Animal IQ Test

Posted by Bill

It’s been said that "Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." I’m not sure where that puts Buzzards in the animal IQ chain as we got 12 to come out and play Ultimate yesterday (six who were repeat offenders from Tuesday) on a field that, in many places, still hadn’t been trod on and where the snow was probably still in the 12-18” depth range.

Wanted to give a “welcome back” to Nate who was one of the repeat offenders. He’s had fun diving (in most cases needlessly) for discs the past two days and has upped the number of Buzzards we consider “speedy” by about 25%.

There’s a strange thing about this snow. Even normally adept handlers have been heard the last two days swearing at themselves and asking why they cannot complete a pass. There haven’t been a whole lot of opportunities to lead anybody since not too many people have run under a disc. Todd may have been one of the exceptions yesterday as I was able to keep one up in the air long enough for him to run under it for a score.

Brad, after getting the full court press of peer pressure to play on Tuesday, decided not to reply yesterday but show up anyway and play. Anybody else noticed recently that he’s seemed to healed from whatever had been keeping him from running. I’m starting not to like it when I have to mark him. Still, you need to be careful when he’s marking you. Ask Brook who took a full body shot from Brad hurling himself at him. “Oh hey Brook, welcome back yourself!”

I was glad to see Frank out yesterday with long pants and socks after playing in neither back on our first snow game in December. Of course he’s headed out to Monterey soon on a Buzzard Sabbatical. Yesterday the temps there were in the 70’s and it was sunny. We hate you Frank!

The rest of the Buzzards besides Todd, Brad and Nate who have doubled up on the snow games this week have been Sean, Kevin, Eric and yours truly. And three of us are RSVPd for today’s game as well.

The rest of the snow Buzzards who have been out this week are Steave, Brian, Frank, Brook, Bob, Tom and Conrad. And today we’re expecting even some others who haven’t played in the snow yet…Erick and Dan G. Rumor has it there will be a camera out today also so stay tuned for some photographic evidence that Buzzards are perhaps no smarter than cats or dogs but certainly more hearty...Iditarod schmitarod.

Sir Edmund Hillary couldn't flick...

Posted by Bill

Anybody remember me? I’m the guy that started this blog a little over two years and 150 or so posts ago. I kept it fairly current with a post usually up once a week or ten days or more often depending on how much we played and then something happened this past summer. The Buzzards Point Ultimate Club sent a team into the Washington Area Frisbee Club Summer Corporate League and did very well in fact and Kevin started writing accounts of the league games for the blog which was great because well he was the Captain and that’s what Captains should do besides wear a hand scrawled “C” on their shirt.

Then in the fall something else happened. “Research Foundations” and “Policy in Education” classes and I stopped writing anything for fun. We did manage to get a Facebook group up for the BPUC and some of you have taken part in that arena. Mostly I was lazy. But today has inspired me to get back to the keyboard and chronicle what was certainly one of the more memorable Ultimate events in this club’s brief but storied history.

As most of you who will be reading this already know, the D.C. metro area had about 2 feet of snow dumped on it this past weekend. A record December snowfall by any accounts. It closed the Federal Offices on Monday which made for a nice 3-day weekend (at least) for most of us. Yesterday we slowly eased back into work while still fighting the icy side streets of our neighborhoods. At about 1000 yesterday Kevin sends me a message “What? No game?” I guess my expectations had been low and since he was the first to even ask, that seemed somewhat justified, but I sent out the invite anyway and he, Brad, Kelly, and Conrad all admirably RSVPd that they would play but it's all we could persuade and so it went "No Game"

Today I decided to try earlier and got a rousing response from a thinned out holiday mode Buzzards crowd at work. We trekked out to the field to find that much of the snow had been untouched. And it was still fairly deep despite some settling. There would not be much sprinting today by anybody. Tom remarked once he got out “Finally, speed will not be a factor” and he was for the most part right. Pinpoint throwing was more the premium today and we did some of that though Brian and I seemed to enjoy making our pinpoint throws to Kevin who happened to be wearing the opposite color pinnie.

“I couldn’t help it, he looked so darn attractive, I couldn’t resist” Brian protested.

“At least make him move hips and tease you. I mean he was standing still” I pleaded back.

Frank wins the award for coming out with the least weather appropriate clothing on. Shorts and no socks with his cleats. Sean was a close second also in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt until somebody turned over an extra long sleeved one. Kelly made the first snow layout with a beautiful grab and a face full of snow as she went soaring over the sideline. Conrad, Brad and Kevin also managed horizontal moves of varying degrees of effectiveness. I will say that Brad’s was for a score and even more impressive considering the cantaloupe-sized welt he had on his leg from his weekend kayak sledding accident.

For the first time, maybe since the departure of Matt P for Texas, I heard the claim of being in by one cone if not the other (that is a straight line between those right?) That was Sean I think using the “Peeler Geometric Theorem” Another Matt, the goggled one came out to balance the early uneven numbers and swayed the advantage back to orange for most of the rest of the game but there was not an overabundance of scoring. We don’t ever keep score out here but I’m pretty sure we didn’t reach 15 by both teams.

At any rate, as Conrad reminded me as we high stepped off the field, elements like this usually engender some sort of award or nickname for those who play. It wasn’t actually snowing while we played but the depths of the snow have hereby obliged the issuance of the first ever Buzzards Point Sherpa award. For braving snow depths of double digits in inches, snow blindness, insufficient oxygen (or alcohol), pedestrian garb, and holiday leave. Congratulations Frank, Tom, Kevin, Brad, Brian, Kelly, Conrad, Sean, Matt & Bill. It wasn’t Chomolungma but it was good. Happy holidays to all the Buzzards, their family and friends. I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you back 2010.

p.s. congrats to Conrad and Juliette new parents of Genevieve Marie.

Where there's a will...

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.” – William James

For all of you who have not exactly “felt” like coming out this week to play Ultimate but have done so anyway I sincerely thank you. Here we are on the 24th of September and we’ve just had our 4th consecutive week of the month with at least 3 days in a row of games. This week seemed particularly challenging after a couple weeks of unseasonably cool weather and low humidity got most of us deacclimated from the oppressive summer weather that frankly never materialized much this past July and August.

