Chico Recap

Chico proved to be as good of a time as I could have hoped for. I think the trick to making the most of Discos Calientes is to not take it things too seriously. It's going to be ridiculously hot, the schedule will be weird, it will take 9 hours to get there, and the level of competition probably won't be the highest. If you can get over the shortcomings of the tourney and focus on the good, you can have a great time there. I probably enjoyed this years tourney more than the other three DIscos that I've been.

It definitely helped that we were staying with a completely awesome family that took our entire team into their home. Saturday night, I got to take part in the epic rematch of 8 BCBCers vs. the Sir Bjorn, his daughter, and his best apprentice. It ended very much like the battle last year, (with all of us getting our asses handed to us.) Sir Bjorn explained to us that medieval martial arts happens at tournaments around the country, with a small but avid following and rules predicated on chivalry towards your opponent. Hmm... sound like any other sport you know of? No wonder we get along so well.

The mixed division on Saturday started late, at about 2:30. It was nice to have a leisurely breakfast and relax in the shade at the fields before we had to cleat up, although we did start in the worst heat of the day. The temperatures were not nearly as bad as they could have been, though, probably in the low to mid 90s. It didn't end up being a big issue for us because of massive roster that we brought.

Saturday didn't bring too much in the way of competition. Our closest game was against the first team of the day, Sesame Street out of Davis, which was probably about 13-7. We also played Butter and TFT in pool play. We played a pre-quarters game under the lights at the end of the day against some young Humboldt players, but this game was more silly than anything else.


Quarter Finals:

Sunday started bright and early at 8 AM. We had American BBQ as our match-up, who had several recent UCLA grads, including Diesel, DaVinci, Kobe, and Artoo. They had lost only to Death Star, the number 1 overall seed at the tourney, and I was expecting them to be sharp. We started sleepily, getting broken again and again until they took half 7-3. This was really the turning point of the tournament for us. Instead of rolling over, we poured on the defensive pressure and stared running a triangle junk D which gave their offense lots of trouble. Whitey, in particular, got about 3 incredible layout D's in big moments, and we managed to claw our way back into the game and then into the lead. I think we finished up about 11-9 at the hard cap, saving our weekend. American BBQ has some seriously good players, and this was their first time playing together as a team. They were impressive, but it's not a game that a team that considers itself a nationals contender should lose.

Semis

We drew Kamanawanaleaa (or something like that) while 7 Figures and Death Star matched up in the other semis. I don't really know where they were from, although they had ex-BCBCer Tyler Bacon playing with them. By this point in the day, we had gotten over our early morning hiccups and rolled through the game without too much drama. I think we won around 13-8. I was really happy after this game because I felt like was finally getting into a rhythm and had found my stroke.

Finals

7 Figures came into the game with intensity, warming up with focus while we sat in the shade before the game. Our relaxed attitude carried into the game and we quickly went down a bunch of breaks. 7 Figures was by far the best team we had faced up until that point in the weekend, and we weren't ready for the step up in quality of play. In the semis, we had gotten away with a few marathon points where neither team could run an effective offense. That was not the case in the finals, were 7 Figs quickly took advantage of our turns with quick deep strikes. 7 Figs were clearly the better team on Sunday, and easily took the game 13-4.

We've seen this year, with the Polar Bears, the success an experienced Open team can have by connecting with some good women and moving into Mixed. The 7 Figs guys have played together for years, and also picked up some nice players such as Joe Forbes, Milhouse and Chucktown to round out their men (I'm not commenting on their women mostly because I don't really know them, other than Minh and Tai, who are ballers).

I don't think the difference in the score of finals is too huge of a worry in terms of how we will match up in the series. BCBC is a younger team and has a lot more growing left to do this year (not to mention that we have yet to even finalize the roster - can we get on that please?). However, the finals score does show that we will need to bring a different mentality to Labor Day if we want to play with the big kids.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm left with the feeling that I somehow didn't get enough ultimate. I can't wait for our retreat up to SLO.

At least tomorrow is the LA Summer League tournament and party, one of my favorite events of the year. I'm picking up with the Black team in Co-ed, the last place finishers this year. Hopefully Knuckles will come down and Bakersfield and we can surprise some people tomorrow.

Easing into the Season

I finished my first full track workout of the summer today. I've been working extra hard to try to catch up my fitness with the rest of my team, and it's been rough. My body isn't ready to perform the same way that it used to. Lifting has really helped start to regain the leg muscle that I've lost. I won't really be able to tell where I'm at until I give it a go this weekend.

I did a little bit of offensive handling at the BCBC retreat last weekend, but it was a little uncomfortable when we turned it and I had to play D on a cutter. Luckily, though, I'm still seeing big gains in my ability every week. I imagine it will plateau into a very slow return to 100%, and my doctor says that it could take up to a year to feel completely normal again.

It feels amazing to play again, though. BCBC is full of awesome people, and I'm really excited for all of our upcoming events. It was hard to gauge where we're at from last weekend both because we were missing a bunch of people and because I was a little too focused on my own playing and health. Also, I haven't played high level coed in years, so i don't really have a barometer for what is really good.

Chico is almost always 90-100 degrees, but it has some redeeming factors that make it worthwhile: Sierra Nevada, the river, the party, and the Castle. I'm really excited about staying in the medieval themed house that BCBC traditionally stays at in Chico. Actually, I think the Castle is a good part of why we're going to Chico instead of ECC. I can't say that I complained too much.

We're leaving on Thursday to head up to Sac and do a river float down the Sacramento River on Friday. An extra full day in the sun couldn't hurt, right?