The winter of our discontent
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago at 09:26. 0 comments
This will likely be the last year I play winter ultimate. Of the 3 years I’ve played in Ottawa, twice I’ve been among the players chosen to change teams in a mid-season effort to rebalance the league. In each case, I’ve gone from a strong team that I enjoyed playing on, to a subpar team that had trouble winning a single game…even after rebalancing!
I think I understand why I’m (seemingly) always chosen to change teams. I’m not that strong a player — I’ve never captained a team, I’ve only been to a handful of tournaments, and I’m getting older — but I am athletic, I am consistent, and I am level-headed. The teams I end up on lack most/all of those things.
This year has been particularly frustrating because not only is my team lacking the above factors, but it also seemingly has no desire to get better, or even to compete. We’ve managed to tie one game since I’ve been moved over, making our record an abysmal 0-9-1. This team is happy when we score in double digits. For reference, only once this season have our opponents scored less than 20 points.
What’s most annoying is that we’ve had our chances to win some games: up by 5 with 10 minutes left in one game, up by 2 with 2 minutes left in another. My personal favorite: in one game we were down by 1 with 2 minutes left. This is a situation where you’d expect everyone on the team to be fired up and ready, or at the very least paying attention, but it took us more than a minute to even field a full line. I was so disgusted after that loss that I couldn’t even go out for beer afterward. That’s pretty serious.
I think I’ll take a pass next year.
