Merry Christmas

Just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Remember what I encouraged you to do with your relatives at that holiday family gathering? Well, I was able to get my son outside when we went to my mom's this past weekend for a little disc tossing. It was pretty breezy up in the Shenandoah valley but we were able to get some running in and some good throws and catches.

Andy lets one fly.







Tracking one down.

Bill & Andy trying to figure out the wind.

Bill working on his flick.

Bill practicing with a great backdrop.

Bill grabs one over his head.

Showing a little vertical, despite the big meal but it's not looking good for this catch.

Andy watching his follow through.

'ol man Winter

Okay, winter is here! Well, not officially maybe. That will be this coming Saturday, the 22nd. But the weather conditions over the last week have been winter. I had a winter league game on Sunday in Charlottesville. Read the game recaps of the Dark Grey vs Green where we finally won our first game.

The wind carried over into Monday and since I had forgotten the clean pinnies and was still trying to recover from a wicked case of face chap wind burn, we bagged the game here at McNair. Then yesterday, the winds abated and the lure of having fresh photography up on the blog, we managed to get 10 players to come out. Even though it was in the low 30’s, there was little wind and sunshine and wound up being a great game. Anybody else notice that field is starting to get chewed up though? Even with cleats, traction was tough yesterday as it was pretty wet, especially in the middle near the north end zone.

Many thanks to Bob for coming out and photographing us. As I was going back through the pics on the digital camera I was laughing to myself. Bob found out what my girlfriend, Mary experienced a couple weeks ago trying to photography Ultimate…it’s difficult to follow the action closely and get heads, feet, and the disc in the shot at the same time. Bob finally went with the strategy to zoom all the way out and hope I could edit them on the computer. I’ll let you be the judge of the results. I will be posting those soon...as soon as I can edit them, I'll put them up.

Frank was back on the field yesterday…well on parts of the field…usually the end zones. Bryan kept turning around after a turnover to use one of his patented sprints up the field, only to see Frank already drifting around the end zone waiting for the long huck. While green had a couple long scores here and there with that strategy, the gold team of Mallard, Rodney, Travis, Conrad, & Phil were a bit more consistent early on and worked the disc up nicely with short passes back and forth.

Green finally began to find some rhythm late in the game with some short cuts and a loose attempt at running some from a stack (hey, if you’re learning the terms, we might as well use them). And Wings made a stellar vertical leap (unfortunately not caught on film) for the game’s final point.

My personal favorite yesterday was the stretch of two deflected scores off of Rodney yesterday where I managed to bounce the disc off of one of his hands and into the waiting arms of Frank and Bryan. Todd was moving around a bit slowly yesterday complaining of something having to do with a tackle football game he had played over the weekend…note to Buzzards…stay away from tackle football, or as Bob can testify to, any football at all really. We can get hurt easily enough out here, we don’t need you increasing the risk factor playing other sports (as if there really are any other sports).

See you all out there today. Special game time of 1100 to accommodate one of our regulars who claims to have a meeting with mandatory attendance at 1300.

A Scribe's Diatribe or 'The Straw (re: Mitchell report) that broke the camel's back'

When was the last time you heard an Ultimate player’s name in the news for steroid use, perjury, dog fighting, spousal abuse, DUI, drug abuse, sexual harassment, etc? Oh, you haven’t? Do you wonder why? Well, it would be nice to think that it’s because those of us in the sport of Ultimate sit on a morally higher ground and conduct ourselves in a more ethical manner. And there could be some argument, with our “Spirit of the Game” self-governance, offered as evidence, that this is true on some level. But the real reason is that we don’t make bazillions of dollars a year playing a child’s game. All those things occur throughout society but they don’t make the front page headlines because our collective earning power doesn’t make a ripple in the pond of multi-billionaire, ego-maniacal, far-removed from “the common man” professional sports figures.

For those of us decrying the state of professional, and in many instances even collegiate level, sports as having eroded to the level of social cesspool, I offer this New Year’s resolution challenge…STOP WATCHING! Heck, get a head start at your holiday celebrations over the next few weeks. Instead of falling into the cosmic forces that seem to separate family gatherings into the 3 spheres of kid’s table, kitchen help, or TV sports watchers dare to pull your cousins, nieces, nephews and even Grandmom Mildred into the back yard and throw the disc around. Or pull out somebody’s game of Cranium, Would You Rather, UNO, or even Twister, a nice bottle (or eight depending on your family size) of a local Virginia wine…the 2003 Keswick Vineyards Chardonnay or 2001 Barbousville Winery Octagon, that’s white & red respectively for you “Frisbee” players, and stop watching! Do something more constructive with your time, reclaim your search for fun, sportsmanship, fair competition & general well-being. Stop making the rich richer while complaining that the "out of work veteran" panhandler should find a job and stop holding a sign in the same parking lot each day...the one of the Starbucks we're pulling into to plunk down $3.50 on a gingerbread latte...okay, I'm rambling. ESPN has sent me over the edge today.

I’m in the planning stages of my “year-in-review” entry for this forum. Please forgive me if it doesn’t completely have something to do with the sport of Ultimate but the company of players I keep is so “Renaissance” in its collective spectrum of interests and stories that it’s likely I’ll ramble off on many tangents and you’ll wonder what in the world you’ve clicked to.

If any of you have any submissions, feel free to send those along for my consideration.

