East Ultimate

Oct. 28 -NO Tournament This Weekend

I can't believe this.

In an email sent last night at 6:00pm, Harrison decided to bump the tourney that was supposed to be held this sunday back by one week, to next sunday, Nov. 5th.

For new players, this IS NOT how it works. TD's (tournament directors) have their crap together well in advance, communicate effectively with other teams as to what those teams need in order to participate, and have a clear conception of what their event will look like.

Harrison's building this from something minor and informal into something featuring live music and sponsors, which is ridiculous. It's a 12-team, one-day tournament.

More importantly, he says that due to "liability," he'll need "paperwork" from each team. He hasn't been specific yet, but rookies, I may be bringing you forms next tuesday that you'll need to fill out.

No tourney this weekend. Practice next tuesday and friday. Tourney Sunday, Nov. 5th. - Derek

Sunday Tourney

This weekend will mark the last official fall work we'll do as a team. After this weekend, as the weather starts to turn, we'll get together and play maybe once a week, when the weather's nice, all the way up to Thanksgiving; but those will be informal get-togethers more than they will be practices.

Sounds like there are TWO things going on this weekend -- a juniors tourney on Sunday, and a college womens tourney on Saturday. If you have to choose, be at SUNDAY, to which tourney we've already committed as a team. We'll have plenty of time to whup up on Kali in February.

The tourney will be an all-day affair, likely, at Village Greens Park, across the street from Creek HS, at the corner of UNION and DAYTON. (directions - map)

The captain's meeting will be at 10:00am, with the first round starting at 10:30. There's no word yet on specific gender ratios, but if you're a girl and play for us and can come, please come.

WE will LEAVE from EAST at 9:00am SHARP. Meet there at least 10 minutes before we leave. (Drivers, let me know who you are and THAT you can drive)

Bring the following things for a full-day tourney:

1. Cleats
2. one (1) RED t-shirt and one (1) WHITE t-shirt
3. Shorts
4. Raingear and warm clothes (just in case)
5. Sunscreen
6. AT LEAST two (2) quart-sized water bottles, full of water.
7. Game faces
8. One (1) can whoopass, to be opened when the situation merits.

There is no word yet on the schedule of the tourney; but keep the following things in mind. We're doing this to cap our fall season, to improve as a team, to get more experience and integrate rookies better than we have been able to so far, to have fun, and so on, and so on. We'll probably win some games. We'll probably lose some games. The outcomes, though, do not matter. If this is the first time you've heard it from me, get used to it: only ONE game matters during the 2005-2006 school year -- state finals, may 14th, 2006. Everything to that point is practice, including this tourney. It'll be fun, you'll be tired, we'll all be better players for participating. Awesome. NO PRACTICE FRIDAY!

See you 8:50am Sunday October 30th, in front of East. Leaving at 9:00. Game time 10:30. Bring everything on the list above. - Derek

Oct. 21 - Game Today At Colorado Academy

Oct. 13 - Practice Tomorrow Baby!

Think we ain't practicing tomorrow? Oh, we're practicing. I'm in parent-treacher conferences until 4, but will be out the door at 4:00:30 and will get to practice as quickly as possible. I want to spend the first half of practice on isolated skills and drills, running through lots of different drills for relatively short durations -- ie no santa cruz for 45 minutes. more like santa cruz for 15 minutes; I'll send the exact schedule to the captains later today.

I want to spend the second half of practice on broader offensive foci -- how to see the field, how to know when it's your turn to cut, how to work with other players to take advantage of open space. You know, the kinds of skills that transcend a specifc offensive set. If you've been busy with other stuff and are getting more free, now is a good time to come out to practices. There are teams clamoring at us to scrimmage, and we'll probably take them up on that starting in about 3 weeks. For playing time in those games, log your hours at practice.

Also, see the forwarded message from Kyle -- those of you who registered as UPA members in the spring get a chance to exercise your votes for the UPA board. Don't know any of the candidates? Gwen Ambler is awesome; she worked at NUTC, has been THE voice hyping college womens ultimate for the past several years, has lots of good ideas for the expansion of the game, and is way better than any of the other candidates (that I know. I don't know all of them.) -- Derek

Oct. 13 - Vote For The UPA Board

Board membership voting is running and as of now only 1% (about 200 people) have voted. Let's get the youth players voting. If they are members they can log-on and vote at: https://www.upa.org/members/login.php?. -- Kyle

Oct. 12 - Yesterday's Practice . . .

. . . was low in numbers but really competitive. We worked more on cutting, making space on the open side, and endzone. The D was so good in the scrimmage that we ended up working on break throws and dumps out of necessity! So many lay-out bids and D's. Coliin and David were the only newer kids out, and both played great, especially Colin's lay out catch and David's misread-turned one handed somehow catch on Goofy's long flick. Everyone had at least one sick play; Kit had some great cutting, Adam got a hand block, Goofy caught a blade flick huck from Neal, Sasha caught the last goal of the game by going through Tote's lay-out attempt, and Tote somehow pulled this Crouching Tiger move in the endzone to make a lay out catch that had just got D'd by the other team. He has about .ooo1 seconds to react to this D. Unreal. -- Tina

Oct. 4 - New E-mails?! Phone Numbers?

I found out today that some of the newer kids aren't on the e-mail list and didn't know about regionals. Guess we need to update the players list. Vets, tell the new kids to check the website and encourage them to come watch! -- Tina

We'd like to use an e-mail list to send group e-mails, but it won't work unless ALL of you visit the Forum and make sure your e-mail and phone numbers are correct.

For new players, sign-up for the Forum (the registration e-mails are working again) and then check your e-mail address.

If anyone finds something goofed up, post a message in the thread, and I'll fix it. Thanks. -- Mark

Oct. 4 - Awesome Practice!

GREAT job today East! For those of y'all that couldn't make it I'll fill ya in. After team warm-ups and a brief Santa Cruz drill, Adam saved us by showing up with the discs. We did the "complete the square" drill in groups of three. We had a talk about what "open" and "break" side means, which way the flick and backhand go, center stack with a dump, hitting the dump on 5, and talked about the "hockey stick" and making sure the stack wasn't on the open side. (everyone needs a bit more work on this) Then our KRISPY cutting drill to work on in cuts and long cuts to the open side. Then paired up for two bouts of first to 20 completions. Tote and D-rock won the first, who won the second? Goofy and Adam?

We started the scrimmage at 4:30, game to five, and it was windy. Adam still managed to pull it 5 yards into the upwind endzone. We stopped play some to work on the above talking points. People played awesome, I could tell some players made improvements since last week! (Jacob). Somehow both teams scored 2 up wind goals, one due to D-rock's sick grab past his defender for a goal. The fast break's were money today, with one sweet huck by Ned, great cuts from Batsford, Chris and Tote. New kids stepped it up by catching the pull and by starting to see the field space and make space and and take it. (Dunc) Goofy and Adam got open to the open side at will. It came down to universe point, 4-4 next point wins. White worked it all the way upwind only to have two close turns in the endzone. D-rock picked it up, sent a FULL FIELD huck to Tote who was wide open in the endzone. Tote watched in awe, and was so much in awe of how money the throw was that he forgot to catch it. That's ok, dark promptly got the turn and Tote scored the goal anyways. Great stuff. The new talent is impressive (did y'all see Ben's high grabs in the drills?) and is only going to get better! Yea East.

Hope too see all y'all and more out there next Tuesday, and I hope ladies are able to make it out sometime soon! Really, the boys don't smell that bad.

Hope to see some of ya this weekend as well!

--Tina

Oct. 4 - Regionals Sideline Etiquette

A little tourney etiquette since this is regionals and a big deal for us.

DO come, watch, cheer, hang-out. Do ask questions, chat it up with players from Bravo, Rare or anyone else between games. Do get on the field and throw and goof during halftime. If you went to JEM camp, do say hi to Catt: he really doesn't bite.

If we are in a game, be a little more cautious about casual chatting.... in harder games we really need to focus, and in easier ones we still need to support and talk to our teammates on the field. Stay out of Bravo's tent and out of players chairs, but by all means sit close by and cheer them/us on! (remember some of these guys/gals are still young college players, you might be on their team in a year or two!)

Sunday will definitely be the more competitive play.

Regionals Team Info From Kyle

This weekend is the UPA Southwest Regional Club Championships which will be held in Sedalia, Colorado (southwest of Denver). This is a great opportunity to check out some of the best Ultimate in the country in all divisions. Please forward this on to your players and encourage them to come out and watch. The top teams from Colorado will be battling for spots at the UPA Club Championships later this month in Sarasota, Florida.

The Boulder master's team (33 and older) Old and In the Way has been the runners up in their division for 4 straight years. Is this the year that they break through and win it all?

In the women's division perennial qualifiers Rare Air look to fend off the new Denver upstarts Box Lunch. Will both Box qualify for the UPA Club championship in their first year of existence? Does Rare Air have the ability to break in to the semifinals at the UPA Club Championships?

In the open division Denver's Sack Lunch will be looking to make their first trip to the UPA Club Championships, while Boulder's Johnny Bravo will be testing seeing if they have what it takes to make a run at the UPA Club Championship. They'll face a tough battle from the Santa Barbara Condors and San Diego's PBR Streetgang.

In the mixed division, the strong Colorado teams will be battling for two spots at the UPA Club Championships. Fort Collins' DTL, Denver's Bad Larry, and Boulder's The Answer and Boomslang will battle against the Los Angeles Gendors for an opportunity to head down to Sarasota.

Not only will this be a great chance to watch some great Ultimate in your own backyard (Regionals is only here in Colorado every third year), it is also a chance to heckle all of the coaches in this league that will be playing in these games. In addition, Broomfield HS may be competing in the mixed division. So come by and support Colorado Ultimate!!

Pool play games on Saturday & Bracket play and Championships on Sunday

Field Location & Directions

- Kyle Weisbrod (UPA Youth Director & Bravo Player)

Regionals Oct 8 & 9: This Weekend!

For those of y'all that went to Colorado Cup, the level of play this weekend should be of a higher level as teams have 2 months of practice and conditioning behind them. If you can only make one day by all means come on Sunday, and the match-up for the weekend should be Bravo-Condors. (Bravo beat them for the first time last year in an incredible game). I'm not sure what to expect out of the womens division; it has been a little weaker than the guys but I'm not taking anything for granted this year!

