SPRING 2008

5/13/08
Avery Reed has been named New England Region Freshman of the Year (full list of All-Region players here). They say it was a tie, but I don't know who the other girl is, so I'm sure Avery deserves it more. I guess the next time there's news, I'll have to move on to Summer on the website, but I'm a bit in denial for now, knowing that once I acknowledge summer, it means the team truly is no long together and our seniors and other grads will be moving on, playing with other people, only coming back occasionally to play us at HHBP. For now, it's bit less than two weeks to graduation, so I can continue pretending it's not over.

Rgionals
Disco played a heck of a day on Saturday, fighting hard against BU, then coming out on top against Yale and jumping to an early lead against Wesleyan, before falling to Vermont to finish the day tied for 11th in the New England region. The level of play on our team was some of the highest we've seen all season. Bidding for discs and run-through D's were regular occurrences, and cutting long was the order of the day, with beautiful hucks put up by our handlers. It was an emotional last tournament for our graduating teammates, but everyone looked good on the field. Carla, Wang, Leah, Jean and Jenny, we will miss you next year, and Disco won't be the same without you.

4/22/08
Check out Disco in the news! Inside College Ultimate interviews our captians about ultimate in New England.

Sectionals
Results from the weekend are posted on the UPA site. It was an awesome weekend. Disco started with a game against URI, then played a fun game versus P-Funk. The third game of the day was against Conn College, and showcased the defensive skills of Jean and Molly as they shut down the opposing handler. Conn College started to come back in the second half, but we managed to hold on to make it to the championship game Sunday. We started a bit too slow against Wesleyan and couldn't get our heads back in the game, but we brought it against Conn College, who we played again for second in the section. Again, defense stole the day, as everyone was getting run-through D's and showing just how great we can be. Regionals will be a test, but we're getting ready for it.

P-Fools played some hard fought games through the weekend, finishing sixth and taking many of their games to a close hard cap ending.

Yale Cup
Disco spent the weekend of April 5-6 playing at Yale. We finished strong both days but had a tough time getting going in the morning. The weather cooperated, though, and Saturday was actually a gorgeous spring day. We are looking forward to sectionals this weekend. Congrats to B-Mo and P-Funk on making it to regionals!

In other news, we have published our annual newsletter, which is available as a pdf here. Since I figured out how to do this, I decided to also make the 2007 newsletter available.

Southerns and Spring Break
It's spring break here at Brown and most of the undergrads have deserted us for relaxation on the beach. (Us being the few grad students on the team and others who just can't afford to take a week off.) The weekend in Statesboro, GA, was a great time, though, and the tournament was lots of fun. Disco had their first wins of the season, and looked really good doing it. Saturday was an up and down day, with periods where we lost focus (which often meant losing the force), but we pulled it together for Sunday, bringing the intensity and the fire. I spent more of the day than I would have liked in the emergency room, but will be back on the field soon enough. Kafka was a bit disappointed to be missing so many basketball games on the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but he pulled through. All the plays blend together in my head, so although I'm sure there were some standout, amazing ones over the weekend, I do not remember them, and unfortunately cannot write about them. We've begun keeping track of how often we make it to the endzone but are unable to convert, but I'm not sure that's a statistic I need to share until it improves. We're getting there. I'll post some pictures shortly.

Stanford
I guess since we've played our first tournament of the season, and the weather there certainly wasn't winter-ish, it's time to count it as spring. A-team had a great time in California, spending the second weekend in March in Palo Alto, playing ultimate and having sing-alongs. Our scores might not look very impressive, but we came to play and learn, and in that we were successful. A number of players were participating in their first major tournament, but you never would have known it from seeing them play. Jean got a bit too much sun, Rebecca and Za showed off their T-rex skills, and Molly laid out until her head hurt. I'm told some of our competition was playing in their fourth tournament already this spring, but we were able to keep up with them for the most part. We shredded some zones and saw a bit of clam, and are ready for our next warm-weather tournament (or warm weather in general, actually).



WINTER 2008

2/23/08
We may be starting our spring ultimate season, but winter hasn't given up on Providence yet. Practices on the roof and the new turf fields behind the OMAC have been brutally cold at times (although a few have been ridiculously nice), and most of the time we're just happy to say we left the field without frostbite (at least not too bad).

