2001 PURCHASE CUP

Purchase, New York
June 23-24. 2001

Well, it looked for a few moments there that it could truly be New York's tournament. But it was not to be; the forces of Boston and Washington DC conspired to roust the hometown teams from their own Purchase Cup.

Saturday it rained, poured, a miserable drenching for everyone. The fields were messy, and on Sunday they fumed of bog peat, or sewer water. Hard to tell which. But then for Sunday play the skies cleared and all those waterlogged Ultimate players baked nicely under the summer sun.

I may not be 30 yet, but that doesn't mean I don't play like an old man. Hence, I picked up with the masters team Pro State, who you may be familiar with if you've read John Garb's posts on RSD. We crushed everyone, well at least the two teams seeded below us. All that talk of the masters taking over the world has not materialized, at least here in NY. Elsewhere, too, I suspect, as the co-ed division continues to gather those elder statesmen and women. Indeed, the Coed division was again quite competitive.

More on that later.

OK, so if I got this straight, and I can't guarantee that I did because the women were sent off to a far-off field location, unreachable by my modest means and rapidly cramping legs, Bnogo from Washington DC and thereabouts won the Purchase Cup in the Women's Division.

I only know this because a crew of swaggering women appeared suddenly at the CBASS - Rage finals to cheer on their DC brethren. Or maybe the Philly Peppers won and they were cheering on Benson Wilder and that guy named Heckman? Naw.

By the way, Benson was the first person anyone has seen on these fields to layout into the ring of thornbushes and weeds circling the fields. He went straight in and was swallowed up completely by the green overgrowth. He missed the block, but it was a solid attempt -- the cones at the back of the endzone were surprisingly close.

Completely disappeared in the bushes. Came up spitting thorns.

So lets say Bongo won, over the Peppers. The Peppers beat Ambush, even though Ambush beat them yesterday. I don't know the other semi. There were only 5 teams I heard, no big-time Godiva players or nothing. Maybe Rogue was in the hosue? Probably not because a bunch of Rogue players (2nd team Boston) played for Chinstrap, the amalgamated ringer Coed squad.

Chinstrap won their division. But boy, they probably should have lost. It was 13-11 in their favor when I tuned in. Chinstrap, commissioned into action by Matty Brier, had this one guy with a hat, this other guy with a Black Tide shirt, some Cornell apparition named Jim, and like 2 or 5 tall, interchangeable, high-knee-sock-wearing Brandi Chastains on the field. Except they were more blonde, and ponytailed. They looked like volleyball players in a beer commercial.

But as I was told, "the team says we're from Rhode Island, but we're really from everywhere"

Like Boston, Providence, Syracuse, Rochester, more; "I have many contacts," confided Matty Brier.

OK, so Chinstrap won because they were really good, but they should have lost to this tough Brooklyn-borne team named "29 Smells Fresh". Apparently, a not so subtle reference to, um, well, it was named for captain Felicia Noth in reference to her, um, 29 years of age. Apparently, and this was not confirmed, she turned 30 Saturday, so the team's cheer Sunday was "29 Smells Fresh! 30 is Dirty!" This I am not making up either.

So, 29 was down 2, 13-11 in a game to 15, hardcapped at 17. Some great hands from 29's powerhouse women Elana Chris Hung (the Case Western Chris Hung) Kara and Laura Modigliani gave the team a sudden upswing on the next series of possessions, tying it at 14's. This meant the cap to 17 was enacted. 29 took a lead at 15-14 and had a chance to win, but could not do it. 29, behind those women, including one just crazy catch by MoDiggity, as they called Laura, chasing down a huck when a male poacher from Chinstrap came flying by her. When the dust settled, he was on the ground having missed completely because Laura had already snagged the disc. Score for 29.

Well, so it was then 16-15 in favor of Brooklyn, and Chinstrap threw it away. Another ridiculous huck that was thirty feet behind the person. I think, now in retrospect, that they were punting on purpose. If so, the dangerous strategy really paid off, because 29 couldn't convert running the length of the field. So finally Chinstrap gets sorta lucky and scores, or something, and well 16-16 and 29 in the swing rotation throws a pass to Kyung and its 4 feet to the other side of him, and fast. Like he had done a mirror trick, really, and put himself somewhere else, and the 29 player threw the disc to the mirror image. Chinstrap still couldn't score. Amazingly disaster struck twice for 29 as yet again, another dump/swing throw sailed to the mirror-image Kyung, nowhere close to the real Kyung at all, and landed on Chinstrap's goalline. They scored easily, game over 17-16.

It was a great game, though, both sides played tough and it was fun to watch. I believe this is 29's first time together?

