I love Ultimate. It is the greatest sport in the world. Not only does it challenge you physically and mentally, Ultimate is full of great people. The best people in the world can be found at a game of Ultimate. Besides, there's no substitute in the world for a good huck!

If you are not familiar with the sport, let me explain for a moment: put 7 people on a team playing on a field about the size of a football field with a frisbee (though we call it a "disc"). You can't walk with the disc - only pass to your teammates. You get a point by completing a pass in the end-zone. It's sorta like lacrosse, football, and soccer, only... not. If that doesn't make much sense, I suggest you check out sites like the Ultimate Handbook and the Ultimate Players Association.

Here is a list of all the teams I have played on in my humble career (last I checked, I had played in over 25 tournaments).

Crush It! Winter 2007-2008 TFDA: to be written

Cletus Bocephus Geronimo Jones: TFDA Summer 2007
Tournament: Summer League Finals 2007
Feature Players: Victor, Chris
Almost the exact same core as the previous spring, only we had some more young college players. Again, we played well and had a winning record. I was trusted a little bit more as a handler on the team, which made me feel better. We lost in the semi-finals of the tournament, however, on a couple of lousy calls - never a fun thing.

Spring 2007 TFDA: Trouble
Tournament: Spring League Finals 2007
Feature Players: Victor, Chris, Cory, and a few others who I can't remember.
I will never forget this season as the season where the curse was lifted. Not only did this team break my curse, we dominated the league. Our captain Victor is a great competitor and a good leader - pointing out what needs improvement, but also trusting his players. I didn't get to touch the disc as much this season (actually, I sprained my wrist in the first game - it was a sweet layout grab in the endzone on universe point!) Not only did we dominate the season, we went 6-0 in the weekend tournament. And you know what's weird? I was the worst player on the team (by far). In the old days, I was always one of the top players. But it just felt really good to win.

Summer 2006 SLUA
Tournament: SLUA Summer League Finals 2006
Another team to forget. This season, the league changed its draft format over to a "core" format. This is where the captains choose 5-6 of their favorite players ahead of time (usually their friends and teammates), and then draft everyone else who's not "in the loop" (like me). This format tends to work, but it really hurt us in our case. Nobody trusted anyone outside the core. As a result, I spent most of my time either on the sideline or not being passed to. Since, at the time, I had no other ultimate to play at (and I had begun to gain significant weight), I messed up every time it came down to me. People constantly tried to tell everyone else what to do, and nobody listened. This was a perfect example of the whole being far less than the sum of its parts.

Calvin Ultimate, 2006
Tournament: UPA Sectionals 2006
Feature players: All those young guys who came out and played hard
Just when I thought that Calvin Ultimate was lost and gone forever, a bunch of young guys come out of the woodwork to put together a decent team. Apparently many of these guys played in high school (and did very well) and decided that Calvin needed a team again. Of course, by that time I had really gotten out of shape and hadn't practiced much, but I still couldn't turn down ultimate!! We had real practices, a few scrimmages with local teams, and played at the UPA sectionals at MSU. We really didn't begin to trust each other until later that season, so I didn't get to experience the team as it stands now. Apparently they're a considerable threat nowadays. I was proud to be a part of it - even if all I could do was handle and direct others.

SLUA 2005 Summer League
Tournament: SLUA Summer League Finals, 2005
This was a team to forget. After coming off such an amazing experience with the hat tournament, I had big expectations for the quality of talent in SLUA's summer league. By the end of the season, I did have respect for the talent in this league - I just releazed that none of that talent was on my team! We played hard, but we never found the chemistry we needed.

