We are the champions!
With three games to go in the regular season, our team was .500. We then rattled off a nine-game winning streak, including three yesterday in pool play and three more in today's single elimination round to come out as the tournament winners. I'd made it to the elimination round a few times in the past, but I'd never even made the final.
One of my teammates told me that I had acquired the nickname "Windshield Wiper" because of my relentless sweeping side-to-side coverage of the field playing short-deep (a.k.a. "middle" or "middle-middle") in the zone. I tend to overpursue (that is, to go all the way to the sideline to cover instead of passing off the responsibility to the player in the adjacent zone), but I have the speed and anticipation to make up for it--usually. I usually play as a chaser, so it was nice to be put into a new position, learn something new, and be complimented so highly that the captain didn't want me to play chaser at all anymore.
A different one of my teammates scored four times on discs that were deflected. This included one hilarious play where it bounced off his hands, then off of my hands, off of my collar, and back into his hands.
Yet another teammate had a spectacular catch right through the hands of the defender off of a horribly misthrown disc...saving the possession in what was ultimately the tournament-winning point.
Our final was a close, high-quality contest with the score 8-7 at half. We then ended halftime with the classic "eat the babies" cheer and dominated the second half for a 15-8 victory.
And a personal favorite for the non-ulty inclined out there: "And then after the cheer, act really reticulated!" "You know that reticulated means forming a network pattern, right?" "Umm...no."
The team was issued a plaque, which will probably stay in one of the captains' possession. The tournament loot for all of us non-captains: a special 2008 division champions disc. Just the tiniest bit literally shiny, but as has been pointed out in the past, it's the metaphorical shininess that matters. Sorry curlers, but for all the curling hardware and milestones that have made it into my personal treasured moments, possibly only my inaugural internal bonspiel third event runner-up pin means more to me.
One of my teammates told me that I had acquired the nickname "Windshield Wiper" because of my relentless sweeping side-to-side coverage of the field playing short-deep (a.k.a. "middle" or "middle-middle") in the zone. I tend to overpursue (that is, to go all the way to the sideline to cover instead of passing off the responsibility to the player in the adjacent zone), but I have the speed and anticipation to make up for it--usually. I usually play as a chaser, so it was nice to be put into a new position, learn something new, and be complimented so highly that the captain didn't want me to play chaser at all anymore.
A different one of my teammates scored four times on discs that were deflected. This included one hilarious play where it bounced off his hands, then off of my hands, off of my collar, and back into his hands.
Yet another teammate had a spectacular catch right through the hands of the defender off of a horribly misthrown disc...saving the possession in what was ultimately the tournament-winning point.
Our final was a close, high-quality contest with the score 8-7 at half. We then ended halftime with the classic "eat the babies" cheer and dominated the second half for a 15-8 victory.
And a personal favorite for the non-ulty inclined out there: "And then after the cheer, act really reticulated!" "You know that reticulated means forming a network pattern, right?" "Umm...no."
The team was issued a plaque, which will probably stay in one of the captains' possession. The tournament loot for all of us non-captains: a special 2008 division champions disc. Just the tiniest bit literally shiny, but as has been pointed out in the past, it's the metaphorical shininess that matters. Sorry curlers, but for all the curling hardware and milestones that have made it into my personal treasured moments, possibly only my inaugural internal bonspiel third event runner-up pin means more to me.