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High Desert Classic ‘08 The Sixth Annual High Desert Classic convened October 5-6 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at scenic Bataan Park. Weather was perfect Saturday morning, although the wind blew up a bit at the end of the day. Just enough to make the flippers dance. It rained all night and sprinkled a bit Sunday morning, although the Sunday games went without a hitch in slightly cooler weather. One field became unplayable due to mud, but we moved people around and it worked out. Friday night we met at the local Greek Festival for beer, baklava, greek music, dancing and plenty of energy. Billy apparently took several people who should have known better back to his house for tequila and yet more beer; they were much the worse for wear Saturday morning. 9 teams competed in two pools: Pool A Pinche (Frank Brady, Chris Lopez, Leo Dexter, Dave Conley) Ridin’ High (Danny Thornton, Steve Taylor, Luc Colden) Jubilation (John Sotir, Larry Scott, Shannon ?) Edgekators (Pat Dexter, Josh LaClair, Bone Dexter, Rich Broyles, Jaren Graeber) Ro Sham Bo Kenny Stansbury, Mario Nuno-Whelan, Travis MacIntyre Pool B Hawaii Five Hole (Daily & Keenan Jackson, Evan Davis, Jesse Arias) Beto I (Ramon Sarason, Steve Trammell, Tom Hawley, Andrew Sanchez) Billy’s Viking Sperm (Billy DeRaad, Mike Daniels, Steve Sengebush) Tye Die (Sam “Sassback” Coulter, “Markie Poo” Kelly, Dave “Bean Dip” Klesert and Tom DePree) We played single game round robin on Saturday morning, and finished up the day with a “pigtail” game between the 8th & 9th seeds, and then the winner’s bracket quarters. All winner’s bracket games were best 2 of 3, and all loser’s bracket games were single game. Tie Dye knocked out RoShamBo (two new teams of ultimate players) in the 8 vs. 9 match on Saturday, and then the winner’s bracket was set. Pinche won their pool and drew the 8 seed, Tie Dye. This was Tie Dye’s best match of the tournament. With lots of diving tip catches, and newly energized forehands Tie Dye put on a great show, although they bowed out in 2 straight. This was highly entertaining, especially when Bean Dip led the crowd in the Wave during the match. Those high school cheerleading skills came in handy! Beto won a complicated Pool B in which 3 teams finished 2-1, and the other was O-fer. Beto finished first on point differential and drew Edgekators, who came on strong and pulled the upset in two straight very close games. Hawaii Five Hole (the very dangerous and experienced team of ultimate players from the past two HDC’s) beat Jubilation in 2 straight, and the only quarter final to go the distance was Ridin’ High vs. Billy’s Viking Sperm. The first game was close, Ridin’ High 21-18, and then two dump fests ensued; BVS won the first 21-10, and Ridin’ High advanced 21-13 in the third. Billy DeRaad was throwing his fishhook upwind, and as the wind picked up it got slower and slower. Close to the end of the match he lobbed one that looked like it wasn’t even going to make the line. A sudden gust of wind kicked in, and it floated to Steve Taylor, suddenly dropped, and knocked off Steve’s Michigan hat. Definitely a world record for the slowest shot ever to win a cap. Billy proudly wore his new cap to the Sunday night player’s party at Bone’s house. Winner’s bracket semis matched the all-Albuquerque battle of the generations, defending champion (pretty much) Pinche against the upstart Hawaii Five Hole. Although the match was close, Pinche prevailed in 2 straight, continued their undefeated status and looked the early favorite in the tournament. Ridin’ High sent Edgekators down to the loser’s bracket in a very entertaining match. The teams were well matched but playing 6 guts tournaments in one year leaves Ridin’ High a very experienced group of guts players indeed. Pinche prevailed in the winner’s bracket final in two straight games, and looked like they were on a roll to win the bobcat skull yet again. Meanwhile down in the loser’s bracket, Billy’s Viking Sperm eliminated Beto in the quagmire of Field 4, earning the honor of getting spanked by Hawaii in the next round. Who designed this bracket anyway? Tie Dye eliminated Jubilation (who went on to several well attended beer matches, both of guts and after the tournament ended, pole guts) and then got eliminated by Edgekators. Hawaii then knocked out Edgekators, and eliminated Ridin’ High in the loser’s bracket finals, setting up the tournament final, Pinche vs. Hawaii. It seemed a mismatch. Pinche was undefeated and seemed to be improving with every round. They had handled Hawaii easily in the winner’s bracket semis, and had never lost to that new generation of guts players over the years they’d been playing. But that’s why they