I thought I would wipe the dust off the old blog before the season gets underway. Boiler Breakaway II (http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/11432) is coming up and Reaper is looking young and quite dangerous this year. Everyone knows we graduated some serious studs that the team was built around last year; resulting in some impressive noise during conference and regionals. Thankfully the returners did an excellent job getting word out about the team and recruiting some young guys who seem to have some serious potential. The question now is: Are we going to achieve that potential? First and foremost I want to give you new guys a rundown of what exactly you are getting yourself into if you stick with this team and a shortened version of how this team came to be.
History (keeping this as short as I can).
Reaper is a team that was built from barefoot 4pm pick up ultimate mon-fri in the south quad. A group of friends who loved to throw a plastic wham-o around and play anything from 2v2 on a bad day to 10 v 10 on a good day. Pick up has it's perks but a few of us were interested in pursuing something more. I talked with some of the guys and asked some friends from other schools how they got teams going and even had some people I didn't even know contact me with tips for getting a program started. Once we became an official EIU club we realized that the school didn't and still doesn't really help us with much at all, especially compared to other schools. We don't get any funding (which is unheard of) or have any real options when it comes to reserving field space especially in the winter. Thankfully we have the resources to host a tournament but that's about it when it comes to EIU's support of our team. Next up we started to practice playing together under the team name DISCovery (Thank William Bearman for that one) while looking back it may be the most embarrasing team name ever but we did start to discover what it was like to be a team.
None of us had any high school ultimate experience and going into our first tournament - we didn't know how to use a stack, hold a force, or basically any of the rules. We did however learn that ultimate is more than just a win-at-all-costs game, it's a sport with a sense of spirit and boasts a community full of incredible people who are fun to play against when there is mutual respect and understanding (spirit) between teams. Every game our opponents generally were respectful to the fact that we were new to the sport and provided tips and understanding, a few players even picked up with our team and started to show us some basics. We also found out that while we needed to learn the rules and fundamentals of the game, our team had some serious potential. Easter weekend 2007 at ISU's tournament we went 0-6 with zero knowledge of how to play college ultimate and yet I don't think we lost a single game by more than 3 points. From here many of us became hooked. We would go on to win our first games at the next tournament and win a few more at the next and so on. At the same time we learned how to play "real" ultimate from whatever resources we could find. Looking back I taught a bunch of stuff that I had never seen or actually did before from online ultimate frisbee resources and vague write-ups from some of my friends playing on other college teams with established programs. We were a bunch of scrappers that learned from our losses and played together A LOT! After dropping the awful DISCovery name we became Reaper in the spring of the following year. We traded in our cotton t-shirts and track shorts for some patagucci and five gear and started to notch some wins regularly while competing vs mid-level teams. Our 2nd year as a team we attended sectionals for the first time (WRITE UP -> http://reaperultimate.blogspot.com/2010/04/so-this-past-weekend-14-handsome.html) and earned some wins vs solid teams, falling short of our regional goal by only 2 spots after breaking seed. The next year the college format changed and Reaper made it to the final of the first ever Illinois Conference (WRITE UP -> http://reaperultimate.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html) falling short in the final to U of I. We would go on to take 9th out of 16 at our first ever Regionals. Last year we would improve on that and absolutely smash our seed finishing 4th out of 16 with the biggest upset in our program's history, a quarterfinals win against Illinois. (WRITE UP -> http://reaperultimate.blogspot.com/2012/05/great-lakes-regionals-2012.html).
Reaper right now.
A new season has arrived. The fall is all about learning the fundamentals and how to play ultimate both as an individual and as a team with the team aspect being most important. Our goals right now consist of.
1.) Having fun. -- #1 priority, gotta love what you do.
2.) Learning how to play together.
3.) Throwing/watching/reading about/and playing ultimate as much as possible.
Notice that winning is not a goal. Our record doesn't mean anything in the fall. This year everyone will be playing a ton and getting experience vs strong teams. Conference and IF we make it, Great Lakes Regionals, are in the Spring and we will worry about making goals for those tournaments later.
Reaper is a group of guys that are crazy enough about a sport that we have devoted an absurd amount of time, blood, sweat, hangovers, money, tears etc etc etc into something that will last. If you get anything out of reading this I hope it's this: The team is what we make of it. If you want to become a good ultimate player you can do that. If you want to be a part of a great group of guys that have a ton of fun both on and off the field then you can get that out of this as well. What you are willing to put into this team is what you are going to get out of it. I have met some of the most important people in my life playing ultimate on this team and I wouldn't have it any other way. The frustrations of a bad practice, the blurry nights playing 28, the hard work of running a tournament, Kid Cudi playing non-stop, the adventures of traveling to far away tournaments, the pain of losing a close game, and the joy of winning on universe point. This is what you are signing up for. The pride of putting on the uniform stepping onto the field with your teammates and showing why Reaper has done nothing but get better since our inception.
I have the honor of officially coaching the team this year and while I cannot come to most practices I hope to give as much time as I can and help guide this years team to whatever goals we establish during the course of the season. Right now guys it's all about learning, playing, and not taking anything too seriously. I hope the veterans are actually throwing some respectable parties! Work on that chemistry off the field as well muhaha. Prioritize your schoolwork and be organized enough to get it done during the 22 other hours in a day. Rage as hard as Hinze if you want but don't use that as an excuse to not show up at 4pm for a practice. Continue throwing as much as possible outside of practice, it seems like a lot of guys have been doing this and I can't wait to see the results come game-time.
Fear the Reaper
~James
P.S - But feel free to fear the alum team, we are coming for you guys in the spring. Ultimate, frunk, drinking, 28, pants off dance offs, Russian Roulette. Pick your poison!
F.B.G.M
Eastern Illinois Ultimate Frisbee Club - Team Reaper
