Ballarat!

This weekend I went to Ballarat, which is where regionals for ultimate were held. Ballarat is about a hundred km north-west of Melbourne, more in the interior of Victoria. It rained all weekend, which was a bit rough, but also needed. I drove up Saturday morning with two other Honey women, and we stayed at someone's grandpa's house! It was about 12 degrees on Saturday, or low 50s, with lots of wind and rain, but it did get sunny by the afternoon. Today it fluctuated between about 10 and 12, depending on wind, rain, and cloud cover. It was, in other words, pretty chilly - especially for this Minnesotan who didn't really pack layers! I had a great time, though, and got to know a lot of the players better. Ballarat is famous for its historical gold fields, and I would like to go back some time - I've heard its a pretty fun weekend trip.

Disclaimer: This post, from here on, is almost solely about ultimate. See very bottom for photo descriptions.

This weekend, at regionals, we went 0-5, but played super well, and grew a lot as a team. We had ten Honey Bees, and picked up three junior players from Geelong (one was 14, the other two 16), another player from Geelong who will be playing with us at Nationals, and two others - I don't know who they normally play for. The juniors were a bit hard to get used to, though they were nice and had a lot of raw talent and energy. We hadn't played together before, so working as a team was really hard at first, and we got better at it throughout the day on Saturday. On Sunday, the junior Geelong girls didn't pick up with us, and we lost one Honey, plus the two extras, so we played with nine for the first game since the tenth player had car trouble. We picked it up a lot on Sunday, playing harder and better, and with a lot more flow. This is the basis of the team that will go to Women's Nats, and once we've practiced together a bit more, I think we'll do well.

On Saturday, we played Honey A, Team Box, and Bush. Bush is the Tasmanian team, and they had a few ringers we couldn't shut down, though the rest of their team was still quite good. Team Box won the tournament handily, and beat us very quickly. Honey A took second, and beat us handily as well - they are, after all, our A team!

On Sunday we played two games against Indies, and I don't remember where they are from. We scored three points in each game, and got a lot more competitive against them. The scores didn't reflect the games we played, which was frustrating, but we'll do better next time. They were the team that we best matched up against, and these were both our best, and most fun, games of the weekend. We ended up placing dead last, but we are headed to Nats in Perth in April!

Its been a huge learning experience so far to play with a new team. Almost everything they do is set up at least slightly differently than what I'm used to with Stickies, so I'm getting a lot of ideas for discussion with captains next year. Its hard, though. I'm used to setting up the field in certain ways, and I have to think really hard about really simple things - like where to be for the dump. I am definitely learning a lot, and I think I'll come out of this a much better player. At the very least, I'll be more fit - fitness training is really emphasized on this team. I really like it, though. Honey Bees remind me of Stickies, and they are all really nice and inclusive. I have the feeling that these will be some of the friendships that stick around, and make my stay in Melbourne memorable.

Photos: The first I took on M8 Ballarat, the highway between Melbourne and Ballarat, as we drove up, right before it started pouring. The second is a team pic after our last game, on the sidelines of the Honey A-Team Box final, wrapped in our sleeping bags. I am sitting in the tan blanket in the front row. Left to right, the players in the front are: Alice, Bec, Jen, Maddie, Mon. In the back row are: Jude, Amanda, Lauren, Carolyn, and Tiff. The third picture is Tiff, giving her "end of tournament" speech, and awarding most improved and most valuable "bee". She's one of the captains, along with Jen and Jude.