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