Bootcamp

I signed up for Groupon this spring, which is a daily email with some sort of special in the greater Boston area, whether 70% off at a restaurant, or spa treatments, or something of the ilk. I signed up for one of them, 3 classes of ultimate bootcamp for the price of one ($20) to be used by the end of the year. Basically, it is a 1.5 hour Saturday morning workout at various sites around Boston.

I had done the first two classes during the frisbee season, the Bootcamp Basic class, once in Cambridge and once in Framingham. For both of those classes I was probably the best overall conditioned person there (I know, pretty scary). There were a bunch of people that really were not athletic at all but by the same token it was good to see them actually signed up and out there trying to do stuff. So for my last class I signed up for the Bootcamp Blast in Charlestown, which is an advanced class. The class took place this morning. All week we have had gorgeous weather in Boston, mid-50's or better and sunny. The weather had been looking pretty sketchy for today, and when I rolled out of bed at 8AM this morning and went outside to get the newspaper, it was POURING, with rivers of water cascading down the street. Fortunately it was already just above 50 degrees, but I was NOT thrilled to do the class at all. And I had just finished a 10 day fast (another blog entry) a day early yesterday, eating my first food at lunch on Friday trying to get some energy for the workout.

Quick breakfast of half a buttered pita with shredded cheddar, a banana and a cup of coffee for the drive over. I get to the Paul Revere Park in Charlestown at 9:20, with a GORGEOUS view maybe 100 yards from the Leonard P. Zakim bridge. I am the only car there until some poor sap shows up to walk her dog (it is POURING). Finally a truck shows up and then a guy gets out and walks over to the field carrying a mesh bag filled with fitness goodies. We are ON! I get out of the car sporting all my Patagucci gear (capilene 1 bottoms, Patagonia shorts, cap 1 top, rain shadow jacket). There are two guys there. I get there, introduce myself, and both of the guys are trainers for the class. 24 people are signed up for that morning's class, and I end up being the ONLY person there. So two trainers all for me. We decide that the class will only be an hour instead of an hour and half because it is going to be much more intense with just me.

I'm writing this two hours after the class, and I can still barely lift my arms and I'm still a little nauseous. They KICKED MY ASS! Four laps to warm up, then an active warmup, then lower body work, upper body work, interspersed sprints, pushups, exercise band work. It is incredible how little upper body strength I have. The extra bonus is that they were going to talk to the organizer to get me a bonus class because of what happened, which I don't completely understand, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.

More importantly, they also have something called the ultimate bootcamp which is a 4-week program that meets 4 times a week in the morning and is a far more specific yet varied program. With my childcare schedule of every other week I would have to try and get a modified schedule but I am definitely interested in exploring doing more.

A couple of times I almost felt like making it live up to the name of 'boot' camp, but I was able to make it through. Highly recommended though. I think I'm going to buy a set of the resistance bands so I can work on some stuff on my own time.

Tough year - Nationals 2009

My 26th year of competitive ultimate is now in the books. When I think back on the season, I realize that while I didn't actually miss any of the tournaments the team went to, this is probably the least 'work' that I have ever done.

Not that I am proud of it. It started with a serious broken throwing hand at the end of May which largely sidelined me for 6 weeks despite actually playing at Boston Masters Invite and the Boston Invite in June. Then got the cast off early to play at and win Grand Masters mid-July. Then, trying to get ready for the fall with a scrimmage while I was in NY, I get a nasty 4 inch scar on my right shin which takes me out for another month although I'm back just in time for Sectionals, if desultorily. Clambake gets mostly rained out resulting in only 3 games all weekend. Regionals is the wakeup call showing us that aren't the top DoG anymore in the Northeast. With our tails between our legs, we shuttle off to Nationals.

Hot, hot, hot. What else can I say? I believe that the TV news was saying that Thursday had set local temperature records in Sarasota. It sure felt like it. You would think that after having dealt with dehydration/calf issues since 2003 that I would have had the routine down by now. But it is always a different surprise every year. First game against GLUM on Thursday I played the whole game on offense and had a good game. But on the very last point of the game we turn it over, they throw a junky/floaty throw to my guy in the endzone, and I go up to try and get the D. I jump off of my left leg and yet it is the right cramp that seizes on the way up. Good times.

The next game against Surly is a write off as we are working on stuff pretty early in that game. I am out the entire first half without really explaining why to the team (I ran subs all weekend for both O and D). In the second half we are going to work on some zone defense so I put myself in on wing. By this time I am hydrating like a mofo and peeing pretty much all the time. Not enough though as my calves start barking some more. I play a few points of D wing then shut it down.

In the final most important game against Boneyard I think I was in for one point of O, we turned it over, got it back, and I actually took myself out on O AFTER we got it back. It just wasn't going to happen today. Of course, this also made it VERY frustrating to watch as we almost got beaten by Boneyard, having to come back and win 17-15 after being down 15-14. This would have effectively eliminated us from contention. Little did I know what was to come...