play the games! Pinche started the Finals on a huge roll. Hawaii shot first, but Pinche caught 4 shots in a row, all with tip catches, scoring the returns to go up 4-0. Frank and Leo were both pumping smoking backhands through the Hawaii line. Dailey finally got a forehand through, and Leo dumped the return; Keenan scored again to bring it to 4-3 Pinche. The two teams traded points until a 6-5 switch and Pinche again put up the wall. Two tip catches followed a smoking Chris Lopez thumber to put Pinche up 9-5. The teams traded points, then Jesse Arias made a couple of sick clean catches, scoring on the returns, and Dave Conley dumped a backhand. Keenan tied the match 10-10 on the free shot. Dailey got a clean catch and all the momentum, but Pinche wasn’t done. They made two straight tip catches and scored on the returns to get a 12-10 switch. They were up 2 despite having the only two dumps of the game. The teams traded points until Dailey dumped high to bring the game to 16-13 Pinche. Things were looking grim for the youngsters with Pinche up 3 and Chris bringing the heat on the free shot, but Dailey made an unassisted tip catch and scored on Leo. Leo dumped the return, and Keenan’s free shot tied the match at 16-16. Hawaii got the tip catch on Leo, and Dailey’s return got a fairly weak up, but Frank made the sickest diving catch of the match. The disk was upside down and curling away from him when he grabbed it fully extended, a foot off the ground, maybe 10 yards behind the line. Pinche was psyched until Dailey bagged Frank’s backhand clean. Pinche made a tip catch on Dailey, but dumped the return high to give Hawaii its first lead of the entire match at the 17-16 switch. Keenan scored the free shot, Dave Conley dumped wide to bring it to 19-16. Pinche wasn’t dead yet, they tip caught Keenan’s free shot, but Dailey caught Chris’s thumber back and scored for a 20-16 lead. Dailey soaked Dave Conley’s reply and threw a filthy forehand ace for the game winner. First game stats:
Game 2. Hawaii shot first and scored, Dailey soaked a great thumber from Chris and shot Frank. Frank had a great up, but Pinche uncharacteristically dropped the tip. Leo and Evan exchanged several forehand scores (Leo & Frank both switched from backhands to forehands) to 4-2 and then Keenan made a beautiful diving tip catch. As before it didn’t have the desired effect, he dumped high to 4-3 and Chris threw an awesome thumber through to tie it at 4's. Pinche got three straight tip catches, including a sick up by Leo of a great forehand, and scored each time to get to a 7-4 switch. Evan scored, Dailey bagged the reply and scored to bring it to 7-6 Pinche. The teams exchanged points until Pinche got a tip catch on Evan, with Frank’s forehand giving Pinche a 10-7 lead. Dave got a sick up of Evan’s forehand, but again Pinche uncharacteristically dropped the baby. This seemed to really swing the momentum in the match, as Hawaii went on a huge roll. Three straight clean catches of Dave’s backhand by Keenan & Dailey gave Hawaii the lead at 11-10, although Chris threw an amazing thumber ace up high to earn the switch tied at 11's. Dailey & Leo exchanged forehands to 13-12 when Hawaii made a tip catch; Evan’s score got them to 14-12. Chris was throwing smoke but Hawaii knocked it up but also had a dropped bobble. Hawaii continued to shoot Leo, who continued to score, including a ridiculous outside hand fastball, until Evan scored to make it 17-15 Hawaii. Leo dumped a shot high for the 18-15 switch. Each team caught and then Evan scored to make it 19-15. Hawaii got a tip catch on Chris, and Keenan shot Dave, whose up was barely missed by Frank with another great layout. Match point. Dave’s return shot was upped and Evan made a diving grab right in front of the spectators, and scored his best shot of the day, an ace, to bring Beto to a new set of owners. What a great level of play it was! Incredible defense. Standing O from all the spectators. Game 2 stats
Special thanks go to Leo Dexter, our tireless Tournament Director. Leo kept everything positive and got everything done. Leo, a special thanks from me for delegating the treasurer job to me and then doing it yourself! You da man! Thanks to Ramon for running the brackets and supplying the bracket sheets, to Cheryl & Steve Trammell for coordinating the burgers and brats and grilling at the field, to Bone for opening his house for the Saturday and Sunday player’s parties, to Frank for organizing the Saturday dinner of mexican food, and to Leo & Billy for getting kegs together. Also, special thanks to all the players. Not one observer was used all weekend long in any match. Now that is a display of sportsmanship! See everyone next year. |
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