Who's got Spirit?

"We've got spirit, yes we do
We've got spirit, how bout you?"
Popular cheer at highschool and college football games

The last BigFish tournament of 2008 was Spirit. The fields at the Hornet's Nest were soft (it's been raining a lot this fall in Ottawa), the temperature was perfect (low 20s with no wind), and the competition was tough. Below is my recap of the day from a BF perspective. The scores are estimates, since my record keeping took a back seat to my laziness.

Raijin Gaijin 15, BigFish 10
Shame on The Ageless Wonder, Glenn, who jumped ship on Fish for the day to play with Raijin. This was a pretty competitive game, and had Glenn played on the right team, the score would probably have been reversed. After getting the green light from the captains early, I threw three hucks, two for scores, one to our secret speedster weapon - Gavin. Why did the captains give me the green light to throw up field? Honestly, I have no idea...but I'm thankful for it.

Uber Skuber 15, BigFish 11
Another game that easily could have went the other way. Sadly, what I remember from this game was an odd exchange with 4 disc space violations being called on the same person, on the same play. On the upside, given my usual aggressive marking, I wasn't the "violator". Not much else about this game stands out. To be honest, it wasn't very fun due to a tonne of calls.

Family Feud 15, BigFish 6
There's this mid-tier Monday league team named Family Feud, who I thought might have mistakenly entered the competitive division. When three Alexender brothers (of Phoenix fame) showed up with a couple of their open buddies, and picked up the talented V from BFC and a couple of other speedy ladies, I knew we were in BIG trouble. Props to the BF captains who managed to keep this game fun. One of CPO's little brothers played a point for us, making three huge catches, and then throwing a point. A personal high-light was marking / being marked by Derek Alexander ("The Franchise") and some other open guys. Also memorable was BF's speedster striking for a couple of points against Billy Alexander.

Hot Seat 13, BigFish 10
Hot Seat was Manny's team, and this was a fun game to end the day. We played on this ridiculously short field, and implemented the North Bay 2-point behind-the-back catch rule. Of course Mr. Two-Pointer made two spectacular behind-the-back catches for BF. I probably had my best game of the day, catching a couple of points, and handling semi-competently. One of those bizzaro moments happenned when I accidently shouldered Manny in the jaw on a dump cut. He "pretended" to be mad, kicked the disc before I tried to pick it up a couple times, then ended up striking on me as "payback". He's definitely a fun guy, who I look forward to playing with and against in the future.

It's worth noting that Family Feud went onto beat Hot Seat in the soon-to-be-televised "final" 15-7. If the endzones look short or long, blame me, since Gav/Jer/Allistair mistakenly trusted me to set them up *sigh* After catching a bit of the final, some of us headed over to Alex's place for a BBQ. Alex makes a mean burger, and Laura has mad skills at selecting quality cookies. Also of note is that BF team-mate G kicked some serious ass in fundraising for Spirit, bringing in over $1400! Further proof that she's totally awesome both on and off the field.

On that note, this might be the last post at this url. A very helpful ultimate player gave me some links to check out with respect to changing the url. As the profile views and hits continue to climb to increasingly scary levels, it's probably worth investing an hour to see if I can make the change. Thanks to all the readers who've left comments, talked to me about posts, or wrote messages....your input is valued. Until next time, happy hucking!