I Like Pizza
Tournament: SLUA's Summer Hat Tourney, June 2005
Feature Players: Sam, Taylor, Corby, Pauli, Whittle
Description: On my twentieth tournament, I finally learned what it is like to play on a winning team. It was my first week in the St. Louis Ultimate Association and I was introduced to some good Ultimate. SLUA has the same number of skilled players as PADA, only without the talent being diluted by new players. Before every point, we spent our time lining up our defense and never once talked about our offense. Nobody was assigned handler, middle, or long, but the parts were played. Defensively, we were as intense as any other team. For once, I played my natural role: middle/long - and I rocked it out by making great throws and even better catches. We went 6-0 for the day and only in the championship game did we allow more than 6 points. And I could not have made a better first impression on SLUA.

The guys of 2nd VanDellen chillin out Knifey-Spooney
Tournaments: Huckfest '04
Feature Players: All 11 men from 2nd and 3rd VanDellen
Description: Somehow I was chosen to be an RA on a floor that was big into Ultimate, so I trained a team and brought 11 new guys to this local tournament just to show them what competitive play is like. We improved a whole lot during the day and had a blast. These guys lacked a lot of the fundamentals but had a flowing offense that I have never seen in any other team I played on. When we played against a top-seeded team we took a lot of points from them because our offense was so much faster than they were used to. Awesome time.

Get Layed
Tournaments: Wildwood 2004
Feature Players: Rob Dunakin, Pike
Description: Ah, another great Wildwood. I was asked to play on a team whose average age was over 30 (yes, including me) for the sole purpose of playing hard all day. What I found was that these veterans were very smart and very skilled at beach Ultimate. We had a great two days of layouts and all around good playing. I also somehow managed to pick up a girl at a party by sitting in the corner reading Lord of the Rings - I still can't figure that one out!

Very tired members of Get Layed

Miscellaneous Pada Hat Tourney
Feature Player: Some guy from Louisiana who was incredible
Description: I have to log this under my Ultimate career because of what happened that day. Our team was randomly selected for this fundraiser tournament, and we had a ton of fast high school players. This meant a lot of sprinting ... and of course hucking. The best part of the day was when the game was hard-capped at 17, and it was 16-16. I assisted in causing our opponent a turnover in the endzone, so we had the whole field to go. I picked up the disc and I saw my captain begin to sprint deep. I did a quick give-'n'-go to get five yards and to lose the mark for a moment. As soon as I got it, I backhanded a huck that soared over 70 yards to the endzone - and my captain laid out to grab it for the win. When he caught the disc, he was about waist-height from the ground. It was every Ultimate player's dream: universe point with a full-field huck and a textbook layout for the win. The crowd watching us erupted.

Casual Sox: PADA Summer League 2004
Tournaments: Finals Weekend
Feature Players: Kelly Johnson, Joe Ford, Rob Dunakin, Josh, Carter, many others.
Description: This was the best summer league team I had played on yet. We were a well-oiled machine for the first half of our season. We had a bunch of college guys who were team players and a couple of veterans who had a great season. Joe Ford was our male captain and if he hadn't tore his ACL we would have contended for one of the best teams in PADA that summer. A couple of other minor factors held us back, but this was a great team to be on. It was one of the first teams that used me not as a main handler but a middle/handler - which put me in a position to use my speed and hucking abilities quite nicely. In the end, our record was under .500, but I still maintain that our team was better than the sum of its parts.

En Fuego: Calvin College, 2003-2004
Tournaments: Club Sectionals, Huckfest 2003, Domeworld 2004
Feature Players: Atsma, Cassie "Hendrix " Wilcox
Description: This team sure had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the school shut down the club the summer before we got started, so we could only play in the fall for club. This didn't stop our key players from growing, however! We all learned a whole lot about flow from each other on this team. Everybody who was involved grew significantly in their game, even though it was only few people to begin with. Most of all, I certainly grew as a leader both on and off the field. I will never forget the fun times we had.

