Ultimate Frisbee '06

This past summer was one of most fun summers I've experienced in awhile and mainly because of the frisbee games we got going. It was only the second year that I've been playing frisbee, but there was plenty of room for improvement. I started in my junior year when a bunch of kids in my gym class, who I had only vaguely known through some of my friends, started playing it almost everyday. With the choices being either frisbee or walking the track, I quickly chose to play frisbee. For about a week, I had no idea what I was doing or what any of the rules were and my main job was to stand in the endzone and use my height to catch touchdowns, which I did pretty well I might add. After the first week I slowly began to pick up the rules and strategy of the game. The problem was that I could not throw a frisbee to save my life which gave me a large lack of confidence, which was evident whenever the frisbee ended up in my hands. My feeling after awhile was that I wouldn't get any better unless I kept throwing. After the school year ended, a lot of the regulars who played frisbee in gym decided to set up games on tuesdays and thursdays over the summer for anyone that wanted to play. I saw this as an opportunity to improve my skills. After playing with all the guys, and a couple of girls, for a few weeks, I became good friends with most of the and earned the nickname "Green" because of the shirt I always wore, and because I'm Irish, but mostly because of the shirt. That summer came to an end and all of the people I played with had to go to college and I had to finish out my senior year in high school. My goal was that by the next summer I would have practiced enough over the winter to become one of the better players there, which was a feat consdering the ability of many of the people I played with, but sure enough, by the time summer rolled around and everyone came back from the colleges, and some people form jail, but we'll keep those charges underwraps, they were all surprised at how much I improved. Even my friend who plays for the Ultimate Frisbee team at Holy Cross was impressed with my improvement, and he's a hard kid to impress. Frisbee has led me to make some of my better friends now and it gives me something I can always look forward to doing. I have great memories of playing like the time when I made a catch after sliding into a fence pole and knocking myself out with a concussion. Well I don't remember much of that for good reason but there are still the many other memories I've made over the past two years and I'm sure many more to come. Plus I finally found a sport where my tall, lanky body plays to my advantage.