A Small Ultimate Community

When I was 18, I moved to Knoxville, had one hell of terrible first month, and then found Ultimate (that is actually how it happened- more or less). It was great. It was a small ultimate community, mostly made up of college players from UT with some players that were in Knoxville living and working. It was a welcoming and opening community, with the club (non-college) players willing to teach and wanting to, with the boys from the UT men's team doing the same as much as possible, and in the summers, there were 3 and 4 hour pickup games three times a week! My first summer in Knoxville I learned so much about the game, how to handle, how not to freak out, how to really play. Then, I got to be in charge of my team, and whenever we had new girls come out (club or college), we were so excited! It meant we could go to tournaments and actually play! I remember the first time I went to Knoxville pickup- first organized ultimate (what I know now as ultimate)- I was asked to go to a tournament that weekend. Of course, I didn't go- I was way too intimidated by the game, but still hooked from the first point. It was amazing.

Now, 8 years later- and trust me, it's been a fast 8 years- I've gone to more tournaments than I can possibly keep track of, played with more teams that I can count, and gotten to know some of the best people in the world. I went from playing in Knoxville (at most, 4 summer league teams while I was there), to driving down to Chattanooga once a week for two summers for league and playing at tournaments with them, to moving to Atlanta- a community with over 32 summer league teams and 800 people. I went from a very small community to a very, very big one. And it was a great experience and frustrating at the same time. It's hard to be a good player in Atlanta unless you are the best. It's one of the many reasons that I put teams together for the fun summer and off season tournaments- so that I could play, and play with my friends. I was able to play club for two years, but there were 3 season between the two. It's just hard in Atlanta, especially once you are put into a certain box of what type of player you are- there is no getting out of that box. But I still learned a lot about playing there, and I got smarter about how I play to make up for my weaknesses (read: SLOW). I met some amazing people and some not so amazing people, and learned a lot about myself. It was Atlanta.

Now, I'm back in a small ultimate community. Very, very small. The team here in WY is very... young. The girls are trying to start a girls team (have i been sucked back to Knoxville circa 2002?) and the boys are... well- they're college boys. They play a very run-and-gun style of play, and it's all about athleticism for them. The girls that play are like that too. But in the end, small ultimate communities are the same-- they welcome anyone new, and want others to play. I met the captains of the men's and women's teams last Thursday, and once I explained my situation, that I would only be able to really practice with the girls and do open scrimmages due to ineligibility and working on Sunday's, the next questions they had was: "Do you want to come to a coed tournament with us this weekend? We're having a coed scrimmage tomorrow to get ready for it- want to come?" I was just flabergasted, I think because I just haven't been around a community like that in a very long time. So I went, with the knowledge that everyone knew I could only play on Saturday. And I had a great time :) I didn't do too much on the field, or touch the disc too often, but they boys played with the boys. And in this situation I understand that- they just don't know me. But I didn't drop the disc often or get D'd at all, I had one mini-layout, I got a D, and I threw a beautiful backhand break to the opposite side of the endzone. So, I hope I made a mark with these people, because I do hope to get to play with them (Saturday's only) for a few tournaments that are close by. I decided that I will help the girls team out as much as possible because it's the right thing to do, and it will hopefully take some of the pressure off the captains. So, I guess I'm playing ultimate again :)

Now the decision is this: Go to Boise, ID this weekend to play with Susie's team (10 hours, probably alone), go to Durango, CO to play in the Labor Day Hat (8.5 hours, probably alone), or stay here and do homework and go to the game. All of these are possible due to work being put off until Monday, but the first two are not as feasible as I would hope. Decisions, decisions...