With a name that’s reminiscent of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” the Hades Bladēs team arrived out of the darkness of a long off-season with intimidating display at Sunday’s Sprinter League debut.
In game one versus the pink-clad Aphrodite (Αφροδίτη) team, led by Tessa and Shea, the focus was on exploring our own team dynamics and allowing our players to find a role that fit with their skill level, experience, desire for growth, and injury status.
Defensive effort paid often in the first game, as Aphrodite struggled to get the disc around. With Coley and Jacob defending their main handlers often, throws were tight. The result was a defensive buffet for many players including Jess, Sam Williams, Schimmel, and Elliot who had 3 D’s this game in his return to competitive play. Lyle got a sick sky point off of a Ben Chapin huck. Nan had an incredible D this game too. Might as well throw in a Callahan point for us while you’re at it.
Lots of play went through Coley, who had 5 assists. Nine different players scored our 11 points this game. Mission Accomplished. As a captain I couldn’t have been prouder of our team, especially with our more veteran players getting in on the stat sheet with lots of scores and assists!
I couldn’t be prouder until our next game, that is.
The game versus Apollo (Απόλλων) was a bit of a test. Some our team was a bit wary of big names on the other team with lots of skill, experience, and grit. Before the game, some of our younger, fresher players took some time to throw around, focusing on making contested catches. It certainly seemed to pay off later.
From the first point, we could tell our opponents were a tick above, and that we’d have to concentrate and work harder to walk home with a game that felt good. Opp breezed through the first point like a hot knife through butter, their handlers taking care of the disc and making seemingly effortless throws. Although they were missing two very key players (Dustin and Kate) initially, it seemed like they were a team functioning at a very high level without.
However, our team seemed to consistently capitalize on turnovers. Thank Zeus Bonnie wrote down a few of the highlights, because there were a ton of them:
Clea worked end zone to endzone several points for two of the most casual scores on the day.
Jess had a massive “hand Mack” as Bonnie put it.
*If I remember this correctly but feel free to make me edit this later* Coley caught a pass short of the end zone. Jess hustled, beating her defender to the end zone, but found a defender starting to shift to her. Coley made the defender look for his right side flick, then went for a full-turn behind-the-back backhand to Jess who shook left – Adonis would have been jealous of such a stylish and beautiful point!
But by far, my favorite part of the game was when we were up a few points after half. Dustin had finally made it to help the opposing team. We were tired, and some of our newer players were giving people like me a break. We got on offense and Bonnie caught a long huck after finding some open space deep. We were ready to celebrate an amazing play by Bonnie, but it was just short of the end zone. Most of our players, including our handlers were far behind, but hustling into the end zone was Pawan. Pawan, our greenest player, struggled mightily in our round-robin play in every effort to catch the disc. But Pawan wasn’t shaken in this moment – he was one of the players who, in warmups, was working hard on making tough and contested catches. As Bonnie threw it his way, I remember having a huge gulp in my throat, as I often do watching someone who has several drops, despite being open for a good throw.
But Pawan, now contested by his defender, had an opportunity because Bonnie threw the disc to his way as he ran through the right side of the end zone. Two hands touch the disc, then it bobbles, and… He CAUGHT THAT DISC!!!! A Bonnie to Pawan assist for the score. Pawan’s first catch of league. He ended up with more as the game went on.
I now could not be prouder as a team captain.
We won both of our games, but even more impressive was the variety on the stat sheet all day. Tons of people touching the disc, people like Sam Wilson catching contested hucks, Pawan seeing progress in his catching and throwing, More-than-half-broken-Schimmel finding his flick sauce, Nan handling stressful offensive stiuations like a veteran, Clea finding a stride on tiring points…
I’ll be d****d all the way to the underworld.
Huge gratitude to each of our four FMPs for making it and showing up. We couldn’t have had such a great day without each of you playing with us. Now if only we could find Alek…
-Jacob