The Blue Print: The Road to the Repeat

In many ways 2008 was one of the worst years of my life. My graduate work was in shambles, my personal relationships a train wreck and, worst of all, I suffered a Jones Fracture at the first practice of the club season and was sidelined during the best season Colt .45 ever had. However, despite these unfortunate circumstances, I will always remember 2008 as the most fantastic whirlwind of my young life.

For those that may have forgotten or were not around for it, 2008 began with a dozen or so college previews followed by tournament recaps and a few trips to places like Austin, Texas, Boulder, Colorado, Vancouver, Canada and Sarasota, Florida. Looking back I cannot help but wonder what could have compelled such behavior and in reflection I can think of one word, "passion". Fortunately for me, I was brave enough to let my passion get the better of me and in so doing found out who and what I truly am.

This journey was not one I traversed alone however and I owe a large debt of gratitude to many people and organizations. Of them, I think the most thrilling come from a handful of players and teams that made 2008 arguably the most exciting ultimate season the sport has ever seen. With characters like Joe Kershner, Will Neff, Kurt Gibson, Jolian Dahl and Mark Sherwood, I was never short of superstars to investigate and teams like Arizona, Dartmouth, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, Pitt, Georgia, and Carleton made every tournament feel like Memorial Day.

But there was one program that was heads and shoulders above all others. There was one collection of warriors that carried a confidence, a swagger, a sense of pride, and, most of all, a love for each other and for our game, that is likely to never be duplicated. The Wisconsin Hodags represented the absolute pinnacle of competitive achievement two years ago and I can say with no exaggeration that in covering them from wire-to-wire, they were one of the most epic teams to have ever played the game.

Beginning in May of 2006 this team was set on becoming the most dominant force ultimate had ever seen. Losing 15-12 to Florida in the sweltering heat of Columbus, Ohio left an aftertaste that only teams like the Buffalo Bills or Cleveland Cavaliers can understand. Because of this, each member of Baby Blue returned home with a focus and a dedication that few people in this world can understand.

A few short months later, Classic City Classic and the beginnings of a new season were upon them. In February of 2007 Wisconsin once again starred down the barrel of a focused Florida program and once again came up short. Such a loss only renewed their commitment to excellence and never again that season did they taste defeat. But they also never faced Florida again.

So into the offseason they returned, still burned by a defeat that in all seriousness should have been washed away with one of the most convincing National Titles ever earned. But these are no ordinary flatballers.

It may have taken over a year but finally, Wisconsin earned their re-match with Gibson's Gators on a windy Sunday morning in Austin, Texas. Emotion could not have been higher, especially considering Wisconsin's lackluster Saturday, a paltry 4-1 pool play performance. They had been 16-0 the previous two years.

However, much like Columbus and Vegas, Florida would be the victor. Once again Florida had snatched victory from the Hodag jaws and once again Wisconsin would return to Madison beaten and frustrated.

Through sectionals, regionals, and two days of Nationals both Florida and Wisconsin were perfect and on May 18th, 2008 the showdown of a lifetime was set. One could argue regional finals carry comparable emotion and history to this bout, but it would be a hopeless venture. This was a contest that had been brewing for the bulk of each competing players' careers and never before had a contest featured such competitive giants of College Ultimate against one another.

After nearly a decade of following College Ultimate, I have never seen a game carry as much significance as that day in Boulder, Colorado. For three years these juggernauts gave ultimate fans the most exhilarating ride in College Ultimate and as if it were written in the stars the once weary Hodags were victorious.

However, unlike some of the most historic seasons in College Ultimate history, this trilogy of championships has been carefully captured and archived. Fortunately for all of us the entire saga, each short coming, each success, each chapter of this story has been documented and is now ready to own.

The Blue Print: The Road to the Repeat is the story of Wisconsin's emergence as one of the most dominating forces in the history of ultimate and the tireless historians from Madison are ready to share their work that is now 5 years in the making.

With the help of UltiVillage this DVD will be available to any fan, player, or follower that wants to witness, understand, and, dare I say, repeat a bit of history. Our sport rarely archives greatness and considering how rare true greatness is, such an opportunity is something no ultimate purist could pass up.

This weekend at College Nationals will be the first opportunity to acquire pre-sale copies of the documentary. Be one of the first to earn your seat for a truly awe-inspiring performance.