So off to the beer garden after the game. Too crowded, too long to get a beer, I get and finish one beer, don't feel too hot, and basically pour out most of my second beer. On the way back we stop by the burrito place which has its usual long line of Ironsides players plus some others, although this was the fastest I ever received my food. Back to the hotel and proceeded to beach like a whale for the next few hours watching the Yankees lose to the Phillies in game 1 and drinking water and eating lots of salt. Table salt unfortunately but you go with what you have. I finally pee normally a few times right before an early bedtime, and then the deluge. I must have gotten up at LEAST 10 times during the night to pee. Never seen anything like it.

Calves felt good in the morning. Lots of stretching and running and continued drinking and salt, and I ended up being able to play the entire day. First game against Ball & Chain to 'guarantee' a quarterfinal berth. They hadn't won a game yet, and it showed. We were able to move to a convincing and not stressful victory, setting up our final pool play game against Trouble Past. As Jim mentioned in his blog, we were pretty psyched for this game. The D got us two upwind breaks in the first half and after Troubled scored the next upwinder each time, they came down in zone and I promptly threw away a hammer each time, one to each sideline, to give back the break. STILL pissed at myself. TP ended up going up big on us towards the end of the game. Since the O had been playing a lot (and getting scored on) I put the D in for a few O points. The D ended up going on a run from 13-8 or so to 14-12 before losing. Meanwhile, Jim had observed the potential disaster going on the next field over where GLUM was playing Boneyard. If GLUM won, or Boneyard won by anything OTHER than 2 points, we were guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals. If GLUM lost by 2, there would be a 3-way tie for 3rd with all 3 teams at 0 in the plus minus, moving onto the next tiebreaker which no one knew. Sure enough, GLUM chokes it away and loses 15-13. We run over to the HQ and are quickly adding up scores tot find out that we are tied with GLUM at -2 and Boneyard is -9 or something. GLUM gets the head-to-head so we are 4th in the pool playing Beyondors in the quarters, which we are assuming will be the simulcast game. 20 minutes later, word comes down that we are actually 3rd in the pool ahead of GLUM and are playing Old Sag in the quarters, fortunately still in the showcase game. Jim had screwed up his addition.

Now THIS is what we had been waiting for the entire tournament. A good game. This is what happens when you have close to your entire roster for one tournament before Nationals. The first two days are effectively full-day practices. 5 games under our belt and into the quarterfinals against a familiar opponent. The offense finally hit its stride, turning it over 2 times the entire game, both in the second half, and only getting broken once. Unfortunately the D didn't come along for the ride and only got two breaks, making the game MUCH closer than it should have been with that kind of offensive officiency as we won 15-13 in a nail-biter. I had a very good game getting the disc a bunch and no turnovers, with a highlight reel throw at 13-12. I had the disc on the far left sideline outside the endzone being forced forehand. About 4 seconds into the stall I see Jim staring at me being forced away. He immediately cuts straight upfield and away for the hammer. There are no poachers so I immediately uncork a high 'blade' that hits him in stride with no chance for the defense to make it 14-12. Robin Stewart from Bodhi apparently was on the sideline with a teammate watching the play and he told his friend something along the lines of 'I couldn't imagine ever thinking of throwing that'. I'm sure that thought was mostly because of the situation, tight game at end of nationals quarters because he definitely throws stuff I would NEVER think of throwing. Regardless, caught, SAG scores again, 14-13, and then we close out the game 15-13. On to the (unexpected at the beginning of the tournament) semis against Surly.

For probably the last 12 years going into Nationals I have pretty much always remarked to Jim that I thought DoG had the tougher pool. It started to get amusing after a while, but at least for 2007 and 2009 I know I'm right. In 2007 all 4 teams from our pool made the semifinals and this year 3 out of 4 made the semis and 2 made the finals. We were looking forward to a different game with Surly. The first game had not been close as we were still getting our sea legs under us. And we had a burst of confidence coming of our quarterfinal win and a whole night to revel in it. I had admonished the team to be at the fields MUCH earlier than last years 10AM debacle against Mileage, and while better, the team STILL showed up later than they did for POOL play games the first two days that were an hour earlier. WTF!?!?!? Oh well. DoG had started on D almost all of the pool play games (by design) but I lost the flip for both shirts AND pull, so we received going downwind to start. Two quick breaks later we are down by two. Those were the last breaks that the O gave up until the very last point of the game. This was another difficult game to watch as the D was getting numerous turnovers/opportunities to get these breaks back but didn't finally convert one until late in the second half. Surly was now going to have to work it upwind. Our sideline had been psyched and into the game the whole time but now ramped it up a notch. Unfortunately Surly was able to work it upwind for the score to make it 14-12 (or 13-11). Now the O going upwind, and we finally turn it over for the first time since early in the first half. Surly scores to end our Cinderella run.

After doing the requisite handshake thing we went over to watch the Troubled Past/Beyondors game to learn to our shock that Troubled was up 11-9. Despite Beyondors best efforts, Troubled Past held on to get the other finals bid, making the originally heralded DoG/Beyondors quarterfinal now the betty bowl to get the 3rd worlds bid. By this time, both teams were sucking fumes. Beyondors had had a bunch of people drop because of the heat. We were mostly at full strength but exhausted. The game was close throughout although Beyondors took a slight lead early and maintained that lead for most of the game before finally running it out to get the 'bronze' medal (which they don't have at natties). You could stick a fork in me by the end of this game. Talk about a long weekend in the blistering heat. And thus began the 'celebrating'.

