New player, new energy, new rule clarification

submited by Bill

Well, the team distribution went a little better today, especially given the intangible of a new player. Welcome out Dennis! Nice throwing & catching…and you run too? Careful, you might come to like this sport. *** Buzzard Disclaimer *** May cause unusual addictive behaviors like coming in on leave to play during lunch, rescheduling meetings to end by 11 or not start until after 1300, and purchasing inordinate amounts of CG logo clothes in the Exchange when you’ve forgotten your workout gear.

Todd, presumably inspired that people on his team were actually moving today and playing some semblance of defense had some interesting spurts of running, layouts and semi layouts. You shouldn’t have to actually layout on a pass in the flat when you’re by yourself but when I’m throwing, you never know.

Of course, not all my throws were as suspect. I did manage to land two hammers for scores. The first to Tom on a jump ball type of play…by the way, speaking of jump balls and Tom…c’mon you can all admit it, the first mental image you get is of somebody getting laid out on the ground right? Well, I counted no less than 4 plays today that Boom Boom made on defense, going up and not hitting anybody (at least not with foul quality contact). Nice D…you looking for a new nickname?

The real contact came on another play. The first time on these Ultimate fields where I’ve actually been sincerely afraid. I had gone up in the air for a throw from Dennis and then felt my body starting to get horizontal to the ground on the way down. With no idea what was landing first, I fell right on my back but amazingly seemed to disperse the contact enough through the rest of the body and survived. To be fair, we hadn’t really explained the strategy of not making your teammate jump for the disc when Shadow is closing in.

The green team actually played the way it should have with a man advantage early on in the game with a couple 3-0 scoring runs. Tom’s aforementioned D, Dennis enjoying the advantage of new guy expectations, and Todd, Eli & I actually being able to handle the disc for 3 or 4 passes without a turnover.

But the gold team held its own nicely and in fact made comeback at a surprising time in the game (the end) for a team short a player. 10 yards and cut, 10 yards and cut. Hollan got loose several times on short slants in the end zone where Phil & Thunder hit him with scoring passes. Frank worked some nice give and goes…and not to whine but just for some rule clarification…you can’t make a forward pass while taking forward momentum steps. They call that traveling Buzzards and it’s against one of the few rules and actually is a rule, unlike the 12-count stall turnover that Lon was looking for yesterday.

A good way to practice this is when you catch it, plant your foot (just 1) and pivot on it. Once you do that, remind yourself that you can not pick that foot up until you actually let go of the disc.

Scott, these are the kinds of rules and strategy sessions we’ll need to have before we actually head to an organized game against another team that knows the rules.

Running on empty...it's too late for me

Submitted by Bill

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheelsLooking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields.

I could hear Jackson Browne’s melodic Southern California style ringing in my ears yesterday as I returned to the field after more than a week away and struggled to find my wind. Of course, that wasn’t the worst of it. In my misrepresentation of my own running potential I must have evaluated some others on our green team similarly and when Todd lined up for the first pull and looked down the line to see who would be “running” with him he must have been discouraged not only to find he was a player short but that there weren’t a lot of chasers there on his side.

After the game, Phil remarked “Well, you had a lot of handlers…” and to be sure we had a very nice team of handlers yesterday. Of course, the handlers can’t just all hang back and throw to themselves in the middle of the field all day long and our inability to cut and slash and run vertically caused some problems yesterday. The lack of running was not limited to the offense and we let a lot of runners by us on the defensive side as well.

I called the game with 8 responses yesterday and then Wings came out after we secretly sabotaged the football game by having his boss call a meeting and then excusing himself at the last minute…okay, we’re not quite that conniving…or smart for that matter. So we had 9 confirmed on the way down to the locker room. I saw Swinny as I was leaving and that made 10 and then got out to the field and Paul had wandered out as well. That gave us the 6 on 5 game and for some reason I thought putting Phil, Swinny, Paul & the “sneaky fast” trio of Bob, MattC & Wings on one side seemed equitable.