In the meantime, looks like we’ll have a decent day for a game today for those of you who have come to work. Thanks for keeping the games going this week in my departure. Just want to give a hearty (or squawky) Buzzard shout out to Rob. This was his last week of internship at CGHQ and he has been a faithful participant since his introduction to the BPUC. You’ll notice he was both, a wind & snow ribbon recipient. Good luck Rob.

So, what’s happened this week Buzzards? No interesting stories? I find that hard to believe. Chime in and find yourself published.

See you on the field today.

Greetings from Richmond

I’m taking a little time off of work to spread a some holiday cheer. Really too bad since the weather this week has seemed more like spring than December. Great opportunity for some disc flying.

I did have my first winter league game though in the Charlottesville Ultimate Disc Organization. I realized there is a much greater corporate knowledge in this league then I am used to playing with. A little…okay, a lot more emphasis on actually calling fouls. I was called for a foul in the end zone on one play and then was asked if I was “contesting” it. Apparently that would have made a difference of where the disc was put back in play. And I saw traveling called 3 times in our game. Hmmmm, good thing for some of our guys we don’t police that call very closely.

There were a lot of plays run from stacks, and there were not a lot of opportunities to slack off on defense without just getting beat silly and having the disdainful looks of all your teammates who have shelled out their hard earned money to play.

I did get a cool long sleeved t-shirt and made a couple decent throws and catches but alas, my Dark Grey team fell to the Navy Blue team after a close halftime score of 8-6. We wound up losing 17-9. Thought you might enjoy some shots of the “Chief Buzzard” in action…

Bill sporting the new Winter League T and tights?

Running hard to make a play on D in the end zone.

Bill & Brian close down a play on D - check out the concentration.

Wow! Look at that vertical leap...Look out Todd & Phil!

And he's playing some D?

A little too much in this case, as I was called for a foul.

White Out!

High winds, snow…what’s next? Well, according to those who get paid to prognosticate weather, it’s supposed to be back in the 50’s by this weekend. So my league game this Sunday will be back in shorts. But the last two days have been tights weather. Unless of course you're from upstate NY or Minnesota and like to play in shorts in this weather.

Our first snow game of the year came earlier than most people probably expected and it didn’t look like we were going to get enough to play until Bryan made his whole office come by providing clothes for everyone. Nice work B. Jason & Jas, great to have you all out there, please come back.

So, I’ve broken out my Barenaked Holidays CD this morning and I’m feeling very festive. Bob, I even brought the camera so you can take pictures today if you can come back out. By the way KUDOS to Bob. Sidelined with the pulled hamstring, he has been out in street clothes twice this week watching the game and lending moral support. With his long dress coat, he looks like Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry manning the sidelines and watching his team. How we doing coach?

Yesterday actually was not as hard to play in as the high winds of the past couple weeks. At least the disc flew the direction you generally threw it. There were some visibility issues (we switched to the bright yellow disc which helped) and some stopping challenges. For those of you who missed the fun, come out today. You won’t get to play in the snow falling but there should still be plenty on the ground.

I’m seeing there is “Unscheduled Leave” for Federal employees today…don’t get me started on my thoughts about this. There is maybe 2 inches of snow out there and the streets are very driveable but I’m sure people will be calling in en masse. The policy actually states “for those who cannot report for work”. “Cannot” and “don’t want to” are defined a little bit differently in this Scribe’s book.

Winter Fashions

The wind subsided a bit today which was nice. But it was pretty chilly out and Buzzards were ready for it. By the way, winter Ultimate makes for lousy fashion. You could see the all the necessary winter articles in the locker room, jeans, sweats, tights, watch caps, thermals, a down jacket , and a thong….a what? Yea, a pretty little silver thing that we wanted to all sign with a Sharpie and send back to its rightful owner…assuming of course the person who found it in their clothes wasn’t the rightful owner which brings to mind a bad visual and I’m feeling my lunch make an encore appearance…Also, there was some discussion as to whether or not all our signatures would fit, and well….we decided this was a conversation better had in the Impala.

So we trekked out to play in our winter garb. Football was also on today and at least 3 of our players had defected to play that. Hey Bob, how you liking that decision now? Twang!

We let Kash set up the field today and it may have been as wide as it was long which made for some interesting “field awareness” moments… “Hey Visor! You’re out of the end zone!”…Phil, just throw your arms out in front of you and jump…it’s called “laying out” and it won’t hurt on this nice tall grass before the field freezes over for the winter so do it….Now!!!!!

Finally somebody besides me got hit in the head. MattC aka Coach Brackett (very obscure movie reference) took the disc upside the bridge of his nose…minor blood…actually no more than was on the pennie that I had on which apparently served as the bandage to Kevin’s fingernail removal last week.

Seeing our even numbers, a new player appeared out of the trees…okay, he says it was a trailer over on McNair and Eliot (?) joined us for his first game with the Buzzards and made sure we again were playing with odd numbers. Embarrassingly enough, it didn’t really matter for a while and the 4 player team held its own with the 5 player team while Mallard cursed himself every other time down the field

We finished up in time to walk by the football game still in progress…and got to see Bob aka Defector….bounce one to his receiver…hmmmm, that doesn’t work in this sport either does it Bob? Enjoy your 3-day weekend and we’ll expect you to heal up and be back on the Ultimate field next week.

Pull!

Blown Assignment

Unbelievable game on Tuesday. We went out to secure the field with a nice response of 10 players and were met by an Army NCO informing us the field would be off limits today due to helo ops. All this despite Lindsay’s charming overtures to dissuade him. He suggested we go play down on an alleged field next to the water.