First stop was to catch the end of Ironsides/Chain. It was 9-6 when I got there and Ironsides had their chances. I think they got the disc on D almost every time from there through the end of the game and yet were unable to convert enough chances to come back. It was very frustrating to watch. I still feel like there has to be a middle ground between the grip it and rip it school and the conservative school. Neither team played that game here. Then I watched much of the masters final in the blazing sun while quaffing warm cans of something or another. Surly also had their chances but just had too many turnovers to overcome their troubled past... And San Francisco men win a division for the first time in a long time for the 2nd straight year. Who knew?

Then off to catch the final sunset, swim in the water, have the blisters on the bottom of my feet get sand and salt in them and cause me great pain the rest of the night, watch some of my teammates play Koob on the beach (a little different with the sand), off to Siesta Key to the Daiquiri Deck, close the Deck, off to the beach to watch the moon and water and sit around the bonfire with some Canadians, then get back to the room in time to switch with the early morning crew that has just woken up to catch an early airport flight. Up at 9:30, clean up, then off to the Orlando Airport for a 2PM flight home. Missed the DoG alumni winning a national championship, ie., Rob Barrett and Josh Ziperstein.

We exceeded expectations, especially given how we got smoked by GLUM in the finals at Regionals and again couldn't put it together against them in the first game of nationals. We definitely grew as a team during the tournament though. I know OLD SAG was bummed they had to play us as the 3rd seed out of our pool. I don't think I have ever lost to those guys. For whatever reason, we always play well (enough) against them. Quarters 2 years ago was also an epic battle. And once we made the semis, we had our chances. Running O and D subs for an entire tournament is not the preferred job. I lose my voice by the end of the first day trying to get people to hear me call them in. I need a town cryer next to me to parrot my calls. I'll have to invest next year.

Oh, and more excitement after John Bar tackled Jimmy P. at the beach early Sunday morning. But Jim tells us all about it over at his blog entry. Hopefully he will be OK post surgery and able to get back out on the field.

Goin' back, goin' back, goin' back to na-tio-nals...

VERY few people will get the reference, but that is an adaptation of one of the Princeton songs I learned as an undergraduate. It is actually Nassau Hall instead of nationals, but I digress...

Competed in my 22nd consecutive regional championship recently, all in the northeast region. I am 20 for 22 in advancing to nationals, I guess 23 for 26 if you include college, missing out in 1988 with Wild Veal from NYC and 1991 with Earth Atomizer (and senior year at Princeton), the little engine that couldn't that year...
This was an interesting season. Above & Beyond had folded after last years failure to make nationals for the first time in MANY years. GLUM was gearing up again, but we had zero tournament results to assess their game. Adam Zagoria was putting together a new NY team which was reputed to be a younger team than before, which is always a dangerous recipe in masters.
We had the crappy 6 team/2 bid tournament schedule, which pits the 1st seed against the 3rd seed then the 2nd seed in the first two games of the day. Considering the necessity of coming in top two to have the best chance of advancing, it is a brutal schedule. But according to Jim, it is done this way so that the 'critical' 4-5 game can come at the right time, somewhere towards the end of the first day. Whatever...

We were able to eliminate the 4th round bye because there were available fields so we had 4 straight on Saturday. I knew in advance that I was going to have my kids at the fields all day so I was relieved, after initially gloomy weather predictions for saturday that the weather was going to hold for the weekend. For those of use who were around LAST weekend in the cold and the rain, thank GOD regionals wasn't that weekend, both for the actual play and what I would have had to do regarding my children.

We started against the new A&B, titled Westchester Summer League All-Stars. They were a little slim and ended up not putting up a huge challenge, losing to us 15-9. That made me feel a little better for the overall chances to advance, but regionals has been weird in the northeast the last few years. We then geared up for a big game against GLUM, who we had been informed had rebuilt for the series, getting a lot of younger players, some old GOAT players including DJ (sp?). We were definitely up for this game. We got to 12-9 before the wheels fell off the offense. We ended up getting capped and receiving at 14-14 next point wins. Another turn by the O and DoG lost its first game at Regionals since 1995.

The rest of the day was not particularly stressful as we handled Mt. Crushmore and Hexember in reasonably straightfoward fashion 15-7/15-5. And based on our game with GLUM, pretty clear that they were going to beat the NY team setting up the rematch in the 1-2 game. My kids had been really good all day so we rushed from the fields and blah blah blah...

Next morning was going to be MUCH colder, and I had already woken them up veryearly just for this. So I punted most of the first game, had a leisurely breakfast and got to the fields around 9:15 and I'm not sure the other team had scored yet. This preparation may not have helped for the GLUM game, but so be it. We got ready for the final and ended up receiving to start the game. At this point the wind was gusting in all directions and pretty strongly. It definitely made for an interesting game. We got broken on the first point, had a chance to bring it to 6-5 and ended up down at the half 8-4, which for you scoring this at home is a whole bunch of breaks. Pretty much nothing we did appeared to work on offense AND defense. At half we decided to open up the rotation to save ourselves for the inevitable 2-3 game against NY. Apparently the previous 3 years the loser of the 1-2 game went on to lose to the winner of the 3-4 game and get eliminated from nationals. It didn't get any better in the second half as GLUM raced out to a 15-7 victory.

