Quality over Quantity

I've always liked the idea of quality over quantity. I feel that a small group of very talented players should nearly always beat a larger group of semi-talented players.

This seems to be the reality that LPC tries to achieve. The past couple years, this team has had a real strong core of players and a relatively inexperienced secondary string. We tend to enter each tournament with a tiny roster and then go up against teams like Stanford and Cal who both have rosters with 25+ guys who know how to throw and cut. How do you beat that? How do you beat that when you only have 12 guys?

One word:

Effort.

Bob says it very nicely. We are in a race. We race against teams like Cal and Stanford. We race against all the other teams in the nation. Regionals is not that far away. How quickly are they going to improve? The only way we can beat them, is to beat them in that race.

We don't have 25 guys to work with. We can't cut anyone from out team. We've got to work with what we've got to the best of our ability. The fruits of our labors show though. Teammates who would've never gotten a chance on other A teams now dominate on our team. I'm proud to have them as teammates.

Stanford, Cal and Santa Cruz might have us beat on the quantity, looks like we'll have to beat them with quality. Our top guys have to be better than their top guys. And have to last longer. Our middle tier guys have to be better than their middle tier guys. And have to run for days. Our bottom tier guys have to get better. If they don't everyone else has to get better to compensate.

As fun as it is to play 90% of all the points played for your team in a tournament, it sucks to never be full of energy past the first two games. It sucks to hear the coach of Cal tell my defender that he's guarding a guy with nothing left in his tank. That just makes me want to run him into the ground. Then I score and I wonder again if I'll have anything for the next point. Barely enough energy to trash talk the coach too.

We're going into Vegas in a couple weeks with maybe as many as 16 guys. That's assuming the two teammates on crutches right now will be fully healed in two weeks. Three days of hard ultimate with fourteen to sixteen guys? Looks like we might have to save a couple roster spots for some of our ladies.

Dispelling the Illusion

I had somewhat of an epiphany the other day while driving home. I was talking with Davin about my life and future and ended up talking about the future of some of my teammates. It suddenly hit me during out conversation. It hit me and it hurt. Exactly, how many of my teammates will graduate college? With more than an associates degree? Ouch.

It might be due to the fact that so many of my teammates work. I am curious how many people on Cal's A team have part time jobs. How many of those people (with part time jobs) work more than 10 hours a week. Just off the top of my head the following people on LPC have part time jobs: Ernst, Zip, Charlie, Josh, Bob, Travis, Sticks, Geoff, Harry and Tim. That's more than 50% of our total roster. Ouch.

It might be because of ultimate (the thought makes me cringe). I sacrifice a lot for ultimate as do many of my teammates. It would not surprise me if all of our grades suffer due to ultimate. I probably won't be in tip-top studying shape after santa barbara this weekend. I imagine returning to the bay area sick, hungover and exhausted. Prime studying conditions indeed.

I'm not saying that all LPC players are doomed to never attain a bachelor's degree or higher (that is, in something more useful that a degree in World Religion). But I find it interesting and somewhat depressing that so many LPC players are struggling to do in their 5th year, what many other college students did in their 2nd.

I am in my 5th year of eligibility. And I am still at a community college. I am not the only one. I often wonder, what career will I hold? What career will half my teammates hold? I have heard that Alex Nord works at a Costco so that he might be able to more fully play ultimate. An interesting concept. Sacrificing more pay, more financial stability in order to play a game you love. But his story is different (assuming it's true), he chooses to sacrifice the higher paying job for a job that allows him to compete. I wonder how many of my teammates will have that luxury. Will I?