But summer staged a last hurrah as we celebrated the Autumnal Equinox this week and as our days begin to get progressively shorter. Three days of mid 80’s and high humidity certainly made it seem like it was still August. To exacerbate the conditions of the weather we also were having difficulty getting any big games called this week and so for two days were at the bare minimum of 8 and another day we managed 10.

So for those of you who willed yourself out there this week…bravo. Erick, Todd & Bob, you guys hit the trifecta and came out each day this week. Thanks for trying to keep me running and putting up with me when I wasn’t. Kevin, John & Frank all got multiple games in this week as well and then our string of solo acts included Dennis, Paul, Matt, Joe, Dan & Tom. Ladies, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but that list does not include any of you. A disappointing week for the girl power.

Oh, also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the alumni visit a couple weeks ago of Rodney who made it down for a couple games. Great to have you back out there. Now if you could arrange to have you Swinny, Phill, Hollan, Thunder & Matty P all show up on the same week...that would be fabulous.

I would like to just make a couple housekeeping notes. We’ve been playing on the south field for the majoring of softball season and the consensus has been…..”Yuck!” The terrain is neither soft nor smooth. I’m not sure softball has ended but I’m inclined to try back to the North starting next week. Also I’d like to throw out my semi-annual plea for starting our game at 1130 rather than wandering out at 1130 (or later). Of course we want you whenever you can make but if we can get the majority of us out on the field ready to start at 1130 we can salvage a little more play time…and get this, it’s a novel idea, have a little stretch time after we’re finished.

So we’re finishing off September next week and the extended forecast is showing highs only in the 60’s on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m thinking big finish to the month! Stop telling yourself you don’t feel like it or you’ll play when you feel better, or in better shape, or healthier…take the step out on the field, the “feelings” will follow and we’ll all be better for it.

Finding our lunchtime groove...

Lunchtime Ultimate had been suffering from expected transfer and vacation season flux and July temperatures rising (though this hasn’t been your normal July in D.C.), and the unexpected oversaturation that the Corporate League had perhaps added to. Yesterday the 1130 crowd was back out in force thanks to newcomers Meaghan (who has been playing Corporate with the Buzzards) and Dan, a basketball player looking for another exercise outlet (thanks Matt, you’re finder’s fee will be in the mail), and also to John who was back out with us after a bit of a hiatus.

We had our first 7 on 7 game in about a month. We were rewarded with another unseasonable temperate July day. Though the humidity did increase some, it was still in the low 80’s somewhat overcast and even a bit breezy again. I heard Meaghan on the field saying something about “I’ll get used to this heat and humidity soon” as she has come to us from Seattle. Any of the rest of you who have the pleasure of living or visiting the Pacific Northwest, know you can declimatize from this mid-Atlantic oppressiveness pretty quickly. Now reacclimatizing may not happen as quickly and I just didn’t want to tell her that it really hasn’t even gotten bad hear yet. Normally by this time in the summer we’ve had a couple weeks of solid 90/90 days.

You couldn’t really tell John hadn’t been out there in a while as he made several great pinpoint passes for the blue team. He and his receivers were finding the holes in the orange team’s porous zone. A good strong cup defense is difficult to play when you know you won’t be getting any substitutions for the full hour we’re out there. And even more difficult when you take a play off to discuss work business (as I found Dennis and Brian doing on one play). Before we could recover from that diversion blue had made two passes and were well over mid-field.

Also out with us yesterday were Steve, Kevin, Brad, Leroy, Mike, Tom & Frank. Thanks everybody for getting back out for a great lunch time game.

"One small step..."

Blasting off on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing the Buzzards took their own respective “giant leaps” yesterday, if not for mankind then at least for that 175 gram pie shaped piece of plastic. And unlike our Summer League games where we routinely spot the opposing team a good decade at least at many positions and which has been getting most of the press here in the blog of late I would guess that most of our participants yesterday were alive for that historic event in 1969.

In fact Tom gave me that look of incredulity again yesterday as I was dividing up the teams. “You did it to us again, didn’t you Bill?” he asked. Somehow insinuating that I had conspired to put the bulk of the old slow guys on the same team. What I also did, but what did not pay any immediate dividends, was to give us an extra player. Of course that did not stop the blue team from scorching us early and often as Kevin and Bob worked the disc around nicely, throwing to Leroy occasionally sprinting long, Frank, gliding across his old familiar haunts at the back of the end zone and Dennis, looking for every long pass he could throw.

For our part, the orange team struggled to find some rhythm early on. We had Doug back out with us for the first time in a long while after his soccer brethren abandoned a fabulous weather day… low 80’s, overcast, and breezy. Oh, also, I’m not sure I’ve formally welcomed out Ron who’s been out with us a few times over the last couple weeks. Please join me in giving him a fond Buzzard hello.

We put Doug to good use having him fly around as safety knocking down as many passes as we could but we just couldn’t seem to find him very often on the offensive side of the field. Brian’s chicken wing pass looked a little rusty, Tom was the recipient of a lot of contact on passes in the end zone. I saw him get hit by Bob, Dennis, & Frank on 3 successive possessions. Then finally when he was able to lurk around behind Doug and let him get hit instead, he was able to come down with a deep pass.

Mike made some nice grabs and passes while working up some short drives later in the game as blue started to come around some and make things a bit more competitive. I got caught trying to out jump Leroy on a couple long passes. The first one our lets got tangled up, and my knee went right into his calf and neither of us came down with it. The 2nd one we were able to avoid contact and both got up to the disc but he hauled it down with a nice 2-handed grab and then made the subsequent pass for the winning score.

Walking back to the sideline Tom offered his wry assessment of the final score. “Bill you’re old and you can’t jump, what did you expect?” To be fair, Leroy isn’t even old enough to legally drink, let alone have any recollection of Neil Armstrong taking that first step on the cratered surface of the moon. I could have used a little anti-gravity situation to out jump him.

