MWBPC8 Recap (HAPPINESS)

As most of you know, Last weekend was the highlight of my Spring. Minneapolis held the 8th Midwest Bike Polo Championships at Dunwoody college. And hot damn, it was a real good time!

Friday was dedicated to putting all the boards together to make the courts. It involved everyone with a cordless power drill to help out. Ive always wanted to be a carpenter, so this was a lot of fun.

Jon, Pete (my teammates) and I helped out for a while and then followed the crowd to 501 club to pay our dues, get some food, and meet out of town guests. When the people started showing up, I got really excited. Most everyone was very friendly and had good things to say about our city. We stayed at 501 for a bit, but knew the next day was going to be LOOOONG, so we headed home on the earlier side.



When I walked outside Saturday morning to decide what to wear, I saw clouds in the distance, but i could have sworn that the weather guy said it wasn't going to rain. more on this later....
I packed up my stuff and headed down to the courts. Upon arrival, I helped scoop LOTS of granola for the polo players that were hungry. We fed lots of people, and all seemed to be impressed with the awesome(and i mean AWESOME) homemade granola that some of our players made. After that, a lot of pick up was played, which I enjoy watching, because just watching can make you better.

When the tournament started, the sky was still grey, but no rain had fallen. About 45 minutes or so after the first game started, the rain came- POURING out of the sky, dumping on all of us and the courts. I luckily had driven, so more than once, i ran to my car to warm/dry up. After a few hours of rain, I was real happy my team wasn't playing until the afternoon. But then the rain stopped and the sun came out (THANK GOODNESS).

On to playing.... Team Rad(my team) played 4 games on Saturday. The first game we played, we got our asses handed to us (0-10!!!) That made me nervous for the rest of the day. But our second game went much better. We played an all girls team (with some good girls on it) and were up most of the game. But the tied and eventually beat us, 3-4. But we all felt A LOT better about that game. Then we got great build your own burritos for lunch. YUM!

Next, we played a pretty good team, or a team with good players that were having an off day. We held them for the first few minutes, but eventually, they took us 2-5. Again, that game felt a lot better than the first. Our finally game of the day was against another newer team from Milwaukee. This game was super fun and silly. they were very friendly and fun to play with. We tied that game, which meant we were ALL winners! HOORAY!

That night we went to Luce for a slice, and then to One on One for a *legendary* after party. Kegs, derbies, pimps (really, we saw a pimp bring up 3 different ladies from around the corner), you name it and it was there. Jon and I had a blast. I met some really cool people. And I may have convinced a few ladies to come up this fall for Babes in Bikeland. We stayed pretty late (or late for me) and then road home. I was pretty beat up at the end of the day. While I love playing polo, I am still sloppy and still get hurt a lot(see below!). So I slept pretty well. (the below injuries are only a few of many I sustained throughout the weekend. don't worry, I'm okay :) )
( inside thigh-scraped on seat post bolt and bruised up later.)
(Jon and I collided on the court and I went down HARD on my right side...)
Sunday morning was cloudy again, but not terrible. I rode to meet Jon and headed to the courts again. I was happy that we were only going to play 1 or maybe 2 games Sunday. My body was feeling TIRED. And our last game was again fun, and we played the same all girls team we had played the day before. And they beat us...AGAIN! but we really improved a lot by the end of the tournament. that is exciting. And we got Free Pizza Luce for lunch!!!! how cool is THAT?

The rest of the day was spent reffing games, watching amazing players, and learning a lot. One thing that I learned is that our guys (myself included, but I'm mainly talking about our *A* team) need to work on passing. While watching the best teams in the tourney, they are almost always passing the ball, or looking to pass. Our A team just doesn't do that. Well they do pass, but I'm thinking of one main guy that can bring the ball up, doesn't pass it, tried to score and never does, all while a teammate is wide open. Granted, they don't always play as a team. MPLS plays a lot of pick up, meaning we all play with each other. But, I saw that to improve, I need to work on controlling the ball off a pass, and then being able to pass it off again. and field position IS part of that. ANYHOW...

The final games were SO great to watch. MKE (Beaver Boys) play a mix and match team from LA-CANADA (Ottawa, i think) and NYC. The Beaver Boys won in an epic game. I learned cheap ways (ways none the less) to score goals (dribble straight at the goalie and pass it towards the goal as you hit their stick out from under them.) Ill work on my skill....

At the end of the day, we had an awards ceremony, where the MVP male and female, 1st, 2nd and farthest travelled all got really cool prizes.Our team won DFL (mean dead fucking last....)and won new mallet heads-pretty sweet. Then out of nowhere, mini drunk Landon starts up a speech about the "most heart." He was talking about our city getting ready, and everyone helping, and such. And then he goes into a story about a player coming week after week, trying to get better, only to NOT get picked for a team. I had no idea that this was coming..."oh wait" i thought. THAT'S ME...?!?! And Landon tells me to come up to get the "most heart" award, which is an amazing trophy made by a local bike dude, Beau. It is seen below. I got up, and was sort of shocked, choked up, excited, blown away. I got hugs from a lot of MPLS players, and it really made me feel good. I mean, like REALLY good, like we live in the best city EVER. I'm still smiling over this amazing award.

And after that, we unscrewed a million screws, and took down all the courts into the night, I was beat. I wanted to go out afterwards, but it was already pretty late and I had to work the next morning. So I went home.

Overall, the weekend was amazing and makes me want to play polo all the time and get better and understand the game more and get to know the people who play here better. If that all makes sense. Thank goodness for good people. The fine people of MPLS Bike Polo Inc. did a great job throwing this thing and myself and several others that I talked to were so impressed by the organization and dedication to throwing a great tournament. That's all Folks.