Not to go out of order or give away the end, but we'll have the rematch against GLUM first thing Thursday morning at natties. I would rather not have regionals rematches and figure it would have been pretty easy to rejigger to separate the two teams, but oh well.

Back to Regionals, NY had also beaten Mt. Crushmore handily, setting up the NY-Boston betty bowl. I hadn't been in a betty bowl since 1991 with Earth Atomizer against Graffiti. Nothing fun about a single elimination loser missses nationals. Now THIS game had the energy we were missing against GLUM. We jumped out to a 6-0 lead against NY and had it to go 7-0. Half was eventually 8-1 receiving the second half. Well, it is hard to keep up that kind of intensity with a score like that. While they didn't make it a game per se, we ended up winning 15-8 and it was a little closer than that at one point during the half.

So I remember having this exercise every year with Jim that when the pools were posted for nationals, I thought we had the tougher pool (at least back in the day of two pools, 12 or 14 teams). It didn't always end up true, but I think this year we have the tougher pool again, at least in terms of depth. Talking to O'Dowd, looks like a lot of teams have gotten younger and reloaded for the bid to Worlds. I will neither confirm nor deny whether we did also, but it is almost a pleasure going into the tournament with such a low seed. For once the other teams will have the bullseye and we can play with a chip on our shoulder. Looking forward to it.

Grand Master Nationals 2009

I had to go back to the score reporter to refresh my memory on the details. That's what happens when you take this long a break to report on #8. I guess the bigger question is if winning masters nationals is a -1, then winning grand masters must reset me to zero. So, more details on my zeroth national championship (shout out to Isaac Asimove and the zeroth law...).

A whole bunch of people descended onto the plush fields of the Dicks Sporting Goods complex in Denver the weekend of July 11-12. I don't know if any other teams had problems getting in but I assume they must have. Most of us arrived Friday night and Denver was getting hammered with microbursts. After we circled for a bit they diverted us to Fort Collins when we started running low on gas. We hung out on the runway for awhile while we got refueled. We were running against the clock because the control tower at Fort Collins closed at 10PM. Jeff Brown told me to listen in on one of the radio channels that was plugged into the pilot's channel. At 9:53 the control tower chimes in, saying "can you guys be ready to take off in 5". The pilots answer yes and we get everyone seated VERY quickly, take off, 20 minutes later we are in Denver airport. I was staying at a buddies of mine Friday night 45 minutes outside of Denver in Longmont. We had been talking on cellphones trying to coordinate whether he should hang out waiting or whether I should go with the team. He ends up waiting for probably 2.5 hours (and napping) before I arrive and head to his place. The key here was that 1) our pool didn't have a first round game, and 2) we had a first round bye, making our first game at noon! Of course, we had 4 straight after that, but it was well worth it. After a leisurely morning checking out their barn, 2 horses, and having some awesome home-cooked eggs benedict, it was off to the fields. We get there around 11:15 and go set up. And it was a HOT one out there. At that point I had had the cast off my right hand for about 8 days and had done very little, including not throwing the frisbee a single time. During warmups I threw my first forehands and it HURT! I had already popped 4 ibus early morning and was planning to keep the ibuprofen bath all weekend, with lots of water of course. The backhand was largely unaffected although it was also pretty tentative.

We had heard from other people that morning that the 3rd seed in our pool was grossly underseeded and they confirmed it by crushing the 2nd seed, Old Glory (OLD SAG) 12-6. Old Glory was a team that definitely came in planning to play for the championship. Given this warning, we actually started out pretty effectively against them (Yomo Fog Oho). However, it was a VERY chippy game as neither team was willing to give up anything, knowing that this was quite likely for the pool championship (and theoretically easier path in the morning). We largely traded throughout the first half and into the second before finally getting a few breaks at the end to pull away 13-7. The game was much closer than the score indicated. Yomo was going to be a tough out.

The next two games were against Thirst'N'Howl and Austin Antique Road Show Players. Nothing remarkable about these games. 13-6 and 13-7. During the 2nd game my calves started to seize up with the heat and lack of water. I took the second half and the 3rd game off and got a few massages and stretched the *&#$)@(*#U$*(I out of them to try and prep for the last round against Philly. Fortunately for the last round of the day the clouds had come in and it cooled off significantly. I also switched from the defense to the offense, figuring that it would be easier on my calves when I was the one choosing when to sprint as opposed to having to react to an offensive player. It worked out well as I was able to play through the entire game. We had made the calculations to figure out how many points we had to score to 1) advance, and then 2) win the pool, but as always you don't want to lose the final game going into elimination. This was yet another tough game against these guys (they are never easy) and we didn't pull away until the end yet again, winning 12-9 to send Old Glory to the consolation bracket.

