Potlatch Retrospective

I know I am about two weeks late now with this post but I have to start somewhere. In my defense, I spent the 48 hours directly following Potlatch in Los Angeles, with my family at my grandmother's memorial service. And then I was "normal" for three days and then I was sidelined from life for a week and a half on account of severe sinus infection (103° fever FTW). I managed to rally for Against the Grain last weekend, a beach tournament in Seaside, Oregon, but then paid the price of newly reduced health on Monday and Tuesday.

Enough excuses: on to Potlatch.

Potlatch 2008 was my favorite Potlatch yet, and certainly my most successful. Our team was large and in charge and just chock full of my friends, of people whom I absolutely love. I had not played with some of these people for years—I think Steve and I were last on a team together at Potlatch in 2004. We came out rolling on Friday, kicking ass with little trouble, and looking oh so good in the jerseys Joaquin judged to be 3rd best in at Potlatch (behind Downtown Brown and Jewbilation).

Here is the much-lauded design:

Believe me: they looked even better in person, especially when matched with the rainbow pony sweatbands and tattoos I found for team schwag and gifts. Here, check out what a beast Kevin is in his jersey.

Right, so, our play. First, our team was stacked to an extent I didn't quite realize before we all suited up. Many of our players are… um, fantastic? And some of them had gotten quite a bit better since I had last seen them play. Second, we figured our game out fairly well and quickly, aided somewhat by an easy pool on Friday. Check out Jughead's Potlatch Day 1 recap for more details.

Saturday we had a much more competitive pool, with a UCLA alumni team, a UCSD alumni team and, wait for it, Team Fisher Price. For the uninitiated, TFP is the Canadian National Mixed team. They had beaten Shazam the night before in a USA v. Canada Worlds preview and exhibition match. In short, we won our first game against Smash Masters, the UCLA squad, and lost our second game against Chromeo, the UCSD team. If we wanted to make the top bracket on Sunday, we had to win our final game, against TFP.

So we decided we were going to do it. And we played insane, fantastic, crazy good and we took half 8 – 7. They were shaken, and we believed. But then they tied us at 9 – 9. We didn't worry much. And then they ran off a bunch to 9 – 13 and soft cap went on (game to +2 = 15, win by 2). But we believed. And we had the bald eagle and Abraham Lincoln and liberty and justice and Homeland Security on our side. So we tightened up our rotation and scored five (5) points in a row to win 14 – 13 in hard cap (sudden death).

The final point was classic. They threw what they thought was an easy in-cut only to have Lucy speed past her lady and catch the defensive block cleanly and uncontested, just yards out of their endzone. She dished to Steve and Steve flipped a short scoober to Kevin for the win. Victory!

Again, check out Jughead's Potlatch Day 2 recap for more details.

We spent a lovely evening on Saturday serving food at the first party shift, which means that you only have to serve a few dozen people and you get the first chance at feeding yourself. Brilliant! Our team, exultant and unified by our recent victory, went at the evening with abandon. Details are best left to legend and the photos on Avery's iPhone.

Sunday was a bit disappointing. We lost our first game—A bracket prequarters—to D'oh, a Seattle mixed team who pulls some from Shazam, Riot, etc. at Potlatch. They played with speed and energy and we slacked on defense and miscued on offense. I honestly believe that we should have shotgun a bunch of PBR to relax the team—no matter it was 10:30 in the morning. This was not the DarkHorse of past victories. What else can I say? They outplayed us.

We played out our next two games, beating Lawn Party—we were now invulnerable to Canadians—and a Northwest School "reunion" team, Rage. I put "reunion" in quotes because some of their players were still in high school. We were well connected to Rage: Alex Wells coaches or coached a number of them, a few of their players are current Braineaters and one young lady practices with Shadrach. Oh, also, Schuyler's brother was on the team. All in all, they were fun to play but couldn't really match us. We took the victory and finished our weekend tied for 9th overall. Not bad for the ol' Horse, huh?

I was a bit emotional at this point, considerably tired from the Ultimate and revelry, and overwhelmed by the intense happiness I had been riding for three days straight. We circled up for final thanks and goodbyes, as I was departing posthaste to fly to Los Angeles. I teared up a bit and tried unsuccessfully, first, to convince everyone to pay me and, second, to explain to them how much they all and the weekend meant to me. I got my hugs, took down my tent and left Potlatch.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, DarkHorse, for an amazing weekend. We were inspired, intense, beautiful, hot, spirited, debaucherous, hilarious and just oh so good. I could not have asked for more.

Check out Prude's photos for a glimpse into the DarkHorse experience.

Ain't no pony like the DarkHorse pony.

Oh, over the entire weekend, I misplaced one item. RIP Pink Supersonics headband. I suppose, with the team leaving Seattle, the loss is appropriate. I am, therefore, very much in the market for a new pink headband. I will happily reward anyone who finds me one.