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Hey Vots,
Who's Alfonso Acosta? Emeka Koren? Chris Coco? Damien Scott?
Alfie is the guy who called me out of the blue back in 1996 to see if I wanted to come to a tournament with some Rice guys before I had even set foot on campus. Alfie and Emeka had gone through every single incoming freshman's info sheet and called everyone who so much as mentioned Ultimate. Emeka (a five foot five spitting image of Bob Marley, incidentally) even stopped by people's houses on a cross country trip, scaring the crap out of many a parent. Alfie drove us up to Dallas, showed us the art of crashing on sofas for weekend-long tournaments. Coco showed up during orientation and stopped by my room every day to "go out and toss" - he kept this up all semester long until I could throw an upwind flick like him. Damien (despite being easily the best player I have ever seen), took time out to attend B-team practices and talk about zone, or perhaps more importantly, demonstrate that yes Virginia, a disc CAN hold five beers.
I bring this up not to get everyone interested in the fascinating history of Rice Ultimate, but to point out that here I am twelve years later, and if I think at all about why I play or what Ultimate means, those are the guys that pop to mind. Were they recruiting? Of course. But they were recruiting to the team with open arms, welcoming new players, teaching people the basics of both playing and partying, and more than anything, going out of their way to make strangers feel welcome. And it *worked* - people not only came out to play and got better, they stuck around.
The clinics this Tuesday and Thursday are a fantastic chance to do the same for new players in the local scene. You can be somebody's Alfie, Emeka, Chris or Damien; you can be the person that someone will always remember as "that guy who took me aside to show me how to cut, how to throw a forehand, how to heckle." It's a great chance to share some of the basics and to get people hooked on the game - Ultimate is in a sense an implicitly great "product," but it becomes that much better when people make a conscious effort to welcome others into the fold.
So please, come out to clincs! Encourage players new and old to make it out. If you're new, just grab somebody and say "show me how to X." If you're old, show someone how to do X. If you're somewhere in between, do both! If nothing else, it's a chance to get those legs (or in Dave Abdoo's case, mouths) running for the upcoming league.
We've got a good scene; we all know it can be better. Let's make it so.
See y'all on the fields,
a kinder and gentler nate (the lesser)
Who's Alfonso Acosta? Emeka Koren? Chris Coco? Damien Scott?
Alfie is the guy who called me out of the blue back in 1996 to see if I wanted to come to a tournament with some Rice guys before I had even set foot on campus. Alfie and Emeka had gone through every single incoming freshman's info sheet and called everyone who so much as mentioned Ultimate. Emeka (a five foot five spitting image of Bob Marley, incidentally) even stopped by people's houses on a cross country trip, scaring the crap out of many a parent. Alfie drove us up to Dallas, showed us the art of crashing on sofas for weekend-long tournaments. Coco showed up during orientation and stopped by my room every day to "go out and toss" - he kept this up all semester long until I could throw an upwind flick like him. Damien (despite being easily the best player I have ever seen), took time out to attend B-team practices and talk about zone, or perhaps more importantly, demonstrate that yes Virginia, a disc CAN hold five beers.
I bring this up not to get everyone interested in the fascinating history of Rice Ultimate, but to point out that here I am twelve years later, and if I think at all about why I play or what Ultimate means, those are the guys that pop to mind. Were they recruiting? Of course. But they were recruiting to the team with open arms, welcoming new players, teaching people the basics of both playing and partying, and more than anything, going out of their way to make strangers feel welcome. And it *worked* - people not only came out to play and got better, they stuck around.
The clinics this Tuesday and Thursday are a fantastic chance to do the same for new players in the local scene. You can be somebody's Alfie, Emeka, Chris or Damien; you can be the person that someone will always remember as "that guy who took me aside to show me how to cut, how to throw a forehand, how to heckle." It's a great chance to share some of the basics and to get people hooked on the game - Ultimate is in a sense an implicitly great "product," but it becomes that much better when people make a conscious effort to welcome others into the fold.
So please, come out to clincs! Encourage players new and old to make it out. If you're new, just grab somebody and say "show me how to X." If you're old, show someone how to do X. If you're somewhere in between, do both! If nothing else, it's a chance to get those legs (or in Dave Abdoo's case, mouths) running for the upcoming league.
We've got a good scene; we all know it can be better. Let's make it so.
See y'all on the fields,
a kinder and gentler nate (the lesser)
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