Sin The Fields

Pat made club nationals! Relive all the glory as well as some other tales from club regionals around the country.

Ultimate frisbee is growing fast and there are riches to be had - supposedly. Patrick Stegemoeller and Brian Kibler look at some of the people, organizations, and businesses like the Rochester Dragons that got swept up in the excitement, energy, and optimism of an era where it seemed like the sport was one step away from making the leap to mainstream legitimacy, and the reality of what these schemes really meant.You can access the entire show with an Ultiworld mini subscription in the Huck and Hope subscriber-only feed.

Patrick Stegemoeller and Brian Kibler introduce us to the world of the Rochester Dragons in this first installment of Huck and Hope! They talk about why the Rochester Dragons, a team you may vaguely remember existing anonymously towards the bottom of the AUDL a decade ago, may be the key to understanding how ultimate, the semi-pro leagues, and America got to be where it is in 2023.You can access the entire show with an Ultiworld mini subscription in the Huck and Hope subscriber-only feed.

Pat and Tad are back! Well, at least for one episode. Pat tells us about a new Ultiworld project, Huck and Hope, a podcast about the Rochester Dragons (a defunct AUDL franchise) and the early days of semi-professional ultimate, debuting next week! They talk about the show, play clips from the project, and hear from a special guest, Frank Sarbones.

After commiserating about the crimes of Northeast Canadian Ultimate teams, Pat and Tad reminisce on some of the best ridiculous bits they used on the show. Check out SunsetLakeCBD.com and use promo code SIN for 20% off sitewide.Check out the photos from Charlie's yearbook here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrOnFCZ5Pk

After a lengthy digression on ultimate not making it into the Olympics, Pat and Tad look back on some of the best guests and interviews they've had on the show.Check out SunsetLakeCBD.com and use promo code SIN for 20% off sitewide.

It's Wildwood and STF somehow made it to 150 episodes, so what better way to celebrate than with a wildly indulgent episode about sun, sand, good times, and staring into the void? Before they get to Wildwood, Tad reports from the second leg of the Mid-Atlantic Party Tournament Triple Crown Tour, aka Mars. Then it's down to the boardwalk, Bolero, and beyond as the guys look at Wildwood from every angle with listener emails, dissect beer garden etiquette, and crown the best team name of Wildwood 2022. It's arguably the richest and most compelling episode yet.Check out SunsetLakeCBD.com and use promo code SIN for 20% off sitewide.

Pat and Tad break up their summer sabbatical for an emergency mini-pod on the US losing to Germany at World Games. Who is to blame? What can be done? And most importantly, how fun is it to lob cranky backseat driver complaints? (Very fun) They also cover a lucrative bet Pat made on the game that needs to be adjudicated in the court of public opinion, and Tad guesses which other World Games sports are real and which are some nonsense Pat made up.

It's hot as hell and we love it. Summer is officially here, and after discussing some of the scandalous moments of summer leagues past, STF has an important message for those of you who may have been wronged in your summer league pursuits. You may be entitled to compensation! Call today! Pat kicked off the summer at Windmill this past weekend, and has plenty to say about the ecstatic experience of the tournament, crazy European team rituals, and the truly confounding band that played the tournament party. All that plus Simon Pollock, your favorite ex-frisbee writer's favorite ex-frisbee writer, stops by to deliver a guest trash in TTF.

Pat and Tad welcome Ravi Vasudevan of the Eurozone podcast onto the program to preview the return of Europe's legendary Windmill tournament. It's Pat's first time going -- what does he need to know to survive the weekend? The guys also breakdown College Nationals and read an email from a PT about weird patient stories.

With D-I Nationals returning to Milwaukee, Pat and Tad recall the past two eventful Nationals in the place some have called the Paris of southeastern Wisconsin. On the field and off the field, from the conception of the show in 2015 to their inadvertent stay in an actual murder house in 2018, Nationals in Milwaukee is a key part of the STF tapestry. Also, they throw baseless accusations around about how UVA got food poisoning in 2015. Discerning minds want to know.

After a brief hiatus, STF is back. It's a busy time on the ultimate calendar, with college Regionals, pro seasons, and club tryouts all kicking off at once. Pat and Tad do their best to cover everything, everywhere, all at once. They talk the AUDL's 10th anniversary season and reflect back on the wild early days of the league, get into the college Regionals pick em' bet they made with Deep Look, and chat about what it is like to run club tryouts. Also, thoughts on the end of an era on Ultimate Twitter with the Being Ulti guy moving on, and also some elk stuff. Oh yeah, there is elk stuff.

Pat and Tad lament what has become of them as they both missed Fools Fest this year and turn to some first hand reports from listeners of a particularly antagonistic tournament party DJ. Then the guys assess the college scene and debate what should be done about New England men only getting two bids despite having six top teams. Their answers may shock and surprise you! (And unsurprisingly involves a story from the late 2000's Metro East.)All that plus a special announcement about Skylander and a TTF that is frankly a bit all over the place.

In this grab bag episode, Pat and Tad touch on everything from Winter League finals to a college freshman listener's first High Tide. Then the guys welcome Edward Stephens on to break down, in excruciating detail, the event of the college season thus far: Mamabird gaslighting that dude on Brown into thinking he caught his own throw in the SMI championship.

