So last weekend was the Coupe de l'Est (Eastern Cup), hosted by the Strasbourg Ultimate club, Sesquidistus. The Besançon club brought two teams for a total of 15 people on Saturday and 17 on Sunday (Lois and Jérémy had to work on Saturday). We made the three-hour drive bright and early on Saturday morning. At one point the car's thermometer read -16 degrees Celsuis (3 degrees Fahrenheit)! We made a pit stop a little over halfway there and stayed outside only long enough to gobble down the croissants that Romain's car brought for everyone. Not my typical pre-tournament food, but yummy.
The tournament was held in a brand-new gym in Strasbourg's equivalent of Planoise (similar neighborhood, but the buildings weren't quite so tall). There were 11 teams there, all from the Eastern region of France: Nancy, Metz, Vesoul, Voujeaucourt, Dijon, Pontarlier, 2 teams from Strasbourg, our two teams, and one more I can't remember.I played on the second team and we ended up 10th. Our two games on Saturday were both frustrating... a lot of the people on the second team are very new to Ultimate and are still working on the fundamentals. And those of us who have been playing for a while haven't played together as a team very much yet. In practice we usually mix up the teams during the scrimmage (because the first team playing against the second team all the time wouldn't help either team improve) and the second team is composed of different players based on who goes to which tournament.
It didn't help either that our two Saturday games were against formidable opponents, both clearly above our level of play. I was also a bit disappointed to only have two 25-minute games. I'm used to outdoor Ultimate tournaments where we play four or five 90-minute games a day; 100 minutes of Ultimate for a whole tournament day doesn't seem like nearly enough to me. But games on Sunday went much better (a loss to Vesoul and then a win against the Ultimate Troopers, finally). The first team finished third after losing a heart-breaking semifinal against our long-time rivals Everest (who come from Pontarlier and only play indoor; their signature throws are the kind of knifey-blades that are absurd outdoors but work inside where there isn't any wind). In the picture below the second team is warming up before one of our matches... you can see our fancy new jerseys!
Just like the other tournaments I've been to with the team I was really pleased with the whole experience -- the atmosphere was very convivial and the tournament was well-run. Having everyone in an enclosed space like a gym encourages the teams to interact off the court, and at this particular tournament all of the teams are from the same region. Most of the players knew each other and often people have played for more than one team because they moved from one city to another within the region.
I got to see a couple of players from Dijon, including Laurent, who I hadn't seen since 2009 (he recently moved back to Dijon from Spain with his Spanish wife). I also met an American guy named Aaron who went to Rice and is now doing his PhD in Metz. He played Ultimate at Metz and actually knows someone I went to high school with who also played Ultimate at Rice, Neil Narayan. Small world! (In this pic Aaron is on defense and I have the disc). On Saturday night our whole team slept at the apartment of some of the Strasbourg players (slumber party-style, with all 15 of us on couches or the floor of the living room and kitchen). For dinner on Saturday the Sesquis had rented out most of a restaurant called Caveau Restaurant Gurtlerhof, which faces the Strasbourg cathedral and happens to be one of the restaurants where I ate with the other Wake students when the Dijon program took a weekend trip there at the end of our semester. The food was pretty good and it was fun to have everyone together in one place.
Overall a highly successful weekend, yet again! I almost forgot, the first team beat us (the second team) by 1/2 a point for the Spirit award. The way the award works is each team fills out a form after the match, grading their opponent on knowledge of the rules, comportment during the match, good spirit, etc and the team with the highest average at the end of the weekend wins the Spirit award. Last weekend the Besançon team (a mix of first and second team players) won the Spirit award at Tsunamixte, a co-ed tournament in Nemours. Here Gaël and Lois are proudly displaying the disc and trophy the first tea, won for best Spirit.The next tournament for the second team is the phrase retour (round two) of the regional competition, which is being held in Vesoul on February 25 and 26.
