The Mehmet Curse

After mentioning it a few posts back, I thought a fun topic to explore today would be my curse of playing awful ultimate in front of Mehmet. For those of you not familiar with the Ottawa ultimate scene, Mehmet (aka the Almighty Mahatma, the Great Kamasutra, Senor Sailor Suit, etc.) plays on a touring team out of Ottawa, and coordinates the indoor intermediate development (IID) league in the winter. Since there's a low probability of him ever reading this, I'll be honest and say he's one of the "smartest" ultimate players in the city. His knowledge and skills are comparable to any top player in Ottawa, he's a dedicated volunteer, and he's got great "spirit" (that dying concept that I'll address down the road).

Strangely, the first time I met Mehmet, he showed up as a random sub for Disco Fever last summer. I had no idea who the hell he was. I remember having difficulty pronouncing his name, and looking him off while handling (in my defense, he's not the type who showcases his skills in warm-up). Not knowing who he was, I proceeded to play my "normal" game, and did quite well throwing a few long hucks, working the disc up the field using the short game with Chris, and only failing to complete a handful of throws into the wind. After the game, when I put 2 and 2 together (a daunting task for a CMA), I felt awful. Mainly because I missed an opportunity to give the disc to a better handler, who was the coordinator of the league I wanted to play in that coming winter.

The Mehmet curse officially started in a PROUF fall league game, when my team, the 1 and 15 Bert & Ernies were facing Mehmet's team who were near the top of the non-existent standings. Since Mehmet had replied when I sent him my IID application saying he was looking forward to seeing me play I was nervous (and surprised he remembered the guy that basically played keep away from him that summer). In the back of mind, I knew my game had evolved, and wanted to show him that I could "handle handling" (har har) in IID. However, with windy conditions, being full of nerves, and with team-mates not always providing me with a dump, I ended up playing a stinker of a game. How bad was it? My personal high-light was a full field strike I made on a misthrown toss by one of my team-mates. The next day at work I got an email from Senor Sailor Suit saying I played ok and advising me against constantly throwing long (moi?). I didn't think much of my IID chances after his email since he seemed to be more interested in recruiting one of my team-mates to play IID (Aaron – who is a MUCH better player than me).

In PROUF, since some teams choose to play double headers, Mehmet often seemed to be lurking on the sidelines during my games. As if on cue, as soon as I saw him, the bad decisions, drops, and pulls out of the ball diamond (yes folks, over the fence…damn wind) seemed to proliferate. It got to the point where I feared the IID tryout since I knew he was going to be watching.

For whatever reason, I managed to totally shut out Mehmet during the tryout, and played to my potential. Can I explain this? Sadly, no. Although I'd like to think it was through hard work and preparation, I have no idea why I played so focused that night. Before the tryouts were a half hour old, I knew I made the league.

During the course of the IID season, the curse continued and actually got worse. I'd have a streak of 2 or 3 strong games, then Mehmet would magically appear on our sideline observing our game, and I'd fall apart on the field. Sadly, my team seemed to suffer accordingly when I was having a bad game.

The only exception to the curse last winter happened during my brief stint in Thursday west intermediate (pre-sports hernia), when Mehmet was playing fantasy ultimate (I'll cover it at a later date) with coach Stu, who's wife was subbing on my team. For whatever reason, I played kick ass that game, and earned a few fantasy ulty points for whoever was daring enough to pick me.

The latest case of the Mehmet curse occurred during the intermediate development team tryout (since renamed to Arrested Development…IMHO…a lame ass name). I was pretty strong during the drills, and even the first few points of the scrimmage, but as soon as I saw the Great Kamasutra show up on the sidelines as an evaluator, the bad decisions started. On the bright side, this led to some good natured slagging in a series of emails, in which he gave me some sound advice that helped me make the BigFish practice squad. The sound advice? That's my little secret. To be fair, I didn't play too horrible after he arrived…but apparently not well enough to make the team.

Two last thoughts on the curse. First, I remember an IID team-mate of mine, Andrea Benke (ex-BigFish, solid player) saying that she too suffered from the Mehmet curse. At least I'm in good company! Secondly, sooner or later, this has got to stop. With the exception of the first night of BigFish tryouts, I'm finding my game is becoming more consistent, and playing at a ridiculously bad level (i.e. curse level) just isn't happening. I consider myself strong mentally in any sport or academic pursuit, so I should be able to conquer this damn curse. Furthermore, as my game improves, I'm bound to run into Mehmet more often, so continuing to play bad every time I see him seems unlikely.

Will Nurple ever resolve the Mehmet curse? I'll keep you posted. Until next time, happy hucking!