The New York Invite (August 1-2)

There is a lot to take from this weekend. Since my tenure on this team, this was definitely our best tournament and one of the most important for our team. It gave us some confidence and a glimpse at what we can accomplish. This is the first time that I am convinced that Pike 2009 can make a run and surprise some teams for a Nationals Bid.

Granted Pike is nowhere near that. The New York Invite was just a start to a long season that will be filled with hard work and Pike having to earn respect that we have not yet deserved. I finally saw it on Saturday when the D line rattled off 4 breaks in a row against Wiretap to close the game. I saw it when the D line came together for a couple runs of breaks against Phoenix on Sunday Morning. I saw it against Pony when the Pike O Line kept us in the game with some huge plays. I saw the anger on the Pony sideline when we went up 8-7 at half and led 10-9 in the second half. They couldn’t believe that we were beating them. Well get used to it!

Pike has yet to prove much but this weekend was a huge step any way you slice it. It was the first time I saw our confidence level equal to the teams we were playing against. We knew we could beat these teams. And come Chesapeake, it will happen.

Saturday Morning: Nothing better than a tournament within reasonable driving distances. As opposed to a 10 hour drive on Friday afternoon to North Carolina, I woke up a little before 6 AM, picked up Glenn and Frenchy in Brunswick and made the unpleasant but short hour and a half drive to Middletown.

I wasn’t as pumped coming into the tournament because of a shoulder injury that would keep me from playing. I felt out of shape and out of touch with the disc as I had taken a week off to rest my shoulder. But come Warm Ups, I felt too good to sit it out. So playing cautiously, I stood on the sidelines ready for our first game against the 3rd Seed in our Pool: Colt 45. It was a nice first game as Pike completely rolled over Colt. While Pike played well, Colt showed little of a fight. I played a few runs of points and remembered that it was incredibly easy to get open on cuts. It wasn’t our best game but we looked solid and won easily 15-3.

After this game I decided to Ice my shoulder and not play against Brooklyn. I wanted to be ready for the Wiretap game. I went with Leon to the grocery store to get Ice as well as Pickles and Beef Jerky (Best Ultimate Snack!) Went I got back to the field we were playing a rather tight game with Brooklyn which I was not happy about. We ended up taking half 8-5. I told Tim that I could play in the second half and got a few points. I caught a huck which felt good but really didn’t do much else. I half heartedly laid out for a disc that I couldn’t really get to because of my shoulder but I knew I would have had if not hurt.

This would definitely come back later in the tournament. While I was able to play, my shoulder prevented me from really laying out. Next was Wiretap which everyone on Pike was hungry to finally beat. We started strong with a quick 2-0 lead but ended up giving it back. The rest of the first half was a back and forth battle. I really don’t recall much but our offense was really starting to click and our Defense was coming close to some breaks but just couldn’t connect the dots. With the score tied at 10, the D came alive. I have to give the credit to everyone on the field. I have never seen such good team defense. There weren’t any spectacular layouts, just good hard marks, people shutting down the easy dump resets and downfield defenders shutting down the cutters. We were creating easy turnovers and converting. We ran off 4 breaks and eventually won the game 15-11. Everyone on Pike was excited but we all knew that was nothing. We washed some demons by beating Wiretap but this was just a small step on a long and winding staircase to our ultimate goal of making nationals. The real teams were playing in the elite brackets while we were taking care of business in the shit bracket.

I didn’t play in the last game against Wilmington. No point really. I let the shoulder rest and watched our team play a little lackluster but efficient to win easily and cap the day at 4-0 winning the pool.

Feeling good, CJ, Bo, Glenn, Frenchy and I went to Olive Garden for a nice post Saturday Tourney Dinner. Afterward we went to the hotel and were lucky to find Will Smith’s best movie on TV. (Men in Black, read about it!)

After some much needed sleep, Pike headed to the field ready to battle Phoenix in the pre-quarters. Pike has been in this situation all year. Advance to the pre quarters but fail to win and reach the top tier bracket. As we warmed up and the rain fell, I sensed a different feeling from this Pike team. This confident vibe that I knew was new to this team got me excited.