After changing fields 37 times we landed down on the far SW lot of McNair. We actually played with one of the older discs in our collection because we were concerned we might throw one in the water. By the time we started we actually had 11 (seems like we can’t play without an odd number of late).

Now for those of you who have played Ultimate through a full calendar year you know that there are many weather elements that can make this game challenging. It started to get cold a couple weeks ago and we realized that frozen hands and discs aren’t always a good combination, wet fields and rain can sometimes be an adjustment though after playing on the cement field all summer that has generally been a welcome condition. And for those of you who haven’t played in the snow yet….well, just wait.

But the most challenging condition of all for Ultimate players is the wind. Tuesday we had 30 mile and hour winds gusting over on the point where we were playing and it made for at times comical attempts at pass completions (even for the Buzzards normally comical). “Low, flat, short” was the mantra some of the more knowledgeable of our players were repeating right before Brook or Matt C would flip the nose up or I would try to throw another long one.

“Sixth time is a charm, right?”

Heck, one time Wings thought he had the wind pattern down and threw a long to me. Our initial worry was that we’d finally struck a car parked along the field but that was quickly dismissed and we were more concerned that it might hit an unsuspecting football player on the field next to us.

We actually managed to score several times and other than not being able to work up a sweat because the wind was drying us off as fast as we could perspire…

Anyway, kudos to all of you who braved the windiest of days that we’ve played in this season. Please see the award list on the sidebar as you have survived and thrived in the 25 mph + day that scares off the amateurs. I think we had 3 decent dings today also, 2 ankles and a hand.

By the way, I miss one day of work and my inbox explodes with emails Subject “Ultimate” but having to do with extra rooms in garages disguised as Impalas, fat arses, whining that 8 really is not enough, and suggesting that Mallard may be the next marketing strategy for birth control pills. How ‘bout we just play a little disc?

Game on!

Green & Gold Addendum

U. of Vermont…home of the Chill & Ruckus the men’s & women’s Ultimate teams.

There’s a little school called Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC. Their colors are “Coastal Green & Bronze” which is close to ours but we could all play on the same field and easily be able to tell the difference. They do have an Ultimate Club though. And the school mascot is a “Chanticleer” (that’s rooster to you and me) which may have more in common with a Buzzard then a Sea Wolf.

There are also the Baylor Bears which have the same nickname as our Coast Guard Academy but share colors with the Buzzards.

Great game this afternoon! We had 13 players and would have had an official 14 if we hadn’t been stood up by “Altar” (that’s as in ‘left at’), aka Kelly. She tried to throw me a bone by sending me an email (from her TREO 3 minutes after start time) saying her “plans had changed” and by giving me another name to add to the distribution list. And all Ican say there is Jason you’re working from a “guilty by association” already.

We had to start late today because of a baby shower. Yes, you read that right. Mallard where is your friend who thinks we’re a bunch of mid-life testosterone overdosed wannabes? We actually delayed our start time so that the lovely couple of MacKash could attend the shower, which they had to sneak out of early anyway.

Nutrition hint of the day: Don’t eat two chili dogs before game time. The normally gazelle-like Travis was trying to shake off the effects of Hormel & Oscar Meyer all game.

Welcome back off the DL to Annette. Okay, so she wasn’t completely in game shape. I last heard/saw her saying “I got him” as Rodney jogged up the side of the field, and then I turned to see him 20 yards behind her in the end zone. This is the same Rodney who is also coming off a leg injury and is not, how shall we say this, the swiftest of Buzzards. Kash even had to shake off a week and half’s absence as the first two discs thrown his way bounced off his hands.

Still, for the 2nd day in a row, the team with a 1-player disadvantage probably got the best of the game. Upper 60’s, partly sunny, soft field…it was paradisiacal from an Ultimate standpoint today no matter what side of the score you wound up on. And like the “Great Train Missing Duck” is fond of saying “A bad day of Ultimate is still better than a good day in the cube”.

By the way, when did “Taters” stop becoming an anatomical description and start being the “Winged One’s” new nickname?

Green and Gold

Anybody wondering who else we share our team colors with? Since the purchase of the new pinnies and because the fabulous vendor was out of blue (substituting green…Kelly Green to be exact) some of you may have wondered if there was any significance to this. There was not. But there are some other great establishments we share the green & gold with.

Already mentioned in a previous post was the University of Oregon in Eugene. They are Ducks, we are Buzzards and Eugene is a conclave of all things “hippiesh” which at one time or another did include the sport of Ultimate.

The University of Alaska at Anchorage and the mighty Sea Wolves sport the green & gold. Of course Alaska has a lot of Coast Guard ties (not so much Anchorage maybe) and they do have an Ultimate Club team.

The Green Bay Packers who have, in my humble opinion, the ultimate football player of this generation, Brett Favre.

There is a Green & Gold political party in Australia. They market themselves as the “non-political” political party who says they will “keep the bastards honest”. Now that would be the ultimate.

The Woodbridge Senior High School Vikings were the arch rival to my school, the Gar-Field Indians just down the road in Dale City, VA. We were Red, White & Blue but I always liked their Green & Gold better.

Locally, we share our colors with George Mason University.

"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"

166. That’s how many years the green team had on their 4-man team today that seemed to still manage to out run the 5-man gold team. That’s almost as old as The Police whom I saw a couple weeks ago. Granted, they’re only a 3-man team but judging from the shape Sting looked to be in, I think he could have outrun us on the field today too.

