FESTIVUS 2001 & JANUS 2002

The Last and the First...could it be? Who else was playing Ultimate on Dec 23rd and January 1st?

Festivus and Janus. Ah. What memories...

It all began one bright December day in Brooklyn when a strange email from littleandy316 appeared in my inbox. It promised a SBUltimate holiday and touted greetings to all the disparate Ultimate nomads who had left the lands of the Holy Disc Jockeys to spread out far and wide across the continental United States. maybe even further!

A game shall be held in honor or all those who can make the pilgrimage to return to South Bend for the holidays. A game like no other, with impassioned hucks and diving Ds, a game to be held on December 23rd, Sunday, on the Roseland fields just next to the Toll Road.

Many a weary traveler had hiked from identification checkpoints to luggage checkpoints to x-ray checkpoints across airports far and wide throughout America carrying his or her cleats home just to be able to say, "Yes, I played Ultimate on Festivus. And I loved every minute of it."

The ground was caked with snow and the rutted gravel parking lot provided patches of ice and clumps of dirt-stained ice carbuncles. But on the fields, everything was delightful...

Especially after myself, Little Andy himself, Aaron "Girth" King, Brian QB Keefe, Dan "Drive-Thru" Baker and "my name is" Nate Barrett won the first game quite easily 7-4 over the veteran and defending Festivus champs.

It wasn't as easy as you might think, playing 5 on 5 in freezing temperatures. But then it began to snow. Fat snowflakes lolling to the ground, a density just thick enough to huck through but too thick to expect that floaty hammer to not get bogged down by spherical earthbound particles. As the team wearing dark we carried an advantage but could hardly see the defenders in white. It was necessary to use a yellow disc for visibility, and I with my fogged-up glasses could only marginally make out what was 10 feet ahead of me.

The snow was breathtaking and it lasted for 30 minutes. When it trickled to an end the field was blanketed with white and it was just fluffy enough. People were pulling clumps of snow from their cleats so they could run. There were slides and plenty of nicely cushioned layouts. Being only the second major snowfall of the year, after the first one had melted, meant that the ground was not iced or frozen but instead retained a softness and pliability.

Playing Ultimate in snow rules! (stay tuned for Brooklyn's Dirty Little Slush tournament to be held on the weekend of the first major snowfall)

For the veterans, though, their time would come. Led by the youngster Carter with improbable foot speed for the conditions and a penchant for making layout blocks, they stood up to a 4-2 deficit in the second round to win 7-4, dashing out the hopes of Little Andy to avenge Muck Veldman's summer league crown.

That unstoppable sex machine Carter was all across the field making layout blocks. The only time he was denied came when the Little Andy machine made a diving layout catch just in front of the attempted layout block in the endzone to record a score. Magnificent!

But Festivus was not over! Sure there was Mark 'Muck' Veldman and Kevin "Thrill-A-Minute" Goddard, veterans from the Chronic crew and in Mark's case, a veteran also of Chicago-based club Nationals teams. Their good ol' Hoosiermama buddy Jason Sheer was also in the house and Girth and Brett tha Swindler spent some time with the team. But all those folks could not stop the mighty Big Men -- myself and Dan Baker.

Resorting to miraculous skies, heartily encouraging up calls from our game-watcher Kevin "Stumpy" Kizer, and generally insulting the other team, these two along with the mighty QB connection and the big Girth presence kept the third game tight.

In fact, we should have, could have, would have won. But a few errors here.....a dropped pass there (courtesy of my first and only missed catch of the day) and Muck and the Rucks outlasted the relatively young, 7-6 to win 2 games to 1.

Props to Andy for the tournament, Girth for reminding us all that the Seinfeldian holiday Festivus is about airing our grievances and airing out the disc, and of course, thanks to the snow for falling. That ruled.

8 days later.... Brooklyn , New York. New Year's Day, noon.

The first tournament of the year?? Can anyone confirm that they played in an organized tournament on new Years day before 12 EST?? I think not.

Chris put it together and here we have to take a stab at a spelling and say Chris Croton. The fellow has been around, I recall the Red Hook team of yore... there were 4 teams assembled from approximately 35 players or so. mixed gender. No dogs. Cones and not gym bags. Most people wore cleats. The ground was hard, but still people made layouts. The most amazing thing about putting together such a hat tournament, spread by word of mouth, was that NO ONE SUCKED.

Remarkable. Only good, hardworking players on the field. Players like Jen Christianson from Yale who seemed to catch everything, and people like Robert del Principe, Eli, Felicia, moDiggity, Dave Chaiken, Jim, JK, Julie, Blake Baxter and speedy guys like Sandro, Barrett, Eric and Pesci.

I'm a relative newcomer to the Prospect park scene, so I can't rightly call everyone out. But the tournament was great fun with great competition. Games to 11, cap at 13. Round robin. Pickup even was played on the side. Crazy frisbee folk. Some guy was even wearing suede golf cleat Hush Puppies without the cleats in, corduroy pants, a red Christmas sweater and a button-down collar shirt. The amazing thing was that the guy threw a bunch of scores and skied a bunch of times. Stupid crazy people that play this sport.

"Working on a Name" was where my name ended up in the Hat, with captain Jim and spiritual leader Blake. Facing "Silent E and his Potatoe" we looked to be outmatched. First we had 2 women and they had 1 and then none for a few points, and they had what looked to be a really killer lineup. That was all bluster on our parts though, calling out to Chris Croton that he stacked his own team. We just wanted to raz him.

It wouldn't have mattered who was on that team though, because they won games by putting on a very stifling zone defense. Seeing as how teams were NOT divided into lights and darks, manipulating a drive through a sea of jackets, scarves and knit hats was not easy, especially when a chilly western wind blew across the park.

Corking on a Name eased into a 2 point advantage late however, thanks to some timely endzone catches from speedster Hasid and the great hands of Jim, Jen, Eric and Laura, and the defense of Sandro. Add in some hucks from Blake and some handling from yours truly and we felt comfortable winning.

But at 10-9, hard cap at 11, we couldn't close it out. A bobbled drop from yours truly, then another turnover on our part, and the killer mistake in the zone - the wing handler skipping the point person to throw to the other wing handler (the disc was eaten alive by two defenders)- and we go down 11-10.

Frustrated but happy to be playing on such a fine New Year's 2002 day, we regrouped with the words of the absent Pat Stoltz in our psyches, "lets take our frustrations out and pound these high schoolers!"

of course, as is when Pat made that quote, we were actually playing a decent team. This time it was "Wiggly Puff" or somesuch name with veterans Chaiken, Pesci, JK and others. We rolled up to a 7-0 crushing before they called the game at 9-2, not wanting to suffer any more humiliation.

On the field next was "Silent E" taking on the other winner in a crossover, the Rampaging Maniacs. The Maniacs were led by del Principe, Julie and Gideon I believe, although we never played them so I can't confirm. They also faced the dreaded Potatoe zone and came up short, losing at the cap 13-11.

I'd have to say that given point differentials, we finished second, the maniacs 3rd and the Wigglies fourth.

The winner received a crusted fungus patch pulled from the hollow of a nearby tree and a bottle of Jack Daniels. Put together and you've got some real fun. Chris promised to carve everyone's names into the fungus patch if he could borrow someone's teeth. Many people exchanged pleasantries and otherwise engaged in niceties before heading off to what could only be a very boring rest of the day.

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