Farewell KellyG!

Tuesday was Kelly’s last game with us as she is leaving HQ. It was a good game to leave on. We had 15 people out there, overcast, not too hot, and NO SOFTBALL!

It’s nearing the end of transfer season and the Buzzards have done well. We certainly miss Swinny, Travis, MattC, Frank, JasonN and others but we have reloaded well. A bunch of new people have joined us this summer…I don’t know whether or not they’ve been here and just not playing or have transferred in but welcome to Bo, Mike, Dan, BobH, JasonK (back for a 2nd stint), George, Brian, Erik, Fred, Will, Eric, Paul, & Mark. Adding at least a dozen new players and only losing a handful works out to a really nice surplus as evidenced by the 8 on 7 game we had Tuesday.

Anybody else notice when you play with that many that you don’t get a lot of cross the field passes completed through traffic. I ripped one loose the other day to realize MattP was standing between me and where I wanted the disc to go. I saw Thunder and Kevin also finding several passes unintentionally coming there way.

Ultimate gets a good cross over from other sports as we have drawn from Flag Football, Soccer, Volleyball & Softball and whenever you get players from those other sports you make some prejudgments as to their strengths based on that. The football guys tend to have good field vision, the volleyball folks know how to position and jump, the softball players adjust well to discs in the air, and the soccer folks run and run some more. Then in Ultimate those skills start melding together and you find guys like Fred on Tuesday…a soccer guy if I’m not mistaken, finding his grip all of a sudden and pulling down everything thrown to him on Tuesday.

With that many people we, on the green team at least, attempted to run a few things from the stack and that worked with varying degrees of success. One of the things we did seem to do pretty well was to utilize the dump pass. In fact one of the new guys, Mike, used it quite well on at least 4 occasions that I noted. Never mind Rodney’s whining Mike. Anytime he doesn’t get the disc on a play he thought he should have he gets a bit agitated. We’ve learned to just ignore him. If some of you want to see some fairly simple diagrams of stack plays as well as some other useful basic info, check out the U of Oregon’s Ultimate Basics page.

Looks like another great weather day for us today. Hope to have a good game.

Pull!

Dog Days

posted by Bill

Having been out of the office Monday and Tuesday and missing those two scorcher games and then not getting enough on Wednesday, yesterday was my first game of the week..

Got an email from Phil asking who was playing and I realized we had kind of an eclectic group yesterday. Welcome by the way to Mark, another new Buzzard this week. He made the aforementioned Monday/Tuesday games and still came out yesterday so that bodes well for continuing to see him out there. He and Will were our “new guy” representatives but both have pretty good running ability (which is to say, they can) and Will has these Go-Go Gadget arms that I found tough to D on the couple of times that I got stuck with that bad switch.

In fact, we had trouble, in general on defense yesterday on the green team and Leroy remarked that we might need to do something with our match ups. I think it may have had more to do with our offense actually as we gave up several deep turnovers not being able to complete 2 passes in a row. But Dennis did throw several great deep passes early and that led gold to their early lead. Will, Frank & Phil all hauled in throws from Dennis.

Meanwhile, Mark, Leroy, Tom & I kind of fuddled around trying to find some offensive rhythm that seemed more limited than internet access in Beijing. And with humidity hovering around 105% and even a light rain during part of the game we also seemed to have some problems hanging onto the disc.

We have several Buzzards out nursing injuries and other things I think. I thought we might see Thunder back this week but his doctor put the kibosh on that idea and he remains on the DL though he was well enough to vacation down in Florida last week. Todd is still out, MattP decided to rest from the Ultimate field but did so with his newfound love…sand volleyball. Should we feel cheated on? Carolyn has apparently left us and our thoughts are with her, Annette is still in and out with her treatment, Hollan has been on limited play duty and so we’ve been missing many of the regulars.

Speaking of missing regulars, heard from Bryan yesterday up in Milwaukee and he said to pass along a hello to everybody. Apparently he was headed out to play some floor hockey. Hope he remembers that floors are generally harder than fields and that layouts may not be a good maneuver for that sport. Rodney has abandoned us for a few weeks TDY and will be gone for good before too long. Frank is also on his farewell tour.

It’s great to be getting all the new faces out. We’ve more than replenished the transferring out folks from this summer…at least in number. Look forward to seeing more of you all out and bring friends and co-workers. This weather will have to break before too long and the fall is a great time to play out here, you’ll love it. Get in condition now and you’ll be running all over the place by then.

New discs were ordered yesterday and we should have those by sometime next week. Hope everybody has a great weekend and gets a chance to get out and enjoy themselves some outside.

Hammer Time

posted by Bill

I’ve been a little remiss in keeping up with the blog lately. School has started again and I find myself working on papers and reading on my “free time”.

Great game yesterday though as the weather broke a little bit and we had some nice temperatures. One reason I know I haven’t been as current on this is that my welcome (back) to Buzzard JasonK is coming about 2 weeks into his return to playing. Many of you didn’t know Jason but he played out here when I first started playing 3-4 years ago. Mallard and Annette are probably the only other ones who may remember. Want to also welcome out another new player yesterday…Will. He was trying to catch his wind early in the game but had a few good catches and we hope to see you back out soon.

Apparently M.C. Rodney has found a new secret weapon as he was responsible for the bulk of excellent hammer throws I saw yesterday. On one in particular I heard Brian chastising himself on the way back up the field about not playing good enough D but we quickly noted that Rodney had dropped that throw right in the lap of Tom cutting across the end zone and the defense was actually pretty good.

Todd and Phil were both back out on the field yesterday after short leaves of absence; Todd nursing an injury and Phil nursing a short-handed office while Thunder is trolling a fishing line somewhere in Florida.

We scheduled the game early yesterday so Frank could make it out and then he left us early anyway… ? What’s up with that amigo? Word has it, this is the Shadow’s last week of play with us as he heads off to grad school….another degree on the Coast Guard’s dime? Sweet deal!