Here is the official press release for the documentary:

"The BluePrint: The Road to the Repeat” is a feature length documentary that follows the full season of the 2008 Wisconsin Hodags. After two years in a row of making finals, losing and then winning once, the Hodags set out to bring the championship back to Madison for a third time in six years. This would be a trial of focus, dedication, and unity for a team beleaguered by a record snowfall winter, and a line up of bitter competitors waiting for their shot at the returning champs.

The film highlights the 2008 Hodag season through eight tournaments interspersed with scenes from grueling workouts and intense field practices. Feel the contrast of a team which thrives on the ideal of Hodag Love, but expects nothing less than perfection from itself. Catch all the action as rivalries with college Ultimate powerhouses like Florida, The Colorado Mama Bird, and The Carleton Ultimate Team unfold.

Pre Sales start this Memorial Day Weekend!

Click here for more information on Wisconsin Ultimate.

just my thoughts

match diesel

PED's in Ultimate

Is it possible? Is it impossible? Is there a sport better suited for PED use?

After following the Cushing story for a little while, I can not help but consider the possibility that PED's are in our sport.

Ok, first off, lets re-visit the definition of Performance Enhancing Drugs. In glancing at Wikipedia's page on the topic, I couldn't help but notice that marijuana actually can be a PED in sports like archery to reduce jitters and to steady one's hand. Using this definition, PED's are definitely in our sport.

However, what about the good stuff like steroids and HGH? Is it possible that they exist in ultimate? I suppose those that have never thought about it, or come across anyone who has, these sorts of PEDs are not unlike hard drugs. I personally have only seen cocaine twice and have never seen heroin, PCP, Ecstasy, etc.. and would have no clue how to procure any of them, even if I wanted to. That does not mean that they do not exist though and given the fact that steroid use is prevalent in high schools across the US, I am inclined to believe a motivated adult could find whatever they thought would help.

This concept is even more alarming when considering the number of players in our sport. A quick glance at the college rankings site indicates that there are over 600 teams registered on the score reporter, in the open division alone. Now I do not claim that all are active teams, but that is a lot. If I could venture a guess as to how many people play ultimate, I suspect the number would fall in the 10s of 1,000s and with such a large sample size, I am skeptical that 100% are clean.

What's worse is that ultimate, like most professional sports, is ideal for PED abuse. Some say steroids or HGH can not help you hit a fastball, but they sure as shit can help you heal. That is the canonical use for steroids. Can you imagine how valuable such a substance would be in getting through an arduous 6 month season? What about overcoming an injury or giving you the boost you need to make the cut? Which brings me to my next point, who would consider using.

For most top shelf athletes, PED use in ultimate is likely unnecessary. If you are gifted physically, you likely have no interest in artificially boosting your body's ability and would likely feel unimaginable guilt and regret if you did so. But realistically, such athletes do not constitute a majority. They represent the small few that can walk onto a field and stun the masses simply by doing their thing. But what about the rest of us? How badly do you want to make the A team? What would you sacrifice? And are you even mature enough to understand the implications and consequences of your actions?

I suppose one could counter that because one's financial stability does not depend on their performance in ultimate, the temptation is not as prevalent as in professional sports. My response to this lies with availability. Yes, if sequestering steroids required knowing the right people, paying the right price, and/or venturing into some really dark places, steroid use would be a rough road for the recreational player to traverse. However, with websites like this and this, one just needs a credit card. Punch in a few numbers and your address and boom, welcome to 20 inch pythons. The ease of the internet once again shows that it comes with some drawbacks.

Considering the fact that abuse knows no age and the sport has grown into the same demographics that have already been shown to use PEDs (high school students) I am inclined to believe that somewhere, someone is using. That being said, my biggest question is "How does this affect spirit of the game?" Forget refs, forget muscling for position, travel calls, or double teaming. What about steroids?

Scary as it may sound, perhaps someone reads this and gets an idea. Hopefully it is an administrator looking to build some sort of testing infrastructure, but I suspect it could be a college kid who's a little scrawny, who loves the game, and simply HAS to make his/her A team. And to add to the temptation, who's going to stop him/her? What is in place to even address the issue? Once again, forget refs, what about PEDs?