Check out the website for schedules

This is a GREAT tourney to fire us all up and to showcase what Ultimate is about to newer players. Its great to for the Vets to see the level that this game gets taken too. -- Tina

Sectionals: Bravo and Rare Win!

Bravo and Rare move on to regionals. Rare looked good, even without Tina (who put a friend's wedding ahead of ultimate?!).

Despite beating every other team at the tournament, Bravo looked shaky. These guys are too good to have discs bounce off their hands in the end zone. And when was the last time Colin pitched one out of bounds?

The mixed results might be interesting to those who played at GRUB - some of these teams were there.

Regionals are October 8 and 9 in Sedalia.

JEM Photos Posted

Mamabird has photos from this summer's Junior Elite Methods (JEM) camp posted.

What's it all about? Does Junior modify Elite? or does it modify Elite Methods? or do Junior and Elite modify Methods? It's a puzzle. But, from all reports, a great experience.

Club Regionals This Weekend: Sept. 24-25

The games at the Columbine Polo Grounds - same place as the Colorado Cup. Very nice fields, accessible by bike, and good views of the mountains and mountain-sized homes.

Pools, schedules, scores:

• Open
• Women's
• Mixed

Directions:

Games at the Columbine Polo Club

By Car: Take Santa Fe south to Mineral, turn right, go through one stoplight, and it's your next right. It looks like a gated community. (And it is. There's supposed to be someone in the gatehouse to let you in.)

By Bike: South on the Platte River Greenway until just past the turn off to the Carson Nature Center (in South Platte Park), cross the bridge to the west side of the Platte, at the next intersection, take a right, follow the big sidewalk/bike path west along Mineral (there will be a lake on your right) until you reach the driveway into the Polo Grounds.

The Google map will give you driving directions. For bikers, moving around on the satellite view may be useful to show the turn off from the Greenway.

Ultimate is the Best

A link from Canyon. Thanks.(?)

Dance Like Nash: Part Two

He's gone, but his style lives on!

Alums, Practice, and East Ultimate

I hope everyone's enjoying their first day back at school. CA doesn't start for another two weeks. Have I told anybody that yet?

I hope you saw the fliers up around school, I hope you're wearing some of your East Ultimate stuff, I hope you're talking up younger persons and indeed all potential new recruits about practice tomorrow.

Some reminders: bring new people or groups of people to practice tomorrow, which is at 3:00 at City Park. For YOU to do -- bring some EXTRA lights and darks in case some freshmen don't have them. Talk to at least 5 people today and tomorrow about joining ultimate.

Also, I meant to use last Friday's practice as sort of a metaphorical crossroads time with the graduated seniors, but then no one showed up. Sigh. Now I have to do it over email.

Graduates -- I need a few unconventional things to be on your minds as you start thinking about/actually do leave for college:

1. Send me your new email address, the one you'll check at school -- I'm starting an alumni email list so that in May when your school's done and we're gearing up for the state championship, I can recruit your continually developing skills to help coach players from your alma mater. (Did you know that "alma mater," even though I don't speak Latin, translates into something along the lines of Soul Mother?)
2. Keep me abreast of how college is going, and how college ultimate is going, wherever you are.

More to the graduates: this practice tomorrow is very important to East Ultimate as an institution -- it's the first practice of the new year, and as hard as it will be for those non-graduates who are also reading this, it's important for you graduates NOT to be there. I've had several generous offers from departed seniors and others to help out guiding the team, but I've had to turn them all down for the time being. Since you will not be allowed to play in States next year, we will have to find a way to compensate for your absence.

There will be some notable absences. Where would have been last year without Jimbo's D, Batsford's ups, Hessler's throws, Jules's speed, Maggies ability to sky college guys, Duncan's cutting, Nash's "stories," or Steninger's headgear? The reality of the situation is that we won't have access to your abilities at States, and we're going to have to spend all the time between now and May fnding ways to deal with those losses. In order for those still at East to grow into the huge shoes they'll have to fill, they will need to feel your absences in a very palpable way, and they'll need to feel that from the very first day of practice.

This dictate is mostly geared toward the beginning of the season, when it would be the easiest for the returning players to lean on you departed seniors and the familiarity that your presence and skills provide. But I -- and the team -- need those returners to begin the process of stepping up to fill roles they have not yet been asked to play as soon as possible. You hear me, returners? You need to be teachers, of course, but you also need to be growing a lot yourselves. Just because we lost the players we could count on to always sky the opposition and bring down some swilly huck for a goal when w needed it most doesn't mean that we don't NEED that kind of player. That's what stepping up is about.

Back to the graduates: I will need you in May, and possibly later in fall, around Thanksgiving break; at those times the team dynamic will be more stable and secure, and all players -- rookies and returners alike -- will be able to benefit from your presence and instruction. Your presence at the first few practices, though, could have the opposite effect, and I'm afraid of that.

And, by the way, these admonitions are only limited to on-field practice time. I hear we're having some get-together friday night, for example. You all are part of the East Ultimate social dynamic that has carried us to glory before, and we don't need people to step up into social roles (particularly not into the role of dating your teammate) in the same way that they need to step up into on-field roles. So, you're of course welcome at any official team social event; I have a feeling they'd be less fun without you.

Since I may have already missed my opportunity to say goodbye to some people, and I know others are leaving soon, know this: you made this team and its success possible with your leadership, friendship, and dedication. I'm eternally grateful. And, fun times await you in college. Beware.

The rest of you, I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, when a new incarnation of East Ultimate begins to take shape.

Photos From States & Colorado Cup

Lakewood has posted some (unfortunately miserably presented) photos of States, starting with the East game. The images are so big that you can see every bright red strand of Goofy's hair. Terrifying.

Ginsburg has posted some Colorado Cup photos. There's some nice shots.

Evergreen Hat Tournament

There's a hat tournament in Evergreen on August 28: http://coloradopowder.com/ultimate.html

9am is player sign up, 10am names will be drawn. Bring a white and dark shirt and a container for liquids.

Rare & Bravo Win Colorado Cup

Are these guys great or what?

GRUB Finals Photos

There's quite a few photos of people you know - Tina, Steven (is he laying out or falling?), Richter, Beau, & Rupert (who scrimmaged with you at RMI)

Colorado Cup This Weekend!

The Colorado Cup is this weekend, and it is a great opportunity to see some of the very best players and teams in the country. If you weren't there last year, expect to be blown away.

Play runs from 9:30-7:45 on Saturday and 9:00-4:15 on Sunday. The showcase game, scheduled for Saturday at 6, is between Tina's Rare Air and Schwa from Portland.

The tournament is at the Columbine Polo Grounds, a great place to picnic. The fields are green, the view of the mountains is lovely, and where else can you see homes that are bigger than many shopping malls?

The Teams:

Open

• Death or Glory (Boston, MA)
• Johnny Bravo (Boulder, CO) (Derek, Steven, Colin, Richter, Bo)
• Doublewide (Austin, TX)
• Kaos (Santa Cruz, CA)
• Sub-Zero (Minneapolis, MN)
• Machine (Chicago, IL)
• Rhino (Portland, OR)
• Sack Lunch (Denver, CO) (Jeff Berget - Lakewood coach, DSYUL organizer)

Women

• Lady Godiva (Boston, MA)
• Rare Air (Boulder, CO) (Tina)
• Schwa (Portland, OR)
• Skyline (San Francisco, CA)
• Home Brood (San Francisco, CA)
• Zanzara (Houston, TX)
• Safari (San Diego, CA)
• MOJO (Michigan/Ohio Combo)
• Box Lunch (Denver, CO)
• Bait (Minneapolis, MN)

Directions:

The Tournament is at the Columbine Polo Club

By Car: Take Santa Fe south to Mineral, turn right, go through one stoplight, and it's your next right. It looks like a gated community. (And it is. There's supposed to be someone in the gatehouse to let you in.)

By Bike: South on the Platte River Greenway until just past the turn off to the Carson Nature Center (in South Platte Park), cross the bridge to the west side of the Platte, at the next intersection, take a right, follow the big sidewalk/bike path west along Mineral (there will be a lake on your right) until you reach the driveway into the Polo Grounds.

The Google map will give you driving directions. For bikers, moving around on the satellite view may be useful to show the turn off from the Greenway.

More Information:

• General information
• Pools, schedules, and the always useful field map.
• Women's scores, Open scores
• A preview thread on rec.sport.disc

Mamabird Highlight Video

Great plays but better with your own music. According to Mambird:

Recognize this truth: master filmmaker Rabbit has created the best ultimate highlight video [mp4], EVER! Follow the team through the 2005 season, from a rained out Presidents' Day in San Diego to a vicious 15-14 loss to Brown in the national championship game.

Thanks, Harrison

Team USA Wins Gold

They played at the World Games in Germany and beat Australia in the final game. And that's all the news on the upa site.

College Nationals Finals & Semis Videos

From CSTV:

2005 Women's Semi-Finals: Washington vs. Colorado, Stanford vs. Texas

2005 Women's Final: Stanford vs. Washington

2005 Open Semi-Finals: Brown vs. Stanford, Colorado vs. UC San Diego

Open Final: Brown v. Colorado

Pickup Perpetration Preparation

Friday evening practice -- 6:30-8:30, City Park.

In addition to scrimmaging, we'll be doing skill-building drills, break-mark drills, agility drills, and so on. Come get better at ultimate so you can wreak destruction on the pickup scene. -- Derek

July 8, 2005 - Free Kali Camp

Hey all, So unfortunately, the numbers were not quite there this year to run a full women's side of the JEM camp this summer at CU.  However, I still think the camp is a fantastic opportunity for high school girls in Colorado to play with and against other top notch girls from the state, while experiencing what college ultimate is like at CU and getting top notch instruction from local players.

Here is what we're going to do:

We are going to run free, day-time only clinics open to all Colorado high school girl's ultimate players the same week that the camp was scheduled (August 1-5). The number of clinics we hold will be based on how many players are interested. I'd like to do at least two, but more may be possible based on response.

These clinics will be intense, not low key affairs like the Thursday throwing. They will be run just like I run Kali practices during the season, and the numbers will likely be supplemented with local experienced players.

The rough schedule (subject to change)is: 9am  Cleats on for morning warm up 9am-12pm Morning session (skills focused) Noon-2pm lunch break and rest 2pm-5pm cleats back on for afternoon session (scrimmage focused)

Instructors will likely include Mike "Whit" Whitaker (that's me, Kali coach), Adam "Chicken" Simon from Bravo/Mamabird, Kelley Kneib from Box Lunch, and Robin Hamilton from Box Lunch among others.

