Boston Invite, Day 1 (personal thoughts)

The 2008 Boston Invite served as my first real test as a full time O player on Pike. I've put in a lot of work in the off season and in the spring since deciding this was something I wanted to do. While I believed I could be successful as a 'go to guy' on O, I felt a definite need to prove it. I can't tell you how many people laughed and thought I was joking when I said I was an O player this year. Well guys, I'll have you know, for the first time in my 13 year career, I went through an entire tournament without playing on a single D line! (OK, I did sub in once after an injury, but the D line was on O at that point and we scored [despite my best efforts] so it doesn't count!!)

My main goals for the tournament were: 1. Initiate offense rather than waiting in the wings and picking my spots. and 2. Be a throwing threat and not just a receiver. Overall, I was pleased with the way I met these goals. I thought I did an excellent job of taking what the defense gave me and in the end, I'm fairly certain I threw more goals than I caught. Every once in a while I found myself 'spot picking', so that still needs work and I did have a couple of lapses in focus which is just immature and intolerable. Execution errors are OK, but mental errors just gotta go. Oh yeah, and I need to get out and throw more flick hucks off of a pivot since I sometimes find myself arming it down the field instead of engaging my hips and getting my weight behind it.

By far, the best move of the day was Raphe's and my decision to eat dinner with Wicked. While Pike had some vague plan to magically find an Olive Garden after showering, Wicked had reservations at a classy Italian joint and were heading there straight from the fields. From what I heard, Pike ended up at some pizzeria somewhere at around 9pm. I ended up having Bruschetta, Calamari, and Risotto with Beef Tenderloin. FOOLS!!

OK, that's my story for the Invite. Perhaps I'll get over myself and write something about Pike tomorrow.

Workout:

4 games of ultimate.
Sadly, 0-4 on the day with loses to PoNY, DoG, Mephisto & Bohdi