The Phoenix rises...

Okay, despite what the blog entries would indicate, the Buzzards did survive the Summer Corporate League Season and actually represented very well as we finished in the Final 4. We also survived the scorching weather for a couple weeks after that and have made it to this week, which for disc players, has been close to idyllic. Temperatures in the 70s and 80’s, slight breeze, and low humidity.

We had a great game of 7 on 7 yesterday. One of the few big games we’ve had here at work over the last month. And we had a good game on Monday as well. We aren’t going to miss out on this weather. I want to first of all welcome out some of the new players this summer that I have been remiss in mentioning in the blog perhaps. Want to give a big Buzzard welcome to Dan, Eve, Joe, MattM, Ron, & Pat. Great to have you all as additions to our roster. Dan comes to us as a referral from MattC who also came back to us on his return to HQ as a civilian. Matt your usual “finders fee” is in the mail. Eve comes to us from academia, she’s a local professor of International Studies (I think that’s what you told me) and a “neighbor” of Brad. We won’t hold that against you. Joe is a former player here at HQ back for a 2nd tour. He remembers the days of playing with the soccer goals, and uh, let’s say when this club used to play the “contact version” of Ultimate. He recognized the name of Lindsay and for those of you who remember the Mallard, that is really all you need to know about Joe. To his credit, be blended into this evolved state of disc here seamlessly and I didn’t seem him foul anybody. MattM is a disc player transferring in this summer and a welcome addition to the growing stable of handlers here. And finally Ron joins us admitting his experience has been in some bastardized version of Ultimate/Frisbee football probably resembling more what Joe remembers being played here. Pat is our newest addition, just joining us yesterday for the first time, dragged out by Paul. Let me just say that this is two summers running when we have perhaps added more talent than we have lost which of course is the essential key to this club’s survival.

That is not to say that we haven’t missed the players that have left us. And so as our way of saying so and saying thank you we just want to give a shout out to Phill, Scott, Hollan, Will, Mark, MattP, Swinny, Travis, Rodney, JasonK, JasonN, George, JQ, Alec, Leroy, Kashyap, and hell, even Lindsay. I’m sure I’m missing some folks. Please forgive me and if you’re actually reading this, drop me a line and we’ll get you special mention and maybe even dig up an old pic to post.

Back to yesterday’s game of 7’s. Great to have Eli back out with us. It had been a while since we played with this many people and the early part of the game looked like it as both teams struggled to find spacing. So when you’re having trouble finding horizontal space you sometimes look vertical and it was good to have Dan on the blue team yesterday as he made a couple nice grabs up above the heads of some defenders. Todd, for the orange also had the idea of getting vertical a couple times but then I wondered what Erick was whispering at him as he’d run toward Todd just as he was jumping and Todd didn’t seem convinced his legs weren’t going to be taken out from under him and short-armed both throws. But then he finally found some space on the edges and made a couple of really nice leading throws on cuts across the end zones to Kevin and Dennis where both times a defender was pretty close on the heels.

The rest of the crew yesterday was Bob, Steve, Matt, Paul, Pat, Bridgette, Ron, and yours truly. It was great weather and a great game. A couple of promotions to celebrate – Bridgette & Todd, congrats! Bridgette says hers may hamper her Ultimate playing availability so I’m not sure that’s a great thing for us but it’s good for her. Todd’s thankful the upcoming wedding to another adopted Summer Buzzard, Reagan now has another income source. Reagan, if you’re reading, I’d certainly try and get an extension on the honeymoon with this as consideration.

For the new folks playing and reading this via the blog, please check us out on Facebook. I can’t actually add the hyperlink from here at work since our LAN police have that site blocked. Use your iPhone though if you can’t wait until you get home.

Great to be back up here. Will try to be better about keeping you amused, bemused, confused or just used. I only want you for your flick.

Pull!

BUZZARDS LOSE SEMI-FINAL TO GREENSPIN 15-5.

The Corporate League Buzzards' (Bill, Brad, Bridgette, Brook, Devon, Jason, Jeff, Karl, Kevin, Leroy, Meaghan, Reagan, and Todd) summer 2009 Corporate League season ended last Monday with a 5-15 loss to Greenspin, the team from the Federal Reserve. Greenspin’s tenacious defense prevented the Buzzards from making the second & third passes that rack up the big yardage, and their completion-prone offense moved the disc quickly and well. The Buzzards finished their inaugural season with a respectable 8 wins and 4 losses (counting playoff games), and made it all the way to the round of four.

