Northwestern Ultimate Team

As I step outside I can now distinctly smell fall. The air changes. Things start to smell a little musty, it feels like the weather is falling asleep. I love this smell, I love the change of seasons even though I don't necessarily love the cold temperatures. But it feels different this time and after thinking about it for a little while I now know why.

I am not playing ultimate at Northwestern.

This smell is something you experience every night you're at practice, every weekend you're at a tournament. Especially on those tournament days where you wake up at the crack of dawn, the sense of autumn is overwhelming. I miss playing with NUT, I miss playing with my college team.

I'm sure most of you have played organized sports. I dabbled in some football and basketball but nothing too serious. So NUT was all I ever really had, but NUT is all I will ever have needed.

I hope you younger kids who still have a few seasons ahead of you are reading this. There is nothing like your college ultimate team. The camaraderie, the time you spend working and practicing is irreplaceable. Sure, high level club teams spend plenty of time together, but your lives are all so separate. Everyone has their own jobs, schools, relationships, circle of friends. You're just people who play ultimate together.

Your college team is your identity. Some of you don't take it to that level, but I did and so do the top college programs. You spend an insane amount of time together, except it doesn't seem all that crazy because of how fun it is. You spend all that time sweating it out in dusty gyms, throwing frisbees in inclement weather because you want to succeed as a team. Winning with club teams is fun, I can only imagine how rewarding it is at the highest levels. But there's a certain quality about college ultimate that makes it unique.

I don't have a full grasp of it right now, but I know I want it back. Living in Frisbee House, my life seemed more about ultimate than about school. Every day was scheduled around practice, gym time, tossing, organizing and planning for our team. Two hours in the gym, three hours of practice, four nights a week, a tournament every other weekend. And why do you do it? Because you love to play the sport, because you love to play with these people, because they are your friends, your teammates. Road-tripping to obscure polo fields only to freeze and play shitty ultimate in shitty Midwest weather. You don't remember about all that silly shit you talked about in those sleepy car rides, but you know that they were really fun.

And then you show up. Game day. Yes, college ultimate seems like a real joke to most people. An underdeveloped sport largely played by mediocre athletes at best. But you put your heart in to it and you run your ass off. Your legs barely work the next day. You see freshman step on to the field. You get frustrated that they make mistakes, but you know it's part of the process. And when they succeed you get excited, you get jacked up, you scream and cheer and encourage. You lose, well for us it happened all the time. Never could get past those big state schools, kind of like our football team. But you take away what you did well, how to improve for next time, for next year. You win? There's nothing like rushing the field after pulling out a close game. All that time, all that work, all that frustration learning this sport justified in that moment.

Then you leave the field exhausted, and you grossly overeat at some cheap chain or fast food joint. Maybe you have a few drinks that night, depends how seriously you're taking this tournament. You recount sweet plays from today, congratulate your teammates who had a solid day, talk about all the goofy shit that happened. Who did you tabletop? Who got inadvertently hit in the nuts? Who ate too many Cheez-Its? You talk about things immature boys would talk about. You pick on your rookies a bit, maybe "encourage" them to drink some beers. Maybe you watch a movie, maybe you immediately fall asleep. You segregate motel rooms by who snores and who doesn't. You talk about farting and the damage it can do in close quarters. You talk about failed and successful sexual escapades. And then eventually, one by one, everybody falls asleep.

Then Sunday, 6 AM rolls around (sometimes earlier) and it's time to do it all over again.

Sunday is the day that counts. Elimination day. Bracket play. You play hard even though you're a senior who played way too much on Saturday. Your body is abused. Or you didn't play very much because you're a young'n. You get excited to jump in and do what you can. You get frustrated when you fail, you get pumped when you succeed. You wish you could play more, you wish you could go out there and do something spectacular. At some point play stops, maybe you did well, maybe you didn't. The point is you didn't get any work done, but you had a blast this weekend. Time to go home and try to eke out some academic crap for Monday.

I don't know. This post really had no direction. I'm just painfully nostalgic. I try to think of how a college tournament went for me these past 3 years, and that's what I think of. I love this game even though it means nothing to anyone else. I loved and will continue to love having played for NUT. I wish I could have it back, but alas you must move on. All the things the sport and the team did for me as a person I will never forget. Just never take your team for granted, never forget that you will miss it very dearly.

No team can succeed on one player. Ultimate is unforgiving in how much it depends on teamwork and team chemistry. Sure a lot of our players could get inserted in to some of the best teams in the nation, but if we can't do it together, right here, right now, then that's all for naught. Play with passion. Play for your teammates. Play aggressive. You young guys will get noticed for that. You older guys will get thanked for that. You would lay out for an errant throw because you know your teammate would do the same for you. You would bid for an in-cut D because it would inspire your rookies, inspire your team to give it their all.

Work hard, hopefully I can be alongside you this year to guide you. It's worth it, trust me.

EP #6