3. A Soldier

 A Soldier

May 29, Madison, Wisconsin, around 10am

Discs were flying around a massive field complex tucked next to the UW-Madison Campus. Just shy of three dozen teams were playing  simultaneously with intense battles raging on each field. The 16 fields were arranged into two columns of eight fields. As was standard with many ultimate tournaments, the top seeded teams in each division were granted the first field in each column and so long as they won each game, could stay on the field. 

On the second field in the second column a team was celebrating. A dozen or so players clad in purple jerseys were in an uproar, all centered around the player with the #55 on their chest. Frederick, in a white jersey with green numbers looked up from the ground. Frederick’s jersey had the number 66 on it, and the white of the jersey contrasted with the copper color of his skin and the dark brown of his long hair which was corralled into two braids. Moments earlier he had laid out for a disc that just barely traveled past his fingers and into the hands of #55. Frederick knew there was nothing more he could do about the previous point so he got up, shook his head, and jogged down to the other end of the field where their coach was calling a line. 

“Give me X, Alan, Robert, Seth, Terry, Nico, and Frederick.” The 7 players moved to the front line of the endzone, and impossibly long 70 yards separated them from the opposite end zone. Frederick was incredibly tired, his muscles sore and aching. “Look, we’re right there, we’ve been right there this whole time, just go out there and execute.” The coach spoke confidently to the line of players, each of which nodded as he finished speaking. Frederick’s Madison North team had led most of the game, at one point being up 8-3, but was now trailing Madison South 12-11. Madison South was a single point away from victory and a berth in the State Semifinals. 

“X, Robert, and I will be handling, I want Frederick and Alan as the center cutters, Nico and Terry you’re on the wings. Robert, you’re left, I’m right, center to X on the pull.” The players all nodded as Seth called out their names. Seth himself was tall and broad, with confidence in every move, his dark skin was beaded with sweat beneath the hot sun of late spring in Wisconsin. Seth raised one hand to the sky to signal readiness for the pull which would start the point.  

Far across the field, #55 of Madison South let the pull rip down the field. It was a decent pull, flat and with good distance but low without much hang time. Seth tracked the trajectory of the disc and received it, catching it firmly in his chest before setting his feet and firing a pass to X. X was short and wiry, with dark skin and an afro of tight, curled hair on his head. The pass from Seth was easily gathered by X, who turned upfield and set his feet, surveying the players in front of him. Frederick was setting up some 20 yards downfield facing back towards X, in a line horizontally with Nico to his left, Alan to his right and Terry further right beyond Alan. 

As the Madison North offense was setting up, the defense of Madison South came crashing down the field. #55 of Madison South trailed Frederick as he set up and then initiated the first cut. Frederick made a short towards the far end zone, chopped his feet and reversed direction, cutting back towards where X held the disc. The move was enough to give Frederick a step and a half on #55. X saw the move Frederick made, stepped out away from the defender counting stalls and fired a pass to the space Frederick was running to. 

Frederick gathered the disc as his cleats pounded away at the ground beneath him, propelling him forwards. With the disc in his hands, Frederick looked down field and saw Alan cutting to open space 20 yards away, his defender several strides behind. Frederick stepped out, and with a flick of his wrist sent a throw to the space in front of Alan.

 Alan gathered the disc, and in the same manner as X and Frederick, looked downfield to the continuation cutters. The second Frederick had released the disc, he cleared towards the sideline and pushed downfield again. As he drove towards the end zone, he saw an opening in the center of the field that neither Nico nor Terry were going to fill. Frederick cut sharply into the space, leaving #55 slightly behind him again. Alan threw to space and Frederick again gathered the disc. Frederick, as he gathered the disc, felt something click in his mind. 

Oh yeah Frederick thought, It's go time. Frederick turned and found X wide open in a reset space. The instant the disc was out of his hands, Frederick was cutting to the space just 10 yards upfield of X. He was open again, and received a beautiful pass from X. The second he landed and stopped his momentum, he was pivoting and finding an open Seth. Again instantaneously launching himself into a new cut when the throw was released. #55 was chasing Frederick all over but could not track him down to stop his barrage of cuts. Frederick was getting the disc every other throw, pulling the team ever closer to a score with each cut. 

Frederick’s flurry of cuts brought Madison North to the front of the end zone they were trying to score on. Frederick had received a throw a mere 2 yards from the end zone, and was letting his teammates set up in the end zone. Alan was isolated in the center with room to work and cut to get open. Several cuts and several seconds passed without Alan getting open, so Frederick turned and found Seth open on a reset. 

