NUTC-Session B

Session B dawned at NMH, the birthplace of Ultimate. It is interesting to imagine Jared Kass driving up from Amherst College on Route 63 over 35 years ago to teach summer camp at this very campus, and, while armed with the idea of the "ultimate" game, he did not know he would meet camper Joel Silver and that the seeds of our new sport would be sown. All of this is poignant this week as we have 14 campers from Columbia High Scool attending.

Our counselors this week:

The All-In Crew:

Dan-O
Dylan T
Lexi M
Emily B
Jody Y

Plus:
Micah F-in week 2 of 2
Jeff Graham- MA
Mike Wiseman- MA
Amanda Strout- GA
BVH- NYC
Chelsea Dengler- OR
Jennie Yen- GA

Awesome.

BVH, Jeff, Dylan, and Chelsea showed off their diving skills in the pool this afternoon. We also set up the Goaltimate and DDC courts this week as it was just too hot last week.

This week we have a videographer, Jeff Irvine, filming the proceedings. We are hoping to have our first visitor tomorrow. Ted Munter will be coming out from Boston.

The weather broke yesterday afternoon, so it should be warm and less humid. Perfect Ultimate weather. The campers this week are mostly from New England, and two high school programs, Columbia (NJ) and Longmeadow(MA), are well-represented.

I had a break in the evening, so my daughter and I took our rabbit outside so he could stroll out in the quad. One of our campers came over and he mentioned that he had attended college nationals as a spectator. I asked him what he thought, and he said it was a great experience. I asked what he thought about the finals. He said, "I am sure you have read all about it, but I had some thoughts about the men's final". I asked him what he thought. He said, "Florida was 8-10 men deep, while Wisconsin had an army. It seemed to me, though, that Wisconsin lost the game with shallow pulls. Every pull landed about 10 yards shy of the end zone and by the time that Wisconsin got down the field, Florida had gained another 10 yards and had a short field. So, while Wisconsin made a run at the end of the game, because I think Florida was tired, it was too little too late. If Florida had had to work an extra 20-30 yards every time they had received the pull, maybe they wouldn't have won the game."

Insightful stuff from a young man. It brings up a couple of points. First, how important pulls are, and how their importance seems to be a bit overlooked. I think in 04 6TM probably won 4-5 points per game due to Adam Goff's pulls. This was a huge advantage. The second point is different. A lot of the reporting we read in Ultimate is a point by point description of what happened. While we get this in pro sports, we also benefit from the interpretive analysis as offered by the camper in my discussion. While pure description is needed at this stage as our media outlets are limited, it is my hope that interpretive reporting develops as a means of increasing both our quality, but also our cumulative knowledge.