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2000: Poultry Days XIX - How I spent my
summer vacation and won the tournament!
Poultry Days XIX - How I spent my
summer vacation and won the tournament!
As
the Tournament Directors of Poultry Days, we try to create the best tournament
we can. We build on our successes
each year to do it one better the next year.
People tell us it is the best tourney they have ever been to, and that
we can t let this be the last year of the tournament. For the article we wanted a different view this year.
One which would tell the story of what it is like to play at Poultry
Days. Maybe, those who have not
yet come will understand what makes people drive, fly or walk to this little
town in the Midwest to play Ultimate next to the corn fields during the
town s summer festival&
Dateline
Versailles (Ver-sayles), OH.
Poultry
Days, is an annual tournament to raise money for the Leukemia Society in honor
of Jeff "Thing" Warwick. Held
in early June in Versailles, OH, the tournament is a favorite of many players.
Camping is at the fields, nearby is a pool (and pond), showers, low
priced food, and of course the Versailles Poultry Days Fair, a slice of
Americana featuring rides, snacks, skeeball, and carnies.
The team I played with this year has been attending, in various
incarnations, since 1994 (I think), but has never won it all.
Friday,
June 9
The
second thing that we did after arriving in Versailles, OH was to move the tent
city of the Free Range Spirits. We
then adjourned to a local tavern for food and drink, and to enjoy the NBA
finals. After enjoying the
various macrobrews of the Midwest, some fries, and of course cottage cheese
(well it is the most readily digestible form of protein), we walked back to
camp. This was followed by a rather prolonged, and occasionally
incoherent 8 hour strategy session between FRSOTG'ers and the PAX
that finally broke off around 4 AM.
Our plan was clear: survive
Saturday play, and then make our college All- Stars earn their keep on Sunday.
What was also clear was that the People's elbow IS the most dynamic
move in sports entertainment. What
was less clear was who was to lay claim to having "the people's
hammer," and of course, the way to my campsite.
Quote
of the evening: "'Nuther
gun?" and
"Why not"
Saturday,
June 10
The
day broke on my head like a 2 x 4. I
tripped over the pile of empty cardboard and brown aluminum and made my way
slowly to the breakfast pavilion, while my team mates heaped abuse on me for
late night volume. I maintained
plausible deniability, blaming Robbye and Alex for everything. Breakfast was
simple soft fare, plus some Tums.
The
Poultry Days food is remarkably inexpensive.
Members of the community donate their time to help out, and given the
low cost of the food, I assume that some of it is donated as well.
It is merely indicative of the tremendous attention to detail taken by
Dale, Feebs, Wade, John, Chad, Rob, family & friends, etc. in
orchestrating this event. Check
out the website at www.poultrydays.com
for more information.
For
PAX Americana, the road to this years Versailles began January in Athens,
Georgia at the Savage 7 tournament. I
think that the roster swelled to 22 players by midway through February.
Victory was assured. However
attrition (oh! There's a "problem" with my plane ticket) and
desertion (oh... I've actually got my own bid this year) cost us numbers.
Tension was felt, tempers flared, and it appeared that the roster and
the outcome was in jeopardy. After
250 emails, one last minute phone call, and a kangaroo court we had 13 players
(8 men, 5 women).
Saturday
was uneventful for us. Pain
management, and a couple of injuries aside, we emerged victorious in our pool
after a paltry number of mid-day beers, way too many silly references to the
movie Gladiator (I mean, it is the PAX Americana), and retired to the all-star
Game.
Our
all-star. Selected for his poise,
athleticism, and hard work in single-handedly accounting for 95% of team
turnovers on Saturday (we ran out of hats), _____-dawg, as we'll call him,
redeemed himself in the all-star game. We
didn't bother to tell him his status until he'd put some miles on his liver,
but he came up big, w/ the plays of the game... a nutmeg goal, and a hammer
reception, for goal, trapping the Frisbee under his shirt for the catch.
Good work Nate, and enjoy the stylish jersey that the Tournament
provided to all of the All-star Players.
Off
to the skeeball, etc. The fair is
excellent. However, we got stuck
at the Skeeball area for most of the evening.
Quote
of the evening: Which way to
the Beer Tent?
Sunday,
June 11
Sunday at Poultry days is a dirt road
for all the top 16 teams. There
are seldom easy games. Teams such
as Red-Fish Blue-Fish (except, with revised chicken sounding names), compete
against Midwest all-stars (Breasts and Thighs), Texas all-stars (Pollos
Locos), all-star all-stars (Friends of Frank), NY all-stars (Free Range SOTG),
you get the idea. The first round
game Sunday morning can by the toughest of the weekend.
Residents of Versailles watch from their decks and yards as the two
Poultry Days teams of the 90s play their first game Sunday on fields named
The Smoke Field and the North Field.
Friends of Frank Perdue got behind early to Pollo Con Pistolas from
Austin, Texas, and ran out of points before they could get the lead back
losing 13-10. In maybe the best
game of the tournament, Dixie Chickens pulled out an amazing win over Free
Range Spirits in their game winning 13-12.
As Eric Olson from Free Range Spirits said, We had the disc three
times to win. The last time after a lay out block by myself on Donovan, we
moved the disc to 10 yards short of Dixie s goal line - we threw it away
then and they went the length, scored and won.
ugh! We traveled from
Brooklyn and it was well worth it. We had a disappointing loss Sunday but it
did not dampen our spirit. We partied hard and played hard all weekend and had
a blast. We ll be back! Pollo Con Pistolas swept the 90s out with their semi-final
win over Dixie Chickens 15-13 to play Chicken Pax in the finals.
We faced the Ohio University reunion team in our
first game Sunday morning in the prequarters
and sweated out a victory by 3. As an aside, they are based in Athens, OH.
We were loosely based in Athens, GA.
Plate of Shrimp? (Repo Man? Oh
never mind). Indicative of the
quality of this tournament, our Quarterfinal Match, against Breasts and Thighs
saw us down 12-10, cap at thirteen. I
don't even remember pulling it out. Two
close games later (Lemon Chicken & Pollo Con Pistolas), and we're
Reaux-cham-trophy-ing, putting on the hats, and getting the pic with Miss
Chick.
And
it ends just as quickly as it begins. Where
one minute, it's a busy tournament atmosphere, the next it's just 15 old
friends sitting around a picnic table, waiting to run out of beer, toasting
plays, and wishing well.
And
then 5 minutes later, you are hauling ass for a car, gear shoved loosely into
bags, as a huge thunderstorm starts dumping on the deserted fields.
Hey, wouldn't be Poultry Days otherwise.
Luke
Smith
Luke@shiftyeye.com
The
Tournament Directors would also like to thank all 60 teams who played this
year and the winners and runners-ups of the 4 Divisions:
Egg
Grades
Winners
Runners-Ups
Division
A
Chicken Pax
Pollo Con
Pistolas
Division
B
Voodoo Chicken
Super Fry
Division
C
Chicken Soup 420
DiscChickenMonster
Division
D
Chick Fil Layout
Flying HorseChickens
Visit
the tournament web site at www.PoultryDays.com
for Bios and Histories of these and all the teams at the 19th
Annual Jeff Warrick Poultry Days Classic.
Thanks and see you next year?
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