A-League Game 6

vs Rutgers Machine and Friends. This team was fired up to play us, and we were unusually shorthanded. Tight for the first couple points, soon the "Hillsboro Curse" reared its ugly head and Rutgers took advantage of key unforced Illuminati errors to go up by a few breaks. We were giving them the disc and not playing nearly respectable enough defense to stop their offensive flow. Hucks from Bill Sanborn and break throws from Ryan Thorpe tore us apart, and where their younger/newer faces were coming up with nice grabs, we were dropping or turfing the disc every couple passes. After they took half and we settled down a bit, we started to turn the tide back in our favor, creeping back to tie it at 13-13 and then breaking twice for a 15-13 win.

I had a nice (toot toot) huck D in the beginning while covering Bill, and played strong shut-down dump defense, but let off break throws and threw 3 turnovers in the second half. Not a good game for us, but we pulled it out. I was really impressed with the fire from Rutgers in the first half, and I wonder how many of them understand that they had us on the coals--a little more focus and they would have had their first win. I'm proud of the way they played...don't want to say I'm happy they lost, but I'm happy we didn't lose. I guess that's what happens when I switch teams for the summer.

Boston Invite

4:15 to get up there, nice hotel. Couldn't sleep at all Friday night--between the A/C unit and the snoring teammates, I don't think I got more than one hour of uninterrupted slumber. That didn't help much for Saturday, where I made poor breakfast decisions that included some kind of egg/bacon/cheese monstrosity and a cup of yogurt with fruit. I think the combination upset my stomach. In any case, we got up for our first two games and built leads but had trouble finishing the door, winning 15-8 and 15-9 against Medicine Men and Brooklyn respectively. Next up was Providence Pack Dogs, where I'm pretty sure we built a lead and then let Josh Ziperstein run all over us. It was frustrating that we couldn't stop a team whose offense basically depended on big deep shots, but our offense wasn't on point enough to prevent our 12-15 loss.

We started our crossover game against Sons of Liberty and traded to 3-2 in what would have been a very upwind-downwind game, but forced a turn on the goal line right before the game was postponed to Sunday due to lightning. Chipotle and "White Men Can't Jump" rounded out the night. The next morning was a little wet as we got off to an early start, 8am gametime so we could finish the crossover before the other rounds. My knee was really bothering me in warmups, so I guess it was a mixed blessing that I didn't get any playing time against SoL. We quickly went down a bunch of breaks, started to climb back and brought the game to universe point but couldn't seal the deal. That sent us down to play DoG where we built a 7-3 lead before shitting the bed and letting them take half. Game ended 13-15. That sent us down to play Roots of Rhythm...I think it was tight at first, at some point we pulled away by several breaks and then gave a couple back, but I believe the game ended 15-8 (score reporter says 15-13?). We then played Mephisto for 13th place and stomped our way to 8-2 at half. But the trend continued and we blew our lead in the second half to lose 13-15.

I built some confidence and learned a few things. Playing time was slim to none in some games, but I think/hope I started to earn more by the end of the weekend. Like last year, I played mostly D points. I was better prepared for that this time, though, and I think it showed. I did get beat a couple times, but handled my business much more of the time. For the few O-point I got, I did good things if I got the disc. Only one turnover all weekend, in the Roots game when I second-guessed myself and held back a throw to Bill on an open in-cut, then threw it anyway into the dirt behind him. Execution error, throw to the open man when he's open, simple fix. My huck to Jake the Jake for a goal against Mephisto left a much better taste in my mouth.

Lots to work on. We'll see within a few days if I get the chance to continue working with Pike this season.

Prep, Draft Game 7

0.5mi jog, stretch

3 rounds of:

L-hang pullup, knee tuck pullup, pullup

10 overhead squats (med ball, 45, 45lb)

10 pushups at +35lb

10 V-ups, 10 alternating situps

10 med ball twists each side

10 45degree extensions

5 pullups, 2x2 pullups, 1 pullup

Game was against Team 4. They were low on numbers and our girls were much better. I think they played a little zone, but we pretty much rolled for the whole game.

A-League Game 5

vs Mudsharks. Jumped to a lead in the first half through pounding rain, held it though the rain slacked off. Won by a big margin, but I'm not sure what it was. Got some tips from J-Defense after the game, then had some delicious sushi in Princeton with some of the guys (and a couple wives). Feeling okay, but I think I need to get loose, get warm, and get in a decent core/upper body workout before this weekend. Pools are up and my stomach is starting to rumble.

Double Practice Tryout

in Philly. Saturday was a good mix of drills and scrimmages, Sunday was all scrimmages. Body is holding up, but clearly not conditioned enough and that may be the long-term cost of earlier injuries. Seems I'm shutting down more of my man's cuts, but still getting beat. Staying tighter and not getting beat by as much, but still getting beat. Other than a few flubs (including one dumb drop), felt pretty good on offense. Some layout catches, some key break throws, a couple nice hucks. Wet all day Saturday, the fields soaked for Sunday, definitely impacting the game with players slipping and tripping.