The game was not nearly as mismatched as Mallard made it out to be in the locker room during the post-game smack-fest. The wet field made for some nice sliding and probably helped us avoid some collisions today.

Apparently the rosters on the sidebar need to be updated some. The grapevine shared that Kevin “No D” is not MIA but actually also on the disabled list from another Ultimate leg injury. Sniper was back from the honeymoon and can now be taken off the disabled list. Rumor also has it that Kashyap actually had to work today during the game and couldn’t play. That’s extremely hard to imagine and the Buzzard’s Scribe is currently trying to find a secondary source to confirm that unlikely story.

We’ve had some ID issues lately. Friday, Eric who actually comes over here from Arlington, got here to discover he had forgotten his and couldn’t get on base. The remaining players were forced to go 3-3. Well done lads.

Today, Matt, claimed to have no ID at all. So let me get this straight, a Department of Homeland Security employee can get into his workplace and log onto his computer with no ID but can’t get to the Ultimate Field? Something is wrong with that picture to be sure. Anybody else go over to Jemal regularly though. I do have an ID and sometimes can’t get on and off the elevators.

It’s great weather these days folks. Get on out there and play. Bob said he saw a tournament going on in Williamsburg this weekend and I’m getting ready to start play in the Charlottesville Winter League. This is the year round sport…Check with “Billie Jean” aka Rodney and he can hook you up with a good glove recommendation.

Just Beat It!

48 Degrees

There are different degrees of 48 aren’t there? I was thinking this morning as I was out with the Colors detail that “Hmmm, this is going to be a little brisk at lunch for today’s game” and when I first walked out I was hoping for a little more sun. But without much wind, once you get running, 48 degrees is almost perfect Ultimate weather

Other degrees of 48….

Cadmium has the atomic number of 48…my least favorite NASCAR driver is #48…It was the number worn by Gerald Ford when he played football at Michigan. For those of you who are familiar with Ford’s “agility reputation” if he played Ultimate it would look something like Bob pulling today and almost knotting himself up like a pretzel…that may also be how old Bob is but I can neither confirm or deny that. Mahatma Gandhi was murdered in 1948…he would have loved Ultimate…that whole “Sprit of the Game” thing is pure Gandhi. Al Gore was born in ’48…you know he invented Ultimate…no wait, that was something else wasn’t it?

At any rate…we had a great game of 5 on 5 today ~ Visor, Brady, DD, Matt & Newbie vs Phil, Header, Bob, Wings & Father Bryan (no, it’s my fault, my bad, that sucked, sorry). The gold team used their team speed (ok, well Bryan ran some) to its advantage today. There were lots of hammers soaring today and a couple of machetes also.

Is it just me or does anybody else think it's a strange coincidence that Kashyap hasn't been here the whole week that Sniper said he'd be on his honeymoon?

Innovative colors, catching & comments

Yesterday marked the return of a couple players safe, and either released under their own recognizance, or amazingly, out of New Orleans and out of trouble.

We had a nice game of 11 today. Phil just thought he was running faster than all his defenders until he realized his team actually had the extra player most of the game.

Today was also the unveiling of the new pinnies. So, our new team colors (by virtue of what was in stock from the vendor) are green & gold… "Mallard", coincidentally or not, remarked that they were the colors of the Ducks (of University of Oregon fame). I have some fond memories of a few weekends spent in the hippie time warp that is Eugene, which, by the way is a great Ultimate setting, but really the color selection was more accidental. The company was out of the blue.

So from Mallards to Ducks to Buzzards…it’s all Avian to me. All I know is that I didn’t throw it to the wrong player at all yesterday which is more than I can say for Todd who must have thought he’d thrown it to the wrong team every time I dropped one which by the way included a great long throw to the back of the end zone which I’d actually managed to run under and then drop while taking a peak to see if I was going to still be in. To his credit (like a great outside shooter), Todd kept with it and I was able to finally catch one for the final score of the game.

Speaking of ducks…today’s weather early looks like a fine Coast Guard day…wet and windy. As of this posting, 2 of you have already confirmed your attendance for the game today.

There was much discussion on the walk back in yesterday of a team cook out one day. If any of you are interested in this, email me with your ideas of when, where, what (the “tube burger” thing didn’t sound exactly appetizing by the way).

Spongy headers, collisions, & cranberry Mojitos

“Ah yea, this is going to be great today!” was the general consensus as the Buzzards walked across the spongy field today to get ready to play. Last week’s rain, which we had already played a great game playing in, had sufficiently soaked the field and made for a sloppy time.

Lined up next to some soccer game that actually looked like it might have meant something, we got ready to pull our own game (which always means something) into play. We presumed there were many on the soccer field who secretly wished to be playing with us. Even if we didn’t have banners and mascots. In fact when we wouldn’t pay attention to them they resorted to kicking a ball into the side of my bean. In two of the last 3 games, I have taken something upside my noggin’. Last week, Bob centered a disc in warm ups beautifully across my forehead. Today it was the European wannabes kicking that loony ball into me.

I was unimpressed and play barely stopped for us…except to get that crazy round ball off our field. I was, however, impressed today with a new excuse….

