Buzzards (3-2) defeat Peace Corps (3-3) 15-13.

Seriously? No one (Putnam) has posted a game summary from Friday? Seriously?

I got there so late the only thing I can say is “nice catch Paul, hope your knee replacement surgery goes well” as the Buzzards (Annette, Bill, Bob, Brad, Howard, Jeff, Karl, Kelly, Kevin, Leroy, Mariam, Paul & Tim) earned a win against the hard-chargers from Peace Corps/ Agency for International Development.

Peace Corps/ AID is a good & good-spirited team, and the game (final score 15-13 Buzzards) easily could have gone the other way. And, to be honest, except for several big defensive plays by Karl (“Like Shaq, but sexier”) Lander, it pretty much would have.

A big Buzzard welcome to Howard Wright for his first corporate league game! Hello, Howard! Glad to have you! Also present were the real Bill Putnam (this time, with throws!) and Mariam “What’s RosterManager.com?” d’Eustachio, who got on the scorecard with her first catch as a Buzzard! In fact, the Buzzard women had an exceptional game, with Kelly Garot coming up big on defense and Annette “the Hook” Ambrosio hauling in some throws that polite company prohibits me from accurately describing. Of course, St. Paul of the Second Chance reeled in the game winner: a worm burner that could easily have been incomplete except that Paul wanted to go home and put some ice on the knee he destroyed making the catch. I don’t know if that’s precognition or what, but it worked.

Some other Things That Worked:

Splitting the boys into two squads. Kept good skills distribution and allowed a little chemistry to develop, while still giving everyone the opportunity to play their hearts out. The women are organized enough to sub out smoothly. The men benefit from specific direction.

The give & go. After the swing, run straight down the field (toward the end zone). You’ll get the jump on your defender every time, its an easy pass to make, and your team picks up five yards and resets the stall count. But DO NOT cut across the field (left/ right), you will bring your defender with you and block every passing lane for several seconds.


Things that Did Not Work so much:

Stalling out. “If the thrower has not released the disc at the first utterance of the word ‘ten,’ it is a turnover. The marker loudly announces ‘stall’ and play stops." (Rule XIV.3.).

Officially, there must be one second between each number in a stall count. In practice, what happens is “stalling eight, stalling nine-ten!” and the “T” means a turnover.

Dump after four, Throw by eight, punt on nine, by ten you should be playing defense.

What to do if you throw the disc before “Ten” and the marker (still) calls a stall on you: if the pass was incomplete, its a turnover where the disc lies. If the pass was complete, it comes back to the thrower and stalling resumes at eight.

Picking up a point block. Rule 2 of all things Ultimate is: A spectacular play will inevitably be followed by something awful. So when you get the big point block: RUN! Don’t pick up the disc: (1) You are the farthest downfield of your whole team, your whole team will have to run past you to make cuts. (2) You just did something spectacular, your karma needs time to recharge. (3) You just had a disc spang! off your throwing hand. Maybe now isn’t the time for trying out the inside-out, double-helix no-look hammer.

Next game Monday, July 13th against Bottomless Green at Anacostia #1. See you there!