But the season goes on, and P-Fools have their first scrimmage tomorrow against URI. A-team is looking forward to their first tournament in two weeks at Stanford. Spring break plans are in the works, under discussion and almost settled, with both teams playing at Southerns in Georgia before going on to exciting adventures.

Maybe this season I'll even write some game summaries. It will be a welcome break from thesis writing, I'm sure.



FALL 2007

11/3/07
We're well over half way through the fall season, and everyone is still loving the disc. We've played in a couple tournaments, with some people heading up to Williams to spend a great weekend playing at Purple Valley. We took a team of A-team hopefuls and returners, saw a lot of new talent, and were able to really come together as a team in ways you never see at practice. Eating the pasta dinner with our hands right out of the trays really allowed us to bond. Sunday was a short day for us, when the team we were scheduled to play first never showed, but I personally was already sore enough on Monday that I'm not sure I would have been able to walk if we'd played a full second day for our first tournament of the fall.

We brought two teams to our second tournament, Coffee Cup at Yale. Both teams did really well, and the new players, even with this being the first tournament ever for many of them, showed up the returners and ruled the field. Highlights off the field included a gorgeous full double rainbow during a light rain, and a long lunch full entertaining conversation.

Now, we're looking forward to our Round Robin intra-team day of play tomorrow, and Huck-a-Hunk the weekend after. We've finally started getting some more seasonable weather, so underarmor will be coming out of drawers and adding an extra layer to the costumes we will be wearing. I just hope it stops raining and being quite so dreary.

Fall Season is Beginning
Everyone has returned to Brown (except for those who are away enjoying foreign lands for the semester, and who we will greatly miss), and fall practices will be starting. The fall activities fair was last night, and we're looking forward to seeing all the people who expressed interest in playing frisbee. Captains are working on getting bids in for a couple great tournaments this fall, and of course, we'll be hosting our own tournament, Huck-a-Hunk o' Burnin' Pumpkin.



SUMMER 2007

Sandblast '07
Maybe you've heard already, but a team of Brown students and alum played in the Sandblast tournament in Chicago on July 7 and 8. Ray Yang ('99) organized a team including Jack Flinterman, Ben Frank, Justin Fabrikant, Moose, Carla, Kiely, Julianna, Bez (Daniel Beswick) ('06), Ethan Leland ('05), and four non-brown players. Chicago was brutally hot (92 on saturday, 97 on sunday). Despite a record of 2 and 5, the team came out on top in fun. The tournament party really topped off the weekend.

7/7/7
Apparently more people got married today than any other single day in recorded history (at least in the US), but even more importantly, today was the 2nd USARPS League Championship. That's right Rock Paper Scissors. For one hour on ESPN2, this was the only sport that mattered. Jamie Langridge is the new national champion, and my new sports hero. As the announcer said, he won "50K and the title every human with a hand dreams of." I wish I had taped it. The championship was held in Vegas (where else?) and apparently Rochambeau is the new favorite game in the casinos..."Beat the dealer and win!" Roshing facts of interest: Women throw scissors 31% more often than men; first set winners take the match 79% of the time; the game was first known as "rock rock rock" and was played until one of the athletes (cavemen at this time) succumbed to exhaustion. Anyone interested in joining the league (free trip to Vegas if you win the qualifying round...) should check it out here. I can only hope that the announcer was correct when he said we'll be seeing this on ESPNClassic for years.

6/20/07
Molly Cohen ('09) and Zahra Hirji ('09) will be our captains for the fall season. They have supposedly promised to make this "the best fall season ever," and they're the duo to do it. Both plan to be geologists, so I have faith in their good taste. Continuing the domination of geology in next year's line-up, A-team captains for the spring will be Carla Thacker (geo GRAD) and Leah Rapalee ('08).

6/3/07
The school year is over, but several team members were together for the wedding of Kafka (Disco coach) and Celinda (Disco alum). It was a beautiful ceremony, and a fun reception. We wish them the best of luck and great happiness in the future.

RIPUL has started here in Rhode Island, where several team members are staying for the summer months. Games are Monday and Wednesday at the Wheeler feilds if anyone is around and looking for the best sporting event around (the Red Sox have nothing on this).