the pride

Perhaps it closes the circle

perhaps it cauterizes the wound.

I played my first club tourney with a team not called "pike" this past weekend. However, in the interest of keeping things simple, i played with the other team in a one state radius of the dirty jerz witha four-letter name starting with p: PoNY.

I've decided against crossing out the "ike" on my gear in favor of some "ony".

I forgot what it was like to not know the system, the players, the captains, the routines, the in-jokes, the reindeer games (shoeball, for the record, IS all it is cracked up to be), the cheers, the anything.

I felt like a rookie. In the best way. And some of the less-than-ideal ways. But none of the bad ways.

day 1:
tight loss to ironside. late game anti-heroics by us derail what woulld have been a great way to start the day. we followed that up with wins over goaty and mephisto. happy to beat mephisto after 2009pike's experiences with them. canadian teams always confuse me in june. i can't tell how good they are or how serious they are taking a given game. i feel like they do the same things they always do, but better.

the non-brooklyn team lost to the brooklyn (aka o-)team in shoeball. i do not live in brooklyn.

day 2:
lost to phoenix and goaty. i had a terrible ob pull. gack-o-riffic in the goaty game. crazy weather all day courtesy of upstate ny.

finally played on the same team as faust after all these years. he's improved since g-dub. duh.

instead of rambling, i'll gimmick it up with "things learned at cut2010":

-scooby doom has had the honor of producing not just a t-rex, but also a centaur.
-"it's lightening up!" is the best way to describe a storm passing iff you have a southern accent.
-some teams run offenses. other teams are pike.
-bvh is bigger when he's on your team.
-ocho isn't ocho without cuatro to double. he still has impeccable timing, however.
-there is only one team with two "i-double consonant-y" players.
-water likely lacks intentionality. which is vaguely pejorative, according to belltron.
-there exists a team on which mio is not the player most often compared to a rodent.
-if you are afraid to shit, you may not be playing ultimate.
-get the disc to steve finn.

I enjoyed my rookie tourney as a Pone. I'm really really itching to get to practice with this squad to develop some on-field rapport/trust/understanding with the tasty dish of talent/skill/athleticism that PoNY serves up family-style. i like to fuck with half-started metaphors.

The ceiling is too high to see clearly for PoNY in '10. I know I will help this team get there. I hope i will earn the opportunity to do so on the field.