Yesterday, Zippy, bobby, allen, steve, jerry, annie, danny, claire, thunder, enway, iris, and I all went to Huntington Beach for a day of sun, surf, ultimate, and bonfire. We played a couple games of 4 v. 4, ebay vs. metro, etc. etc., but the reason I'm writing this post is about what happened during the bonfire.
I was getting up to go get more firewood from my car and walked about 3 feet away from the fire when i realized my keys were on my chair. Allen was sitting in it so I asked him to fish my keys out of the little cup holder on the chair and toss them over to me. So basically I was standing about 5 feet away from allen when I asked him, but between him and me was the bonfire which had been burning hot for about an hour already. So as allen grabbed my keys and was about to fling them to me, the thought of my keys falling into the fire entered my head but I thought... haha no this guy made friggin' Santa Barbara Condors. If he can throw a disc with the best... what's a simple 4 foot toss?
FAIL!
My keys got caught on his sunglasses (I don't even know how), and fell into the fire. The result was everyone just staring at it in the fire going "!!!!" allen, being the awesome guy he was tried to blow the flame out and was mildly successful and managed with one swoop reach in and snag my keys out of the fire.
However the keys had already been in the fire for a good 5-10 seconds and with these pictures, you can see the damage that was done.
I have this 5 Ultimate keychain I got from Natties and it 's designed to hold a nailclipper, but the one I got was empty and it managed to fit my USB stick which originally broke off my keychain. So I had that in there, and when it fell into the fire, the keychain began to melt and warp, but it managed to keep my USB stick from sustaining any damage. My little plastic cards on the keyring got all melted and burned, but otherwise, no harm done.
It's currently mid-June. I had my commencement ceremony yesterday and it really hasn't hit me yet that I've finished my academics here at Irvine and am pretty set for the working world... so I think. First off, we as college students know that we are here to study, to pursue a degree in our respective fields, to succeed, to advance in life. That was my main mentality coming to UC Irvine, picking this university over UC Davis, and UC San Diego. It's been a long 4 years of study, and at this point, I'm actively pursuing several job opportunities and hopefully I will land one very shortly.
However; a big part of my college experience was in fact playing college ultimate. This experience has not only provided me the skills to compete at the highest level of ultimate, but has also provided lifelong friendship and so much more. I did not play my freshmen year of college, even despite dorming with the men's captain. Call it laziness, lack of effort, I simply did not want to play despite already playing a bit in high school. I committed to play my second year and quite honestly, it has been one of the best decisions of my life. Whether it be playing my first tournament at UC Santa Barbara, to my last tournament at UC San Diego, it has been one hell of a ride.
The time between my first line against UCSC-B and my final line against Cal Poly- SLO, I've seen our team ranking hit as low as #238, to as high as the low 70's in the nation. I've caught and thrown one callahan, seen several greatests, played against new teams to the top ranked teamS in the nation. It's been an experience that I will never forget and I'll tell ya... if you guys ever want the definition of family, play ultimate.
So what now?
Our team is losing 6 valuable players due to graduation or loss of eligibility.
========================================= Allen Lai, is hands down the craziest player I've been blessed to play with. This guy has the complete package. Accurate short and long throws of all varieties, upside down or break. He has the ability to run deep on the opposition's best defenders and will snag almost anything in the air or chase down anything with his crazy speed and lay outs. He's coached our team and has shown great dedication and love to all who have played here at Irvine for the past several years. Matt Khosh has proven to everyone in the region that he cannot be covered. Like everyone knows on our team, if we need an open cutter, Khosh can be relied on to get open. Not only is he our main deep threat, he has the throws and above all the leadership and experience to get it done. His ability to calm or pick up our team is priceless and his hard work and skills will be greatly missed.
Steven Lowe is our lovable super senior. His skills although not as flashy as many others is just as meaningful and essential whether it be his hucks, break throws, or overall vision on the field, he's been a leader on and off the field. His ability to snag the huge hucks that we put up or his D's on deep hucks, Steve gets it done. His experience and willingness to sacrifice for the team will definitely be remembered. Great work Steve! You are one ultimate frisbee baller.
