Thursday, March 06, 2008

Hounds on Ice take Sudbury by storm

And that was just the drive up.

Yes, the drive up was not fun. For Michelle, Julie and I, it was over 8 hours, which included 45 minutes when traffic was stopped as a tractor-trailer had to be towed out of a ditch. But we eventually got to Jay and Diane's, Lyanne's parents.


At 7:30, I, Bonnie, Dan, Frogger, Jess, Joel, Julie, Lyanne, Lynchy, Matt, Michelle, Nat, Sarah, Steph and Tien got up, and were instantly reminded why Jay and Diane rock, as they served a great breakfast, with so many options. After we powered up, it was off to the driving range and Snowplate.
We went in to the tournament seeded fifth (originally 19th!). The fields were a bit small, so we threw out a zone. I believe our females even volunteered to all play cup (awesome!). We won our first two games handily against the Wingnuts and My Mailman works for the Government (fyi: so does my wife). This allowed us to get used to running in the snow, throwing with gloves on, being cold, singing our song, etc...
Our third game brought up against the PULers (aka Prostitutes, Bucket Fish), the top seed in the tournament (1st and 5th seeds in the same division? Curse you cascade seeding!). We took a commanding lead, working the disc throughout their zone. I believe we were up about 10-4, and then the Peterborough squad switched to man; a switch that worked. We had trouble adjusting our offence and they came back to 10-9. Thank jebus for hard cap.
We finished our fourth game easily against the Frozen Frisbyterians to end the day with the top seed. We were looking forward to naps, Guitar Hero (thanks Bonners!), more food, and of course, the hot tub. Especially those who got some extra aches from the day, like Julie (with a hamstring), me (with a calf) and Lyanne (with a Dan). Spaghetti hit the spot, and the Leafs won, thus further ruining their draft pick. Lots of us tried to stay up for the UFC card; most of us failed. Tittie boobie bum bum.
Sunday morning we were again present with a cornucpia of breakfast (smoothies!). So much food, we were almost late! We packed up, thanked Dan's new Mom and Dad one last time, and zoomed back to the fields. Fungus, our first opponents, apparently haven't learned the cardinal Saturday rule: don't get so drunk that you'll be hungover. Left with only 7 players, they kept it close at the beginning, as well as quoted rules that don't exist (5-2...where in the rules?). We got over it and pushed our way to victory.
In the semi-finals we came up against the Hamilton-Toronto hybrid Frost Cause. We won, and it wasn't very close. We were able to check out the PUL'ers win their semi.
In the finals, we switched up our defensive strategy and played man. The game was quite close, as teams both teams made runs and traded points. We took half 8-7, and came out gunning. We played defence as toight as a tiger and played offence with hard cuts, crisp passes and all around aggressiveness. When all was said and done, we won something like 15-10, and we were Snowplate champs!
Didn't someone say before the first game that we should make sure we have fun, but that we also have a good shot at winning?

Some highlights (please add yours in the comments):

Tien organizing the weekend and leading us to victory.
Our zone.
Lyanne lending us her parents for the weekend.
Dan trying to eliminate Lyanne so he can move in.
Floating chips in the hot tub (no chili though)
Julie the Guitar Hero.
Steph and Michelle keeping us company on the sidelines, working the score and taking pictures.
The weather was awesome. Not too cold, slight breeze, sunny...as perfect as you can get for Sudbury in Winter.
Joel's catch against PULers (Frogger: "Keep going!")
Rumble strips on the highway keeping me on the road.
Lynchy, with his usual high percentage of Lynchers, uh, I mean hammers.
Jess causing countless turnovers while marking.
Hummus.
Frogger's beer point.
That game I made all those deep D's.
Laying out in the snow.
Playing the PULers twice (you got lucky cascade seeding...).
Beating the PUL'ers twice.
Matt getting us the Silva/Henderson fight, and explaining what was going on.
Throwing with gloves on.
Sarah constantly running.
The Swiss Chalet victory meal.
Nat almost laying out.
Winning!
If you're friends with Bonners, well then you're friends with me.
Well done Hounds on Ice! Same time next year?

5 comments:

Lyanne said...

Wicked weekend, you Hounds. Chris, you've managed to eloquently and funnily (is that a word?) sum up all of the best parts of the weekend.

I think we should go back next year to defend the trophy that we could not drink out of (as if the trophy for a tournament like this would be one that you could not drink a celebratory beer from!)... and I think our name should be titty boobie bum bum...

So glad we didn't have to eat at Taco Bell!

Anonymous said...

How about those "Oh yeah, we can't run as fast in the snow" moments?

Seriously though, I think one of the highlights for me was having the PULlers (Bucketfish) come to us and say how much fun they had playing against us even though they lost. Way to keep the spirit of ultimate going Hounds on Ice!

Anonymous said...

One more thing....to clarify the gender ratio issue. There was a last minute change. Here is the quote from the captains package that was sent out:
"The gender ratio is 5:2/4:3 (male:female). This is subject to negotiation
between captains"

I guess I didn't make it clear in the negotiations that we wanted 4:3.

Anonymous said...

Being squished in a car for 7-1/2 hours was well worth all the fun of the weekend.

Chris said...

OK, then the ratio issues were neither our nor their fault. Set the rules, don't leave it open to negotiation.

Now I don't blame them for playing 5-2.