Tonight I was going to be spending on the floor at the hotel. I opened up shop with Zaz and Simon, setting up my therma-rest in the corner of their room. After the shower, headed down to the banquet hall to check out the party. Found enough eats for dinner and some free beer. It was a pretty mellow crowd unfortunately so packed it in around 11:30 after catching up with people I hadn't seen yet. Nothing to write home about.

Next morning Simon and I go on a quest for breakfast (and Zaz's sugared treats). Then off to the fields for a 10:15 quarterfinal against the Ozark Hillbillies from Arkansas, who had smashed their #18 seed to go 3-1 and qualify for the semifinals including a 10-9 thriller against Boneyard's Boneyard for the last round of the day to advance. Unfortunately I think we probably were looking past this game a little bit, but that didn't last long. We could not stop these guys as they scored probably 9 of their first 10 points on hucks, most of them to the bearded dude. And they only turned it over once or twice during that run while we gave them numerous opportunities to score against our offense but nobody broke. We finally broke through the last point of the first half to break them upwind. We broke again on the last point of the game to win 12-9, never having gone upwind receiving the pull. It took the bearded guy actually dropping a huck goal for us to score. I stayed on the offensive squad for the first two games of the day although the hitch was usually Marshall Goff as his hand was doing much better than mine...

Meanwhile in the other bracket the second team from our pool, Yomo, had smashed Confluence, the second seed over all, 13-7. We had expected Confluence and Surly to battle it out in the semis (and hopefully face us in the finals) so it was surprising to see them go down so hard. Surly had an easy quarter winning 12-6 to set up the semi against Yomo. We had Big Sky, 10-9 winners over Southern Comfort. This game was a repeat of the quarterfinals as the game was ridiculously close for the entire game until we pulled away at the end again. The same thing happened as Big Sky scored at will on deep shots.

After our game was over I quickly ran two fields over to check out the other semi. I saw 13-5 and asked who was winning expecting to hear Surly. Imagine my shock when they said Yomo was winning. And Yomo scored the last two points on defense to crush Surly 15-5 and set up a rematch for the championship.

This game started as a replay of our first round game. Intense, a little chippy, and with a little back and forth. It was moderately windy although both teams were playing man for the first half. Can't remember who took half but it was a one point half and then I think we tied it coming out of half 8-8. They scored on offense to make it 9-8 and then the wheels fell off. They scored the next two points on d to take an 11-8 lead, AND DoG now going upwind. At this point the game was not over but I was definitely feeling a little bit like going through the motions. We scored on offense to make it 11-9. I stayed for the next point of D as middle middle and we threw on the (dreaded) 2-3-2. They worked it around for a LOT of passes before turning it over in their half of field. A few passes later we had made it 11-10. Naturally, thinking that was the best idea since sliced bread we put on the zone again but this time they shredded it easily downwind and scored to make it 12-10. Offense comes on and scores to make it 12-11. We play man this time, get a turnover and we score upwind to make it 12-12. Exciting stuff! Throw on the dreaded zone again, and in fewer passes they actually turn it over on a dump going towards their endzone. Quick few passes and we are up 13-12. Who knew? They score downwind to make it 13-13 and it is now universe point (yes, the only REAL time universe point is applicable, finals of national championship) and we are going downwind. They pull, we slowly move it down the forehand sideline and then Coop sees Simon cutting completely across the endzone and throws a longish forehand to the forehand corner. Simon, one of the fastest guys on our team, and his defender are stride for stride before Simon catches it right on the sideline in the goal and then proceeds to take out the observer, the UPA sign, and a photographer (or some combination thereof) for the game. 14-13 DoG! #8 (or #0)! My personal highlight in this game was probably that I stayed in the game from 11-8 through the bitter end, playing the final 8 points on offense and defense.

This whole time we were trying to make our 7:15 flights out of Denver. But naturally the Hawaiian women's team had to boat race us. Unfortunately Jeff Brown was on our team and was a heavy weight in the middle of the race. I think the video of the race is on Youtube which I leave to the reader as an exercise to find. If you find it you will note that Simon and I each take roughly 3 second while Jeff takes roughly 9 seconds for a cup. Ugh! I tried valiantly to make up the time as the anchor but missed by about a half second. Meh.

Oh yeah, and while we were in the security line, with Simon getting us into the supposedly shorter first class security line, Damon was going through his bag and pulled out a can of beer which obviously wasn't going to make it through the line. We sort of looked around and then I did a biter, shotgunned it, and casually tossed it into the garbage...

This was an interesting tournament victory and team. While we had components of old and new DoG on it (weird to think of masters players from DoG that didn't play with DoG back in the day as new DoG), we also had dug deep into Boston history to fill out the roster just to get it up to 20. A lot of the older DoGs (Mooney, Greff, John Bar, Lenny, et al) were unable or unwilling to attend, so we ended up with a number of people that hadn't even played real tournaments in the last 5 years, much less never played with DoG, including Richie Robinson, Mike Jaff, Vinnie Shelton, Bennett Goldberg. And Rob Barrett who had emailed us a few months earlier to express interest as he was turning 40, never responded to any further emails or cell phone messages ever again. We finally got Arnold Sanchez his long awaited National Championship, although I expect not in his preferred division.

