Greetings one and all! I know there’s been a lot going on lately. We’ve all been out and about relaxing, playing more ultimate (shout-out to y’all who were at Sarasota Sunset), perhaps working on that one other side hobby you have because you actually had a free weekend since League is Love and League is Life.
But regardless, I’m sure I can guess the one thought that’s been reverberating through everyone’s minds this whole time; the one constant in our time of separation. I can only assume that this thought has been remarked dozens, nay hundreds, of times to your husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, children, dogs, cats, chickens and baristas. You’ve shouted it on rooftops, spoken it at a normal volume in the hallways, and whispered it in the car as Real Florida flashes by:
“When are we going to get the next issue of the Undead Ultimate Chronicle?”
Well fear not fellow Ghoulsville denizens!! Today is the day! Today you wipe the tears off your cheeks and the wistful look off your face! Today, you will taste real joy as you consume the content below.
Last Sunday could not have been a better day for Ultimate. Full stop. It wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too windy (ish), the sun was shining, we had 11 people show up. Psych, that last part unfortunately didn’t come to pass. Last minute circumstances required several Best Friends to bid us adieu. But on the bright side, seven of us were ready, willing and able to be on that line for the first game. You know what they say, “If all you have is seven, your team’s on their way to heaven”. Meaning of course, you’re about to ascend to never before seen heights (certainly not that your team is about to die…oooo ominous foreshadowing…).
With seven, we stood across from the Scoober Snacks’ imposing line, containing among others, Steven, Jenny, Clyde, the Shea Husband, and a wild Dave Klinges who managed to jump out of a helicopter, cleats and all, to land gently on the line just in time to play.
Starting on offense did not do much to help us, as we just about immediately turned the disc over four passes in. A quick swing to Steven turned into a quick score that left a sinking feeling on my gut and pain in my unwarmed legs. But we were still good you know? We tried again, managing to throw, catch, and even score for our second drive. Surely we’d settle into a good rhythm right?
Alas it was not to be. The Snacks went on an absolutely mad scoring spree. Not a measly two to three point streak. I’m talking six. Dang. Points. And they took half somewhere in there too. To be honest, they 100% deserved it. For whatever reason, we were unable to consistently throw around or though their zone to make anything happen. Numerous drops and a lack of deep hucks also may have contributed to this as well.
The Scoobers on the other hand, well, they were a well oiled machine. Steven, Clyde, and Jia worked so smoothly in the handler space, taking strikes and resets as they saw fit. The cutter Snacks like Dave, Savana, and Jenny were always one step ahead of us, on defense as well as offense. They took advantage of every single mistake we made and were able to convert it for a point.
After half, the Best Friends rallied; coalescing around a singular goal meant to inspire us and lift our spirits: triple our score by the end of the game. In this way, we’d redeem ourselves, because I dunno about you, but a 300% increase sounds niiiice however you slice it. Spoiler alert, we met our goal, but did not exceed it, netting us a comparatively rapid 11-3 loss for Game 1.
Although not much went right in that first game, I’ll give our game MVPs to Danae and Ben Bobroff, who were responsible for securing the two points that allowed us to triple our score. I’ll also give additional props to Omie, Chris, Matthew, and Adam for their willingness to rotate in and out of the handler space as we tried our best to make literally anything happen.
Our second game was our rematch against the Frisboos, against whom we’d juuuust about missed making a universe game the last time we’d played them. Although facing them savagely, they also had the unfortunate lack of Carsten and an injured Jacob (hope you heal up soon my dude). The Best Friends set a goal for ourselves: score more points than last game. Cuz you know, it’s good to set goals for yourself and your team.
In a complete flip from last game, we started on defense, and managed a break. After trading a few more points, we broke a couple times in a row. Before we knew it, we’d taken half. In general, our movement looked a lot smoother, our handler swings and resets more crisp, and we took more deep looks than in the last game. However, it would not have been nearly enough (in my opinion) without the uncommonly high number of drops we saw from the Frisboos. I’m not sure what was in the air, but the Besties were able to force a lot of turns and convert a lot of points from deep shots and swings gone awry.
The second half went much as the first did. The Frisboos managed to break us back, closing our lead to one break and applying some pressure to us to punch in the points. At a score of 9-7 and drawing from the power of friendship, we managed to force a break for 10, and then after a series of back and forths with attempts and turns from both sides, culminating in a crazed end zone scramble, the Best Friends secured their first win of the day (and met their stretch goal of 4 points).
For the Friends, I don’t think there was any one or two people who performed exceedingly well. In this case, it was truly a team effort with everyone contributing. One might think of giving offensive MVP to me for scoring 7 of our points, but I would redirect it back to our truly diverse set of throwers. Of the seven of us, no one got more than two assists, meaning that just about everyone manages to assist. I may have scored a bunch, but it was Omie, Chris, Ben, Matthew, and Adam who set the table and made the food, as it were. Also shout out to Danae, Omie and Adam for securing the last four points we needed, including a brilliant snake-in-the-grass Ben-Danae score against the Frisboo zone, and a spectacular bounding catch for the score from Adam.
The Frisboos, unlike us in the Scoober Snacks game, still managed to roll past their mistakes and put points on the board. One shout out I will give is to Lyle for not one, but two hammer assists to both Matt and Vander. Seemingly out of nowhere, and always a joy to see. Another cool thing I saw (which is kudos to both players), a handblock from Adam on a TK break side throw. The only thing that could have been cooler than that, was the fact that the throw actually managed to fly through a full on hand, resulting in a point for the Frisboos. Apparently no hand can deny TK’s spin on a throw.
All in all, it was a super fun, well-spirited game. I think we’ve gotten a lot better as a team. How that would stack up against a full-strength Frisboos has yet to be determined, but I suppose we just might find out in a couple of weeks.
Well done Snacks and Frisboos! It was a pleasure to play Ultimate with such fine folk.
That’s all the news I have for you. And the best part is that more will be generated today, November 12th 2023, in the last game of regular season!!! Get out there and do more cool stuff so that I can turn it into content and monetize it for huuuuge gains (this is the newest news unicorn company after all, I got investors to impress, and no unfortunately not Dry Wrought. Y’all should still check them out though!!!)
See you ghosts and ghouls on the field!!!