Myself, Tim, Thunder & Shadow are more “bursty fast” which is to say we have bursts of speed surrounded by a lot of, um, “field stagnation” leaving Todd to wonder whether to cover Phil or Swinny each time down and playing the odds that Tim or I might be able to stay with the other for a play or two. Even when Lon wandered out and gave us and even 6 on 6, we seemed to have problems tying 3 or 4 completed passes together or marking all our men at one time.

Give gold credit for realizing this and making several nice short pass drives up the field and playing some good D. I told Bob on one trip down the field that usually I could just toss the disc up and count Todd being able to out hustle a defender to the disc but after watching a lazy pass into the end zone get quickly double teamed and drop to the ground I realized that I’d have to do a better job placing the disc.

You know each game seems to bring something unique to the field and yesterday was no exception. While setting up the cones we noticed a nice surprise toward the middle of one side of the field…a pile of horse crap! So, we deployed a couple extra cones and had the added bonus of aromatherapy. I think I may need to switch to jasmine, juniper berries or patchouli today because yesterday’s scent was too indicative of the way I played.

I want to take a minute to offer a hearty Buzzard farewell to another regular. Yesterday was Travis’ last day at HQ, and in fact, in the Coast Guard. As one of the few guys who could actually run with Swinny on a regular basis, you’ll be sorely missed. We wish you the best as you head to MIT to get more geekier. We hope to see you on their Team Page in the future.

Good idea of the day ~ Phil making sure to have a 120’x40’ yard field mowed at his vineyard for the annual Ultimate Vine Invitational ~ “Now, pulling for the Shiraz team, Thunder”… “Oh, what a layout by Swinny of team Reisling” Quick, respond now with your favorite grape and start recruiting your players

It’s good to be back Buzzards.

Doctor my eyes
Tell me what is real
I hear their cries
Just saying "It's too late for me"

Penniless, no Kash, just broke…

submitted by Bill (recently ressurected from school work)...

No, I’m not describing the current economic woes in the Chief Buzzard’s life…even as gas skyrocketed above $3.30 a gallon which you can really feel when you drive 250 miles to and from work a day. Have I mentioned that Bush (Arbusto Energy, Spectrum, Harken Energy, big Oil) + Cheney (Haliburton) = Exxon/Mobil Corporation record profits? Not, that I’m bitter or anything.

Actually, it’s the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club that was “penniless” on Friday. Shadow copped to having separated the pinnies from the rest of the gear the game before. Actually, well intentioned, as BPUC and Ultimate, in general, instills the kind of camaraderie and esprit de corps that makes everybody want to share in the responsibility and function of this well-oiled machine…but in the future gang, let's keep the pinnies with the gear (they are washed and cleaned for today).

Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic….In fact, the well oiled machine could use a some new parts. I mentioned no Kash. Friday we said goodbye to one of our regulars over the last year, Kash. Well, actually Friday was his last day but we haven’t seen him in about 3 weeks as he’s been job hunting presumably. A couple more of our regulars or quasi-regulars, Travis, MattC, & Sniper will all be on their way out soon as well. Couple that with Mallard’s move into the Witness Relocation Program and a solid part of the BPUC core, over the last year is or will be soon, gone.

What that means for the rest of you is that you need to get your best recruitment lines out now. I’m up for any and all ideas…cookouts, disc raffles, cube to cube visits, flyers, dunk tanks, skills fair…but we need some more players. We currently have about 50 names on the email distribution list but less than 20 of those have been out over the last few months

Okay, starting now, any current Buzzard who brings somebody new out that plays at least 3 times with us will get their own brand new 175 gram disc for themselves and the newbie.

The play the last few weeks should not scare anybody off. We look like we’ve been stumbling out of hibernation for the most part. There have been flashes of brilliance here and there buried under a lot of mediocrity. I saw Scott go head first last week in his first ever layout. Swinny and Todd continue to run most of us into the ground…by the way did we mention that Swinny won our Buzzard NCAA tournament bracket? Phil had his "best" and "3rd best" days ever...at least that's what he told his 2nd and 4th best friends...

