I spent the afternoon at the Middle School State Tournament for Ultimate Frisbee in St. Paul. Possibly a better entertainment than watching the Twins get drilled on TV, but just sitting outside in the sun and the wind is kind of draining. Some teams ran sprints, knee to chin, during "warmups," and my old-man thought was: Jesus, coach, it's hot, and there's only so much tread on the tire. Ultimate Frisbee coaches look a little like retired hippies so I don't think the high-stepping sprints are connected in any way to their Nazi ideology. Maybe the extra running somehow helps. My daughter's team warms up by tossing frisbees around and their record in the state tournament was 0-5.
When my kid's in the game, I tend to watch only her, and I notice myself giving her throws body English from my lawn chair. At some point this afternoon, I realized that I wanted her team to win more than she did. She seems to understand this too. After the last game, another loss, she expressed disappointment, but cheered up immediately when I asked whether it had been fun anyway. She wasn't disappointed if I wasn't. Mainly, she likes being on a team with her friends. It's a pretty universal thing. When Magic Johnson retired, he was asked what he thought he'd miss the most, and he answered: "Being with the fellas." In this year's ACC basketball tournament, a senior who had just played in his last game was asked the same question. He paused, and you could see the emotion welling up in him before he managed to say, "Going out to eat with my teammates after road games."
One of the moms took the above pic almost immediately after loss #5. You can see that they're crushed. Eventually I might ask my daughter whether she thinks it would be rude to occupy space in the same zip code as the girl she is said to be “guarding.”
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