The van Buren Boys (Part II)

The Small Packa-whats played at the Minneapolis Indoor open tournament last weekend. Those present were Dave, Jon, Brian, Jake, Rachel D, Rachel S, Lana, Brendan, Scotty, Shawn, Shawn's two roomates, and myself.

I wrote out a tournament recap, but wasn't happy with it. Quick summary, we play well at times and poor at times. Played the Subzero team in the finals. Had the lead most of the game, but couldn't hold on. Rotation down to six by the end of the game. Even with few players, we played well enough to win, but made some mistakes and were unlucky at times (see Jon tripping himself in the endzone, after 55 jukes to get open). Lost 9-7.

Six more players have committed to the van Buren Boys, bringing our roster to 13. (Should it be The Van Buren Boys, or The van Buren Boys? I think I like the capitalized "V", but keep writing it with the lowercase). We have a very healthy group of huckers, some very solid handlers, a great group of cutters, and some dangerous deeps. I think the current recruiting focus will be on defense. I like the amount of height we have on the team, and have the potential to have. We could potential have four to six players over 6'2''.

We still have invitations out there for a number of players. If everybody said yes, or stayed in the area, we would have a roster of 28 players. I doubt everybody will say "yes", but most everybody has shown some level of interest in the team. In my last post, I was worried about having to have tryouts and when they would be. It is looking more and more likely that tryouts won't be necessary.

I feel like we'll have a roster that can compete with every team in the central region. We aren't really lacking in any department right now, so every player we add will just add depth to certain positions and skills. I no longer feel worried about building the roster, now I'm just excited to see how it will fill out.

The van Buren Boys

There will be a new ultimate team in town this year celebrating the life of the "meanest president" there ever was Martin van Buren. Did you know that he was the first president born on American soil, so technically, our first American president? Did you know that even though he was the first American president, his first language was Dutch? Did you know those scornful Whigs gave him the nickname Martin van Ruin? Whigs can be so cruel.

The new open team consists thus far of few commitments plus a lot of maybes and no responses. Not "no" responses, mind you, but no responses. As with CLX, I get to play general manager of the team and am currently trying to build a roster of players. Having sent out all but a few of the initial invitations, I'm a little worried that people aren't as excited as the already committed players are. I know it's just February, but with CLX, people usually responded within a day or two almost always confirming a desire to play on the team. Some of the van Buren Boys invites were sent out over two weeks ago with no response as of yet. At this point, I'd take a refusal or two, just to know that emails made it out to the players.

It's kind of looking more and more likely that the van Buren Boys will have to run tryouts, but I've been trying to think of a good time to hold them. Originally, I thought post-regionals, when the college kids would be done with their seasons. That's when most teams have tryouts. But, should we wait until other teams make their cuts first? Do we make people decide between our tryouts and another team's tryouts and risk losing those players altogether? A number of players the van Buren boys are interested in have expressed interest in trying out for Subzero. Some may accept the invitation, others may decline if they are accepted. Does that mean we wait until Zero is done? Now we're talking tryouts in June, after Poultry Days? I'd rather be practicing and strengthening a team by that point, not trying to decide who to keep and who to ditch. So maybe there could be two tryout sessions, one in April for non-college players and then one later in the season for college players who didn't have time to attend tryouts. I'm sure I'll decide upon some brilliant scheme.

Of the seven players we already have committed, the stock is very good. We've got Jon Staron, Dave Karsten, Joe Brisbois, Brian Lucido, William Kasuga (although I haven't actually talked to him yet!), Ross Cram, and myself. I feel there are a couple of other players who will commit as soon as they are assured of other talent on the team. Some potential players just need to figure out where they'll be this coming season.

It will be interesting forming a team made up of players ranging from "highly technical conservative player" to "huck it early and often". We should be able to find a happy medium somewhere in there, but play may depend on the given players on the field. We'll develop an offense (what! my CLX ears can't take this!) and some offensive strategies, but as I've said before, I'd rather react to what the defense is doing than become set in the ways of a system. Offense hasn't really been my thing, at least strategy-wise. Offense is definitely my thing, though, don't get me wrong. I'd like to add somebody to the team that has an interest in developing the offensive side of game. Myself, I'll be coordinating the defensive side of the disc.

