First of all, I have to say I feel genuinely sorry for anyone that didn't come to Solstice XX this past weekend. You certainly missed some bonehorning that you can now never recover. Bone-Hur was an unstoppable force on and off the field, and everyone was well entertained.
 
Let me recap this weekend in one sentence - bonehorn dominated solstice. Except we didn't win the actual tournament. In terms of actual ultimate, we got the young crew a lot of minutes and game experience while systematically injuring every older horn we could. Props to Cole, Joe Cool, Wooly, Chas, and Stew for earning their bones.
 
Thanks to Mel for filming - highlights and footage will be posted in the media section soon. Thanks to Terrell for furnishing Mel with an EZ-UP and keg on top of the moontower during the Arkansas game. Because when Mel is a happy gal, I can relax. Thanks to T and the whole Tulsa crew for throwing the best tourney and overall shindig in the midwest.
 
The party...
-Greg Meyer (Hail, Caesar) proved victorius by about 75 chariot-lengths over the other guy, and he safely carried Newt to the finish line. If anyone has photos of the victory lap with the flaming sword from hell let me know.  
-The bonehorn fireworks display was fairly shocking. Will took an artillery shell to the groin  and several horns walked away with smoking togas. Sweet Roll at least tried to  light a few things off, but after they almost got nailed by Wooly's unpredictable exploding bone-a-rangs, they too fled with tails between legs. 
-Props to Colin and myself for fulfilling our pledge to make it to the adult swim this year, and thanks to Chas, Bowles, and Will for making sure we stayed on course. As the ladies learned when Terrell gave them the bag of wine on Sunday afternoon, the Bonehorn victory was in the bag but would have been incomplete without our trek to the pond in the witching hour.
-Many people were slapped and many shots were taken from Bowles chest-hole. Thanks to Sheets for protecting Dolan from the wrath of drunken Muddy.
 
In terms of actual ultimate, here's how it went...
13-1 over the Beavers? That one went well...
11-13 loss to Arkansas. Down 7-2 after one of the worst halves we have ever played, we stormed back and just about finished a nice comeback. Unfortunately Karl Doege had our number with upwind hucks and we couldn't convert enough  turnovers to win.
13-6 over Dallas Crude. Started out with 10 straight offensive points before we took half 7-5. Second half was all bonehorn, as we coasted to the W.
13-10 (maybe?) over Rawhide. Tough game, last game of the day in the heat.  We had opportunities to pull away several times early on and never could. Rawhide hung around to the bitter end.
13-3 over Brick City, former Big River guys. (Quarterfinals, 3vs6 seed) We  actually showed up to play in the first half.
9-13 loss vs Sweet Roll (Semis, 2v3) Similar to the Arkansas game, we decided not to play in the first half, and it was difficult to come back from a 7-3 deficit. We showed them our bonehorns in the second half though, and didn't roll over at all. By the end of the game, Sweet Roll was very relieved to be through with bonehorn.
 
-Lots of stuff to work on. V-stack looked pretty good at times, endzone O good and bad. Defense was at times stellar and at times terrible. Usual bonehorn stuff.
  
Going forward....
In real news, we had a discussion about what it means to be committed for the rest of the season after games on Sunday - we hope you're in. Full bonehorn ahead.

-Tim H

Before all else, thanks to Chris, Aaron, Andy, and Mira @ Ultimate Disc Store for organizing the Omaha Disc Expo. Unfortunately, the rain put the kibosh on the disc dogs and other events at Seymour Smith, but plans are already in the works for next year. The UDS crew made things easy on Nebraska Disc and we are pumped to continue to develop a relationship between the store and the two disc communities, golf and ultimate. The La Vista Parks and Rec team made this year very easy on us as well, so thanks to JT and Ryan South for helping us get set up with everything we needed. Also thanks to Chris @ Lucky Bucket for accommodating pretty much everything we wanted to do at the party. GPS Party Beta Version was a lot of fun – stay tune for GPS Party 2.0 next year – bigger, wilder, sloppier, classier.

How about all the people coming from out of town? Springfield and Tulsa get the nod for longest haul, while our Iowa friends continue to support us year in and year out, much appreciated. The Floppy Discs from Waverly, IA showed us how quickly good ultimate is developing in smaller communities which was awesome to see – keep up the good work fellas. CPU will have a strong team this year, and Gnarwhal is Gnarwhal. Thanks to the Omaha people that came out – we needed every last one of you and you helped us turn this into a successful weekend despite some difficulties with rostering, the weather, and hangovers from Old Balls.

Random happenings and tidbits:

-Scurry has broken his bear nose. Direct all inquiries to Ethan from Des Moines, who may have also broken his hand on Scurry’s face. Glad to hear Scott is OK and doesn’t have any (new) brain damage.

-Sean Rock grew up and became a man in front of Bonehorn’s eyes in the semis on Sunday. With a contentious couple of points culminating in somewhat of a call fiasco on double-game point, Rock kept his cool, kept his head straight, and absolutely took over his matchup. It was pretty cool to watch – funnest/most exciting game of the weekend by far.

