Western This Weekend

[Contributed by Sam #6]

This weekend we head to our first tournament of the fall as the ISU Men's Ultimate Team. Kind of a big deal. Really. In the past, a preview might have been written for each team, talking about the teams we are gonna face, and how we might stack up against them. But I am gonna spare talks of match-ups and opponents, thats all here in the pools. And besides, at this point in the fall it is guess work to assume I would know which teams have which new good freshman, and who has graduated their star players from last year. Instead there are a few things I want to stress heading into this weekend.

First of all, this weekend, and all fall for that matter, is about playing ULTIMATE. Who cares what else happens. We will play, get experience, and have time being on a sweet-ass ultimate team. Use this weekend to learn, and get to know both the game, and your team. Go into this weekend with goals, specific things you would like to improve upon. Maybe working on your dumps, or your cuts, or work on that IO forehand huck that is so elusive. Everyone should know what you need to work on, and if you don't, ask Steve or Douglas for advice. For many of you this is your first tournament as a Gnome, and hopefully in a few years you will be playing in hundredth tournament like Steve.

Now there are two things I want everyone to do, one, right now after you finish reading this, and the second should be done this weekend on the fields.

• Once you finish, read through this huddle issue. These are some elite level players talking about what Spirit of the Game means to each of them. Read through these players thoughts on spirt, and think about what it means to you.
• Second, this weekend, stay involved on the sidelines. One thing that all elite teams have in common, both club and college, is active, loud, involved sidelines. Since we have no home-field advantage, our teammates on the sideline have the potential to be that game-breaking difference. It is not an exaggeration, games can be won or lost based on sideline involvement and energy level. So sidelines, GET LIVE!!!!

Now all thats left to do for this weekend is get pumped and play some sweet ultimate.

And remember... Bust a Nut GnoMEN