Friday, August 07, 2009

Austin Scoober Article by Mike

http://upla.austinultimate.org/august2009/worldgamescara

Cara and Team USA bring back Gold!

By: Michael “Tank” Natenberg

10,000 cheering fans, stadium lights, locker rooms, trainers, masseuses and chiropractors, managers, instant reply on the Jumbo-Tron! The players at the 8th World Games hosted in Kaohsiung City, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) experienced all of this. From July 19th thru 21st, Ultimate Frisbee was on display in the main stadium specifically built for the World Games; think a smaller but no less impressive Bird’s Nest. 6 countries: USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Taiwan competed for the medals.

Although Team Canada came into the event with the #1 ranking, many believed Japan and the USA were the teams to beat. The three-day tournament was a round robin format to medal rounds, 6 total games. Each day was split into a morning and evening session. While I was there to support Cara, I also worked as a line official for WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation). This was an amazing opportunity that gave me a sideline view of all the games and access to the World Games venues and Team USA.

USA faced stiff competition on the first day winning a close game 13-11 against Australia in the morning and playing a near perfect game under the lights against Canada, winning 13-6. On Day 2, the USA easily took care of Great Britain and Chinese Taipei. The first upset of the tournament happened under the lights on Day 2 when Australia pulled out an ultimate point win over Japan in one of the most entertaining games of Frisbee I’ve ever seen. The morning session of Day 3 was the last round of pool play, while the evening would be the medal round. Japan and the USA faced off during the latest round in the morning in blazing heat. Team USA played short-handed after Cate Foster started to show signs of heat exhaustion, and lost a close game. I was inspired to see how quickly Team USA was able to move on from their loss and regain their swagger and confidence in preparation for the Gold medal round.

The USA absolutely dominated in the finals to earn their Gold Medals with a 13-6 win over Japan. The men and women out played their match-ups every point. I was most impressed with the chemistry and winning culture Team USA developed in the short time they were together and the focus they were able to bring to the big games.

Cara made Austin proud with steady play as one of Team USA’s main handlers. Besides seeing Cara celebrate with Team USA after the final goal, one of my favorite memories of the trip was watching her come down with a great grab over her defender and poaching male defender in their first game against Japan. Fortunately, I was not officiating this game so I was able to celebrate and cheer from the sideline.

For photos and videos recapping Team USA’s time in Taiwan check out this link: http://upa.org/programs/intl/worldgames2009/updates

Picture above is from the UPA's flickr feed.

Friday, July 31, 2009

27 in HK!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I kept forgetting it was my birthday so not only was it a nice reminder, but it was nice to hear from so many friends to make it a little less weird that I was so far away on my 27th birthday. It turns out it was a great excuse to eat dessert 20 times in one day. I ended up meeting up with some HK frisbee players for a run though, and we went out for some delicious and dirty street food.

I spent the next day going to Lantau Island with my new local friend and frisbee player, Kat. We took a ferry over to the island and then a bus up to the famous Pin Lu Monestary. Their claim to fame is a ginormous bronze Buddah statue on a mountain top. The view of the surrounding islands was spectacular. Then we ate lunch at the vegetarian restaurant that the Buddist monks run. Last night I attended a HK UPA (frisbee governing body here) meeting and then went out to some not so swanky (Club 7-11 consisted of drinking beers on the street outside a very popular 7-11 convenience store) and then very swanky bars (26th story of a high rise on a hillside with amazing view of skyline at night).

Today I'm off to Lantau again to play some beach ultimate and camp out on the beach. Tomorrow I'm helping to run an Ultimate clinic for local beginners, then practicing with the local team to help them prepare for a tournament in Singapore next weekend. Frisbee fun!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Solo adventure in Hong Kong!

It's been a long time since I've traveled alone, so it took a while to get back into the groove of things, but I've hit my stride and am enjoying my time in Hong Kong. I'll spare you the long winded text and go for pictures.

Taroko Gorge, Taiwan

Below are pictures from our time in Taroko Gorge National Park and on the east coast of Taiwan. For further explanation, see the previous post, sans pictures.

The entrance to Taroko National Park. The roads were very narrow and in most places only one lane. Which made it interesting when huge buses full of tourists had to get by each other. Complicated by the pretty constant debris from falling rocks...made for an exciting drive into the gorge.

Typical trail picture. About to hit the Baiyang Trail to a sweet waterfall. The trail ran through a series of long and very dark tunnels.

