Florida Sectionals: the Lickety Split story

So, I got back from the Ultimate tournament about 11pm Sunday night. Whew, what a way to spend a weekend! Each game was either to 13 points or 80 minutes, whichever came first. Lickety Split played 9 games and a total of 177 points (think 1 point per “touchdown” as it were); an average of 4 minutes between points.
Now, it might seem obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway: at tournaments — especially Florida tournaments — it’s a good idea to have a big team. The sun will drain your energy while you stand still. Lickety had 17 players and it was just about perfect (only 7 are on the field at a time). It was really nice to be able to sub out before the heart-about-to-explode stage. 🙂 My teammates were wonderful — shouts to Jenn, Jennifer, Chris, Kathleen, Sonia, Deb, Butch, Mike, Steven, Tim, Rex, Joe, Scotty, Jimmy, George, and Eric.
We did not advance to Regionals; the score of the deciding game was 8-13 — not a win, but not a blowout, either. What we DID do effectively was improve as a team. This was our first chance to play together, so there was a whole lot of gelling going on. With practice I know we’ll improve.
As far as our competition went, Space Coast Re-entry drilled us 13-3 (we lovingly nicknamed them “Rearentry” for our post-game cheer) . They were also excellent hecklers. Alpha Omega Ultimate out of Fort Myers (who I wrote about previously here) were great opponents and once again demonstrated excellent spirit (while simultaneously crushing the hopes and dreams of Lickety fans everywhere). Speaking of spirit, we cheered every team we played on the weekend — and not just “Good game X!”. Big ups to Tim for pushing us to get creative, it was a lot of fun.
We had a few cheers for our own team too. The call-and-answer “Lickety!” “Split!” (x3) was so catchy, even players on the opposing teams started replying back. Also popular was “Lickety lickety lickety!”, for which the response — arrived at by several of us simultaneously — was: “Split split split!” While on defense, calls for “Lick-e-D!” were made (feel free to groan), which begat the somewhat more awkward “Lick-e-O!”.
Though dinner and beer was provided by the tournament on Saturday night, Joe, Rex, Kathleen, Eric, Sonia and I decided it would be nicer to get a shower and find a restaurant. We ended up at RJ Gators, and man, for such a tiny town did that RJs ever put the one in Bradenton to shame. Quite big, and quite a few things on the menu, too! I ended up carboloading on a tasty chicken-pasta dish.
We stayed at the Best Western in Vero Beach — and I’m convinced half of the Ultimate tournament was there with us Sunday morning getting their continental breakfast 🙂 Don’t have much to say about the Best Western, other than, well, I think all this traveling I’m doing for work has spoiled me. But, it was more than adequate. I just need to remember to bring my own shampoo next time.
The 2.5 hr trip home was quite entertaining and mostly involved probing Rex’s brain (he teaches several music classes at a nearby college). Would you have guessed rap and opera were related? No, me neither.
Anyway, lots of fun — pictures to follow soon.