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2010 Olympia Mixed Traveling Team |
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Gordon, Kathy, Santana, Clint, Caitlin, Chris, Aaron, Hannah Liam, Will, Lisa, Todd, Erica, Kelsey Pam, Andrew, Ian, Jon, Beth |
Well we have just finished another great Potlatch tournament that was bittersweet because it was the last tournament for Ian, one of the pillars of Olympia ultimate. Although the weather was not as sunny as we would have liked it, it was perfect for playing three days of very competitive ultimate.
For those who have never played against this team that is organized for Potlatch only, count yourself lucky that you do not have to hear a team playing ultimate while grunting and making comments like the early 90s professional wrestler, the Ultimate Warrior. For O’School, this game started a little slow. You know, first day cobwebs from our veteran team. We were down 4-1 and 6-3, and things were not looking good, when we had two plays that would ignite the most dominating day of ultimate that O’School has ever played.
With a 6-3 score in our opponent's favor, and the count getting too high for comfort deep on our side of the field, Andrew launched a full field forehand huck to Todd, and just over the outstretched hands of the defender, for a catch at the one-inch line. Todd immediately called a time-out to set up a play. After the time out, O’School formed their stack and the Warrior set up their defense. Immediately upon the disc being checked in, Beth came racing out of the stack and Todd timed his throw to meet Beth’s cut, and just as it seemed that the throw would take-off, Beth jumped, and stretched her frame as much as she could to snatch a one-handed grab in the end zone. This was all O’School needed to get back on track.
O’School then turned up their defense with Pam and Caitlin recording hand-blocks, and Gordon getting a sweet lay-out D. To match each defensive stop, O’School’s offense responded with precise and patient passing that led to a final score of 13-9.
For those who have never played against this team that is organized for Potlatch only, count yourself unlucky. Professor Booty is made up of a Carlton alum intramural team from the 90s and this is their eighth year attending Potlatch. Their distinct pink uniform is a welcome sight. This would be our third game against Booty over the last few years, with the series tied at one game each.
The game started with a 15-minute point with both teams making many mistakes. Through it all one person made stellar plays. Lisa on two occasions prevented Booty from advancing the Frisbee by out-running her cutter to throws. Finally, after quite a bit of back and forth, O’School was able to notch a score.
After the first score, O’School proceeded to turn-up the offensive to very high on the dial. Offensive plays included Will skying a few Booty defenders for a score, (ed. note: two photographers, Ian and Hannah, both got a shot of this:)
the hurricane end-zone play for a successful score, and Ian launching a 40-yard hammer (ed. note: to Santana, who made a nice catch, shown here, photographed by Hannah)
and then racing downfield for a dump that resulted in a short pass for a score. By half-time the score was 8-0, and the game ended with a 15-2 final score.
Once the game was out of the way, the real contest began. What makes Booty such a fun team to play is that they choose a best male booty and best female booty from among the opposing team’s players. On the men’s side, Jon “Big Dog” Price has been our team’s two-time defending champ from previous games, and Beth and Kathy have each been award winners in the past. So this year for the ladies, Beth regained her throne as O’School best female booty, and the Big Dog was dethroned by Will “Big Kahuna” Weatherford on the men’s side.
In the third game, O’School expected stiff competition from a bunch of recent college graduates who had some very athletic players. The game started with the two teams trading scores before O’School was able to notch two more and take a 3-1 lead when the Big Dog made a difficult, juggling catch for a score.
Lunch Money immediately tried to come back with a few plays that fell just short of producing scores. One play included Lunch Money’s smallest women laying out about 4-feet off the ground and getting her hands on the Frisbee in the end zone just before she came crashing back down to Earth, along with the rest of the team, and dropped the disc. With each turn-over, O’School made the youngsters pay. Hannah came up big in the endzone on passes from Will and Liam, Erica threw a sweet breakmark to Laim, and Clint scored on a scoober from Ian.
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On defense, Aaron, Andrew, and Ian shut down their huckers, while Lisa caused all sorts of headaches by poaching in the lanes and cutting off many underneath throws. Overall, our ladies absolutely dominated Lunch Money’s ladies, while our wiley-veteran men played a last back defense against Lunch Money’s speedy cutters that forced Lunch Money to struggle for every pass they caught. In the end O’School beat Lunch Money 15-2.
As the sun set over the first day of Potlatch 2010, O’School was basking in the glory of the most dominating day of Olympia ultimate in which O'School outscored their opponents 43-13.
So here we are back for Day 2 of Potlatch. As you probably suspected, after the thrashing we gave the rest of the O-pool on the first day of the tournament, we were going to be re-seeded to a pool in which we would be thrashed.
The day started against the Chiquita Banana team, a group of players from Washington DC’s frisbee league. We played them a few years ago and won, but this time the task would be more difficult based on the improved players that showed up this time.
O’School started out the game a little slow and the Bananas were on it from the beginning. At the half O’School was down 8-2. Could it be we were to get a taste of the medicine that we gave the teams from the day before? Could O’School re-group?
In the second-half O’School was more focused and got back on track. Liam came up with a big layout for a score, while Beth and Todd came up big on defense. Lisa was able to track down a long huck just outside the end-zone and hit a sprinting Clint for a wide-open score. She was also on the receiving end of a throwing score by Jon. With its increased intensity, the score tightened at 12-9, but O’School could not close the gap any further and lost 15-10.
The second game of the day was against Teddy Bear Picnic from Victoria, BC. O’School came out fast in this game and built a 4-1 lead on some great plays by Todd including a nice defensive stop and a sky in the end-zone for a score. Liam also contributed with a D-block. On the offensive side, Aaron came down with a great lay-out score on a throw from Ian.
