People are discussing spirit of the game, and accusing teams of
"spirit of the game violations" as if spirit of the game is something
that is really well defined. 
	Consider the following Ultimate games -

1.  Pick Up game in the park
2.  Mid level college teams scrimmaging
3.  College teams playing in a tournament
4.  Mid level club teams playing
5.  Top level club teams playin in Regional Finals
6.  Top level club teams playing in National Finals

In my experience, "spirit of the game" means something very 
different at each of these levels, and if you have played only
at a certain level, it seems that the levels above you are
very unspirited.  When I first began playing Ultimate in the
park in Omaha, the "rules" were that you called your own
fouls -- rarely did somebody call a foul on another player
and I don't think I ever saw a foul contested.  Last year on
this newsgroup, there was a discussion informing me that calling
your own fouls was anti-SOTG.  Hmmmm.

	It is hard to say what spirit means at the top level.  Most
people on this newsgroup seem to think that according to their
definition of spirit, spirit does not exist at the top level. I
think that spirit does exist, it is just different.  If nothing
else, spirit at that level means that things stay on the field.
Once the NY/Boston game was over, it was over.  Yes, it got out
of hand a few times, but the players shook hands (even Kenny and
Jeremy, Mooney and Johnny G., Joey and Cribber) and game over.

	When you put as much time and effort into Ultimamte as the 
top teams do, in the Semi's of nationals, there is going to be
a lot of emotion.  What surprises me is not that things got out
of hand, but that it hadn't really ever happened before.  Yes,
we need observers at this level with power to make more than
active line calls.  Banning players or teams from the UPA or
refusing to play teams seems like a bad idea, people with the
power to control players and fights at Nationals is a better
idea.

	On a slightly different note - New York is getting a lot of
bad press on this newsgroup.  Even a bad game at nationals between
NY and Boston where it was said that BOTH teams were equally at
fault, has turned into another NY bashing thread.  I've heard
a lot of the NY players complaining about all of the bad press
they get, and how no other teams are treated like that.  At first
I thought they were just complaining, but over the last year, I've
paid attention to what is said about NY and other teams, and it
really seems to be true.  As a consequence of the bad press, 
crowds tend to root against NY (e.g. Worlds, Nationals), so can
you really blame NY for thinking it is us against them - where
"them" is the rest of the ultimate community.

	I played NY and Boston several times as a member of the Boston
Kremes.  They were both spirited teams.  I think you will find that
if you play one of the better teams in the country, more often than
not, they will be very spirited.  They NY players have done a lot for
Ultimate in the NY area, the NE, the US, and the World.  They coach
high school teams, college teams, and even help out other club teams
in the area.  I know that several of them were flown to Japan to help
kick-start the ultimate program there.  Talk of kicking them out of the
UPA is non-sensical.

	Perhaps, if the rest of the UPA changes their attitude towards the 
NY team, we would see a big change in what is perceived as their lack
of spirit of the game.  On that note, before the Open finals at nationals,
one of the Double players said that they were going to be very spirited
towards NY - say "nice goal" before NY could spike the disc, shake hands
on a nice play, not spike on the NY plays, etc..  It think that it was
said by someone on the net, that the finals was a pretty spirited game.

Tross

Big Brother