Jerry Yang is our token lefty. Along with Matt and Steve, he was one of the first members of UCI ultimate and over the years has shown that he is one of the main handlers and cutters on the team. His huge lefty huck was one of his signature throws, along with his ability to cut hard and get open in his shiny new not-released-yet nike cleats. His focus on the game was something I wanted and he was never hesitant to tell people what to do if it would help the team. Over the past year he has developed his deep game and the result? Freaking sky machine. Put it up to Jer-bear.. He'll chase it down and snag it over anyone.
Max Zimmerly- One of the coolest people on the team both on and off the field. His knowledge of the game, his crazy throws along with his deep ability make him one of the most valuable players on our team. His ability to calm our team down or to assure that we would be okay make him both a joy to play with as well as be around. We'll miss you Max! You are friggin' awesome!
So there you have it. My career with the NightLife of the University of California, Irvine is complete. I've played dozens of games with this team, and have learned so much about myself through this game. I'm going to miss all the members still playing on the team next year and wish nothing but the best for the team, both on and off the field. A special shout out to the Freshmen. Stiggy, Phil, and Sherlock. I've enjoyed all the time spent with you guys. You three are an awesome trio that will do nothing short of dominating the ultimate field next year. Continue to play hard, and don't be afraid to speak up if you know it will help the team. Phil... keep skying people. Sherlock... keep laying out for the D, but not gratuitously. STIG... you do whatever you have to do. You guys are awesome, and I will truly miss you guys.
I'll post more later, but these are my thoughts for right now.
I'll never forget my experiences here at Irvine. Nightlife 05-08... best 3 years ever!
Avoid this drink at all costs. Although it looks harmless, it packs the worst punch I've ever felt. I drink a lot of energy drinks so my mentality was that I could handle it, but there was nothing that could have described what I was going to experience.After I had it, I did some reading online and found out that this energy drink induces fat burn but involuntarily stimulating muscle contraction (shivering). I took my resting heart rate and it was elevated up to 90... up from my normal resting of about 60 or 65. On top of that, I felt cold, then hot, then cold again and all the while, could feel my heart beating faster and my blood flowing.
AVOID THIS DRINK
It's not worth it. I can handle 2 Red bulls at one time... but one small 8 fl. oz bottle of this stuff and it almost sent me to the hospital. Please avoid this drink. It's dangerous. I mean it
After 2 days of hard fought ultimate, we reached the finals pitting Florida UFUCT vs. the Hodags of Wisconsin-Madison. It was hyped up to be a good game with a lot of big plays and great all around Ultimate. However; things changed as the game went on.
I guess Florida forgot to show up. During the game however, it was ridiculously windy and we saw the teams adjusting to the wind during warmups. However, as the game wore on, hucks were no longer good throws as the wind would snatch them up so we saw a lot of short game and zone... which turned out to be pretty boring.
In the end, Florida had some huge key drops and the game turned out to be a blowout with Wisconsin taking the championship 15-9, capitalizing on a Florida drop on their own end line. Highlights included the crowd boo-ing muffin of Wisco everytime he touched the disc, and the sheer amount of calls that were made (travels, picks, fouls, etc.)
Steve and I drove back to the airport after watching UBC go on a 10-1 run against UCSB in the Women's final to take the Women's championship 15-9 (after being down 5-8). Ridiculous
Anyhoo, here are some pictures and a sweet Video that I just uploaded from Pool play.
CBS College Sports (used to be CSTV) was there to cover the action Pre-game huddles Timeout-called Wisconsin Hodags. 2008 Open Champions zippy and hammie= unstoppable
Pre-Quarters + Quarterfinals We arrived at the fields after the pre-quarters games had been played and settled in for what would be several exciting games. First game we watched was the quarter between Carelton and Georgia as well as Wisconsin and Harvard. The games were close but the favorites advanced. Carleton over Georgia, Wisconsin over Harvard, Florida over Arizona (BIG), and Colorado over Illinois in a semi-close game
This set up some really narly Semi-finals of CUT vs. Florida, and Wisconsin vs. Colorado. The decision was now ours of which semi-final to watch. We watched BLU tear it up against Carleton first and then decided to watch the Wisco vs. mambird game.
The game itself was very close in the beginning. Colorado broke Wisconsin right away and on the next pull, Wisconsin DROPPED the pull in the end zone but Colorado was unable to convert. The game was close with Wisconsin eventually breaking back to take half 8-7. Colorado began to play very sloppily and it resulted in Wisconsin taking 3 straight points and eventually winning 15-10.
