Thursday, March 20, 2014.
The scientific name for this day is
the Spring Equinox, but it is more colloquially known as the first day of
spring. Or, maybe this year, the “is winter actually fucking over?” day. While
I certainly hope that winter is done and dunmire, I must admit that I am not
yet ready to celebrate the arrival of spring. Why? Because of a number: zero.
Zero is the number of games the Jive Turkeys have played
this season. Well, not technically. There were those four winter leagues games
(4-0), and the games at High Tide (3-5), but when it comes to games pertaining
to college rankings and the postseason, Jive has played none. It’s March 20th,
and we’ve not played a single “in-season” game.
Our original plan for the spring season was such: March 1-2
at Bring the Huckus (New Jersey), March 22-23 at Steakfest (Philly), and March
29-30 at Roll Call (Maryland).
Considering we need 10 games to qualify for end of the year rankings, we
figured that three tournaments would more than secure us that number. Sound
logic, until Winter Storm Gandalf and Co. stepped in and ruined our plan. Long
story short, we dropped Huckus because of terrible conditions and changing
field locations, and just this past week we received word that Steakfest was
cancelled.
The news was crushing. We’ve been looking forward to
Steakfest all season: The competition was good, the fields are usually very
nice, and it represented our first chance to play as an entire team. If our
goal is to finish in the Top-16 for D-III teams and earn another bid to
Nationals, Steakfest was the place to start making that push. Naturally, we
scrambled and tried to find another tournament for this weekend, but our
efforts amounted to nothing more than frantic emails and pissed-off texts.
River City Lights (a tournament that I know nothing about, so I will not
explain it) had spots open, and was ready to have us attend. We hesitated,
making sure that enough people would make the trip to Richmond, which, at close
to four hours, was much more of a time commitment than Steakfest. In our
hesitation, we lost our spot (to a B-team, because of course) and lost any
chance of playing a tournament this weekend. So now we find ourselves on campus
this weekend, waiting another week for Roll Call.
I’ve never really dealt with tournament cancellations, but
from what has transpired over the past week, I can say that it sucks. I’d like
to think that everyone who signed up to go is disappointed, but I won’t put
words in people’s mouths. Instead, I’ll speak for the seniors. No matter the
level of commitment, this spring seasons matters
to the seniors. It is our final season with the team. Our last chance to
create something with Jive. Our chance to go out on top. And because of a
never-ending winter, we have not been able to do any of these things.
So until next week, I’ll be on campus, instead of playing
Ultimate. I’m sure I’ll enjoy myself, but not in the same ways that I could
have at a tournament. Furthermore, the cancellation of Steakfest already makes
me nervous for Roll Call next weekend, seeing as though their fields are also
polo grounds. (Polo grounds do not especially like cheap, college Ultimate
teams tearing up their ground. They’d rather high-paying polo players did
that.)
Maybe I’m pessimistic. Maybe I’m just bitter about Steakfest
being cancelled. Or maybe I see my last season with this team slipping away,
with none of us able to do anything about it. We’ll play Ultimate this spring;
I’m certain of that. But how much of it will make me feel accomplished and how
much of it will make me ask “what if?” Guess we’ll find out next month.
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