Again, these sessions are FREE.  As such, we won't be providing anything except for field space and lots of high quality instruction.  So, just like for tourney weekends, plan on bringing food and water for a day of playing (there may be an option to pay separately for camp meals to eat with the boys as well as an option to participate in the evening camp activities, I'll check on this if there is interest)

The skills covered on each day will be different, so you are encouraged to attend as many as you can and just commute from home each day.

PLEASE, respond to me at whitakmb@colorado.edu if you want to attend any of these sessions and I will put you on the list.  Let me know how many you would be interested in attending and what days work best, and I will try to accomodate as many of you as possible.  All of the instructors are volunteering to take time off of work to help teach you all ultimate skills because they love the game and love teaching.  I need to know if we have enough interest to make these FREE clinics work.  Tell your friends.  I want to have enough to have good scrimmages in the afternoons.

I'm very sad that we couldn't pull off the full women's JEM this year, but I'm hoping that this free version will give you a good taste of what the camp would be like, while still giving you the opportunity to play intense ultimate against other Coloradoans while receiving top notch instruction that will make you better players for your coming high school or college seasons.  Hopefully, we'll have enough interest to do a full fledged women's JEM next year.

Please take advantage of the opportunity and tell your friends -- Whit (Kali Coach)

July 6, 2005 - 5280 Pickup Review

So, tonight, instead of hanging out at a pool with my friends, I decided to go play pickup. 5280 Ultimate has pickup games "after 5:30" on Mondays and Wednesdays every week, despite weather (or so I'm told).

East had a good showing (Tote, Little Tote, Hot Pants Nash, Goofy, and Chris), which made it a lot more fun than it potentially could have been.

The people seemed nice and spirited, rules were enforced on occasion, but when something was called play stopped immediately; it really seemed like they pretty much all knew what they were doing. Like Gottlieb said, the skills were (for the most part) there, but the desire and dedication (not to mention speed), were a little lacking. (I really can't talk about speed, cause I got beat several times by this chick who was like 20 years older and a much better cutter than me... oh well.)

All in all, it's a pretty good game of ultimate, minimal strategy (heard someone call for a stack maybe twice), but a good place to work on skills (I got to pull like 5 times!!!). The distance is the killer; I have yet to check out Wash Park and Sloans Lake, both of which are substantially closer than this place. Check it out for yourself, I am planning on heading up there in the future, so just give me a call. -- Brenna

P.S. If you are going by yourself, I recommend taking Leetsdale southeast to Mississippi, take Mississippi east forever (past Chambers) to Lewiston, take a right, the field's about halfway down the block on the left... look for the discs.

(Map - directions)

P.P.S. I just wanna give a shout out to Tote, who scored the first 5 points (or so) for our team. That's an estimate, not an exaggeration. Also... if you want the disc, don't play dump.

P.P.P.S. Be prepared to run a lot. There is literally no time in between pulls (as there is no strategy to discuss), which means that if you are planning on playing for most of the game, be ready to keep running, and just watch as your elderly counterparts get more and more tired.

July 4, 2005 - Why You Should Play Pickup

So, last night I ventured out to check out the pickup scene at Sloan's lake. Saw Jimbo there, along witht Tina and Steven. Didn't see anyone else. I realize Sloan's lake is hella far from most of you, and I don't really begrudge your not going. But you should make it out to Wash Park most mondays (not tonight, for obvious reasons) at least, and really, over to Sloan's lake as much as possible. Here are a few reasons why.

1. The Creek kids do it -- and it's why their skills were some of the best in the state. It's why they had like 5 or 6 people who could throw on a level with Hessler. The way they got so good over the course of a single year was by playing in this extracurricular format. How did that happen, you ask?

2. Pickup is really the only opportunity of its kind that you have in this *&^%& city. When I was a lad in madison, I'd practice with my high school team all the time, but wouldn't get all that much better. We'd cruise to State "championships" (beating the other TWO teams in the state handily), but what we'd really look forward to was summer league, the only place our skills grew. Because, you see, in summer league we'd get to compete against players who were a.) ADULTS, and b.) MUCH more skilled than we were. You remember my chagrin at seeing you barred from the Denver adult summer league -- and you all know that youth summer league is not the same thing because all of the players are relatively even, or at least not SO MUCH greater than you that you can learn much from them. Also, as people have pointed out, DSYUL becomes a look-at-me huckfest much of the time -- which is fun, but not really educational.

By contrast, pickup last night featured some relatively young 6'4" guy. He was okay; not great, but still, it's not every day that you have to try to sky someone that much taller than you -- and trying makes you better. Also, there were 4 current or former Bravo guys out there -- trying to cover or get open on those guys will make you better really fast. If you're looking for a real challenge, Harrison was talking about having gone up to Boulder to pickup with their summer league and play against the CU guys. Playing with and against people who have some additional advantage over you is how you improve.

3. It's really fun. They run no offenses, and have, it seems, no strategy. Along with really experienced people, you tend to find beginners as well -- people who don't know what a force is. That gives you a lot of freedom. Your throws will be good, there'll be someone on your level to face off against, you get to practice running and jumping a lot because people's throws get away from them, and you get to play against a much different kind of player than you usually do -- this is the big point -- you get to see players who have played the game much LONGER, but are old/out of shape/lazy enough so that you should dominate them physically. What you'll soon discover is how much of the game does not require being in shape -- those people will beat you, and beat you, and beat you just by knowing some secrets about field space. But by getting beat, you'll learn those secrets, too, and when you combine that craftiness with actual fitness, you'll be unstoppable.

4. You get a shot at real glory. Who cares if you skied some high school player in a summer league game? Blake from Creek skied Steven for a goal last night. (in the interest of fairness in reporting, I'm not sure how hard Steven was trying -- he scored on me 7 or 8 times, it seemed, broke my mark at will, and so on.)

5. Did I mention this already? It will make you MUCH better. I noticed at practice last thursday while I was warming up with Jimbo (I didn't know at this point that he'd been going out to pickup) that he was reading the disc like a champ, timing his jumps right, catching like a receiver. Even his throws loosened up, it looked like. And that was only after a couple of times. I'm telling you, there's not a person on this team that couldn't benefit from trying to jump over tall people. ESPECIALLY if you're looking to develop and play at the next level, this will make your transition much easier. -- Derek

Ultimate On TV

Even slugs can get a summer ultimate fix. Beginning July 2, College Sports TV is showing lots of ultimate games.

If you get Comcast and are in Denver and have a TV, College Sports TV is supposedly channel 412.

June 30, 2005 - Captains

Here are the five elected leaders of the team:

Captains (not in order)--

• Sasha
• Nicole
• Goofy

Junta members (same):

• Tote
• Brenna

Congrats, all of you, on unenviable positions. Telling your friends what to do can be hard, but the primary responsibility for the success of the team next year rests on your shoulders. Thankfully, you have a several months to come to terms with said responsibility. We'll talk more about your specific jobs later on. -- Derek

June 30, 2005 - Leading & Following

The captains need non-captain support in order to do their jobs. When they say "run!" they need teammates to do it, otherwise their words become empty noise, which is bad for the team. Obviously, it's the implicit job of EVERY teammate to do what captains tell them to, but last year I decided to form a team junta -- the non-captain members of that junta had the EXPLICIT task of following every order of the captains immediately in the hopes that their quick and seemingly natural compliance would encourage other players to follow suit. What happened, though, was that Tina and I -- and Goofy in warmups -- had a much stronger role than I had anticipated in terms of giving the orders and running the practices, and so the junta became somewhat unnecessary. BY somewhat, I mean entirely.

Next year, though, that will change a great deal. My job at CA is going to compromise my ability to spend as much time at practice as I have the last two years -- I won't know how much or how substantially it'll affect my attendance until the school year gets closer to starting, though. Also, Tina's status for next year is up in the air. Having just gotten married, she and Steven have been planning to sell their house and spend a year travelling, which is enviable but would, you know, make her fairly unavailable as a coach. The bottom line of all this is that fairly big coaching changes are coming down the pike one way or the other.

What will NOT change next year are the returning players. We'll have a lot of rookies -- we'd BETTER have a lot of rookies -- but the personality of the team as shaped by the returners is strong enough that they will become more like us than we become like them. They will be assimilated. In order to build on what we did this past year, we'll need to have that strong personality at the top -- with less in the way of coaching presence, player responsibility for practices needs to increase all the way around.

This duty, of course, falls first to the junta, who will have a VERY REAL and VERY VOCAL role both in and outside of practice, but then it falls to every one of the returners. All of you will need to step up next year. Having said ALL of that, Every returner, though, will need to be on board with everything the team does. As the year gets going, you should feel free to bring suggestions and/or complaints to any of these 5 you feel most comfortable talking to, and those will be dealt with. -- Derek

Still Room In GRUB

In an attempt to make the Grass Roots Ultimate Benefit Tournament (GRUB) accessible to as many possible teams and players as possible, we have just added a third pool to the "B" division. That brings the capacity of GRUB up to 30 teams.

There are a few bids left to get in GRUB, but you need to send me your bids soon so we can make the additional logistical arrangements.

There is one bid left for a mixed team in the "A" divison at GRUB on July 30-31 in Boulder Colorado. See the web site for details:

All the details including a link to SAGE Community Partnership (the 2005 GRUB beneficiary) can be found at:

http://www.gru.org/tournaments/grub/

Thanks -- Baker (GRUB 2005 TD) June 30, 2005

Shiftless Summerlings!

I can't put up freaking results for the captain voting until you shiftless summerlings VOTE. We carried a roster of 25 last season -- if I wasn't clear, each of you gets a vote, graduated or not. Thus far, 11 people have voted. Pick it up! -- Derek

More College Nationals Photos

Matt Lane has loads of photos.

Mamabird on Day 2 begins here, with Colin playing defense.

June 15, 2005 - DSYUL Information

Hello Everyone,

This has been harder then I expected to set up this league. But everything is coming together, and I think things are coming along nicely.

I'm sending the rosters to the team captains," and your team "captain" will be contacting you sometime this weekend. If you have not heard from your team captain by Tuesday morning, June 21 please email me and I'll fill you in.

Just know that everyone is playing this coming Tuesday night at 7pm at the same fields they were at last summer. Kipling and US 285, Daniel Schaeffer Sports Complex. This is also where day one of the East Invite was held. I'll see you all on Tuesday at 7. -- Jeff Berget

Captains?

