2005 – My Year in Review

Idris keeps telling me, a la Jim Rome, “Have a take” for each post. A lot of you that might have ever talked to me know that I’m mostly a rambling fool, so I guess this post doesn’t have much of a take either. But for anyone that played against me in any of these tourneys, I guess it might remind you of good times.

Leiout Beach tourney – worst results in the past decade. I told Tony Leonardo I’d play on his team, he recruited no one. We went 1-6 or so, I couldn’t remember a worse weekend of ulty.

Tempe – played with a mostly Bravo-ish team, lost in the finals to a team heavy with JAM and Condor players. We were down huge and came back, had the disc FIVE times at 14-13 to tie it and I threw the last of our 5 turns. We lost 17-14.

Kaimana – Nada Mooger won their 6th straight and my 3rd. Large amounts of rum and pog make for another hazy weekend in Hawaii. Someone lost us our shot at the spirit trophy by hitting the tourney director with a chair in a drunken rage.

Winter League – epic 15-13 win in finals. Only time I’ve ever played in the rain in LA. My 2nd winter league title

Texas Shoot Out – Most heart breaking loss of the year in the inaugural version of this event as there was a 1st place prize of $3,100 and we had big plans to blow it all on cowboy hats before we left the state. We went 5-0 in pool play beating every team there with the closest game being 13-9 or so, and then lost in the semis when Chain played an AMAZING game that had only 1 or 2 turns the entire time (for them). They then had 4 turns in the first point alone in the finals Glad they didn’t win the money.

Cal States – My 1st win ever at this tourney! The Condors were the repeat champs, but I was coming off my ACL last year. We beat JAM in the semis and half of Sockeye in the finals; they had 2 teams there for tryouts. I have the trophy at my house. I think it’s the oldest trophy in ultimate, dates back to Foothill’s win in ’77. Still trying to figure out how to not give it back.

Summer League – LA summer league is a joke, no real comp, but I like to go and play while drinking beers. Increased my lifetime LA summer league record to something like 40-1. Had to miss the finals once again due to Condor practice.

Potlatch – Played with Sleeveless in Seattle. We are the 3rd best co-ed team in America! I signed onto the amazing stacked squad a week before the tourney only to learn rock stars like Idris and Ryan Y. bailed at the last minute. We had only 13 players and drank box wine all day every day. Had no business being in any kind of contention, and yet we made the semis in the best co-ed tourney anywhere. Highlights included beating Ben Wiggins team in the quarters when one of my teammates said “We have GOT to win this game, I’ve never beaten Wiggins.” All I could think was “Really?” Lost to some team from Canada in semis, I think it was pretty close….

ECC – This is the best tourney you will ever play in. The comp is amazing. We went up 3-0 against Sockeye in the 1st game and held on to the very end where we choked, losing 15-13. Beat Furious in game #2, 1st win over them in a few years. We scored like 7 of 8 to end it. But another 15-13 loss in our last game of the day to Ring hurt bad. Sunday we stepped up to go 3-0 and make the tie-breaker game to 5 to be in the finals against Sockeye, but JAM beat us 5-4 in the mini-game when my guy, Big Jim, caught a blade huck forehand huck from Ron. Ron, if you are reading this, that throw SUCKED!

Labor Day – Another big tourney win! We beat JAM twice and also Bravo. Highlight was 15-4 win over DoG. They couldn’t even complete a pass our D was so fired up. I’d never won this tourney either, so it was a great time.

Sectionals – highlight was skying my Condor LA workout partner for the game winner in the finals. He was uncovered and going to the endzone for an easy goal, but I didn’t see him and brought in my 6’4” defender from San Diego, thus the need to make the awesome play going up over both of them.

Regionals – 2nd worse loss of the season in the finals to Bravo. The D from both Bravo and Condors combined to score ONCE in a 14-12 loss. Embarrassing loss and it also cost us a top 3 seed in FLA.

Nationals – This is the one you try and peak for, but injuries to some of the best players in the game meant we were coming in weaker than we had been a month before. Two flat games to open the tourney and just like that our season was pretty much over. Showed some heart by not rolling over and at least winning the losers bracket. Can we move nationals to Santa Cruz? No one could be us there in '05!

Beach League – Ended the year in style winning the final tourney of the season, the inaugural LA Beach League. I blew up all day!

I guess my take is the year had its ups and downs, but it was a fun year and I proved to myself I've still got some game after coming back from a year of rehab in ’04. See you all out there in ’06.