Do we run offensive/defensive teams? I'm kind of torn here. Part of me says yes, part says no. What I imagine will happen is that about 2/3 of the team will be relegated to either offense or defense, with the remaining 1/3 playing on both sides of the disc. Maybe it will be more of a 75/25 split, I don't know.

What do we need right now? Huckers and handlers, preferably one who does both. We have a fair amount of deep players and cutters interested in the team right now, but lack depth in the thrower department, especially the hucker spot. With Dave, Brian, and Ross playing, it's a great start, but three or four more huckers would be nice. I'm not so worried at the handler position because we have a number of players interested who I wouldn't say are huckers, but are handlers that are well-versed at taking care of the disc.

Well, it's only early February, so I'm not too worried yet, just a little impatient. I'd like to start knowing who wants to play on this team, but it will take time. I want the strongest roster possible with this team, so it will take some time and patience to make that happen.

I think the most important question is who will get to wear the number 8?

Has Anybody Seen My Fiancee?

I asked Lana, my girlfriend of over two years, to marry me over the weekend. I'm surprised she actually understood what I was asking her because I was so nervous and crying. Tears of joy, people! I read her a poem and started tearing up in the middle of it. I was thinking to myself, "great, you idiot, just give it away here", and she was able to pick up on what I was doing. Do my tears surprise you? Well, strong men also cry. Strong men also cry.

The first time I heard Lana's lovely voice was about four or five years ago. I was sitting at home at 3103 West St. and received a phone call from a girl asking if she could show up to frisbee practice. She kept stressing, "you're sure it's okay?". It was kind of annoying and I just mentioned when practice was and told her she should show up.

Then, some time later, Jon and I were at the rec center working out before practice. I knew who Lana was by that time because the women wanted her to join the frisbee team. I saw her with some friends and said hi. I think she knew who Jon and I were and said hi and then said "well, my friends and I are going to run now", and then she's off to the races.

Skip ahead to early summer 2004. School's out and we're practicing at the Ames Middle School behind Wendy's. Lana shows up to a practice for some reason. She is fairly quiet most of the practice, but then at the end, turns manic on us. "Hey everybody, guess what I'm doing tonight!", at this point I think she was akwardly perched on an outdoor electrical box. "I'm watching the Lord of the Rings extended version with my friends and we're going to have onesies, and twosies, and threesies, and foursies! Does anybody want to come with?" Before anybody can answer, she jumps down says "Well, bye" and seriously, sprints to her car. A couple of people share a "What just happened?" look, including myself.

Lana attends Aquatennial in 2004 and has a good time. I ask if she like to join the team, but don't actually add her to the roster until the day before it is due. Apparently, she found out when all the tournaments were and blocked off those weekends, and was just waiting for me to ask her to be on the team, and had almost given up hope before I asked her to fill out her roster information.

Added in there was a time I could have gone out to see Farenheit 9/11 with Shawn, Tony, and Lana. I ended up playing hearts and eating pizza with Brian Lucido's parents. I don't regret the decision.

Pre-regionals 2004, Lana and I travel up to Minneapolis early to play some miniature golf on Friday. We don't find the place and instead opt for Chuck-E-Cheese's. It was sort of our first date. Then, we win central regionals and make nationals. Games of keep away are played for hours in the ocean by ourselves. We almost win the whole thing.

Then yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, 2005 and 2006 happen, and early in 2007 I ask her to marry me. I was going to do it in Chuck-E-Cheese's in Minneapolis, as some of us went there on Sunday afternoon, but the place was too crowded and loud and full of kids that would rather punch you and tell you to shut up than ask you to get out of the way.

We've shared a lot of good times and God times, seen 10 national parks, travelled around the earth, won some frisbee tournaments, laughed, cryed, argued, farted (okay, just me) and never stopped caring for each other.

Here's to you, Lana.