In the interest of hitting the proverbial ground running next year -- after all, we will have a roster loaded with geriatrics; everyone on the team, at this point, will be an upperclassman -- I'd like to get organized early.

Recruiting new players will be a big focus of the fall. By 'new,' I mean 'younger'. We gained both on and off the field from upperclassmen we added to the roster this year -- Jules and Jimbo and Josh and Hayley and Mary and Maggie and Duncan and Kit, to name a few -- but in order for this to become the dominant program capable of standing up to all of you studs in the alumni games to come in many springtimes hence, we need to get more YOUNGER players, too. Freshmen and sophomores, I mean. I think I'm digressing.

Before we can recruit, we need to have officers in place and a general team structure. The first step in this process is to elect captains. Class of '05, you've played with all the eligible candidates, you know the team, and you know our goals. You should have a vote in the team's direction.

Like last year, this is what I want you to do. Think back over the spring season -- think of the people who stepped up when we needed them, both on and off the field. Not only the people who sacrificed their bodies to get a crucial block, but also the people who said the words that we needed when we needed them, who were always supportive of their teammates, who took on duties outside of practice, organized get-togethers, and so on... the people who went out of their way to benefit the team. Those would be good captains. Because as any of last year's captains will tell you, being a captain on this team is not simply a figurehead position; it's not just being one of the people who flips before games. They did a lot of work that many people never saw, and they felt pressure that most other people were free of. Before you wish it for yourselves, you've got to know that being a captain is an honor, but it will also be very hard, sometimes crushingly so.

What I'm trying to say is, this isn't a student council election; it's not a popularity contest (no offense to any student/class council presidents we may or may not have on this team). The people you choose will have to be organizers, motivators, playmakers, and when you're being lazy and not wanting to practice, they're going to be the ones yelling at you to pick it up. Think about the people on the team who motivate you, whose opinions you value, who you can depend on... and give me your top three choices IN ORDER. And yes, it's fine to vote for yourself, although having been a captain myself, I'm not sure I'd ever vote myself into that position again.

So, start thinking and replying to me while the season is still moderately fresh in your heads. Who will take us to that coveted state title and get us ready for the first difficult-to-win alumni game next may? -- Derek

June 14, 2005 - Kali Clinic Thursday

Hey all, Just a reminder that we will be having the second Kali Disc Skills Clinic this Thursday 6/16.

The clinic will start at 6pm and will be held on the Kittredge IM fields on the CU Boulder campus. Please bring your cleats. Also, try to set a couple of goals for what about your throws you want to improve before arriving at the clinic. Having specific goals will help you to make better use of the limited time and will help guide the instructors.

Hope to see a bunch of you on Thurs.

Whit Mike Whitaker cell: 303-579-4198

GRUB Tournament In Boulder July 30-31

That's the weekend before JEM. Might be a good warm-up? The format is 4 guys and 3 ladies. For high school players it's $25.

More info: http://gru.org/tournaments/grub/

Sasha's interested

Tina's Wedding

It was Steven's wedding, too, but he wasn't sporting an East Ultimate armband!

Summer League Starts June 21 NOT June 14

To all DSYUL participants:

I wanted to touch base with you all regarding this summer's DSYUL. The league will start Tuesday, June 21st. I will send out another email next week telling you which team you are on, the schedule and any other important information.

Thanks,

Jeff Berget

Kali Skills Clinic Location Change

Hey all,

For this week only, the Kali Disc Skills Clinic will be held on the Observatory Field at CU (next to the Business Field off of Reagent Dr.) instead of the Kittridge Fields.

CU is hosting a GEAR UP event and Kali is playing a demonstration game at 6:45pm on that field. So, the clinic will be held before the game this week and then you can either watch the game or continue with skills work, your choice. Email me if you have any questions or concerns.

If you would like to receive updates about the Disc Skills Clinic, please email me so I don't have to email the general list every time.

thanks,

Whit

whitakmb@colorado.edu mike.whitaker@stanfordalumni.org

End-Of-The-Year Poll

There are more than 30 categories. You may use names more than once. (Word, OpenOffice)

You must:

1. Print it out.
2. Fill it out.
3. Bring it to the potluck on Thursday

Yes, you have freaking homework. -- Derek

State Photos

Creek has posted some really great photos of States - about half are from their game against East. Jill Kaplan is awesome.

Awards Potluck Location

The potluck will NOT be at Kit's. Instead the potluck will be held at 6PM Thursday in the Sage Hospitality Lounge at Johnson & Wales.

The Johnson & Wales campus is across the street from Denver School of the Arts, on the southwest corner of Montview & Quebec. (Directions to campus) The Sage Hospitality Lounge is on the first floor of the Hospitality College, just off the lobby. The Hospitality College is building number 11 on the campus map.

There's room on the quad to throw things.

Are we giving awards to people?

Trailer For Hessler's Documentary?

Looks a lot like East . . . .

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/o/rogersrj/

Kali Disc Clinics - Thursday Nights

Kali (CU's women's ultimate team) will be running a series of disc skills clinics this summer. They will be Thurs nights (starting 6/9) from about 6-7:30pm on the Kittridge IM fields on the CU campus.

These clinics are designed for women who are thinking about or are already playing college
ultimate including girls that play for local high school teams.
The clinics are free, will be run by Whit, Kali's coach, and will feature experienced throwers from the area who can help with individual critiques on throwing and catching. You can come and go as you please, no commitment is necessary. Bring your cleats. -- Whit

Mike Whitaker
cell: 303-579-4198
whitakmb@colorado.edu
mike.whitaker@stanfordalumni.org

College National Videos

UltiVillage has posted some very short videos of Zip, Beau, and others from Nationals.

Photos of Western Nationals

There's some nice shots in this collection and even a couple showing an East Invite jersey. (A group of pictures from a Creek game start here.)

And courtesy of Creek's Harrison there's more.

More Photos & A Video

Western HS Championship from Churchill H.S.: Movie, Photos

College Nationals (including the finals) & Eastern HS: Photos (unfortunately rather small.)

Diskcraft: College Nationals

Kali/Mamabird JEM Camp

It is also time to think about whether you are going to attend the Mamabird/Kali JEM Camp (July 31-Aug 5) and to mark the dates on your calendar.

Tina says " I talked with Catt this week, if you are a guy and want to do the JEM camp stuff and haven't, you need to get on it ASAP!   We talked about the camp format and it sounds like its going to be pretty sweet!"

Flier, application, medical form

Camp Ultimate - the one in Ft. Collins that Buzz was doing - has been cancelled.

Summer League

Applications for the Denver Summer Youth Ultimate League ("DSYUL") must be postmarked by June 1. The League plays June 14th through August 16th on Tuesday nights from 7PM until dark.

It's pretty informal and missing a few nights for vacations etc. was not a big issue last year. You will play on a team with at least some people from your own team and some from other teams. And you get a frisbee.

Joining only costs $30 (since you are all UPA members) unless you are a woman and playing the League for the first time - then it's only $15. If you design the Summer League logo, you get in free. (DSYUL application form)

Awards (?) Potluck June 9

The potluck is June 9. I think Brenna and Jimbo (and I hope Tina and Derek) are thinking about awards for team members. This doesn't mean you can't think of your own awards or send ideas to Brenna and Jim. (Or set up a poll on the brand spanking new forum.)

The tentative location is Kit's house. The reason the location is tentative is that they have no yard.  If you have a yard or are near a park and can offer to host the gathering, please let us know.

Brown Wins Men's Title

Ouch.

Mamabird loses 15-14 in the championship game of the College Nationals. (More)

Washington Beats Kali In Semis; Mamabird Squeaks Past Squids

Bummer about Kali. (More)

Kali swept its pool - its toughest game the first against Dartmouth 16-14. There's a good description on the UPA's website.

Kali beat down Brown (15-5) in the quarters but then lost to Washington in the semis.

Mamabird fell behind early and seemed unable to catch up to the UCSD Squids. The Squids took half 8-7, then pulled further ahead to 10-7. At 13, the Squids were still up 13-11.

Then, presumably with Catt having a coronary on the sidelines, Bird made a run, scoring 4 in a row and winning 15-13.

Lots of photos, by round

More photos

Women's Results and Brackets

Men's Results and Brackets

Cara Crouch and Josh Zipperstein Win the Callahan

Women:

1. Cara Crouch (Texas)
2. Enessa Janes (Stanford)
3. Rebecca Simon (Brown)
4. Nancy Sun (MIT)
5. Molly Doyle (NC State)

Men:

1. Josh Zipperstein (Brown)
2. Mike Natenberg (Texas)
3. Oscar Pottinger (UBC)
4. Beaufort Kittredge (Colorado)
5. Seth Wiggins (Oregon)

Brenna mentioned Zip's tip page earlier.

College Nationals This Weekend

As many of you know, the UPA College Championships are this weekend and Colorado Mamabird is going for the repeat. 

For all of you not lucky enough to attend, I have provided a link to the Score-O-Matic which will give fairly up to date scoring for every game at Nationals. 

The word is that they'll be doing some cool stuff with select games (our game against UNC is one of them) in which they'll have snapshots of every goal along with the numbers of the people who threw and caught the goals.  Anyway, check it out.

-- Josh "Richter" Ackley

May 24, 2005 - Ma Nash's Boy Is Not High

Wow East. I mean that's all that can really come out of my mouth (pre-verbal I suppose). You guys have throughly rocked my face off for the past two years. When I said that this is the most fun that I have had in my life I meant just that. Playing Ultimate with you guys was a huge part of that, but it's the people themselves that truly makes us a team. Three days before graduation you have 3 Seniors with assorted shades of pink in thier hair. That is team spirit.

This is the tightest bonded group of people that I have ever been involoved in. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it. Everyone on this team knows that they are loved and needed. Not just on the field. What other sports team eats lunch together EVERYday? What other HS sports team studies together? What other HS sports team has the type of parties we have where everyone has a fantastic time? No one.

This team is full of such great people. Not players PEOPLE.

A story: When I got home on Sunday night I sat down with the biggest grin of ALL time on my face. My mother looked at me and asked almost condesendingly "Are you high?"

All I could do was look at her and laugh. My only verbal response was "No, I just played my last game as a member of East Ultimate, and I'm comfortable with it." And that was the honest truth. I am absolutly fine with the way my Senior season ended. In hindsight, sure I wanted to come back in that Grandview game and go on to be Champs. But I'd take one practice in the most God'awful weather of all-time with you kids than a thousand shots at that trophy (I'll win one with Mama.) The friendships I've made are ones that I wouldn't give up for anything in the world.