I suppose this issue is a few years down the road, but only because no one has been busted yet. It took Black Tide getting booted from Nationals to get people to pay attention to years of eligibility. Then again, how would one currently even recognize or catch a PED user? Which is probably the scariest component to the argument. We simply can't.

just my thoughts

match diesel

The Importance of Stats

Last night I caught "61*" on HBO and for those that have not seen it, the movie is a pretty sweet depiction of the homerun race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Marris in the summer of '61. Billy Crystal, a huge Mantle fan, articulates the struggles of both players as they try and break Babe Ruth's single season homerun record, "The most most respected record in all of sports". Being a sucker for emo-sports stories such as this, I was taken in by the flick nearly 10 years ago when it first aired, and once again, caught myself getting a little misty. Although in the wake of the steroid era, it is kind of hard to feel any positive emotion when Big Mac is on screen.

In any event, this movie got me thinking about ultimate and how we really don't have that many records. Yes there is DoG's epic run of 6 consecutive championships, but for me it draws similarities to ULCA's championship runs in the 60's and 70's. They were incredible and will never be forgotten, but the increase in parity makes duplicating such a result unlikely.

With the rise in fan appreciation for all sports, focus often falls on one record or another. From the '72 dolphins, to Cal Ripken, Wayne Gretzky, Joe DiMaggio, Wilt Chamberlain, etc... we can all think of records that command attention and inspire hope, even for those of us that will never see a professional playing field.

Some might say these records are irrelevant and that players don't pay any attention to them, but I would argue that most professional athletes cared at one point or another, if only as a child, and all would agree that records are an important part of sports. Can we say the same for ultimate? What records are there? I know Joe Seidler could probably name more than a few, but I get the feeling most folks would be left flat when asked what records are treasured in ultimate.

The only thing that really comes to mind is the perfect season, which to my knowledge has not been done, at least not recently (Perhaps an ex-NYNY player will correct me, but for arguments sake, lets say there has never been a team that has gone undefeated). Since I have played the game Stanford, Florida and Wisconsin have all come close with records of 37-1 (2002), 49-1 (2006), and 55-1 (2007), respectively, and I believe all three could claim to be the best college teams ever assembled. Now I am not here to claim that the perfect season is the ideal record, its just one that comes to mind. In reality, I think it is a goal that could prove to be counter productive. Considering the fact that all my "1-loss" teams are college programs, it is obvious that no one really cares about the perfect season in the club sphere.

However, what I am trying to claim is that ultimate could benefit from well known/accepted records and more importantly an improved system of keeping statistics, which is obviously where records come from. One of my favorite components of every UPA magazine that features recaps of Nationals (college or club) is the championship stat sheet where I can see who had good/poor games and how clean/sloppy the finals were. To my knowledge, no game has ever been turnover free, but I do sometimes find myself talking about the epic Furious/DoG semifinal from 2002, Kyle Weisbrod's #1 game of the decade, which seems to be the pinnacle of ultimate performance.

With this in mind, I am curious to know what records could manifest in ultimate. Given that our sport is prone to speciality positions at the highest level I doubt a triple crown of 1) Goals, 2) Assists and 3) D's would be possible. Perhaps single season records of each could be cool, but I wonder if lopsided teams would dominant such stats, thus making any sort of record irrelevant. Another route, much like goalie records in hockey, could be player completion percentage but I wonder if keeping track of passes would be overwhelmingly tedious. Regardless, I know that such stats where kept at least once at the 2005 World Games in Germany, and I can vividly remember combing through them that summer with a grin from ear to ear.

Then there are team records. I mentioned DoG's run of championships, and the "clean sheet", but what about football-esk records like average points against. I am sure Muffin, Mahowald, Hohenstein, and the rest of the '07 Hodags would love to be talked about the way the Steel Curtain is, especially considering the fact that offense has such a major advantage in our game.

Ultimately (ha! I always find it funny to use that word in ultimate articles) I don't really feel anything for any of these records which, given our sport, is not surprising. I respect total number of championships, but in all honesty, they are respectable almost to the point of boredom. Yes de Frondeville's got like 11 rings, I'm over it. Give me something a little more exciting to pay attention too.