Despite the great plays O’School was able to produce in this game, the Bears turned it up many notches and were able to gain control of the game. Eventually, the Bears were able to secure a victory 15-11, but not before Hannah was able to produce a few scores. One came off of a time-out and the second came on throw from Pam, who had received the disc from Erica.
After two competitive losses in a tough pool, O’School was on to its third game of the day. This game’s opponent was Suggah, a large group of players from Hawaii. Based on their antics both on and off the field during the game, this team probably started partying the day they purchased their airline tickets to Potlatch and probably still are partying. During their final game of Potlatch on Monday, Suggah played the first completely naked point I have seen in a while.
Once again, O’School was able to take a lead at the beginning of the game with plays that include a score from team new-comer Kelsey Pithoud. As the game wore on Suggah realized that if they were going to win there were going to have to put down there drinks and put in some of the elite players that were on their roster. O’School tried to hold on, but Suggah’s aggressive zone was effective, and although O’School was able to break it after a suggestion by Beth to change our poppers, eventually Suggah was able to ride the zone to a 15-10 victory.
Oh well, a perfect day one, and an un-perfect day two. Despite the day two difficulties, O’School played very competitively in a tough pool.
(web guy's note: I (Ian) wanted to add something else to this. After day 2, O'School was given the task of cleaning up the fields, all 60 acres. Local teams are often given "volunteer" tasks by the tournament directors, to keep costs down. It took us a couple hours, but thanks to strong leadership, we were organized well, and handled the challenge with grace and dedication, and I was proud to be part of such a fine team of people.
And afterward, our spirits undampened by drizzly rain or gazillions of pizza boxes, we had one hell of a party under two EZ up tents. I'll never forget it.
So after day 2 we were left with a 3-3 record and trying to determine where we would be seeded. Trying to determine what pool we will be seeded in and where in that pool is always one of the favorite topics of conversation after Potlatch’s second day. This year we even started a winner-take-all pool with a $1 dollar buy in to determine bragging rights, and the winner was . . . Clint! We were seeded D16 and our first game for day 3 was against Pants Off Dance Off. Also, during our second night at Potlatch we had a great “retirement” party for Ian that I will not re-cap here as Ian did an excellent job in his own email. All I will say is that the party produced a lot of smiles and laughs.
PODO is a group of early-to-mid twenty year old experienced ultimate players. On Potlatch's third morning they were a little down because they could not find their boom box. Evidently in their drunken stupor over two nights of partying, someone did not keep an eye on the team’s second most treasured possession. Although I soon learned, that the team possibly lost the boom box because they were focusing too much on the team’s first most treasured possession: their keg, which was in service (with a cozy around it to keep the beer cold) by 10 a.m.
The game started slow with a few turnovers and the team trading opening scores. Quickly after O’School tied the score at one, PODO scored again for a 2-1 lead. During the next offensive set for O’School, with the stall count rising and no one open, Andrew called out a time out and set up one of our more reliable plays. Out of the time out PODO placed a forehand mark on Andrew, which he had realized and in the time-out and he set up a play for Lisa to cut to the back of the end-zone. The play worked like a charm with Andrew hitting Lisa on a 40-yard strike to tie the score.
After we tied the score, things got very difficult. PODO turned their game up many notches and O’School was struggling to keep up. By half-time PODO was confident they were on their way to an easy victory and O’School was down 8-4 based on a lot of mistakes. At half time, Jon gave us a short pep talk and reminded us that we were still in the game if we could “clean it up.”
Slowly the second half started. O’School had two unassuming scores, but PODO was still relaxed when they scored their first point of the second half. Despite PODO’s calm, something had changed in the game except that PODO had not realized it. All of sudden all of PODO’s possessions became a struggle because of tough defensive plays like Clint’s handblock of a down-the-line forehand which would have been a score. O’School’s offense then began to kick into gear with scores by Liam, Gordon, Hannah, and Beth. Even Chris Gibbs, who had seriously strained a hamstring, was contributing and making big catches deep in PODO territory. Before PODO knew it, the score was tied and PODO was desparately trying to stay in the game, but it was too late. O’School just kept marching up and down the field. Whatever O’School did it seemed to work, including the game winning throw. With the count rising and PODO playing tough defense, Liam launched a hammer to the back of the endzone that Andrew was able to snag for the game winner and a big O’School come back.
In the second game of the day, O’School was matched up against one of Seattle’s well-known teams: Vince. Vince has been around since 1996 and we have battled them a few times with each team walking away victorious at different times.
Once again the game started with the teams trading points, and the score was tied at 2-2 when Hannah scored on an endzone isolation play. After this score Vince realized they wouldn’t be able to run with us, so they employed a wily zone to slow us down. This zone was tougher than it appeared. Although it bent in many spots, it held together enough to cause O’School problems. On the offensive side, Vince decided to go on a huck-only diet, and while at first they missed many, as the teams got deeper into the game their accuracy began to improve. Despite O’School’s best attempts to prevent the huck, Vince’s experienced handlers were able to create sufficient separation and had the skills to huck often and effectively. Even during this difficult game, which O’School lost 15-10, many of team’s members played well. Kathy and Gordon came up with some nice diving catches to keep the frisbee moving or for scores, while Caitlin was consistently open on her cuts.
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And as a great 2010 Potlatch ended, our spirited captains, Jon and Kathy, named Gordon “Rock Star” Baker, and Hannah “The Hannamal” Whal as our team’s captain’s award winners for the tournament.
Thanks to all the Olympia players who attended the tournament, whether you played for O’School or not, and thanks for all the support of our community. You’re the best!
"Put your entire team in the spotlight. Thanks to them, you're able to experience a level of success that you wouldn't have been able to achieve on your own. Remember that when it's your turn to help one of them out."