Minneapolis Ultimate/ Buddha Boys

I still remember that first Sunday of Buddha. We played close to the U of M St. Paul campus on the corner of Cleveland and Larpenter. Everyone was very welcoming. Guys I remember being there were Pete, Tom Suk, Wade Bove, Dan Turlow, Dave Boardman,Marty Bakko, Fritz Bussman, Rocket, Mike Pfaffinger, Eric Enge (the last time I will play with him until 2001), Dan Rydel, Derrick Wallace. There may have been a few others. The only play I remember was a come from behind D on Dave Boardman. I knew he was by far the best player out there, so that earned me some respect from the players out there. Little did I know how hard it would be to get another one of those.
So from then on, I still went to sticky, but was now a Buddha Boy. Practice with them was great. Everyone had skill that I wanted to possess. I learned from them all in some respect. I am not a tall guy, so I knew speed and scrappiness will be my best ally. Fritz was the epitome of this, so I watched and learned from him. Tom had quick pivots and fakes that I tried to glean. And in my back pocket was the mean angry intensity that my father had given me.
After one of the practices, we all went out for pizza. The talk was about going to the Chicago tournament in a couple of weeks. How we were all getting there and such. I was nervous. Chicago? I had never really ventured out of the state really on my own. My family didn't travel and this made me quite uneasy. Dan Rydel asked me if I was going and with whom. I didn't know either answer. Finally, Chris Hickman stepped in and said he was going to drive and I could go with him. I reluctantly said that I would. (this really was the beginning of a great thirst for travel that will hopefully never be quenched)
I met up with Chris at his house. He was also taking a couple of guys I had never met. One Grady Hannah and his friend Tim. It was an interesting trip. First we dropped Grady and tim off at some mall. They said they would find their way from there. Then we proceeded to lose our way and cirle Chicago on the loop about 4 times. I vaguely remember the tournament itself. I do recall being down to Lemon which was the current team from the Cincy area, I believe. We had a great comeback and won. They were a "Nationals caliber team" apparently. I really had no idea who they were as this was my first real tournament. We were in the B pool, I think. There was this elite pool which Pete took me over to see. We watched a team from san francisco called Double Happiness. I watched how these guys threw and caught. I realized we had a long long way to go to get to this level. It was like college to pro level.
Later in the year we went to Madison to play sectionals. My first. We got to the finals and lost to Madison. They had Ron Kubalanza, Chipper, rubis,BenJammin,( who in the semis after beating carleton, walked into their post-game circle, spiked a disc, flipped them all off and said "Fuck you, Carleton") and a very young Will Henry. This was the team we would battle with (right now in anonymity as neither team would be close to a nationals elite team)for years to come.
Regionals was in Minneapolis Blaine fields this year. I could not understand why our team was so convinced that we had no shot at winning. We had our final practice on silver lake road which we mostly goofed around. I could not fathom why we weren't preparing to win at the time. I really only remember one game. It was against the indiana team. They are a very chippy and unspirited team (meaning anything and everything to win) one guy even broke Dave B's hand and contested the foul! Anyway, this was the end of 1995 Minneapolis ultimate. Z ended up winning the region for the like 10th year in a row. Lemon took second. Both teams would go to this mythical Nationals tournament where teams like double happiness and DoG will play(teams I watched in the elite pool at the chicago tournament.)