Along the way I've made a complete and total ass out of myself, but don't tell Hayley (sorry babe I had to), I've made incredible friendships and learned so much about myself. I pushed myself when I was hurt (repeatedly) becuase I knew that everyone on this team would do the same for me. I hope that everyone who read this email gets the signal loud and clear; you guys are the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I would have tried to say all of this at our circle time yesterday, but i wanted to avoid a long drawn out mushfest and I'm spent.

Love,

(Ma Nash's boy, Underwear-go-outside-the-pants Man, radio #4, your friend)

Matthew Kyle Nash

May 22, 2005 - Tina Is Getting Married Next Week . . . And She Has This To Say

Yo team!

Steven and I had a bike-ride and dinner hang out where I thanked him for being so understanding about the fact that my head has been somewhere else even though we are getting married in two weeks. But mostly we talked about East...

So for those of y'all that don't know him, Steven played at Amherst high school, one of the bastions of HS Ultimate.

He said it was pretty awesome that we were able to stay in the Grandview game and come back even though we were down, and that he felt like part of that was due to our sideline support.

He talked about how cool it was that we rushed the field and how great our psych was in the Broomfield game in particular. Also in reference to the Broomfield game he talked about how well our leaders played, how they got block after block in the endzone, how the whole team played out of our heads to win that game. He thought we played especially well for a second-year team, and observed that the team has made tremendous progress since last year.

I was already proud of y'all, but it was still cool to hear someone else talk about how we represented! We also talked about how invested I am in this team and why that is. It was really good for me to have to articulate it and process through it...its stuff I'm not so good at saying out-loud in the moment! So here it is now...

I want y'all to know that you all remind me of why I play this game, and what the game is about. You all play with joy. You are all on this team cause you love each other, and that is what is important. The wins are all the sweeter and the losses not as bad because of the friendships you have with each other. You aren't scared to be silly, in fact you take pride in it. You like the Darth Vader theme song. Your support is unconditional, and when someone does something good you spontaneously erupt. You practice unpractical things like thumbers and lefty backhands and then prove to me that they can be practical. You force me to question my assumptions and remind me that I still have a lot to learn about this sport. You inspire me to be a better player and teammate, and I hope I can bring a little Krispyness into my own game this season.

Thanks for all this, East! It was an incredible season. The groundwork has been set. Seniors should be proud of their part in this. The program is gonna do nothing but get stronger.

See y'all at the dinner in a few weeks! Steven took a few pictures, I'll try to get them on the website before we leave on Friday.

Peace --Tina

States Info

States are Saturday and Sunday at Colorado Academy. We have the schedule. UPA's tournament page is up.

Tomorrow, we'll meet at 7:30 in the a.m. at East.  From there, we're caravaning to CA.

THINGS NOT TO FORGET:

1. Sunscreen -- contrary to what Adam thinks, it's supposed to be blazing hot tomorrow and bright sunshine all day.  Sunscreen helps to prevent dehydration, a major tactic we'll use to win.
2. Water -- the tournament will not provide any.  There'll be places to fill up, but we'll have to bring our own containers.  And not like practice.  Really do it.  Also, tonight, when you all get together, make it a water party.  Play slo-mo ultimate with cups of water.  Focus on hydrating.
3. Your uniforms.  nuff said. 
4. Rain gear -- even though sun is predicted, you know those forecasters.
5. Your cleats.  Jules.
6. Discs and cones. Hessler.
7. Your 'A' game.

We will have pool play only on Saturday (three rounds, no byes) with an hour lunch break at 1:00.  The exhibition game will be at 4:00.

Sunday will start with prequarters for the teams that finished 2 or 3 in their pools (top teams in each pool get byes straight to quarters while bottom teams will play round robin on Sunday).  finals are scheduled to start at 3:00 pm sunday.

Friday Plans

Food at Nash's (tons of free food, and there's even a place that we could play a game of mini), then hot tub/h2 at Adam's house at 6. Remember to bring a towel and bathing suit.

(Don't tell Hayley.)

Ultimate In "The Spotlight"

Nice job guys! Ultimate (and Jules) is on the cover of the East Spotlight. Okay. It's a small picture, but there's a larger one in the sports section.

Nice Work!

Yo team. Nice work today. We were focused on the drills, ran awesome O, and our D was looking more like its old krispy self. Nice start for the ramp up week to states!

Keep up the good focus and psych, and I'll see ya Thursday! -- Tina

Great focused practice. More scrimmaging Wednesday. -- Derek

Videos

The video advertising Mamabird's Beau Kittredge for the Callahan is fun to watch, even if what we really want to see is the one for Colin.

Creek has a video posted on their video page of "highlights" from the Invite. There are a couple plays from the East Ultimate game.

Tina On "Blood Makes The Grass Grow . . ."

So I just got back in town tonight from a pretty sweet trip in Mexico. I can't say that I didn't take a little mental break from Ultimate while down there, but I did think about East. As I was telling one of my friends about East this Mayan girl came up selling bracelets. I ended up buying 25 or so of them for the team, since in the past on my own team, we have all worn bracelets at the end of our season just as a way of reminding ourselves of our teammates, goals, etc. I think it's a cool psych thing.

Anyhoo, I took these bracelets to the Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza, a center of power in the ancient Mayan culture. I carried them into this specific temple area that is a big field with walls on either side with a podium at one end for the priests. There is an altar at that end as well. In this arena two teams competed, trying to hit a rubber ball through, well through these disc things with a small hole in them. The disc is on its end, high on the wall. They could only use their elbows, hips and knees to do this, and I mean, these discs were way up there.

These games were sacred rites and, at the end, the captain of one of the teams was sacrificed to the gods. (They chopped his head off.) Some archaeological scholars claim that only the captain of the winning team would be worthy for such a sacrifice, though there is some debate on this matter. I guess it was a huge honor to be sacrificed because it pleased the gods and brought good fortune to the people. Depictions of this game are carved onto the stone walls of the playing courts, along with animal gods eating hearts and the like.

I'm not exactly sure what the metaphor is here, something along the lines of power and honor and sacrifice for your team; mostly I just think its cool. And it gives new meaning to the "blood makes the grass grow...."

May 15, 2005 - Creek Finishes Last At Westerns

Looks as if Creek lost to Minneapolis South and Armstrong - both of which were 0-3 in pool play - and finished in a tie for 15th (out of 16 teams) with Hawaii Prep. Hawaii Prep was the only team Creek beat during the weekend.

The quarterfinal round featured exciting games and quite a bit of rain. Saturday's warmth gave way to cool breezes and morning rain Sunday, including heavy rain at times.

Cretin-Derham (4th at Mudbath) finished 5th. Rockhurst (7th at Mudbath) finished 7th. St.John's-Ravenscourt (2nd at Mudbath) finished 9th. Minneapolis South, though from the Midwest, was not at Mudbath.

May 14, 2005 - Saturday at Western Nationals

Creek had a rough day, going 1-3 (1-2 in pool play.) Creek's only win came against Hawaii Preparatory Academy which hasn't won a game. Creek, seeded 13th, can finish in 9th place. Sunday.

Creek begins with a game against Minneapolis South. Minneapolis South, like Hawaii, went 0-3 in pool play and has yet to win a game.

The Pacific Northwest ruled the day on the open side with Nathan Hale, Churchill, South Eugene, and the Northwest School all going undefeated and earning byes into the quarterfinals. The windy conditions for most of the morning led to many zone defense points, occasionally breaking into man.

Pool play highlights include Alameda's dramatic, come-from-behind victory over Armstrong, and the best individual match-up of the day (maybe the weekend), pitting Seattle Academy's Matt Knowles against St. George's Russell Street. Their efforts were perhaps not enough, however, as neither of their teams will be in the quaterfinals.

Rockhurst (7th at Mudbath - they beat us in our second pool play game) beat seed, going 2-1 in pool play and defeating Cherry Creek to earn a quarterfinal berth. The South Eugene Axemen had a successful day, going 3-0 in pool play. Solid defensive play from #7 Eli Friedman helped their cause.

St. John's Ravenscourt (15th at Mudbath - we were 13th) went 1-2. They, like Creek, are now playing for 9th place.

In the closest pre-quarter match-up, Cretin-Derham (4th at Mudbath) defeated Seattle Academy in a 15-13 barnburner, sending the locals to the consolation round. -- UPA site (with a few edits)

(more from UPA site)

Sasha On The Madison Photos

I was am confounded to see that, although there are two pages of Madison photos, there are NO PICTURES OF YOU PLAYING! Did you actually play ultimate, or just jump on each others' heads and wear twelve clothing layers and lie on each other? There are one or two pictures that show what appear to be a field, but I'm still wondering, not that it really matters. Whatever. We do what we want. Sick. -- Sasha

May 14, 2005 - News From Brenna

Well for us normal sophomores without senior boys, tonight is just a normal night. Have fun at prom, losers! I'm gonna be at home doing a puzzle with my parents. Tonight we're taking on the 1000 piece one of the pirate ship. Don't you wish that you could be there. We might even have milk and cookies. Suckers. Ah ah ah. -- Brenna

May 13, 2005 - Homework. Easy Homework

So some homework for y'all AFTER prom when you can actually think about something else.

Am I the only one who has just now discovered the pictures of the invite and Madison? WHEN THE HECK did Mini get up in the luggage stowe? What the heck is that in Adams mouth? How come our guys looks so good in girl's clothes? What is Mini doing to Chris's head? And Batsford looks so good in the wig? Our girls just look good. It took me a sec to realise that Gottlieb was wearing my shirt in that one and that his pants weren't just pulled down too far. And their are some awesome action shots, Jim, Batsford, Jules, Adam, Nash, Goof, Tote, Dunc the "flying" pictures and the focused throws. Most of our girls and often Hessler and sometimes Dunc and Nash together are in, well I'm not sure that I'd exactly call them "action" shots.

These pictures fired me up AND made me laugh out loud. And they remind me of why I play this game and love this team. You guys rock.

So check em out, even if you have already. I suspect we will have a few more to add after next week. After prom.

And BTW, for those of y'all going to prom hope y'all all have a blast! I know I sound like I'm back to being the legal parent again, but do be safe ok? --Tina

I'm Thinking Of A . . .