Which brings me to my final point. In 2008 I had the time of my life covering ultimate and when I look back at all the seasons I have followed the most epic are always the ones I followed most closely. I think 2005 was the best college nationals in recent history, but it was also the first time I ever attended them. I think 2008 had the most compelling stories with Kershner, and Florida and Wisconsin, but then again I was at Centex, and Nationals, and followed every team with a magnifying glass. Since then I, and what looks like most of the ultimate community, have not been paying attention. I was approached to write the College Open Preview because somebody flaked and I struggled for talking points, especially with the Callahan. And it wasn't just me. Everyone I contacted sort of shrugged their shoulders and was like, "I dunno" and/or had some sort of heavy regional bias. All in all, I find the focus on ultimate, college or club, is pretty weak and has been for the past two years and I think statistics would make a difference. I mean come on, take a look at baseball. The game is nothing but numbers and I am sure more than a few of you out there care more about WHIP than you'd care to admit because of your fantasy team.

Anyway, long story short, I wish our sport kept better records. I have bitched numerous times that we don't archive our history well and now that we have a consistent score reporter, I now want statistics. Goals, assists, turnovers, D's. Think how much analysis of the game would change if we had such information. Who's the best? Who's the most consistent? Who's improved the most? With cold hard data, everything would change. High risk high reward players would be exposed for their carelessness and cool and steady flatballers would gain the credit they deserve. Strengths and weaknesses could be improved or taken advantage of with greater efficiency. Hell we might even get a record or two to chase when the dust settles.

I am sure I'm just yelling at the rain, but here is one way to make ultimate more like professional sports without talking about refs and SOTG, keep track of stats.

just my thoughts

match diesel

Another Monday

Another UCSD Tourney Win.

Yep, they did it again. Santa Barbara could have been better, but since Pres Day the ol' squiddies are 14-0 with 2 tournament victories. There is some obvious redundancy regarding their victories (i.e. UCLA, SDSU, Davis and Cal), but much like a Boise State, TCU or Cincinnati, they are winning the games put in front of them and that is more than I can say for most teams.

In a year where their 0-3 (2007) and 0-4 (2008) Stanford Invite Pool Play performances finally caught up with them, UCSD delivered and that is commendable. Much like the NIT, qualifiers are a serious gut check for "elite teams" and unlike Kentucky or Florida, UCSD proved themselves and earned their shot at the posh Stanford Invite.

As for other Ultimate News, I get the feeling that this UPA ranking system is going over like a Led Zeppelin. A friend of mine from UConn was a bit perturbed that despite going to Florida, Vegas, and North Carolina (all before March 1st) they only have 3 official games recorded. He mentioned something about Gerics being suspended for a year, which sounds pretty lame given the fact that he isn't a player, but in all honesty, I think the only people being hurt are the players, which sucks. I am sure the UPA has methods for their madness and it may take a year or two for this idea to prove itself, but I really have no clue what I'm looking at. Regardless, I'm sure Florida, Colorado, Carleton, or Wisconsin will be in the winner's circle come May. In the mean time, everyone else give'em hell.

just my thoughts

match diesel

Return of the Squidi

The year was 2005, the place was Baltimore Airport. I was hating life after a recruiting trip at Johns Hopkins. After taking down half a dozen Long Islands the previous night, I woke up on the floor of my hotel room. My groggy/drunk/confused perspective that morning was rocked when I realized my flight was taking off at that exact moment. I made it to BWI about an hour late and spent the next 10 hours missing flight after flight on stand bye. As for my hangover, I can only describe it as comparable to whatever Saints fans are gonna feel after Mardi Gras.

Regardless, I was in much better shape than my poor UCSD counterparts. See while I was hating life back east, Bamboo was making his proverbial deal with the devil sending the likes of Oregon, Texas, Colorado, UBC, (insert elite program here) all over the San Diego Area to compete in what was left of a rained out Pres Day. While having balls the size of Sean Payton's, Jake didn't make any friends with the local housing communities and got UCSD's Ultimate program suspended for 6 weeks and Pres Day banned until 2007. To this day, the ripple effect of this tourney transgression continues to be felt, but finally the wake has made a return trip and given the La Jolla crowd some positive energy.

