Birthday game

It wasn’t our typical Monday game yesterday which usually means a lot of sloppy passing and some trouble getting all the muscles to act in concert with each other to get up and down the field. But despite the pretty steady breeze we played in yesterday which alternatively knocked passes down a bit or carried them about 10 yards farther, play yesterday was pretty good.

It was a birthday game for Thunder. I forgot that until I got home and had Facebook remind me but Happy Birthday. I apologize for missing the opportunity for us to sing to you.

It was also a Welcome Back game for JQ. I had to clear him through customs and check his ID before letting back on the field. Something about school and Africa having kept him away for so long. You looked no worse the wear for the missed time, patrolling centerfield and picking off all the throws that hung up in the air too long.

We had another nice turnout yesterday. I think it made the 6th game in a row we’ve had attendance in the teens.

For those of you interested in getting some more Ultimate in this summer. Kevin is soliciting interested players for a Summer Corporate league run in conjunction with Washington Area Frisbee Club. Please let him know if you’re interested as we need to get registered fairly quickly with play starting in June.

Hope to get another great turnout today. Weather is going to be awesome again all week.

See you on the pitch!

End of the 20/20 days?

Finally the wind subsided a bit and we got enough for a game yesterday. Those 20/20 days (temps in the 20’s/wind in the 20’s) are winter’s equivalent to the summer’s 90/90 (temps in the 90’s/humidity in the 90’s) and just as difficult to play in and lure people out in. But yesterday the temperature crept above 40 by lunch time and the wind had pretty much died down.

I want to give a big Buzzard’s welcome to Shane who was joining us for the first time yesterday. Usually you can find him on the volleyball courts but yesterday they weren’t playing and as he told me “anything is better than the treadmill”. I did caution him though that it might not be any less running but certainly more fun and interesting. Shane made some great grabs yesterday particularly on some lousy throws by Kevin. Hey, that was their own description of the plays, not mine.

Paul also came up with some unlikely catches yesterday off tips either from his hands or somebody else’s. I think JQ was enjoying having somebody just run down to the end zone and see if he would throw it to him.

Our gold team of myself, Bob (after a bit of a layoff), Matt, Brian, & Jason couldn’t seem to get everything clicking in sync, especially on defense where we found ourselves getting to a lot of passes but not being able to either make the interception or knock down (re: Shane’s and Paul’s catches). Bridgette offered to let us go take cold showers in the women’s locker room…wait, I’m not sure if those two things are actually related or not.

Today’s game time temperatures should be approaching the 50’s with more sun so it promises to be another great day on the pitch. Looking forward to a great turnout before I take off all next week.

Muddy Monday

We’re only 2 weeks into January and really have hadn’t a long stretch of challenging winter weather but I’m encouraged by our 3 games and 39 people we’ve had come out so far. It was a great game of 7’s today. Welcome back Scott, good to see you. Soccer and basketball took the day off and we also got Doug and JQ. And while Leroy finished up his winter “break” at work with the Coast Guard last week, Carolyn is still with us as George Mason apparently doesn’t believe in school in January. Now that’s a J-term I can appreciate.

The pitch was a bit muddy today…I guess. I came into the locker room though having to carry my shoes in a Ziploc because I had played yesterday in Richmond on a completely grassless bog where my cleats were essentially useless but I wore them anyway and there was a coat of dried mud on them to start today’s game. But many of us were also in it today. I saw Carolyn diving for a catch across the end zone…or maybe that was the defensive play where she and Bridgette looked like a snowball picking up size as it goes downhill when they both hit the ground in pursuit of one throw. Jason fell straight back on another throw that was surely headed into his hands even though he was the defender. And so much so that Todd had stopped covering the deep guy and gold team got the first score of the game on a broken play.

Not all of us saw that play though. Remember the bit in the email this morning when I called the game about trying to start a few minutes earlier than we have been? Well, Brad apparently thought that was a personal affront to his civil freedoms and decided to not come out until 15 minutes later. So we, on the green team had taken our extra player advantage in George, the other late-comer, and didn’t do much with it.

It actually looked like we were gaining some reasonably approximation of a zone defense on a few plays as Paul was hustling up to get some good cup defense set. And it worked well for a while…or on some plays I guess. By the way…I noticed Mike that you were trying to exercise the “Phil” rule and swing the disc around hitting people on the arm to show that they might be in your “pivot zone”. A little clarification here may be in order. When you have a 6-foot plus wingspan or you’re able to pivot the length of a small child, you cede some of your privilege to that foul call. The defender gets to come close to you and you’re probably better off trying garlic, really strong onion or flatulence if you want to ward them off. We’re not letting you hit people with the disc anymore so just throw it already.

Brian seems to have ironed out most of the kinks of that reverse discus throw of his. It’s amazing what you can adapt to when you’re injured I guess. Now that Scott is back I can shift my missing Buzzards attention to other people. Eli, where in the world are you? I keep getting “No” responses from Tim. So much so that I wonder if he hasn’t set up an “Out of Office” rule on his email to anything Outlook sees from me. And Tom we haven’t seen you in a while though I did notice that you had RSVPd for Friday’s game which didn’t happen.

Okay everybody, don’t pass by too many opportunities to play. The weather could turn anytime (check out the 10-forecast…Thursday may be the turn day this week) so let’s take advantage while we can. Great, great turnout today!

http://bpuc.blogspot.com/

Wheat and Chaff

Some of the things I separate during my normal weeks….whites from the darks during laundry day, eggs, oil & vinegar when shaking up the Newman’s Own, Buzzards between green and gold, and yesterday…the hard core “we’ll play in anything” Buzzards from the “fair weather” fowl.