Will try and get up some new pictures on the Flickr account soon so keep checking there. Have a bunch that Hollan took a couple week’s ago. And I will try and stay a little more current here. Oh, I’m up here for a guest Friday appearance so hopefully we’ll get a run today. Temps are going back up and it will be hot but let’s go. Pull!

Hokey Pokey

Posted by Bill

Our June award winners:
"MOB" - Todd

"SOTG" - Hollan

A good game of 6’s yesterday! 1 new player, another back out for her 2nd game, Hollan back behind the camera and the June awards presentation…good day for the Buzzards.

First, welcome to Brian, who worried on the way out that this group might be too young for him. I told him we had some players in their 40’s but he seemed skeptical when I asked if he had played before and he realized the answer he was giving me was more years than a couple of the players that play with us have on this earth…okay to be fair Brian, they’re summer hires, students, it’s okay they’ll be back in classes in the fall.

Of course, speaking of back in classes, Carolyn, thanks for coming back out and since you’re only over at GMU, you’ll be welcome to come back and play with us anytime even after you go back to school. Try not to schedule anything in the 11-1pm block, I’m sure your advisor will understand you have a good reason.

As for the rest of you motley crew…nice game yesterday. Great to have you all back out there. Welcome back KellyG, Phil, & Bob from everywhere you’ve all been…nice goatee there Bob. Did you notice it slowed you down some yesterday or was that just from taking a week and a half off?

Today’s rule refresher is on “Traveling”. We rarely call this but we should start just so we’re making people aware of the rule because if you ever play in a league or tournament, they will call this on you. (The roman numeral hyperlinks take you to the corresponding spot on the UPA’s website.

A. Traveling: The thrower must establish a pivot at the appropriate spot on the field and keep all or part of the pivot in contact with that spot until the throw is released. Failure to do so is a travel and results in a stoppage of play and a check.

1. In addition, each of the following is a travel:
a. A player catches the disc and either speeds up, changes direction or does not stop as quickly as possible before establishing a pivot (XV.B).
b. A player receives a pass while running or jumping, and releases a pass after the third ground contact and before establishing a pivot (XV.C).
c. Purposeful bobbling (including tipping, delaying, guiding, brushing, or the like) to oneself in order to advance the disc in any direction from where it initially was contacted (XV.A).
d. The thrower fails to touch the disc to the ground when required (XIII.B).

Enjoy some pictures…if you don’t see them all here, check the Flickr site for all the extras.








Carolyn looking to throw with her new skills learned under Kevin's tutelage.

Kevin chases down Brian after a catch.

Hey Bob, you gotta open your eyes if you're going to grab this from Todd.

Frank & Matt working their short game.

The Buzzards doing the Hokey Pokey...this is great. I love how the disc looks implanted.

2 new, a weave and SOTG refresher

Posted by Bill

We had a good game on Monday with 6 on 5. I’d like to give a warm welcome to a couple new players, Bob & Carolyn, it was great to have you both out there. I love this game because players of all experience levels can step right in and have fun. Bob came out and I joked that he should have come with a warning label…usually when I see somebody with his…uh…”career maturity”, humble height and being follicle-challenged…I assume they are going to be in a physical condition more like…well…me. But Bob had obviously played before and forgot to tell me that he could actually run. By the way, we have another "older running Bob" so one of you guys is abosolutely going to need a nickname.

He, Tood, & Frank ran a flawless 3-man weave play at one point in the game that Todd remarked about later “We should have just quit right then after we scored, it wasn’t going to get any better”.

And Carolyn, admittedly a new player to Ultimate made an outstanding one hand grab off a pass from Todd for a score. I checked with her before the game “Has anybody explained any of the rules to you?”

“Well, I remember some from high school P.E. class” she replied.

“Perfect!” I told her, “You’re already at our level”

Kelly G was back after her early summer hiatus and looked like it was a little challenge to get her wind back completely. Hollan was also back…trying to talk himself into being back in playing shape after his injury…and then took another ugly fall that was trying to argue the opposite.

Speaking of ugly falls…er…layouts…Todd was particularly impressed by my instinctual turn and dive for a pass from Eli that wound up being 10-15 yards short and just made me look silly.

Tim and I hooked up on a couple nice scores on Monday but I wish I could have also hit him on about 6 more that I just totally missed the throws on. Saved my best throw for last though after getting a nice entry pass from Hollan that Frank just barely missed, I looked up field and started yelling “Go, go, go” to Rodney, who was already on his way to the end zone as I cut one loose sailing over his head. He ran it down and made a great layout catch as Todd pulled up claiming he had heard “Foul, foul, foul” and assume it had been so after Frank and I had made a little contact.

*** Official vanity paragraph *** uh for those of you who have been caught gawking at pictures of yourself and reading heroic captions to your co-workers about your exploits from the blog, this paragraph is officially dedicated to you today… "and there were others, not previously mentioned, on the field today” :)

A reminder from the Ultimate Players Association website page on the Spirit of the Game –
Spirit of the Game sets Ultimate apart from other competitive team sports.

For over 30 years, Ultimate has flourished, reaching a highly competitive level, without the use of referees. In Ultimate, the honor system works. Sure, human nature rears its ugly head from time to time - just as in any sport, just as in life. Yet, one of the many beauties of Ultimate is how, even amid the most difficult of situations, utmost graciousness is allowed to meet that challenge head on. Through this balance, Ultimate players are free to demonstrate the most honorable and the most joyous sides of human nature in sport.

Looking forward to having some of the regulars back on the field soon….Phil, Bob…today? Thunder is due out next week according to the NASA systems countdown.

Again, the chance of precipitation is less than half today for game so let’s head out…pull!

