kodiak

Sharks vs. Nashville

Windsurfing at Shoreline

Ryan, Jane, Nick, Maureen and myself all headed out to Shoreline last Sunday for a little windsurfing. Jane and I didn’t surf, but I took the opportunity to snap a couple shots of the others out on the water. Enjoy!

Welcome to South Carolina

Geez, I am a slacker! Again, sorry it has taken me so long to post the results from South Carolina!

Short version: We won both games and have advanced to the national championship game against the Boston Irish. The final game is set for June 10th in San Diego.

Long version:
We flew from SFO again on the Friday before the games, via Dulles (my favorite airport) into Columbia. The flight could have been worse and past pretty quickly. The airport was a welcome re-introduction to the south- white rocking chairs and sweet ice tea just waiting for you in the terminal. We picked up the vans and headed into Lexington- toward our hotel and the fields.

The drive out to our hotel was uneventful, but you can tell so quickly that Carolina and California are worlds apart. American cars driving down winding two-lane roads dotted with a Waffle Houses and church every 500 yards. We stood out a little, but no more than any of the other 39 rugby teams in the area for the weekend. The Comfort turned Quality Inn was again our home for the weekend. The owner seemed to remember the team from last year- perhaps Mission makes an impression.

We took care of the basics, beer, water and dinner and then settled in for the night. Some of us thought about going out, but to where? There was nothing around!

The next morning a couple of us headed to the closest Waffle House and got some breakfast. So tasty! even with the WT smoking a few booths down. Who smokes at breakfast!?! And from there back to the hotel and then the fields. It is a great complex, 9 or so fields all together, though it is lacking in the shade area. Not that it mattered- with the humidity around 90%, it was just hot- shade or no shade.

To start the day off, all of our hearts were warmed by the defeat of Bend Rugby 42-18 at the hands of the Boston Irish. We were next on the same field against Pasadena RFC and at this point I will post *their* interpretation of the game:

9:00am - The team arrived at the pitch and will be watching the first set of games.
10:15am - The team is having a brief meeting with coach, going over the basic game plan.
10:45am - The team will start to warm-up. I will do my next update at 10:15-10:25 and will be online from then until the end of the game.
11:32 - Pasadena kicking off to Mission.
11:39 - A couple of bad plays but we have been in their side threatening to score the whole game so far.
11:48 - We are dominating their scrums, we just had one lapse and Mission is barely on their side for the first time.
11:50 - Mission 7 - Pasadena 0
12:03 - Sorry for the long update. We just held them up from scoring and we now are attempting to score ourselves.
12:11 - A couple more faux pas see us defending our try zone again. Mission 14 - Pasadena 0
12:17 — half time Mission 14 - 0
12:22 - We are receiving the kick, and going left to right on the computer
A quick review of the first half. Pasadena has played 80% of the time within 30 metres of scoring. A couple of mistakes and Pasadena not following the game plan and they got two tries that we gave them, they did not earn. They are a typical islander team, they suck the backs in to create an over load.
12:33 - We have been going back and forth midfield. Almost scoring to be pushed out of bounds about the 3 metres. Ciampa, FYI Earl drove up from Georgia, and Swing stopped by.
12:36 - Ball came back to mid field, went into the maul, ball passed out to Bart, he took a hit, but got the ball out, passed to another back, somehow Bart got back to take the next pass, which he passed to Dean, who who ran down the side line kicking the ball. They played Dean instead of the ball, penalty try. Mission 14 - Pasadena 7
12:42 - water break
12:45 - Mission just got a penalty, kicked for points. Mission 17 - Pasadena 7
12:51 - Mission got a lucky bounce, just ran it in for a try. 24 - 7
12:55 - Mission 29 Pasadena 7
1:05 - We dominated them, had possesion most of the game, beat them in the in our line-outs and theier, beat them in our scrums and theirs. Just had a few bad breaks and played one try a man down. Final score 34 -7

My personal favorite is “They are a typical islander team, they suck the backs in to create an over load” — which is kinda the whole point of modern rugby. As you can see, we totally got our asses kicked en route to a 34-7 victory.