-Beau’s layout catch on double game point against Springfield - Vintage Beau Reed. One of the best plays of the weekend for sure.

-Sheets couldn’t play this weekend due to a bruised horn, but his motto has always been Leave No Bone Behind. Thanks for filming this weekend, Matt. Footage and photos will be edited and posted within a week or so.

-Terp came down from South Dakota, abandoning the Hutterite colonies for a weekend to do what he loves, which is play good disc with good people. Thanks for all the help moving crap around Terp, and thanks for bringing Mike Lynch with you – the Sponge returns!!! Solstice, boys, Solstice.

-Jimmy may have been the most unhittable deep cut all weekend. Good bids though.

-Tulsa represented well. Thanks for the corn whiskey – guaranteed less than 30 days old. Always good to see you on the field, always better to see you at the party. See you in two weeks fellas.

-First bonehorn tournament for a lot of guys. Don’t let it be your last! Craft, McGruber, Cole, the Pius crew, Jacob Moore, Brad, Snow Pup, Woolly? Are there more?

-Happy engagement to Ryan Mullen, returning Nebraska veteran. Scored the game winner in both of BoneR’s wins on Saturday. Congratulations Ryan and Taylor!

-Both Bonehorn squads made the semis, with our younger bunch losing to Gnarwhal and our older bunch edging CPU. Overall 8-5 (3 of those losses being to Gnarwhal, 1 to CPU, 1 to Rawhide), finished 2nd and t-3rd. Would have loved to see what this team could do if it had stayed together for the tournament.

-All the young guns that played for any Nebraska team this weekend – look around you. You’ve got all the talent in the world, and now you’ve got a taste of club ultimate. Hop on the bonehorn train baby, we’re taking this as far as it will go, and we’d love to have you guys involved.

***The second half of the season is coming up. The intensity will be picking up. The expectations will be higher in terms of commitment, focus, and effort both at tourneys and practices. We will be clear and reasonable in those expectations, and also hold our older veteran guys to the same standards. Solstice marks the end of our developmental portion of the tournament schedule – lets get the younger guys out with us to get some PT and running in at Tulsa.

***GPS wouldn’t have happened without the help of Tom Sitorius, Muddy Watters, John Boyd, Colin Punt, and Mel Sehr, among others. Thanks to Duffy for smoking the pork shoulder – best food we’ve had at any of our events, and it blows the Spillway’s pork away. Thanks to Eric Williams and Nick Hildenbrandt for the SOUL support. You guys always give me whatever I need and are easy to communicate with.

Announcements about dates for GPS2014 in conjunction with the Omaha Disc Expo will be made as soon as we can. Look forward to more teams, more fun, more Lucky Bucket festivities, better weather, and more collaboration with the awesome team at Ultimate Disc Store.  

-Tim

Bonehorn's trip to Monkey Bowl in Nashville ended up being more of an adventure than anyone had anticipated.  Leaving Lincoln before noon on Friday,  trouble set in as the Scurburban's alternator went out between Bumpkinville and  Podunk, Missouri.  As the car rolled to a stop next to an I-70 bridge over a  swelling river, lightning illuminated the sky and tornadoes
threatened.  Three  and a half hours later, we finally got a tow to the bustling metropolis of New  Florence, where we dumped our stuff at a hotel to wait for our Bonehorn brethren  to rescue us via rental car.  Around 2:30, after closing down the local watering  hole, the full Bonehorn contingent was back on the road.  Scurry hadn't slept in  almost 40 hours when we finally
rolled into Nashville, just 30 minutes before  game time.  But despite a severe lack of sleep and a handful of killer  hangovers, and with the help of Balla Mike, Bonehorn got two wins off the bat to  break seed in our pool. Unfortunately, sleeplessness and mounting injuries  caught up with us and, despite some excellent defensive intensity and a  heartbreaker on universe
point, Bonehorn went winless the rest of the  tournament.  We returned to Nebraska to heal up and prepare for the mother of  all home tournaments, Great Plains Showdown.  Check back next week for the  exciting GPS recap.

-Colin Punt

Dan Gabor, what can you say? In true Nebraska style we arrive at Three in the morning crashing at the fields, on the fields, avoiding police spotlights and the similarity stops there. Enter the Bonehorn: Up at Seven Fresh as posies searching Fayetteville for Cleats and Chick-Fil-A.  Returning to the fields booted, sated, and knee deep in Pickle Brine we had plenty of time to warm up for the first round; and we had a bye.  Getting loose throwing the finest five yard throws we know it was clear that today would be a good day. And it was. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0 Nebraska dominates to the semifinals on the back of truly Savage Bone gnashing defense and the Smoothest, Horniest, offense you could want.  Than crushed.  Yeah it's disappointing, but a bottle of Patron and comped dinner helped salve the wound and again, we sneak away under cover of 
night cruising into the Ozarks and winding our way frontwards and backwards down  the backwoods until.... Paradise.  And if you weren't  there, you should have  been and if you were there, you couldn't be anywhere else and now we're back ducking out under the darkest dark night known and bonehornebone we're back again gnawing at the bit for next week in Nashville.
-Tom Sitorius