BigFish Mixed Up Recap

"One night, and one more time
Thanks for the memories
Thanks for the memories"
Fall Out Boy - Thanks for the Memories

As Mixed Up was the last tournament of the summer for BigFish (there are a couple in September), the above quote seemed appropriate. The fact that the song was on a mixed CD that G played to pump us up on our way out to UPI today kept it top of mind. Even though I loved playing Regionals with Fish, this tournament was definitely the winningest one for the team, and produced a lot of positive memories. It's at times like this when I'm glad I started this blog, since hopefully it will keep some of the great memories alive. Below is a little summary of our six games.

BigFish 14, Jimi Handdisc 9

Even though they were ranked third in our pool (we were ranked first), Jimi Handdisc gave us the biggest challenge on Saturday, and really pushed us. Despite JH taking the half 8-7, BigFish showed so much character by dominating the second half 7-1. This was a back-and-forth game, until our onfield leaders (Glenn, Tommy, Jules, Jer, and the Greatest Handler Ever) showed us how much they wanted this game, and led us by their stellar example. Props to JH for keeping it close, but "GLUM Ford" would not be denied this win.

BigFish 15, Flying Saucer 6

The first half of this game was much closer than the final score would indicate. Flying Saucer came to Mixed Up with a pretty tiny roster, but had enough speed and huckers to keep things interesting. Personally, I loved the fact that FS had flying cherry pies on their jerseys. I remember Ariel making an absolutely sick catch and then getting squished by FS's biggest player. Luckily, Ariel bounced back to have a huge Sunday. Also of mention in this game, was Stevie and Tanya's spectacular cutting and catching. Their hands should have been checked for glue!

BigFish 15, Arrested Development 2

Honestly, I felt awful for AD during and after this game. The after is easier to explain since the score was reported as 15-1 to UPA, and I hope that gets changed. As for "during"...well...the gap between the two teams was a lot bigger than I would have expected. Gavin talked to us before the game about ignoring personal issues with players on AD, and instead focus on executing our plays, showing them what our co-ed development program is about, and playing with Spirit. Having been on the flip side of lopsided games, I can only hope that AD will take away some lessons and use the experience as motivation in future tournaments. Even though they might have went winless this weekend (not sure about their last game today), I'll predict they have an excellent SPIRIT tourny in September :) If any AD players read this (nasty rumor I heard lol), my little peice of advice would be to huck once in a while, as it will help open up your short game. Personally, after this game, I made a couple of very nasty notes to myself about learning how to read high discs in windy conditions.

BigFish 15, XUM 3000 8

Our captains talked about what a challenging game this would be for us, since XUM was ranked second in our pool, and included a bunch of young, fast, tall, huckers from Kingston. Their were a fair number of Queens University "Mothership" guys on the team, but Tommy's Thursday night workouts seemed to pay dividends in this last game of the day on Saturday. Personally, this was my best ever game with Fish, scoring four points (couldn't match the 5 I had with Mule against 7 Car Pile-up). All credit goes to Tommy, who has me in shape to run hard in the fourth game of the day, when other players are cramping/smoking/looking forward to the party. For my money, the game's MVP was Tanya from BF, who caught a tonne of discs despite very windy conditions. A close second goes to Alex, who had several skying catches over equally tall players.

Practice 15, BigFish 4 or 5

Ugh, what a crappy way to start off Sunday morning. I take responsibility for this loss. While most of the my team-mates were psyched to play some of our peers from Ottawa, I completely stunk the joint up on defense, getting scored on 5 or 6 six times. How bad was it? After getting scored on for the second time in two shifts, I was hoping Gavin would notice I was having a rotten egg of a game, and bench me. Personally, what made this suckfest even harder to swallow was the fact that the other team was assembled by the guy (Reza) who's Advanced league I'll be trying out for this winter. Damn....what an opportunity blown. To all Fish team-mates who read this, I'm sorry....

BigFish 9, Rockstar 6

This was a great way to end the summer season for BigFish. Rockstar came in tired after losing on universe point against Sabotage. Having never beaten Rockstar before, outlasting them was another testament to the quality of Tommy's workouts. I'll remember several things about this game, but Glenn's layout D was absolutely beautiful, as was a layout catch for a point by Michael. Ariel and Alex played spectacularly, not dropping a disc between them. Despite being under the weather, captain Jules played "shit hot D", and displayed her amazing decision making ability when handling. I also was inspired by Jer's intensity, he clearly wanted this win.

BigFish/XUM 3000 - Did not play 19/20th place game.

Props to Jer for using his negotiating skills to convince the kids from Kingston that catching RedBull Flugtag would be more fun than battling things out in a meaningless game.

Additional notes/memories from Mixed Up
- My predicting ability sucks, since my pick to take it all, BFC went 0-4 on Saturday (granted their were a couple one point losses in their).
- Having caught a bit of Phella's first game on Sunday, I would NOT want to play them....so much talent on one field.
- Props to Zen who managed to successfully dodge BigFish this weekend ;-)
- Chatting it up with Stevie during lunch Saturday was cool. She's a team-mate I didn't really know that well, and it was nice to get to know her better.
- Riding to/from UPI, racing around the fields on a golf-cart doing clean-up on Saturday, and catching Flugtag with G was a blast. You can't help but have fun when you're with G....
- During the Practice game, when I was mentally falling apart, Jer's kind words brought me up.
- The whole "family" aspect of being on BF was re-enforced a couple of times this weekend. Having played more than my share of team sports, I've never had such great team-mates before this summer....
- Julie the TD deserves props. Even though the seats were kind of...debatable, everything else seemed to go off very smoothly.
- Speaking of seatings, BF accomplished our goal by finishing ahead of our 21st seat.
- If I'm going to cut on a competitive team, I need to have the sports hernia surgery. Everything below my waist hurts like a mo-fo today.
- Quebec ulty girls are indeed hotties.
- Some of the UPI fields (like #11) are toast and should be taken offline for the year.
- I'm enjoying the volunteer aspect of competitive ultimate. The free food associated with volunteering is a nice perk.
- Having slept through the party at Berrymore's (sorry, retro 80s isn't my thing), the off-field high-light of the weekend was probably G's roster sheets containing our nicknames. The best nickname by far: Ooops, I'm InJered.

There we have it. BigFish's best tournament of the summer, and except for one game, my best performance with the team. I'll echo Glenn's words and say that we proved with our win over Rockstar that we are competitive ultimate players....and should be proud of ourselves. Until next time, happy hucking!