As for the GM division? I really can't say. It was nice to win the first one and add to the DoG coffers. At 11-8, if we had lost, I would have said nice try and then probably poo pooed the division. However, when we scored on double game point, it still felt awesome. When the team brought it in I shared with them that a national title is still a national title regardless of the division, and it did still feel awesome! Whether this division deserves a spot in the UPA pantheon I can't comment on. Although I expect that once some team starts racking 4 or 5 national championships in this division and moves people up the overall title list..., I expect that I will complain :) Regardless, it was very well run, great site (since the rains held off).

and the shin ain't listening...

Well let's see. Last time I came off a major injury (broken throwing hand), I won a national championship. Granted, it was Grand Master nationals but the UPA is counting it so I have to also. I need to get to that in another post. However, more immediately, now I am hoping that precedent holds true for the fall season.


I was staying with my kids at my parents in Rye for 2 weeks and I decided to get some ultimate exercise in. I hooked up to play some pickup in Pelham last Sunday which ended up being more running around than quality ultimate, but still good conditioning. I then talked my way into a scrimmage with the new NY masters team run by Adam Zagoria that was going to play Tuesday night at a field in Riverside off the West Side Highway. Of course, Arnold Sanchez warned me after the fact that he always skipped those games because of the field.

I found out late that afternoon that cleats weren't allowed, only turf shoes. I don't even own any, but I brought both cleats and sneakers just in case. I drive to New Rochelle to Sanj Khanna's house, drop off my car and he drives us in. Get to the field, other people look at my cleats and say no, so I put on the sneakers and start warming up. A little running, a little throwing, and then off to stretch my calves. I'm doing the right soleus on the end of a bleacher wearing my sneakers. Normally I'm wearing cleats and the cleats grab onto the edge of the seat. I'm a little more leery with the sneakers for slipping off so I'm not pushing quite as hard. As I'm finishing up I go for one final push and the sneaker slips off and I drive my shin with my full body weight behind it into the bleacher. Unfortunately it catches the corner instead of the side and rakes my shin. I quickly pull up the leg and there is a 4 inch gouge along the shin bone immediately dripping gobs of blood. And I can see the bone along the gash (look at your shin and see how frickin' close it is to the skin...). Canada Rob is right next to me and immediately says 'Uh, I have to walk away'. I grab the two flaps of skin and quickly press them together to try and stanch the flow. Sanj hands me a wad of napkins that I press against it, then we tape it down tightly with athletic tape around the leg. We hobble to the car (a LONG walk) and then decide to drive back to a New Rochelle hospital instead of taking our chances at a long wait in NYC. Fortunately he knows the backroads and we get to Sound Shore Medical Center in less than 30 minutes at the height of rush hour. We get there at 7:10, in a room at 7:30, and out at 8:20. The doctor spent at least 45 minutes with the wound, cleaning it out, shooting local anesthetic all around the wound, stitching up the inside and the outside. Sort of cool watching him do the outside as he had the stitches pull the skin together.

So, leg elevated for the next 4 days, stitches out in 10 (can't get it wet in the meantime), running in 2 weeks, play ultimate in 4, which would get me back basically the weekend of Sectionals. He said the skin there heals REALLY slowly. If it still looks ugly at Sectionals I'll play with a shin guard. Funny, these are the injuries I would have expected to incur when I was a much younger player. Meh...

Talk to the hand...

Wednesday July 1st was a special day. It was on that day that I finally got this (*&)(@#*$(*@# cast off my right forearm/wrist/hand. That was a large contributor to the lack of action on this blog for the last 2 months, especially during the actual frisbee season.


Back on Friday, May 29th, I was up in Revere MA right off the main drag playing in the USS showcase series in a coed game. I believe we were in the process of getting our butts kicked in the first half when I caught the disk in the near left side of the field. I had a guy covering me who had been sprinting all over the field all night, clearly trying to make an impression on someone (apparently he was trying out for Ironsides). I was being forced forehand, and Jeff Graham was breaking deep. Naturally instead of trying to force a long flick I promptly broke his mark for the long backhand and he tried to kick block me. To make a long story short, HUGE windup, hand to cleat, instant agony/numbness/swelling, and an injury sub. And a perfect long backhand that Jeff didn't come down with. Try and wring out my hand for the rest of the half, the deficit gets worse, and I think I finally go back in around 14-4 on offense. I catch a pass (awkwardly pancaked, naturally) and turn and throw a little break mark high backhand for a goal. Yeah, it hurts. We go on a run to make it semi-respectable at 14-7 before losing. Everyone heads off to the People's Republik in Cambridge for a few brew-ha-has after the game so I join them, get a bag of ice, and the swelling finally goes down and I'm feeling almost human (but still worried). When I get home, page my doctor to find out if they have office hours anywhere on Saturday. Find a walk-in clinic, show up at 9, x-rayed half hour later, guy calls me in and says "Well, I don't think we have to wait for the radiologist". The 4th (1st? The one serving the index finger) metacarpal was completely broken all the way through. Slightly offset, and the ortho guy that finally looked at it didn't think it would require surgery, but that I should be back in a week to get a new cast and more x-rays to make sure. They gave me a nice fiberglass cast, and I was off with my first broken bone since a broken left wrist at UPA nationals in DC in 1990 (I was the guy taken off in an ambulance for the old people that might remember). 4th broken bone overall, including 2 left fingers. All courtesy of frisbee.