To be fair, I suspect there were others that would have played had they been there or were not in meetings but credit shall be given where it is due and I need to give a big shout out to Phil, Brad, Bob, JQ, George, Alec, Hollan, & Kevin who came out to play yesterday in by far the worst weather conditions of the year. It was about 47 or 48 degrees and raining…not just sprinkling but a full rain. We looked on the radar before we went out and we were on the edge of that dark green and yellow bands. Then about mid way through the game the wind started to blow as well.

None of that kept those Buzzards off the field yesterday. Bob & JQ were both nursing nagging injuries, Alec (our Maine native) didn’t have long pants or long sleeves on, Phil had no Phil had no hat and none of us had many dry spots even after the run out to the field but we played and had a great time!

We didn’t waste much time yesterday getting out either. Brad & I jogged out to the field in hopes that it might keep us warmer. Bob wondered if it wasn’t warmer standing still? Hmmmm, I’m not really sure about the scientific quality of that surmising but I guess it could be argued that if you’re wet and not causing the wind the blow harder against yourself, by running, that you might feel warmer. But my thinking was that keeping the blood moving and the core temperature up would be a good thing. So we through on the pinnies right away with not much thought about who was who’s team and just started playing.

Initially, we only had 7. “But Bill, you only call games when you have 8” you might contest. Yes, that’s normally true. And I did have 8 when I called the game…with a couple of other “maybes”. And usually I’m not one to throw anybody under the bus as things do come up (like Tom’s marathon meeting that started before 9 and still wasn’t over when we went out) but when we just get stood up because it was raining I feel the need for some manner of “public cyber flogging”. Hey Jeana, I tried to keep the Buzzards from hurling the “new player” and “girl” epithets around in disdain….okay, actually I joined in…but really. And you’re an Ultimate player from before too? We only cancel games for lightning…and then usually begrudgingly and amongst jeers that I should at least wait until somebody gets struck before I pack up the bag. Luckily JQ & George wandered out after we had gotten to the field and we had 9!

Speaking of packing up the bag….somebody please take those pinnies home today and wash them. I can’t imagine they are even dry yet from yesterday and secretly I’m glad I didn’t have to put one on today. But if they don’t get home, can you imagine what they will feel and smell like on Monday? Ewwwww!

Okay so everybody that came out yesterday…you get the AWB (All-Weather Buzzard) award and the satisfaction of knowing your zeal and gusto borders on insanity and that you are indeed Ultimate players!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Rodney Reunion Tour

“So with Rodney playing today, do we have to let him win?” was the question I got asked yesterday morning in preparation for the BPUC reunion game we had planned for him as he was going to be back in the building and hoped to play.

“No way” I said “Let’s just treat him like we always do…like our little sister”. I mean we didn’t want to make him feel unwelcome. I did notice though that JQ was making Rodney look deceptively fast early in the game zipping two passes into end zone corners where the defense wasn’t actually that badly beaten. Ah, handlers…sometimes they make you look good.

There seemed to be a variety of defenses being played yesterday. My team, overwhelmingly outvoted me and wanted to play zone to begin with. So Brad and Brian headed forward to play the cup with mid-play tutoring going on (which, oddly enough, seems to impact the effectiveness of the defense actually being played…not in a good way). Phil, Dennis & I roamed the middle and Bob played deep safety (he likes that position too much and jumps at the chance he gets to play it).

The green team seemed to be playing some bastardized version of pentagon and 1 or what I like to call 5 guys playing man and the 6th letting Brian run loose. After we found Brian for the 3rd or 4th open pass early in the game, I heard Todd shouting “Who in the world has Brian?” I’m not completely sure but when I saw JQ racing back and forth across the field as safety a la Bob, I figured he was the one who’d been cheating on the man defense.

I had a particularly tough time throwing yesterday due to the new defense being played on me. Scott was marking me with the “bump pivot” D. That’s when I’m trying to get him out of my shirt and I pivot around and he keeps bumping me. It’s legality clearly in question…I could picture Phil if he’d had to endure it, constantly rotating the disc around in front of his stomach to try and cry for more room…but the effectiveness of it could not be disputed. My handling sucked yesterday. Aside from a couple that I decided to just throw out of bounds and let come back in (and one of those got caught up in the tree), I was pretty much useless.

Several players deferred playing yesterday and said they’d be playing today. If that was your idea of fair weather Ultimate playing I might point out that you didn’t check your weather forecasts very well. Yesterday was almost perfect playing conditions with temperatures in the 50’s and almost no wind. Today will barely reach into the 50’s and there is 100% chance of rain. Oh, we’ll still play but for Alec & Jeana…I’ll be looking for you two.

And while I’m throwing people under the bus…er…uh…I mean…missing players who haven’t been out this week…that we usually see out there is…Jason, Paul, Brook? Are you guys here this week? We got George back out yesterday so I’ve taken him off the MIA list. Rachel, are you coming back out? How ‘bout some other former players who have really gone into the Witness Protection Program…MattD, Jorge, Bo, Eric B, Denise, Roz? Hey, don’t think I don’t know who’s on this list. Come on back out folks!

You know I sometimes mention the conversation on the way out or back from the pitch or in the locker room…they’re generally my most interesting of the day. Last week there was talk of loofahs, waxing, and quality whites (wine, not linens) that would have made you think you were at the spa and not the guy’s locker room. Yesterday, Kevin and I were comparing our driving lives that shared commonalities like 3-generation pickups, routes (29 & 95 respectively), some Va. State Trooper observations, and High School Musical 3 (okay we don’t share that but we talked about it). You don’t get this kind of renaissance intellectual and emotional stimulus in many other circles.

So, I’m thinking…what this White House transition team really needs is a lunchtime Ultimate game coordinator to keep everybody motivated and physically fit and…you know…informed.