With the Pres Day vacancy of 2006, Skip changed the face of Spring Ultimate and recruited everyone save Georgia to the first Trouble in Vegas. In the coming years, TiV's success grew like the Vegas strip with Arizona, Florida, and Wisconsin making ultimate headlines that are now stapled in Flatball History Books.

What of Pres Day? Well a few folks made the trek in 2007 but I believe it was rained out once again. The following year borrowed some Sunburn hype and a tourney win for Texas, but TiV still owned the spotlight.

But as I wrote last week, what the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Last year TiV was about as exciting as the most recent BCS title game in that the right teams were there but the experience left something to be desired. Folks were understanding, but the atrocious conditions left many players bitter. By this time, UCSD's sense of betrayal by Cultimate was in full swing and rather than make the 5hr drive to Vegas, they stayed home and made the finals of the tournament everyone used to attend.

Much like Obama, Cultimate's popularity has been in a steady downward spiral the last 12 months. From C1 to suspect tournament scheduling to another TiV debacle, the hits keep on coming. Considering the fact that Ultimate players are among the most frugal in the sports world, hitting the pocket book without tournament glory is going to draw some frowns. Like Obama, the promises made were well beyond the realm of possibility, but nobody, even myself, wanted to acknowledge it.

However, much like 2005/2006, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This past weekend was one for the ages for my beloved Squiddies and that previous feeling of inadequacy has now been replaced with sheer confidence. Confidence in knowing you're better than the cards you've been dealt, confidence in knowing Cultimate would get theirs, and confidence to run off 4 breaks in a row to beat a team that boat raced you 13-5 three weeks prior.

Congrats to my RIMAC warriors. Although my life has taken me farther away from my roots than I would like, I still keep a watchful eye on my alma matter and my ear to the Grind Stone. Even in the Honda and Bofa days where we actually beat Colorado once, were invited to Stanford and made Semis at Nationals, we still couldn't win Pres Day. Much like the Saints, 2010 is a year of redemption for UCSD. Peripheral to the Stanford Open/Invite, Centex, Regionals, Nationals, or whatever tournaments you guys do or do not make, Pres Day was a success and 2011 will assuredly bring a few more Cultimate converts. San Diego may not have the cling-cling-cling of Vegas but it has the beach, women, and burritos. Three things that any age group can enjoy and three things the Southland does better than anywhere else.

Glory favors the patient my friends and much like Sunburn's emotional win at Vegas, this year is yours for the taking. I have always been proud to be a squid and in an age where Florida, Carleton, Wisconsin, and Colorado box out most from the spotlight, moments like this are beyond words. The Hodags can have Mardi Gras, JoJah can have Queen City. We just won our own mother fucking tournament.

just my thoughts

match diesel

Who Dat?!?!

Best NFL season of my young life and my team went 3-13. Yep, thats right, I'm a Bucs fan and thanks to Lane "famous for being famous" Kiffin, I had to find other ways to enjoy the football season this year. I went with conventional weapons and got into two Fantasy Leagues and thanks to Phillip Rivers, Dallas Clark, Ray Rice, and basically the Vikings Offense, I was in good shape.

But I still had a problem, the GF. We basically live together and getting >15hrs of sports coverage a week under her nose was not going to be easy. I'm a crafty SOB though and figured if I could get her emotionally invested in a team, ANY team, I'd make magic happen, and oh did it happen.

Being from Canada, the girl really digs on French stuff and by week 2 she showed signs of interest in the Saints logo. I knew they were easy front runners to go deep into the playoffs so I nurtured the shit of her kindling interest. By Christmas I had her in a custom Saints T-shirt with name/number and come the playoffs, all I needed was a little luck (i.e. Brett Favre late in the 4th quarter) and I could watch all the football I could handle.

She proved to be quite the student I might add and by Super Bowl Sunday, I had created a veritable monster that was telling her friends all about Archie Manning and the status of Dwight Freeney's ankle. In addition, I also managed to get some College hoops hooks in her by taking her to the Kentucky/Uconn game at MSG, which proved pivotal for bridging the weekly gap between MNF and College GameDay.

Anyway, by kickoff we had the Super Bowl Party in full swing with 5-6 friends chowing on veggies, nachos, and pizza, while watching the game on my "the picture is so good it'll make your dick hard" TV. For beverages the girl made Who Dat Mojitos.