As you can see from the cast, fortunately I had some use of my right fingers which is key given my position in the software industry. While awkward and somewhat slower, I was able to continue typing with two hands. There were other interesting experiences including learning to do my business lefty. While I was initially worried, it ended up not being too difficult. But a whole lot of new neural pathways were burned over the last 5 weeks. The week after this happened was Masters Easterns in Devens. I was going to miss Saturday as I had a wedding down on the Cape in Falmouth. We were going to drive back that night and I was planning to head out to the fields on Sunday to check out some of our tryouts. I get out to the fields Sunday morning and we have all of 12 people including me. Ugh. I was planning to maybe play one point in each game just so I could say I 'won' the tournament. I ended up playing almost every other point, although I only ever went in on defense. Remembering back in the mid-'80s when Bobby Rydell had a broken right hand at the Ultimate Affair and he played holding a tennis ball in his right hand to force him to use his left, I ended up carrying around a pair of socks in my right hand to make sure I didn't instinctively try to use it for something. I was successful in that respect. On the day, I ended up with one D on a swing pass (lefty) 3 goals caught, and one pass thrown. The offense was stalling and had this opportunity to make a 30 yard upfield catch. Finally I cut, was thrown too, caught the disc then turned around to throw a lefty backhand to Coop. It was offline but he was able to adjust. I was kicking myself afterwards because I had thrown it lefty but with the righty pivot so it had been incredibly awkward.

We only ended up playing two games, semis against Scotch from Nova Scotia. Right before the pull, the captain came over and asked us to take the game seriously because that was the only way they were going to learn and get better. Unfortunately that resulted in a bagel, 15-0, but fun was had by all nonetheless. In the post-game huddle, they chose me to drink some nasty formulation they had brought. Stupid cast...

This brought up the finals against Old Glory, portions of OLD SAG from Philly, half of which was practicing for the Grand Master national championships in a month. DoG had beaten them during pool play 15-9 or 11 in a game that hadn't been very close. It was much closer this time around as the score remained largely tied through the first half. DoG finally pulled away in the second half and won by the same score as the pool play game, but it definitely didn't feel that comfortable. Another masters tournament victory in the books. Jim Parinella was busy winning the Cazenovia tournament in upstate NY with Ironsides at the time, so there wasn't any sort of +1 going on.

The following week I went in for a new cast and x-rays, and the bone was still lining up well so no surgery was going to required. At this time I informed my doctor about the GM nationals starting exactly six weeks after I broke my hand. We talked about when we might take the cast off, the fact that the hand would not be healed yet so would be more vulnerable to rebreaking. I was also going to be heading to France for a family wedding the weekend of July 4th and I wanted to get the cast off before then, so we scheduled the removal for Wednesday July 1st, the day before I left for France. Meanwhile I got a fancy new black cast after eschewing the pink and glow-in-the-dark ones.

Fast forward 3 weeks to the Boston Invite. I haven't even picked up a frisbee in the interim and I'm still sporting the cast. We have a small army for this tournament as it is the final tournament of the spring. My hand is feeling a little better although I wasn't initially planning on playing that much, and again only defense. I even had made up a spreadsheet to try and keep track of subs since we would have so many, having gone through permutations various lineups, man, zone, etc. That lasted a game and a half. Spreadsheets suck. I guess that is what the assistants are for. We were seeded 12th overall, 2nd in an elite pool behind Wiretap and ahead of Forge and Colt .45, who we had beaten at WMO. First game of the morning at 9AM against Colt, and this is the big one. We held seed winning 15-10. They never really threatened. It will be interesting to see where Korber goes now that he was cut from Ironsides. Meanwhile in the other game Forge had upset Wiretap to take #1 seed. Our next game was against Forge. We went up 4-2 only to completely unravel while they scored something like 5 straight. They ended up winning 15-11 but this definitely felt like a winnable game. Final round of the day against Wiretap to try and crossover against the Elite pool. If we lose, we have to play down. The game is similar to Forge. We go up early and then lose 15-11 in yet another seemingly winnable game. Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight in all of this to know that we could definitely have won either of those games (although probably not both). This sets up a crossover with Chuckwagon from the Elite II pool. We go up big, maybe 5-0 before the games are all stopped on account of lightning. After waiting around for a half hour, Chuckwagon says that they want to go do a barbecue. We forcibly extract an admission of a forfeit so that we don't have to be back first thing in the morning, then it is off to Portsmouth NH for the evening.

Back in the morning for a 9:30 game with a schedule shift. To show the parity, 3 of the four elite crossovers had been won at double game point with two of the Elite teams moving up (including Forge). Pike had lost their crossover by one to Sons of Liberty. Our first game was against Pike who are 5 years from their semifinal appearance at nationals (or so). For us, this was the game of the spring season. This was replete with huge plays, defensive runs, sideline involvement, you name it. We gave Pike an early lead only to come back and take half 8-5 or 8-6 with a big defensive run. We had another defensive run in the second half and then held on to eke out the victory 15-13. While Pike is definitely not the team they were, this was a HUGE statement victory for us, letting us know that we could still play with the reasonably big boys (for at least one game). At least for this tournament I didn't have to throw lefty, although I only had at most a 10 yard backhand throw. I was maybe 4-5, with my sole turnover a low-release backhand, which sounds even more idiotic now considering that I had no oomph in my righty backhand with the cast on. I remember I tried one forehand during warmups and it immediately hooked left and almost hit someone.

