Yep, I'm still alive. Since my last post, I've been promoted to the A-team. We've played in a few tourneys, although we haven't had any really good ones. Centex was pretty good, but could have been better...more on that shortly. QCTU was pretty bad (2-5 overall, and I got hurt). Actually, I lied...Ultimax was really good, but I didn't go to that one because my shoulder was still hurting. I went to Chucktown the weekend after that with the B-team and we made finals, so that was really good.

Centex was in Austin last weekend. I played a decent amount (not a hell of a lot, but more than I expected), and did pretty well, except in the last game, when I had two turnovers in a point. We still won that one 15-7, so no further complaints. Overall record was 4-3:

NCSU 13-10 UNT (Nationals last year)
NCSU 13-8 Arizona (Also at Nationals last year)
NCSU 13-7 Ohio State
NCSU 8-13 Stanford
NCSU 10-13 Oregon
NCSU 11-12 Western Washington
NCSU 15-7 Carleton College (Also at Nationals last year)

Roll Call is this weekend in Washington, DC. Should be a good time.

I'm still alive...

So swim season is over, as most of you know, but Ultimate season is just starting. The Summer League season ended with a loss in semifinals, but that's exactly when club season starts. Originally, our team was "The Recyclables," as most of the players on the team had been cut from higher level teams. Nonetheless, there is a huge amount of talent present. I don't understand how some of my teammates didn't make one of the elite co-ed or open teams.

We had a tournament last weekend, and frankly, I played like shit, and I, unfortunately, allowed my poor performance to get the best of me and I was not a happy person on the field or on the sideline. It was quite the lesson in having my priorities straight. I love playing pickup games, but in the week before the tournament, I played pickup on Wednesday. After laying out for a disc and landing on my hip, I had shooting pain down my leg for the rest of the week, which wasn't made any better by playing pickup again on Thursday and laying out on the same hip again. It was still quite sore on Saturday morning, and remained sore for the whole weekend. So note to self...don't play pickup before a tourney...or at least take it easy...although I know I'm not capable of taking it easy...so just no pickup before tourneys for me.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were amazing, and the competition hasn't disappointed so far. Watching swimming tonight, really, it took me back to four or five years ago, in the evening finals at High School Regionals. I was a member of Chapel Hill High's 4x100 freestyle relay, and we were seeded 5th going into finals. Bret, Lucas, and I think Keith were our other three legs. I swam one of the early legs, and Lucas, our All-American candidate, would be anchoring. We were right where we were seeded going into that anchor leg - 5th, a couple of body lengths behind first. My voice was totally shot by then, but I remember yelling my lungs out anyway, and Lucas busted out a 47.91 anchor leg, moving us all the way to 2nd, behind our conference rival, Jordan. If he had another 5 yards, he would have caught Jordan's relay. At the time, that was the most exciting race I had ever seen. Fast forward 11 months. Now a senior, I'm anchoring the 200 freestyle relay in a regular season meet at Riverside, who, while not necessarily a threat to win the state title, always has a strong 200 free relay. Behind by a body length entering my leg, I decided that we weren't going to lose that race, and I swam a 22.5 and caught their anchor. The first thing I saw when I popped up was my team yelling and cheering for me. A few weeks later, same situation, except it's a home meet. Same result. At the time, those were probably the best races I had seen.

But seriously...United States Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay. Enough said. Jason Lezak catching up by almost a body length on the last leg, and mah boy Cullen Jones is an Olympic Gold Medalist! Wolfpack in da house! It looked like silver was a foregone conclusion with about 30 meters left, then Lezak turned on the burners and caught (now former) world record holder Alain Bernard. Holy cow.

Season over

So my rookie season as a swim coach has ended. Umstead Pines finished the regular season 4-0, as previously stated. At champs, our 6-and-under boys and 15-18 boys both won their age groups, and overall, we finished 2nd in Division II, which, from what I understand, is our best finish in about 10 years. Most importantly, we had a lot of great swims from everyone at champs. We had some people drop over 10 seconds in a single event, and two of our last three swimmers in the 9-10 butterfly dropped 7 seconds each. Sarah won two out of three events, getting out-touched in the 100 freestyle but coming back to win both the butterfly and backstroke events. Joey had an amazing back half of the race in backstroke and raced ahead of everyone. Awards were quite a bit of fun, and the slide show put together by G was amazing.

So thanks to everyone for making this season happen...all of the other coaches, the swimmers, parents, parent-reps, and volunteers. I had a lot of fun, and I hope to be back next year for another exciting season.

Chuck Yu out.

Regular season over

So the regular season in Durham Summer Swim League is over, and Umstead Pines/Willowhaven is the Division II regular season champion! Woohoo! We finished the regular season at 4-0 last night with a nice win over Duke Faculty Club. Again, time drops all around. In fact, for the 11-and-up age groups (11-12, 13-14, and 15-18), we, the coaches, instituted a "Milkshake Challenge," where a significant time drop (determined by coaches Charles and Melissa) in an event (chosen by the swimmer) earns a milkshake from Cookout. We had quite a few people make it, but even those that didn't had some great time drops and near misses. I think the Milkshake Challenge is gonna stay around for awhile.

On another note, I also saw a few people that I hadn't seen in a few years...Roger and Emma were both swimming for DFC, and Lauren was lifeguarding. Fittingly enough, Lauren is the daughter of my first coach, Rusty, who is an amazing coach and pretty much my model for anything I do that is coaching-related. Except the Milkshake Challenge. Melissa and I started that.

Yeah, Asia.

Just a quick thought...

So I've decided that every team needs an Asian handler. This, of course, is why the Buzz Bullets from Japan are so good. Seattle Sockeye has one (Jimmy Chu), and the UPA College Champion in the Women's division has many Asians, and, while Open division champion Wisconsin did not have any Asian handlers, of their three opponents in the championship bracket, only one, Carleton, had any Asians on the roster.

Fortunately for me, no team I every play on will be lacking an Asian handler, as I *am* one :-)

Chuck Yu out.

Woohoo

So I have that feeling right now that you might get after running your little tail off for two and a half hours and getting the win to show for it. We won 17-9. Not much scoring for me...in fact, I don't think I scored a goal. I did get a layout-D followed by a sky and throw three goals, two on nice hucks, and one short continuation that the Atlantic Coast Women's Freshman of the Year was able to run down on the right side of the end zone. We didn't have that many subs, so I played most of the time, but we had very strong women and some fast guys (aside from the fast guys who weren't there). The cold beer, cherry limeade, and Sonic burger definitely hit the spot afterwards.

Chuck Yu out...literally.

Short update: 2-0

Sup, homies?

Umstead Pines at Willowhaven Country Club is now 2-0 after a close win against Croasdaile on Saturday. Great swims all around, as usual. Good to see legal strokes from some swimmers who didn't have them last week, but still some work to be done. I'm gonna work with the kids on their strokes this week and get them swimming butterfly legally within a couple of weeks. Easier said than done, I know, but they're quick learners.

Also, my Summer League Ultimate team (with whom I have played a total of once) is now 3-1 (the one loss coming when the captains were missing and appointed me as the replacement captain), and I can't wait to get back on the field.

I'm tired. Chuck Yu out.