Ultimate: Regionals 2024

In Corvallis with the Old Breed

I’ve recently been informed that at least two people have seen this blog, which is thrilling news to me. To my devoted readers, I'm sure you're dying to know my thoughts about regionals; wait no longer, for they are here.

Regionals were in Corvallis this year. My dislike for Corvallis deepens with every trip. Nevertheless, after spending a week in Alberta for work, I flew home on Thursday and then departed for PDX on Friday after work. I can report the flight was a lovely 45 minutes and I may never drive to Oregon again.

The state of things in Corvallis: the university was hosting some sort of parent week thing so all the hotels were booked out, but luckily our intrepid planning committee managed to get us rooms in a new-to-us hotel — I heard of some real tragedies from other teams about only booking for one night accidentally, hotels 40 minutes away from the fields, etc. Also the hotel had an espresso machine, so I was happy.

Saturday

On the Saturday we played three games, a W against Rain Check, a W against Drift, and an L against Schwa. I was playing mostly O-Line but swapped back to D-Line when needed. There were a couple notable gaps in our lines, from injuries, school, work placements in remote places, etc etc. Not an excuse but definitely felt the absence from some of the missing players. The L against Schwa was regrettable — from the very first point our offense felt disjointed and clunky and we scraped along in the first half before disintegrating. I felt pretty good about my playing, but I feel like I play my best from a place of frustration, which isn’t where you want to be as a team.

More reports from Corvallis: we tried a new pasta place for dinner, which was pretty good, and went to Target, where I bought loafers (I have no suitable office shoes and I’m finally being forced back into the office). My teammates revealed they thought Trader Joe’s was overrated (appalling).

Sunday

On Sunday it was time to get a bid for Nationals or perish in the attempt. Over the past two years we’d been smugly winning the region, but this year things were feeling a lot more shaky. Our first game was against Riot. We’d beaten Riot twice this season but they had all their key players now, played well, and we dropped the first game of the day to them in a pretty convincing fashion.

So then we had to win two games to go to nationals. The next game was against Dark Sky from Utah, who had previously beaten us at SFI West. We ended up winning 15-13 but it was a very close game. I’m really surprised that Underground beat them in pool play — either Dark Sky matches up really well against us, or they were having an off day on Saturday — I’m not even sure why because I feel like they’re quite a good team. One of my teammates heard them chatting after the game and apparently a contested down call I made was the TSN turning point of the game. Oops.

Let me Explain Myself

I 100% believe the disc was down (the player was bobbling it and regained control after the edge of the disc hit the ground) but it was definitely close and I was the only one who saw it. I don’t really like being involved in calls in general, especially when it seems like it had an outsized affect on the game itself and the game had so much on the line. So still thinking it over.

Anyways, after that we played Underground for the final bid in the region. And we won! Happy days!

We had some delightful ice cream (a win for Corvallis, my least favourite place in the world) and then flew home.

Thoughts About Myself

Playing time is always so contentious in ultimate because we all pay so much money and work so hard to do this, and it's devastating when you don't played. I got played a lot this tournament. Mostly I just hope I didn't let my teammates down when I had those extra points — it really sucks to be on the sideline and watch someone turn it over or get scored on and wish you also had the opportunity to turn it over or get scored on. This thought isn't really going anywhere. It's just a tough situation and it requires so much more emotional resiliency from the people who aren't playing than the people who are.

I had some good moments and some ones that I wish I could take back, like throwaways on what should have been simple throws. I'm proud that my conditioning and fitness paid off and that my ankles are still intact. Still so much room for improvement and refinement. I think eventually (maybe in another ten years) I'll have a game that I can truly be proud of and then I'll retire forever into the sunset.

Next step is Nationals! Stay tuned for San Diego, sunshine, and hopefully success at the big show.