New guy: “Hey, my glasses have a scratch in them, that’s why I suck today?”
Bill: “Really? How many times have you been out here playing?”
FNG: “Uh, this is my first time.”
Bill: “Well, that’s a great excuse but you can’t come out here one time and expect to be Joe Ultimate”
FNG: “Well, I play football and I thought…”
Bill & Wings “Okay, stop right there….football, thinking…neither of those has any place on this Ultimate field”

So anyway, it was great to have Steve out and a couple of the other new(er) players out today. We didn’t exactly mean to put them all on the same team, the shirts just kind of worked out that way. Besides Sniper, quit whining, did you see Phil leaping into the next atmosphere today (new guy schmoo guy)?

Today, also marked “Return of the Carnage”. With many apologies to “Boom Boom”, we had more contact on the field today then we’ve had in the last month combined and none of it could be attributed to you. Chris & Steve had a couple collisions, hacks, slight pushes…uh, did we mention it’s a non-contact sport? The best one though was Wings barreling down on the disc, when out of nowhere, Brook appeared just in time to become part of the turf. I was calling it Ultimate Karma after Brook aka “Ginsu” had repeatedly chopped me in the arms and hands with the disc trying to back me away while I was marking him…I’m reading the rules later looking for clarification on that.

You know it’s been a good day on the field when Kash heads back to the locker room with that bicycle splatter up the back of his shirt. Mallard after having one of his best games last week when we was called out in the rain was conspicuously absent today…the guess…too many cranberry Mojitos this weekend.

POTUS drops in near the Ultimate Field

Good game of 6 on 6 yesterday. Overcast and very windy. The latter made for some interesting throws & pulls. We also had to back up our game 15 minutes because word has it that POTUS was making a little speech at NDU yesterday and the back gate was closed until 1130. Not sure where W gets off upsetting the Buzzards routine. Would have been cool to see if he could have stuck around and played. Of course, if the VEEP was with him, I'm not sure I want to be a Buzzard in his "Field of View"...actually, we were probably safe as we'd have been the prey and not his hunting buddies.

Not too sure how equitable the light/dark shirt split was yesterday. Our lights team seemed to be challenged in the running department and for whatever reason, has some aversion to man-to-man defense

Next BPUC point of emphasis should be our “rolling start times”. If the game is called for 1130, it would be great if we could be on the field at least warming up by then. We started 15 minutes after the called game time yesterday and that either keeps us out there longer and or puts people in the position of feeling like they need to leave a game early to keep from taking a 2 hour lunch.

A couple years ago, the games only went 45 minutes because I think we got some “feedback” from some office supervisors on the Ultimate players’ office hours. My proposal is that if we’re out there and ready to start at 1130, then we’ll play an hour but we’re cutting it off at 1230 or (an hour after called game time) regardless.

On a lighter note…anybody notice the increase of hammer throw attempts and successes? Nice job practicing and perfecting your art there Buzzards.

Leave it to a football player to start calling out the Ultimate players when a little rain starts falling. Listen “real” Ultimate players play in anything…..

...........rain

........snow.......

....even dresses...

Buzzards Circling the Septic Fields

"The weather is here, wish you were beautiful"…extra credit for the first one who writes a comment to this entry with the source of that classic lyric.

We wandered out today to play on the north fields and found the manhole cover removed (now it was marked with a cone but if you’ve seen "Shadow" run, you know this isn’t adequate safety measures). Also, there was the matter of the big blue and silver mobile sanitation engineers vehicles that was leaving 6 inch tire treads in our far end zone.

So we moved the field north a little more (playing north to south instead of the usual east to west). With Mallard in charge of surveying field dimensions we wound up mapping out a 100-yard long field by about 35 yards vice the 70x40 ish that we normally try to play. This combined with our new found emphasis on the rules and trying to pull with both teams on the end zone lines made for some interesting starts but I must say that we managed pretty well.

The long narrow field with the moderate breezes forced a short passing game for both teams that seemed to work pretty well. Brady definitely brought his “A” game yesterday and sliced and slid for a couple nice open scores, finding seams in the defense. Derek & Sniper returned from their IMT duties to rejoin us and the contact was at a minimum as “Boom Boom” especially cognizant of his ramblings only ran over one player today…and to be fair, the hang time on the throw that Lindsay was waiting for when he got hit, could have been timed with a sundial.

By the way, a belated “Thank You” to Travis for putting together our new team logo. I’ll let you know when I’ve posted the schedule for the mandatory lower back tattoos.

The weather has been perfect lately. Need to get in a good game today as tomorrow looks like it’s going to be a washout….although…and this could be a delicate subject…”real Ultimate players” are undeterred by a little rain. I’d be up for playing a rain game tomorrow if we have enough others.

Get a bigger field!

I apologize for the lack of entries here by the Buzzard’s Scribe. It’s been a great week of Ultimate weather since last week’s heat wave. The temperatures dropped about 20 degrees in two successive days late last week and we got in some good games.

Yesterday was a watershed day for the BPUC. We had 16 players on the field! The surprising thing about this is that I called the game yesterday morning only having confirmations for 6. Then right before I went out I got two more and knew we’d have at least 8. I wandered out on the field to find we had almost 3 full teams we could have run out there. And while it was somewhat crowded, it was great to have so many players.

We definitely need to get the pennies ordered now to be able to tell who is who on the teams. The light and dark strategy has seemed to work okay most days but if anybody wants to spearhead the ordering of the pennies, get with Annette. Somebody needs to find a source and then she’ll help with the spending of the money.

