October 30, 2007
I got home last night after spending 6 days either en route or in Sarasota, FL for the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) 2007 Club Nationals that took place from October 25-28.
Check out this video from UltiVillage of Will catching a sweet score for Brass Monkey on Day 2 of Natties:
Nationals, as always, was a blur of games, team dinners, coordination, sunsets on the white sand beach, and team bonding. We played well during pool play (5-1 record) and played a hard-fought quarterfinals (17-16 over Tandem) and had a tough semi-finals loss (15-11) to Shazam Returns!. It was disappointing, but I was amazed that our team came back from a 7-point deficit to mount a comeback in the second-half of the game, just a little too late. So, it would be that we would take 3rd again at nationals, the same fate as 3 of our 4 previous seasons. One out of four isn't too bad, I guesss.
(courtesy of Bil Elsinger)
On Saturday night, our team decided not to go out for a big team dinner but stay in and order food, which turned out to be a fantastic idea, as we were able to have a great time together being our loud, ridiculous selves.
One of our captains, Hannah, had a great idea to create monkey cards, where each person created their own monkey face and the rest of the team wrote one word/phrase on each card that represented what that person represented to them (yes, she's a teacher). Here are a series of photos with some teammates and their cards:
On the Sunday, we slept in, had breakfast, and decided to embark on some outdoor activities other than watching finals. Will, Nate, Matty, Drea and I found a disc golf course close to Sarasota airport in North Water Tower Park. According to one website, here is the course description: "This is a relatively short but extremely challenging course cut through 20 acres of oaks, pines, and palms with a few holes featuring long, grassy tee shots. It is in excellent condition, featuring 18 mach III pole holes with cement tee pads. It is maintained by the local club, the Sarasota Sky Pilots, who take great pride in its evolution. We had a great time trying to navigate the narrow fairways and avoiding trees, and it was the perfect choice of activity for the afternoon.
I flew back to SF on Monday and it was great to get home. This experience was a little sad for me, as I'm considering not playing club next year and only playing a couple fun tournaments (eg. Potlatch) next year so that I can focus on doing other things with my time and money. Brass Monkey has been a wonderful family to me over the past four years (five if you count the season with Hi-Fidelity, the pre-cursor to BM) and I've been amazed at all the experiences that I've had with these folks. Long live the monkey!
I got home last night after spending 6 days either en route or in Sarasota, FL for the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) 2007 Club Nationals that took place from October 25-28.
Check out this video from UltiVillage of Will catching a sweet score for Brass Monkey on Day 2 of Natties:
Nationals, as always, was a blur of games, team dinners, coordination, sunsets on the white sand beach, and team bonding. We played well during pool play (5-1 record) and played a hard-fought quarterfinals (17-16 over Tandem) and had a tough semi-finals loss (15-11) to Shazam Returns!. It was disappointing, but I was amazed that our team came back from a 7-point deficit to mount a comeback in the second-half of the game, just a little too late. So, it would be that we would take 3rd again at nationals, the same fate as 3 of our 4 previous seasons. One out of four isn't too bad, I guesss.
(courtesy of Bil Elsinger)On Saturday night, our team decided not to go out for a big team dinner but stay in and order food, which turned out to be a fantastic idea, as we were able to have a great time together being our loud, ridiculous selves.
One of our captains, Hannah, had a great idea to create monkey cards, where each person created their own monkey face and the rest of the team wrote one word/phrase on each card that represented what that person represented to them (yes, she's a teacher). Here are a series of photos with some teammates and their cards:
On the Sunday, we slept in, had breakfast, and decided to embark on some outdoor activities other than watching finals. Will, Nate, Matty, Drea and I found a disc golf course close to Sarasota airport in North Water Tower Park. According to one website, here is the course description: "This is a relatively short but extremely challenging course cut through 20 acres of oaks, pines, and palms with a few holes featuring long, grassy tee shots. It is in excellent condition, featuring 18 mach III pole holes with cement tee pads. It is maintained by the local club, the Sarasota Sky Pilots, who take great pride in its evolution. We had a great time trying to navigate the narrow fairways and avoiding trees, and it was the perfect choice of activity for the afternoon.
I flew back to SF on Monday and it was great to get home. This experience was a little sad for me, as I'm considering not playing club next year and only playing a couple fun tournaments (eg. Potlatch) next year so that I can focus on doing other things with my time and money. Brass Monkey has been a wonderful family to me over the past four years (five if you count the season with Hi-Fidelity, the pre-cursor to BM) and I've been amazed at all the experiences that I've had with these folks. Long live the monkey!
No comments:
Post a Comment