Not A Puller

I'm not an athlete. Not at all. My first season playing A league ultimate was tough. Though physically I could keep up (most of the time), mentally the pressure got to me in the end. We were such a good team, seeded number two going into the tournament. We had high hopes of winning it all.

It's the semi-finals game and our teams are tied with the next scoring team advancing to finals. It's my turn to check into the game to play the point and I look down the sidelines at all of the people who have gathered to watch and cheer. I look at my teammates. The intensity has amplified during the past few scores because of the growing crowd. Most of them played club in college (and now) so they know how to handle the pressure. My heart rate, on the other hand, races and I start to feel light headed. I have a vision of dropping the disc (really bad) and then a vision of letting the girl I'm suppose to guard score (really, really bad). Now that I've imagined it, its destined to happen so I ask my teammate to go in for me. She's an athlete, so she checks in. Thank goodness. No pressure on me. I wont lose it for us all and eliminate us from the tournament. I can breathe again.

Then my teammate pulls. The disk goes out of bounds just a few feet from the end zone never to return and the other team makes an easy score to end the game. I didn't lose it for us, someone else did. And I realize that it's really not his fault. The whole game cant be summed up just with one bad pull. He was willing to go up in front of the crowds and test his skills. We didn't win, which stings, but it's probably not going to have the eternal consequences I was fearing just moments ago. Next season, I'm hoping for a different story. Next season, I'm hoping to catch the winning point.