First of July!

posted by Bill

July is here! And really, even though it started to seem warmer than the weather.com announcement that it was about 76 degrees at game time, it was still pretty nice for the beginning of July. And we had a great turnout yesterday also! Welcome out for the first time to Denise, a co-worker of Kevin’s. It was great to have you, please come back and join us anytime. It was also nice to meet Kay…Eric, she knows your tall and bald right? : )

Welcome back out Bridgette…watch out, if you come out twice within a week, this sport has been known to become addictive. You see it even draws out those who are injured and have no business being on the field…one, was smart enough to just come take pictures, thanks Thunder, sorry the battery crapped out on you after only 7 shots, and Hollan, who actually thought he was well enough to play…and by all accounts looked fine through the whole game except for a couple of drops (heck some of us do that when we’re completely healthy and he did catch at least one score as well)….but then it came…

“Hey, 3 more points” yells somebody on gold and then they proceed to score a quick one. Then as green is coming back down the field to try and tie it up at 1, Hollan was going full speed toward the sideline to try and break up a pass headed for Tom. Okay, I want to be fair here…for those of you who’ve played with Tom for a while, you’re thinking you know how this winds up. Well, I just want to say, Tom did not really have anything to do with this and it was just a play of two guys going after the disc and one crumbling to the ground in agony. “Boom Boom” needs a new nickname because his game, I’ve noticed over the last few months, has been remarkably free of contact…well, at least when Frank hasn’t been marking him.

That wasn’t the only problem on gold yesterday as they had trouble clicking from the start. When I first separated the teams and then kind of threw Eric the last gold pinnie, not sure which team to stick him on I felt sure I had shifted the balance of power that way…with Eric and Kevin handling and Hollan, Phil, and Dennis running…and they had substitutes as Denise used Bridgette’s late arrival as a good excuse to take a breather. But for some reason that combination didn’t work for them.

Again, as I am apt to do, I stuck Todd with 3 old slow guys (myself, Tom & Rodney, another guy with two bum heels (MattP) and then Leroy who has been running like crazy but let’s just say has had some communication breakdown between the legs, eyes, & hands prior to today. Well, who knew, I found a couple runs in me today, two layouts that actually did not pan out into anything except a mouth full of clover and a heaving chest, Tom finding his mid to long range throwing skills, Rodney and Matt always showing bursts of speed when you least expect it and Leroy mastering the “tip drill” score…two in a row, in fact from Todd and over Eric. Matt followed those up by catching a “machete” headed for the ground and green actually looked like we knew what we were doing despite our lock down D on a long stall count.

All in all, a great day of disc. It’s a pleasure playing with all of you…always the highlight of my day at work.

It’s not too late to get me your votes for June’s “Most Outstanding Buzzard” (MOB) and “Spirit of the Game” (SOTG) award winner. I need to get the SOTG disc that Bryan won last month out of my cube where he left it when he departed…by the way, we didn’t really give him a proper farewell which seems to happen a lot around here…sorry. Bryan, you’ll be sorely missed my friend. Fair winds!

By the way...in regards to the following pictures...the camera battery died after only 7 shots but why do 4 of them have Todd in them? Can you say "man crush" Thunder?

Todd looking for the next throw as he catches it with Tom cutting.

Rodney getting ready to pull.

Todd elevating...of course everybody looks like they're going high with Rodney in the picture.

Eric...nice patriotic bacground there.

Phil looks to pass as Todd comes up to mark.

Watch it all the way in Phil.

Todd releasing from the clover.

...or are you just happy to see me?

Posted by Bill

“Ultimate is a non-contact sport” I had to remind myself yesterday after getting body blocked to the ground by Phil and hearing Frank cheer in the background…

“Yea! Great move man!”

To be fair, there was a little of that big brother slips in the first shot, little brother’s retaliation is more dramatic and the only thing seen by the parents but geez Phil!!!!

Welcome back humidity! Did we mention, we didn’t really miss you though? After last week’s comparatively mild temperatures and low humidity, we were reminded yesterday that summer, has in fact, begun. It really wasn’t that hot yesterday but as the cliché goes “that ain’t what kills ya.”

#1 fan (he's got the t-shirt to prove it), and most active member of the disabled list, Hollan, was out on the field again yesterday taking some shots with my camera, fully charged on batteries this time. He remarked though that it was difficult to get good shots with the nice short passing game that the gold team was using yesterday. Frank, Phil, Bob & Leroy abandoned the long game after Leroy had some “tracking” issues on a couple discs up in the air.

“I hate this thing!” he said, shaking the orange 175g’s after a fumble in the end zone.

“Well” Phil said, later in the locker room “you know it’s not shaped like most things”. What Phil, you mean like plates & tires?

“Like most other sports gear” Phil clarified, “like basketballs, footballs, baseballs, golf balls”.

Ah, you’re right. Well, that’s because it’s not like most other sports. Did I mention Ultimate is non-contact? And self-officiated?

Exhibit A ~ Todd called a foul on himself (which even technically you can’t do, the person being fouled needs to call it) but he felt so bad about sending Leroy tumbling across the end zone line on a pass the clearly was going to be out of reach anyway. Well SOTG points for Todd, I thought it was the right call. It was a foul and you never know when somebody is going to make that “catching the disc in the air on the way out of the end zone tossing it back in for a score” play.

I put the extra guy on the green team yesterday because I had stuck Todd with myself, Rodney, Tim, & Tom. Now Tim is the youngest and swiftest of that foursome which is all you need to know about it because let’s face it, he hasn’t exactly shown “breakaway speed” out there yet. But lo and behold all four of us sprinted to the end zone on a couple occasions for scores. “I like the Monday legs” Todd observed with pleasant surprise.

There were a couple nice deflections caught for scores yesterday. Bob, to nobody’s surprise had one of them. You can’t let that guy keep circling around a disc like a Buzzard around roadkill. He’s going to grab hold of it eventually. And Leroy after a couple frustrating drops snagged one that I had managed to misdirect. Bob also made a nice play coming around Rodney on the end zone line and reaching in front of him to take away what should have been an interception. Rodney remarked he just needed a little refresher lesson on why you should come to the disc.

You’ll see a good picture below of Bob homing in on Rodney and the disc with Tom and Leroy also in the muddle. Surprisingly, there was no contact on this play other than maybe the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Repeat after me, “Ultimate is a non-contact sport”.

