Buttermilk Plays Mid-season Classic Tournament

The mid-season classic tournament was held at Sunnybrook Park this weekend, July 4-5. This is an annual tournament held by the Toronto Ultimate Club - http://www.tuc.org/events/midseason/2015 

My Tuesday night league team, Buttermilk, entered into the competitive division of this tournament this year along with seven other teams forming 2 pools of 4 (Pool 1: Naptime, TBA, Nor’easters Want the Conch, Buttermilk; Pool 2: Savage Tribe, The Big Kahunas, Magnitude, The Fifth Element).  There were also intermediate and recreational divisions playing in the same tournament, but in their respective playing pools.

Buttermilk had a really great day on Saturday. We swept our pool with a 3-0 record at the end of the day.  Game one was a close call, going all the way to time-cap (90min) with a 12-11 victory over Naptime.  Game two was a more solid victory 15-10 over team TBA (yes, that was their team name). Game three was also a success, 15-12 over Nor-easters Want the Conch.   We were definitely gelling as a team and grooving to tunes DJ’ed by yours truly including Benny Benassi - Satisfaction, Survivor - Eye of the Tiger, and Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam, along the sideline.  You couldn’t help but feel great when running to those tunes. 

Playoffs began Sunday morning, and the pools crossed over according to seedings established in the Saturday round-robin play.  Buttermilk played a very intense game against The Big Kahunas, going point for point up to halftime.  It was our toughest opponent of the weekend.  We were up 14-13 when we failed to complete an endzone pass that would have won the game for us. The Big Kahunas were able to regain possession and worked it up the field to tie it up 14-14 just as the horn went.  That meant we had to play it out at universe point for the win. Unfortunately for us, the Big Kahunas came out with their strong defensive line, forced a turnover and capitalized on the turn with a big upfield huck, winning the game 14-15.  It was a disappointing loss to a very competitive team.  We fought hard, but its always hard to suck up the first loss of a tourney especially when it was just within our grasp!  

We still had two consolation games to play that afternoon, so we picked ourselves up, dusted off our cleats, and went to face our next opponents.  

Perhaps we felt we still had something to prove, and we went into our next game vs Magnitude thinking about the win we should’ve just had.  This was another close game 10-9, but we managed to secure the win at time-cap.  A sense of relief overcame us as we heard the horn blow.  By this time, it was obvious we were all beginning to feel the effects of fatigue setting in, and the weather was getting really hot and humid at this point.  With a humidex approaching 30C, players were having to don their hats, sunscreen and increase their hydration with water, ice and gatorade, but still the heat was taking its toll on the team. 

The final game was against The Fifth Element. Whether it was fatigue, heat or the unfortunate choice of Maroon 5 by the Sunday DJ (sorry, I’m just not a fan...), we struggled to play at our usual form in this last game, ending the day with our second loss of the tournament, a disappointing 5-15.  It felt like our hearts were just not in that last game.  But that’s OK, you can’t win them all, and it was just a consolation game at the end of the day.  

Overall, we went 4-2 at the weekend tournament, so despite the couple losses on Sunday, we finished with a winning record and we should be proud of that.  It was great practice for our team to get out and a play a full weekend tournament, especially since league playoffs will be done in a similar format to this in early September.   

Now go get some rest and I’ll see you all again Tuesday evening you sexy goats!!