High Tides I, 2002

Date - March 4-8, 2002
Where - Savannah, GA
Official Site - http://www.ultimatesportscamp.com/
Pictures - Here
Team Members - Jay, Mark, Dan, Nate, Aman, Joe, Dave, Drew.  Also, Eric from Clark, and Matt, Arian, and Chao from University of Colorado, Boulder.

The Rundown
Since we were only able to get 8 WPI players to commit to the trip to Savannah over spring break, with Drew being iffy due to his leg injury, we recruited some friends to come down with us.  Aman talked to some of his pals from University of Colorado, Boulder and was able to convince a few of them to join us.  We also met up with Eric from Clark right here in Worcester, which gave us a decent sized team.

After a couple months of training in the gym and in the cold, spring break finally came and we were off.  On the drive down, after a quick stop at Nate's family's house for some breakfast, we stopped in Maryland for a game of pickup with Melfi and a few of his friends from the Gore company.  It was a good time until we started keeping score, at which point Melfi and company proceeded to trounce us.  Final score something along the lines of 11-6.  Not exactly the best way to start out the week.  We'll just blame it on the cold weather.

After arriving in Savannah on Sunday afternoon, everyone finally met up.  We picked Dave up from the airport and met the Colorado boys at the motel.  We checked out the fields and they were gorgeous.  Two huge fields lined by giant trees.  The sweetest, softest grass you've ever seen.  We were psyched.

Monday finally came, but instead of the gorgeous weather we had the night before, it was cold!  In the 40's and windy.  Not exactly what we had in mind for Savannah.  Regardless of the weather, we all had a great time.  Monday had been set up to be a hat tournament, and after a couple hours sitting around waiting for them to get organized, we were underway.  Almost all the teams got five games, with Jay, Nate, and Eric's team getting six since they made it into the finals.  It was a great day, a ton of fun was had by all.  We met a bunch of cool people from the other teams and actually got to play with some girls.

Tuesday was the first time all of us would play as a team together.  The weather was warm again, and after a first round bye, our first game was against William and Mary's B Team.  Nate's friend Ben was on the team and it was a fun game.  We played very well, especially considering it was the first game we had played with the Colorado guys.  W&M wasn't really able to get their best game together and we were able to capitalize on their mistakes and take the win 13-2.  Next up was University of Richmond, the top seeded team in the tournament.  We didn't really expect to win this game, or even necessarily come close, but we all played like we wanted it.  While they beat us 13-3, in our minds the game was much closer.  We all played fantastic games and had a great time.  We threw some tight zones on them, but they just used great patience and disc skills to get through them.  In the first half we only had something like four turnovers, but since they had none, they took the half with a wide margin.  Overall we played an excellent game, Richmond just played better.  None of us were complaining though, since we played well and the Richmond guys were all a lot of fun to play with.

Wednesday was the second and final day of pool play.  We were scheduled to play Michigan State and Western Michigan University.  We had really high hopes for those games, since we played so well the day before.  But unfortunately, we didn't live up to our own expectations.  The Michigan State team, like us, was lacking numbers.  They had borrowed a few stragglers from the Georgia Tech team that never showed, and one of the tournament directors, Sam.  We played far below the level we played on Tuesday, and fell to State 13-6.  Next up was WMU. We needed to win this game to have a shot at the finals, since we knew we didn't stand much of a chance if we were 4th seed in the elimination round the next day, which would mean we'd play Richmond in the semis.  Again, we couldn't get it together, and ended up falling 13-8.  Since we lost both games, we needed to play an elimination game against William and Mary to see who would be playing Richmond in the semis the next day.  We were able to earn a spot in the bracket by winning 13-3.  Since we only had eight uninjured players since Drew, Joe, Arian, and Matt had all hurt themselves, we agreed with William and Mary to combine forces the next day.

Thursday was really nothing unexpected.  We played alright, but considering that we were playing with a bunch of people we had never played with, the massive WPI/Clark/Colorado/W&M combo team fell 13-2 to Richmond.  After this we all lazed around, played disc golf, and had a good time.  In the finals, Richmond beat Michigan State 13-9.

Friday was the rookie game and the all-star game.  Eric and Chao represented us in the rookie game, since Dave needed to catch his plane and Matt was injured.  Nothing too amazing to report here.  Jay, Nate, and Aman were nominated for the all-star game.  Since it was set up to be more of a fantasy-ultimate game, and none of us are really big on the 40 yard thumber into an amoeba in the endzone, the crazy guys from Richmond pretty much dominated this game.

Off the field, we spent a lot of time at the beach, where we met up with the William and Mary guys a few times, including playing them in the Wiffle Ball World Championships of the Universe, where we handily defeated them 11-0.

We all had a great time and are already planning next years trip.

Results (2-4)
Tuesday Pool Play
Game 1 - Win over William and Mary B, score 13-2
Game 2 - Loss to University of Richmond, score 3-13
Wednesday Pool Play
Game 3 - Loss to Michigan State, score 6-13
Game 4 - Loss to Western Michigan University, score 8-13
Game 5 - Win over William and Mary B, score 13-3
Thursday Semifinals
Game 6 - Loss to University of Richmond, score 2-13