A Dark and Stormy Summer League Night

Our team, not coincidentally, is Yellow. I think that's awesome. Last night, we got about 12 players out for a nice evening's summer league game under the lights. But the evening went sour quickly, mainly due to a couple of too-tough guys.

Personally, I have had a difficult time with how one guy on my team sticks to the line like glue. He doesn't sit, no matter what happened the point before or how many guys sat for the last point or two, or three or four. Anyhow, numbers last night meant that people could get as much playing time as they could handle. I'm thankful for that.

Playing under the lights made me blind on a few plays; I misplayed two and dropped another deep shot. Otherwise, its really nice to have playing time in the SF Valley after the sun goes down. The temperature's nicer and we can't see the smog.

The real trouble, though, came when a few calls were made halfway through the game and antagony skyrocketed. A couple small calls, like Not In and Foul on the Mark, had discussions going longer than they should have. Then...

The intense few, those whose egos wouldn't subside during these petty things, were ready to scream and cry during one big endzone play. Picture most of the players on the field doing the stack thing at about half field. Big throw goes up on the sideline that the subs and bags are on. Disc is coming down in the endzone where two guys have a chance to make the play. One athletic dude goes way up and slightly over the top of the other, older guy. Athletic dude boinks it and lands wierd cause his body collided with the older guy. The older guy calls foul but the disc was dropped, so it shouldn't matter. Then the athletic dude calls foul, too. And now a couple people erupt, namely the two involved in the play.

The older guy lies down in disbelief. The athletic kid is steamy, chucking the disc back to the thrower under the Foul, Contest it-goes-back clause. After more 'this is absurd' chatting takes place, ultimate resumes and only a couple more calls and boinks hurt the game.

Except for the drunken friend. This guy, a friend of one of the players, is constantly walking through the field. When we asked him to get off, he's steady shouting 'I'm not on' or 'I'm not in the way.' This guy got a cheer at the end of the night for his drunkeness (sp?).

And that was my Thursday night.