Finding Community Over the Summer, a Knights of Ni Story
Will talks about his experience playing club frisbee while working at Carleton during the summer
Will talks about his experience playing club frisbee while working at Carleton during the summer
I’ve done my best to keep busy over my summers, over the previous few I have been at home working and in Ireland for a study abroad (I smell a future blog post coming here), but for the first time, I’ll be in Minnesota for my entire break. Around 150 students are on campus over the summer doing a variety of jobs, some are working full-time for campus departments like I am right now, some are doing research for various departments, and some are working for our high school summer programs CLAE and SLAI. I’m sure I’ll spend other weeks talking about my adventures in Northfield with some of my friends who are here over the summer, but for my first blog talking about my adventures as a summer fellow I cannot help but talk about frisbee. I play on CHOP, Carleton’s D3 men’s team, during the school year, and I wanted to find ways to keep playing over the summer. I tried out for a few club teams in the cities, was not offered a spot on two, but made the roster for a third, the Golden Valley Knights of Ni.
The Knights Who Say NI!
Despite working from 8-4:30, I can drive up to the cities twice a week for practice with a great group of people, some are in college like myself, and some are around 30. Elek, one of my teammates from CHOP, also made the team, but for the most part, it is an entirely new group of people, which I was excited about. This weekend we had our first big tournament of the year, Heavyweights, in Chicago. Most of the team lives in the Twin Cities, but luckily for me and Elek, two St. Olaf students, Owen and Cade, also made the team, so we could leave right from Northfield without worrying about driving up to the cities. Right after I got off work on Friday, we met at Carleton and began the long drive to Chicago. We got into our Red Roof Plus around 10:30 at night but were up at 7:00 bright and early the next morning, as we had four games to play on our first day.
Sooooo, How’d ya do?
We won our first game by a score of 15-7, leaving us some time to relax and prepare for the second game. Sadly, despite that extra time to rest, we came out flat and lost that one 15-6. This put us in a tricky situation, we had to rely on that team going undefeated in their other two games of the day, and we needed to win both of our remaining games to be in the winner’s bracket on Sunday. Luckily we had two hours between the end of our game and the start of the next game due to how our games were scheduled, so we had time to get lunch and compose ourselves. We came out strong and won our next game 15-4, and the team we lost to had won all their games, so we still had a chance! We started slow in the final game, going down 10-7 in a game to 15, only to score six straight and win 15-12! We were in the bracket!
After the games, we went to a restaurant for a team dinner. I love playing frisbee, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that this sense of camaraderie was why I wanted to play this summer, and I’m so thankful I found it in the Knights. After dinner and some needed showers, we watched some of the Copa América in our hotel rooms, but all went to bed quickly, as our first game the next day was against the top-seeded team at the tournament.
Day 2, and the long road home
Sadly, that team was supposed to be the best team there for a reason, and we lost 15-7. On a positive note, that was the most points that had been scored on them up until that point, and they later won in the finals over the team that beat us on the first day. We had a game right after that to go for fifth in the tournament, but the first game wore us down too much, and after a valiant attempt at a comeback, we ended up losing on double game point. We still had seventh place to fight for though, which we ended up winning to end our tournament on a high note. We were all disappointed, but it was still a great tournament, and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend that weekend any other way. After some hugs goodbye, we all drove back to wherever home was.
Owen, Elek, Cade, and I arrived in Northfield at a decent hour, but as my co-workers will tell you, I was barely alive the next day. It’s all worth it though. I get to hang out with my friend, meet amazing people I hope to call friends, and play the sport I love. So to all those worrying that the little town of Northfield has nothing to offer over the summer, I promise that could not be further from the truth.
Will’s (he/him/his) favorite thing about Carleton is the amount of open space the campus has, as it is a good reprieve from stress. He has seen the movie The Princess Bride at least 20 times, and can recite large portions of it! Outside of the classroom, Will is a member of CHOP, one of Carleton’s D3 ultimate frisbee teams, is one of the Student Department Assistants of the Education Studies Department, and is an active member of Board Game Club.