At one point in the first quarter someone suggested that we do shots every time the Saints score and considering the fact that I had an unopened bottle of Wild Turkey collecting dust in the closet, I was quick to get some drinking momentum started. Plus I was a little nervous after NO's lackluster start, so I figured getting drunk was a good move. I also realized that I had never been shit-faced for the Super Bowl because I always had work on Monday. Eh, fuck it this time.

To my surprise, rather than let Peyton carve us up like a Thanksgiving Turkey, we actually made a game of it. Not converting on 4th and goal was a little disheartening (I don't know why they didn't give it to Kardashian) but thankfully Hartley's leg saved us some face and we were only down 4 going into half. I actually missed the onside kick on a food run but in retrospect I'm glad I did so. I can be a bit volatile at times and considering that this was the gutsiest play in Super Bowl history I may have gotten myself evicted had I been there. Thankfully, we were off to the races by the time I returned and before I knew it, we were up 13-10 off Pierre Thomas' 16-yd TD. BTW, did you guys see the 2 blocks on that play? Sick!

And with another TD, came another shot. This is when things start to get a little blurry, especially for the GF, but as our BAL's increased, so did the excitement, go figure. A TD from Addai and another 40+ yd field goal from Hartley and we were at 16-17 at the end of the 3rd quarter. At this point in time I remembered the squares pool I was in and that I had Saints 6/Colts 7. Dialed!!

The only thing we needed now was the lead and thankfully Brees and Shockey hooked us up for another shot of Bourbon. I actually managed to sucker a friend into a second shot after he jumped the gun before the 2-pt conversion. "If we win the challenge, you gotta do another" BOOM! I felt like I was back in college getting freshman wasted.

Next thing I know we are up 7 with about 5 min to go and Peyton's driving, shit! The 4th and 2 conversion was tough to watch but it set up the second most exciting Pick 6 I have ever seen, the first being Rhonde Barber's in the 2003 NFC title game. I about had a heart attack and despite shaking the foundation of the 7th floor, we managed to collect ourselves and kill the bottle of whiskey. Enter all the hoopla and post game interviews.

By the time the dust settled most folks had left and my beloved was passed out on the floor. I had been giving her a foot massage and she slid off the couch in comfort. As I gazed down at her beautiful face, decorated with eye black, I thought to myself, "this is one of the happiest moments of my life". It was tough to articulate this moment to her this morning but when I drew the mental picture of a tuckered out 3 year old holding up the pennant of his favorite/winning team while asleep on the couch after all the action, she got the picture.

In reflection of this NFL season, I must call it my favorite. I made the finals in both my fantasy leagues, going 1-1. I won the free league and lost the money league but still managed to get 1/2 the pot. My Bucs sucked but I was able to bring a new sports fan into the world. I think the victory meant more to me than it did to her, but she's now got a special place in her heart for Brees (who doesn't) and will hopefully be a Na'Lens fan for life. With the money from the pool I'm going to get her some "Saints are Champions" schwag and I also plan to make good on her, "Lets go down to Tampa for Saints/Bucs" request. She digs the pirate ship and canon at Raymond James....girls.

A Little Spittle

As for our beloved flatball, things looked like they could have gone better this weekend. I find it terribly ironic that the circumstances that helped birth TiV (rained out PresDay '05) have reared their ugly head in the most unexpected place, the desert. What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Good luck getting another 70+ teams out next year when they can go somewhere a little more under 21 friendly.

Or not, I hear the Yale guys spent 6 hrs at a strip club. That sounds like expensive fun, something Ivy Leaguers love.

And I also couldn't help but comment on this thread on RSD. It looks like someone out there in cyber space is doing a little yelling at the rain. I've been there myself and despite all the data, little will be done. It will make Oregon a more focused team in the future, but in all honesty, the best strategy is to learn how suck it up and do it again.

just my thoughts

match diesel

Lets get to 200,000 hits

I wish I had a fantastically passionate article to write, but, sadly, I only have jaded opinions brought on by years of grandstanding. However, I would like to get up and over 200,000 hits so here are a few talking points to get 1,000 more or so.

