here ya go little orphan annie

At 11:09 PM , LittleOrphanAnnie44 said...
Lemme help you with the Ultimate-related commentary.
Please post (or several posts) on the difference in Sockeye then (mid to late 90s) to now (the '04-'06 teams).

i moved to seattle in dec/jan 96/97 with a plan to put my extensive educational background (9 years of college and a ba in history) to work in the booming seattle economy.

seattle was coming off it's finals appearance, i was coming off a good showing w/ atlanta's chain lightning...

my tryout was going OK, and i 1st reinjured a bad hamstring from the fall, nursed it back, played well on the winning side of a kleinmann split squad sockeye team, then pulled my groin 3 weeks before world.

conceiveably, like the other 'tryouts' i could have made the worlds squad, but i'd already committed to all parties to playing w/ atlanta at worlds.

sockeye went on to win the famed uglitimate game, chain was acceptable,and i played well, but i was cut, the thursday before the flight to chicago. i'd already paid for the ticket. it was a bummer. sockeye went to it's 3rd final

the next year, i vaguely attempted to try out. i think i was cut by email this time. sockeye was starting to attrit. a number of the old guard had faded. if i recall correctly. furious appeared to tank a game to make the dirt road easier, and sockeye fell at regionals.

i went to that 98 sandiego nationals as a spectator, a last minute decision to walk out the office door and catch a bus to the airport, and fly southwest to sandi. as i recall, i picked up a car ride w/ some frisbee tossers in the airport, and spent the weekend, spectating, drinking and couch surfing.

oh for the days of high income.

the next years 99, 2000 were relatively low years for seattle. still competetive on the national scene, the strength of the region proved too much.

the spring of 2001 found me again mired in ski season, w/ no real desire to 'properly' try out.

a dissapointing spring led to the collapse of the team's leadership structure in early summer. the arrival of john 'the kid' hammond and some good will i'd somehow put together by playing w/ a group of more talented players in the past two years (will henry, mike caldwell, dylan) and some occasional pickup success w/ various sub-sockeye groups (tribe, w/ chris page, D'arcy, Barney Ahouse, Gary Brady) combined to position me as the proverbial player to be named later.

My first season w/ sockeye almost ended as quickly as it began. Playing 500 w/ MC before the first Kleinmann game, i wrenched my groin. Depressed and frustrated, i gave serious consideration to getting in my car and driving home.

But i wisely reconsidered, made myself as valuable as possible as i could as a sideline player. High quality health insurance proved a role, as it turned out i had not a groin pull, but a dislocated pubic symphisis. They video'd me, and i may to this day be a display dvd in PT schools around the country... I had also torn my pcl l in the previous year, but rigorous (3 hours a day, no kiddin) pt, and some luck got me back on the field after the groin thing in a couple weeks. My first season, as slow as i've ever played in my life, my role was zone marker...

we had a poor showing at nationals, but a timely mcl strain allowed me to skip tryouts, and ski all spring... and i came back to be an effective, albeit limited player....

i had already commited to grad school, and it seemed like i would miss worlds. but somehow fates conspired, and despite missing the 3 weeks of practice prior to hawaii, i found myself on a plane to hawaii.

without my credit card. another story.

at worlds, i played, again, in a role, but had almost no turnovers, and in the bronze medal game, had a great line (like 3 goals and 3 assists in 7 points, no To's), and combined w/ steady play all weekend, the team kept me as mascot, and dependable reserve, despite the fact that i was commuting 7 hours for practice.

the next year, my final year, i finished grad school, and lived off loans and the last of my retirement fund. somehow i was promoted to subcaller, probably based on the assumtion (correct) that i would not over play myself compared to other players.

we were all dissapointed w/ our 5/6 finish, but my mom enjoyed the game:

highlight: catching the goal at half in our pool play victory over ring, there's a great shot of augie chucking me in the back as i catch the goal. my mom saw the pic, and emailed, 'look, i think that was a foul'...

by then, i was an impoverished substitute teacher living in ski town oregon, and the abillity to even try out on the new look sockeye was out of the question...

the rest is history. voting the weakest link off survivor island, sockeye rose to greatness