or "DKUT (Dalhousie Kings Ultimate Team does New Jersey"
Well Friday at noon we headed out after finally getting a confirmation that the tourney was on. We were planning to leave at 6am, but it still looked like the tourney may be cancelled at that point.
After driving 15 hours we arrived across "highway" 18 from the Motel 6 where we would be staying at 4 in the morning, Jersey time. Incidentally, getting to the Motel 6 is a serious PITA!
All games were to 13 or 1.5 hours.
At 8:15 we were on the fields to figure out where and when we'd be playing. Our first game was at 8:30 against CHS, I forget what the C stands for but they were the top high school in the state. Admittedly they had some good players, but apparently were missing their two best. That might have made a difference (although maybe so would a few more hours of sleep and a breakfast), but it still felt like the men vs. the boys. We beat them 13-4.
Princeton B was next (I think, I'm probably +/- 1 or 2 on the scores too), nothing noteable, 13-3.
Patterson college was our closest game of the day, we got sloppy on D after our first two walk throughs, we only won 13-8.
Brown sent their C team, they tried hard but unfortunately they didn't offer much competition, 13-0.
Finally we played Rutgers, the host team, we had them at 11-3 and decided to try some different defences that we felt we should work on, it allowed them some come back while we transitioned (definitely needs work), but ultimately we closed the door on them 13-7.
That finished Day 1, 5-0 in pool play. We had our final pool game Sunday morning at 8:30, although all the other teams showed at 9:30!
Some of the guys went into NYC that night. I thought about it, but I was way too tired. It woulda been fun, but given the situation, so was being asleep by 10pm.
As we were warming up before our, cough, 9:30am game. Mariland showed up and sounded rather dispondand about their perspectives in the game. We were running a drill to warm up and I overheard their captain saying something to the effect of "Man, you guys are going to destroy us". So we did. 13-0.
We played Rutgers in our Semi-final game. Nothing noteable about it, we won 13-5 or 6.
The semi-final game between Patterson and CHS was fairly exciting, although it looked like it was as close as it was largely due to hasty throw aways. Patterson finally defeated CHS and played us in the finals. Sadly, no one stuck around to watch the finals, although admittedly, it wasn't very exciting. We beat them 13-4 to win the tourney.
When we were first comitting to this tournament it looked like the competition would be stiffer, although things seemed to have softened with time. That's okay, it was good to go and play hard, work on stuff we'd practiced, get outside and play (it was our first outdoor tourney of the year), and also importantly to get out and play teams we hadn't seen before.
All in all a great weekend. Sadly, no showers were made available which led to a grimy, but surprisingly not terribly smelly, 15 hour ride home.
Well Friday at noon we headed out after finally getting a confirmation that the tourney was on. We were planning to leave at 6am, but it still looked like the tourney may be cancelled at that point.
After driving 15 hours we arrived across "highway" 18 from the Motel 6 where we would be staying at 4 in the morning, Jersey time. Incidentally, getting to the Motel 6 is a serious PITA!
All games were to 13 or 1.5 hours.
At 8:15 we were on the fields to figure out where and when we'd be playing. Our first game was at 8:30 against CHS, I forget what the C stands for but they were the top high school in the state. Admittedly they had some good players, but apparently were missing their two best. That might have made a difference (although maybe so would a few more hours of sleep and a breakfast), but it still felt like the men vs. the boys. We beat them 13-4.
Princeton B was next (I think, I'm probably +/- 1 or 2 on the scores too), nothing noteable, 13-3.
Patterson college was our closest game of the day, we got sloppy on D after our first two walk throughs, we only won 13-8.
Brown sent their C team, they tried hard but unfortunately they didn't offer much competition, 13-0.
Finally we played Rutgers, the host team, we had them at 11-3 and decided to try some different defences that we felt we should work on, it allowed them some come back while we transitioned (definitely needs work), but ultimately we closed the door on them 13-7.
That finished Day 1, 5-0 in pool play. We had our final pool game Sunday morning at 8:30, although all the other teams showed at 9:30!
Some of the guys went into NYC that night. I thought about it, but I was way too tired. It woulda been fun, but given the situation, so was being asleep by 10pm.
As we were warming up before our, cough, 9:30am game. Mariland showed up and sounded rather dispondand about their perspectives in the game. We were running a drill to warm up and I overheard their captain saying something to the effect of "Man, you guys are going to destroy us". So we did. 13-0.
We played Rutgers in our Semi-final game. Nothing noteable about it, we won 13-5 or 6.
The semi-final game between Patterson and CHS was fairly exciting, although it looked like it was as close as it was largely due to hasty throw aways. Patterson finally defeated CHS and played us in the finals. Sadly, no one stuck around to watch the finals, although admittedly, it wasn't very exciting. We beat them 13-4 to win the tourney.
When we were first comitting to this tournament it looked like the competition would be stiffer, although things seemed to have softened with time. That's okay, it was good to go and play hard, work on stuff we'd practiced, get outside and play (it was our first outdoor tourney of the year), and also importantly to get out and play teams we hadn't seen before.
All in all a great weekend. Sadly, no showers were made available which led to a grimy, but surprisingly not terribly smelly, 15 hour ride home.
Sounds like you had an ultimate experience.