Despite not doing as well as I had hoped, it was a great weekend these past few days in Cazenovia, NY. Pike came into the tournament as the 9 seed and we ended up finishing in 10th. While the results may not have been the best, this team has a lot of potential and there was a lot of positive things to come away with from this weekend.
I left Friday night around 6:45 with Frenchy, Bill, Glenn, Raph and DJ. The ride was a little more than 4 hours and we arrived in Cazenovia sometime after 11. We stayed at a college dorm which would turn out to be a pretty awesome place to stay, especially Saturday night. I roomed with Bo Li and was able to get a solid 7 hours before waking up a little before 7 on Saturday. Considering I have been waking up at 615 for work every morning, it was pretty easy getting up.
After a good hour warmup we were ready for our first game against our Philly friends/rivals Philly Love. I felt pretty good to start the game as I caught the first goal and threw the next to give us a quick 2-0 lead. However the rest of the half was a see-saw battle. Love tied it at 2. We took another lead and Love quickly tied it again. The half overall was lackluster as both teams looked pretty sloppy. I caught a disc right before the endzone line and rushed a throw between Bo Li and I think Kuger which both sorta went for and ended up being dropped. I think we took half 7-6 but we had played pretty poorly. We were able to fire it up a little in the second half, Love was turning the disc over and we were doing a better job on converting those turns into points. We ended up winning 13-9 in a pretty uneventful game. I felt good and was just starting to get into the flow of things for the rest of the weekend.
Our next game was against Space Jam who I doubt had ever played in a tournament like this. They were a bunch of young kids, they even had a 15 year old out there who looked completly lost. They were athletic and some had skill but were very raw. These games are always hard to get fired up for because the team is so bad. This was probably my worst game of the weekend and I decided to not even waste my energy by not playing the entire second half. I got called out for throwing a silly high release backhand in the wind to Glenn which bladed into the ground. This came right after Dusty called for no more turnovers for the rest of the game. Oops!. We won 13-2 and I think the team commited 0 turnovers in the second half which was good to see.
After a long break, we were matched up against Wiretap for the pool. We had played Wiretap at least 4 times last year finally beating them for the first time in Chesapeake. We started this game with our new tall line which included myself, TC, Art, CJ, Nick M, Raph and Tim. Right away I could tell that Wiretap had improved a lot from last year and were for real. We found ourselves down early 3-1 and in a marathon point with Wiretap. This was one of the longest points I had every played which I think lasted about 20 minutes. Both teams kept turning the disc over. I was getting pretty amped as I was able to get 3 D's during the point which was more than I had all weekend so far. We finally were able to score to cut the game to 3-2. The rest of the game was a struggle as Wiretap was at the top of their game. We just couldnt stop their offense as they had some guys who could flat out ball. They were beating us in and deep and we just didnt have enough to stay with them. We fought but ended up losing 13-9.
At this point my body was very sore as my back and hamstrings seemed to tighten up a lot. We had one more game on Saturday and it was our biggest, a crossover game vs. Mephisto. At this point the wind had picked up and I felt really out of it. We started out on offense to start the game and we ended working it up the field to when TC put a floaty outside-in flick to me in the corner of the endzone that I was just able to lay out for with my left hand. I got pretty fired up and even had to pull out the Plax bow for that one. I scored the second point of the game for us when Bill threw a floaty backhand to the corner that I was able to outjump my man to grab. As the game was going, my body was feeling better. We battled the entire first half which I think Mephisto took 7-5. I dont remember too many details but Bill, Art and Jason were playing very well that half. Pike had chances to win this game but we just couldnt do enough on offense. We were getting the D's but just had trouble converting them. You could tell we were tired yet we continued to battle throughout the game. We ended up losing 13-10 which would put us in the Chump bracket for Sunday. While it was disappointing, I honestly felt that we were just as good as Mephisto and could of easily won that game.
Overall I thought I played pretty well on both sides of the disc. I was getting open on cuts and was playing solid D throghout most of the day. Pike hung around the field afterwords to chill out and play some Atlas. A new dream team emerged as Raph, Trey and TC dominated any team that tried to beat them. Me. Grin and I think Art tried to challenge them and got completely destroyed.
For dinner we went to Caz pizza in which TC told us about the Big Kahuna Challege. It was a 24 inch pizza, 30 wings and 6 sundays. The challenge was for 4 people to finish everything. Of course everyone on the team felt ambitious and tried. Me, Grin, Clay and Bill were able to finish everything but I felt pretty awful afterward. Definitely another grizzly feat to add to my resume.
Saturday night was a lot more fun then I could have imagined. Considering this was a practice tournament and we werent in the Championship bracket, we decided to do what should be done in a college dorm, drink.
A group of Pike players got a solid game of Presidents in which was a lot of fun. Highlights include Dusty being president and making Nick M and Jake shotgun. After about an hour, I moved upstairs to where a bunch of Philly Love guys were staying and became involved in what would be a legendary matchup of Pike vs. Love BeiRipped. I ended up drinking a lot and becoming the goat in the game, underperfomring in my flip cup performance. There were a couple cup spikes and lots of Beer. I was able to redeem myself in the rematch, as Pike and Love were tied with 1 cup left and I anchored the line and ended the game on my first flip. This was probably the most pumped I got all weekend haha. Before going to bed, I was introuduced to Bar Fight, which I still do not know the significane of, but ended up yelling to any Pike person I saw, especially Nick M, Dusty and Jeff.
