(WARNING: This is a long one, even after I edited it for length. But it's a good story.)Intramural sports at BYU are serious business. For most students who participate, winning that championship t-shirt is more coveted than their college diploma. Look how many people get one of those a year. Chump change. Only a chosen few get one of those t-shirts and the bragging rights.
Sports offered throughout the school year range from flag football to inner-tube water polo. Teams play six or seven games during the "regular season." Stats from those games are used to rank all the teams against each other whereupon they are then divided into different divisions: Division 1 being the best teams, Division 2 next best, and so on. Then the tournament starts, aka the games that REALLY matter. The winning team of each division wins a championship, the prize being the special t-shirt.
People play intramural sports for many reasons. Some guys play to make up for lost high school glory, some girls play for the social benefit, and lots of people play just to have fun. I play because I love Ultimate Frisbee. Not that I'm particularly good at it; I just love to play. Ultimate Frisbee is a officially a boys intramural sport, but girls can play. They do this because if they made it officially co-ed, then a certain amount of boys and girls have to play at all times.
I usually play on my ward's team during fall semester, and this year was my fourth and final season to play. Despite a lot of talent, my team's regular season performance was not very impressive for various reasons, so we ended up in Division 3 (out of 4) for the tournament. That was ok with us, because it made it easier to dominate game after game once we had everyone showing up.
We soon made it to the final. We were all pumped and ready to play, but secretly a little scared. This was the fourth time my ward made it to the final game, but they had never won. And this year we went up against a team staffed by BYU track athletes, so they were all bigger, faster, and more fit in general than all of us. But we had faith and a rockstar defense.
When it comes to drama, this game will go down as one of my top three sport experiences of all time (after my team won cross country state my senior year, and Beck's pass to Harline to win the BYU-Utah rivalry game in '06). It was THAT dramatic. We started off strong. We always have a good first half, and we quickly brought the game to halftime with a score of 6-3. During the second half, though, the other team caught onto our defense and exploited our weaknesses to score 6 unanswered points. Games usually play to 12 points, and the team must win by 2 like in volleyball. If the game exceeds 45 min though, they cap the points to end the game faster. The cap is typically 2 points more than the leading team's current score, and you no longer have to win by 2. The official capped our points at 11. Gulp. I was a little worried at this point.
But then magic happened. We made some adjustments and went to work. Over and over each team would make it to the end zone and then choke, turning over the frisbee. But then we started converting those opportunities into points and suddenly we were at 10-9. Finally our man with the frisbee found one of our players in the corner of the end zone, but as he jumped to catch it he was tackled by a defender also trying to catch the frisbee. Our kid called the foul, which the other team of course contested. When that happens, the frisbee goes back to the player who threw it and basically does a replay.
After another dramatic and disappointing turnover in the end zone, one of our guys quickly knocked down a pass from the other team and we had possession again. After another agonizing minute of passing outside the end zone waiting for a clear shot inside, we found it. We all went nuts, teammates and other supporters running onto the field passing the subdued opponents and their silent fans. We slapped hands and exchanged hugs all around, took pictures, shook hands with the other team, and "rallied 'round the standard of the flag." Yes, we have a ward flag. We are that awesome.
Soon we made our way to the supplies building to pick up our shirts. As the worker read off the names from the roster, we all cheered for each other as one by one we stepped forward to request a size and accept our reward. We took a few more pictures wearing our shirts before dispersing. I had another game to go watch; my brother Danny was playing flag football that night too.
My BYU experience is complete. I already know I have a diploma coming to me, so no drama or element of surprise there. Not that I'm indifferent or un-proud of that accomplishment, but like I said before: I'm still just one of many. You don't have to be the best, coming out on top, to get one of those. Winning D3 intramural Ultimate now, that's something special.
Spike came home from his LDS mission to Manaus, Brazil. He's the one with the balloons. The local news station captured his entrance. You can watch it here. Our family is at about 0:50. The family is celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday once all his siblings come to town for his homecoming/his brother Dusty's baby blessing this Sunday. Danny and I will miss both Saturday and Sunday's events but we got our tickets before we knew about what was going on. It'll be like Thanksgiving in the old days with 50+ people crammed into Grandma's house, except now there are too many for a house so they're having the dinner at the church. Oh well.
I went down to the holiday parade and fireworks last night with Benji and Sam, meeting up with my friend Whitney. She goes to school in Portland and has only 7 days left and she's graduated! Lucky girl. Whit is associated with my favorite high school memories, and she's the only friend from high school I regularly keep in touch with. We always make time for each other when we're in town.
