Alumni game number 4

I wanted to get this on my blog and in my record of memory. The alumni game was a success. I spent a lot of time taking pictures and flitting among old friends. Following is my post-game note and write up.

"Thanks again for making the 4th annual alumni game a success! Thanks especially to Mark K for his generous support of the BBQ. Thanks to Tini for hosting. And thanks to all those who helped to organize teams, cook brats, direct traffic, cheer, and wait patiently to play.

In a break from tradition, we played three round robin games with a mixture of alums, students and guests sharing the field and the teams. We saw some great highlights in those games which ended with each team 1 and 1. One particular stand out for me was the Brian Heller huck to a sliding, diving Law School Pat. Other great moments included Tim Crowley diving around the field, Jimmy DeMartini directing traffic, Lemon hucking, and Sean Dorsy holstering a biscuit. Turned out he was actually saving up for a chicken wing for the score later. That's more like the Dorsy we know.

Even with a BBQ looming, almost everyone wanted to keep playing so we undertook the traditional alums vs. current team game. Planning a shortened game to 9, the game picked up where we've left off in previous years. The alums started out moving the disc well and working well together. Some wondered if the warm-up games had been in the alums favor, but later they'd claim the games had tired them out. The alums took half 5-4 and it looked like this might be the year they'd break out of their slump. Sam was unstoppable underneath and Jim McMahon was diving all over the place to get some sweet D's, but he couldn't find anyone on the other end of his hucks.

The current team struck back quickly and re-established a lead. With a nod toward strategy, the alums pulled out a zone in the second half. It created a few turns, but the momentum had shifted. Frodo ran the offense and really had the alums talking on the sidelines. Jen tracked down some hucks. Then with some snappy disc movement and some forced hucks, the current team ran their record to 4-0 by taking the game 9-7.

At the BBQ the conversation shifted to an all-time all-Catholic team. It was a lively, friendly, and fun discussion and I'll hope you take it that way. Remember that the crowd skews younger with '02 or '03 being the earliest class represented. The rules of the All-Catholic team were spotty, but everyone did agree that only play at Catholic, not later development should be counted. With that in mind, the proposed all-time all-Catholic team looked like this.

The three handlers would be Alan J, Jared A, and either Pete W, John T, or Scrapper Woods.
The four cutters would be: Arin H, Andy "Lemon" , Paul G, and either Mike "Karpo" , or Andrew "Stills" . (Added: There was also some lobbying for Jimmy D and his good hands as a cutter.)

The important lesson in this for young players out there is that if you want to be considered for the all-time team, you should use your last name to create a nickname.

All in good fun! Thanks again to everyone. This is a fantastic tradition and I really appreciate your support!"

I found the all-time CUA team discussion to be particularly interesting, since I have/had seen the most players in action out of anybody. What I found really difficult was to compare the players who really never played together. It's so hard to tell if a player who carried the team in one year would have had that same effect in other years. How much did teammates have an effect? Even that question has two meanings. In some cases teammates surely made each other better, but in another context it also meant that a stand-out in one year might have been part of the crowd in another.

I think others had their own problems with this discussion too. Freshmen from four years ago had seniors that they looked up to and in some cases had seen evolve in the DC Ultimate scene. Karpo was initially named as one of the starting handlers until several others jumped in to say that in college he was barely allowed to throw.

I'm sure there are others who go back into the late '90s and early '00s and the early formation of the team that should be considered, but no one was at the game to champion them. There's been a pretty big shift in the game over those years and a shift on the support and interest of the university, so who knows?

It's a fun discussion.