Beware-O

I managed to sneak into Beware-O this past year. I tried to fly under the radar by introducing myself as "Mike" to my new teammates but having 808 on the team steadily unraveled that plan. This tournament experience was actually quite amazing because it was only the second time I have ever played with my cousin, Alex Seber, in a tournament setting and like the first, (Wild Wood) we won the tournament. This came as a huge surprise to me because I had just been on a 3 day bender in San Francisco with Alex and I failed to get any sleep the night before the tournament thanks to a horribly audible salt water fish tank in Al's living room. Nonetheless, we won the thing which is weird because I remember feeling so inadequate in 2003 when I played Beware-O last. We didn't go undefeated, losing our last pool play game, but we performed steadily in bracket play and despite being down 10-6 in the finals, we came back and beat Robot's team 13-11.

Which brings me to my next topic, this Robot character. For those that do not know this guy, he is an LPC legend who has been hyped since at least my junior year at UCSD, which was in 2003/04. His ora and the way people talk about him reminds me of the way Roger Williams sweated Teddy. I have only played against Robot twice, once in 2004 when I was captaining Squid Lite (we won) and in the finals of Beware-O. Now, as I mentioned before, 808 was on my team and like Robot, the two have this silent majesty about them. Unlike myself, they prove themselves on the field and let everyone else do the talking. This made for an interesting final with two similar, yet drastically different, players (both LPC alums) going at it. We all know 808 made the popularity game back at Potlatch, but in all honesty, I thought he won the battle against Robot. He played endlessly tight man defense. Was consistent and executed well on offense and did everything I now know he is capable of. Hats off to 808, you sort of already had my respect (I don't really know why) but it was reaffirmed.

Match-stradamus

Another thing that has been entertaining for me the last few months has been watching events go down in the Ultimate community more or less how I predicted. It kinda makes me feel like Nostradamus but don't tell my girlfriend, she'll vomit from the self ego padding.

What do I mean? Well, I wrote this 8 months ago, and what do I see in the UPA magazine this time around? "Free Agency in Ultimate". That was entertaining. I was on the other side of the discussion, but either way, I saw it coming. Plus I saw this article and happened to LOVE IT.

Then there was Gibson's Story. Heijmen was actually very nice and sent me an email giving me props before it was published in the UPA magazine, but I kind of like that I got the story first. The UPA has character limits up the ying-yang so I didn't really want to even pursue magazine publication. I mean come on, that story in less than 500 words, forget it.

Lastly, my Back Behind Closed Doors article. This was one I wrote around the same time as District 5, and while some disagreed with my opinions, I think I hit the nail on the head. What's funny is that a critic of mine seems to have fallen victim to the same fate as I, yet he unknowingly benefitted from me "taking some responsibility". As further validation, I got an email from a National Champion asking me to get back on the writing horse to motivate him and his teammates towards a repeat. HA! I rule.

And who could forget this one. I like how no one even tried to talk shit about this self-aggrandizing.

Some Side Spittle

I love how a major theme we have received from Hector over the last year is that Muffin is as psychotic as everyone fears he is. Are we going to see one of these in the future?

Getting back to player emails, I think I managed to patch things up with BLW. I hated that guy for the longest time, but I guess it just goes to show that time heals all wounds.

Where is he now?

I'd like to say I am excited about the college season this year, but I'm really not. Carleton, Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin...same shit different day. I'm more stoked for the NFL playoffs and the college basketball season than anything else, especially now that UK is finally dominating the way we should. Everybody is sweating John Wall, and he is great, but Bledsoe and Cousins are right there. Not to mention Patrick fucking Patterson....guy's a champ.

I sort of want to get on Twitter to showcase just how bad ass my life is, but in all honesty, it's pretty boring. Rather than continue as the Ultimate Professional that I was, I used my blogging experience to get me two part time writing gigs that actually make a difference, and money. I mentioned this to 808 and he said, "With UltiVillage?" and I said, "No, with a mother of an autistic child and a forensic psychologist." I thought that was funny. The Ultimate community and sub-culture is great, but I'm over it. Kaimana, Wild Wood, Lei Out, Potlatch, Nationals, etc.. were all great, but its just a game and I've got more important things to do.

Plus, becoming "The best story teller in the Ultimate Community" (not my words) was fun but I'm onto bigger challenges like having a career and making lots of money. I grew up and, hopefully, most of you out there will as well.

just my thoughts

match diesel