Poultry Days 2007

By far, the best Ultimate trip to Ohio that I've ever experienced. (In college I went to a tournament in Ohio, and with all of the crappy traffic we hit, and the crappy games that we played, I vowed never to return to that state... I've obviously, and gratefully gone back on that pledge. Flaming Moe and Poultry Days have saved Ohio for me.)

At the end of last week, Änna and I suddenly realized that we were actually going to play Ultimate - at a tournament - with Flaming Moe! ...something that we felt we hadn't done in a really long time... (7 months!) ...and something that we hadn't realized we'd been missing as much as we had.

Bright and early Friday morning, with expectations high, we got on the road.
The trip was relatively quick, and uneventful... which was great. We picked up Alicia in Rochester on the way down, ate some fast food, listened to some Dan Brown... We got into Versailles with enough light to set up tents and hang out/throw for a bit, before going to bed (early - like, 10pm... maybe trying to sleep a little extra for those who wouldn't be arriving for another couple hours).

Saturday we were matched up against a variety of teams that weren't as good as we were. :) Where every once and a while there would be a player on the other team that could match some of our players in individual skills/talent/speed, no team could match the cohesive offense and stifling team defense that Moe is already showing this early in the season. All of the tryouts vying for the last few spots on the team played well, both generally, and with in the Moe O and D systems. I do not envy the captains in their upcoming decisions.

Saturday night was fun. Much food was eaten. Lasagna, breadsticks, cheeseburgers, apple sauce... funnel cake! Watching Alicia in the All-Star game. Awkwardly walking through the carnival, waiting for it to get as fun as it looked. :) Circling back up at the tents, Moes expressing love via sarcasm. (Good point in your email, Dave, about how this can translate to the field.) Also, pistachios and vanilla wafers.

Sunday morning started off a little weird. The TD went nuts at us because we went into a huddle for a quick talk when the game was supposed to start. Instead of just letting us start a minute late, he yelled at us to get seven on the line, argued with us about the importance of starting on time, and caused us to start the game 2 minutes late. Pick your battles, dude. Anyway, Dave later talked to him and he regretted the incident, blaming the pressures of TDing for his attitude.

Then a major blow - Anton dislocates his shoulder laying out for a deep pass. It looked really painful. That sucks. Especially for Anton as one of the last few tryouts. I have no idea what the recovery process can be like for a dislocated shoulder (probably depends on if/what he tore), but I hope he can bounce back from this.

We got a bit down, and down on each other after this, and it showed in the game. Even up 7-4 at half some of us looked like we'd not only just lost the game, but that we'd caught our own teammates kicking puppies behind the wood pile on the other sideline. Dave said something like, "Come on guys! We're BFFs! We're winning! And those were evil puppies!" And everybody got there heads on straight to finish the game.

The next game we had was against a much higher caliber team. The kind of caliber that Moe most enjoys playing against. There were great plays coming from both teams, making the game easily the most exciting to both play in and watch. It seemed like we traded points in groups of three. Us, them, break, break. After our last run we were tied at 10s, they take a time out, and eventually score the last three. It'd been better if the pattern wouldn't have stuck there at the end of the game, but start-to-finish, each point was played hard, every disc contested, so I'm still happy with the result. Quarters finish for our first tournament.

Highlights: Mike and Elliot had some memorable layouts. Jaime ('that tiny girl!') kept beating everyone covering her. John was good in the air on 'O'. Mike's pulls. Jeanine and I got Callahans. Änna flicking everybody off.

I shouldn't have gone there...


The drive home's highlight was Ruby Tuesdays. We gorged on salad bar and burgers for a good hour. We got home just after 1am, which is so much better than 5am (although I think I'd still be able to blog at work either way). Meeting tonight to decide the final '07 team. I don't see how it can go smoothly. :) But I'm excited for the next tournament either way.

*Oh, and maybe I'll bring the video camera to check out footage from the weekend. I don't think I got anything awesome, but it could still be fun. (Could a Video Blog Post be on the horizon?!)