Let's talk about frisbee

As I'm getting on in age (having recently had my 38th birthday in March) and my near-term memories start fading... I figured I would try and capture my long-term memories. Specifically, I'm going to do a little way back machine regarding the international tournaments that I've attended since I started playing frisbee, because 1), they were really cool, and 2), it provides a good opportunity for general commentary on things frisbee and things life. They won't all be summarized here, but over a number of entries. This makes me feel really old, but the tourneys that will be covered will be

1. 1986 - WFDF World Championships - Colchester, England - French National Team
2. 1988 - WFDF World Championships - Leuven, Belgium - French National Team
3. 1989 - European Championships - Veijle, Denmark - Unwilling spectator
4. 1991 - Club World Championships - Toronto, Canada - Earth Atomizer
5. 1993 - Club World Championships - Madison, Wisconsin - Big Brother
6. 1995 - Club World Championships - Millfield, England - Death or Glory (DoG)
7. 1996 - WFDF World Championships - Jonkoping, Sweden - Team USA (DoG)
8. 1998 - WFDF World Championships - Minnesota, USA - Team USA (DoG)
9. 1999 - Club World Championships - St. Andrews, England - DoG
10. 2000 - WFDF World Championships - Heilbronn, Germany - Team USA (DoG)
11. 2002 - Club World Championships - Hawaii, USA - DoG

As in all things, except for Memento, best to start from the beginning. The summer of 1986 found me spending the summer between sophomore and junior years at Princeton playing Westchester, NY summer league with all the NY, NY hacks... I had just finished playing with Team Red and winning the league championship playing alongside Linwood Lewis, Frank Valenti and company. It was actually this summer that made my career. My first two years at Princeton had been OK, but as you can imagine, even then I wasn't going to be getting on the field as a rabid defensive player, and frosh and sophs didn't really play on O when it was important. I knew Frank and Linwood from playing the New Jersey guys numerous times during the season, so when I signed up for summer league well after the draft, I got assigned to Ernie Wilvonseder's team blue. I promptly found Frank and got him to persuade Ernie to trade me for the immortal Peter Rock from Cornell. Well, with a deep cutting corp of Frank and Linwood, that was where I first found the confidence in the long game, because if you can't throw long in summer league without fear, where can you?

After the season was over, I headed over to Paris to spend a month visiting the French side of the family (I have a French passport, yes, so flame away). I showed up 3 weeks before the World Championships and practiced with the French team that was going to Worlds, and ultimately persuaded them to let me play with them.

1. 1986 WFDF World Championships - So it was off to Colchester, England. Well, let me tell you, for quantity of ultimate, that was still the best worlds that I've been to. That was the final year that you played EVERY SINGLE TEAM THERE. There were 16 teams, and we played every one during pool play, between 2 and 3 games a day, and then finals between the top two. I can't remember how we did against the San Francisco Flying Circus, but I do remember that we were tied 5-5 with Sweden, who were already at the time clearly the best team in Europe. I remember that the fields were hard as a rock, and at one point I laid out... on offense, obviously, and wrenched my shoulder pretty hard (damn! the fields were hard). That tournament was the best that the French ever placed, coming in 9th out of 16 teams. Hard to believe now, considering how low the French team fell over the next 15 years, not even making to a number of world championships in their backyard, including Germany and England. Now THAT is embarrassing. There were definitely some studs on that squad, including Michel Maisonnave, Gaby, and of course, the best athlete on the team was a chain-smoker, which was also very French. He wasn't the only that smoked, and not only cigarettes. Weird, huh? The US team ended up crushing the Swedes in the final, winning the tournament going away. The whole tournament was eye-opening for me, and on top of the summer league experience, gave me the confidence when I went back for junior year to become part of the handler core of a team that basically missed the College National semifinals by a second-half choke to Cornell during pool play.

