Ultimate!

How have I not devoted a post to this sport yet? I've mentioned it (see "Sports") but I have more than just an interest in the game.

If you've read my profile, I explain very briefly that one of my greatest motivators is watching and imagining what people are capable of, physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. It is my belief that this is the reason why I love to play ultimate frisbee. There is something that happens automatically in my mind and (dare I say) even my soul, every time the frisbee goes up into the air. Immediately, subconsciously, my reaction is "Is it possible to catch?". I don't think it, it just happens, and I go. My favorite plays are when someone on my team throws the frisbee toward the endzone, but either they throw it too far, or they try to push my limits, and I have to really book it to even come close to the disc. As I run at full speed, it seems like the frisbee is so far out of my reach, I'll never get to it in time. It starts its inevitable descent, still yards in front of me, and just as it's about 6 inches from the ground, I dive, barely get my fingers under the edge, with my wrist just grazing the grass, and slide for a while with the disc in my hand. Mmmm...

Anyway, I've loved this sport ever since I first played. I think I was about 12 years old, maybe younger, and we went up to my Grandparents' house in Mt. Green. A bunch of my older cousins and uncles went down to the park to play. I'd never heard of it, so they explained the rules to me, and we played. I wasn't very good, so they didn't throw me the frisbee a lot, but when they did, and I caught it, I felt elated. Every time we went up there, I wanted to play again. One winter, I missed playing so much, that after a snow-storm, I geared up and headed over to the elementary school field with my dad's purple "Ripper" frisbee in my hand. The field was white (not already to harvest, covered in snow). I threw the frisbee as far as I could, and started rolling a snowball toward where I had thrown it. I got there, threw it again, and rolled the snowball. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't roll the snowball anymore, so I just threw the frisbee around a little. My dad and sis. came over and tried to help me move the snowball more, but it just cracked down the middle.

The next significant chunk of time we spent playing was in High School. We played a lot. About once every other week in the summer. Mostly, it was because people would say, "Hey, let's do something." Someone else would say "What?". Then I would say "Let's meet at Southwood [a park] and decide." I think I gained a few enemies out of our female friends at the time, because they hated playing all the time, but I just couldn't get enough. We played for hours and hours.

At one such game, the injury period began. It was 2 weeks before our Senior trip down to Lake Powell, just after we had graduated. I was running behind the ultimate wizard, trying to catch up before he grabbed the frisbee (which he did in the end). He tripped over something in the ground, his leg stuck out, and I tripped over his leg. Fell onto my left shoulder and broke my collar bone. That hurt.

At another game, I ran into a hill, and really hurt my foot. I couldn't walk on it for a while.

After my mission, the streak continued. A day or two before I reported on my mission in our Ward, I broke my thumb. Ran into another guy. I didn't think it was broken, until two weeks later when I finally went and got X-rays. Had to have surgery to fix the 35-degree angled thumb bone.

Just after my thumb healed, I got the torn cartilage in my knee stuck in the joint playing ultimate. Had to have surgery to sew the cartilage back together. 6 months of healing time.

It's been two years now since I've seriously injured myself playing ultimate. I kind of had to tone down my playing style to avoid those injuries, but I think it's smarter. We play about once a week, sometimes more. There was one week where I played about 11 hours of frisbee in 3 days, with 3 consecutive games (all unrelated). Basically, it's a passion of mine to play, especially with my friends from High School, and my Ward, (and the girls that come and play - awesome!).

The last significant thing, is that we (my High School friends + 1 and myself) won the Intramural championship at BYU. We got t-shirts. If I can, I'll post a picture later. Right here:


Anyway, I love the sport.

Wow, I think this is one of my longest posts. Hope you're not too bored.