6. The Offseason Part 2

 

The Offseason Part 2 

August 2nd, Madison, Wisconsin, around 3pm 

It was the last practice for the MadBots mixed team before the Youth Club Championship Tournament the following weekend. The players were taking some feedback after an intense scrimmage. The summer air was hot and thick with humidity. Among the twenty or so players was a wide mix of jerseys. Frederick and Anya could be seen in their Madison North Jerseys. #55 of Madison South, who Frederick now knew as Ryan Mack, was there. Misty Sharp of Madison West Women was there along with a half dozen more players from West high school. 

It was clear to everyone that just like the past summers, West was the top dog and everyone was chasing them. The rosters of the Madbots teams showed the clear hierarchy of Madison Youth Ultimate. Madison West’s Men’s and Women’s teams had by far the most players. Madison East, who finished second in both divisions was a distant second, followed by Madison North and nearby Oregon High school, the only other programs that finished top 8 in both divisions. Programs  that were only successful in one division, such as Madison South in the Men’s division and Sun Prairie in the Women’s had plenty of players on the non-mixed teams. Standouts from teams that were not successful in either division tended to find spots on the separate Men’s and Women’s Madbot’s teams as well. 

After the coaches finished debriefing for the day and laid out the last of the logistics for the upcoming tournament, the players gathered close for a quick cheer and then slowly dispersed. Anya and Frederick made eye contact and then quickly nodded. Anya grabbed a disc from her bag and the two walked away from the crowd. The two threw the disc back and forth, falling into a smooth rhythm of back and forth. They worked their way through a lengthy progression of throws, starting standing and then lunging and faking more and more as they went. 

By the time Anya and Frederick finished throwing, the rest of the team had deserted the fields where practice took place. Only the head coach, who went by Greg remained. 

“I appreciate all the hard work you two are putting, but be sure to take some time the rest of this week to rest up. Replenish your energy and get nourished alright?” Greg’s voice permeated with a stern but caring authority.  

“Yes coach!” Anya and Frederick responded in unison, their breaths still labored from the practice. 

“Alrighty, take care then” Greg bid the duo farewell and walked the short distance to his car. Anya and Frederick took the time to stretch and cool down before packing up their stuff and finally vacating. There was unspoken pride that Anya and Frederick shared in being the last to leave the practice field each day. 

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The Youth Club Championship Tournament, also known as YCCs, was the premiere youth tournament in the country. 80 teams across 5 divisions descended onto a massive field complex outside of Minneapoils the first weekend of August. Unlike most tournaments that were 2 days long to fit a standard weekend, YCCs was spread over 3 days, spanning from Saturday to Monday of the first weekend in August.  YCCs was also concurrent with the US Open Club Championships, an elite club tournament that ran from Friday to Sunday. 

On the Friday evening, the MadBots mixed team was crammed into the hotel room of Coach Greg. Slowly but surely, the team’s organisers were passing out jerseys to the respective players. With each jersey that was received, the collective sense of community grew. For the past 3 months, they had worked and grown together as a team, and now they would look like a team. As Frederick reflected on the moment he realized the cliche idea of “look like a team, play like a team” may actually have some merit to it. 

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The tournament unfolded in a whirlwind for the Madbots Mixed team. On day 1, the Madbots won both their pool play games, both against lower seeded teams, one from Iowa, and another from Ohio. The second day, they secured their pool by scraping out a narrow 15-12 victory over the highest seed in their pool, a Denver-based team. The Madbots had been seeded 5th entering the tournament, and proceeded to quarterfinals to face the 6th seed from Atlanta. 

The game was chaotic and unpredictable. The Madbots’  offense proved incredibly potent and capable of scoring quickly and frequently, but at times could not seem to get the disc into the endzone. The defense of the team struggled at times but came through at important moments. Throughout the game, Frederick established himself as one of the leading offensive cutters on the team. Anya ended up anchoring the handler defense for the Madbots, coming up with several clutch defensive plays. The Madbots came away with a 15-13 win to set up a semifinal game against the top seed in the tournament. 

