Aye, aye, Capt'n!

So, Mischief is having "Captain Feedback" time. An email is going out to every player to help each of them know where they are on the team. Positions and roles will be defined at this point, until the of the season.

In other words, we're being pigeon-holed, so we better like it.

My favorite part of my email:

Your mental game is the most important factor on whether you will have a good game or a bad game. When you make one play, that gives you the confidence to make another, which gives you the confidence to make another, and so on. Don't be surprised that you can make plays, or that you can shut someone down. You've done it before. Once you display a skill, you own that skill, so we know that you can make plays. I want you to really focus on your mental game at Labor Day and Sectionals, trying to keep a positive attitude the entire time. Think of some of the good sayings from "The Mental Game of Baseball" that really keep you focused, because a focused Kitt is a star player.

I laughed when I read that.

Last season, at Regionals, in a game against CTR, I was marked up against their top woman. The tournament was my first tournament in several weeks, having missed Sectionals with four broken ribs, and I was still having problems breathing deeply.

After some stoppage of play, probably a time out, CTR was at the goal line, setting up an isolation play for the score, with my woman as the iso.

Mano y mano.

And she was their best woman.

Giving her the whole endzone to work with, her teammates moved to the four corners. She went to the middle.

Facing my hips the same directions as hers, fronting her one step, looking back to see both her and the thrower in my peripheral, I let the marker know I was ready, and the disc was tapped in.

I remember hearing Rick Buellesbach's voice. I remember she made four, maybe five cuts. I remember being in front of her the whole way, thinking I might have to layout for this one.

I remember Rick yelling at me to stay with her, she's cutting back to the middle, and scrambling hard back away from the sideline.

And I remember seeing Mark Smith streak in with the poach and catch the disc for the turnover.

We scored that point.

We won the game.

And I had shut down their top woman player.