It was difficult to watch as the majority of the capacity crowd was pulling for Colorado to win. On the other semi-final, Florida was absolutely demolishing CUT, taking half 8-1. They eventually won 15-6, but it was very one-sided and not many people were over at the field watching.
This set up the final of Wisconsin vs. Florida for Tomorrow @ noon.
Should be good =)
Here's some pictures from today's action
Semifinal #2 (Hodags vs. Colorado) Hodags vs. Colorado (Big crowd to watch this one) Joseph Kershner of Arizona wins the UPA Open Callahan Award for 2008 (Here pictured with 2007 winner, Dan Heijman of Wisconsin) Me and my buddy steve at the fields before the Wisconsin, Colorado semifinal
So Day 1 of the UPA College Nationals began at 8:30am. We left our hotel around 7:45 to beat the traffic and arrived at the site at around 8:15. The site was awesome. It was quite a site as we walked in from the gate. Pool play began around 8:30 so when we got there, all we saw were teams warming up, pumping themselves up, getting themselves ready for the game. We started off the day at the booths that were selling Nationals merchandise. I picked up a couple discs for some friends and then we wandered onto the field, looking for a good game to watch.
We decided to watch Wisconsin vs. Stanford, and I'm glad we did since it turned out to be a good game. Stanford was up 2 breaks before the defending champs clawed their way back (mostly because of their ridiculous deep game) and won 15-13. We then made our way over to watch the women's side, with BLU playing against Maryland. BLU played well with great handling from Taz and D from gizmo, along with overall solid play from KIX and Cozmo.
During the next round, we watched Colorado play Santa Cruz, as well as Florida play Delaware. Both games were pretty lop-sided so I walked over to watch Stanford play Arizona. That turned out to be a good game as both teams were pretty evenly matched, with Arizona pulling out the win eventually.
The 3rd and 4th rounds started 1/2 an hour apart (4:00 and 4:30) and it was really difficult to watch since there were so many great games on. How do you choose between watching Carlton vs. Colorado or watching Wisconsin vs. Arizona. So what we did was watch the first half of the latter, and then RUN our butts over to field 1 to watch Carlton vs. Colorado. I was hoping that the games would be closer, but they both turned out to be one-sided with Colorado and Wisconsin winning by 6 and 9 respectively.
Although these games were about over, our attention switched over to watching our fellow UC team, Santa Cruz play against Dartmouth. They were up 3 or 4 but we saw Dartmouth mount a huge comeback and beat Santa Cruz. That meant that BOTH Northwest teams (Stanford and SC) were 0-3 and had no shot at quarters. =/
The attention of the tournament then went over to the Michigan vs. Texas game of Pool D. This pool already had 2 upsets and in this game, Texas was 0-2 and fighting for a chance to really stay in the tournament. When i got there, it was 13's. The teams traded points and it was an overall intense last couple points. Imagine the ENTIRE sideline and back end lines filled with other teams, spectators, cheering on Texas. That's what it was like. Texas eventually lost Universe point, and that left Texas at 0-3 and without a chance for the title.
We left the tournament satisfied, and look forward to the quarterfinal games for tomorrow.
Highlights
-Wisconsin vs. Stanford Bloodthirsty went up 2 breaks on the defending champs and played very well. However; Wisconsin established the deep game and took the game 15-13.
- Michigan vs. Georgia First upset of the day as Georgia upset Michigan in Pool D.
- Wisconsin vs. Arizona The rematch of the TiV final proved to be a lopsided victory for the Hodags as they won 15-6
- Colorado vs. Carleton Colorado goes up 8-2 at half on Carleton en route to a 15-9 win.
- Stanford and Santa Cruz Both Northwest regional teams go 0-3 in pool-play, both losing their 3rd seed in their pools and dropping out of contention of the National Title.
Some pictures from the day:
Wisconsin vs. Stanford (15-13)
Texas vs. Michigan (16-17) *universe point) UCLA vs. Maryland
Arizona breaks the huddle, before lining up against Wisconsin Former Callahan winners were out for the action (Tim Gehret, Callahan Winner 2006) Colorado on the line vs. Carlton Boulder is Gorgeous
