Ella and Francisco

On March 18 and 19 I participated in my sixth CenTex (Central Texas) Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Teams from all over the region and country come to Austin to compete, including my team ”Riverside”. This tournament signals the start of the Ultimate Frisbee season that ends sometime in September with the championship series. CenTex usually catches advanced players like myself by surprise. And by “advanced”, I mean “aged”, and the “surprise” is the lack of conditioning and stamina that comes from not training over the winter. Although one could argue that this should not come as a surprise year after year.

Despite the windy and rainy day I showed up early to join my equally ”advanced” teammates. Many of the teams we play against are from colleges or consist of young athletes in their twenties. Riversiders tend to be older with the exception of the son of our captain who is just entering high school but plays like he’s in his twenties. Woody’s young age skews our median to somewhere around 34, which gives you an idea of how much older the rest of us are. During games our sideline becomes a collection of grumpy old guys rooting around their bags for Ibuprofen and sticky IcyHot tubes.

The games take place at the University of Texas’ intramural fields, probably the best fields in Texas. Because of the rain we had to relocate to fields in San Antonio on the second day. We did well this year, winning  a couple of games against teams we don’t usually beat.

Deborah Fulton, Greg’s wife, took some fabulous action photos of our games using her expensive-looking camera and lense. Her amazing photography proves that technology can triumph over slow and ailing reality. Thanks Deborah!

 http://www.pbase.com/skibaby/riverside

I included a few photos below from past tournaments to give you a taste of the fun and camaraderie we enjoy on the field and in the parking lot after the games. The parking lot is where we embellish the day’s athletic moments over beer and chips and enjoy the company of our good friends in Austin. Normally our team is the last to leave a tournament. As we pick up our chairs and coolers and bottles and get into our cars, you can always hear our parting call: “We won the parking lot again this year! Yeah Riverside!”.

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