The errors that went unpunished in the Madbot’s quarterfinals game were exploited ruthlessly by their semis opponent. The Philadelphia team was stacked with talent, especially among their women-matching players. The Madbots gave up a valiant fight, but lost 15-9. In the third place game, the Madbots found themselves facing the team from Washington DC who had been seeded 7th. The Madbots finished strong and won the game by a margin of 15-10. 

When the dust settled, Frederick was 3rd on the team in goals scored. Anya finished tied for first on the team in D’s alongside Misty Sharp. X had made the Madbots under-20 Men’s team, and led the team in assists. The other Madison North players across the Madbots teams had proven themselves to be impact players. A long and strenuous summer was entering it’s twilight, and the hunger that so many players from all across the country shared was not yet satiated. The weekend of YCCs asserted to all the players on Madison North that hard work paid off, and that there was still more work to be done. 

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August 13th, Madison Wisconsin, Frederick’s Backyard

It was early evening and as the sun slowly descended, the calls of cicadas and frogs crept into the background. Frederick, X, and Anya sat around a brightly burning fire. Joining them was Reagan, one of Anya’s teammates from the North Women’s team. Reagan looked positively radioactive in the dim light compared to the darker complexion of X, Anya, and Frederick.

The gathering was not a simple evening with friends, but rather a meeting of the four senior captains of the Madison North ultimate program. The summer was quickly coming to an end and the four captains wanted to establish plans for the fall ultimate season. 

“Typically in the fall we’ve done two practices a week right, Tuesdays and Thursdays? I’m assuming we’ll keep doing that.” Frederick gently asserted. 

“That makes the most sense,” Anya added, “But do we want to keep it at only 2 practices a week?” She asked. 

“We generally tend to have lower participation in the fall, so I don’t know if adding that extra day will be worth it if only five or six people show up.” X could always be counted on to meticulously weigh a multitude of factors even for the most neutral situation. 

“Well we could always add another day for the first couple of weeks, see what numbers are like, and then decide if we want to keep doing them.” Anya confidently expanded on the idea of her brother as she had done so many times before. In discussions such as these, Anya and Frederick had a leg up on X and Reagan, having been the junior captains of the team the previous year. 

“Well what’s the big picture here? What are we trying to get out of these practices?” Frederick asked casually. He followed his first two questions with a third rhetorical question.  “We want to grow the team and we want to win the State tournament in May right?”

“So how are we going to structure our practice schedule to specifically achieve those goals? What do we need to work on as a team?” Anya seamlessly finished the thread of thought that Frederick had started. 

“If we’re going to allocate a third day to focus on more specific things, we should focus on throwing and conditioning” X offered. His idea was met with nods and brief affirmations. Anya, Frederick, and X continued to discuss minuta and work out the details. Once they sorted out everything and created a holistic plan for fall practices, they simultaneously realized that they had not heard from Reagan. “Hey Reagan are you alright with that as the plan?” X gently asked. 

“I mean, yeah, that all sounds good to me” Reagan briefly responded. Reagan was certainly an outsider among the captains. The three other captains had been friends for their whole lives and always managed to be on the same page when the dust settled. Reagan on the other hand had only known the trio for 3 years, and in discussions like this often felt like the fourth wheel on a perfectly balanced tricycle. Reagan never wanted to throw off the chemistry of the 3 other captains, and as a result often ended up entirely isolating herself from the group. 

Following the discussion of logistics, the captains shed their roles as captains and returned to being friends. Frederick smoothly changed the subject away from ultimate to generic small talk. 

“Y’all got any plans for the last couple weeks before school starts back up again?” He asked, not specifying who he wanted to answer. 

There was a brief pause before Anya responded “The principal asked me to show a new  international student around the school and help him get situated” 

“Did they tell you where he’s from?” Reagan asked. 

“Oh he’s from Canada, I bet he’s gonna be real exotic” Anya lathered the last few words with sarcasm. “Maybe he’ll be an athlete and you two can try and recruit him” She gestured to X and Frederick. 

Frederick snorted a little “Yeah right, what are the odds of that happening?” 

Fin Chapter 6