Things have been adjusting themselves, as any move should, since my trek out of the bay area to LA. The first caveat about this concrete urban jungle is that owning a car is the nut low. Traffic is mind-numbing as I split time between South Pasadena, downtown, and Santa Monica. When I first looked at a traffic map of LA during rush hour it was just a byzantine grid of red lines overlapping red lines. Parking is also a foreign concept to an Iowa boy from the bay. Street cleaning, loading zones, meter maids, and aggressive parking space squeezing weren't in my resume of skills. I don't develop road rage sitting in traffic, I just sit there wondering how people can endure this day after day. Thankfully my secret weapon is an audiobook two-disc set of The Big Lebowski. Use only in case of emergency.
A move to LA means an end to LPC and YR Ultimate. I leave one team in the capable hands of KK and Ricky. The other to Will Griffin who, with a year of coaching Davis under his belt, will be captaining in my place with Matt and Greg. Bay area festivities are still, and always will be, on the menu as I plan to be at Robot's lakehouse cabin this weekend to kickoff a summer of fun. Drink up, be merry.
The scene in the SW is brewing with potential as well as I adjust to a new tournament schedule and new nearby teams to square off against. Hector shares that Bravo has vacant spots to fill. San Diego is seeing a fusion of their two premier club teams, SD United and Last Call. I remember seeing on Score Reporter that Last Call got the last word against their crosstown rivals with a W against SDU at Regionals. Although that game was moot since both teams were already knocked out of contention for Sarasota I'm sure it felt good for the SDSU core to finally slay the "A-team". Condors are closing their doors this season and moving the team exclusively to Santa Barbara. Their focus is to rebuild the program with talent solely from SB so expect to see some green faces on their lines this season as Ian, Dan, and Jeff lead their charge.
This leaves LA players on the '08 Condors roster (about half) to regroup and refocus their efforts for the club division in their own city. Geoff Buhl and Andy "BOFA" Sammons are taking the helm of the new LA team with aims to craft the best team that this toxic city can produce. What this means for Monster is still TBD.
All of LA got together yesterday to play in an open hat tournament, a men's version of a Michelle Ng mixer. Over 100 guys showed up and were split into 8 colored teams to enjoy a great day of Ultimate on the Long Beach campus in perfect LA weather. I was lucky enough to remember sunscreen. A burnt tomato face is not a pleasant thing. My teammates on Blue included BOFA, Biclops, Linux, KiosK, and a handful of other older guys. Teams were all pretty evenly formed as we went 1-2 in our pool, all 3 games of which went to DGP. After being denied semis on a one-point tiebreaker we took our last game in the beer bracket with resounding confidence as we just outran the other team of only 9 players. The two finals teams absorbed a ringer from each of the other teams to exhibit a higher level of play for the rest of the crowd to watch.
The new LA team is taking form as the tryout phase of club season gears up. I will be trying out with LA at CalStates in Santa Cruz next month. I'll write more about tryouts and the team as things progress. The next month has a lot in store as my weekends are all spoken for. Don Pedro, LA tryouts, College Nationals to watch Magon (hopefully with Roeder's camera), D3 Nationals, CalStates, and finally Poultry Days.
Moving on and growing up. See you on the field.
3 comments:
Very funny. See you at Nationals! :)
Even though you were kind of a dick last time i saw you. I still love you.
Any chance the LA team will have a name for Cal States?
Post a Comment