Ultimate Club Nationals: Sarasota, Florida

Travel

Skin glowing with heat under fading fall skies,
Bringing memories with me, I burn with sun
From inside, a conflagration from my eyes.
This is the hope from journeying beyond one place:

The warmth of knowing there are seasons, elsewhere,
That differ, keeping their own slow clockpulse.
Within me I can hold six suns, hold worlds.
Meteor, I race from soul to soul, a free traveler

In the wide space that is the inner universe.
How large I find myself, in these rare moments!
Under a gray sky I burst into sudden flower

From a thousand buds, each a center of summer,
But secret, held within; the soul's constellation.
This is the self, they murmur:

This is how we survive winter.

~

Nationals amazed me. All night last night, and while I slept on the plane yesterday, I dreamed of frisbees, sideline calls and full-field runs. I still can't believe the height of the jumps I saw in the men's finals game between Sockeye and JAM. I'll never forget the lean, long, tanned profiles of the women on Riot and Prime, their faces gaunt with strength, their bodies lengthened by our sport, which favors height and legginess. They stood on the line with their hair in double braids and ponytails and their cleats black and bright blue and their shorts hanging around their narrow hips. Joy and perfection. I darted up and down the line as the play proceeded, trying to catch every layout, every defensive play, every score. I chatted with the random ultimate players next to whom I stood, and we "talked shop," analyzing game details and deciding who we thought would win.

At the national level, ultimate differs from the casual, free-and-easy sport I've learned to love in pick-up games and summer league. Tension and focus reign in highly competitive ultimate. Everyone takes the matter so seriously and discusses strategy as though deciding federal policy. Yet many qualities remain -- like the friendly faces everywhere, the intelligence of many of those who play (I've met an uncanny number of graduate students, assistant professors, lawyers and writers -- to name just a few brainy professions -- in ultimate), and the sense that we're all together in the same endeavor. And it's inspiring to know exactly how far our bodies -- just us, little ordinary people who play a sport for joy -- can take us.

My team tired me out more than the playing did this weekend, and I'm glad our season is over. It's hard to struggle together with 17 women, each of us with our own motivations and personal envies and little problems and internal conflicts. We've had moments of camaraderie and others where we drove each other to passionate outbursts of tears. My advisor calls some women "guy's girls" and overall, I guess that's me; I'll always prefer playing with the boys. But I'd not have missed this for the world.

Results can be found here, if you're interested:
Ultimate Club Nationals Results