3BK-1

3BK kicked things off in style Wednesday, beating Fall League finalist "Huck My Life" captains Cole / Kaetlynn's new team "In Tent City" 15-10 in a game that we should have won by more (we were up 13-6 when we to some degree called off the dogs). We contained Cole just enough, Lindsey did a number on Kaetlynn, and our balanced roster utilized a surprisingly effective huck game (given that Cole was patrolling the skies). I'm VERY happy with our speed and hustle; our field organization was a little wacky as is to be expected in a first league game. With the inexperience that we're featuring, though, we're going to have to work hard to resemble something well-oiled. Here's how the scores went down:

1,2-0; 2-1; 3-1; 3-2,3; 4,5,6,7-3; 7-4; 8-4; 9,10-4; 10-5; 11-5; 11-6; 12,13-6; 13-7,8,9; 14-9, 14-10, 15-10.

I showed up to the field wondering if I was going to hold together. I've been getting PT for my ailing left knee (aka knee-2000, as opposed to knee-2004) this week, and it hasn't exactly cured me yet. The lateral knee (roughly in the tibia and across but importantly not IN the joint) flared up a little on a short run the Friday before NYF (two weeks ago), got gradually worse over the weekend until turning into a stabbing pain by the end of play Sunday the 31st. I saw the sports doctor on the 4th who assured me that it was just IT Band syndrome (she actually yelled at me for being inflexible, which is neither nice nor accurate), and she sent me to PT which started this past Tuesday the 9th. I did some stretching, ran through some core and hamstring exercises, and received A-STYM over my entire left leg.

What's that, you ask? It's Augmented Soft T(Y)ssue Mobilization, which involves lathering up the leg with "frictionless" cream and massaging all the muscles with some plastic dimpled devices that look for all the world like medieval torture sex toys. Yikes! It actually didn't hurt too badly and did the trick, at least temporarily - I ran on the elliptical after the treatment essentially pain-free, though by Wednesday things had tightened back up. These are all good signs, as ligaments and cartilage generally don't loosen and tighten back up, but that was little comfort while warming up Wednesday before the game. Every pivot, jump and change of direction was like stabbing myself with a steak knife, despite the layers of braces I had wrapped around the knee to keep it warm. I'd say at first pull I was kicking it around 50% speed which natch made my prospects for being able to cover Cole or Kid very poor (as if they weren't poor anyways). Fortunately we've got some speed, so I could ease off and guard DH when we were on D, an arrangement that worked out just fine.

And somewhere in the 3-3 range, my knee got past whatever threshold, and I was up around 75% instead. The knee still hurt, and I couldn't quite accelerate as much as I wanted, but I wasn't running around afraid of keeling over at any moment. So I got accordingly active on O and played some good poachy D. I ended up playing a good game, with only one bad throw*, and about 8 thrown goals (including several hucks) and four goals scored**, plus a pair of handblocks, a layout endzone D, and a couple of poach off on hucks help D's. Good times, and maybe a bit too much, but our O was goofed enough that I felt compelled to make a lot of plays***.

*(an IO backhand huck I *just* overthrew to Lindsey - that was the only turn, save a couple of stall 9 punts)

** - Endzone scoober to Nick, Endzone forehand to Lee, 2 x Backhand Huck to Stefan, Forehand Huck to Stefan, breakmark BH to Mike, High Release BH to Lindsey, Down the Line Forehand to Linds, blade FH from Linds, Huck from Stefan, Layout on Mark's forehand, toe in from Chris. A full 80%, if you will. :)

*** - It'll be interesting to see what 3BK pulls off sans Joneses this week, as both Beck and I are indisposed next Wednesday and won't be able to make it. It's against Dheintime squad "Tighty Whiteys", no less, so that could be bad. Oh, well, that's what I get for being too much of our offense. Lesson for the future - I have faith that 3BK will bring it regardless.

In terms of non-Nyet play (I know, I know, so self-centered), Lindsey predictably tore it up and DEFINITELY won the L-K battle. Ashley played pretty well, making some good cuts and running hard on D (though she dropped a huck from me, d'oh), and Beck did a great job on O, bailing out a turn and hooking up with me on an incut. She did pull her hammies a little, unfortunately, so we'll have to get her back into sprinting shape before the next match. On the guys' side, Lee is a beast and very competitive; he guarded Cole and held his own a lot of the night. Read that again, because it's cool - a newbie stepped on the field and immediately hung okay with Cole. Lee's a little too physical right now, but looks great and is picking things up quickly. Stefan and Mark did a great job running; Stefan in particular owned Kid a few times - nice when your second round draft pick tools on someone's first. Speaking of first-rounders, Al was a little rusty with some hucks, but did a great job handling and anchoring the offense, particularly on the points in which I was not in - he ended up catching about every other throw on one sequence. Chris handled well; Matt went down to the earth and made some plays, and Mike got a couple of Ds. All in all a great teamwide, hard-running performance, and a great tone for the season was set.

Beck and I will miss next week's matchup, unfortunately, but suffice it to say I'm 100x happier with this team than the last. We'll see how things roll out - there are lots of tough teams in the league this year, but at the very least we're running with a fun, capable squad.

Oh! And the discs came out! I'll leave you with a shot of the real live thing. Pretty nice if you ask me. :)