Looking back on the season, we’ve got a lot to be proud of. I certainly appreciate every Buzzard’s dedication to the team. The RosterManager schedule pages are full of “On my way up from Norfolk, but should be in time for the game,” or “I’ll be there unless I miss my connecting flight.” Many people would use jet lag as an excuse; we use it as a reason for being early.

Thanks also for letting go of some other-than-Spirited play that we saw this season. We cannot prevent someone else from being a jerk, but we do decide whether to rise to the bait. In a recent game, one of our opponent’s players was complaining to me about other people complaining from the sidelines about him being a jackass. First, if he wasn’t such a jackass, people wouldn’t talk about him so much. But second and more importantly, immediately after his rant, two of his teammates approached me and apologized for his ‘tude, and we all got along fine after that. This certainly would not have happened if anyone on our side had “responded in kind.” Teams often consist of fourteen nice folks and one jerk, and running into “that guy” certainly brings out the worst in me, but I’m really proud of the way the Buzzards handled poor-Spirited players all-season.

My personal Thanks to Brad, for setting up the RosterManager site (a huge data-entry job) and for doing a lot of the other grunt-work associated with running a team, to Bill, for taking over the catering (we didn’t always play our best, but we always ate well), and to everyone else who paced off fields, worked the grill, or brought goodies.

Here’s something the Buzzards do that no other team does: we show up on time. It sounds silly, but it works. In at least two games (including both of our playoff wins), the fact that we were ready to play at 6:30 meant that our opponents had to start with whoever they happened to have around. The PPC Complexificationizers started with three women and four men because that’s what they had. In the Wesleyan game, at least one of their best players didn’t play until the second half. And because of the way Ultimate halves work (by score, not by time) it is much harder to come back once you are behind.

I have no rules clarifications or strategerical lessons for this post. I offer one observation, which occurred to me while setting an offense this season. Being a handler is not about having amazing throwing skills, it is about having the judgment to only throw passes you will complete. Not can complete (on a good day, no wind, dry disc, no mark…), but will complete, every time. Disc gets thrown, disc gets caught, repeat. We have about half-a-dozen budding handlers out there, and if my saying it saves you the twenty years it took me to realize it, you’re welcome.

Thanks again to all of you for a great season, and I’ll see you at McNair!

BUZZARDS OVERCOME WESLEYAN 15-6, to Advance to the Round of Four!

If you want to know what a patient dump/swing/repeat/repeat/... Zone Offense looks like, contact Wesleyan Corporate C league (the real Wesleyan, from Waterbury, CT), because they showed it to us all night long. The Buzzards (Bill, Bridgette, Devon, Jeana, Jeff VoB, Karl, Kevin, Leroy, Meaghan, Paul, Reagan and Todd) pulled ahead early, but Wesleyan, a team of great heart and fantastic Spirit, did not give up and played a much tougher game than the final score suggests. It was a lot of fun playing you guys, and we definitely look forward to seeing you again.

One of the things that made the game so much fun was that we were able to resolve rules questions in the Spirit of fun and fair play. Here’s a rule thing that I had wrong(!). If you get fouled in the end zone, there are two possibilities: either you caught the disc and had it stripped out of your hands (AKA Bridgette, last Monday) or you went up for the disc and were interfered with and didn’t make the catch (AKA Todd). If either of these fouls is contested, the disc goes back to the thrower. If uncontested, Bridgette gets the disc at the spot of the foul and scores a point. Todd gets possession of the disc at the spot of the foul, and it becomes “live”, but he must carry it out to the nearest spot on the goal line and play from there. “Live” means the game is on, no need to check the disc in again, play it like you just picked up an out of-bounds throw. Kudos to Wesleyan for knowing the rule and to Captain Natalie for not rolling her eyes at my ignorance. See the 11th Edition Rules FAQ page for where that all came from. FYI, if you make the catch while airborne, but are pushed out-of-bounds, you are Bridgette, not Todd.