It's not for public distribution, but it's important. If you didn't get it by e-mail, ask another member of the team.

May 12, 2005 - Friday's Games!

It's true -- we have games. We're playing CA and DU at CA starting at 3:30 or as quickly as we can get down there. This'll be a nice warm-up heading into States.

(directions)

May 10, 2005 - Tuesday Plans

Good practice Monday -- focused and intense. Bring that same mentality tomorrow. It's "supposed" to be 50 and raining, so dress accordingly. We play our best in foul weather.

(I'm an English major and thus get to decide how to spell Mcflugan. It's true. We all got a little certificate along with our degree.) -- Derek

May 10, 2005 - Physics, Frisbee, & Maggie's Unknown and Completely Amazing Skills

So Mr. Colacino, who teaches the impossible class known as physics, said that we could come on Wednesday to play with the AP Physics students during 8th period. Of course we couldn't play against them because we would slaughter them and leave them begging for mercy.

So, if you can come to the South Lawn on Wednesday that would be great although you wouldn't be able to be excused from class. If you have a flexible teacher, then I could probably come and get you out of class in the first few minutes of class. Because I have so many amazing abilities that sometimes I don't even know what I'm capable of. -- Maggie

May 7, 2005 - College Regionals

Pogo wants to put out the invite to East to come down and watch some of college regionals next weekend.She said they would love to have some fans cheering them on! It's down at the Air Force Academy north of Co Springs, both mens and womens, and will feature some good college teams (most from CA or CO).

The women's division only has ONE BID, so its do or die time for the Kali girls.

Mamabird has competition -- the notorious Black Tide of Santa Barbara and perennial losers UCSD will putup substantial fights. Also, the fact that Mamabird's banged up and there'sbeen a lot of smack-talk about how they can't win without Parker will make things interesting. You should definitely go watch, particularly if the weather doesn't suck.

There is sure to be some good ultimate played. Sunday morning would be the best time to go.

-- Tina & Derek

(UPA information on the College Championships)

May 5, 2005 - PARTY TIME!!!!!

Here's the plan, as of now: I have an AP test Friday afternoon, which might not be out until after school is over. Since this is the case, I figure people can come to my house around 3:45-4, and we'll have snacks and such, and dinner will arrive later.

Things to be brought:

• Drinks (especially, but not limited to, bawls... which is definately not as funny typed.)
• Veggie Plates
• Any candy-type desserts that are desired Anything else that is wanted...

Things (un-food related and for general entertainment):

• Games/Systems (I have another TV or two that can be used... not sure if we have ones that can be hooked up for simultaneous Halo play, but we can figure that out. I only have my PS2 with 2 controllers, but I also have a multitiap).
• Also, Lai, maybe some Smash action?
• Movies if wanted
• Tinfoil and Tape (Oh yes, come prepared, young padawans...)
• Other entertaining things to do, if they are so desired (and someone bring a disc for some intense street ultimate, where you actually score negative points from laying out (the courage factor is quickly overtaken by the stupidity factor. Besides, we don't want any INJURIES, now do we?)) -- Kit

May 2, 2005 - Sick Practice

A word about that extra intensity that I couldn't pronounce today -- When I say to dial it up, or dial it in, it means that you play the way you normally play, only BETTER. You make the same decisions, you just make them QUICKER. You run the same cuts you ordinarily run, you just go HARDER. You say the same words you ordinarily say, you just say them LOUDER. That last one's the big one: contrary to popular belief, a raised intensity level doesn't translate into a raised negativity level. You still cheer your teammates and support them when something goes wrong, just as they will support you. You just cheer louder. Everything's the same, just MORE SO. My legs are tired. Good running. Ice injuries, aches, and pains. We're being hard on our bodies. Treat 'em nice when you're off the field. See you tomorrow. -- Derek

May 1, 2005 - Did you throw today?!

Don't neglect to dress properly.

April 28, 2005 - Practice Makes . . . .

Nice practice (super ass cold) Thursday. That walk home was one of the most miserable experiences I have experienced. When I got home I had to ring the doorbell because my hands were too cold to turn the key in the lock. Builds character they say. Crappy character maybe, and a strong dislike of nature. -- Sasha

I was horrified to find that I was quoted [above] as saying "That walk home was one of the most miserable experiences I have experienced." I hope that I didn't really write that (although I probably did). Of course it was an experience I experienced, hence the word used. The experienced is redundant; the sentence should read: "That walk home was one of my most miserable experiences." There. Please forget that I wrote the first thing (if I did, which I'll leave uncertain so as to give myself the ever so slight benefit of the doubt). -- Sasha

April 26, 2005 - Madison Lost & Found

Still missing: Chris Wielga's snowboarding jacket and pants.

Mark Hughes had: a blue Ozark trail water bottle, a purplish Nalgene water bottle, "the boom box," two mini-speakers, a leatherette case full of music CDs, a bright yellow long sleeved t-shirt, Goofy's brownie container, and a fork. (Now, Hayley has what hasn't been picked up.)

April 24, 2005 - Sunday

The wind, if anything, was stronger today. The temperature, colder. Tote was incapacitated for our first two games with "labyrinthitis" and accompanying vertigo. (Thanks Dan Berry - a friend of the Gottlieb Family - for treating him and running out to purchase medicine.)

Despite the weather, we won two of our three games. We managed to move the disk successfully against the wind and our defense - always good - got tighter. Everyone played, and everyone improved. Derek and Tina were superb.

Although the wind seemed to pick up in the final game, the sun finally came out, and both team seemed to be having fun. We also had our first look at the "cockroach" offense.

At about 2:30, shortly after our last game, we were on the bus, headed to Chipotle for our donated dinner and hit the road.

April 23, 2005 - Saturday

Windy and cold made for "brutal" conditions today but doesn't seem to have dampened anyone's spirits. Our day finished earlier than we had expected and rather than wait two hours for dinner, we headed back to the hotel for a swim, pizza, hair braiding, and a team meeting. The team went to bed at a reasonable 10 or 10:30 PM.

Derek and Tina were awesome - on the field and at the hotel.

A fact to file away: In Wisconsin, the number one reason for emergency room visits is bagel knife injuries. And today Nick Hessler increased that number.

On the bright side, he's fine and not in any pain; the urgent care clinic is walking distance away from the fields; the PA is a former ultimate player; and we got the rundown on skiing at Tyrol Basin.

On the negative side, Nick has a few stitches; it happened before he got to play at all; and he is banned from playing for the weekend.

Nick's comment: "I loathe the irony of it."

April 22, 2005 - We're In Madison

We had enough food. Dinner was great, and we even have leftovers for today. Thanks for all the snacks for the bus. Aside from the sodas and marshmallow treats, we're in good shape for the ride home.

"I feel like am still pressing the Game Boy buttons." - Ned

"My most productive par-tee." - Brenna

"Sasha! We miss you in your extreme crispiness, but we're still keeping it "extreme gangsta."" - the gang, except Tina

On the injury front: We hope "raving" and game boy appear to be appropriate therapy for ankles and shoulders, respectively.

We arrived just before 10PM Madison time after a surprisingly pleasant bus ride. We ate dinner in the "breakfast nook" part of the lobby, had a team meeting, and went to bed.

A parent's knowledge of these things is always limited, but it seemed to be a quiet night. The hotel was remodeled about year ago and seems new. The manager - apparently a sensible sort - assigned us a block of rooms at the end of the first floor, adjacent to the pool.

During the ride the Tina & Derek met, and then summoned each player to the front of the bust to discuss strengths and goals for the weekend's games. The team played "my cow," celebrated Elise's student council election, watched Indiana Jones and The Empire Strikes Back (unfortunately, the VCR works perfectly), played Mafia, played with Game Boys and Jules's chess board, and napped. Brenna seized the computer to update her page and the player bios. The driver stopped every couple hours at rest areas. We picked up the relief driver at the Omaha Sapp Brothers - the typical truck stop shop gave us all a chance to gape at the chromed lugnut covers, Gov. Schwartzennegar bobbleheads, and other assorted good stuff.

UPA Tournament Page, Madison Mudbath Page

April 16, 2005 - East Invite Today!

This weekend East Ultimate hosting what may be the biggest high school tournament ever held in Colorado.

The prizes for the winning team? 25 "East Invitational Champions" shirts made by VC -- an Ultimate apparel company!

In addition to the opportunity to see high school teams in action, Saturday night will feature a "showcase" game between last year's collegiate champions and one of the best clubs in the nation.

More information is on the Invite page.

Colin Gottlieb (national champion with CU) will be playing against his brother Derek Gottlieb (national champion with CUT)? Now, that's sibling rivalry.

April 15, 2005 - Crepes Served With Mac & Cheese From A Box (Or BBQ actually)

Nicole's house on Friday. As Adam says, "East Ultimate only dines on the most delicate of delicacies."

Nicole will provide the grill, burgers and some hot dogs...you guys need to bring drinks, buns (hamburger and hot dog), BOCA burgers (for the commies) condiments chips, etc.

Sasha made this sick stencil for t-shirts (kind of like the blue devil ones kali made) so if you want to "be part of the team" bring like 3-4 dollars to buy one... more money if you want something else on'um...

April 7, 2005 - East 15 Arvada West 10

There are many props to be given, including Adams game point handblock, Mini's huge sky in the endzone, and Nicoles sweet goal! Way to comback after a less than firey start! -- Tina

Elise beating the guy with the block, dodging him, and then a couple throws later scoring. Hmm...what else? Neil eating up everything in the deep-deep. MINI BATSFORD skying two people in the n-zone, scoring, and then scoring a couple of points later.

In closing, my favorite thing from the game: When Gottlieb was just smiling and didn't have anything to say at the very end. -- Adam

It would take me forever to list everything, but I will mention Kit's SICK block...wow - Brenna

First of all, let me join the chorus of praise for the level of play yesterday, particularly in the second half.  Now that I've stopped smiling and have gotten a chance to reflect on what I saw, I finally have something to say.

