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It all started way back last August when I met a couple of people from Istanbul that played ultimate up there. They had been playing pick up games with some other foreigners and some Turks and had organized themselves into a team. They had already made one trip to Europe for a small 5 on 5 beach ultimate tournament and were hoping to go to a larger, full 7 on 7 tournament that fall. I kept in touch and sure enough, I made the trip with them to Germany where we placed 4th (out of 8 teams) and had a blast doing it. It was then that I learned that they actually had enough interest to have a small, 4 team league in Istanbul last fall. It was also about that time when the idea of them coming down here to play got tossed around.
After meeting with these people last August, I figured, "If they can get ultimate going in Istanbul, why can't I get it going here?" Through the fall, I learned why. First of all, I don't speak the language well enough. The leader of the group in Istanbul is an American, but he was born and raised in Istanbul, so he speaks Turkish as well as a native. Secondly, I didn't have a lot of connections at the university. I hadn't spent much time out there and my job had put me in contact with mostly working professionals, not students. But I tried anyways.
It was up and down through the fall and winter. One week we had 17 people show up. The very next week we had 6. That's the way it went all winter and into this spring. And just when I was about to lose hope and give up, I get a call from our frisbee friends in Istanbul.
They had applied for and won an "Innovators Grant" from the Ultimate Players Association in America. They received a small amount of money to develop ultimate within Turkey. Since I was here and had exposed a few people to the sport already, they chose Adana as one of their sites. You can get an idea of how that went by looking back at this post and at this one. It was frustrating, but eventually we found a professor that was excited about the idea and willing to put things together for us. He really came through.
The guys from Istanbul had so much fun doing one of these clinics in another city two weekends ago that they had a lot of people volunteer to come down here. It was a good thing they did. Even though there were 12 Turk Kasi players and myself at the fields, it was hard to deal with the 40-50 people we had show up on Saturday. It was even harder when we had close to 70 show up on Sunday. To say it was a success is an understatement. It was a small miracle.
Saturday we started with some breakfast at a cafe on campus. We discussed what we'd do for the day, some translation issues, and fate, among other things. We made the long walk across campus and got ourselves stretched out, warmed up, and organized. To start the day, we taught the simple backhand and forehand throws. After a little practice with that, we tried the basic offensive and defensive strategies, the stack and force. We let them play a good bit and everyone had a blast. The day ended with a couple talks about the history of ultimate, the spirit of the game, and the role of women in the sport. Everyone went home and we felt great about the day. Turk Kasi played an intrasquad match before heading to the house for showers and a kebap. After throwing down some great Adana cooking, it was off to a cafe for cay, nargile, and lots of laughs. You couldn't have asked for a better day.
Sunday started pretty much the same way. Everyone was pretty beat from the day before, so we slept in and had breakfast at my place. After some long and draining conversations about the place of women in society, the interaction between Islam and culture, the differences in Islam and Christianity, and, finally, politics, we got ready for round 2 at the university. We decided to start the day with some talks on fouls and spirit of the game to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day. We were amazed to find that not only had almost everyone come back from the day before, but there were at least a dozen new people there. We divided into four teams and had a quick two game tournament. I have to brag a little and say that my team won both our games, 7-1 and 7-2, to take home the championship. We also had the best team name and celebration. We were the Pink Panthers (due to the pink jerseys we had to wear) and would sing the Pink Panther theme song after a point.
Again, it was a blast, a small miracle, and for me, a dream come true. The professor that sponsored us is the perfect kind of guy (sporty and hippie) to keep ultimate going here. I hate that I am leaving so soon because I would love to be a part of this budding ultimate community. But at least I got to see it's beginnings. Maybe one day in the future I'll be able to see where it goes.
And since some blog buddies of mine have been doing "picture blogs" recently, and I love to one up anyone whenever I can, this is going to be a VIDEO blog. Here are a handful of short clips from the weekend. Enjoy.
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