After losing to Juke the first time we met earlier this season, we came in with our faces on but only two players on the sideline at the 2:00pm. At 2:05, we managed to scramble a line together and play! This whole getting Frisbee players to be punctual thing is pretty darn difficult, but we did it in the nick of time!! After realizing last week that our offensive successes come when we make shorter passes, lots of cuts, and giving every player on the team a role, we played a pretty solid game! Aaron and KJ had great patience back as handlers, Jared made sick D’s and assists, Matt and Bailey nonstop grinding in the middle racking up scores, Shea as a strong base to move the disc up the field, and Paul and Chip stretching out the field creating space and getting open! Our zone defense really gave McFleury, Nathanial, and Evan a good ole pass around as handlers with Luke working hard to break and play further in the middle, rather than going deep to attempt to receive the hucks that Joe so loves to throw.. While nursing a terrible Halloween hangover and having pretty much played every point for the past six games due to low female numbers on our team, I begged Dawn to play the whole game as our only other lady. And boy, did she step up!!! She played as our only lady on gen zone and I went on reluctantly every other point to match Jukes ladies which I have to say – big props for always having all 3 show up – we love commitment and their improvement over the season shows! That said, Dawn got scores, made mad cuts, and played amazing in the cup – our MVP for this game! As expected a good, friendly game with the Heroes (minus the 5 in a row foul call on KJ by Nathanial, which had me chuckling every time KJ had to start stall all over again) and coming out with a win always feels goodJ.
After what seemed like an intense discussion among the Tax team, they decided to forfeit their second game to us. However, the players that wanted to play (everyone that was there) decided to stick around and play some good ole fashioned friendly Frisbee fun. Since we had 10 players, Shea and Chip jumped ship to play on the opposing team. While I missed having Shea and Chip on my team, this was one of my favorite league experiences. Since we won by default, everyone out there played for fun. Our players played in new positions, tried out throws that they had not thrown in usual league games, and just seemed more confident when the stakes were not high. My favorite points for this friendly scrimmage were that 1) Dawn wanted to try her hand at handler, she came back into the handler space and BOOM crushed it. 2) Chip despite being on the other team, kept going deep on us in the end zone showing us what he can do in the end zone if we have the opportunity to put it to him. 3) Paul cutting like no one’s business in the middle, coming off his comfort space of the wing and getting open so much in the middle and 4) KJ and Jared no looking every other throw that they had. The opposition also had some fun highlights, 1) Abbie Post and her up line throws – does this girl have eligibility for college Ultimate (and does she want to play), because she has serious skills! 2) Captains Tommy and Max playing in full costume and putting some amazing full field hucks to Andrew Pohl and OUR Chip (sorry, we’re keeping him – don’t get any ideas of poaching him from us, TAX). Overall, it was a really playful game and really brought out the magic of Gainesville Frisbee that I have come to love.
See you next time!
-Jess “Wales” Peterson