alma mater and ultimate

The "Old Kenyon" dorm, viewed through the trees

Back on Saturday we drove down to Granville (home of Dennison University) to watch our lad play in a big Ultimate Frisbee tournament. He had signed on to be in charge of the whole shebang, involving 28 men's teams and there were another 9 women's teams as well. So there were about 600 people out there on this huge field, and William had to handle things like getting a check to the local grocer at 7 a.m. for enough bananas, bagels, and oranges for the teeming masses yearning to play ultimate.

On the way down, we took a left turn in Mount Vernon and quickly visited my alma mater, Kenyon College, tucked away at the top of a hill in bucolic Gambier, Ohio. There were not many students about, but the buildings were still there, looking all historically significant and such.

Pretty funny: Those birds up there are sculptures

This one, staring down at us on the path, is real

It is always weird to me to go back to that hallowed ground that I trod for four years in what seems like centuries ago. College for me was The Best Time Ever, So Far, back when it occurred. There was just this general acceptance of other people and their ideas, no matter how far-fetched those ideas, or far out those people, were. I have never lived in such an accepting and generally supportive atmosphere, and such a true sense of community, since.

Peirce Hall, an interesting place to take a meal

Of interest to fellow Kenyon alums: this is the "new Dempsey" -
alas, no more Berberian Pea or Montgomery Fork in the ceiling.

Anyhow, the daydreams of years gone by came to a halt with the vibrating cell phone and the son asking our whereabouts. So we hit the road to watch "college: the next generation". And actually, and rather sadly, William's college days are indeed numbered - down to about a month.

Middle Path - the spine and central nerve system of the campus. A perfectly straight, mile-long path down the center of the campus, piercing right through the center of the town (what there is of it). They say Guard fighter jets used to sight on it and fly along its length from time to time.

OK: Ultimate Frisbee - it's sort of a combo of our American football and the rest of the world's futbol (soccer). One team lines up and one guy on that team heaves the disk down to the other team, like a kick-off (but they call it a "pull"). The offensive team then works the disk down the field to their end zone by a series of throws from player to player. You cannot run with the disk, except for a couple steps after catching it. And you have to end up with someone catching it within the end zone. If someone misses, it is the other team's disk right where it was dropped. And of course there can be interceptions.

A busy field of play

A cool aspect is that there are no refs. They are replaced by a general feeling of sportsmanship and goodwill called "the spirit of the game". Defenders count to ten for a player with the disk to throw it. Once in a while there are disputes, and I cannot recall all the rules for resolving them, but it is done by the players themselves. It seems like a defender with a beef generally gets his day in court.

typical situation with offense and defender

They play to something like 13 points or goals. First team to get there wins, and it takes 45 minutes, an hour, or a bit more to get there.
William's team underperformed a bit and went 2-3 on the day. Not good enough to advance from this tourney (sectionals) to the next (regionals), so William's career in Ultimate may be over. He can play a fifth year if he goes to a grad school that fields a team. It is not a full-fledged team sport by any means, so it is a "club" sport, and as such is a bit more loosely practiced than, say, college football, where you live and die for the team. These guys are pretty cool about the whole thing.
All in all, a fun day for us, ending up helping the crew in charge to pick up banana and orange peels on the various sidelines. After a fairly quick meal at a Chipotle up in Columbus, we bid the boy and a bud of his whom he had recruited to help run the tournament good night, heading back into our way-post-college lives.
And I almost forgot...in the midst of the tournament, there was this dramatic FLYOVER. I am not sure whether William arranged for this or not, but it was SPECTACULAR. I happened to swing the lens skyward and capture the pageantry...