A fond Buzzard farewell for the next two weeks to Paul St. Pierre, departing for Norway for a well deserved rest. He’s leaving behind a legacy of second- and third-chance catches and a textbook on how to make popper cuts. You couldn't ask for a better send-off than to score the game winning point to advance to the semi-finals. You will be missed, we'll keep you updated on how it goes.

The thing that made our Zone offense work and that Wesleyan struggled with was moving the disc up the field after a swing. If you played wing during this game (Leroy, Jeff, Karl, Devon, Kevin, Bill) I’m talking about you, shuttin’ em down. And speaking of closing the door on the offense...

Reagan, you are tougher, per linear foot, than anyone else on the team. Yes, we turned it over too often in the second half. Many of those were the Buzzards trying something a little different for the purpose of player development. This is a good thing, but it still meant 15 minutes of cup for you.

In fact, all of the Buzzard women have made us proud all season long (under "budding handlers," see Jeana, Kelly; under “Defense wins games” see Mariam, Meaghan, Rachel; under “Just tougher than you,” see Annette, Bridgette). You are the stubbornest disc chasers in the league, and every time the Buzzards get the disc on the opponent’s own twenty-yard line, it’s the cup that put us there.

Cup, if you start flagging because the offense isn’t getting it done, you have two tools: when next on offense, call for a timeout. Only the person with the disc can call for a timeout (Rule VI.B.4), so communicate with that person that you need a break. This is something we as a team should have done better to support the cup in this game. In 11 games we’ve had 44 timeouts and called maybe three.

The other thing you can do in the cup is play the passing lanes, not the distance. At ten feet from the disc (the minimum legal distance) you cut off a lot of passing lanes automatically. But if you are unable to keep up with the movement, put yourself in the lane where they want to throw: cut off either the up-field popper or the swing. If you cut off that lane, you buy yourself time to get into position.

The Michael and Janet Jackson Award for Wednesday, August 5th goes to Devon and Leroy for sweet moves and possibly being the same person. Speed in the backfield means we could play the 3-3-1 zone (as opposed to 3-2-2) and really pressure the disc. Here’s some math: Which takes longer? A disc thrown from midfield traveling up the sideline or our deep man coming from the center of the goal line to get the block? I’m not saying what answer I put down, but my grade was 15/6.

The reason you shouldn’t both be in at the same time is because its considered poor Spirit to get the block, then have another defender make a play on the disc, and then, after a commercial break, have the intended receiver appear. Also, somebody’s gotta throw the thing.

A special wave of the feathery wing to our cheering section: season-ticket-holder Jack, mom Marianne (not Jack's mom. C'mon, keep up!), wife Mariam, sig-o’s Mary and Angela and future roommate Danielle (“She’s filling in for Ian. No, wait, I mean…”). We should have brought those bleachers from Bluemont with us. First ten fans get to take a Buzzard home with them. No home for you, Jeff. Get back to the NAC.

Our next game is Monday, August 10th at the Polo Fields (2B). Game at 6:30, cookout at 5:45. I’m not certain who our opponent will be (apparently, google docs is that hard to use), but best bet is our Sligo nemesis, Disc of Enlightenment. Bring your “A” game.

BUZZARDS DEFEAT PPC COMPLEXIFICATIONIZERS, 15-7, and Advance to the Round of Eight

Show up on time and put it up deep. That pretty much defined the Buzzards' key to early success (taking half at 8-3) in their first ever playoff win against PPC Complexificationizers, a company team of consultants who consult on the things that their company does, which is consulting (we think they may be ninjas).

The game started promptly at 6:30, possibly a first in Ultimate history, and PPC took advantage of a careless turnover at our own end zone to draw first blood. But the Buzzards (Todd, Reagan, Paul, Leroy, Kevin, Kelly, Karl, Jeff, Brook, Bridgette and Bill) stepped up, taking the game to 2-2, and then on a 6-1 run to half.

A big Buzzard “Welcome Back” to Devon Clark, Leroy Posey’s evil twin brother. Together, the twins scored probably 70% of the Buzzard Points on deep throws to the end zone. You can tell which one is evil because of the evil one always has facial hair (“I’ve got sensitive skin!”) and the good one reads the Washington Post.

