Ultimate

I played in the Cram-Up tournament this weekend with a group of people from Portland and Eugene. It was a ton of fun. After a crazy night of partying (I've decided to not drink for a while and thus was only a spectator) until 4am saturday morning, we went 4-0 on saturday. I played well early, but feel like my play declined steadily over most of the weekend (got tired).

The party saturday night was fun. I danced almost the entire time. We finally headed home around midnight. We played $hack first thing and came out kinda flat going down 6-3. We then pulled ourselves together and went on a 4-0 run to take half 7-6. We ended up winning 13-9 ish. On the field next to us, the barely-legal kids (OSU men/women + a few) managed a very impressive upset of the Reno (Elle and Matt) team, so we played them in semi's. I think my favorite play of this game was when I juked Chris Stevens out of his shoes so that he made 4 steps out before he realized I had cut in. I played like kinda a jack-ass; heckling especially rudely on and off the field... hopefully they all knew I was doing it just for fun; and to teach them never to pay any attention to jack-ass hecklers... no matter who they are.

We ended up losing in finals (very dissapointing). We were down 8-3 at half, put on a strong comeback early in the second half to make it 8-6.. 9-7, but couldn't really finish the deal and ended up losing 15-9ish. I felt like I played better in this game than most of the rest of sunday, but still didn't feel too strong. Playing in tournaments like that just makes me want to get better.

This weekend corvallis hosted the 2007 NW College Regional tournament. Having qualified for the tournament two weeks earlier (in the sectional tournament), the Divas played awesome all weekend long. As the coach, I felt that the weekend was an overwhelming success. The girls have been working so hard all season long and everyone has improved so much. This weekend I feel as though each player played as well or better than they ever have, and many took their games to a whole new level. They won every game that their experience, size and ability reasonably allowed them to. In addition, they played VERY hard and well against teams with far more experience and numbers. They never gave up.

There are too many individual plays and performances to mention all of them. The play of Emily and Lora, the leaders and stars was simply inspiring... all weekend. Kate, the third graduating senior, was totally unmatched in the air. Beckie's game elevated about three notches with gazelle-speed deep cuts followed by equally fast in cuts. Emma was, as always totally solid and dependable. Morgan and Mari - the workhorses - never stopped running and were always open when they needed to be. July was super dependable as the multi-role player who got at least a few D's each game. Caitlin with her super-quick cuts scored repeatedly and was totally clutch late both days. Breanna used her speed to stretch the field, caught many goals and got open a number of times when we needed her to. Tiff and Liz played hard, got D's, and showed Angela-esque determination when cutting all weekend long. Then, of course, there's Celeste, whom had her break-out weekend; using her speed to beat her girl repeatedly and being one of the most vocal players on the field. She finally showed the confidence, fight and determination that I've always known she was capable of, and that was emblematic of the entire team all weekend long.

Due to seeding, the Divas had their two hardest games right off the bat on saturday morning with UW (Washington) followed by UBC (British Columbia). After dropping those two games, the ladies came out strong against Humboldt who has been a strong rival all season long. Due to a somewhat wacky format (13 teams), this put us into a "play-in" game against Davis. We matched up well with Davis early, but could not maintain enough consistency throughout the game to come out victorious. Having lost this game, sunday was a round-robin consolation bracket.

Our first game sunday was against another rival team that beat us in semi-finals at the PLU-BBQ: Western Washington. The Divas came out strong, battled for a couple, went down 3-5, then took half 8-5. The second half we traded points mostly and ended up winning 13-9 in a 'false' soft-cap that western tricked us into in very funny prank related to an incident in the PLU-BBQ game.

We played Stanford B next. The divas played hard all game and got the win, 15-4.

Our final game was against Whitman. In many ways, this game was the most impressive of the weekend. Everyone (on both sides) was so tired and women's finals (Berkeley defeated Stanford) was happening one field away. In spite of this, both teams played incredibly hard and the Divas managed to push through just enough more, just enough of the time to come out victorious. This included many amazing plays including: lay-out grabs, go-to D's, hucks, skies etc. The determination was inspiring. Going 3-0 on sunday at regionals was a wonderful way to finish the season.

I doubt I would have been prouder had they won every game.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Our second day was not quite as action packed as the first. We woke late, found our way to the fields (this time the old guys were tardy), and cleated up. I had to run around a while to get my muscles moving. We lost our first game, stupidly, but won the second. We then hung out on the fields a while, playing botchey (sp?) and waiting for Dug to return with beer. Finally they showed and a couple Boat races ensued before we all headed back to the Hotels (Dug hung back organizing boat-races).