We've reached the maximum upload on Flickr for the month so good thing July is right around the corner.

Really, there was no contact between bodies here...just the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Todd looking for an open cutter.

Frank getting vertical against Tom.

Me catching one in stride...which means I actually was striding.

Okay, I have no idea what's going on here.

Big crowd, no rain...

Submitted by Bill

With thunderstorms in the forecast when I came in yesterday, I decided to schedule a racquetball game with Ink & Visor instead. So of course, when some of the other whiny regulars shuffled in yesterday, notably Phil & Rodney, they wanted to know why we weren’t playing. And Rodney didn’t wait for an answer, he just called for a game. And as it turns out, it never rained at all yesterday and the 3 racquetball players came out for Ultimate anyway and we had 15! Or at least until Jason gimped off the field after pulling his calf. First game back after being gone at school. Hopefully not your last game before you leave J, that would be a lousy way to have to go. But it was good to see you out.

We also had a new player out yesterday. Everybody give a warm Buzzard welcome to KellyR from Rodney & Jorge’s shop. She got to experience the rumbling of Wings bearing down on her as she was getting ready to catch one. Hopefully that didn’t cause any PTUD (Post Traumatic Ultimate Disorder) and she’ll come back out.

Like most games when we have 7’s or more on either side, it was crowded and we had to find some passing lanes. Those were tough as I remember Conrad, Todd, Dennis, Phil & Eric all knocking discs out of the air in the endzone. Of course Conrad’s stellar defensive play went for naught as Tom & MattP were standing right there in the corner as the swatted disc fell in their collective hands. Bob also pulled in a deflection yesterday. Remember defense, hit them into the ground if you have the chance. With that many people any disc that stays up in the air probably has a good chance of landing in somebody’s hands. And if you hang around the end zone long enough…right Frank?...good things can happen (or bad depending on who’s team you’re on).

Okay folks, today is picture day!!!! Come on out at least for a team photo, even if you can’t play. If anybody is interested in taking some action shots during the game, that would be great. Maybe we’ll have enough where we can run a couple substitutes for each team and they can be the photographers.

Just a friendly reminder too about hydration. Yesterday was one of the first pretty humid days we’ve had out there. Please bring your water with you out on the field and don’t hesitate to call for a water break. We all need it and if you’re thinking it, then at least 3-4 other players are probably needing the break too. Or just run over to the sideline after a score if you don’t want to stop play. But please keep hydrated as we play…because you never know when the water won’t be there, like yesterday’s rain.

Redemption Songs...

Submitted by Bill

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

And those of us who had such a brutally awful game on Wednesday, and who came out yesterday had a bit of redemption in a much better game.

As usual, the 15-player game had a much different dynamic than the 7-player game and short passing was the rewarded premium. Of course with 8-7 the short passing lanes are often clogged with hands, legs, and other assorted body parts. Rodney even spiked one pass into my forehead yesterday. To add to that crowd control challenge yesterday, the breeze had picked up pretty nicely by game time and even though we were playing north to south to try and mitigate its advantage going one way all the time, it was still a factor blowing across the field generally and making the long pass a scarce commodity yesterday.

I believe yesterday was Justin’s last day of BPUC and though he hasn’t been out much of late we managed a great turnout for his farewell game.

There were a few awesome catches yesterday. Devan had a classic sideways layout for a score that required a great last second grab. Phil & Swinny also had very nice grabs. Tired of chasing Bob & Hollan around the past couple weeks, I decided to put myself on their team yesterday. Hey! You guys can both throw too!

There was some pre-game discussion as to what SOTG does and does not involve and suffice it to say that any friendly touching of anatomical areas of another player, while not specifically outlawed should fall back to that “two consenting adults” rule. Thanks for that mental image Rodney & MattP.

Thanks also to Frank, Eli, Conrad, & Jorge for rounding out the big crowd.

Anybody think we can get permissive orders to travel to Texel Beach for a tournament in June. Ah, now the real question…does anybody, without using Google, actually know where Texel Beach is? You might be surprised…the hint…it’s in the land of my ancestors.

Hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday weekend. Hollan, let this substitute for the “safety speech” you’ll be missing today. In all seriousness folks, even if you are being safe, there is a good chance that if driving, long hours, or alcohol is going to be involved in your weekend that somebody may not practice the best safety practice. Please be careful, watch out for your family and friends, be the example of good judgment and come back to the field in one piece next week.

Thank you to all those who have paid the Ultimate price so that I can go out on a field during lunch break of my job to play a game.

Missing the bus

Submitted by Bill

Well, by the time Swinny got out there and asked “What color should I put on?” it was already painfully evident that he needed to come to our side. The “school bus yellow” team was in desperate need of the extra man as we were, indeed, getting schooled.

So then, I’m thinking, “I’ve got Phil, Swinny & the extra person...this should absolutely swing the balance of power our way”. Unfortunately, Ultimate Karma had already set in apparently and with Phil mocking the SOTG score sheet, Jorge, Frank, Swinny & I were left to suffer the wrath of the disc gods, not to mention just some pretty good play on the other side of the field by Todd, Hollan, Rodney, & Wings (making his return after being gone a couple weeks).

Despite all the rain the evening before and earlier that morning, the field was in surprisingly good shape with hardly any standing water…well except for that one mud bog that MattP stepped in when pivoting for a throw. It distracted him so much that I came about a half second from getting a 10 count on him.

I found myself a half second or half foot shy in several other instances as well…going up for a jump disc against Todd, following Rodney across and enzone cut and watching his arms extend further than I’ve ever seen them before to catch a score, tossing my “machete” to Phil for a potential score gone bad, and whirling around on the final point of the game some 13 times before watching the disc land in Hollan’s hands for the final score.

At the suggestion of another faithful Buzzard, there has been some talk of offering up a couple monthly awards; most Outstanding Buzzard, and of course “Spirit of the Game” winner. The prizes are yet to be determined but we’ll start with May honorees. Please email me with your selections towards the end of next week. The “SOTG” award is self explanatory if you read the description on the upa.org website.