Mountains! Weee! This was the road down to the tiny town from our hostel.

We instantly made a frisbee friend and threw with him and his family outside in their driveway, which they lit with a floodlight.

The incredible family that ran a homestay. They gave us dinner, mangoes from their tree, and hooked us up with a local man who had a room to rent since they were full.

Mike and I took a break on the trail to go swimming in the river. It was a very nice break from the heat and we didn't have to worry about crocs this time.

The huge multi-tiered water fall at the end of the Baiyang Trail. It was beautiful.

A view of the coast from our train window.

Lunch on the train. Cold noodles with a really yummy peanut sauce. This was the day that I finally got my appetite back from being sick. Mike, unfortunately, was still feeling really badly.

In case you can't see her shirt, it's a LoneStar shirt! She had no idea what Lonestar was.

Yet another beautiful waterfall on the Baiyang Trail.

A night market in Taipei our last night there. Lots of people, colors, and unidentifiable meats.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Frisbee and Whisbie

The last two days of the World Games had us playing Great Britain, Chinese Taipei, and then Japan on the last morning of pool play followed by the medal rounds. So it turned out (since Australia beat Canada) that we would play Japan twice in the same day. We woke up that day with almost all of the women on Team U.S.A. coming down with a wicked cold/flu. Gwen and Chelsea were feeling particularly bad, but as soon as they stepped on the field you couldn't tell...ballers! The first game against Japan (last game in round robin) was tight, and we made some very uncharacteristic mistakes early on to lose. We were pretty fired up to see them again under the lights for the gold medal match.

We spent the rest of the day resting, eating, and massaging. I don't remember too much of the finals game, other than about every 2 minutes someone on our team would make a sick play and after about 5 of those, I was confident we were going to win. Everyone was so fired up...it was an incredible energy to feel as a team. We hung around for a few hours afterwards for the medal ceremony, to trade jerseys with other teams, sign autographs, and take pictures with fans. Dylan and Bart were especially popular because beards are a hot commodity here (not to mention their stunning good looks).

Despite being sick, we rallied and hit up a bar with the other frisbee teams and proceeded to drink too much. Mike, Alicia, Beau, and Angela took up the slack for the rest of us and stayed up until dawn riding bikes into hotels, 7-11s, and rivers. The pictures are epic.

The next day everyone that was left caught a bullet train back to Taipei and we hit up the Shilin Night Market. More drinking ensued, crazy and delicious food was ingested, and completely unecessary purchases were made. I was still trying to recover from the pig SARS, and Mike was still bragging that he wasn't going to get it. My parents met up with us the next day in Taipei and we went to the National Palace Museum. The most impressive things were absolutely tiny carvings (like intricate little boats with people in them made out of olive pits) that you can't imagine why anyone would spend their time and energy making despite being very cool to look at.

Almost everyone on the team left the next morning except for Beau, Mike and I so we headed for a cheap hostel and adventure. Mike had finally come down with whatever it was that the team had, and Beau and I were finally getting over it. This night can only be explained in pictures but it involved a lot of Vodka and Whisbie (a very shady "energy/health" drink), and Mike was wearing my jeans in a dance club by the end of the night. Adventure!

Beau left us yesterday and we caught a train to Taroko Gorge on the east side of the island and in the mountains! We arrived late at night with no place to stay, no taxi to catch (like we expected), and no good ideas left. Luckily, a man from Taipei gave us directions to walk to a local homestay about 1 km. out of town down a dark and deserted road. I was starting to stress out about having to sleep outside the train station when we arrived at the homestay. They were full for the night, but the incredible family that ran it hooked us up with an authentic dinner of eel and rice noodles, beer, and a friend in town who had a room available for the night. We taught her kids to play frisbee and left our disc with them as a token of our appreciation.

We're about to hit up a hike to a waterfall to go swimming!

More adventures to come...
C and T

Monday, July 20, 2009

Photos!!! I just found the media room available to athletes and staff. Here are some photos to enjoy. These range from our first days in Taiwan to Tournament time.

The first photo is from the night market. While Cara and Team USA went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, Amanda, Angela Lin, and our new Atlanta friends Jason and Relah went to the night market to taste the local food. I have now eaten squid, octopus (Octo Balls), tasty tofu, dumplings, and chicken heart. Everything was delicious. I smelled stinky tofu, and stayed away.

Frisbee Opening Ceremonies