Some more Complexificationizers showed up by halftime (including someone to make the twins work for the disk in the end zone), and the Buzzards gave up three quick points getting adjusted to PPC's zone defense. At 8-6, the Buzzards decided it was time to get serious, and eight points later it was 15-7 and “Good game, blue”. The second half was classic Buzzard flow, with nice popper cuts from Paul, Bridgette, Reagan, and Kelly, and relaxed, high-percentage handling from Todd, Karl, Jeff, Bill and Kevin.

Plays of the game (tonight on “the Ocho”):
Bill “maybe if I lay out it’ll fix my back” Putnam, for digging the disk like the volleyball powerhouse he is.
Kelly “Garot is French for 'Handler', boys” Garot, for not being afraid to put up the deep stuff.
Paul “Popper” St. Pierre, for making the cup look over their shoulders and cry one big teardrop, like at the end of that Prince video.
And Bridgette “strip me again and I will gut you like a fish” Barchek, for showing Jack that Mom is NOT to be messed with.

A rules clarification: Contact which affects your ability to make a play on the disk is a foul. In short: shoving on the way up is a foul and should be called, shoving on the way down is poor Spirit and should be avoided. On a receiving foul, if the foul is contested, the disk goes back to the thrower. If uncontested, the disk goes to the fouled player.

From the 11th Edition rules :
XVI.H.3.b.(1). If a player contacts an opponent while the disc is in the air and thereby interferes with that opponent’s attempt to make a play on the disc, that player has committed a receiving foul. Some amount of incidental contact before, during, or immediately after the attempt often is unavoidable and is not a foul.

but...

XVI.H.2. Contact resulting from adjacent opposing players simultaneously vying for the same unoccupied position, is not in itself a foul.

see also...

XVI.H.3.b.(1) The Principle of Verticality: All players have the right to enter the air space immediately above their torso to make a play on a thrown disc. If non-incidental contact occurs in the airspace immediately above a player before the outcome of the play is determined (e.g., before possession is gained or an incomplete pass is effected), it is a foul on the player entering the vertical space of the other player.

And, of course, pushing an airborne player out of the end zone is a no-no.

Things to think about for next time:
The Zone offense is all about smooth flow. The Buzzards did an excellent job of not forcing bad passes, but the dump-swing-repeat could flow a little faster. Remember, the mission is to run the cup ragged so that they are out of position when you want to go deep. The middle handler’s primary look is a quick continuation to the swing. He’s got about ¾ of a second before the cup gets there. If the middle handler dallies, then the swings are going to start looking for arcing passes across the width of the field. This is low-percentage play and exactly what the cup wants. Keep is simple and keep it moving.

On man defense, if your man is playing deep, cover him deep. But if he is playing middle or short, don’t be afraid to get between him and the disc. If they put up a deep throw, our own deep cover will be there to back you up. Don’t be afraid to commit up close, cut off the passing lanes and get the layout D.

Be proud of your performance, Buzzards. You played tough D against a team with good throws. You played smart O, and forced them to play your game. And you advanced to the round of 8.

Our next game is Wednesday, August 5th at the Polo Fields #1B. Our opponent is either "Air it Out" or Wesleyan. Game at 6:30, cookout at 5:45. See you there!

Is that a wet towel on me?

It’s here! You know that feeling you get when you walk outside and you feel like you’re swimming wherever you walk. When, no matter how leisurely your pace, everything you’re wearing is drenched by the time you get where you’re going? Any of you who are familiar with the D.C. area during the summer are familiar with this phenomenon called “humidity”.

As a native Northern Virginian I grew up with this and really thought nothing of it. I mean it’s what drove me away from other sports with lots more clothing and equipment like football. I remember that first summer of pee wee and having all those pads on and long pants and heavy jersey and just thinking there have to be better ways to have fun….I was 8 was playing for the Cardinals with all my other friends in Elementary school and though many of those guys went on to high school stardom at Gar-Field and Woodbridge Senior High Schools respectively, I don’t have much regret about not sticking with football. But I digress…other than the football experiment I don’t recall minding the humidity too much.

But I have to say, this July has been pretty darn nice…right up until about 3 days ago. This week, the humidity has moved up into the 90% range, the temperatures have hovered in and around 90 and evening thunderstorms have visited the area. This is summer as we metro D.C. area denizens have come to love it.