After passing out at about one, I woke up at seven feeling like complete shit. I had not drank that much since being back from college. I had told Dusty countless times the night before that I was not playing the first game. Me and Bo Li somehow got to the fields before anyone else which was good as I was able to recover/wake up. By the time I got to the fields I was feeling fine, just very sore.
The one thing the Dickinson Jive Turkeys have taught me was is to get completly smashed the night before, stay up late and still be ready to play well the next day. By the start of the Medicine Men game, I felt almost as good as I felt all weekend. I opened the game with the scoring the first point and throwing the next. I was really amped and I think the team was impressed how well I was playing in the beginning of the day after possibly being the most wasted the night before. I felt great in the first half and was getting open all day. Our offense was really clicking to start. I almost had a greatest too which was intersting because we ended up getting the disc back because of a foul on the throw, however we got lucky.
The play was a throw to me which the thrower got fouled, I jumped out of bounds and threw it in to the other Jake who just missed making a ridiculous lay ouy grab. We retained possesion because of the foul but technically it should of been a turnover because my greatest attempt counts as possesion of the disc so my throw back in was a continuation of the play.
We were up 7-2 on Medicine Men looking great when everything fell apart. I honestly cant say what happened but we started turning the disc over with a lot of poor decisions. We were stunned when Medicine Men took half on a huge 6-0 run. Down 8-7 we came out and took the next two points to take a 9-8 lead. The rest of the game was a battle as Medicine Men hung tough. Nick O had a couple huge plays in the second half to keep us in the lead. With Pike leading 13-12, we recieved the disc. I made my only turnover on Sunday but it was a big one. I tried to squeeze a backhand upline to Bo Li which was a very poor decision as it was easily D'ed by the Med Men defender. We hung tough during the point in which Dave Baer made an incedible D in the endzone jumping and getting a hand on the disc. We worked hard but ended up losing the point and the game was tied at 13-13.
At this point I was fired up and when Dusty tried to call another line in, I ran down the field telling him we still had another point. He responded with ok but I knew he was thinking "ok if you want it, take it but you better fucking score." haha. At this point, I was playing on full adrenaline. We scored the next point and I wanted to stay in and win this game. We pulled the disc and everyone on the line busted their ass putting a ton of pressure on all of their throws. I was chasing one of my guys when I saw that we had somehow got the turn. I immediatly took off for the endzone which Bo Li saw, picked up the disc and hit me up line right in the front of the endzone. I looked up, saw I was in and spiked the disc. Maybe not the best of moves because I was pretty close to the endline and right away, Med Men tried to argue I was not in the endzone. I was probably the most fired I became all weekend and repeated at least 3 times " I was in and that's the game." Probably a dick move but I was pumped. After, a couple of their guys kept trying to argue with me. I was refusing to give in and finally one of the Med Men guys said he saw that I was in the endzone and that was the end of that.
I felt good but thoughts of DeSean Jackson on Monday night spiking the football before being in the endzone ran threw my mind haha. Regardless we won and we were ready to play our next game against Forge.
Forge had ended our season last year so everyone on Pike seemed ready to get a little revenge. While Forge had no where near a full squad and played a lot of new people, we took it to them from the beginning. The first couple points, Art got a hand and foot block and CJ made a ridiculous layout D. Forge would be the best game I would play all weekend. I started the game with a nice catch on an in-cut with a guy literally laying out into me and had his hands on the disc but I somehow ended up with it. I scored the point with a nice deep cut to give us a lead. The next point I caught a poach D with a guy running across the field and we moved it quickly for the break. I was really pumped to start the game off like that and I continued to play well the rest of the game. I had two more huge D's that half, all caught, that turned into breaks.
We rolled the entire game winning 15-8. Everyone on Pike was playing awesome. Some highlights include a Tim hammer to Nick, a couple nice deep catches from Jason and Nick and great handling from TC. Baer, Glenn and pretty much anyone else who stepped on the field.
This win felt great and we were pumped for our next game, a rematch against Wiretap. You could tell from the start of the game that we looked tired and Wiretap was the better team this weekend. I played pretty well this game but Wiretap was outplaying us. The took half like 8-3 and more or less finished the game. we battled to make the game interesting but lost 13-9. Disappointing end at CUT but there were a lot of positives to come out of the weekend. A lot of new guys got a ton of playing time and there seemed to be a ton of potential for this Pike Team. i am really excited for this season and cant wait to play again in Boston.
So to cap off the weekend, Pike went 4-3. We played well at times but also played just as poorly in others. Still we have a ton of atheletes and great players who are only going to get better.
I felt pretty good most of the weekend and thought I played very solid the entire weekend. I definitely need to get in better shape and there are a ton of things I need to improve on but it was not a bad start to the 09 season. I wish i got to throw a little more downfield but I will glady dump the disc over throwing a deep look turnover.
I think I might of sprained my middle finger on my left hand but it isn't too bad and I will be able to play Summer League this week. Looking forward to a good week of Frisbee.
Great Job this weekend Pike
Ok, its official, Johan Santana is my favorite player in baseball. It isn't just his talent, I truly admire the way he plays the game. On a night where he was anything near his best, Johan battled, and helped the Mets win this game on the mound, with his glove and with his bat.