One other note; there have been several leg injuries of late that at the layman’s eyes look like they might have been prevented by some good stretching. I don’t think we’re going to get to where we’re taking any of our playing time to do this but I hope you’ll try and do it before you start on your own. Here’s a link that might be helpful

Thanks to everybody who came out yesterday. We had 1 newcomer, Chris (brought by Brady), most of the regular cast of rogues – Mallard, Carom, Steve Irwin, Camo, Wings, Visor, Floater, Jason & Running Man. Good to see some other faces that hadn’t been out in a while – Brook, Brian, & Tag. Forecast for today: mid 70’s, beat the lacrosse players to the North Field and another great game!

Columbus would have played Ultimate

Game on: 5 on 5.
Temperature: 90 degrees & sunny

Significant slowing of ocean circulation, large reductions in Greenland and West Antarctic Ice sheets, releases of terrestrial carbon releases from permafrost, and increased proportion of category 4 and 5 hurricanes are all solid reasons to take Global Warming seriously but I’m drawing the line at having to play Ultimate in 90+ degree temperatures in October!

Okay, who am I kidding? At least I was playing and not stuck in my cubicle somewhere. But holy Knut Discman, what’s going on at The Weather Channel (they’re responsible for these temperatures right?)?

Fortunately, it’s dropped about 10 degrees for today’s game and should drop another 10 by tomorrow. Might even be able to break out the long sleeved under armor soon.

At any rate, we sweated, panted, and huffed our way through the game yesterday… or at least “Carom and the 120” did. I l left the field wondering how Todd was able to drop two ¾ field throws on the back line of the end zone for scores to the “sneaky fast” Bob who I’m thinking about naming “Steve Irwin”. Did you see those scrapes and bite marks he claims was from wrestling his dogs?

Hey things are looking good for today….11 people responding for the game today… Pull!

Off for the weekend...

We're going to take a day off today. There's a wetting down going (Congrats Running Man) on and some early Friday departures. I hope everyone has a nice holdiday weekend. Stay safe and we'll see you back on Tuesday.

Here are some pics from yesterday...



Mallard, Bob & Carom approaching the field of play...

Rodney doing a little deep knee bend catching...this apparently didn't work too well as he still left the field injured...

Floater practices his Hammer throw with Carom.

Visor & Camo warming up...

Bob stretching his "ripe" muscles out before the game...

Sniper & Visor getting in a few practice tosses.

"Middle-aged Folly" or "Civic icons of Fitness"?

Another great game today…5 on 5, 80 degrees, incredibly humid. We actually had 11 until Rodney went crumbling to the ground holding his leg. The compassionate crew that we are, I heard the remarks, “Okay, that’s long enough, roll him out of the way, let’s get back to the game!” and “Also, can you take a few pictures since you won’t be playing anymore”.

We assume he’s okay since he walked back to the building without any of our help. We’re guessing just some middle aged aches and pains.

Speaking of middle aged…apparently our readership has expanded beyond those of us actually playing. This excites and worries me both at the same time. At any rate, we’ve been accused of some sort of middle-aged male narcissistic attempt to see our names and pictures associated with sport at all costs. I’m pretty sure that was a compliment but I’ll have to follow up with Mallard and double check that it wasn’t the ex just trying to sweet talk him again.

Really, in all fairness only a few of us are probably middle-aged. And while I confess to coming close to that milestone I must also offer, in my defense, that I’ve basically given up all other sports in my life, and especially from a spectator standpoint. I can’t remember the last sporting event I watched on television beginning to end.

So, we’re not completely consumed with ourselves and there are women that play with us though one is on the disabled list all the time and the other stands us up more than any high school dates we ever had. Kelly, now I know that “maybe” means I’m eating alone again. And you might be surprised at the depth of conversational versatility we have. Heck today I overheard discussions of the rodeo, chemistry (the density of vodka does prevent sweating alcohol odor), Blackwater missions (what they really need is a good layout ace), and theology (the hammer of God).

There was even some talk about art (what do you see in these grass stains on my shirt?) and culinary expertise (who won “Top Chef” last night?). See, we’re really renaissance men but we appreciate the concern for our depravity. There should be some allowance that your knowledge of us comes through the eyes of Lindsay who is, and I say this with love and affection, perhaps not our most demographically median representative.

New nicknames bestowed today. I’m torn between “Carom” and “Tip Drill” for Kashyap. Matt C, I’m about to dub you “Floater” if you throw me one more pass that won’t come down.

Okay everybody, you’ll have to wait until later to see the pictures from today, I actually have to get back to work.

Character Development

Jason showing off his forehand fling.

Tom practicing the hammer throw...uh, you need to get it up some I think...

We had a great game yesterday. 6 on 6 is always good. It was only about 70 and overcast when we went out and it looked like it was going to be really nice to play in and then the sun came out, burned off some of the clouds and warmed things up a bit.

We trekked down to the old fields where Mallard made a little noise about having to set up cones two days in a row. Apparently there some clause in his contract that he felt he shouldn’t have to do that. Every team has to have its prima dona I suppose.

It was a pretty evenly matched game yesterday and actually some vertical leaping going on. Of course there was also some vertical falling…. The slo-mo stumbling of a 6’4” duck into the end zone is something you don’t see everyday.

Is there such thing as t-shirt intimidation? I noticed Todd wore his black track and field shirt out yesterday. Simultaneously trying to psyche us out that he would wear black in the sun and that he was a relay runner? By the way…some new nicknames up for consideration. Todd aka “Visor” and Tom aka “Steamroller”. This team may finally be developing some character ~ Mallard, Sniper, Wings, Visor & Steamroller.

