Flatballers Game 1

November 1st, 8:30pm, Bitterlake Community Center sets the scene for the
first Flatballers game on the season. Being the day after a majority of
us have returned from Nationals, numbers appear to be low early in the
day. As game time approached, the realization that Flatballers would
only have 4 players sank in, despite Alyssa and Shannon's efforts to
contact every semi athletic person they knew in and out of the Ultimate
community.
Bermi, Alyssa, and I (Shannon) showed up around 8:10 in hopes of
getting some warm up in and do some recruiting of the teams playing
before us. Through the windows of the gym and glances of players I
instantly could tell we were going to be up against some stiff
competition. The two teams playing before us, one was our future
opponent (Avon Ladies) and one was who we needed to recruit from (WAC).
WELL turns out WAC must stand for Western.. something or other and was
full of DII and DIII basketball stars from Western, Montana and a few
other schools. These girls were TALL, built and knew what the hell they
were doing. We prayed these were not our opponents. The other team,
while shorter and less intimidating, had skills. Keely, our 4th, arrived
at about 8:20. Alyssa and I practiced our jump stops on the sideline
while Keely and Bermi warmed up actually making baskets.

Game time approaches and we figure out we are playing the lesser of the
intimidating teams. "Thank god!" we think "We can get some of these
sweet college Bball players to play with us!" BOY, were we wrong. Our
attempts were futile and there was no other talent pool to pull from.
Whatever will we do! To our rescue, one of the refs from the previous
game decides to play with us, one of the male refs.

The game gets off to a bit of a rough start, the other team is
constantly muttering phrases like, "What's the point?" and "Let's go
home already!" and let's not forget, "I might injure them!" and our
shots are barely hitting the back board. Luckily, neither were theirs
and this only added to their bad attitude and frustration. Flatballers
start off with a brilliant "is it man or zone" defense causing some
trouble for their players. Our pick up is an amazing rebounder and it is
probably half the reason we stayed close in this game.

Because we had already forfeited the single ref calling the game was
missing half our travels, fouls, and anything else we could have
possibly done wrong and this too fueled the other teams angry fire.
There was this odd trash talking between the ref that was playing, the
girls on the other team, and the ref actually calling the shots that was
hard to distinguish if it was all in good fun or not. Which then led to
the Avon Ladies trash talking even more.. which I am PRETTY sure, was
NOT in good fun. (I actually still don't know..) Keely added her own
flare to the trash talk which didn't amuse our actual ref too much. We
are on Keely's side, its not fair we don't have any say! CONTEST DAMMIT!
Avoiding possible Technical fouls, we made it through the first half,
keeping the score close, with Keely, Berm and Shannon putting in the
points.

The second half begins and Alyssa and Shannon are dragging down the
court. "Hussle ladies!" we hear from the other end of the court as the
Avon ladies go for another shot. Again, good thing that guy can rebound.
Bermi and Keely are still keeping up, holding it down for the
Flatballers. As we get more tired, the increase in laughter from the
score/time keepers gets louder. Everytime Alyssa goes for another deep 3
(behind the 3 point line) or flangs her body in the way to play defense
without fouling, cackles can be heard across the court. One spectacular
play of Alyssa's include a flying leap with all limbs spread. She
blocks the ball but unfortunately it goes out of bounds, that whole,
last touch thing makes a difference in the Bball world apparently..

As the clock ticks down the Avon ladies start to pull away from the
Flatballers, but not by much! Final score of Fall Season, Game 1:
55(ish) to 37.

Other amazing quotes:
"Act like you want the ball, girl! Don't play like you might get hurt" Avon lady number 1
"I'm not afraid of getting hurt, I'm afraid of hurting her!" Avon Lady number 2

*Whiiiiistle*
"OH COME ON!" ref playing with us
"She's in it!, She's STILL in it" actual ref, while Shannon continues to stand in the key after play has stopped,
"SHE'S STILL IN IT!!"
"OHHHHH!" Shannon, hands the ball to the ref.

Next game: Tuesday, November 8th, Time: TBD

Come out and cheer!!