Sectionals, Day 1 (aka NOT IN THE FACE!)

Just like every other Saturday playing ultimate in Jersey, today started off with a train ride.

But, since we won the schedule, my train didn't leave until 9:11. That's because our first game was at 12:45. Hooray? I'm not so sure. The late start always feels strange and I'm not nearly as excited to play at that time of the day. But I'm sure I'll manage.

The trip was uneventful.

Got to the fields early enough to lazily get ready and start taking in the environment. Loud cheers from teams celebrating goals, familiar faces and the feeling that the season has started in earnest. Teammates trickle in, largely on time or early. throwing, goofing off and then it is time to warm up. Get your jog on, get your dynamic warmups on, get your deep throws on, game time.

Oh, and then we found out that the D team would play the first half, the O team would play the second half and then we would reverse that for the next game (O then D). Each team would do sprints for however many points they gave up, and then the points allowed would be compared at the end of the day. The difference would indicate how many beers the losing team would have to buy the winning team at dinner.

D team immediately decided that we would not be giving any help from the sidelines when the O team was playing. In fact, we would be cheering for the other team. Beer is a powerful motivator.

vs Columbia HS, 13-3
Sure, they're in high school, but that doesn't mean they're bad. They're just, y'know, in high school. Uh, they gave us the disc and we scored. Zander got a goal for them going deep on us and something else silly happened. I think it was 7-2 or 7-3 at half. The O team then came in and (I think) held them scoreless in the next half. Much arguing was had about how it is easier to hold a team scoreless int he second half than the first. O team is up for now.

vs Jive Turkeys (Dickinson), 13-5
O team started this game and gave up 4? goals. D team came in in the second half. I don't really recall much from this,but not because I wasn't paying attention. Maybe the second point after half, I was covering a the dump in their endzone. I was playing pretty tight and I turned my head to get a quick view of the thrower. As I did that, the throw went up to my guy (who hadn't really cut at all) and he cut in the opposite direction of where I turned my head. The next thing I remember is that I'm laying on the ground, face-down and confused. My face hurts and I'm starting to feel a warm trickle toward my mouth. I'm a little disoriented and I hear Jamie asking me if I'm okay. Not knowing the answer to this question, I say nothing. I lay there for a while and do the mental check to make sure nothing other than my face hurts. Okay. Time to move a bit. Get up slowly and get to the sideline so that the game can go on. This proves to require more concentration than anticipated. Bleed on my nice new white jersey on the way. Sit down, take stock. Feel the nose, OUCH. Yup. The whole thing hurts. Still dizzy and a bit out of it, I try to get up and walk over to the team. Not the best decision as when I stand up I stumble a little bit. Embarrassingly. I don't think it was broken (Having broken the nose ~5 times already, I'm familiar with the feeling) but it sure hurts like fuck and when I try to think, it feels like I'm thinking through a thick soup. Like a bisque. Or chowdah. Not good times. I tell our D-team sub-master that I think I'll sit out the rest of the day. No need to push through this at sectionals.

vs PSU X, 13-1
I think PSU didn't really want to play at all at this point in the day. It was their 4th game and our 3rd. They had ~11 guys, maybe. We had well over 20. Not much else to say other than the O team gave up another point to increase the beer lead.

vs Messiah, 13-6
The D team started letting a massive beer lead slip through our fingers in this one. Catchable D's were instead tipped for goals. I'm pretty sure this was the game in which Jeff George was tackled twice by the turf monster in the same point while making open deep cuts and instead of catching a goal, was just laying helplessly on the ground. Terrible fields strike again.

Games over, 4-0. Time to get paid in beer. Sprints were run. Reservations at Chili's for 25 or so. As we arrive, there is some confusion as the reservations were made a couple of days ago and confirmed twice today, but apparently, instead of actually holding the reservation (search for the word "Reservation" on that page) they gave our table to some other random group of 30 people looking for immediate seating.

We instead go to a BYOB dinner, get a whole back room to ourselves, and the evening, believe it or not, was filled with talk about how various members of Pike proposed to their wives as well as advice on how to do so effectively as well as what not to do. Yup. Buncha guys sitting around talking about marriage. Perfectly normal...
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Workout Total:
.57 games of ultimate