Founder's Club Sectionals Div2

DISCarded '06: Nicola Caputo (HP), Eli Gabel-frank (HP), Alex Growney (WHRHS '07), David Hsiung (EB '06, Rutgers '10), Jason Hwee (EB '06, Rutgers '10), Joseph Kwiatek (Hillsborough '06, Rutgers '10), Bryan Lian (WHRHS '06, Rutgers '10), Andrew Lu (WHRHS '07), Thales Nazario (HP '06, Rutgers '10), Glenn Poole (WHRHS '06, Rutgers '10), Jacob Price (WHRHS '08), Jake Rainwater (HP), Pin Su (Rutgers '07), Lu Wang (WHRHS '07), Daniel Weingard (HP), Yuki Yamada (HP '07), Paul Yang (JPS '06, Rutgers '10).

W vs. Swarthmore (12-6)
L vs. Pittsburgh-B (9-12)
W vs. Divine Disc (W-F)
L vs. Delaware (10-13)*

*came back from 3-9

I think that I act like an asshat from time to time in the ultimate scene. I do not intend to be an asshat, but maybe I come across that way. I like to talk smack; the whole smack-talking thing is amusing to me, and I appreciate it when other people heckle me. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind being heckled in good spirit, and usually I don't see it as malicious--I certainly never intend to incense my teammates or opponents. I almost never talk smack, unless it was initiated by another person, but I have been known to speak my mind, both on the field and off. I am pretty confident in my knowledge of the rules of ultimate, and I have worked hard to overcome the urge to argue calls: I tend to not argue when somebody makes a call on me, and rather fall back on "contest/no contest." Today, though, I saw something that bothered me.

I don't know if I had best perspective, but I was only ten feet away when I saw my teammate running toward his man, who was in the endzone about to receive a huck. The offensive player jumped and landed on top of my teammate, then called foul after he did not catch the disc. As the offensive player started outlining the reasons he called foul, I asked my teammate if he thought he fouled the other man. My teammate said, "No, I don't think so." So I, silly me, looked to give the disc back to the thrower and said "foul, contest." The offensive player in question yelled at me that it was not my place to make a call here, and then he again tried to pull my teammate aside and discuss his reasoning. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for explaining the rules to people who do not understand them, but this was a pretty clear-cut thing to me: guy jumps forward onto another player (violating that player's vertical space, by the way), and then calls foul? On a stationary player who didn't even jump? Would you like some cheese with that whine?

So my teammate reiterates his "contest" call, plays moves on, but the other team's player continues to try to engage me in debate over the matter. I wasn't happy about it, especially after what happened in an earlier game. Another teammate of mine caught the disc, then the opposing team set up a cup around him. The problem was that the marker, who I heard calling "stall seven," was never less than 15 feet away from the thrower, clearly not close enough to call stalls. I said "dude, you can't mark him" and he yelled at me, "you can't make that call! only the thrower can, he has to call fast count!" I was shocked at the lack of spirit, the lack of knowledge of the rules (see XIVC2 and 4), and the sheer audacity of this player (who, I was informed, was the captain of a certain college team).

So, post-tournament thoughts:
1. Sorry if I hog playing-time?
2. I need to nail down a few things before I can handle for Rutgers:
a. look before I leap. I do this in general, but sometimes I forget.
b. be something other than a handler. like a cutter.
c. stop working on endurance, work more on sprinting speed/recovery (see #1)
3. Of the three hammers I threw, two were completed in the endzone and one was really bad.
4. I think I might have a half-decent forehand huck now?
5. I am getting more confident in my backhand huck, but a certain muscle in my back hurts when I rip it.
6. People need to learn the rules, then play by them. Especially that part about SOTG.