We're going to Nationals, baby!
That's right: We're going to Nationals. Two weeks ago, the Tufts Men's Ultimate Frisbee team went to Newport, R.I. to compete in the New England Regionals. Sixteen teams showed up; only two advanced to the Ultimate Players Association College National Championships. The Tufts team was one of those to advance.
For my teammates and me, this is a truly great accomplishment. There are over 300 college Frisbee teams in the country and only 16 qualify for Nationals. We spent all fall, winter, and spring working our hardest here in Medford, and at this time next week, we will be in Seattle, Wash. competing for the National Championship against the likes of Stanford, Berkeley, and Brown.
The point here, though, is not that we are so energized about our potential to become National Champions, or that we are excited about our ability to claim that we are one of the best teams in the country. Rather, our success means that we have reached a goal that was set by twenty-one men back when the warmth of summer had barely faded. And now, as the heat begins to creep back in - nine months later - we have accomplished something together.
We started in the fall before classes even began, playing casual games on the Residential Quad during Freshman Orientation, trying to attract new players. We continued through the fall semester, traveling every weekend to Williams or Brown or Yale to compete against other New England teams. Over winter break, we sent each other e-mails about "what we did for the team today," detailing the running workouts that we completed while away from campus.
Upon returning to Tufts in late January, we began indoor practices. The fifty members of our A and B teams would come from all corners of campus, dropping whatever work they had that night to run, sweat, and train. In February and March, we traveled as far as Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina to play, and at this point, Ultimate players around the country began to hear a little buzz about Tufts.
During every weekend and late-night practice, we all heard the same questions. From friends: "Why can't you come out and party?" From girlfriends: "Why can't you sleep over tonight?" And, from concerned and paying parents: "How are you managing with your work?" Behind every question was the same inability to completely understand what Ultimate was all about for us. As friends partied, girlfriends gossiped, and parents worried, they all wondered, "What the hell is it about this Frisbee thing?"
To answer the questions, I will invoke the words of our coach, Jeff Brown. As the spring semester was winding down and the parties were picking up, Coach knew that some of the players on our team might have trouble remembering the commitment we had made to each other. And he told us simply: "Winner's beer tastes better than loser's beer. Winner's beer is the beer you drink after you win a tournament; loser's beer is the beer you drink the week before the tournament." He was right. And none of us tasted loser's beer.
The idea that rings true for all twenty-one of us is that we have a greater cause. We made sacrifices. Through thick and thin, we were committed to winning and performing together - and we succeeded. I am certain that many people sitting in the rows beside me today feel a similar sense of accomplishment about something from their years at Tufts.
As the members of the Class of 2004 take a moment to look back, I hope that we all had our own greater causes. Whether it was completely immersing in academic research, putting something great together one's self like Kids' Day, performing with Spirit of Color, or being part of any kind of team, we all know what it was like. We all know what it was like to turn down a night at the bar because something more rewarding was on the table for tomorrow. We all have made the sacrifices that allowed us to "taste winner's beer" in the end.
More importantly, though, as the name of our ceremony implies, I hope that today is the commencement of our commitment to great endeavors. Although my career as a college Ultimate player may end in one short week, I know that I will pursue the challenges that lie ahead with the same passion. I hope that for each one of us, the years of striving for personally meaningful goals have just begun.