Seth was sitting about 15 yards from the sideline and less than 5 yards from the end zone. Frederick entered the end zone  and replaced Alan as the isolation cutter. Alrighty let’s do this Frederick thought, intensely smiling on the inside, though he remained concentrated and stoic to the external observer. Frederick jabbed one step and then another towards #55’s inside shoulder, which was enough to get #55 to open his hips. Frederick then planted, changing directions to a flat cut, parallel to the end zone lines. 

Despite Frederick’s domination of #55 up and down the field on the point, #55 managed to maintain position and keep covering Frederick. When his first cut was unsuccessful, Frederick cleared the space in front of the disc and reset for another cut. Frederick then drove towards the back of the end zone, planted and cut under, making a break for the front corner in front of Seth. Again #55 managed to thwart the cut and preserve the point. At this point Seth’s defender was high in the stall count and Seth tried to find a reset. Neither X nor Robert were able to shake their defenders to get open, so Seth floated a high pass in the general direction of Frederick. 

Seth was saying, despite not speaking a single word “I trust you to get this throw above anyone else on this field.” The disc arced up and then slowly down. Frederick fought for position and then leaped, hand outreached for the disc. Before the disc could even graze the skin of Frederick’s fingertips, #55 swatted the disc away, sending it in the general direction of X in his position outside the endzone. X dove for the disc, but it was just outside his reach and plastic touched grass, turning possession over to Madison South. 

Frederick saw the disc on the ground and did not have even a moment of time to dwell on the moment that passed. The game was continuing, so Frederick continued to do what he’d been doing all tournament long, fight. He chased #55 up and down the field, sticking close to him and making #55’s life as miserable as possible. 

Madison South worked their way down the field as they had several points in a row. Frederick was all the way across the field from the score that would win the game for Madison South. #55 had cleared to the far break side.  A shallow cut  to the front cone put Madison South’s #27 half a step ahead of Nico, who’s outstretched hand was just inches short of the path of the disc. Frederick was powerless as he watched Madison South score in slow motion. 

“It’s easy to remember all the losses, the missed plays, the incomplete passes. It’s easy to think about what you should’ve done better. Most of us here have thrown and completed thousands of passes. I have forgotten most of those throws, the good and the bad. But I’m going to remember you guys, playing, and practicing, and just hanging out with all of you.” Seth spoke slowly and clearly, tears streaming down his face. Just 2 years earlier Madison North had been State champions, now for the second year in a row, they had failed to even make the semifinals. Seth, Nico, and Robert were all graduating in only a couple weeks. They had reached the pinnacle of the state so early in their time in high school. They put so much work into reaching that pinnacle again, and with Madison South’s final point, it was sealed that those three would only be champions once. 

Madison North’s dejected players began picking up their gear to move fields. They had to take a long trek to the last field in their column, where they would begin playing in the bracket for 5th place. Madison North arrived at the field to square off against Middleton, a team that was rapidly improving, but hadn’t beaten North in five years. The first point of the game proved to be an omen for how the rest of the game would go. Madison North’s offense was in shambles, it seemed like no two players were operating on the same frequency. After fielding the pull, North couldn’t complete a single pass, being stalled out on their first possession. 

From there, things did not improve. Frederick managed to rally the team a handful of times, but in the end too many players were still focusing on the last game. Without focused players working cohesively, North didn’t stand a chance. The final score of the game was 13-4 in favor of Middleton. 

 Madison West won the boy’s division, defeating Madison East in the finals. Madison South finished 3rd, upsetting Deforest to claim their best finish in ten years. Middleton went on to finish 5th, beating Madison Private. In the 7th place game, North squeaked out a 13-11 victory over Oregon, another team they had smacked around for years. Frederick continued to fight and to play well. X, his best friend who always seemed to be on the same page as him, continued to feed him the disc. 

At the end of the day, Frederick had scored 8 goals against Madison South, 4 against Middleton, and 6 against Oregon. Frederick couldn’t shake the thought: but what if I had scored 10 against South, where would we be now? Frederick gazed off mindlessly as Seth led the team through cool down stretches. 

To Frederick’s right X sighed “I bet you’re thinking ‘but what if I had scored 10?’” Without waiting for an answer, X forged on talking. “You carried a lot of weight for us this year, we put a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and you never failed us once, not even today. Next time you won’t have to carry all the weight, you won’t be fighting alone in the same way.” Frederick turned to meet X's eyes. Looking into the eye’s of his oldest friend, he could feel the hunger in them. X was the smartest person Frederick knew, and his eyes were always full of light and a whimsical charm. None of that was present, only a hunger to win more. When they finished stretching, X and Frederick meandered in the direction of the field where the Women’s Team was having their end of season chat.

Fin Chapter 3