Well, I also pulled a Shea here and learned my lesson of not typing these directly into the website. I didn’t try to upload any images or pictures, but my computer decided to crash as I was about to post. Luckily, the title and my name saved, but just nothing in the actual body of the article saved. How lovely!
Anyways, here I am again writing this thing up. No idea what I said the first time, but we’re gonna try to recreate it in all of its beauty. We had a really good regular season ending 5-1 and feeling confident coming into playoffs. Months of frisbee were culminating into this very moment…the playoffs. Everyone knew the scouting report of Sam and Nes being absent, but we were feeling good even without them. We were up against purple, who we had beaten 15-4 in our first matchup.
We got off to a hot start, going up 4-0. With no Kate or Dustin in sight, this felt like a game we were sure to win. But then there he is. A wild Dustin approaching over the horizon. He cleats up quickly, gets in the game, and I think it’s fair to say he changed the course of the game. Once he was in, they started scoring and getting breaks, but we were still feeling mostly good at halftime with an 8-6 lead. The 2nd half was mostly holds until we got until 11-8. At this point, Teal started to crumble like I’ve never seen before. We would give up 4 straight points with purple taking the lead 12-11. From there, a pretty uneventful ending with each team getting hold after hold with purple eventually winning on universe point. Obviously, I could sit here and say we didn’t play our best game, and that is certainly true, but purple really played a great game. We had a dropped pull and a few pick calls that weren’t made which led to scores, but purple simply outplayed us. Once Dustin got there, they tried running some zone sets, which were mostly unsuccessful. Then, they switched the force to backhand, which we struggled with. They also were running some intricate side stacks, which we didn’t really know how to stop. I need to give a special shoutout to Ricardo who covered me all game. Often at league, people cover me way over the top, leading me to get easy unders. Ricardo played the best D I’ve ever seen someone play on me at league. He contested the away cuts with the help of great marking on our handlers and made my life miserable for getting unders. Overall, a really impressive effort from purple and I respect the good spirit and competitiveness.
Now for my favorite part as everyone knows. Talking great about my teammates. For my last report, I feel the need to say something good about everyone who contributed to our team. Adam always has amazing energy, even when getting off of work late. We can put him anywhere in the stack and we know he will be a reliable player, which is a luxury to have. Caio is truly one of the most enjoyable players I’ve played with. His positive energy is contagious to a whole team, and I love his willingness to learn. Even with a great season from Ellie in Wintring, I think she should be a lock for most improved female matching player. She’s proven to be one of the best cutters in the league and is elite on D. In our last game against purple, she was absolutely eating. I’m talking all you can eat shrimp buffet FEASTING. 6 scores and at the end of the game, the only way to contain her was putting a guy on her. Gordon is a new player who really blossomed into a solid player this season. He is also a joy to have around, and I feel like we’ve been friends for years even though we just met. Haydn has been the most cool and calm player on our team all season. He chills us out when we get frustrated and everyone knows when he has the disc, good things will come. Plus, he’s a rad dude. Jon is another great player for our team morale. He is always willing to learn and exceling in whatever we ask him to do. Great energy from him all season. Even though Joe didn’t lead the league in assists, I think he has grown as a player. He is more confident throwing arounds and is more than just a deep shooter. He’s also our little sweetheart who we adore. Josh was our steal of the draft and someone I didn’t know anything about before we drafted him. Truly a do-it-all player who is great on both ends of the field and plays the game with great integrity. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Fletcher 2 seasons in a row now, and even though I love his saucy hucks to me, he is just a joy to be around and never fails to make me laugh. I hope we can run it back again during another season. Liz is another one we drafted 2 seasons in a row. She is an obvious deep threat with her great length and height, but it has been really wonderful seeing her learn more and more and becoming more of an all-around player who is confident with the disc. Manny is the best kind of frisbee player. Someone who should definitely be nominated for the best-spirited superlative. Any disagreement on the field, he is always someone to defuse the situation and he even calmed me and Joe down on multiple occasions. Plus, he’s an excellent cutter. Even though Nes and Sam chose a Europe trip over us, both of them are the best kinds of people. Energetic, enthusiastic, positive are just some of the words to describe these 2. I really wish they could’ve been here for playoffs as I think we could’ve won the whole thing with them 2, but Europe is cool too I guess. Rosie is the kind of player who everyone wants on their team. She is extremely nice and can handle, cut, and defend with the best of the ladies in this league. And finally Vish. Darn shame you could only show up a few weeks. I will always respect the way Vish challenges himself and holds himself to such high standards. He is confident taking the hardest matchups on D and plays with unmatched energy.
So that’s about it for the team. I usually dread these consolation games because I don’t like playing if there’s nothing on the line, but I can’t wait to have some good ol’ frisbee fun and banter with these guys next week for one final week. Best of luck to everyone who advanced to the semifinals! And for anyone who didn’t win, I look forward to playing you guys, perhaps with a tasty adult beverage in hand?