Long overdue

A couple of months ago, some of the people in my dental class and I created an ultimate frisbee team. The season was great and the tournament was even better. From start to finish, it was exciting, energizing, and excellent.

The first game I showed up and met the team. It was nice to meet people from my dental class outside of school. I quickly tried to learn everyone's names so I could call out to them and tell them good job on the field. The serious players on the team tried to assess the quality of our team and asked everyone how well they played. I said I had played some but that I couldn't be a handler. The handler has to be an excellent frisbee thrower. He or she has to be able to hit people in stride and throw the long bomb,  My throwing skills just aren't up to par. The game got started and I waited my turn to come in. We had 4 subs for a 7-man team as long as everyone showed up. After a few scores, mostly for our team, I went in. It felt good to run and chase something in the air. I caught a few passes, made a couple throws, and intercepted a couple passes from the other team. By the end of the game, my teammates were excited to have me on the team, and I was excited to be a member of the team.

Our team had 7 boys and 4 girls. Three of the girls were short and petite, but athletic and fast at the same time. The fourth girl was tall and dominate. She could catch anything thrown her way. The boys were in a similar arrangement. Most of the boys were athletic and ranging in size but there was one that was tall and could jump to the sky to block anything and catch anything. Although we had a couple stars, it took everybody on the team. We played together and won together. Every team we played was made up of all boys. Sometimes our small girls got pushed around a bit, and sometimes our tall girl pushed the other team around a bit, but through the thick and thin of it all, we showed that we were the better team. The scoreboard always liked us more.

We ended the regular season undefeated. There were a couple of challenging teams, but the final scores always seem to end heavily in our favor. It was time for the tournament. It was time to win a championship. The first couple games were mostly uneventful. There were the usual all-boy-teams that we easily handled. Our girls teaching the other team how frisbee is really played. Then came championship night. There were four teams left in the tournament. At the end of the night, only one would leave a champion.

The semifinal game came first. This was a team we had played before. During the regular season, they had been the biggest challenge for us even though the final score was still 10-2. They had a new player who was tall and fast. The first half turned out to be a dog fight. We were leading 4-2 with only minute left in the half. Somehow they managed to score to pull within one. Starting out the second half with only a one point lead was a little nerve racking, but we gave it all we got. Our defense shut them down and we kept on scoring. I think the final score ended up as 8-4. It was time for the finals.

The team we played in the finals was the winner of the other semifinal match that was happening the same time as ours. Just as we were finishing up our semifinal match we noticed that there hadn't been a game happening. One of the teams hadn't shown up so the team we were to meet in the finals was fully rested and ready to win. We were tired. We had pulled out all the stops to win the last game. Personally, I was a little worried. I've been a couple championship games and it is not fun to lose. It is also no fun to be at a disadvantage. It was game time! We got out there and played. We had to rotate through our subs a little more, but we were there to win. Once again, just before half time we were up. The score was 4-3.  Once again, the other team managed to score. Taking a tie into halftime was a little discouraging because we had played a great half. But we knew we could do it. With the second half starting and the championship on the line, we all did a hundred push-ups. This was an intimidation strategy. Actually, we just kept playing hard. We scored one to start the second half. I was in and decided to run the whole length of the field. Unfortunately I was a foot short of the touchdown. Fortunately, one of the girls ran the whole length too. Easy pass to her. We scored again. At one point, all our girls were in. They couldn't stop us. We scored again. We believed in ourselves. We were going to win. Near the end I asked the ref how much time was left. He said five minutes. Then he asked me what the score was, I said 9-4. Ten seconds later I heard him yell out, "Two minutes left." I guess he believed in us too.  Time ran out and we were made the champions.

After the win we had to have a team dinner. Hosted by the Ericksons, we had delicious Navajo Tacos. We also were given our shirts by our captain who had something kind to say about all of us. With a little Clue-cha-phone and some laughs we finished off a great time and a great season.

Although we didn't use spam, it does look tasty!