Back from 'toon town

We returned last night from the Disc Odyssey ultimate tournament in Saskatoon. Our crew this weekend for the trip included Garrett, me, Joelle, Ian, Bonnie, Catherine and Mic. We were fortunate that Catherine's parents were pleased to accomodate us in their yard for the weekend - their side yard became our little tent city for several nights. Not only was it a cheap place to stay while we were out there, but her parents were super nice and overly hospitable - they provided us with breakfast, coffee and juice on both mornings!

We all left on Friday, one car in the afternoon and the other car around dinner time. The drive out there in our car was uneventful but pleasant. We made good time and arrived just after 11pm, having left around 5:30. We set up camp and were off to bed quite promptly.

The next morning we got up quite early and had breakfast, before heading off to our game at 9:30am. The weather was fair - sun and clouds with a light wind. Catherine and Bonnie weren't actually playing this weekend, so Catherine stayed at home to visit with her parents and Bonnie came with us to relax at the field (she also went for a jog and entertained us when we were on the sideline!). Our team assembled mostly on time - some players were maybe 15 minutes late. But that's not too bad when you are on ultimate time. In any case, we came out strong and easily beat the first team we played. It was an intense game, but we were definately the stronger team, despite the fact that a lot of us hadn't played together before.

Our second game was immediately afterwards and one of our players told us the second team was even better than the first team, so we started out expecting to really battle for our win. In the first ten minutes, we scored five points straight with little effort. Hmm...seemed like it wouldn't be so tough to beat them after all. Which we did.

We had an hour and a half break for lunch before our next game, so we went to Booster Juice and had some smoothies and paninis.

Our next game went much like the first two - we beat the team quite readily, despite everyone being full and sleepy from our break, and the heat of the day really kicking in. However, our fourth game was when the tides started turning and we were beaten by the other team. Overall, though, our 3-1 record was quite good and put us in the championship for the B pool the next day.

The dinner and party for the tournament this year was in a different location than last year. I was a little disappointed, since last year's venue was really awesome and we had had a great time there. However, we gave the new location a shot, even though it turned out to be not as good. The first main problem was that the venue was outdoors - it was actually enclosed outdoor volleyball courts surrounded by some stands and patios. This was the main problem because no one knew it was going to be outdoors ahead of time and lots of people didn't dress to be outside all night. By midway through the party, it was quite cold and we had to go back to the car to get our coats. A lot of people left the party earlier than they would have because they were cold. The other problem was that the food was much crappier than the food they gave us last year. Our tournament fees included field food, dinner, all our beer at the party and the games themselves. So, we went for our free dinner and got totally ripped off with the hard, overcooked, dry steaks they gave us. Quite a let down, especially for hungry ultimate players who have played hard all day and need sustenance. The last problem with the party was the DJ, who played house music the whole time - not anything people wanted to dance to, even though lots of people wanted to dance! We ended up leaving the party around 1am, but we were near to the last ones to leave! Here are some pictures from the party:
Left to right: Joelle, Ian, Mic, Garrett.
Later in the evening, left to right: Garrett, Kim, Mic, Bonnie, Joelle.Just before we left, the girls huddled together for warmth while waiting for the boys to finish their game of cups. I'm on the far side of the group, although you can't see me!

The next day arrived quickly enough, leaving us all a little sleepy and some of us a little hungover. We packed up our gear, thanked Catherine's parents and headed out to our final games. We arrived a little early, and our team slowly started arriving and gearing up. However, by the time the game needed to start, we only had a portion of our team at the field! We had one girl sub and one guy sub, so we started the game, but we really struggled to keep up with the other team's depth of players when we had so few players. Those of us that arrived to play were starting to get angry as time ticked by and not even our captain had shown up!! As you might have guessed, this other team beat us and we headed into the consolation round (aka Loser Bowl) rather than to the finals like we should have. A bunch of our players started trickling in between 45 and 60 minutes after game start time, and they were given a hard time when they finally showed up.

Our loser bowl game ended up being against an Edmonton team that we knew really well, so it was really fun although still competitive ultimate. After our game, we took a team photo before heading over to watch the A division final.See the guy in front in the sleeping bag? That was our captain, who partied too hard and came too late to the game.

The A division final was between an Edmonton team and a Calgary team. We stayed to cheer for Edmonton, especially because the Calgary team was one that most crowds dislike (bad sports, jerky), but also to watch really good ultimate being played. We only stayed until just past half time, and then started back towards Edmonton, stopping in North Battleford (about an hour and a half west of Saskatoon) for dinner. Unfortunately, our dinner at Boston Pizza was really slow because of bad service and we lost an hour an a half there. By the time we got back on the road, our ETA was around 11:30pm, which was a lot later than we had anticipated. The drive back was pretty boring but I stayed awake to help Garrett stay alert, and we were treated to a fantastic display of active weather, with several thunderstorms all around us in every direction. It was great! There was lightning like crazy on my left, right and right ahead, however we didn't really get rained on as we drove between the storms. That kept us entertained until we were basically in Edmonton and the sky was dark.

Overall, it was a fun weekend and quite relaxing, despite the effort of playing lots of ultimate in the hot summer sun! I didn't injure myself and I played hard, so I was happy with my performance this weekend. Next time, though, I think I might sign up with a team where the captain might actually show up for the final games the second day of the tournament...