Rubber Duckies, PADA Summer League 2003
Tournaments: Finals Weekend
Feature Players: Mike, Katie, Matt, Elie, Rob
Description: This was the nicest group of people that one can find at summer league. We all tried hard and helped each other out through thick and thin. Elie and I greatly improved our game that summer.
During PADA's mid-season review, however, our team was labeled as the most unlucky team in Summer League. We had at least four people quit the team after showing up once or not at all, one major handler leave the team early on, and a ton of injuries including a broken ankle, a pulled hamstring, a broken nose, a broken leg (that was our captain George), and foot surgery. We played with little or no subs for most of our games. We tied for last place out of the 64 teams in Summer League - but we still had a ton of fun.

Competitive Beach Ultimate is much harder
than it looks. 4 on 4 in the scorching heat,
deep sand, with shortened stall counts.
You do the math. Huck Lola, Huck!
Tournaments: Wildwood 2003
Feature Players: Elie, Jared
Description: This was a team that was put together for a weekend of fun beach Ultimate - and that's exactly what happened. Despite nearly killing our feet in the sand, we played alright for a bunch of strangers. The most memorable moment was when Elie and I came within inches of colliding when we both laid out for the same disc without seeing the other person! It was a close call.

Calvin College Men's Ultimate, 2002-2003
Tournaments: Fall Sectionals, Northwestern Invitational, Huckfest, MSU Invitationals, Spring Sectionals
Feature Players: Sam, Matt, Gary
Description: My first college team. This was the first Ultimate team in which we actually had to practice - which was a big deal for me. I killed myself to get into shape, but I had a very hard time getting used to playing in the cold weather. I showed talent and a lot of heart, but in the end I was not at the top of my game. I spent the whole second semester handling (which is rare for a freshman), and I really got my layouts down. We went on a lot of tournaments and had a lot of fun, though.

Knight Train, PADA Summer League, 2002
Tournaments: Final Weekend
Feature Players: Hector, Lisa, Lee, Simon
Description: This time I was put into a much higher position than the year before. After developing some leadership skills as a Dead Parrot, I found myself consistently playing a handler in Summer League. I played some of my best games of Ultimate that summer because I improved so quickly that the other teams underestimated me. Everything improved that summer: my throws, cuts, defense, even my layouts. Good summer. My captain, Hector, played in the 2002 Worlds Tournament in Hawaii - he was that good!

The Dead Parrot Society, LMHS 2001-2002
Tournaments: Kat in the Hat, Hip Hop on Pop
Feature Players: Chris, Elie, Ethan, Noah, Nate
Description: This was the most fun that I have ever had on an Ultimate team. It was our senior year of high school, and I had a whole new team to work with. The team consisted of a core group of seniors who were all best friends to begin with, and it expanded from there. We gathered members from just about every social group in our high school for our friday afternoon pickup games. We played in PHUEL: The Philadelphia High School Ultimate Educational League, which included two tournaments and a few outside games. We won the Spirit of the Game Award at one tournament for our "mascot" (a stuffed bird hanging upside down from its perch), and we even had our own t-shirts. And who can forget our great cheer...THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!

Fashion Senseless, PADA Summer League 2001
Feature Players: Kareem, Strat, Fabio, Simon
Description: For my first year in Summer League, I get put onto a team led by this tall, white guy nicknamed "Kareem" (who now captains Philadelphia's elite club team "Rage"). This team had some real talent. We didn't end up doing that great in the end, but that was because the good players spent their time trying to teach new guys like me.
That was the summer where we played a 1-3-3 zone. If you're not familiar with that, it's where the 1 chases the person with the disc forcing middle at all times, 3 people form a wall about 15 yards up field, and 3 people play deep. It's a decent defense, except for that one person who is continuously sprinting all over the field - which ended up being me every single time. I guess that was my reward for being the only person under the age of 23 on my team (I had just turned 17 at that time).

Lower Merion High School, 2000-2001
Feature Players: Adam, Chris, and Saltzie
Tournaments: Kat in the Hat, Hip Hop on Pop
Description: Ah, the memories of my first team. This was the year that I really got started...learning how to throw a forehand while watching the other players lay out. Andrew Saltz was the one who really took me under his wing and taught me the fundamentals.

This was a key moment in my motivation to play Ultimate