ok, having read kendrick's email, i'm also really excited about this past
weekend.  i could be excited for lots of reasons, but definitely a big
highlight came from our first game of the weekend, against tufts, our arch
rivals from davis square.  the red line offense and defense were both
solid from the beginning.  hot d's from shankar and jeff gave us easy
scoring chances, and harvard stormed out to a 7-4 lead.  tufts closed it
to 8-7 at the half and even took a 10-9 lead, but what the hell, there was
not even a thought of losing!  in my opinion the final 7 points were some
of the finest team points harvard red line has played together.  it was
very pretty ultimate, making it easy to run away with the win.  final
score, 15-11.

the rest of the day was basically spent resting on our laurels.  we took a
thrashing to the brown b-team behind silent ninja cunning and several
layouts by noah, obviously intended to impress his fans from quasar.  
then there was something like a record 3-hour bye, featuring quasar's own
death match versus the tufts women, lots of 'fantasy points' on the
women's fields, and some funky october-flavored gatorade.  after such an
active time off, there could be little hope of competing with the brown
alumns, aka the team that won nationals last year ... and there wasn't.  
we should have seen it coming when los alamos broke noah's thumb during
the pregame warmup.

but in conclusion, great job everyone in the tufts game.  yet if i could
suggest one thing for the future, we have to better represent at the
party!  myself, will, sam, and tyler, but no one else except brown kids
and funky girls from smith.  luckily we'll have plenty of opportunity this
spring to work on this aspect of our game ... with hopefully some practice
in the offseason!

sunday's happenings, also exciting, to come from the esteemed charlie
cheever.

---

    I know that this must seem like forever ago...
        before the game with Tufts last night...
        before a Yalie became the leader of the free world, (pending a
recount in Florida)...
        before I contracted syphilis....
    So I apologize for the lateness of this write-up.  I'm sorry--I have no
good excuses.

    After finishing second in our pool to Brown Alumni on Saturday, The Red
Line started Sunday against Brown B', pronounced "B Prime," as in a primed
for a beating.  The Red Line started out slowly, making a lot of drops and
silly throw-aways, but the 5-layered Shunchback and the rest of the team
always managed to get the Ds, and the game was never in doubt.  The fantasy
points (               http://www.yale.edu/superfly/fantasy.html ) were spread around to
everyone on the team, and The Red Line blanked Brown B' 15-0.

    Even after the warm-up against B prime, Harvard came out flat again
against the #3 seeded Zoo Disc from UMass.  The Harvard D got a few turns,
but couldn't stop a UMass team that had great forehand break throws and a
smooth and chilly O. when the Harvard O struggled and couldn't get into the
endzone.  Zoo Disc jumped out to a 5-0 lead.  Harvard finally scored to
close to 5-1, but it wasn't enough to change the momentum, and UMass cruised
to the half at 8-1.
    Then Harvard got Sirius.  Inspired by the Alan Parsons Project, the
arrival of last year's captain Tim Plerhoples, and Toby Berkman's
performance of The Worm, Harvard relaxed and something changed.  A backhand
force to combat UMass' great forehands, and a new intensity on defense meant
a lot of layouts and a lot of Ds for Harvard.  In the second half, the
offense settled down and started to score.  Harvard went on consecutive 3-1
runs, and just outplayed UMass on offense and on defense.  As Harvard closed
in on the seemingly insurmountable lead that UMass had built up, UMass got
frustrated and Havard grew confident.  This meant more hucks from UMass and
more Ds from The Red Line.  The Crimson Flow continued, powered by Carlos'
amazing grabs, and Harvard won 15-13.  Gritty.

    Even after one of the most thrilling comebacks in Harvard Ultimate
history, The Red Line came out flaccid against The Cornell Buds in the
semi-finals.  Cornell used quick-strike O--height advantage and a lot of
hucks--to run out to a 5-0 lead.  At this point, Plerhoples returned and
this aroused the Red Line enough to rally, despite a lot of questionable
pick-calls and travel-calls and a double-fast-count ("You can't call fast
count after stall is called.") by Cornell.  The Red Line got it up to 8-4 by
half.
    The storm clouds loomed, and Will's boom-box had to be returned to
Jeff's car, meaning no more music.  A bad omen.
    Shortly after the half, a Brown player came over and put a hard cap to
11 on the game.  The game with UMass had taken so long that the Cornell game
had started 35-40 minutes behind schedule.  At this point, the score was
9-5, and The Buds had too much of a cushion for The Red Line to come back
this time.  The Red Line fell 11-7, leaving Cornell to play Brown Alumni for
the championship in the pouring rain that was about to fall.

    After the game Cornell decided to show what a classy team they were by
stealing the orange giraffe while Harvard was huddled discussing the game.
I think they were really impressed that they came up with such an original
idea.  Anyway, the first thief took about 3 steps before he found Will "4th
place at the Connecticut state wrestling tournament" O'Brien right in front
of him.  He turned to flee, but by this time, he was surrounded and he was
taken down at the neck.  There was gladiator-style debate over whether The
Bud should be allowed to live, but he got the thumbs up in the end and was
released unharmed.
    In the confusion, however, Sideshow from Cornell picked up the loose
giraffe.  He was also brought to justice.

    This weekend showed that The Red Line can beat any college team in the
Northeast.  After the slow start against Cornell, we played even with them,
and we beat every other college team that we played.  The D is always good,
and when it needs to be, the D is great.  The only question is the
offense--against the zone, it is usually chilly, and it is sometimes there
against the man, but it just disappeaars sometimes.  Now, we have the whole
winter to work on throws.  The team atmosphere is so good this year.
Everyone in ultimate always talks about "The Spirit of The Game," and its
rarely there, but I think this team has it, and by the spring, The Red Line
will won't be stopping until Ashmont/Braintree.