Personally I still think about a backhand throw to the end zone against SOL at Boston that if completed, had us playing against Truckstop in the quarters. There were to be no wasted opportunities in this game.

Like most games, our offense started off with some big plays and a big huck to CJ who gave us a jump start. Our D was then able to get a D (I think Kuger) which led to my first big test of the shoulder, a 35 yard flick to Fink in the end zone. I felt good on the release but realized that someone was poaching and was about to D it. The Phoenix guy jumped and tipped it in the air but Fink was able to stay with it and give us a 2-0 lead. A big sigh of relief. Phoenix came back on offense and scored rather quickly. Our offense kept strong and gave us a 3-1 lead. I came back in for D and tipped a disc that was thrown in the end zone. I was frustrated that I only tipped it, knowing that it should have been a D and that if I was healthy, I could have easily laid out for the block. Either way I figured it was Karma from my throw to Fink being caught.

While our offense was keeping us in it, our D was having trouble holding our marks. We got beat a couple times on some break hucks on the backhand side. We struggled at the end of the first half going down 8-6 and having to start on D coming out.

Pike 2009 had up to this point shown little promise and a lot of disappointment. The second half would change all that. We tried out our 1-3-3 for the first time this year and saw a lot of positive results. I finally started to get more involved in the action and caught the break goal to make it 8-7. The next point might have been my most memorable point of the tournament. With the disc close to the goaline, I was looking for a cut in the end zone and saw none. I looked for Tim as a dump but around stall 5 he was too close to me and not open. I looked back to the end zone and saw Baer get a little separation from his man and I unleashed the infamous push pass that landed perfectly in Baer’s hands. The reaction was mixed I would say haha but the results pleased everyone. With the game tied, we got another D and I caught the go ahead break goal which lead to me spiking the disc against my chest. Yea I was starting to get into a rhythm.

It was definitely my best game of the tournament mainly because of the matchups. The Phoenix O line was short and not especially fast which gave me a huge advantage on offense. I was able to get two bookends in the second half and the D line took control getting the game to 14-12. After the Pike offense screwed up once to make it 14-13, they went back to the bread and butter and Dusty unleashed an unreal backhand that hung in the air until CJ plucked it out of the air. Pike 15-13! Now this wasn’t like we just advanced to Nationals but everyone on this team understood the significance of this win. I think Fink said a best “A SUNDAY MORNING WIN, PIKE!”

It was true. Since my time on this team, we have not gotten past this point in a tournament, not being Sectionals of course. It was a lot of firsts for us and we were flying high, ready for a showdown with PonY.

The rain continued to fall as we started out on Offense. The magic of CJ continued as he caught the first point of the game. PonY answered back quickly on offense and I could instantly realize the difference between Phoenix and PonY. They were faster, smarter, always moving and just all out better. This game was mostly offense. Our D got a couple chances but we had trouble moving the disc upfield, getting it jammed on the sideline. I spent most of the day covering BVH who is a true legend of the sport (Also noting his spot on the Huddle Mock Draft) He was able to shut me down for the most part on offense and I got beat by him once that left me very unhappy. He also caught two hammers for goals which is hard to defend but showed that I was not close enough to my defender.

In the end we didn’t have enough to win. We threw away chances that you cannot do against elite teams like PonY. After being up 10-9 they ran 6 on us to win 15-10. It was very disappointing but also just as promising. Nick M said after the game that he would much rather lose to these kind of teams than beat up on dog shit like we did on the first day and we all agreed.

I played well all tournament considering my shoudler and definitely had one of my best games against Phoenix. It was a little upsetting to end on a bad note with me being ineffective against PonY. Still I learned a lot about myself as a player and where I am right now and where I need to be come the Fall. I still have tons of work to do and I am excited to get there. This really got me excited for the rest of our season which should be a lot better than my rookie year in 2008

We lost to a better team that day but I don’t believe that will be the case come later in the year. Pike showed a lot at the New York Invite and I think earned some respect from our peers. More importantly, our team gained a ton of confidence and the belief that we can make something happen this year.

Good Weekend Pike!