Can't wait to bring it in Boston.

Draft Game 6

vs Burnt Orange? Angus/Bryant/Andrew (is he called Skank for some reason?) were their main players. We were savage, 5 dudes and 2 girls, but we went up by a few breaks for 4-1 and took half 8-6. They kept things interesting by tying it at 10-10, but we went on to win 15-11. I think Angus got pissed at me when I considered contesting his foul call, but the game was fairly calm. I pretty much covered him the whole time, and though I had some trouble getting open as a dump our team played well and I had plenty of completed bailout hucks to Katie, who kicked ass despite a bothersome hamstring.

I really enjoyed the game, had fun playing with my team, and I'm not regretting Draft League like I thought I might when I was first signing up--last year I only showed up to one game, and it wasn't that great. Other than the banged-up knee I got a couple weeks ago, it's been a much better experience this year. Cool.

A-League Game 4

vs CHS. The were missing key players, we rolled to a 15-4 win. Played another short (less intense) game, we won 5-1. Cheered on Rutgers, but they lost on universe to Mudsharks. An okay night. Afterwards:

with no rest:

20 pushups

2x40yd sprint

20 tuck jumps

2x40yd sprint

20 toe touches (abs)

2x40yd sprint

20 burpees

2x40yd sprint

20 ice skaters each leg

2x40yd sprint

Not enough

but more than nothing. Had some fun today at the track.

2.5mi biking

active warmup, static stretching

100m acceleration

2x200m run

400m sandbag walk

2x(100m sandbag overhead carry, 200m run)

10 sandbag clean and press

100m sandbag overhead carry

100m walking lunges

400m run

3mi biking

Biked

5mi to loosen up. That's all.

Pike Practice

in Princeton, but got kicked off the fields and moved to Mercer. Rough practice for me, at first--with few subs and high energy drills, I felt out of shape. Probably because I am. Damn. But after lunch and once it started raining, I felt better. Gave more effort. Still getting used to playing at that speed and with the requisite focus, but I'm learning and doing. Should be doing more/less, because of conditioning/injury. My ankle still hurts, but not enough to keep me from playing...we'll see how that goes, I suppose.

A-Leauge Game 3

vs Roots. I got there late because other kids in the carpool were late, so the game was already going on and we were down by two. I got in a few points on O without warming up, we scored them so I sat, not ready to play a whole point of defense. My first point I went deep, got hucked to, BLi fouled me and I lost control of the disc, didn't call the foul. But the thrower had been fouled too, so disc came back and I got it underneath, we worked it up and scored. By the second half I was ready and got in for both O and D points. I remember being tight to my man the whole time, denying his first cut and being close enough to put pressure on the second option, but that was generally deep and I got skied twice. It was good that I caught up both times to at least make a play on the disc, especially considering they were flat throws past a straight-up mark, but it still sucks to get skied.

The game was physical, which I generally welcome and enjoy, but I felt like a few players crossed the line I draw for myself when I'm playing physically--grabbing and blocking with the arms, pushing off the defender when cutting, etc. I'm still not really sure what to do about it, because I don't feel comfortable calling these kinds of fouls. On the other hand, I don't like the intentional fouling and I don't do it, so when my opponent does I'm putting myself at a disadvantage. Plus it's summer league, so I feel like upping the ante with an elbow or two is really not appropriate, whereas it might be for an intense club game. I usually walk away feeling like it's my responsibility to just play better, and not let the opponent be close enough to pull cheap moves on me like that. Easier said than done, but at least I can work towards that without having to feel like I've sunk to their level.

Anyway, we ended up losing by a couple. I think that result will change as Illuminati gels more into the season, but what I will say about Roots is that they play with a lot of fire--and that's fun, even if I'd sometimes prefer things to be a little cleaner.

Draft Game 4

vs 12, Yellow, Dan Johnson's team. They had only 7 or 8 players for the game, missing some of their ballers (like Bill Sanborn, and DJ himself) so it wasn't much of a contest. We pretty much rolled, but it was nice to get out there moving a bit. Afterwards, Frenchy and I did a deck of cards: pushups, leg raises, lunges (each leg), squats. I finished in 10:10. I wanted to do more abs and less quads, but oh well. Can always do more abs in the rest of the week.

Hardly worth mentioning

Still sore from the weekend, biked 5mi. Untimed, but worked hard.

A-League Game 2

vs Big Stick, because our scheduled game 2 vs Rutgers was cancelled. I didn't cleat up or play. Captain Vlad wasn't there, and neither was the focus. We lost, I'm not sure by how much because by the end of the game I was socializing with Rutgers/CHS people and asking for Mellen's doctor's opinion on my knee. Today I biked 5mi to Caitlin's house and 6.5mi from there to Sachin's house to get a ride to MCUDL, and the knee felt okay with that--no twisting, just quad-heavy exercise. So that's good, I guess. Not as good as the beer Dusty brought, but hey.