Misery Loves Company

*Missouri - This ended up being a pretty appropriate name for the tournament for Illinois.

The short story is that in a relatively brief period of time, our roster for MLC dropped from 36 to about 16. This was the difference between one short-handed team and two comfortably sized teams. No need to go into that aspect here, because the heat will be directed toward the team rather than the interweb.

Anyway, the crew that did show up in Jefferson City ended up being a little less than successful. Illness played a significant part in this, with Jack Krieger being completely out and Mickey and I not feeling much better. Neal Phelps, Shabby, and Papa Bear stepped up to take over as our main longs. They, along with Smith and McKinley, shouldered the majority of the load. Mickey stands alone in this category - being sick and broken, yet still playing a high number of points both as long and cutter.

In individual games, there's nothing really to summarize. We lost to Southern Illinois, then Iowa State, then Colorado B (sigh..), then Oklahoma. The biggest problem in every single game was our poor marks. Every team we played, including Colorado B, was able to slice through our marks like we weren't even standing there. Luckily, it has already been decided that marking will be one of the main focuses for the team this year. After the initial loss to Southern, and especially after the loss to Colorado B, very few managed to keep their spirits up. I know I fell victim to this, though I attribute some of it to the hacking and wheezing I was doing on the sidelines.

Luckily for us, but not for the team wallet, the second day of the tournament was cancelled due to stormy weather.

Personal favorite moment from the weekend:
Jack Rabuck reaching waaaay over the top of one of the captains of ISUC for the sky in the endzone, prompting everyone to rush the field.

Austin