On this team, great, solid play should not go unsung.  Goofy's sick layout D has been praised, as has Adam's goal-line handblock and Elise's bookends play; as usual, Hessler's layout grab in the endzone speaks for itself, Jules's forehand looks were sweet by and large -- all of those are MOMENTS of glory.  I haven't heard anyone yet praise Jim's defense, and that's a crying shame.  He layed out once, I think, but got several blocks, just by being where he was supposed to be and being aware of where the disc was.  Because he was in the RiGHT PLACE, he didn't HAVE to lay out for blocks.  That's fantastic.  Keep it up, Jim. - Derek

Thursday-Arvada West

Tomorrow, we go to play A-West. They'll be out there after 3:15. I know you get out earlier than that, but that gives you plenty of time to get there and warm up. It'll probably take 20-25 minutes to drive, just for your planning. Plan on leaving East around 2:30, since you get out at 2:05. Bring a WHITE and a RED t-shirt, and wear your white team shorts! Tina and I will meet you out there.

Directions:

I-70 West to Kipling, exit Kipling going North (Right). After 58th street Kipling bends left, becoming 64th Ave. There is a nursery/tree farm on the left after Oak Street; take the next left on Quail St. and park immediately to the right in the small parking lot. If you miss the turn on Quail the fields will be immediately to your left. Do not despair. Just take the next left on Simms and park in the lot there. (Google Map - directions)

"Sweet" Invite Prizes!

VC -- an Ultimate apparel company -- is sending 25 "East Invitational Champions" jerseys for the winning team at our upcoming East Invite tournament. They're sweet-looking!

E-mail Derek about Madison Mudbath

It's getting to be time to see how many people can realistically go to Madison.

If you play for East Ultimate, read the information and then e-mail me with one of the following three options:

1. I'm in.
2. I absolutely can't go.
3. I would be in if it didn't cost 200-plus dollars.

Also, if your parent would be willing to chaperone, it never hurts to be more supervised, right kids? Have them email me if they're interested incoming. -- Derek

Information About Madison

Pass this one onto your parents, too...

With mudbath coming up in about one month, I figure it is time to lay out exactly what kind of planning and preparations are in the works.

The MudBath is the closest premier juniors tourney to us (until the East Invite takes that distinction in the coming years) -- teams attending the Mudbath include top-ten high school nationals teams Rockhurst (from KC) and Madision West and Memorial (both from WI -- I'm an alumnus of West). Also coming are perennially strong Minnesota teams like Mpls Southwest and Cretin-Durham Hall (who produced the incomparable Sam O'Brien), St. John's Ravenscourt from Canada, and a host of others. Bar none, it will be the best high school ultimate tourney we'll play this year.

I would have liked in this email to be able to pin down some exact figures, but due to Coach USA's slow response time, we don't know yet what our best transportation option will be.

Madison is approximately 14-16 hours away by bus or car and the cost of doing either will be substantial in time and money. Flying is an option, as well, but the cost would be comparable, likely, and then we'd have to rent cars on top of that. Players (and coaches, and potential chaperones) would devote the friday and monday that surround April 23rd and 24th to this venture -- no matter which transportation option we end up going with, we'll be travelling those days. I guess if we flew, we'd be back, in all likelihood,late Sunday, but flying is really an extreme option, cost-wise.) If we drive, whether in a bus or by private or rented car, we would leave at the crack of dawn from East and arrive late that night in Madison. We would leave to return as soon as we were finished playing on Sunday and arrive back home sometime Monday morning.

While in Madison, we'd be staying in a hotel near the fields -- to keep costs low, we would only reserve three rooms: one for girls and two for boys, with adults in each room to supervise. With 12 bed spots and more players than that, players should plan to bring sleeping bags.

Cost -- I hesitate to put out even ballpark figures, given that we don't have all the facts yet, but our preliminary estimates, whether we're talking buses or planes,hover in the mid-200 dollars/person range, depending on how many people come. It would clearly be cheaper to take private vehicles, but the advantages to having professional drivers are pretty immeasurable. We're still waiting to hear back from Coach USA, and we're also looking into the possibility of renting a pair of 15-passenger vans for the trip. But I'm not sure how far down that price tag is going to go whatever we do.

We've been accepted to the tournament. Once we're in Madison, we're golden. Clearly, the big hurdle is the 1,000 mile distance between here and there. -- Derek

March 28, 2005 - Practices This Week

Here's the deal with practices this week -- lots of folks are out of town, but those that are around sound like they want to practice. I'm out of town, myself, but Tina will run practices Monday and Thursday. Monday's practice, because we just played a real long tourney, would be only a jog-stretch-throw practice, where we'd work on throwing and catching, and spend very little time running. Thursday's practice would then be a real practice. -- Derek

March 27, 2005 - The Best Thing About RMI

I think the best thing that happened to us all weekend -- except, of course, for seeing [that unpleasant fellow] yell at his own teammate for somehow ALLOWING [the unpleasant fellow] to get D'd by Nicole -- was that last scrimmage. I'm glad that our improvement as a team and as individual players had a chance to make itself so obvious.

I'm also glad that in each game we were able to refocus on ourselves, our goals, and our progress -- you guys fire me up. -- Derek

(more about Saturday at RMI , our goals and approach)

March 27, 2005 - To East, From Kali: Thank-you

Hey East,

In case you haven't heard, I wanted to update you on Kali's results at Centex last weekend. Centex is the most competitive college tournament of the year and will be similar in quality to nationals. On Saturday, we came out strong and beat Oregon 13-6. Just a month ago at President's Day, we had lost to this same Oregon team 13-2. We then played the central region favorites Iowa and lost a heartbreaker 13-12 after leading 12-8. In the next round, we were up 7-5 on Dartmouth when the rest of round was cancelled due to lots of lightning. The last round of the day was prequarters. We came out after the lightning round and blitzed MIT, dominating from start to finish and winning 13-4.

This placed us in a quarters matchup with Virginia, who was undefeated on the year. We came out and basically crushed them in every aspect of the game, winning 15-7. Then we played Stanford in the semis. Stanford is the current favorite to win it all and allowed a total of two first half points in 4 games on Saturday. We took half on them 8-7 and traded till 9's when they managed to pull away a bit after some execution errors and win 15-11.

Based on the most recent rankings, we lost to the #1 team by four, the #2 team by 1, and beat numbers 3 (by 7), 4 (by 8), 8 (by 9), and 19 (by 2). All in all, it was a fantastic weekend for Kali and we are very excited about the possibilities.

We are a totally different team than we were at Pres. Day and this is in no small part due to our scrimmages against you all. I just wanted to thank you all for scrimmaging us, for pushing our ladies to play at higher levels, and exposing our weaknesses so that we can work on them. Best of luck with your season. Kali will be cheering for you all.

Whit
Kali Coach

March 27, 2005 - It's Official: We Are Googled!

Our website has made it into the mainstream of the internet. We are the first listing for a google search on "East Ultimate." Does it mean anything? No. But it's still fun.

March 26, 2005 - The Western Intimidator

"Glorious in theory, throwup-able in reality." - Brenna

We also learned how to make a Western Intimidator (gack!). Here is Derek's "explanation":

Lou Burruss showed us how to put together what he referred to as "the perfect tournament meal."

"Alright," he said. "You order a Western Chicken Sandwich and a Western Double Cheeseburger, and then you put ‘em together. So from the bottom you've got bun, onion rings, patty, cheese, bun, chicken breast, onion rings, bun, cheese, patty, onion rings, bun." He called it the "Western Intimidator," and he actually finished the one he made.

If this seems like a good idea, for future reference bookmark this page. Derek's complete (heartbreaking) story,"Getting Your Priorities Straight," is a good read.

March 26, 2005 - Awesome Day At RMI

Anyway, today, if you were there, was great -- we played an up-tempo day and made great adjustments to a game speed we hadn't seen before, to new defenses, and to new offensive challenges. And, we battled our way to prequarters tomorrow. And when I say "battled our way," I mean the prospect of playing us scared Colorado Christian UNirversity so badly that all but five of their players failed to show. Forfeit!

We looked better, most of the time, than the scores indicated -- we tended to get 3-5 points on every team we played, which was great, considering our numbers and the fact that, you know, they're in college [and they were all men.]

Tomorrow -- if you are coming, and I believe we're picking up a few players we didn't have today, meet in front of East at 6:45 again. We leave no later than 7. I'll have directions for drivers who need them. I don't know exactly what the schedule is, but we will have at LEAST two games. The earliest we would be home would be about 2. The latest would be about 5 or 5:30. Sasha, Adam, and Josh -- email me about your plans. I THINK you're all in for tomorrow, but I can't remember exactly. (Directions)

If you played today, remember: 3 quarts of water tonight, and stretch before you go to bed.

And hey, Jules -- how about those cleats for tomorrow. I hear they make the game easier to play. Derek

March 25, 2005 - Revised (Friday) RMI Information

The TD says he's 95% sure we'll use the pre-set fields; and if we can't, they have backup fields.  So we're on.  Fire up, East.

Important times -- be AT east at 6:45am. We will leave for Ft. Collins at 7:00am.  Captains meeting is at 8, first round is at 9. 

Definitely driving: Maggie, Jules, myself, Tote's dad.
Maybe driving: Jim, if he could clarify exactly what he means to say; and Nicole, if people give her gas money. Maybes should show up, too with their cars, and if we don't need them, then we don't need them.

Directions are below. (More about our approach and focus at RMI.)

We'll be down numbers both days -- so far it seems that people who are out for all weekend are Goof, Hubbard, Batsford, Hayley(?) and Matt Steninger. But there are others who have various conflicts -- Sasha may only be able to play a half-day on sat. and will miss sunday; Adam will miss Saturday; Jim, as I recall, is iffy for Sunday...

The people who come will be ready to run a lot, and play a lot. It'll be a great deal of fun. This is what you need to bring:

• Sunscreen
• water containers
• Warm-up, long-sleeve clothes - LAYER YOUR CLOTHES!  Tights/long underwear, then shorts, then running pants.  long underwear, then long-sleeve, then short sleeve, then jacket.
• Extra socks
• A RED shirt and a WHITE shirt
• your cleats
• rain gear
• a hat to keep the sun off your head
• one can (12oz.) whoop-ass. That's one a piece.

March 24, 2005 - Batsford Gets and Loses things

To celebrate his birthday, Mike Batsford's friends rewarded him with sandwiches and cookies. His parents scheduled him for surgery. As Mike says, "I'm having my glands removed and my voice will certainly change."

March 24, 2005 - More RMI: Directions & Travel plans

I still need to know who can drive. Also, I know about Goofy, Sasha, Haley, and Jim not being able to attend one or both days -- if you cannot make it at all for any reason, I need to know pretty soon.

