High Tide Begins.

We got to bed nice and early Monday night and got a good amount of rest for Tuesday's games. High Tide was set up so that half of the teams played their first games at 8am and half of the teams played their first games at noon. We drew the 8 o'clock start, so we were at the fields by 7 to warm up. It was a pretty early start, so it was lucky that our campsite was so close to the field complex.

Our first game was against F&M, which is apparently some crappy school from Pennsylvania that I had never heard of. Tom Georgavitz transferred there last year after spending one semester on the Umass B team, and now he is their captain. Nice life, F&M. Tom is a Stage 5 clinger and probably a Stage 3 creepo, so it wasn't too much fun having to deal with him at the captains' meeting or on the field. In our game against F&M, he actually wore a Zoodisc jersey instead of his own team's. Ridiculous. On the way down to Jekyl Island, Babbitt had invented lines for the team, hoping to equalize playing time after a tight-lined Terminus. We stuck to these lines with decent success. Everybody played pretty well against F&M, though not fabulously. I think that was the game where I had a gorgeous forehand huck to Brandon, who was really deep when I finally released the disc. It travelled from our own endzone line deep into the attacking endzone. There was essentially no mark, which detracts from the impressiveness of the throw, but it did feel really nice. I haven't had much opportunity to throw deep so far this season, and it's encouraging to succeed when I make the attempt.

We played like a team that knew that victory was imminent, and this made it difficult for us to maintain our intensity. We were emotionally flat, as we were in every game that day, but it didn't much matter - Zoodisc vanquished F&M 13-4. On a side note, F&M had a girl on their team who Tom refused to put in the game. I had watched her during their warmup drills, and she appeared to be their best thrower. Not that it would have made much difference in the game's outcome, but I still felt bad. That's just one more instance of Tom Georgavitz' douchebaggery.

Our next game was Macalester. This team was not so great. Like F&M, we came into the game really flat, playing as if we knew the outcome before it had been determined. We let them score some points towards the beginning of the game, but we buckled down and played a strong second half against them. I think that they may have scored only one point in the second half, but it may have been two. The game itself was not very notable. I, and a few other players on Zoodisc, had a bit of a disagreement with Macalester regarding the score. I was pretty sure that it was 7-4 at one point, but the Macalester players insisted that it was actually only 5-4. An argument ensued. I quickly conceded, deciding that it was better to play a longer game because that meant more playing time for everybody and a bit more practice for our team, but it turns out that I was incorrect anyway. Oh well. My mistake actually seemed to motivate us a little, though, and we shut them down hard for the rest of the game. Macalester seemed to resent us a little for this, but I really wasn't trying to cheat - I'm just bad at adding up the score. Let them resent, so long as they fear. Zoodisc 13, Macalester 5.

Macalester's cheer was really sweet. I don't usually go in for that sort of thing, but they had some sort of chant that went "Ooh, Ah, Macalester" and something about a "blue monkey superdope crew what, blue monkey smokin' on a crack rock". It was really catchy! A bunch of our guys went over to them after the game and asked them for the words of the cheer, which seemed a little crass considering the resentful looks that the entire Macalester team had given us during our handshake, and their cheer has been stuck in my head since then.

Our third, and final, game of the day was against SUNY Geneseo. SUNY was a little taller and more athletic than the other two teams that we played Tuesday, and we entered this game flatter than any of the others. If I remember correctly, we went down two breaks right from the onset and had to battle back to take the first half. They weren't a good team, but we played down to their level and really struggled to get our shit together. This game was marked by a massive number of egregious turnovers on our part, but it still wasn't enough to throw away the game. We finally ground it out, 12-9.

