Thursday, April 02, 2009

Pre View Over Sight

I am sitting in the Frisbee House, presently in its livable phase, and not the usual squalid conditions that -at their worst- recall scenes from Slumdog Millionaire. A game of beer pong rages behind me, two of its participants wearing no pants, and one slinging his cock suggestively within his boxers towards the opponents' cups. May the fly button hold, dear God.

What prompted me to drag my ass from the couch to downstairs so I could bring a jury-rigged laptop wasn't the beer pong behind me, however. It was the thing that lies before me that did that - the current copy of USA Ultimate (THE MAGAZINE!), with Stephen Presley grimacing toward me on the cover- that did it.

I just read the College previews of both women's and open, and I note that no Hodag was listed in the Starting Seven piece. Been a while. But I'm still digressing. I got up from my primo couch spot to write because of the women's starting seven listed. No Belladonnas. Whu-whu-whaat?? I ask again, what?!?

Maybe the author didn't watch nationals last year. You know, that moment when Courtney Kiesow won the Callahan award. Or maybe he was so impressed by her play then that he assumed she must have graduated. But no, because he mentions her by name earlier in the preview. Fact is Courtney is back and hungry and in murder mode. Still smiling, of course, the one that melts hearts three fields over and causes the area birdies to chirp, but her play has only improved, and with the legitimate shot to add a college championship to her Callahan hardware, she is descending upon Columbus like Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter. Any Starting Seven team without her on it tells me you gotta fire the GM.

And then there's Georgia Bosscher, who makes the cutters she's defending look like Asafa Powell to her Usain Bolt. When I see her in practice I give my prayer beads another roll for the souls of the people who have to cover her. Aside from full field hucks from either side, her acme layout grabs save her teammates whenever they need it. She's as close as you can come to guaranteed money this side of inside trading. You're not putting her in the Starting Seven? Really?

If you've made it this far, I know what you're thinking right now. You got up 2-3 paragraphs ago to get your own copy of the mag so you could see what Hh is bitchin' about. You're leafing through the preview and saying, "Fucking cool it, they both got named under Wisconsin's blurb. Chill the fuck out."

And you might have a point. Except for the fact that 5 of the 7 listed 'starters' were also mentioned in their team's blurbs. Look, alls I'm sayin' is that any team coming into a game against Bella this year thinking that 2 of the best 7 players in the country aren't on the other side of the field, well, that's a paddlin'. S'all I'm sayin'. See you in the series.

p.s. So I see that UPA director Sandie resigned. Not sure if this is a bad thing or a good opportunity for the sport as a whole, all I know is that the chances of having a communications director last longer than a year and a half just went way, way up. (position currently empty!)

8 comments:

Brian Frederick said...

I'm picturing Tom Annen playing frisbee in a pancho right now, and I think that--were he to smoke little cigars and rape women in the middle of the day--he could be a fine Drifter.

But since tex-mex isn't his style, I guess you just have to leave that up to Georgia.

-Frederick

Anonymous said...

I realize your post is focused on the women's side, but I'm having trouble thinking of seven college players better than Jim Foster. And I say that with no particular love for the Hodags.

Last year I ended up watching far more women's ultimate than I'm really comfortable admitting. Georgia was the second best player that I saw all year, and one of only two that jumped out at me the first time I watched them play. The other was Kira. They were the two that it took about thirty seconds to peg as game-changers.

Courtney didn't stand out the same way, but it certainly speaks volumes about her that she received her team's nomination over Georgia. While I haven't watched enough women's teams this year to be able to speak with certainty, it seems unlikely that there are seven better players than both of them.

Anonymous said...

Hh: This is logical falacy that we see too often, but I'm surprised that you would be taken in by it.

If you are going to criticize a list because of an omission, then it isn't enough to name the omission. This implies some absolute value determination (in other words, saying that this list is everyone that is THIS good of a player or better).

You need to name the omission AND name the incorrect included parties. If you can't tell us who should NOT be on the list, then why should we assume you are correct in pointing out the omission.

Example: Brad Miller is a sweet basketball player...he shoulda been an all-star. The first part of this statement is true, but the conclusion drawn has no basis in reality. I need to say "Brad Miller is sweet, he should have been an All-Star over Shaq". That has a basis in reality.

Anytime you see an omission described without the author telling you who should be replaced: your bogus-alarm should go off.

Anonymous said...

Please try and get laid on your own time, and not on your blog....creeper

Holly G. said...

You are, of course, absolutely correct and have inspired me to blog my own version of the college women's preview including an accurate starting 7. Coming soon! http://legionofballers.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Second anonymous - so you're saying his motivation for actually paying attention to and writing about women's ultimate must be to get laid, not because it's worth writing about? Thanks for your support, honestly, it's not hard enough to be taken seriously in our division. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Could you please fill me in to the significance of Sandie's resignation. I have no idea of her history with the sport or what her title did, and I have no idea where to get that info. Please, Thank you.

FJR said...

I hadn't read this blog in a while, but was pleasantly surprised to see that HH took an interest in the preview article I wrote.

I don't know to what extent you've been following the women's division, but almost everyone knows who Georgia is. It seemed pointless to put her on the top seven list when she's been on that list before and virtually everyone would put her there. The same goes for Anne Mercier and Emily Baecher. I didn't want to repeat what most followers of the division already know. That would be dull and limit exposure for the division.

As for Courtney, I like her game and her attitude. She won the Callahan last year. I don't think you can say much more when you've already won the Callahan. That said, I do sincerely believe that there are several outstanding women who deserve to be on the Starting Seven as much as she does (if not more).

FYI, I did watch BD at Nationals last year (vs. Texas, UW, UCSB and Oregon), and we (USC) played them at Centex this year. I've also gotten the chance to see every top team in the division this year (except Michigan). No disrespect to Wisconsin meant as I think they are one of the top three teams in the division.