As far as criteria for the “MOB” award…I’m open for suggestions but it should, I suspect, be someone who has come out “regularly” (a majority of the games called), and who has demonstrated some Ultimate prowess, throwing efficiency, catching (layouts are a plus), and the underappreciated good defense. Perhaps when you nominate somebody you could just give me a couple bullets as to why you are.

Since we rarely keep score in any kind of official capacity and because my team pairing can be unfairly prohibitive to individual success at times, that should not necessarily be a factor in your nominations. Obviously, the MOB is going to make his/her teammates better but they still may not come out on top all the time. Also, to keep this as a morale booster (as if playing Ultimate everyday wasn’t enough), maybe we could stipulate that a player can not win the award more than once a quarter? I’m open for ideas. Shoot me an email if you have some thoughts.

Going to be a beautiful day for a game today…sunny, mid 60’s, don’t miss the chance to come out before the long weekend.

Readying the ark...

Submitted by Bill

Long as I remember
The rain been comin' down.
Clouds of myst'ry pourin'
Confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages,
Tryin' to find the sun;
And I wonder, Still I wonder,
Who'll stop the rain.

You missed a great day yesterday if you didn’t come out. Sunny, mild and 6 on 5. We switched it up and played east to west on the north field yesterday. And it was fairly evenly matched 5 on 5 early in the game until Eric showed up and threw the balance of power over to the gold team. They worked a short passing game with surprising precision with Eric, Phil & Frank handling and finding Bob & Hollan with early-week speed in the end zones. Jorge back out for his 2nd game took a page from the MattC style guide for Ultimate, wore the bright yellow shirt and didn’t need a pinnie and then roamed the middle of the field making some nice grabs.

I liked my chances with green yesterday as any time I can have Todd & Eli throwing to me I know the chance are usually pretty good for getting some scores. Unfortunately, Thunder, Rodney & I couldn’t run under enough of them (re: we don’t run much to begin with). I think we each had our chances in the end zones and Todd and I managed to hook up on one nice floater early in the game but we just didn’t seem to get it quite in sync all game long.

Of course most of our offensive problems stemmed from lazy defense. Repeat after me everybody…”When you’re a man short, you have to come off the thrower and mark the cutter”… we all know this in our heads but transmitting that message to our feet was the problem yesterday and we got caught in a lot of short field circumstances where we were marking the thrower near the end zone and they just had to find the open cutter.

Well, it would be a really soggy game today. I’ve got my gear and I’m pondering sending out the email but the forecast has it coming down all day and it’s not exactly a warm rain….anybody else out there feeling ducky? Mallard? Where the heck are you?

Chiefly addition, playing for 2, & losing traction

Submitted by Bill

Great numbers toward the end of last week. On Wednesday we had a ridiculous 16 come on out. Much of the regular cast but a new face also. Welcome out Jorge. Another Chief is always welcome. Devin also came out for the first time since last summer and we took turns chasing him around. 8 on 8 is a lot of players. You’ve really got to have your short passing game on and some semblance of order and being able to run from a stack. We’ll have to have a skills practice or two sometime soon maybe.

Thursday I missed but I hear there were another 12 out there including Bryan’s wife and their child to be.

Friday was a rain game. Well, actually it had stopped by the time we got out there and we got a nice turn out (for a rainy Friday) of 8. They dynamics are crazy different from playing with 8 players on a team to only 8 on the field. I was apologizing ahead of time to my team for stacking the opposing gold team with more speed but as it turned out…erroneously so. Todd, Tom, Frank & I actually looked like the running team on many occasions as we found a nice formula…Todd and I would make the first couple passes then hit Tom or Frank on a medium length pass and let those two give and go it into the end zone. In fact, we ran Tom silly in the end zone from side to side on Friday. Tom was showing off the other aspects of his game this week (throwing & running) to become that renaissance player. Despite Rodney’s claims of goon play the week before.

Phil, Bob, Hollan & Conrad couldn’t quite get gold all on the same page Friday. I told Bob, who had been showing off some speed earlier in the week “that he must have run his tank low” by Friday’s game. Conrad was planning a trip to the sports store for the weekend to cleat shop after his third or fourth fall in the wet grass.

Today looks like it may be the best day of the week to play as rain and thunderstorms move in on Tuesday & Wednesday. So let’s get out and have a great game today.

Got an email from Travis late Friday afternoon…made it safely to Massachusetts and sends along his greetings to the Buzzards. Oh, and another reply to the historian that chalks up his initial attendance to Annette. Travis says he remembers her first email invite after she took over the list. Stand up and take a bow Annette (oh, you are standing).

The Greatest Rain Game Ever (is that too hyperbolic?)

Submitted by the whiny, dutifully remorseful and apologetic (you told me so) Chief Buzzard, Bill

You know you’re having one of those weeks when the LTjgs have to pick up the slack for you…

After a weekend of hiking and then getting a torrential rain shower Sunday night, I thought, after peeking at the weekly forecast that Monday and Tuesday might be a good little break on the Ultimate field. Not that I don’t enjoy playing in the rain, contrary to all the “I’m melting” jibes I received Monday (despite actually being out there), I love playing in the rain. But I thought it was going to be thundering and lightening as well. It turned out being just cool and breezy and apparently there was a groundswell of voices wanting to play as Swinny called Phil before heading to a meeting to beg him to call a game.

Meanwhile, even though I did have gear here, well all except a towel, I thought I might just quietly sit in my cube, eat my Caramel Chex Mix and sleep…er…uh…I mean catch up on some work during lunch. And then I got caught! On my way back up from the Exchange and getting my Chex Mix, Rodney spotted me coming out of the elevator (I knew I should have taken the stairs) and asked in his quiet unassuming manner “What the hell are you doing here? Why aren’t you playing?”