So DoG closed out a reasonably successful spring, although if we had lost that Pike game I think the complexion would have been much different. I got the cast off the Wednesday after the Boston invite, left for France, came back, left for Denver for GM nationals with DoG, but that is another story...

Oh yeah, and I guess I'm against kick blocks now. If I remember correctly they don't allow them in Europe? Or maybe that was only at Paganello, where I accidentally tried one once, and after the faceful of sand that came up, I understand the restriction.

White Mountain Open 2009 - something something something breach

Wow, I have to go back in time to find out how many times I have blogged about the White Mountain Open. Looks like it was fewer times than I expected. We have 2005, 2007 and 2008. I'm assuming that DoG iced 2006 because of concerns about the competitive level and maybe it was the same weekend as the NJ invite.

Ironside was originally going to split up into 4 teams and Bodhi was already sending 2 teams, so it was promising to be one of the more deeper and more competitive WMO's since probably the beginning. However, Ironsides eventually backed out, leaving Bodhi a and b as the two top seeds with Phoenix 3, Colt .45 4 and DoG (masters) 5, in 4 pools so we were matched up with Colt .45. For yet another year we were gifted a first round bye (can I tell you how much I love those for these commuting tourneys). This enabled me to set my alarm for 7AM Sat morning, nice leisurely breakfast, made myself a nice lunch and then hit the road at 8AM, stopped by the ex's to drop off the kids karate clothes and say hi to the kids, then off to Dartmouth and got there around 10:15.

This was going to be a slightly different WMO, as 1) we were going to have a rather large team, and 2) much of that team was composed of players that had never played with DoG before. Apparently A&B has imploded or decided to disband so all of a sudden there are a lot of players available to look at. This prompted an internal review that resulted in me concluding pretty much the same thing, that if I failed to qualify for nationals it would be VERY hard to get it up for the following year so I completely understand how it may have happened. Regardless, we had about 10 old DoG and 7 newbies, with a number of people doing one day only visits so we averaged around 15 players a day, a veritable army for this early season tournament.

Our first game was against Magma from Montreal. Unfortunately they were unable to provide much of a test as we soundly beat them 13-4. We had a pretty long break between games before playing Space Jam-X from I have no idea. This was a VERY young team, and they played a bit like it. Another blowout and then we had Colt .45 for the pool. They were missing Korber who is trying out for Ironsides but Match was there running the show. He and I matched up quite a bit during the game and I know he was somewhat frustrated at a number of long throws that went off his fingertips (no, not because I d'ed them per se, but I was right there on a lot of them). I was able to rally the troops before the game to get them to focus on this being a big game, everyone involved, no sitting during points, help on the sidelines, and it made a difference as we pulled away to a 13-10 victory. This set up a crossover game against Bodhi-B who had blown through all of their competition so far, with the top scoring team getting 5 points against them. Thus, our goal was set...

We traded to start before giving 2 quick turns to make it 3-1 Bodhi. We traded for most of the rest of the half, with both teams getting breaks to make it 7-4. We eventually got to 9-7 before they took the last 4 to make it 13-7. I have always been of the opinion in games like this where you are the underdog that it is all about the offense. The other team will give you opportunities you just have to take advantage. If you can minimize your mistakes on offense, you are in the game. Unfortunately, this isn't the DoG teams of old that really knows how to cherish the disc. But that is why we are here at these early season tournaments.

However, winning the pool did give us the benefit of yet another first round bye on Sunday. After some carousing in Hanover with Dennis and Simon, it was off to bed for a full night's sleep. 'Buffet' breakfast at the Super 8, and then at the fields 30 minutes before round 1 against Savage Strike in the pre-quarters. Again, they were unable to mount a charge against us, falling lots to very little. This doomed us going into the next game. I remember asking Taylor Richey on the sideline as we were getting ready to play Brooklyn whether we should be worried. He replied that if we played our game, no. Unfortunately, we didn't. We started on D, they scored. The O proceeded to give up the next 2 for a 3-0 lead. Timeout called, quick troop rally. We tied it up at 5-5, then gave up half 7-5. Receiving to start the second half, yet another break for them. We made one more push in the second half but then frittered it away and they ended up pulling away and winning 13-8. That was a huge downer of a game, especially (when after checking the score reporter) they got crushed by Bodhi-A 13-2. We would have put up a FAR better fight against that Bodhi squad. Yeesh!

So begins another season of official team ultimate. After the most preseason tournaments I have ever attended, specifically Kaimana and Paganello, it is a little weird to be back in the masters division, although this wasn't a masters tournament. The next stop is Masters Easterns the weekend of June 6-7 in Fort Devens. The tryout process will continue as we get to hopefully find some hungry masters players out there that want to play some good ultimate. Until then...