There have also been a bunch of nagging little injuries lately. Please remember to stretch before and after as you need and act your age….no, I mean your real age with stress levels, cholesterol, blood pressure, and diet all taken into account.

Have some cool weather today but should be nice and then warming up through the week. No game on Thursday…there is a Papal visit planned for Nationals Stadium and much as I’d like to wander over and get a little holy water thrown on some of our Ultimate gear, I’ve been encouraged to stay away from HQ that day, as I’m sure some of you have as well.

Play nice and practice that next new throw…you know, hammer, off the head, bouncing through 5 arms, score!

Pull!

Finally...a dozen!

~ submitted by Bill

After about a week and a half of pretty nice weather but pretty sparse numbers (Travis & I got stuck on the short end of 2 on 3 game last week) we finally broke some people out of their offices yesterday…6 on 6!!!! It was upper 50’s, overcast, very light breeze…perfect day for Ultimate.

And the game was good. Seemed like a lot of running to me which you would normally think would be kind of the opposite when you have so many players. We may have been on a slightly smaller field yesterday also as we set up east to west instead of the normal north to south direction. Welcome to “the new guy”, Jay. Did anybody get contact info for him so I can add him to the distribution list? We were a man short yesterday on green when he came up to the field and asked to play.

I know the other team hated to tell him to put on a green pinnie because he was easily the tallest guy on the field when he walked on. And I know MattP would normally have been able to keep up with him but with his bad hammy, his vertical leaping is considerably hampered.

Speaking of leaping…did anybody catch Todd’s first few attempts at that yesterday? It was like he was hearing a different rhythm music than the rest of us and constantly going off the wrong foot. I think he mumbled some excuse about a volleyball tournament last weekend and a tender quad muscle but for those of us that are used to seeing Todd above our head, it was somewhat comical. He finally found his footing later on and was able to go up and grab a hammer throw from me in the end zone for an impressive score.

I mentioned Wings’ bad hammy…by the way if you saw that leg…it was ugly…but he managed to slip free for a couple scores that I noticed yesterday. Really not sure how that happened. He’s been studying Shadow’s elusive end zone camping apparently. The rest of gold managed some nice short passing drives yesterday. Swinny, Jason, MattC, Shadow & Hollan (who by the way I’m nicknaming “Ink” as soon as I get his ok…dude has some nice artwork) worked with Wings and gave them the edge for most of the game.

The green team of Todd, Bill, Bob, Travis, Conrad & Jay just couldn’t seem to get any consistency most of the game though they did figure out that offense was much easier when they were playing decent defense and made a few pretty good hustle plays for scores. But there were not a lot of long scoring drives for green yesterday.

March Madness begins today. The Buzzards have a friendly little pool going which, as of this writing has 7 participants, Scott, Todd, Ink, Bob, Swinny, Wings, & myself. I must say that for the most part the picks are fairly conservative. I’m in 3 different pools this year and there just aren’t a lot of upsets being picked. Now, I will mention that Swinny inexplicably has Wazzu (Washington St.) coming out of an East bracket where most of the smart money is either on Carolina or Tennessee, in fact the Buzzards were split on that one. And Bob has the bigger and crazier pick of Gonzaga coming out of the Midwest. But really, that may be the most open bracket and it wouldn’t surprise me to see one of a few teams emerge (not Gonzaga though). Our consensus pick was Kansas with Georgetown and Wisconsin also getting mention. The South also seems to be up for grabs even with a team (Memphis) with only 1 loss in that bracket. The Tigers were the consensus pick but not convincingly so with only 3 of us going that way. Two Buzzards picked Pittsburg to come out of that bracket and 2 others chose Texas. In the west though we unanimously chose UCLA as the Final 4 participant.

So right now, at 0634, there is still over 5 hours until tip off. You still have time to submit brackets.

Today’s forecast: This quote from the weather folks “A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WIND GUSTS OF 45 MPH OR HIGHER ARE EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION.”

I don’t know if we have any “high profile vehicles” in our Ultimate club but I don’t know of any of us who can throw in 45 mph winds. We may take today off.

