World, how small art thou

So, yeah, at the tournament, teams with a 2-2 or better record on the first day could send a team representative to the tournament's All-Star game, which started at 7:30 last night.

After the long day of ultimate, just what someone wants to do: play another game of ultimate. We ganged up on the youngest team player, Alex, and nominated him. Alex, being the soft-spoken, cool kid that he is, agreed to go and during the game, made a great catch and threw a score. We all cheered for him.

Although there's a carnival in town, and lots of opportunities for drinking, I was really more interested in a quiet evening, as I do after most tournament days. I'd say I'm getting old, but I've always been this way. I simply cannot understand how people can play ultimate hung over. Or while drinking for that matter. Maybe I should try it some day.

So, when Karen invited me to dinner with Matt and Rene, I accepted after asking John if he was going, too. Since he and Truesdale were going, I figured I had a ride to and from. The event sounded pleasantly quiet and perfect for my tastes.

Originally, one of the huge draws to the tournament for me was a chance to meet Paul Greff. Paul looks like Mom's Eric, they could be brothers, so every time I saw Paul on one of the DoG videos, I'd call him Eric. I was looking forward to calling him Eric to his face, not that it would be particularly endearing, I'm sure ("Hey, John, who's the crazy chick who keeps calling me Eric?").

Well, meeting Paul's brother Matt was definitely a treat. I enjoyed listening to the group talk about previous tournaments, stories and victories over a light meal (following the chicken dinner I had earlier on the field - can't play at Poultry Days and not have chicken, you know). As the stories came out, a lot of history came out with it. And, as more history came out, I began to realize just how small this world is.

Alex, the 17 kid on the team, was playing with his mom, Karen. Sure, their last names were Thorne, but it wasn't until someone mentioned Henry Thorne that I realized they were of the same Thornes I had met last year.

Dylan, a teammate of Kris' from Mr. Yuk, is on the team with me, too. He's been playing on the team for 13 years. Thirteen. Years.

Matt's been playing on the team for 20.

Dana works at Carnegie Mellon. Amy was dating Paul at one point. Kris says the last time he saw Alex, he was 4 and already had a forehand. John was my UPA Coaching Clinic instructor (Note to Self: take the coaching clinic test before next week, for goodness sake!). Ricky I met last year as he was new to the UPA board as I was leaving the UPA.

I don't know. I expected to know only John on the team, and here I walk away realizing that I know a lot more people than I was expecting. What are the chances I'd play on the same team as one of Kris' former teammates? I mean, come on, that's crazy, given I knew no one on any of the teams I played against today. I knew of Jessi Witt on the first team. That's it, and I pick up with a team I know three people on, and peripherally three more?

That's just crazy talk.

Or, as John commented, "Welcome to the small, small world of ultimate."