Speaking of shirts…does Frank wear that army tan so he can sneak into the back of the end zone without anybody seeing him? We could call him “Camo”. Matt D joined the “I forgot my clothes so I’m wearing the cheap orange shorts” club of which Bill & Derek are founding members.

Matt demonstrating great pancake form.

Today is a football day so we’ll be missing at least Wings. I’ll be interested to see if we pull enough for a game though…

Tom, Lon & Wings during water break...

Return of the Chief

Well, the return after a week off was not as bad as I thought it would be. Thanks in part to everybody who showed up for the game today 5 on 5 is a nice way to get back into things. The weather was perfect, about 75 degrees, a little breezy and sunny.

There were some interesting spills on the ground today. I glanced up the field once to see Conrad had fallen down in the end zone, seemingly untouched. Kelly ran right into the back of Travis going for the disc and then somehow got Travis to call a foul on himself (how does that work Kelly?). I also managed to get myself steamrolled by Tom with some sneaky quick positioning right before a scoring throw.

In the showers after the game I heard the comment “Hey, it almost looked like we were doing out there a couple times today”. Though it may have been accidental, I would have to agree. There were several good short passing scoring drives with give and go passing.

I’m still amazed somebody can throw that hammer throw where they actually want it. Today, Todd dropped a beauty into the waiting arms of Rodney for a score.

Great run today everybody! Thanks to everybody who called and organized games last week in my absence. I heard there were some good ones and memorable moments like getting a dozen people to show up for a game that nobody actually brought any gear to.

Friday Effort

Game on today. 4 on 4 Friday.
Weather: 80 degrees, sunny, light breeze

There is something about qualifying the description of a game by saying “For a Friday…” but there you have it…for a Friday, 4 on 4 with modest bursts of running wasn’t bad. A couple of our regulars returned from sabbatical…

Derek and Brook and accounted for two of the more interesting plays of the day…

the first forgetting to open his hands and taking a throw right to the face and the second was probably the play of the game…last play. Bill threw one up the sideline leading Brook to the end zone. Looked like the throw was going to be just a little long when Brook managed to tip it up and actually increase trajectory and then layed out to catch it dragging his feet across the back line.

We were interrupted about 5 points into the game by the National Anthem as the Naval War College was hosting a 5K run. They literally ran circles around us today as the run course was laid out around the parade field.

I want to thank Wings for coming out at the last minute to give us 8. He’s getting ready to take a break from BPUC to head up the Flag Football efforts here at HQ.

I am getting ready to take a week off as I will be doing the apartment moving thing next week. Mallard says he will be calling games and not to stick him with any 3 on 3 days. I hope the rest of you Buzzards will accommodate him. If any of you feel like documenting anything interesting, email it to me and I’ll be glad to post it here.

Be well!

Kool-Aid, Liberal Arts, and the Yiddish Hammer Throw

So I was following one of the little news links on the blog this morning and it had a “Frisbee” timeline in the article. I was surprised to learn, that in 1984, there was actually somebody awarded a Bachelor’s degree in “Frisbee”…now this is significant in so many ways. First, how did I miss out on that degree program? I mean I could have been majoring in Frisbee instead of changing my major three times in three quarters in Blacksburg, Virginia while the only math I could master was how many parts Everclear can you add in the trashcan to a tub of powdered Grape Kool-Aid before you can actually taste the alcohol? And now….uh… let’s just say several years, 4 schools, and too many days without discs later, I have a degree in something only slightly less marketable than Frisbee…Liberal Arts.

Now marketability is way overrated for college majors and unless you’re that rare high school graduate who already has their career mapped out and it shuffling off through pre-something to become Dr. or Counselor so and so, I say why not Frisbee, Liberal Arts, Religion, Women’s Studies, or even…yes, Psychology? I mean it’s about how to learn, not necessarily what you learn which may or may not actually occur in the classrooms….

Alas, I digress…which as I read back through this is somewhat of an understatement. The Frisbee degree was obtained at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, itself a haven for the absurdly brilliant. I have a friend there now and she is majoring in something every mom or dad is excited to see next to the name, student ID, and “remit to” amount on the quarterly bill….Contemporary Yiddish influence on Marxism or something equally as wonderful though maybe not quite as extraordinary as Frisbee. By the way, Happy Birthday Kari!

So, you didn’t all think this blog was going to be solely about our games each day did you? I mean, especially when we didn’t even play yesterday and today’s prospects are looking dim. How is it that work and other “more important” obligations get in the way of a good disc game anyway?

I leave you with verse 2 and chorus of a favorite song of mine:

I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper
And I was free.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Day of Rest

Today’s Weather 72 and cloudy
No Game

Well, the weather was perfect for a game today but unfortunately there was not enough response. We had to compete with softball and also I get the feeling some people were just resting some aches. I know when I got up this morning and rolled out of bed my knee had a couple words for me… “Slow down there sports fan” and “Don’t you remember how old you are?”

So today wound up being Ultimate Sabbath. Please hold your emails (as if anybody’s leaving any comments to begin with). I’m not trying to make any derogatory or otherwise any kind of comment about the meaning of Sabbath. I appreciate the importance of that term for many of you and use it with deference to that significance. We had gone over two weeks of playing every work day and there was probably some value in taking a day off. Let the fields lay fallow, if you will.

