Well, I’ve been busy, busy, busy. Haven’t had the time to keep up with blogs let alone post to my own. Spring sports season started this week and I had my first beach volleyball game Wednesday and first ultimate game on Thursday.
The first night of beach volleyball is usually a ranking night, as they split up each division even further to match skill levels. From the looks of things this year, it looks like they had both competitive and advanced (our division) teams playing each other. The way it works is we play 5 20-minute games against different teams, and then our record is used to determine which sub-division we should play in. We actually did fairly well until the final game, where we gave up a 23-24 loss when the whistle went early and the current point was stopped because of a stray ball in the court. We should have beat that team handily to keep our perfect record, but instead we finished 4-1. Hopefully that will still be enough to seed us in the highest division, as I’d rather play my ass off and lose than have an easy game where we don’t really have to try. But the one thing I couldn’t complain about was the weather. It believe it actually got above 30°C with the humidex, and it didn’t cool off too much until the last game.
Last night I was playing my first game of ultimate with a new team. I had heard good things about them and the league, so I was a little nervous going in. And it was a return to 7-aside, as opposed to 5-man, which I had been playing for the last few years. I prefer 7-man, but the larger fields make for a bit more running, and my endurance isn’t the greatest.
Fortunately, all my fears were unfounded, at least for the first game. I was able to play the position I usually do (handling the disc) and was able to keep up with the running without keeling over. That being said, our opposition wasn’t that strong, so there wasn’t as much running as there likely will be in future games. And I managed to avoid making too many mistakes. I did drop a couple discs (which I very, very rarely do) so I was a bit angry with myself, and there were a few throws that fell short, but overall, I couldn’t complain too much. And think I demonstrated some good down-field vision and a good arm, so hopefully I’ll continue to play deep on defense, though I wouldn’t mind moving to the front on occasion to make some runs, with the other strong throwers we have on the team. We handily trounced the other team 15-3, but afterwards I learned of a startling team tradition. Because there are points awarded for the team with the most spirit, a post-game cheer for the other team is not uncommon. My new team goes a step beyond, writing a song that we sing to the other team after the game. This week it was a rip on I Think We’re Alone Now, with ultimate themed lyrics. I managed to survive the game just fine, but I almost died of embarassment “singing” that song.