After we finished playing, most of our team went to a pub up the street that offered a St. Patrick's Day (which it was on Tuesday) special for $.15 wings, $.50 potato skins, and $2 green beers. We ate our way through a massive pile of wings and then picked up a bunch of beer. Drunkenness ensued. I can't actually say that I remember too much of the afternoon after that, but there were a lot of hilarious moment. Ryan and I tag team disc raced against John and Jeff Steeves (I think we won, but it was too close to call). Ryan and Jeff Steeves went punch for punch for about fifteen minutes and both ended with bruised shoulders. Alden and Nick went punch for punch for a minute or so, but then Ryan kicked an empty beer bottle and it flew into the side of Alden's head. Alden then got one free shot on Ryan and slapped him in the face. We played a bunch of disc golf, putting on Josh's portable hole, and then we all drank out of Josh's bottles of liquor (one was tequilla, the other was this orange shit that was manufactured by Patron but tasted sort of like triple sec - Citronge?) and headed down to the beach. Groups of us grabbed individuals and dragged them down to the water, giving them one chance to empty their pockets before we threw them in. I think we called it "Zoodisc Baptism" and telling people we were heckling them. The situation grew increasingly violent. We talked to a dude who was posing for wedding pictures with his nineteen year old bride to be and their five week old child - he seemed to be a twenty-one year old who had impregnated his girlfriend when she was seventeen, and now they had to get married. I wished him luck. As dusk fell, most of the group started to head back to the campsite, but Josh and I swam out into the deeper water. We wanted to swim out far enough so that the waves would conceal us from the people on the beach. Our plan was to let them worry about us for a while, only to emerge from the water a ways down the beach to surprise them. Sadly, this did not work, as the people on the beach could see us the entire time. We cooked burgers and hotdogs on the campfire, and then I took a shower. I somehow lost my clothes after the shower, and ended up wandering around in the woods wearing nothing but a tiny travel-towel that I was unsuccessfully trying to hold around my waist. Ryan ended up helping me with his headlamp, and I was able to recover my clothes. We bought some weed from SUNY and smoked a giant joint. Then we went to the girls' house, which I realized as soon as we pulled away was a bad idea. We smoked another joint, I wandered around talking to people, the girls slaughtered us at flip cup, Josh wet his pants, and then Nick came back and picked us up to go to bed. I managed to get all this done by 11:45.

The next morning, we had a 9am game. After such a long day of drinking, we weren't looking so hot for warmups. Scratch that - we looked downright Terrible. A bunch of people didn't want to play, Sam wrapped himself up in my blanket and laid down on the sideline, and those of us who were ready to go just looked mentally inept. To make matters worse, a strong wind was coming off of the ocean, making throws and catches more difficult and a strong focus even more crucial. We decided to move away from the previous day's lines in order to make sure that we always had decent throwers on the field and cutters who could focus through their hangovers and make the necessary catches, though we still wanted to keep the subbing fairly open.

Our first game of the day was against Colgate. We had a rough first few points against them, maybe giving up a break and then taking a couple back to win the half 7-5. Like the games our previous day, we really buckled down in the second half and put the screws to them. We didn't let them score at all in the second half, breaking for the rest of the game. After this tremendous run of breaks, we finally ended the game at the cap, 11-5. Towards the end of this game, we tried to sub in players who hadn't gotten as much playing time at its outset, but this was still difficult to do without putting together lines that wouldn't have been able to deal with the wind. Subbing on a windy day is especially difficult, and I hope that all of the players on the team understand this.

Our second game was against Grinnel. Grinnel is actually a pretty decent team, though they aren't as experienced or athletic as we are. During last year's High Tide debacle, Grinnel ended up beating us in a tight game. I don't remember much about that game, but I Do remember that one of their better players made an absolutely unjustifiably terrible foul call against one of our own players. My brother and I gave him such shit that it looked like he almost started crying. He took off his jersey and told his captain that he wouldn't be able to play any more, but his captain didn't allow him to leave the game. In his emotional state, he made several egregious turnovers soon thereafter, and I continued to give him shit. It was excellent.

I recognized the kid when we played against them on Wednesday, but I'm not sure that he recognized me. Either way, we didn't talk to one another.

Grinnel played us tightly at the beginning of the game. Once again, we came out flat and gave up a first half break, but we again took took back to win half 7-5. Grinnel really didn't have the experienced throwers to work the disc through the strong wind. They opted instead to huck at every opportunity - and sometimes when they didn't really have the opportunity - and set their zone. We lowered ourselves to their style of play and ended up with a Lot of turnovers. This resulted in a lot of very long, mentally exhausting points that caused some unnecessary focus errors. When these errors happened close to our own endzone, Grinnel was sometimes able to steal an easy score. This allowed them to stay in the game with us through the second half, even though we were outgunning them whenever we focused and played our own game. In the pattern of the weekend, we ground out the second half and only allowed them to score one single point. With the cap, our game ended 12-6. I am happy to say that this was a very spirited game and that Grinnel played honestly and honorably.