Speaking of fields, there was talk yesterday after having scampered off to the new “old field” of moving our games back there. The grass really did seem a little plusher and have a bit more cushion to it and unless there are some strong objections to walking the extra hundred yards, BPUC will resume its presence on the “lower” fields. If you’re scoring from home, it’s actually north on your maps from where we have been playing. For you lawyers, make a right when you get to the first street and keep walking past the fenced playground.

I’ll be making a rare Friday appearance in D.C. tomorrow and will be calling a game if enough of the rest of you Buzzards are here to play.

Pull!

Choppers Landing

We were a few points into our 4 on 4 today when this official looking dude in his all black suit strolled over and mentioned that our Ultimate field was about to become the LZ for 3 choppers… “20 minutes out” he said as he headed back to his row of all black 15 passenger vans parked along the street across the parade field.

So we flinged (flung?), hucked, pulled, caught (some…it was a sloppy early part of the game) and even ran when required. It was a good “core day”. When we don’t get as many players, it’s a good bet that we still get Kashyap, Mallard, Bob, Wings, Sniper, Jason, Frank, and yours truly.

Anyway, when the choppers were due in we decided to head up the street to the soccer fields….or for those of us who have been here a few years….they are actually the old Ultimate fields. Nostalgia blossomed, the fields actually felt a little softer, and we ran for another 30 minutes, actually going a little overtime today (apologies to those who needed to get back to work).

Fun Question of the day….from an unnamed LTjg wanting to know when the “season” ended. He wasn’t going to be able to make it out for a while as apparently his back, knee, and other sundry parts were a little sore. How does an O-2 get so broken down? I patently explained that Ultimate had no end. It’s the cyclical life force that keeps all things in their place through the seasons….or maybe that’s my Hostess Cup Cakes, I don’t remember. Anyway, Tag (whoops, named you after all didn’t I?) get some Ibuprophen, soak or ice whatever hurts, and just keep coming out. The pain goes away eventually or you just have so much fun, you don’t care.

Play of the day today was a great arcing throw from Kashyap that Frank beat me to the corner of the end zone for. It wound up being out of bounds but it was a sweet throw and catch.







"Mallard" after complaining he missed picture day yesterday.










and his partner in crime...Bob

More Pics from 9/18 Game

Jason gets a throw off with Lon marking him.

Tag caught between a rock and a hard place...

Waiting for the play to unfold...









Nothing but a fling...










Nice form Kashyap...

Photo Day

After two days of having Lidsay hijack the email distribution list, I returned to call the game yesterday. "Mallard" was conspicuously absent. We quickly got response from 8 players (half of whom were named Matt) and the game was on. I also tried to lure more out with the promise of a "surprise".

With apologies to anybody who thought it was going to be wings, beer, Hooter's girls, or me making some lifestyle announcement, it was merely the return of Annette to the playing field. Nursing her bum calf, I asked her to come out and take some pictures with my new digital camera so that we'd actually have something to put up on the blog.

Well, she did more than that, 95 pics and 1 dead battery later, I had more than I wanted. Last night I waded through the mass in my photo publishing software and put some up on the web in a couple social networking sites (lest I miss the opportunity to impress my kids or the campus denizens I hang out with) and then on to our new blog.

Back row LtoR: Jason, Conrad, Matt D, Matt C, Justin, Frank, Tag, & "Wings"
Front row LtoR: Bill, Annette, Kashyap

We had a spirited game of 6 on 5 for a while yesterday with the short-handed team actually getting the best of the game for a while. About half way through the extra body proved to be an advantage after all and the "darks" began to find some scores. What was the final score? Who knows, we never seem to keep track. Here some of the action though:




Kashyap getting ready to pull while Matt "Wings" & Justin look on. Kash must be looking for some belly button lint to give the disc that added wobble in flight.









Where in the world is the disc coming from? Kash, Tag, Matt P, Jason, & Matt C all await its descent from orbit.






Bill flicks one past Jason to Matt D.

Welcome BPUC & Friends!

This is intended to be the web presence for the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club (BPUC). The BPUC is the intramural team of mostly Coast Guard members from Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. We play as often as we can during the week at Ft. McNair during lunch for games of Ultimate.

I have been at Headquarters since December of 2003 and the club has been around since before then but like many other things associated with the military it has gone through the growing pains of the transfer of people in and out. My own first recollections of the club were from an "Interest Email" sent out by Lonnie. I came out and wheezed and gasped through the first few weeks before I became addicted and the rest is cliche'.

Interestingly enough, one of our current "regulars" claims to have introduced Lonnie to the sport - Lindsay "Mallard", of famed wingspan if not unlimited endurance. I'd also like to give a shout out to Annette who helped resuscitate this club when it looked like it was going to die off last year. I have tried to add my encouragement and support and good fortune has brought us a great group of core players now that eagerly gather each day to celebrate the "Spirit of the Game". I hope that you will enjoy reading of our adventures and games.

One last point of housekeeping. This blog is in no way associated with the U.S. Coast Guard and does not have any official license to speak for that organization. While many of the players are active or former members of the service we come out as fellow Ultimate players and not as a military organization. As such, the reference to players will be by their names, either given by their parents at their birth or dubbed by their fellow Ultimate players. It is not my intent to offend any sense of military protocol...but in fact, that is checked at the gate as we step on the field. The "Spirit of the Game" governs Ultimate's unique sense of respect for each other and we believe that is sufficient.

Lay out & enjoy! - Bill