Any moment now, I'm expecting to get an email from Richard Dana informing me on whether or not I made Team USA for U23 Worlds. It's been a long month in what in reality is the shortest month of the year. East coast tryouts were held February 2-3 in Orlando, Florida, and here I am, still anxiously (read: ANXIOUSLY) awaiting to hear back from the coaches on their final decisions.
Regardless of whether I made the team or not, the true reward of this whole experience is the fact that because I was invited to tryouts, I had the opportunity to meet amazing players and people my age. I want to review my experience at tryouts to share with you why I love ultimate so much, and why that will never change.
Understand this: There are around 80 women across the states from the original 500+ applicants trying out for approximately 35 spots on the women's and mixed U.S. team collectively. This means you have to convince the coaches that somehow, you are a better fit for the team than about 50% of the tryouts. I don't know about you, but I would rather flip a coin and guess whether it lands on heads or tails.
Even with this crazy amount of pressure and unfavorable odds, the atmosphere of the tryouts was not one of overly aggressive attitudes and putting down the opposition. It was instead an atmosphere of absolute positivity, real teamwork, and bringing up the players (not opponents) around you. The tryouts felt more like a summer camp: a really, really intense 2-day summer camp.
The weekend's activities consisted of warm-ups, drills that focused on isolating particular aspects of the game, a combine, and scrimmaging (3v3, 5v5, 7v7) from 10am-6pm on Saturday and 9am-3pm on Sunday. Throughout all of these tiring activities, the energy from the players never faltered. We were loud on the sidelines, readily gave and received positive feedback, and cheered for one another. High fives were given aplenty.
In addition, no one hesitated to point out when someone did something awesome, even if it meant giving the spotlight to another player in front of the coaches. Everyone freely raved about each other's strengths and successes: "Edith, you are so FAST!" "Julia, can you jump over the fence again?!" (That girl has UPs) "Sweet grab!" "Sick fucking D, Claire!!".
On top of the endless positive energy and attitudes, the level of play was unreal. After that weekend, even though the hours of play were similar to a regular tournament, my body felt like it had been through 3 tournaments, simply because it was a concentrated higher level of play for an extended period of time. There was no such thing as an "easy match-up" for a point. Every match-up proved to be difficult, and everyone's body and mind was working to be at its best the entire day for both days. I was sore from top to bottom until Thursday at best.
It was so inspiring to watch and play with so many talented players in my generation. To know that there are so many amazing people around the U.S. that truly know the game of Ultimate, meaning they value the highest level of play AND Spirit of the Game, is something that needs to be recognized and emulated by everyone. Knowing that these players went back to their respective hometowns is reassurance that this can happen.
By the end of the weekend, I knew all of the other 35 women's names and felt the strong desire to be all of their teammates. In a way, we all had become teammates, if only for a fleeting weekend. We went back home, high from Ultimate, and immediately began to find each other on Facebook: Social media's representation of the connection we all now possessed between one another.
Statistically speaking, I made 40 new friends on Facebook as a result of the U23 tryouts. However, the most important measurement, my enduring higher quality of life gained from that weekend, shows that I am truly a winner.
