Ultimate is unique in a lot of ways as a national sport. Especially now, with the presence of the emerging “professional” leagues. Players are now getting “paid” to play ultimate, and that is an amazing thing. I have no idea where these leagues will end up, but it’s damn exciting to be a spectator of.

But let’s be honest: the USAU Club series is still the king of high-level ultimate. Only here will you truly get a collection of the nation’s/world’s best players. These are our elite athletes, our all-stars.

But again, ultimate is unique.

This past summer was when I decided to dive much deeper into Ultimate, and I am a unique case of a player/participant: At 24 years old, I had just finished my first season of college ultimate, and this was the first time I’d played in a real organized fashion. I loved it. I wanted more. But summer classes and a bust fall semester upcoming meant I couldn’t afford the time to tryout/play for any club team. So I spent my free time reading/watching/writing about ultimate. And on a complete whim, I sent an email to one of our elite athletes; one of our all-stars: Jonathan “Goose” Helton.

In short, the message read: “I don’t know you, you don’t know me. Want to do an online interview for fun?”. To my complete surprise, he said “Yes”.

Can I sit still for one damned second in this video? #woof

That was a ton of fun for me. I’m thankful that Jonathan agreed. In what other sport can a complete stranger interview one of the most biggest names in a sport on a complete whim?

After such a good experience with the interview, I thought “why not do more stuff life this?”. So, I sent another email; this one to Machine captain Kevin Kelly (KK). “You don’t know me, I don’t know you. Can I follow you around at Chicago Heavyweights and live-tweet your games?”. Again, to my surprise, I was given the “okay”. Not only that, but KK put me in contact with other people planning on doing some media things that weekend as well; he promoted my twitter over Machine’s social media accounts, giving me a huge boost in audience; he invited me to dinner with the team (pending my willingness to put my credit card into the CCR mix).

Holy shit, right? What team at the highest level of their sport does things like this?

I don’t have experience with any other open team, so maybe this isn’t as rare as I think. All I know is that Machine has an amazing attitude towards their fans. No other team puts out videos like Machine does. No other team has the same Twitter presence as Machine (and MeanMachineDFA [and 808]). Facebook giveaways, fan orders of jerseys, all of it takes a lot of time and a lot of work.

But Goose does it. KK does it. Machine does it.

And I am thankful.

I know Machine didn’t perform to their potential at Nationals, and I’m sure they are disappointed in how their season ended. But I hope they aren’t disappointed in their season. It was awesome for me as a fan. Seeing this kind of “big league” transition as a lot of mainstays left the team and three big-name players from across the border came in, I was hyped. Then Machine went out and won the Chesapeake Invite. They almost (and should have) won CHC. They won the Pro-Flight Finale. This was easily one of the most memorable seasons in any sport for me as a spectator, and I know I’m not alone in that.

They also showed me the kind of team that I want to play for and be a part of. Whether they were working their asses off or partying their assess off, I could always see how much fun they were having, and the strong friendships and bonds within the team. I hope I can find that some day.

And if nothing else, they gave me a dope Ultimate playlist (composed of songs used in their highlight videos). #PeetSwenis

#Hoot

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In moving to Portland, I am giving up my chance to do more with Machine in the future, whether it be covering them on some sort of media outlet, trying out for their team and/or playing against them at tournaments, or getting a rain-check on that dinner invitation (I’ll put in as many cards as Sheehan does). And that’s too bad.

But maybe I’ll make an open team in OR (if any Rhino players are reading, feel free to shoot me an email *wink*). Maybe we’ll still see each other on the battlefield. And if you ever need a 27th man for a northwestern tournament, you have my number (you probably don’t actually have my number, but you get my point).