Leiout was awesome again this year. The weather was beautiful (70 and sunny each day), our team was fun and we played 8 awesome games of beach ultimate.
Friday Night
Met the team. It was mostly the same team as last year. For guys, we traded Jon and a few west coast pickups for DanD, Jay Walker and Bill (Steve’s friend from Albaquerque). For girls, only Catie remained from last year. We picked up KayKay, Kelsey, Val, Jill and Holly. We all pregamed at the hotel (played Val’s Deck game), then partied at Rustys. I was reminded just how many players from New York come to Leiout. I think it’s because they can’t wait for Wildwood and need a beach ultimate fix.
Saturday
We played pretty well most of the time, but ended up going 1-3. We lost at least one (maybe two) games where we were up at the end but relaxed too much and didn’t finish strong. My throws were much better this year than last year, especially the hucks. I don’t know what I changed, but I figured out how to throw floaty hucks out to space in front of receivers without throwing them out the back of the endzone. I still had some throwaways and stupid mistakes, but I felt pretty good overall. Max also played outstandingly. He made several very athletic grabs and skys. Turns out he’s actually pretty good when he’s not drunk.
Sat Night
Thai for dinner, more Deck, then tournament party. Compared to last year, this one was pretty lame. It had a lot of potential but they didn’t do anything with it. The space was a large warehouse (reminds me of raves I went to in high school) with several tables/bars and one dancing crowd in front of the speakers. There was no place to sit, no games to play and no free drinks ($7 for a whiskey sour is kind of a lot). After we got bored, we went to Barnie’s Beanery and played shufflepuck.
Sunday
We dropped down to become the 5 seed in a lower pool (I think it was F pool). We resolved to come out strong and maintain our focus, and that paid off. We won our first two games pretty easily and were up in the third, but hit a speed bump. The other team went up and had the disc in the endzone to win it, but their cutter dropped a wide-open throw for the goal. We scored, then broke them twice more for the win. It was extremely lucky, but we’ll take it.
In the finals, we played a UCLA alum team. The game was close the whole time. We started up a point and took turns scoring and trading breaks. I think they were up after half but we broke them to go up one. Towards the end, we up 9-8 when Steve got a minor concussion. We scored the point to get to universe for us, but then our luck changed. They scored and we put on our universe line to end the game. We worked the disc very well, moving side to side and making steady progress up the field. We were about 10 feet from the endzone and just needed an easy goal, but Steve threw it sideways across the field and out of bounds. UCLA came back to score, then broke us twice more to seal the deal.
Sun Night
Lots of gyros, dinner at the Beanery, Deck, a late attempt at Rustys, Ale House, late night food search, Fuck the Dealer, more Deck.
Lessons
- Eating is super important. I felt way better after eating that fruit before finals.
- Don’t let anyone play if they have a concussion, even if its minor. They will make mistakes.