My Regionals History - as much for my own records as your viewing

Barrett thank you for maintaining chainlightning.org. Yahtzee please forgive me for posting this.

Regionals 2008 in Austin TX was my eighth Regionals. With GW, I went to one fall and four spring Regionals. Last year's fall series I played in Southwest Regionals with Monster. And this past weekend makes for two Regionals with Chain.

In 2001, my freshman fall, the Hippos qualified for club Regionals and we lost a couple not-so-close games to experienced teams. Then in the spring, for the College Series we transformed Princeton, NJ into a rainy frisbee wonderland at Regionals 2002, winning a front door semis to qualify for Nationals... the first bid to Nationals in GW history. Sanda's champagne splooge, and Thomas' talk about how we can't know the work that was put in... continue to energize (and haunt) me when I think about Regionals tournaments.

With Ed and Old Man Steve at the helm in 2003, we came within a point of Nationals on the same Princeton fields of 2002's dream weekend. And in 2004, we trekked to Erie, PA for the fickle weather, where we were nearly eliminated by Syracuse and Queens. But second-runner-up for the Callahan that year, Ben Faust, lifted the Hippo herd to its second Nationals bid. From the yellow hair spray, to the Tally Hoe hotel and the women locking themselves out, to the rainy finals in front of Gdub alumni and hippo faithful, this weekend was a Regionals dream come true.

We came close my senior year, arriving as sectional champs but losing co-captain Bert to a freak Flying Taco accident. Sending Maryland home is still GW class of 05's greatest achievement, cause we did it so resoundingly every year. That fall, 05, I was playing with Chain and we won South Regionals. Again, I was spoiled with a first-year success rate (like with GW).

Yesterday was a hard medicine to swallow, not sure what it was treating. We've been playing well, running hard, bringing strong teams. And we still give up an inexcusable loss when it counts. Luckily we have a shot to prove ourselves yet.