On Sunday we played Louisville, a strong team- good skills, hard workers. We beat them 43-7. At least they scored a real try. We came out strong and the game was never in doubt. Sadly there was a bad injury. Doug- our Zimbabwean breakaway, badly dislocated his elbow early in the first half and is out for championship game. From there on out we scored almost at will and ran Louisville ragged. Hats off to them, but better luck next year.

On to Nationals

Sorry I have been so late in updating, but it has been a busy couple of weeks.

Mission traveled to bend Oregon this past weekend (April 21 and 22) to play in the Pacific Coast Championship. All in all it was a good trip, and the short story is that we have advanced to the next round in South Carolina on May 11 and 12. No for the longer version…

We all flew from SFO Friday morning into Portland airport and then rented a few vans to get the rest of the way to Bend. It is about a 3 hour drive, and to my surprise it did not rain- very un-Oregon. We got in to town, had some dinner and went out that night in Bend. It is a good little town and has definitely grown up over the last few years.

The first game we played against the Arizona Union champs, Camelback. The game went as expected with Mission winning 50-15. Camelback played well, but was pretty well out matched by both our forwards and backs. The only other thing to mention is that I broke my nose about fivee minutes after I came on the field late in the first half. I guess I was due, this in the first time I have broken it. It is not that bad, and I played out the rest of the game. No guts, no glory.

That night I met up with my parents, who had driven down from Portland for the weekend to watch the games. That brought the total number of Mission fans up to three. I guess the defending National Champs are not much of a draw. :-)

The game the next day was, for better or worse, much more interesting…

Due to my nose and general lack of ability to breath through it, I sat out the second game. We played the winner from the second first day game, Bend. Yup home town, home field, and as it turned out- home referee. The officiating in the best case was strict, and in the worst case slanted. The official handed out 35 penalties during the match- that works out to roughly one every two minutes. 23 against Mission, 12 against Bend. And Bend to their credit made us pay dearly for those penalties. Their fullback was dead one with is penalty kicks, converting pretty much every infringement on our half of the field into 3 points.

At halftime we held a 17-12 lead, having scored three tries and converting one of them. Bend had not even seen the try line, but was still very much in the game. during the second half it was more of the same- penalty, penalty penalty. The most controversial of which resulted in the awarding of a penalty try. This is only the second penalty try I have ever seen awarded. Once in college, never internationally and now this one. They tend to stick in your mind.

With ten minutes to go in the game, Mission was down 11 points and needed to get something going. We made a few substitutions to put fresh legs on the field and had at it. Paul, one of our first year players, made a great move to the outside after taking a pop kick from the center and then proceeded to run through two or three defenders for a try. We did not successfully convert the kick after though. This made it a six point deficit with about 5 minutes left. After a few more phases of play Mission made anther charge at the try line, again with Paul breaking through and then feeding the ball to Pila, our inside center. Pila faked a pop kick and ran through to the outside corner for another try. At this point time had expired. Arcia lined up the kick after and knocked the ball through- barely. It hit the cross bar and far upright on its way over. And that was the end of it. Mission won by a single point on the last play of the game.

They don’t put an asterisk next to the ‘W’ for barely winning, nor do they put one for getting robbed. We are the number one seed in the nation heading to South Carolina, and unfortunately that means Bend will be in another bracket. If we do get to face them again it will be in the National Championship game, and part of me hopes they make it. You see, Mission crushed Bend last year 70-0 to advance to Nationals, and well, we are pretty confident we can do it again- even with a referee that seems set on a different outcome.

