Glide Takes 2nd (and 3rd!?) at CHEO 2013

Photo by Purazar Bhadha.

Glide took part in the annual CHEO BBQ tournament on June 8th, 2013. He's a write up of how the day went:

CHEO started out -and ended-with- the same theme, fun (after all, its all about the kids!) However, in between there was some competitive juices waiting to be uncorked! 

First thing in the morning we were matched up with Lunch Box, a mostly-ex BFC/Comp roster that have the skill and experience to take down any team on a good day. Lucky for us, we came out firing right from the first pull and didn't ease off the gas. Lunch Box calls a timeout after Glide goes up 4-1 but not much changed after that as Glide takes it to (short) half of 7-2. A little wind here and there, some points traded but the score reflects our composure with the disc, hustle on D and execution on O as the game ends with a 13-4 scoreline.

Next up was Bigfish (split squad) and they came out hungry! We traded points for most of the first half, with Glide managing to dig deep and take a 7-5 lead at the break, but this was certainly not Glide ultimate. Bigfish on the other hand seemed to be firing on all cylinders! The 2nd half tells a different story as we reel off 4 in a row to start and cruise to a comfortable 13-7 win. Credit Bigfish for never giving up in that game...it was one of the more exciting (and spirited) games that we played all day!

Final game before lunch/re-seed was against a heavy PHX roster with some Stella ladies peppered in, Subtlety & Nuanced Sportsmanship. Just before the first pull, 3 more PHX fellas showed up from a previous scrimmage/practice...this was getting better as the day went on! While we rolled our typical lines, it seemed the other team was playing mostly with the PHX men, underutilizing the women on the team. Half came much later than it should have as the points were longer and more drawn out (good O and D from both teams with more calls than we had seen from the previous 2 games helping up the time). Glide remains focused and takes the half 7-5 nonetheless, however with a short 2nd half (20 mins or so) creeping up, some mental mistakes take their toll and the horn goes with the other team up 9-8 and that's the game (point not played out). Hard luck!

Food, water and some stretching and we're back playing against a savvy verteran team -Seniors DISCount- who've been around the block more times than Spiderman. Discipline was their calling card and they broke/reversed the field every opportunity they got leaving our D in a bad spot and often times helpless. Well-timed strikes off of some breaks allowed them to get some easy points as they really didn't have the legs to keep up with us... but good on them for exploiting a weakness that we need to work on collectively. There was some great play from both teams and it was a nail-biter until the end however just like the previous game, we were on the wrong end of a 1pt score when the horn went....Glide goes down in the semis 8-9.

That was supposed to be the end of our day. However, our previous opponents decided that was also the end of their day and didn't want to face the PHX heavy roster so they gave us the win from the previous game and we moved on to face  Subtlety & Nuanced Sportsmanship once more. A little wind, some light rain and some unfocused minds led to a poor first half from the Glide crew...down 4-7. We came out with some more energy and scored the first break, but didn't keep the intensity and ultimately fell behind losing a game we would have preferred to take another crack at, 8-13. Fun tournament regardless and some lessons to carry forward into Comedy of Errors and beyond...