Back at the hotel, we located the Hot-Tub where the Dave, Joe and Brett were chillin'. When I arrived there were probably 30 guys and 5 girls in the tub. The girls didn't hang out long to make it officially the worst sausage fest I've ever been in the middle of. Strangely enough, two new girls showed up and boldly walked right into the hot tub. Initially they sat down at the far end of the pool from me, but when things started getting crazy (wrestling etc.) at that end, they made their way down and sat between Joe and I where Brett had just gotten up from to play water-basketball with James. After a while I struck up a conversation, but it wasn't long until Dug showed up back from the fields and made a b-line for the only girls in the tub. Basicly he "fell" on these girls under the auspices of wrestling with Dave, while claiming that he "couldn't swim". All I could do was sit there and introduce these two lovely ladies to their attacker. "This is Dug *****." Unsurprisingly, they'd heard the name, and so they had just had the (dis?)honor of an authentic Dug encounter.

After that, Dave and I headed downstairs where we ran into Andy and Jesse who were headed to the top of the stratosphere for some rides. Dave wanted to go, and I wanted to go again, so after a brief shower and change, we hit the rides up again. Super fun! Then it was off to dinner (Dave, Brett, Joe, Andy, Jesse and I) at the Italian place where the night before I'd made a reservation for 12. So when I walked up to make another reservation for 6 they gave me some shit, "aren't you the guy who made a reservation for 20 last night, then canceled?" (It was 12). Dinner was excellent. Joe knows a shitload about cooking/serving so he told us everything that was being done wrong and other cooking tips.

After that it was pretty much off to the airport. We reconnected with James, Jimmy, Pete and Dug. Apparently Dug had organized and won TWO dance competitions in the 50-s style diner where they had eaten. I dunno. That guy is unbelievable.

The airport sucked. First we were in a panic because we couln't get checked in because the computers weren't working. Then all of a sudden everyone was gone and it was easy, then when we got to the gate our flight was delayed an hour, so we sat around trying to figure out which was funnier: the photo of chad's massive #2 or "autistic Dug" riding the "Big Shot". Some thought one or the other - I couldn't decide - but we all agreed that both were pretty freaking hilarious.

What an unreal day. We arrived in Vegas around 10pm and headed mostly straight for the Casino. In the hotel room, shotguns and whiskey shots were ubiquitous and we headed down stairs to loose some money. Most people hit up the BlackJack and PaiGow tables, while Chris Stevens and I played Hold'em (he made ~100, I lost that amount). After a while I caught up with Doug who was in the process of trying to convince a beatiful 20-something Georgia girl to marry him. There was talk of going to a club that never took because of Doug's distaste for the Florida players that were going that way. We drank and caused all sorts of trouble until around 4am.
The morning was difficult. Dave broke in at 8:30 sharp and dragged Timmy into the hallway in his underwear again while two girls walked by (this exact sequence of events had occured last year and apparently Dave felt it was a tradition worthy of upholding). We gather our crap and headed out. It took us probably 30 minutes to get out of the parking garage because I drove around the same floor for that long. in my defense, I was following signs, the exit wasn't labeled.

We arrived at the fields as games were starting and Dave expressed some frustration for the fact that "the old guys" were the ones that were on time. Perhaps needless to say, our first game was rather pathetic. No one was really with it. There were a few memorable plays of the game, but my "here I want you to have this callahan score" was among the most of the day. In round 2, we played better, were up at halftime, but lost to a team we really should have beaten. We won round three somewhat handily, but lost round four pathetically.

Back at the Casino, we pre-pre-partied in the room where Chad dropped a 10-lb duece, then ate dinner. We finally headed to the top of the stratosphere where Jimmy and I rode all three thrill rides. Holy crap, what fun! The X-scream is a tiny-roller coaster on a pivoting bar that slides you out over the edge of the pinnacle and stops you abruptly to look down 1000 feet at the concrete jungle below. The 'Insanity' swing was my personal favorite... a spinning swing that puts you out over the edge of the tower, then spins you around at 40mph so that you swing out and face down to look at the hotel swimming pool. We then talked Tim and Cameron into doing the Big-Shot with us (this was most people's favorite)... a very high acceleration launch that shoots you straight up to see nothing but the Vegas Skyline then stops you and pushes you back down just as fast. So that was pretty unbelievable.

Afterward, we headed down and over to the Rio where we were hoping to see bikini-clad BlackJack dealers, but apparently Vegas changes a lot in a year because they were nowhere to be found. We milled around there for a while before the group split up. Chad and company went to a strip club, that was apparently tons of fun, while Chris, Larson, myself and others went exploring for cheaper gambling. Chris made some money playing Hold'em at the Flamingo and I only lost a little. After a few hours of this, Jeff and Corey showed up and we all headed back to our hotel. They went to bed and Chris and I played a bit more hold'em. He made a little and I lost more, which with last years winnings makes me even with Vegas. Anyway, I finally headed to bed to find Chad's crew just arriving with many wild tales.