We always joke as a team that it is “us against the world”, and that is often not the case, but sometimes you do have to wonder…

Rugby

It occurred to me today that I have said virtually nothing about rugby since I started playing for Mission. I am loving playing again full-time. It is amazing how having a sport in your life can help structure the rest of it. Practice on Thursdays, games on Saturdays- not a huge commitment, but you get so much out if it. The guys on the team have played together for quite some time and do a great job of keeping the team casual. Most players come to practice, many don’t. And while it is my rookie season- I am pretty happy that I am getting playing time and working in the rotation at both lock and 8 man.

Mission Rugby Club are the defending USA Rugby Division III Men’s National Champions and given that fact, this season is pretty much going as expected and we are undefeated. We are blowing teams out of the water. That is not as much fun as it sounds, but at least no one is getting hurt. Yesterday’s game is a good example of that. We defeated the Marin Reds 65 - 0, scoring 34 points in the first half, 31 in the second. And while I have to hand to Marin for working hard the whole game- the outcome was never really in doubt after about 20 minutes of play.

We have the next three weeks off and then get back at it late in February, playing through until national tournament in May. Should be fun!

American Bouldering Series Regional Competition

Following today’s rugby match against Berkeley (we won, 2-0 on the season!), I headed to Planet Granite to watch the American Bouldering Series Regional Competition. Wow, can they climb. It is crazy to watch these people, most of them kids (well younger than I) flashing routes that are probably somewhere between V6 and V9. Unreal!

Some notes on the pictures. My sister hooked me up with a gift certificate from Adorama for Christmas and I turned that into an external flash unit for my D50. I went with the SB-800, which is capable of driving additional external flash slaves, and this was my first time using it. I am definitely still getting the hang of it, but compared with the built-in unit … well there is no comparison. The refresh speed alone makes the unit worth purchasing, but the ability to use gel filters- or even just a simple diffuser adds an whole new dimension to my photography. The last competition I attended, I was forced to use my 50mm 1.4f lens, which I love, but is not the best for closeups or sports. This time around I was able to use my 70-300mm lens, which has reach, but is slooooow. Using the flash unit, things came out a pretty well. I was using the diffuser, which probably wasn’t necessary, but all in all, I am happy with the initial results.

Stanford Men’s Rugby vs. University of Oregon

After playing in the Ten’s Tournament yesterday, I lamented not bringing my camera equipment. I have zero pictures of me playing rugby, but I do like shooting the sport. With that in mind- I headed back up to Palo Alto to watch the Stanford Men’s Firsts take on the University of Oregon, only this time I brought my equipment.

The only other thing to note from the morning’s activity is that I *really* *really* *really* want a better telephoto lens for shooting events like this. I would love something like a 200 - 400 mm f/2.0 constant aperture lens, but that is not going to happen- I don’t have an extra 5k laying around, but something in a 300 or 400 mm f/4.0 could work as well :-)

Stanford Ten’s Tournament

Wow, long day …

I woke up at around 6 this morning and headed up to Stanford for the Ten’s Rugby Tournament. Earlier in the week I had gotten a note on the Mission Rugby mailing list that San Jose State would likely be short on players and could use a hand. The news that we needed to be there around 7am showed up a little later, and from what I saw the rest of the day- really put off people.

So there I was, 7 am at Stanford, standing in the dark and in the cold looking for a rugby team that I had never played with, and wondering just what was in store for the rest of the day. Luckily I found the SJSU team and Mission players slowly started to drift in. Our first match kicked off at 7:42 AM and through out the day I played 4 matches, starting for the SJSU A side at lock/break in the last 3 matches. I wish I could say that we walked away with the tournament trophy, but that was far from the case. SJSU is a young team, they lack discipline and well… heart. Not all, but many. Still it was fun to play. As it always is with rugby- teams are happy to have more players.

My right knee eventually let me know that it was not too happy with the tournament style of play– 20 minutes on, 2 hours off. Usually you do the damage in a nice contiguous 90 minute game and then drink the bumps and bruises off immediately following. We did not have that luxury today.