Our final game of the day was against the University of Minnesota at Duluth. With the four bids allocated to the Central Region this year, Minnesota is almost certainly going to Nationals. They are tall, fast, and athletic, and they have a couple of players who are rather good. They have a lot of good throwers, and a lot of people who can catch the disc. To start the game, we were a bit (do I even have to keep saying this?) flat. They hucked a lot, but they were smarter and their matchups were better then Grinnel's. We had a few bad turnovers and we were beaten by some floaty throws that we should have eaten up. We finally took half 7-5 after a series of long points rife with layout d's and coverage sacks by both teams. In the second half, we again managed to stop our opposition from finding the goal even once. With the cap coming soon after halftime, we won this game 9-5.

We played with very tight lines in that last game, which I kind of wish we hadn't done. At the time, the roaring wind and the close Minnesota defense made it seem imperative that we always have a strong line out there, but I think that we could have afforded to put out slightly weaker lines, especially as our lead lengthened. It never felt as though we were in true command of the game, though, which made it hard to know when we could afford to take that chance, but that isn't a very good excuse. We need to figure out how to sub so that we don't compromise our team's chance of success but still get more people into the game.

After our final game on Wednesday, we decided to take that afternoon and evening easy. We sat around the campsite, playing with the fire and talking. Ryan and I split a two-pack of frozen pizzas, which we cooked on the campfire, and I drank a six-pack of Yoohoo's. Everybody went to bed early, excited to be playing against Iowa State in the Quarterfinals the next day.

Incidentally, I woke up Thursday morning to find my right ankle badly swollen and the arch of that foot in pretty brutal pain. I don't know what I could have done, since I don't remember rolling my ankle or getting stepped on or anything, but I must have done something to it during Wednesday's games. I hope that it isn't serious, but it's still bothering me to the point that I cannot even walk without a pronounced limp.

Our quarterfinal matchup was set for one o'clock Thursday, so we got to the fields at about 12:45 for warmups. Though we seemed a bit unfocused when we started warming up, we were all fired up by the time that the game started. Our team got off to a tough start, giving up a break with our first possession, but we were running hard and getting turns on defense. It seemed inevitable that we would break back. We did, putting the game back on serve, but then Iowa State broke and took half 7-5. It was the first half of our season that we did not win. After half, Iowa scored the first point to bring it to 8-5, but we went on a little run and tied it 8-8. Iowa State scored and then broke, bringing it to 10-8, and we scored back right before the cap horn went off to make it 10-9. Under High Tide cap rules, you add one point to the leading score and play hard to that point. This meant that the game was now hard to eleven, with Zoodisc pulling. We got the first break, to tie it at 10-10 with us pulling again, but then Iowa State scored on a jump ball to win the game on universe point.

It was a shame that we lost that game, but there is no point in being too upset by it. Our team needs to maintain our focus on the things that matter, and the outcome of a single game at High Tide is not one of them. Until we reach Sectionals, nothing that we do is anything other than a team practice. Through these games, we can learn how to play together, how to be mentally strong, how to push through pain and maintain our fundamentals. I would be overjoyed if we lost every single game from now until Sectionals and then got our shit together and won the Northeast Region. That would be an excellent season. Right now, we need to concentrate on staying together, united in our goals, and learn from our mistakes so that we won't make them again when the games start to count.

After the Iowa State game, we headed straight to Statesboro for our Southerns hotel. Henry's car decided to stay behind without telling anybody and watch the finals, which was too bad because Henry and Mitch (who was in his car) were both names that we registered for hotel rooms. Nobody could get into those rooms until they arrived to sign in, which meant that two rooms full of players couldn't get in and get settled until they finally rolled up. A few of us went to a chinese food buffet, which was a delicious mistake that gave me a bit of a stomach ache, and then Ryan and I took an ice bath. The bath tubs at this hotel are outrageous. They are extra wide and extra deep with jacuzzi jets, which meant that Ryan and I could take our ice baths at the same time to offer each other support and distraction. It made the ice bath much more bearable. Then we hung out for a while and went to bed early. It was a pretty good night.

This morning, I had to wake up at 6:15 to drive John to the airport shuttle, two hours away. I didn't really mind - it was nice getting to hang out with him during the drive, and there was no traffic to speak of. I just put the car on cruise control and hardly had to even touch the breaks. As long as there's no traffic, I don't much mind driving. It's going to suck not having John at Southerns, as both a player, a person, and a teammate, but we'll be alright without him and he's going to be back with the team next week for Roll Call.