Philly Rage is a bunch of weenies. Well, not really I guess, but they weren't exactly superstuds either. In any case they outdueled CBASS to win Finals.....for 7th place. Maybe it was 5^th place. Or maybe you guessed that already. I think it went like this somehow, Ottawa Wax beat Philly Rage, Montreal Mephisto beat Toronto Yes, and Blackjack, maybe beat CBASS. So maybe then something happened and Montreal and Toronto disappeared. No, wait, I think Blackjack then beat Montreal in quarters. And Toronto, um, went somewhere, and anyways, Blackjack after two tough games already in the day, at 2:00 pm faced a very well-rested DoG, playing their *first* game of the day.

And those Masters fellows — like Blackjack we had 3 straight games on Sunday too! While Dog and New York got big byes and shit. Its unfair, I tell you, unfair!

So Dog crushes Blackjack. New York Bombsquad beats back Wax in the other semi. So finals Dog versus New York.

Hot game -- half went to New York 9-7. Some great plays, and one disastrous one when Dylan, on a try-out basis with Dog, went down with a dislocated elbow. It was nasty looking. Later, however, Dog ro-sham-bo'd each other for the small Purchase Cup and Jackie, standing in place of Dylan, won it for him, so he gets a nice little reminder of his season-ending injury. No, he wont be out that long, I don't think.

So some more hot play and some shit like that, really great watching these two teams, and kids like Jay Dono and Arnold (young at heart) for New York and Ben Worthen for Dog, Rob Alpen for New York played hot, really everyone was super, just super. Gay Pride week was here in NYC, you know...so all these super, fantastic players just kept laying their muscled bodies out all over the place!

Right. Towards the end, Dog held a 2-3 point advantage. A crazy, timed layout in the endzone by Arnold Sanchez, timed as his taller defender leapt up and missed the disc and Arnold, the disc still in front of him, leapt up to catch it, brought the game to within 1 for NY. But it was not to be. Dog got lucky on a Forch blade to Parinella from 10 yards out, and then lucky again on a NY turnover, and somehow won 18-16. I think that was the final.

But New York has a good team and a good attitude. A few of the old guard players have retired, as happens every season, but the new guys forming the bulk of the team are hard-working and relatively ego-free. Guys like Matt Tracy. Who doesn't like Matt Tracy? Let's give it up for Matt.

Well, so I must say that 2, or was it 3 years ago at Regionals, here in Purchase, Montreal actually won their game and then lost later by only two points, as opposed to "bowing out in loser's bracket like chumps" as I wrote earlier.

As each and every one of you know, I never make mistakes. But this is one that somehow, someway, was errantly implanted in my head and translated into words. Satan! The Devil did it! maybe....then...it was Mephisto??? Regardless, I apologize for the mis-information. Also, Montreal is a pretty damn cool city. You should go there sometime.

Ultimate Gypsy Rich Franck won a game, sort of, for Montreal Co-ed group Grin by throwing scissors over Breathless Brian Mahoney of Tattoo Hottie, the Adam Zagoria outfit. The story goes, all true, that Rich found a four-leaf clover. Convinced he was unstoppable, and the game having been called on time (because some dweeb on Grin was apparently keeping track of TIME) after an hour and half, the game to 13 in Grin's favor at 12-10, it was declared over. The TD agreed with the decision. But in good fortune-feeling spirits, Rich Franck (picking up with his ladyfriend Sheila) decided to Ro-Sham Tattoo for the call to continue playing or not. First throw: both paper. Second: both rock. Third: Mahoney rock, Rich paper. and the deciding Fourth: Mahoney paper and Rich Scissors.

And then later I dropped a blade in Cower and Mahoney got hit with the disc on the skyshot. Fortunately, he was drunk. Also Brian was defensive MVP for the hard-partying Tattoo Hottie, so you know his weekend wasn't all that bad.

That's all I got, I think. Co-ed semis was maybe Grin and NYCE. Um...thanks to Boat and Jude for putting together the tournament and John Garb for being a wonderful and gracious man, despite his questionable RSD posts and past temperament. Hey, we're all freaks in this sport.

Bombsquad player Alex "Boat" Tiersky asked me I could help a little in covering the Purchase Cup, held at SUNY Purchase where the majority of NYC-area disc players compete for summer league. I remember distinclty the very first Purchase Cup in 1996, the brainchild of Otto Greunebaum, whose brother had died earlier that year from Cystic Fibrosis. Almost single-handidly Otto organized this tournament as a benefit for the CF Foundation and managed to raise $10,000 in charity and start a tradition of having a top-quality Ultimate tournament in the New York area, a tradition only recently revived.

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