"We like to chase plastic" - Burnaby North Seniors Ultimate Team  Grade 11 is a year of discovery. I joined my first-ever sports team, and it was one of the best decisions that I have made in high school. Here is a quick introduction to ultimate frisbee (adapted from Wikipedia): Ultimate, also known as ultimate frisbee, is a limited-contact team field sport played with a flying disc. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone. Other basic rules are that players must not take steps while holding the disc, and interceptions, incomplete passes, and passes out of bounds are turnovers. Rain, wind, or occasionally other adversities can make for a testing match with rapid turnovers. A prominent feature of the modern game is the "lay out," a horizontal dive to catch or block the disc. I was very lucky to pass the try-outs. I was beyond thankful to get a call-back to the second try-out, and more than surprised when I got in! From then we had practices every Tuesday and Friday, rain or shine, and we started training for the season. So what is Spring Reign? Spring Reign is a 2-day for-fun tournament in Bellingham, Washington, USA. I KNOW RIGHT IT IS IN USA LIKE ACROSS THE BORDER LIKE NOT IN CANADA LIKE HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!?!?! On Saturday we got up bright and early, and we went on a far, far away field trip to our tournament location. It was rainy and cold when we arrived, but the sun soon came out, and so we stripped down from winter coats to tank tops. I got to admit, I was not the best player on the team, so for the entire first game I was trying not to make our teammates' lives miserable. The first game was actually against Vancouver's Eric Hamber Secondary, a team also from BC. I was not able to touch the disk for the entire game, but I did manage to chat with Hamber's girls, and ask about their trip across the border. I was actually given a spirit award in the end! I was elated because it was my first ever spirit award!  My dad was able to catch this gummy smile of mine with my spirit prize: a Canadian flag! Out of amazement, I actually managed to touch the disk in game two against Richmond's Steveston London Secondary (BC REPRESENT!) and I caught the last point IN THE ENDZONE!!!!!!!!!! LIKE WHOAAAAA THIS WAS RARE! EVEN I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!  The blurry success! We had another high-spirited game against an US team, Ingraham. It was our last game of the day and, although we were tired, we played the game with a great amount of energy! We had a incredible time with Ingraham and we actually played a 2-hour spirit game after our match! We all agreed that the spirit game, Ninja, was more exhausting than our ultimate games!  Here are some of the most beautiful people in the world...  ...and here we are again... XD We were so hungry we could eat herds of cows. After a few slices of pizza, we decided to quickly head towards our hotel, and get a BIG meal at some other place. Upon arrival at the hotel, we discovered that, oops, there weren't enough rooms for all of us to stay! Coach Rob, Mr. Gabriel, and Coach Marta spent a while making phone calls and tried to find a hotel that could fit 20 of us sweaty teenagers. At last, they did it! Despite the wait, we are so beyond thankful for everything our coaches do for us! We had a filling dinner and we couldn't wait to sleep in our new hotel!  Sunday came and we all looked forward to put our cleats back on! We headed to the fields at about 10am, where we played our first game against American team, Nathan Hale. As spirited as anyone could get, this team was dressed in hula skirts! We played Richmond, BC's McRoberts immediately afterwards, and finished the day with a win!  In the process of handing out spirit awards!  End-of-game high fives! As the tournament came to an end, we were exhilarated, fatigued, and undeniably hungry. What an amazing weekend! Our team had bonded, became more unified, and gained more confidence in playing ultimate. We all headed back home with more desire to throw disks than ever before! Ariel Jingjing Cao
~ muah <3 ~ |
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