So, I was shamed into going back to my cube and replying that I would come out. And it turned out…finally…to be a great sponge game. The whole walk out the field, it just started raining harder and harder and the wind was blowing and I was grumbling to Phil about what he had dragged me into. But after more than my share of whining, we got 10 out there as Kelly had been similarly manipulated and dragged out by Bryan.

It wound up being a great game of many layouts and slides. Frank, Hollan, Todd, Bob, & Scott were the other hard core Buzzards who came out. Well done everybody! You would all make the universal Ultimate club very proud. I felt like I was 11 or 12 again heading out to play football in the rain and mud. My cleats are still wet.

Kelly stepped up yesterday when I was legitimately tied up in a meeting (of very little value…especially when balanced against missing Ultimate) and I hear there was a great game of 12 and the sun finally came out.

Today the forecast is sunny and low 70’s. Time for all the fairer weather Buzzards to come out. It will not get any better than today for weather…but you really should try a rain game sometime. As demonstrated by Hollan and Bryan doing belly slides into puddles at the end of the game Monday, it will bring out the inner kid in you when you used to like to stomp in puddles and get muddy, and track dirt into the house (yea, Scott, I know that was just last week for you).

Fly high Buzzards. Pull!

Double the numbers!

5’s on Monday, 6’s on Tuesday and then as I headed down to the locker room on Wednesday I was thinking, "mmm, good week, we have 11 playing again today." Walked in to find Hollan dressing out…he hadn’t originally replied…

"Can’t stay away” he said, getting dressed. Outstanding, another daily dozen!

Then I wander out on the field and by the time the “crowd” makes it’s way over there are 16!!! That’s like 2 games worth for us over the last couple months. Amazing what a little warm weather and a couple new people catching the bug can do. Want to send a welcome out to MattM & Paul who came out. Matt has been out a few times before but this was Paul’s first time with us I believe. Great to have you both out there. Usually, I like to give everybody else a shout out to that comes out but I’m telling you, I know I’ll forget somebody.

We have made some field modifications, stretching out the end zones to the official field size of 25 yards. Wow, that makes a big difference huh? Unbelievably, a couple people still managed to exceed the limits of the end zones with their throws. But it was definitely nice to have the extra space considering how many people were on the field. It was tough finding open lanes coming down the field though. Great game, great weather, great turnout. Thanks to everyone for coming out. Looking forward to some great numbers this spring and summer.

I saw that Kelly got a game yesterday while I was on papal (does that rhyme with maple or scrapple?) leave. Will look forward to a report from the game if anybody wants to submit something, email it to me.

One of your teammates, Todd, certainly one of our better handlers wants to send this along for your learning opportunity. I, for one, love anything that’s going to teach me about gyroscopic stability and I am absolutely going to try and add the “Wheel of Death” throw to my repertoire. By the way, Todd is the only one I see out there using the Push effectively and I’m not even sure what he threw me the other day for that score in the end zone. I am also disappointed by the conspicuous absence of The Machete, a throw I’ve come to master and other to hate. Not that I’m the only one who throws it. I believe it was a Machete throw earlier this week that bounced off of Frank’s chest and I guess we should all be glad we didn’t have a sucking chest wound on our hands.

Played an interesting variation of 2-man Ultimate yesterday. There were two soccer nets on the field where we’d gone to play catch and the were about 35-40 yards apart. We each stood in one goal and tried to score on the other. 2 points for a score, 1 point for the defender if the disc overshot the net. At that distance, the disc gets to you quick and your hands can take a beating. Good times though and made for an interesting twist on catch.

Hope all you Buzzards have a great weekend. I’m heading out for the mountains of Virginia to do a little hiking. Be safe and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

Ultimate Dozen

There are a lot of great things that comes in sets of twelve, or dozen if you prefer. Some that come to mind for me right off are a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts…having recently “passed” another Coast Guard weigh-in, they can go back on the diet a little more often…do you know there is one of the old original KK factory stores in Richmond. You can go there and watch them rolling off the lines and get them hot…it’s pure ecstasy. There is also Horace Mann’s Twelfth Annual Report on Education. This will be incredibly obscure and probably unknown to most of you but I feel compelled to mention it since I had to read it during this current class I’m taking and much of the excuse I’ve given to not keeping this blog updated more often. There is, of course, the classic film The Dirty Dozen, of which may actually have some interesting application to the characters of this blog and we may address that later…how about a 12-pack of ice cold adult beverages? Realizing, I am way down the food chain of Buzzards as beer coinsures (maybe they’ll offer up a comments for some I’ve missed) here are maybe my top dozen brews, in no particular order…Amstel Light, Wiked Pete’s Summer Brew, Rogues American Amber Ale, St. Pauli’s Girl, Sam Adams Pale Ale, Anchor Steam, Schlitz (has an inexplicable dorm room nostalgia feel to it…I offer no excuses)…and you know what, I don’t think I can ramble off another 4 impressive ones so I’ll leave that to Todd, Swinny, Phil et al…I like the Twelve Days of Christmas, not the song mind you, but the actual days…I’m a holiday kind of guy and it’s a great excuse to bake desserts…but of course the best 12 is a dozen Buzzards flocking about in the sunshine for a game of Ultimate.

It was a fabulous turnout and game yesterday. Early on, it looked like a fairly even match up but for some reason the green team never really clicked and the gold team of Bryan, Bob, MattC, MattP, Hollan, Scott just found its groove and spanked us. Half this team is in recovery from some sort of injury, knees, calves, shin splints, hamstring…but you would not have know it from the way they kept getting open. The green team was definitely the more winded as Bill, Lon, Conrad & Frank kept watching their guys go by them. We stuck Todd with Bryan who complained after the game that he “didn’t get to run enough with 6’s” ….poor guy. Green also had a new Buzzard out on the field…Tim. He more than held his own showing that could both catch & throw as Scott observed…sometimes on the same play which can be a rare occurrence for us.

The first Ultimate cookout is in the planning stages. Hope to have something on the calendar in the next few days so stay tuned and be ready to tell your supervisor that you’ll be headed out for a game of Ultimate and then a cookout…estimated time back in the cube, uh, tomorrow morning.