Nationals 1998

To be sure, we had very little idea of what to expect from nationals. We had no experience in the format and no experience in where to stay. Most of us flew in together and rented cars to get from Tampa to Sarasota. I recall seeing tons of frisbee players in the Tampa airport. Either that or there was a gypsie convention going on. We had booked our stay in the official hotel which was on some little harbor inlet. I stayed with Dan Ruen Rusta and Marty (along with his Reo speedwagon discs). We were excited for our first game against Furious George. We had never played them or seen them before just like most of the teams here. It is just incredible the first time I stepped onto the polo grounds. It was as flat as I have ever seen. The grass was about a quarter inch thick absolutely even. We warm up, listen to the national anthem in the growing humidity of the Florida morning and get ready to play. The game was close all the way. I can recall getting a d on one of the handlers to give us the chance to win down the stretch, but we turned it over. Seng, I believe got another point block, but again we were thwarted (I think Paco was stalled at their 20). We lost a close one. Our next game was against the Florida Refugees. They hadn't heard of us and thought they would run over us. Wrong. We outran and out played them. This was a team that made some terrible calls. I had a ho D block from behind that caught nothing but disc and a foul was called.....WHAT! He stuck by it and actually was mad that I questioned him. He never got the disc again. It never was close. I know we beat Philly Rage (with andre strausmanus), red tide again (with Kenny Dobbyns....not playing his most intense frisbee) That game sticks out, one because of the legend of kenny, and two because of their strategy. It was a very windy upwind downwind game. They would move it to midfield going downwind and throw a blade/hammer to the endzone to a woefully far behind Dobbyns. Then he (with me on him) would lay it out about 10 yards away and thunk on the ground. Then they would try to stop us from going upwind. Paco had his forehand humming. It literally was cutting through the big wind going about 50 yards easy absolutley flat. After about 4 of these resulting in goals they called out. "Make that guy throw his backhand....no forehand." Now, anyone who knows Paco well would chuckle a bit here because his backhand will go another 20 yards with good shape. They had no chance. I did get to D Kenny from behind in the game (and got a picture of it to prove). As usual, our love connection crew sang a rousing cheer for them at the end of the game (Red Tide sung to Rawhide). They loved it.