Fall 2008, Part 1

I wanted to write a post to summarize all that happened this fall, but I definitely don't have that kind of time and I probably wouldn't remember it all anyway. Here's what I do remember:

First Practice

I hope it didn't show, but Steve and I were pretty nervous about running the first practice. We had a group of guys at the informational meeting that was probably double the amount from last year, and last year we had only retained (I think) 1 sophomore by the end of the school year. So, we sat down and carefully planned out a practice that would both challenge the new players and not scare them off. Shockingly, it went exactly as planned and we only lost about half of the guys that came out (Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Ask any captain of a college program). By the end of the first day the noobies were throwing dumps and cutting better than a lot of the returners did at the end of their first semester. By the end of the first week they were starting to develop flicks and after a month they were starting to understand some of the more subtle nuances of the game such as giving solid fakes as a thrower making space for other cutters. Needless to say, this batch of rookies made me pretty excited and kinda made me want to stay around until they were seniors just to see what they'd look like then. I'd imagine they're going to be pretty sick.

Stanley Cup II (or IV)

Again things went almost completely according to plan. I think this is karma for how hard we tried last year and how Murphy's Law kicked us in the ass over and over (i.e. Western being cancelled, losing our bid to Whitewater, taking 6 months to order jerseys). We split up into 3 teams of equal strength and Doug and Emily got their first experience captaining a mixed team (and Doug his first captaining any team). They ended up getting 9th, the lowest of the ISU teams, but I think that was mainly a result of a lack of a solid handler core, forcing some of their better cutters to play the handler position for most of the weekend. I know that their game against X was hard fought, and I don't think their finish was a good representative of what they were capable of. ISU X (Squirrels/Sextacy) and ISU Y (did they even have a name?) made their way into the Championship Bracket Sunday only to be knocked out in Semis and Quarters respectively. The party went great, and I think we ran a good tournament that teams are going to want to come back to (Thanks mainly to Gamehube, he did an awesome job of being TD, and also to Reynolds and Sam who nursed their injuries at the scorers' table and helped everything run smoothly). It was a great showing for 3 teams composed of more than 50% rookies, and also a great way to start our season. Opening the season with a home tournament was great because it allowed almost all of our rookies to get some experience without having to travel far or sleep on the floor, and the level of competition was just right - no teams that were out of our league and no teams that didn't give us a good run. Hopefully it goes just as well next year, I'm sure it will.

Hucktoberfest

Wow, what can I say about this tournament? It was awesome. We got stuck in the Open (B) Division which I wasn't crazy about at first, but in the end it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Having originally planned on bringing an X/Y split squad to this tourney, seemingly everyone had something to do and we were forced to bring one team with the awkward roster size of 22. With such a large roster we were forced to call lines on every point, and nobody played more than 2 points in a row until the last game Saturday against St. Thomas. This game was to decide the winner of our pool and although everybody played at least a few points in that game, the lines were called much tighter than earlier in the day. Purple Reign came out hard, with excellent handler movement and cutters that wouldn't stop moving. We traded points for most of the first half until The Ultimate Player Formerly Known As Puddles came up with a huge layout D, the first of his career, allowing us to put it in and take half 7-5. The game was capped and we ended up winning 10-8.

After a great day of ultimate we hit the showers, set up our tents at the campgrounds, and headed into town for dinner. The minors went to some place that doesn't matter and the 21+ went to Fat Jack's, the host of the Tournament party. A lot of stuff happened, but all that really matters is that we got free pitchers of Long Island iced teas, a $5 pitcher of lunchbox, and some great food while we soaked in the beauty of winning our pool for what may have been the first time ever (Fact check me, Pat) in ISU history. Then we went back to the campgrounds and got over $2,000 in drinking tickets for the minors. whoops...

Sunday was a lot cooler and cloudier, with the wind picking up a little also. We stuck it to a solid Valpo squad in our first game and fell victim to shitty marks and bad throws into the wind in our Semis game against DePaul. They deserved the win, and we went home tied for 3rd in the B bracket (I'm still not sure why this game wasn't played out, and a littled bit p.o.'d too).

It's getting late, and I'm getting tired, so I'll pick this up tomorrow or later in the week and I'll end with a list of some things I liked about this fall:

-A huge freshman class that made me feel a lot more comfortable about the future of ISU Ultimate
-A combined record of 17-13 as X/Y teams
-Winning the pool at Hucktoberfest
-Free pitchers of Long Island, and a $5 pitcher of lunchbox
-Not being the only captain - It was awesome to have Doug and Steve to turn to for help/support
-1 Large Powerade