OK, so I admit I was eavesdropping. It was a sweltering Sunday of Chapel Hill coed pickup and most people were chatting on the sidelines. I paced up and down, praying for an open spot on the field and tired of catching more conversation than discs. Eileen and Christine had stepped away from the group, obviously engaged in conversation more stimulating than the game at hand. What were they talking about? Incredibly cute boys? I casually walked past and overheard the words that would change my Saturday mornings forever: "I think this area can definitely support two women's teams!"
At that moment, an idea was tossed out into the universe like the first pull of the game. It was time to pick up this disc idea and work it downfield for the score.
"TIME OUT!"
Early in this game, Christine and I called a time-out to discuss and question what direction this should take. What about all the college teams like Pleiades from UNC, Duke, and NC State? Would there be enough women who wanted to play all year long and didn't have those ties? Would they want to travel to tournaments? Practice two or three times a week, even in summer? Would they want to increase their skills, condition madly, and still maintain their love of the game and the joy of a supportive women's team? And what would this do to the male/female ratio I enjoy so much?
"FOUL!!!"
Thats right, we called foul. Foul on all those irrational fears which won't allow for growth in an area begging to expand. We simply felt that women's disc wouldn't improve without addition and change.
Christine and I recognize the energy expenditure required to start a new team, and we gladly accept. It promotes the sport, increases all of our varied abilities, and benefits everyone involved. It also makes me yearn for e-mail and keeps me awake at night, but that's my problem.
"PLAY ON!"
Yes! Absolutely! At the time of this printing we have no name and we are not too sure about the tournaments we'll be playing in, except for Sectionals, of course. Most Tuesdays and Thursdays youll find us at Lake Crabtree, and on Saturdays you can cheer us on at Pullen Fields. At our first weekly practice we had a total of sixteen women and played sevens with subs. Sister, this ain't no one disc town...
The story of the tournament: ZEN WOMEN RULE. Mary Molly Taylor, Lisa Beck, Donna Paige, Lani Rogers and Eileen Shea dominated in this 4/3 format (4 men/3 women) tournament.
Notably, Lani Rogers (aka Michael Jordan) provided solid and aggressive play while fighting a stomach virus, and Eileen Shea pulled disk after disk out of the sky to garner the team tournament MVP award. Our women's team matched up against the some of the best women in the region and came out ahead every time. Over all, the Zen squad was 2-6 and competitive in every game (with the possible exception of the matchup against Spear, eventual tournament champion).
On the men's side, Matt Burleson made spectacular plays on both offense and defense and, furthermore, brought his own cheering section. Joe "Papadisc" Slater (who, as rumor has it, was "skying" for the disc throughout the tournament) provided solid handling and overall good karma. Mark Britt, Chris Heinze, and BJ Whitkin were their ever-speedy selves. The addition of Eric Guehardo (member of one of the top ten ultimate teams in the world - see page 1) and his considerable skills plus positive attitude boosted team confidence. Randy Cleary had a diving, toes-on-the-line layout catch in the endzone in the first game against Camel City, setting the tone for the team effort level for the rest of the tournament. On a down note, Rob Reinhart (after five great games as "Minister of Defense") and Kelly Deal injured themselves on Saturday.
Yours truly, Anthony Burgess, contributed as team captain by going 8-0 in the pregame disk flip. This feat defied considerable odds (1 in 256) and secured the coveted light jerseys for each of the eight games. Using venerable Aztec techniques, we channeled the ancient astronauts to concoct cheers incomprehensible even to us. Our combination of "in your face" spirit and an attempt at total goofiness both on and off the field captured second place in the spirit award competition.
Many thanks and much admiration to Thuy Boyd and the Asheville Area Ultimate players for all of their hard work putting this tournament together. At first, five games on Saturday and four games (scheduled) on Sunday seemed a little intimidating, but the round robin format gave us the opportunity to play each team once and it was good to know that we were definitely going to be playing on Sunday.
You'd think now that I don't have to do the entire HomeSpun that I'd have lots of time to do new fun and exciting things...like write articles for HomeSpun. But, of course, you end up doing things like counting jellybeans... or, you know, stuff.
This topic, however, the Grits Reunion team, was too much to pass up. Especially after everyone else did. Pass it up that is. I mean the opportunity to write this.
So let's see if an article written in thirty minutes (this is a timed essay crammed in between installing gutters and going out to see a band) is really better than no article at all. YOU the public decide. This is bringing back memories of writing all those college papers after coming back from frisbee tournaments. Those were the early Grits days of "eight is great" and yes my GPA did drop a point. Whoops. But I digress.
We're going back...back in time, to the first weekend in April for that tournament of tournaments, Fool's Fest. The e-mails and telephone calls were completed. The not-since-the-80s simultaneous appearances of Ann Waller and Laurie Cone were confirmed. This was an event not to be missed. The first established women's team in the Triangle - Grits would get together to uncork the ceremonial Wild Turkey and circle up for the corny (ouch) cheers.
Teammates flew in from Portland (Kim Kepford), Colorado (Nara Schramm), Michigan (Nicole Fleur?!) and, um, some places... Other familiar out-of-town faces included Katerina Dukes (Philly) and Camella Bailey (Baltimore). And I know there's that one person I'm forgetting out there and you are sorely pissed but think of it like Romper Room when the nice lady said: "And I see YOUUUU TOOOOO!!!!" Actually that is a rather terrifying memory for me so scratch that. (Therese and Susie and Angela you betta be there next year).
Hmmmm. Is this starting to read like a yearbook entry? 2sweet 2B 4gotten. Love ya!
Anyway, the cast assembled of old Grits and new Grits and middle-aged Grits, the best part of this tournament being it recaptured the early days of Grits when we had nothing to lose. Nothing to lose is Grits at their best. The first and second days we won all our games. Woooo! Except to Philly. But we did take it to half, the scoring star being Katerina, who unbeknownst to them lives in their very town! Ha! So they pulled it out but it would have been really embarrassing for the Lycra Girls to lose, so really we won again. Also the second half we began the Wild Turkey and the shotguns so we won even again!
With so many actual and moral victories in hand, Grits was then ready to go out on the town, and despite the absence of Angela Tennant, made a strong showing at the party. The crowning spectacle was Liz Phillips "winning" the party by slam dancing into the band and threatening to destroy their equipment until they quit. They quickly decided they had had enough Cure covers for the Evening and jumped ship. This opened new career doors for Liz; since then she's been hired by The Who on tour to smash Pete Townsend's guitars at the end of the set.
By the third day Grits was pooped, and the rain which had eluded the tournament loomed pregnant in the sky. Or was it just that everyone on the team had gotten pregnant? Anyway, we scraped out a victory against Michigan reunion and as our great reward we got to play Philly again, who were out making team laps and meditating on their past lives. Wet, hungry, dirty, cold, hungover and far from home, Grits contemplated faking a team injury. But integrity prevailed and we went to go lose to Philly so we could help them feel they'd earned their tournament victory.
After a mildly spunky first half, the second half Grits began to cheer Philly, chastising them for their many turnovers. "PATIENCE!" we yelled in vain. But no one on either team listened. And we slugged out a game to 17, even though the men only played to 15.
Then we all hugged and cried and promised to do it again next year, feeling good about a spot in finals and all the many effortless (and not so effortless) disc connections we had made because of friendship. Sniff. The End.
Zen at Asheville
By Anthony Burgess... jab11879@glaxowellcome.com
Grits Reheated
By Kelly Ferguson ... poorvalentino@mindspring.com
