Although it was believed that I started before July 2006, it was not until the summer after my freshman year that I first played at an organized practice in South Bend.

Once back in Ann Arbor for the fall, I began to attend ultimate practice. Ann Arbor ultimate was the furthest thing from college frisbee at the time. Almost all the college eligible players were grad students. I believe in spring 1996, there were about 8 people who went to regionals, but I do not know. And anyone else who came to practice was a local who wanted to use the university fields, but not develop any team.

So the scene was not the best for a college team. Luckily, we had a couple of people/things in our favor.

1. Big Ten school means grad students (in your face small liberal arts colleges). I mean 2 in particular. --Jon Bakija. This guy did everything, organizing the fields, starting intramurals, organizing tourneys.... And he was a grad student with college eligibility He is not someone I would say was a great athlete, but he could run forever, he could throw, he loved to stretch, and he did all the behind the scenes work. --Brian Lane. I have no idea who was in charge before this ex-Yale B teamer arrived, but when I got there, Brian was in charge. This was a mistake for all the club guys who wanted the university's time. He got us interested in catching goals and laying out.

2. Non-eligible players who were interested in helping out youngsters. This is absolutely huge if you are starting a team. Dave Moran, Terry Cussen, Dave Miller, Mike Van Lent, Gene Hsu, and some others. I think all these guys played in college and knew how fun it could be. They help us separate from the other duders who only wanted field space. Even though that meant they would eventually have less field space. I learned a ton from these guys. Plus, when they played with us, they could throw. Maybe I discounted throwers in an earlier post, but for the beginning of a college team, throwers are important.

3. Many newbies who wanted to play. Myself, Geoff Buhl (Geoff had the funniest thing happen to him. He took a Noah forehand through the cup right in the mouth. Lost 2 teeth, I believe... I still think he plays with a mouthguard), and Karl Koto all started at the same time. Throw in Wu, Kevin, Dave Hunter, and others. There were all of a sudden 10 or so college eligible players always around. Unheard of in AA before 96. Add in Phil, Jaegs, Jay, and a couple more in the winter. We had plenty for a team. And we always to practice. Or we met a ton on the diag or law quad to throw. Barely a day went by without throwing. If you are beginning or trying to make a college team, throw at least 100 backhands and forehands everyday. Even if you already made the team, do that. I was always throwing.

4. Lighted fields. I did not have to miss dinner. No conflict with afternoon classes. What else was I doing from 8-10 on Mon and Wed? Looking back, Michigan was very nice to us. We got a decent amount of field space that increased each year. We got to host plenty of tournaments. At Minnesota, it seems like they get barely any field space and barely any indoor time.

We only played 1 tourney as a college team all fall. Some of us played on the club team that went to sectionals and regionals that year.

But as a college team, we only had 1 thing, the AA fall tourney. I think it was only 1 day that year. Of course, Chicago and Northwestern were there. We played them at every single tournament for like 3 years. And I do not think we ever lost to them. There were not many tourneys in the Midwest at the time. I felt like we were springing up at the same time as a lot of the current Great Lakes teams were. Only really IU and ND were established. Maybe OU + Oberlin as well.

Anyway, I do not remember anything about that tourney. I remember we lost to the Ann Arbor Club team and that is it. I do remember playing in snow, diving in mud, and starting to really dig ultimate. We had no offense. Although we had 2 plays.

#1 Hitt. The first ever played I came up with. Huck It To Tim.

#2 Fried Rice. I have no idea who taught us this. I think this dude named Jon that played in high school. Basically, we would call someone fried rice on the line. And anytime you yelled fried rice, he would cut. Pretty complex. I do remember calling fried rice on a dead disc. Wu was in the game. The other team pointed to him and said he is cutting. I forget who fried rice really was, but it was not Wu. That was really funny. Basically, we never called Wu fried rice after that.

Having no concrete offense was definitely an interesting way to learn. Sometimes I wonder if some of the newer Zero guys do not get the opportunity to be as creative as we where when we would just assign 3 handlers, 2 mids, and 2 deeps. Even though we never defined what these positions did, we all had it in our own head what they should do. And that is what we did. For example, Karl thought middle meant never to cut and only get the disc if you are wide open. I thought deep meant you should always cut. It definitely allowed me to free lance and make stuff up. If you ever watched us, it was pretty clear we were all doing different things. It allowed us to learn how to move without the disc though.

Now, if someone gets over anxious, I snap at them.... I guess we on Zero are not meant to give people the chance to do what they want. We want to win and you need to fit in. Although tryouts do not have a lot of structure in terms of offense, you can see some thought and creativity there. But one month is probably not enough.