Club Sectionals 2009 - F-U-N! ALL THE TIME!

(To be expanded...)



EXPANSION:

Club Sectionals this year was quite different. Let us take an impressive comparative journey...


2008 Club Sectionals - Sunday Starting Line


2009 Club Sectionals - X Team Starting Line



2008 Freshmen at Sectionals (Our awkwardness is still charming)


2009 Freshmen at Sectionals (CUTE)


(I posted a link to a ton more pictures in the blog below.)


Awww, I just wanted to post pictures. How cute are the newbies, I mean REALLY? I could go on, and I will, but first I want to recap the games with INTENSE DETAIL.

The biggest difference between this year and last year (other than teammates, location, etc.,etc.,) was the split into two DL teams X/Y. As I mentioned in my last update, the teams were split up pretty evenly. We were paired up with a partner of similar skills/skill-level. This left us with two very even teams and all the freshmen were given significant playing time because there weren't enough returners on each team to completely dominate play. AND because giving newbies playing time is one of the most productive ways to help them improve.

Our games were on these polo fields/farm in Upperville, VA aka middleofnowherebumfuckVAwithoutaWAWA as I affectionately just dubbed it in my head. The fields were nice, lovely grass that had just enough morning dew on it so laying out/bidding would be a fantastic journey and not painful. The downside? They were pretty hilly, one field had a cross-field dip, and the endzones ended with a stone wall. Potential ouchies.

SATURDAY
I drove down with three newbs (not by choice but it was karma for running late). This girl Emma was "driving". The first thing she said to me when I got into the backseat was, "So how do I get off campus? I've never driven here before." I'll let your imagination fill in my reaction to this.

I had to backseat drive the whole way, getting her off campus, around and out of DC, how to drive on the highway at speeds above 30mph. It was the polar opposite of road trip fun this summer. I was in the backseat with newbie/freshman Allison A, she and I were making quiet snarky comments all the way there. It was a painful ride, but Allison, and freshman Natalie in the front seat are super cool.

Saturday's team was a lot smaller than expected: Maria, Abby, Krugs, Val, Taylar, Leeann, Natasha, Susie, Fia, Natalie, Aly, Sondra, Christine, Jessie, and Tasia. After warm-ups, our team ran an endzone drill (some things never change) and announced starting line. WOO FIRST GAME. We played YHB first, a high school team. It was a great first game. Not only did we win, but we played hard and it allowed the freshmen some room to mess-up and warm-up in their very first tourney. On two personal notes, I had a layout catch early in the game and the ground was so wet that after I landed inbounds, I slid out of bounds. I felt like superman teehee. They threw zone and we had to quickly adjust aka I had to handle. Handling for zone is fun and I wasn't bad! Maria was apex and at some point Val swung it to her but the wind picked it up and it went way over her head. In typical fashion I run to go pick up the garbage, but Maria loves doing that too. We started running at each other and didn't realize it because we were watch the disc, I slid on my knees to get the disc and to get away from Maria's charge, while Maria jumped so as not to run into me and the disc. Hence the foot-long bruise on my left calf left by Maria's cleats. Awesome teamwork WOO! Our girls were catching D's left and right, Jessie was bidding, Maria had at least 1 layout D, and I skied my first girl. The new girls started picking everything up very quickly; it was so much fun to watch and teach and play with them.

Abby and I worked on a cheer for YHB on the sideline to the tune of "ABC". So fun! I may never escape "King SMUT" but at least I can gain some creativity points towards a better cheer-reputation. Ah, to one day be Spirit Captain... I would so wear an awesome hat for that.

We beat YHB, got a few freshmen points too. And then went on to get crushed by Touch of Grey. We could outrun most of them, but their handling skills were incredible/too much for us. We only managed to score one point (and thus began my streak of assisting more than scoring). But they were super nice and we cheered them with a really dirty cheer written again by Abby and I. Their cheer went like this, if you want to hear it let me know:

We've heard all about you ladies that are dirty
You're sexy and you're sassy and notoriously flirty
But when you're on the field you put your ass in gear
You tell the other teams to kiss your rear

AND THERE WAS CHOREOGRAPHY! They have a girl (bah... WOMAN) on their team that writes cheers and when they come up with a good one she prints it out and puts it in a binder for safekeeping. INTENSE.

Our next game was against Scandal. I will not rehash the asskicking that was this game. But seriously, ladiezgotskillz. We basically had a by so we went to watch the other DL play UMD. This break pretty much killed us for our next game, we weren't warmed up. Which sucks because we could have beaten UVA's Hydra.