I think I've got one more tournament summary in me...which will continue to portray the devolution of the French team. After graduation in 1988, I moved to France for 3 months to work at COFRETH doing computer programming, staying at my grandparents apartment just off the Champs Elysees, and partying and hanging out with my brother, who had already been there for 3 years. This time I was able to train with the French squad for a full two months before Worlds. But it was already obvious that the 'team' wasn't the same. There was much less teamwork, and a lot more cliques. In 1986, we were the fusion of the two best French teams, the Sun and the Hot, and everybody came together for the goal. This time the team was more selective, and for whatever reason, the chemistry wasn't there. But, I made the team, and then we were off to Belgium for Worlds.

2. 1986 WFDF World Championships - Leuven, Belgium - This was by far the BEST tourney site ever. In the middle of downtown, there was this long plaza that was literally ringed with at least 8 bars, each with it's own outdoor seating area. It was basically one big party there every night. As discussed before, this time they split the tournament into two pools of 8, with semis and finals. Not to mention, of course, the french fries. The Belgians have perfected the art, with wagons called Frituur that just sell french fries with your choice of about 30 sauces.

The field site was SMALL (seem to remember something like 2 or 4 fields), but located at the university and everyone was staying there, so the whole setting was very intimate. LOTS of drinking, lots of smoking, lots of drinking. That was the first time that I had smoked a petard, which is basically a funnel made of mixed up tobacco and ...something else. Well, Wednesday night, I had a little too much of that (never having really smoked before), and felt like crap next day and I think threw up. Well, the French thought I felt that way because I had drank too much and didn't 'respect' the team, and iced me for the first round game. That was nice clincher for my week. To top it off, at one of the parties, I remember there was this Canadian womens player that basically licked her lips at me, but I only sort of noticed, missed the moment, and didn't really figure it out until the next day and was totally kicking myself. So, the French team ended up coming in 15th out of 16 teams, and that included a 3-way tie for the spot, where we beat the Belgians, who beat the Italians, who beat us, and we ended up in the middle of the 3-way. Oh yeah, NY, NY was in my pool, and I knew a bunch of those guys from Westchester Summer League, Cribber (Dennis Warsen), Skippy (Skip Kuhn), Kenny Dobbins. So imagine my chagrin when they ended up bagling us. THAT sucked! Norway ended up upsetting the Swedes in the semis, so it was NY versus Norway in the finals. NY crushed them 19-9 or 10, but the setting was awesome, cool stadium, large crowd that was into it. I have a 3 picture sequence of Cribber going up in the endzone for a huck that is CRAZY high. The first shot shows him starting to jump as the frisbee approaches at a ridiculous height. The second one shows him teabagging his defender with his hand on the disc, with the third one with him coming down with the disc and goal. It is inconceivable that 1) somebody could think to jump for the disc at that height, and 2) actually come down with it. I need to scan and post those pictures at some point. Still an incredible memory.

The best part of the tournament was Guts though. The french also submitted a guts team, and I have to admit, there isn't a more visceral frisbee game than guts. When somebody is 12 yards away from you winging a 119 (I think) disk at you as hard as he can, and you thrust at it and grab it one-handed, you literally yell in satisfaction. We ended up in the middle of the pack there, but guts was REALLY fun. Fortunately, we didn't really understand the rules, so when we played some of the lamer teams, we didn't realize that it was the person who first touched a thrown and dropped frisbee that had to make the next throw. We would pick our own thrower in this case, so I ended up throwing a lot of throws, and THAT was also very satisfying, throwing a frisbee as hard as you can at someone.

So the basic conclusion about the French teams is that they were incredible athletes that had no concept of teamwork. It was 7 people playing on the field, but not really together. Again, what is the most shameful is that they couldn't even field a national team for worlds right next door in Germany, England, Scotland, and Germany again. This is also evinced in their lack of soccer World Cup success until very recently. They always had the best athletic specimens but weren't able to put it together as a team. Well, that about wraps up this round. Meet me again tomorrow (or so) for some follow up.