A group of kids came together to play against the adults over the summer and this is their story, as told by Eli Kerns, captain of ACLC Darkmeat.
On August 15th and 16th, a group of elite Bay Area High School Ultimate players came together for redemption. They had planned to go to Youth Club Championships as a mixed team in Blaine, Minnesota that weekend, but due to scheduling issues, being high school students trying to organize themselves, and not wanting to spend that much money, they settled for Discos Calientes: a "party" sort of tournament in the club scene. But for JailBait, it wasn't going to be any picnic. They were playing to win.
On August 15th and 16th, a group of elite Bay Area High School Ultimate players came together for redemption. They had planned to go to Youth Club Championships as a mixed team in Blaine, Minnesota that weekend, but due to scheduling issues, being high school students trying to organize themselves, and not wanting to spend that much money, they settled for Discos Calientes: a "party" sort of tournament in the club scene. But for JailBait, it wasn't going to be any picnic. They were playing to win.
Starting out on Saturday, they had very little practice with each other. After two Saturdays of practice with only a few of the players in attendance, the team knew it would have to gel quickly to come out strong.
First game was against PieMo and these high school players showed their true colors, with Simon Higgins and Marisa Rafter picking up some huge D's (and Simon a handblock or two), huge hucks from Foothill's former captain (JT Deierling now playing for Dark Meat) and some great downfield skies by Foothill's newest captain, Lisa Pitcaithley. This commanding win over the Berkeley players though was not that satisfying as the Jailbait squad realized they would have to move away from high school hucking offense into a real short game. Also, the heat started to take a toll on key players and they decided that in the future, they would have to play smarter despite their physical advantages.
The following games of the day constituted a series of disappointments and Jailbait did not come out with a win for the rest of the day. Although, every game's finishing score was within two points of their opponents. The players had anticipated the heat, but were still not prepared for it as much as they had thought. James Lai, former captain of Castro Valley's Red Hand proved himself to be a huge deep threat, skying the competition after finding himself unable to throw the scores due to a rope swing finger injury Saturday morning.
Jailbait closed out the day against Girls With Low Self-Esteem, a mixed up team including members from the tournaments open champions (End Phase) and other LPC players. Still, the kids kept it close. This round was in the shade and as the sun went down, Jailbait moral went up as Patrick Lahey (captain) played his best game of the weekend, skying Adam Raty of End Phase and burning End Phase's captain Will Griffin deep for a score. Other notable plays including JT Deierling outreaching Geoff Rexroth and a few heads up D's by captain Elijah Kerns to tie up the game right before cap, Ben Hubbard of Davis made a geust appearance for all offensive points and was definitely a danger on the field. Final score of this game was 12-10 and though they had just finished their third loss of the day, Jailtbait felt pretty good and decided to go swimming.
Sunday morning, the team set out to prove that the first day had taught them a lot. Having lost one of their fastest girls (Red Hand's Sophia Fong) they knew they had to play smarter. They set out, drinking WAY more water and staying in the shade as much as possible. Communication on the field was better too and it was soon clear that the high schoolers horizontal disc movement was above the defensive capabilities of teams like Feral Cows and TNT. They came out with two quick wins over these teams with notable plays including hammers by Elijah Kerns, skies by Simon Higgins and some great D's by Mikana Camacho and Lisa Pitcaithley in the zone.
The third game of the day, Jailbait led all the way through. Dehydrated again though, some players lost steam and started to make some questionable high release decisions and rushed throws (Elijah Kerns) and Red Hots were able to come back with a slim victory. Most notable in this game was a play called exactly according to plan by captain Elijah Kerns (who had removed himself at this point from the field). Drew "Baby Face" Fetzer was throwing in the zone and made an incredible high release break over Red Hots 6-4 marker to Marisa Rafter who hit Simon Higgins (cutting from the dump) in the back of the endzone with a hammer. This was an all Dark Meat player play and should be watched out for this high school season.
After a long rest before their final game, Jailbait was ready to channel their frustrations at 3 unnessecary losses into the last game and had their second blowout of the weekend. Notable plays included Marcelo Sanchez of Red Hand's falling flick which threaded the needle to Natalie McKee of Dark Meat who made a great lefty grab for a score and Elijah Kerns ending the game with a failed greatest attempt, getting the disc back on D and then setting it all up again. This second greatest attempt would also have failed if it had not been for Marcelo's phenomenal layout to catch the blade and end the game. Eli's theme song for the weekend was you're a jerk. And it was the best weekend ever.
Thank you Eli for your write-up. This is what the rest of the world needs to watch out for. The kids from the bay area can play with the adults and will be interesting to watch this upcoming season, and who knows, maybe at YCC's.
