Nationals

So my first stop on the way to life was a trip to Boulder, Colorado and more importantly, the national collegiate ultimate championships. For those of you who do not know, this was a big deal for me. This was the first time in the history of the team I play for that we have qualified for this tournament (link). It's been a pretty big season for our team as we were kind of the Cinderella story of college ultimate. We came out of seemingly no where to be one of the top teams in the nation. It would be hard for me to impart on you how good it has felt to be able to have this kind of accomplishment after so many years of hard work stricken down by bad luck. Not that I would have regretted any of it, even without this nationals birth but it just feels good to have this tangible accomplishment to look back on for both us and the people that have supported us.

For a little perspective, there are 400 men's teams that enter to the UPA championship series. Of those 16 qualify for nationals. Of those 16 we entered as the #7 seed. The consensus is that we deserved 6 but were switched with Carleton College so as to avoid two rematches from earlier in the series. The tournament was amazing. It was so cool to have all these great teams on one location and way more photographers and videographers then I had seen at an ultimate tournament before. It was also the last time I would play college ultimate and the last time so many of my friends would be together.


Flying in after graduation was rough, especially dealing with rental cars and stuff later but no big. I got to sleep at 230am and woke up at 615am. Our first game was against Pittsburgh. It was a pretty fun game. I played solid defense and quiet offense as I would most of the tournament. I had a nice layout d on the goal line which was pretty fun. Unfortunately while defending a deep cut I got kicked in the leg pretty good. I was alright but for the rest of the weekend my leg would get tighter and tighter and it hurt a good deal between games. We stayed in control of the game the whole time and then opened it up at the end for our most decisive win of the weekend, 15-10. The next game was against Stanford. This was a really fun game, close the entire time. Nothing much to say we just worked hard, didn't play great, but played good enough to hold onto a 15-12 win and guarantee that we would get at least 2nd in our pool. Our last game was against the #2 seed Wisconsin. We played them in what was perhaps the highlight game of the year coming into nationals, losing to them by 1 point at Vegas. I wish I could say this game went better. They simply outclassed us up and down the field. There were a lot of people there to watch expecting it to be a good game so it was pretty embarrassing. Still they earned it and Drew Mahowald on their team said I could stay with him while in Madison, sweet. Friday evening was some pasta at the house we were staying at and sleep.


On Saturday we had our first game against Dartmouth. This was pre-quarters, so it was an elimination game. I had never played them before and had heard that they had some of the best spirit in ultimate. They were real fun to play against. I guarded up mostly on this guy who used to play for Carleton. He was a lot like me, short, quick, blue collar workhorse sort of player. I enjoyed guarding him. We came out strong going up in the beginning but then they started to outplay us. They were playing a very conservative offense (which we struggle against) and doing it well. Our offense was also making some big mistakes. At one point they were up 12-8 in a game to 15. At this level that almost always means the game is over. Then we just started to claw back. Our defense was great and I got to play ever D point. The entire weekend I felt like I was playing the best defense of my career. There were ups and downs and in the end in it was 16-16 with them starting on offense, next point wins. There was a huge crowd. I had played almost all the D points until then but I wasn't called onto that line, maybe I looked tired or something. I'll admit it was disappointing but I have a lot of confidence in my teammates and though they could take care it. That they did, we scored the point in our stylistic fashion. I felt like the win gave something back to the fans that were disappointed yesterday. That win was so important, without it our season looks like so much less, and nationals would not have been the same. We would have failed. Instead we were given one last piece of glory.

That led us to a quarterfinals game against Florida, the highest ranked team at the tournament. In fact they were undefeated this season except for one loss, to us. They didn't have to play a first round game and were fresh. We on the other hand let a game that should have been manageable be one that we had to give everything to win. It took a lot out of us. I wasn't sure if we could beat Florida as wrecked as we were, but I thought we had a shot and would make a game of it. I knew this could be my last game so I tried to take some things in; the pregame cheer, looking at my team, the whole deal. Then it started. Our offense line came out and score well. Then I came on with our defensive line. Their star player Kurt Gibson threw a turnover. I got the disc on an up the line cut and saw a player on the team cutting deep. Although not a thrown I would usually make it felt right and I new we would have to take some chances to win this game on defense. It was a good look but a little long and I threw my only turnover of the tournament. We held on for a little which but soon it became clear we were not going to win this one. We were just too tired. Credit to Florida they played well. Even with a number of points left the writing was on the wall and I knew it was coming too an end. It was hard to watch us get beat by much. I was playing so hard but I couldn't do enough. At one point I had my man burned deep and Joe threw it to me. Unfortunately it was very far away and someone else's defender was closing in on it. I put everything I had into that bid for the disc but I just couldn't get there. It would have been great. I think at that moment I finally understood the expression, "died a little inside", because as I got myself up off the ground I think I did. As the game closed I kept playing hard but the emotion was starting to well up inside. On the last point I came in sprinting down the field 1st among my teamates as I had been doing a good deal that weekend and marked up on my guy. They threw it to their star and scored in one throw. I stopped fighting it, knelt down and started crying to myself. It was over.

Other people took it better then I did, they seemed to be able to feel good and have fun faster. It took me a while, but I got there. We took pictures, did a promo for CBS college sports channel (which will feature the finals as well as highlights in a couple weeks) and did some team stuff. I was okay. The rest of the weekend was fun, we watched games still being played, traded jerseys with other teams (teams really wanted ours because there are cool and people love us). My allergies were really bothering me which made it less fun for me but it was still a really good time. One of our players Joe won the MVP award which is voted on by all the players so that was really exciting. Also as a team we won the spirit award, which is like a sportsmanship award which is decided by the other teams. All season we managed to maintain a balance of competitiveness with sportsmanship and unstoppable likability. It was nice to see that continue to the end. And end it did. The magic season of Arizona and my personal career were over. I could say a lot things about Ultimate but it comes down to a simple truth. The decision to play ultimate in college was no more and no less then the best decision of my life. I regret nothing and cherish my time spent in the pursuit of acumen, fun, glory and above all friendship.