The Hydra game was pretty heated, we kept them at 1:1, and whenever they might catch a break, we were usually able to catch up. They threw hoe, which was new for the freshmen. We even ran an endzone play. That being said, it was Dr. Evil, I was handling and Maria was cutting for me... OKAY ALRIGHT IT WAS THE BEST LEAD I'VE EVER THROWN I WAS SO EXCITED AND STILL SO EXCITED IT WAS THE PERFECT HEIGHT AND JUST ENOUGH AWAY FOR MARIA TO GRAB IT AND NOT GET D'd. It was cool because there was a girl on their sideline helping my mark and practicing step-outs paid off. YAY. I love Ultimate.

They got ahead of us by 2 when the soft-cap went on, Maria put on a really strong line and we cheered fiercocity and it was one of the hardest points I've personally played. We still lost at game-point but it was great game. And it showed that our team has so much potential, these new girls have so much potential! And I handblocked a girl. Bitch don't try to break me, pftt.

Our last game was against Georgetown, and we had a pretty strong lead for most of the game until they started throwing the weirdest defense I've ever seen. It was a zebra-something, supposedly invented by their coach. It broke us down for a few points but then we slowly started working it up and learned how to break it. We just kept it chilly and for a good 3 minutes we triangulated: Maria to Krugs to me to Maria to Krugs to me to Maria... and then we scored and finished that bitch Mortal Kombat style.

I went in a van to Wendy's where we ran into some of the boys. They went 0-5 the first day. Ouch. They lost a lot of major players, plus Roman was playing with Medicine Men, and John couldn't play. For more information on the boys I direct you to Mr. Alex "Ewww beer is gross" Waterhouse. BAHA! Zing!

I proceeded to then fall asleep immediately when I got home.


SUNDAY
I don't remember as much detail about Sunday for some reason. We weren't playing as hard because we were tired. Spirit was lower than it had been. One thing I didn't mention about Saturday was that our team was SO FREAKING SPIRITED AND LOUD. We taught the freshmen a ton of cheers, as well as some new ones.

Maria has fully incorporated "F-U-N! ALL THE TIME" into our regular repertoire. It pumped us up when we were losing ground against Georgetown; we proceed to win. I finally got "LA Face! Oakland Booty!" in there as well. For the inspiration I direct you to: Jonathan Coulton - Baby Got Back

We lost our first game which was lame because we were just SLOW. I hit my knee really hard so Maria took my out for the rest of the game. G-ROWL. But probably the smart decision.

We then had to play the other Dirty Ladies team. This had the potential to be really super fun and awesome but quickly became awkward, tense, and kind of anger-filled. I don't want to go into the details of who said what and blahblahblah but DUDE, certain members of the other team were LIVID. It's funny, at practice our scrimmages fall apart, but this was a super intense game. Not just because of the attitudes, but simply because we were very well matched. It got me really excited for us to play as a group rather than separate teams. It was a good game, points lasted SO long. We were pretty beat afterwards. There are a lot of pictures from that game posted at this website.. Go through all of them because Ultimate is AWESOME.

After the game against the other Dirty Ladies we were exhausted but coming off of a win nonetheless. At this point my left leg looked like it was beat up with a baseball bat and I was wearing both of my knee braces. We were playing Georgetown again but this time for a bid to regionals. They only brought their 8 star players, a bunch of whom hadn't been there on Saturday. While this may be a smart tactic, it also strikes my mind as sketchy but WHATEVERRRR. They beat us, which sucked. But still, it was an awesome weekend. Seriously, I got home and still I cannot think of anything but Ultimate.

One of the most unexpectedly awesome things about the weekend was the freshmen. Our team's newbies got so into the spirit and the craziness/zaniness that is DL. They also got into the game, they worked hard and listened when we tried to help them, and THEY CAUGHT THEIR D'S. So cool. Seriously, I can spout their praises for hours. It was also pretty interesting to be a returner. I've been on starting lines before, but I have never felt like I was one of the players that could really be depended on to make plays. This weekend gave me a taste of that. I cut, I handled, I scored, I assisted; I was depended on to bring the intensity and help make plays. And it was cool. Krugs and I usually took first and second cut and were able to get the continuation to the other, I could drop back to handle or get the swing, Val handled a shit-ton of points, and Abby and Maria were their usual awesome selves. I was actually really impressed by Maria. I mean, we all know she's beastly but as a captain she's awesomeawesomeawesome. I know, very descriptive but seriously, she gives out advice and figures out a way to pump up every individual on the field, and the team as a whole. And we made really good connections. And while she and Abby will never stop bringing up King SMUT, they are awesome all the same.

It was an amazing weekend. Everyone grew and learned as players. And we wore white the whole first day, and blue the next. And on Sunday we had BBQ on the way home and it was deeeeelicious. Ultimate is awesome. Cornstar Huckster coming up soon...

This is just the beginning of a beautiful fall season.