The captains meeting is set for 8:00 on Saturday, which means we're leaving from East at 7:00am. Yes, it's a weekend, and yes, it's early. But we love to play. We should be done playing in Ft. Collins by 4, and we should be back here in Denver by 5 on Saturday. Depending on how quickly we're eliminated on Sunday, we could be back by noon that day. But we won't know specifics until we're done playing Saturday afternoon.

Here are directions to the fields from the organizers:

From I-25: Get off heading west on Mulberry Exit # 269. Turn left on Loomis street. Loomis turns into Meridian once on campus. Fields will be on right once past the dorms. Park where you can find along Meridian.

I have attached two maps to help out with directions:

• This one shows what to do from I-25 to campus: http://www.map.colostate.edu/ftc.html
• This one shows the two big square red fields that will be used for much of pool play: athletic fields

March 23, 2005 - RMI This Weekend!

The best part of RMI is that it is a low-pressure tourney for us. We get to play teams that will be way more athletic than we are (college boys, in Brenna's words), and who have a stronger understanding of strategy than most high school teams we play. And, none of the results matter at all for us -- it is solely an opportunity to practice our strategies, our team psyche, and our sideline help.

And somebody has faith in us. Check out the pools and seedings.

As far as areas of focus, this tourney will help us with a couple of specific things. I want to use the opportunity to work on our defenses, and on offense I want to work on a fast-paced offense. Look over the packet I gave you and come to an understanding of how the FLOW is supposed to look. Pick one player and just follow all his arrows around the field. I hope this helps. (And don't think I won't be coming out with other playbooks also.)

March 21, 2005 - Kali at Centex

In case you were wondering, Kali did well at this weekend's Centex Tournament (the biggest women's tournament before Nationals), finishing 3rd.

One part of the tournament sounded familiar. Kali was up 12-8 against Iowa but lost. The tournament description mentions Iowa's "impressive mental game.

Pogo appears have had a great tournament, at least in terms of the fact that her name pops up in a couple of the tournament write ups.

March 18, 2005 - Wow! You are my Heroes!

You are my heroes.  It took Tina half an hour to recount all the ridiculous plays and all the heart that you displayed today.  Take the weekend off, and heal up.  I'll see you all on Monday. 

Seriously.  My heroes.
Derek

Yeah that was sick, it seemed like disaster was looming . . . but the rest of the team stayed focused and did their job. - Adam

Still in shock. Does this feel like deja vu to any of the other returning players? It was cold....We were down...It looked like we were out...Then we all got fired up and attacked like the Crazy Ultimate Ninjas that we are. I wish I could put my finger on it...

You see what happens when we decide we want a game? we go on something like a 7-1 run! That was all that I saw different in our play. When two of our key players went down we responded. We plain out wanted to put a beatdown on them and we did. We showed an amazing amount of heart. We played like a team possessed (howerver you spell it). Everyone did their part. There were some filthy D's (chris,mini,goofy,tote, the rest of the team), one hell of a defense (it reminded me something of a defense we had against Arvada West at States last year), and an offense that we just C-R-I-S-P-Y! how DO you say that in spanish? Chris you're my hero (but I am SO still going to Tote-not-Duncan Camp)

Hands still trembling - Nash

March 11 - Two Bruising Games

After splitting our team, we finish beating North (11-1) (getting beat up a bit in the process) and go down by two goals against Broomfield. When we reunite, we play Broomfield even but eventually lose by 2 (6-8). Bummer.

--I'm proud of the fact that we kept our heads and our spirit in that first game, especially the 9 people that had to play the whole game!

--I'm also psyched that we kept the sideline talk up and psych going even though we were down. Kum by ya and all.

--Nicole's sick huck to Batsford, Chris's sky in the endzone (again), Ned's hot D, Mary's cutting, Elise's scores, Nick and Batsfords defense (again), Adam's crazy blade flick catch, Nash's hustle on dump, Chris coming up throwing continue on dump, Tote's two amazing lay out grabs mere millimeters off the ground, Sasha's ups..... more keep coming to my head but I'll stop there. I do think we put out a lot of effort and ran hard on D, andthere were some krispy individual plays. -- Tina

March 11 - Reminder about PEM Camp (Tina)

Read mesage below. I will let Catt know that it is just because our team is ahead of the game and that we already know about "ultimate time", unlike the other rookie kids.

But if some of y'all are interested in going, get on it soon. There are limited spots. Especially those of you that are looking to go to CU!!

Hi, Tina,

Well, we've gotten decent interest for the JEM camp (we've asked those who are interested to email Jolian to get on the mailing list for registration materials). Oddly, though, we have almost no reply from Colorado kids. Were you (or Derek) able to forward the announcement to the CO High School list? Why haven't your kids contacted Jolian? Just wanted to double-check.

Catt

March 10, 2005- Kali Wins rematch 13-10

Sporting cool, custom-made Blue Devils jerseys ( - get it? Devils v. Angels? Blue v. Red?) - Kali took an early lead that we could never quite overcome.

Maybe it was skill. Maybe it was talent. But maybe it was their captain's eerie blue fingers.

Highlights from Derek:

1. How about Hessler's two-blocks-in-one-point-even-though-one-got-caught?

2. Or how about Chris's bookends play -- the sick ho-block followed by catching the goal?

3. or what about Jim's (and the others involved) perfect exectution of the dump-swing-huck to none other than Chris, I believe?

4. What about the time that Sasha was cutting in, and managed to turn around 180 degrees to track down Hessler's huck?

5. How about psyche blocks by Tote, Batsford, and many others?

6. How about Adam's hard-running, never-give-up, 1-3-3 mark?

7. Hey -- how about that zone offense? Sick!

8. And I know this didn't happen in the actual game, but it deserves mention -- Maggie skying Goofy? Sick!

March 9, 2005 - Camp Ultimate (Derek)

Look -- our area abounds with camps. This is affiliated with Tina's NUTC camp, using the same methods, ideas, and attitudes. In fact, though it doesn't use the name, it will be the very first NUTC franchise.

Subject: RE: 2005 Camp Ultimate
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 18:02:07 -0800

The Wright Life Sporting Goods presents 2005 Camp Ultimate June 25-30 on the CSU Campus. This will be a High School Ultimate Training camp for competitive players who want to take their game to the next level. For information on Camp Ultimate, please go to www.wrightlife.com/site/content/b/5 or click on Ultimate information and you will find the pdf file to download with camp and registration information. I also have attached it for your convenience. Please pass this information on to interested kids in your programs and email us with any questions. We are very excited to present this opportunity to young athletes who want to learn more about the game. thank you for your support and we'll see you at the HS tournaments this spring.

Holly Wright
The Wright Life
www.wrightlife.com

[I think maybe the difference between this camp and NUTC is the extreme crappy-ness factor associated with the name "Camp Ultimate." Most definitely not crispy. - Sasha]

March 6, 2005 - Ramen & Gaming Fest (and Coach's Gourmet Cooking Advice)

After our game on Friday, (if we have one) we should have a dinner. Although I've been advocating the pot luck, it seems that we have come to the conclusion to simply eating A LOT of ramen noodle. Guys bring ramen noodle and xbox/game-thingys-stuff etc, and the girls, I guess we have desserts??? - Elise

What a fantastic idea! Ramen, as you probably don't know and won't learn until you are destitute and living on sub pay in minneapolis, can be the foundation of a nutritious and wholesome meal. Just add an egg, or broccoli, or mushrooms to the soup; chicken is also good in it -- it's like stone soup! - Gottlieb

We're In - But, it's the first weekend of East's spring break

We're unofficially accepted for the Rocky Mountain Invitational - a tournament for college teams - on March 26 & March 27 in Fort Collins.

But, I just realized yesterday that the tourney takes place the first weekend of East's spring break [and Sunday, March 27 is Easter.]

I already know that Lauren, Hayley (I think), Batsford, and Nicole, among others, will be out of town that weekend. I need to know pretty soon whether or not it's really worth us playing.

E-mail me pretty quickly, if you can't go.

March 1, 2005 - JEM Summer Camp (Tina)

So, this is from coach Catt. I will be an instructor, as will Steven, and you too right Gottlieb? [Yes] I will be instructing the boys as Catt asked me to help out with his side of things a while ago. I haven't gotten any requests from whomever is running the women's side of things!

Anyway, here is the scoop. Check it out.

Subject: Summer camp for the best of the best in High School Ultimate!

The University of Colorado men's and women's ultimate teams are proud to introduce a summer camp specifically designed for advanced High School Ultimate players, Junior Elite Methods (JEM). JEM will focus on improving the skills, sportsmanship, and aptitude of elite high school athletes intending to compete at the next level. The camp will held be during the first week of August in Boulder, Colorado.

Why JEM will be outstanding:

1. JEM is specifically designed for high school players who are already experienced and skilled, and looking to play competitive Ultimate at the college level. JEM will test you against the best Junior players the rest of the country has to offer, and help you go from "good" to "great".

2. JEM will feature separate men's and women's camps for specialized instruction and a superior competition format. The men's and women's camps will be held during the same week, and at the same location, but with separate curriculum, instructors, and competition. Elite men will be battling it out against each other on one set of fields while, a few yards away, elite women challenge each other. At the end of a great day of Ultimate, everyone will get to hang out together during meals, evening activities, and social time.

3. Learn from instructors with national and world titles. We'll have some of the best and brightest from elite club teams such as Johnny Bravo and Rare Air, venerable stalwarts from Old and In The Way, and, of course, veterans of CU's Mamabird and Kali.

4. Campers will stay in student dorms at the University of Colorado campus in beautiful Boulder, Colorado; home of the defending men's college champions, perennial women's college powerhouse, and headquarters of the UPA. Campers will get a week-long taste of college life, and, when not on the Ultimate field, a chance to explore and experience the "unofficial adventure capital of the Rocky Mountains".

Visit http://www.colorado.edu/StudentGroups/mamabird/ and look for the link to "JEM Camp" for more information. Alternately, contact Camp Director Jolian Dahl by email at: Jolian(dot)Dahl(at)colorado(dot)edu.

Are you ready?

February 25, 2005 - The Kali Game (Tina)

I hung out with Pogo and C (both play with Rare and Kali) and JV (little Gottlieb, plays with Mama Bird, national champ). Some commments that were made:

--That girl with the vest plays sick D! (this was at the fields. they were talking about Elise).

--That girl skied everyone! (Brenna)

--That catch was disgusting! (Nick's)

--That was the most amazing catch (Tote's toe in catch. this was made by two of the younger kali girls on the sideline with admiration in their eyes; sai