Exit 69 recap

Exit 69 ended up being a great tournament for our young guys, and I was really really proud of how they played, responded to criticism, and grew as players. I will only be able to recap half of the team cause as I mentioned in the previous post I was on the "Y" squad for the weekend.

We took a bus down to Northfield (props to Mckean for driving.) On the way down there was a lot of debaucherous fun. myself and several others consumed some beersss, others decided that they might indulge in an herbal remedy in preperation for the weekend. The ladies team was staying with the Durga captain (St. Olaf's womens team), which meant we had to drop them off before we were able to get to our camp site. By the time we reach our campsite it is dark out and we have to set up tents..not something that is fun to do in the dark but better than sleeping outside. All the guys on the team are pretty tired by the time we get our tents set up and are happy to crawl into our sleeping bags as we all know we have an early morning ahead of us.

Saturday:
Cold morning I was really glad I slept in my under armour Jake drops off the men's team at a gas station so we can get what we need for the tournament (red bull, 5 hour energy, energy/ protiend bars etc...) , and he picks up the women's team. The Y team got to our fields a little later than I would have liked for warm ups but it ended up being ok as I don't think it affected our team significantly and we still preformed well and played hard. We ran Jam as a warm up and prepared for our first game of the fall '08 season.

Game 1: GOP:
now, while UMD has some history with this team this is a new year and we are hoping to not let things get out of control with these guys as they are for the most part a pretty laid back group of guys, I can't remember who started on O or D this game, or any big highlights from this game with the exception of plays that I made. So here is a very short list of things that I actually remember. 1: second or 3rd point of the game I get a hand block on an around break. 2: this is the last thing I really remember and that was I had 2 assists this game, although I cannot remember to whom. We end up losing this game 15-12 in a pretty close battle especially considering our lines were open the entire way through.

Game 2: Northwestern NUT
Coming into this game I knew nothing about this team other than the fact that they came from the great lakes region. game plan is the same in this game as it was in the last, keep lines open, get the young guys PT, don't be intimidated, and make smart decisions. I really liked our intsensity for 90% of this game, we played hard, we take half on them 8-6, most of our returners played well, I was basically breaking my mark at will. we have minor lapses in our energy wich cost us the game we lost this game 15-12 as well. This was the first time we got the "ok" to spike the disc. not on someone but to use it as a tool to fire up your team and get people jacked up to make a play, so both teams spiked on eachother and there was nothing particularly malicious about it, but it was an odd thing for me to handle.

Game 3: Iowa Gold:
Many of us returners sort of looked at this game like a revenge game trying to avenge our season ending loss to IHUC, however due to a number of factors, conditioning being a big one we end up getting blown out of this game. This was one of the first 4 man zones I got to handle in this season and I was happy to. I will say this, if Iowa does not fix the holes in their cup our handlers our going to continue to break it, I was even able to throw my first hammer over the top of their cup, it was even easier to break their marks, both through the cup, as well as around it.

because we finished 4th in our pool we were given a by into the chumpionship quaterfinals and did not play another game saturday, I was a little frustrated by this because it meant that our freshman would get 1 less game, but it did give us a chance to watch our X team play a coed team that was very disorganized and they were able to role them, I was able to start drinking some PBR courtosey of Brett. We ended up eating at Perkins, and getting some Beer, as well as various other liquor. Some of the Sexy Laydsss ended up coming back to the camp sight with guys team and we got a little crunk, and celebrated the beginning of what is going to be a great season. Well apparently we were being too loud and the park ranger came over and told us that it is unlawful to consume alcholic bevrages in a state park, it was pretty comical but we did as we were told and finished our drinks and most of us went to bed.

Sunday:
We actually got ot sleep in, as a reslut thoug we ended up being incredibly late to the fields and had very limited time to warm up, thought this might hurt us but luckily both the X and Y team had games where they would be able to role teams right out of the gate so this luckily was a non issue

Game 1 sunday : St. Thomas
This is a very different team from a year ao, they don't really party, no Izzt, but Bubbles and Frogger are both still around. always a fun group of guys, suprisingly things get a little heated in this game but Y cruises to a victory. highlight of this game for me is a 70 yard huck from me to Josh for a goal. on the downside I played pretty shitty defense, and got involved in on field discussions when I wasn't on the feild, this is something I need to work to correct as it is 1 unspirited and 2 not helpful to the team. all of our rookies played well and it was a nice to finally get a win under our belts.

Game 2 sunday: X Vs Y
no one took this game seriously we all just ran around and looked like a bunch of stoned hippies no real highlights, we ended up just forming 1 team after this so all of our rookies could continue to get play time and we would be able to show them what disciplined ultimate looked like

Game 3 Sunday: Z vs St. Olaf Y (it might have been X who cares).
pretty tight game throughoutI get my defensive discipline back and up playing really quite well in this game, I am able to break a ton of my marks and played pretty tight D. We throw our junk 3-3-1 zone where 3 people sprint down on the handlers, and there is a 3 man wall behind it , this forces olaf to turn this disc quite often and we respond by scoring breaks. we are done at half I believe and were down 9-11. I believe score our O point to make it 10-11 and I get sent out to run to play D, I remember that Jay and Lt were also out there as well as Peter. we end up getting the turn at about midfield worked it up to about 25 yards outside the endzone, and we end up throwing a turn. we transition really well into our junk zone and they turn it right on their goal line. I pcik up the disc with a straight upish mark, and see LT cutting to the forehand side, I get real low and fire a low flick that LT lays out for and catches we are tied at 11's. the only other highlight I remember of myself was scoring to make it 13-11 I believe with a great throw from Stark, we end up winning the game 15-11 or 15-12, winners of the chumpionship bracket. It was a great weekend, I had a ton of fun, I was so impressed with a lot of our rookies, I can't wait to form up our whole squad for no wisonsequences.

~Fro #23 Northern Lights