Bozofest Blues
Am sitting at the office this Sunday morning and am feeling a little disappointed in myself. I bailed on my Frisbee team today and am now back in Missoula. This may or may not influence my ability to play with them later this summer. I have tons of excuses for decisions I make and that's probably what disappoints me the most.
Yesterday morning I got up at 6:15 AM and hit the road for Bozeman: It's about 240 miles(386KM)from Missoula and even on the highway it is one of the prettier drives you'll ever see, as you go through mountain ranges, buttes and rolling hills. There is a very good Ultimate Frisbee tourney over there in its 19th year calledBozofest. Some of the best coed (mixed) Ultimate teams in the western US and Canada attend. Two years ago I went with a new team out of Missoula and we got beat in the quarter-finals. Last year, despite my gut feeling, Rick Simmons and I abandoned the Missoula B team to play with Jackson Hole. The team wasn't very good and we were certainly underappreciated and got little playing time. This year, in a total surprise, I was invited to play with the Missoula A team. The team has many people who've won nationals and World Ultimate titles so it was quite an honor to be asked to play on the team. The weather was perhaps some of the worst weather I have ever played Ultimate in; from 10:00 AM until we completed our 5th game at about 7:00 PM it was either raining, sleeting, hailing, snowing or blowing. We had one stretch of sunshine. The team is very good but as the day wore on I did not play much. Some of this is my fault as I was exhausted and hadn't eaten anything all day. Some of it I allowed to happen as there were legs much more ready to run than mine (I got burned for a score early in the game against Gun Show and never returned) and some of it was just the nature of the game. I like to keep a certain mix of handlers, speed and defensive guys on the field and in the last game never really felt like it was an appropriate time for me to play.
Anyhow, we had a very good day, losing only to the Canadian Nationals Champions(Chaos) by one point and losing our last game in overtime 12-10. This sets us up for a decent shot today at getting at least to the semi-finals....But I won't be there.
I hurt my knee again three weeks ago and then again two weeks ago. When you try to play Ultimate all day and have an injury, if you don't keep playing you totally stiffen up. I was stiff and sore last night. But it was more than that; I am still trying to get to know many of the Missoula Elite Ultimate players and don't exactly feel like I click with them. Plus my athletic ability seems to be on the down-swing, Lord knows I'm not 25 anymore, so my playing time is less than I'd like. I played pretty well yesterday against Minneapolis' nationals qualifier Hot Action, but if I don't keep playing it gets harder and herder for me to get back in the game. So last night I decided not to play today. I should have gone to the fields anyway, but I didn't. I drove home without telling anyone. That was a boner move and not very respectful so I feel disappointed.
I should have stayed. I'm a real a-hole sometimes.
Yesterday morning I got up at 6:15 AM and hit the road for Bozeman: It's about 240 miles(386KM)from Missoula and even on the highway it is one of the prettier drives you'll ever see, as you go through mountain ranges, buttes and rolling hills. There is a very good Ultimate Frisbee tourney over there in its 19th year calledBozofest. Some of the best coed (mixed) Ultimate teams in the western US and Canada attend. Two years ago I went with a new team out of Missoula and we got beat in the quarter-finals. Last year, despite my gut feeling, Rick Simmons and I abandoned the Missoula B team to play with Jackson Hole. The team wasn't very good and we were certainly underappreciated and got little playing time. This year, in a total surprise, I was invited to play with the Missoula A team. The team has many people who've won nationals and World Ultimate titles so it was quite an honor to be asked to play on the team. The weather was perhaps some of the worst weather I have ever played Ultimate in; from 10:00 AM until we completed our 5th game at about 7:00 PM it was either raining, sleeting, hailing, snowing or blowing. We had one stretch of sunshine. The team is very good but as the day wore on I did not play much. Some of this is my fault as I was exhausted and hadn't eaten anything all day. Some of it I allowed to happen as there were legs much more ready to run than mine (I got burned for a score early in the game against Gun Show and never returned) and some of it was just the nature of the game. I like to keep a certain mix of handlers, speed and defensive guys on the field and in the last game never really felt like it was an appropriate time for me to play.
Anyhow, we had a very good day, losing only to the Canadian Nationals Champions(Chaos) by one point and losing our last game in overtime 12-10. This sets us up for a decent shot today at getting at least to the semi-finals....But I won't be there.
I hurt my knee again three weeks ago and then again two weeks ago. When you try to play Ultimate all day and have an injury, if you don't keep playing you totally stiffen up. I was stiff and sore last night. But it was more than that; I am still trying to get to know many of the Missoula Elite Ultimate players and don't exactly feel like I click with them. Plus my athletic ability seems to be on the down-swing, Lord knows I'm not 25 anymore, so my playing time is less than I'd like. I played pretty well yesterday against Minneapolis' nationals qualifier Hot Action, but if I don't keep playing it gets harder and herder for me to get back in the game. So last night I decided not to play today. I should have gone to the fields anyway, but I didn't. I drove home without telling anyone. That was a boner move and not very respectful so I feel disappointed.
I should have stayed. I'm a real a-hole sometimes.
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