Volcanic Tournament 2.0

The end of May heralds many things: the last days of the school year; the end of the spring migration and start of the rainy season in Costa Rica; an important American holiday; our wedding anniversary. The end of May is also when Costa Rica hosts its annual Volcanic Ultimate Frisbee tournament. There was just a fledgling Ultimate scene when D first lived in San Jose some twenty years ago. There were no Volcanic tournaments then; in the intervening years, the event has blossomed into one of the region’s most important — and most fun — sporting events, with players from multiple countries joining the locals for several days of spirited competition.

Last year, D was fortunate enough to find himself on the winning team in what proved to be one of the most evenly-matched tournaments he’s ever played. His team won all of its matches but one, and in nearly every game the margin of victory was merely one or two points. This year, D again found himself donning a yellow jersey (as the Volcanic is a hat tournament, players are sorted into teams and then assigned colors at random). The similarities ended there, however. D’s team stormed out to a 3-0 start, winning all three matches handily, before faltering and winning only one other game the rest of the way to finish with a healthy plus/minus differential but a losing 4-5 record.

The disappointing result notwithstanding, D was thrilled with the way the tournament unfolded. For one, he was coming back from injury, having pulled an abdominal muscle that had sidelined him for months. Considering he had only played once in the three ensuing months, D’s topmost objective was to finish the tournament without sustaining any more injuries. On the this score, D succeeded admirably: he managed to make it through all nine of his team’s games unscathed and even avoided cramping up during the five games — three of them back-to-back-to-back — the team played on the second day of the tournament, a fate he suffered last year and at plenty of other tournaments in the past also. D’s only mishap involved his cleats, one of which burst early in the tournament and required daily on-field repairs from the paramedics on site.

Contributing to the team’s success and not making any boneheaded plays were secondary goals, and the record on this score was mixed. D made a few really nice hucks that earned appreciative comments even from the opponents’ sidelines; he also made his fair share of ill-advised throws that resulted in turnovers. Just as we did last year, we stayed in La Fortuna instead of at the hotel hosting the tournament: this was good for S and for keeping the kids entertained, but less than ideal from the perspective of building camaraderie. One of the greatest joys of an Ultimate hat tourney is the opportunity to make and cement friendships. It was good to catch up on the field with all of the people D had been missing during his months of frisbee inactivity, but he missed out on the after-hours bonding and partying. If we play our cards right, we should be able to sneak in one more Volcanic tournament before wrapping our Costa Rica tour next summer; it would be a fitting ending to our fun-filled assignment in this wonderful country.