On the Ultimate pitch it means that we are in the season where the pinnies need to be taken home and washed almost every night. Please feel free to step up and volunteer for this duty occasionally. I’m pretty happy with my new Bosch washer and Dryer but I just feel funny saying that, I have a laundry room full of stray leaves that have found their way into our mesh bag, and it would just be nice to share the load (pun intended) once in a while.

We’ve had a couple decent games already this week all things considered. Thanks to those who have come out so far. July is typically a tough month to call games. Lots of people on leave, transfers just settling in or having left us, and oh, did I mention it’s humid. We want to give a bit Buzzard welcome to Marcia joining us for the first time yesterday. She’s newly arrived from Port Arthur, TX. Yes she’s the player we traded MattP for, no word yet on what type of towels she uses. Matt, did you leave her any princess motifs in the office?

Kelly was the star of yesterday’s game. She and Todd worked some great give and go drives late in the game and she make a couple great leading throws for scores. Great throws were not to be found much on the blue side as myself, Kevin, & Erick did not give Marcia a good first impression of the quality of game she can sometimes find out here.

Our theory of trying to force mark worked on and off. I remember having a really strong mark on Bob at one point and taking away the backhand completely and forcing flick. Then Bob finally relented and threw a flick that defied physics for half its flight, finally flattened out, never got more than about 2 feet off the ground and sailed into Todd’s hands for a score. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him make that throw out here before.

Low throws abounded though…ask Paul how it was affecting his pulls yesterday. Okay, so the air was a bit heavy. Did I mention the humidity? Marcia told me this wasn’t really even hot compared to Port Arthur. The flip side of that “truth is relative to the perception of the individual” theory (Mr. Bunn, 11th grade, U.S. History) is that Meaghan last week when the weather was still relatively comfortable (for around here) wondered if she hadn’t been transferred to the face of the sun. Of course she was coming from Seattle.

Welcome to D.C. everyone, welcome to summer, and just keep plugging along. Your playing in this will pay huge dividends when fall rolls around. You’ll feel like a seasoned tri-athlete…okay well at least like an 8-year old pee wee football player.

Pull!

Buzzards Throw One Away to Disc of Enlightenment

The “Disc of Enlightenment” defense made a strong showing Monday, aided by the Buzzard’s unquenchable desire to throw the disc away. The Buzzards (Brad, Bridgette, Brook, Karl, Kevin, Leroy, Mariam, Meaghan, Paul, & Todd) played hard but fell to a team with good spirit, good throws, and lots of hustle, 15-7.

Spectacular marking by DoE may entice some Buzzards to practice throwing against a mark. Here's a good, three person drill: http://www.menalto.com/ultimate/view_play.php?play_id=197.

Something to think about as well: in the first half, we forced flick and got outscored 8-3. In the first eight points of the second half, we forced middle and went 4-4.

This next paragraph actually causes me pain to write. Todd pointed out that we never really took advantage of our vertical game. In other words, we didn't throw a lot of overhand- and high floaty passes and rely on our height and athleticism to bring the disc in. This is an area we left unexplored; maybe we shouldn't have.

In other news, food did not happen, largely because I am a slacker who didn’t feel like hauling the grill up the hill, and also because we’d have had to prepare and roast a child, since there was no food for the grill. But we had plenty of children, including Bridgette’s Jack and Mariam & Kevin’s Grace and Sam, plus some other little poison-ivy magnets on the other team. Welcome kids! Each week we designate a teammate to forget that you are there and talk like a dirty sailor, so be sure to bring a notebook and an unabridged dictionary.

Stay turned for more craziness. The Playoff schedule should be coming out tonight(!). Right now the schedule shows one “play-in” game (no idea what that is) for two as-yet-unnamed teams this Thursday July 30th and then single elimination games Mon/Wed/Mon/Wed per roster manager.

So, lessons for next time: Practice throwing against a mark. Visualize making smart, energetic cuts. And let's bring food, or at least snacks- 6:30 is a long way away from lunch. The the playoffs are next week: We’re 6-3, and I imagine we're gonna some of those “3" again before long.

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.