muddy fields at the edge of Harmony park. Oh well, I'm sure it was fun.