Old guys holding their own...

Sunny day, new players, 5 on 4…good day for Buzzards Ultimate.

We continue to enjoy the spring-like weather even though we’re still technically in winter. Thanks to MattP for selling Ultimate to his Flag Football corps on days they don’t play. We got some cross-over yesterday as Hollan came out and joined us. Welcome! And not to blow too much smoke up…well anyway, one of the better Ultimate debuts we’ve seen in a while (once he realized 10 seconds is a long time)…dude can run!

Speaking of runners, who was the ringer that came in at halftime? Rumor has it that was the office mate (re:boss) of Scott, Phil & Kash. Well, first off, congrats for being the best represented office on the Ultimate field and maybe in fitness activities in general. Secondly, and maybe Lon, aka “39” said it best “Why does the extra player get to go to the side with the young guys?”.

Of course, the green team, pre-qualifying for AARP yesterday, of 39, Bob, Bill, & CaptK had one of their best points against the extra-manned team by shredding their defense with short passes up the middle for an early score in the 2nd half. But the extra (and fresh) legs took their toll and gold pulled away towards the end.

We saw one of the best layouts of the season yesterday by Phil catching up to a disc that looked like it was sailing away from him for a one-handed fully extended grab. Well done!

Oh, speaking of the 10 seconds…We had one turnover yesterday on a stall count and were an "open mouth words about to come out" away from a 2nd one as the gold team decided to exercise all their time yesterday…or maybe the old guys were actually playing good D. By the way, because it doesn’t happen very often and we want to recognize the participants in that play, Bill got the stall turnover on Scott.

So Buzzards, it’s March Madness time and I’m a bit of a college basketball fan so look for my invite to a little online bracket challenge. If you did not get one it might be due to a couple reasons. I wasn’t sure about your email address (if you didn’t have a .uscg.mil address I wasn’t sure about using it ~ CaptK), you don’t actually come out and play with us so I may not really know you very well and didn’t want to bother you. If you think I’ve made an error and just plain left you out, send me an email, plead your case and I’ll reconsider my invitation list.

Going to be a great day today. We have a volunteer photographer so you have the potential (if Scott knows how to work a zoom better than Shadow) of seeing your photo up on the blog soon.

Busy News Cycle...

~ submitted by Bill

A lot of things in the news yesterday! You know the Mayflower Hotel, Mary Ann caught with the Mary Jane, Mississippi voters heading to the polls, Madonna headed to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame…Mmmmmmm good.

I can see where you might have missed the return of great Ultimate weather. Perhaps that was the reason we could only draw 7 out of their cubicles on the best weather day we’ve had in months.

The green team, playing a man short yesterday played a very spirited game. Phil kind of assumed a new role (for him) of handler and managed some nice give and go drives with Shadow while also discovering a new weapon…a sliding (and therefore previously running) Scott making two fabulous catches yesterday. On one play that Phil was actually the recipient in the end zone, we had the best collision of the day as I was closing from the other side of the field on him and sent him tumbling, with disc in hand, across the back of the end zone.

Another end zone play for gold saw Todd jumping way up in the air about 5 seconds before he needed to, hoping to avoid a collision with the sneaky yet impact-ful Frank. Bill & Todd both had loads of trouble throwing yesterday…well, really I just wanted some company in that sentence but it was basically just me…my excuse…it’s the first game we’ve played with winds under about 15 mph in several weeks.

Speaking of several weeks. That’s how long it had been since we’d seen Jason who made it back out on the field today. Wings volunteered “It’s only been a week since I played and you aren’t any more rusty than I am”. We generally found our most success when all four of us touched the disc.

Today is supposed to be even a tad warmer than yesterday but there are a lot of people unavailable this week for playing and I’m shaking my head in disbelief that we might not get enough to play.

Hey you new folks, or very sporadic players…today is your day. Come on out, the weather will be great, you can get back into the game, maybe even get your picture taken for the blog. Really, it beats sitting in the cubicle, you gotta believe me on that.

Pull!