3rd Annual CUA Alumni Game

When it comes to club sports programs I believe it’s essential to leave things better than they were when you arrived. It’s sort of like camping… in a way. When you get to a program things generally function fine with or without you, but if you find yourself falling into some sort of leadership role it’s important to lend structure and discipline (well, as much as you can muster!) to the program to help it thrive. Last May was the final chapter in my 3 years on the Catholic University Ultimate team, and I hope I was able to do just that.

One of the things I am proud to be a part of is the annual alumni game. We started the game 3 years ago and just recently battled it out in our 3rd contest. For me, the alumni game was created as a chance to reconnect with the roots of the team through friendly competition, bring the alumni back together to relive old glory, and potentially to enjoy a bacon explosion (or two).

At this point in time however, the alumni are dealing with a serious losing streak. The alums haven’t won in, like, forever (that’s 3 years now if you’re counting…).

This year was my first shot to cleat up for the alums and I was sure things were going to be different. We graduated a solid class last year, and really looked to take it to an inexperienced student team (relatively, of course). Going into the match up we were pleased to hear that we had a strong line of returners, but we were short a few of our powerhouse players. Even without those guys we figured a win was in the cards this year.

The game started like any alumni game would... Easy drops by the alums had the Habit capitalizing on good field position, and old legs (and some younger-old legs) had some problems adjusting to the game’s speed. I think the older legs began to warm-up a bit with Habit up 3-1, and we started to play ourselves back into the game. The bad guys had more speed/athleticism at the top end, but the throws and decision-making weren’t up to par with alumni poaching, giving us several easy d's (mostly by our women) and allowing us to convert a few easy scores of our own. After weathering the early storm of unfamiliarity with each other the alums managed to take half 8-7. Our spirits were high and, despite only having a 1-point lead, we knew we were headed for victory.

Of the two halves, the second was much more dynamic. A huge layout d by the alums, some great deep cuts by Habit, alumni toeing the lines for scores, and solid offense on both sides kept the score close going late in the game.

As an interruption of the story, I thought I would just quickly mention my favorite moment from the game… Knowing this is a friendly game between the “wily” alums and the energetic youth of CUA Ultimate, I hope you can forgive me… As my position as an alum requires, I feel there has to be a certain level of craftiness to my game. It came midway through the second half when I set up for a reset pass. Jake was covering me and had a close eye on my every move. Jim had the disc on the sideline we were forced to and I was feeling a little lazy with my reset position. Instead of cutting for the disc an idea popped into my head, “great throw Jim!” was the first thing I could think of to say as I took a few steps upfield to fake a set up for the next reset. Jake immediately took 5-8 steps back towards his endzone to make sure I wouldn’t make a cut upfield. His reaction sprung me for an easy reset, as Jim had not thrown the disc and Jake had turned completely away from me, and opened up the break side of the field for an easy throw and catch for the score. Yeah, I feel a little guilty, but it was unbelievably effective…

Close after, Habit brought the score even again and we were tied at 14s. A tie there forced overtime and a win by 2 or first to 17 rule came into effect. After battling through another point the kids finally overpowered the alums and scored a pair of points to end the game at 17-15.

I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this was the best alumni game yet, and I really enjoyed losing to the future of Catholic Ultimate (well, as much as anyone can enjoy losing). This team seems to be on the cusp of something great, and I think the current regime may be able to take that next step. With Dave at the reigns of the team they’ve been able to settle into even more discipline and structure than I was able to manage, and it sounds like progress is still being made on that front.

The biggest news of the year was the success of the sectionals tournament. The men’s team had the pleasure of playing with one of the Section’s rookies of the year, Paul, and the women’s team played their first ever tournament! That’s exciting news for CUA, as it’s been a long time coming. It was one of my dreams while I was a part of the program, and I was so happy to hear that Dave and the Jess pair made it happen. I wish the Bad Habit men and women the best of luck in the future, and I hope they continue building the CUA Ultimate system for the future.

At the same time, it’s good to know that CUA will be passing along some great new talent to the alums in the future, and you know we won’t be winless forever!