Pat and Tad are super excited to have Jamie Houssian and Dan Schneider from the University of California at Santa Barbara on the program to talk about "I Bleed Black," the groundbreaking documentary charting UCSB's journey to Nationals in 2001. They discuss making the film, go into detail on what college ultimate was like twenty years ago, and how they live with the legacy of the film today. Plus, some utterly shameless slander of the rest of the UC schools.They also announce the winners of the Pickle Juice contest and try out the three winning concoctions. Tad really regrets not getting the correct ingredients.

Pat and Tad nurse the wounds of some near-miss Super Bowl bets, forcing them to confront how sports gambling hollows out one of the last pure pleasures in life. Fun! They also recap some of the sideline shenanigans from Florida Warm Up, including a BYU player doing the coolest thing anyone has ever done in a game. Then, they discuss a listener email that asks them to consider a probably unhealthy temptation: If you could go back in time and play your first-ever college tournament as a 29 year old adult club player, what would you do differently? Some moderately helpful advice is given, and some truly embarrassing revelations are made.

After two years, Florida Warm Up is back! Pat and Tad celebrate the return of their favorite college tournament with friend of the pod and Warm Up veteran Daniel Prentice. They recall their favorite memory involving each team in the field this year and unpack why Warm Up is the purest version of college ultimate.Plus, Daniel defends moving to North Carolina right as it's becoming the Seattle of the East Coast, fully breaking down the end of Cheer Season 2's many parallels to ultimate, and the announcement of the exciting new Pickle Juice challenge.

Amidst Tad coping with the Steelers losing and Pat ranting about the new season of Cheer, the guys find time to talk about winter league. Indoor or outdoor? Draft league or clique? Weeknight or weekend? Trying hard or trying way too hard? Does it ruin your outdoor game? From the bottom of January's despair, they hope to emerge with some truths. Later, the guys read out some stellar listener stories of psychos storming off the field, and dedicate an entire TTF to when organizing a pickup game goes wrong.

Pat and Tad begin the new year by looking back a couple weeks to the weird 2021 College Nationals, with some aged takes that were mildly relevant two weeks ago. How should we feel about this whole event? Do these UNC titles count the same as the rest? How did the Metro East do? Did Pitt men's really not make the bracket? What justifies tripping an opponent in cold blood? STF gets into all that and more. The guys also talk about their New Year's resolutions, another year of dry January, and when it's appropriate to storm off the field in righteous indignation.

2021 Club POTY and STF All-Star extraordinaire Lindsay Soo joins Pat and Tad to discuss the winter College Nationals, critique Callahan videos, and lay down some takes. Which teams should you root for? Which teams should you hex? Soo has got answers for you. The gang also reveal their biggest Callahan video turn offs and speculate about how many wins the Metro East can pull off this year.All that plus some Christmas tidings, a great nickname origin story, and some important pet owner discourse in TTF.

"Ultimate." It's a bad name. We know this. But what do we do about it? Pat and Tad dig into the problem with naming this dumb sport and come to an elegant solution. They also talk Thanksgiving, younger family members who play college ultimate, and answer a backlog of listener questions including a Cornell drive-by, a spiking conundrum, and whether beach worlds tryouts are an acceptable excuse for missing college regionals. Plus, a TTF that completely derails the entire show.

Time is moving quickly these days, and just as fall begins to give way to winter, club Nationals is bumped out of the headlines by the upcoming, special pandemic vintage of college Nationals. Pat and Tad congratulate some of the surprise college Nationals qualifiers, and try to determine exactly how much this fall Nationals “counts,” and for whom?Plus, some theorizing about the true value of ESPN in the ultimate ecosystem, a strange Halloween, and a unified theory of Cornell.

Pat and Tad welcome STF All Star Kristen Pojunis back onto the program to talk about the upcoming Club Nationals and launch a new segment, "Things to do in San Diego, if you're an a******." You won't want to miss it, especially if you're an a******. You know who you are.

Another Regionals come and gone, another chance for Pat and Tad to stare into the abyss and see if this time it stares back. They catalogue a few of the notable results from the first weekend of Regionals, neg people who actually made Nationals, and try to find some meaning in all of this. Also, the Sprout “wet disc puller” identifies himself, and the guys talk about upcoming fall college alumni tournaments.

Fall is in the air as club Sectionals makes its triumphant return to the calendar. Pat and Tad appreciate a retro, "everyone has to do it," Sectionals and look back at their first ever Sectionals experiences. Important questions get asked: is club Sectionals the purest version of the sport? What is an appropriate amount to freak out about losing on a bad call? And who holds the moral high ground in the classic Sectionals showdown of bad bid-earning real club team vs. good team of series-only ringers?

Pat and Tad peel back the onion on one of ultimate's little known "what ifs," the time in 2012 when the elite tier of the men's club division almost left USAU for a NexGen league. How did it happen, what shady cabal was deciding the sport's future, and what impacts did accidently unionizing elite club teams have on the club division today? Those tears you hear aren't from the onion, they are tears of righteous anger over the injustices of the TCT.Turning to the present, the guys reflect on a relatively quaint Mars tournament from the past weekend and welcome back a fan favorite to explore all the possibilities that betting on the AUDL with Draft Kings provides.

Pat reports back from a whirlwind Wildwood/Ow My Knee tournament doubleheader that featured triumph, failure, dubious marriage planning, and ultimately the way of nature asserting its dominance. The guys also discuss how to settle jersey number disputes, the U.S. Open's scheduling elitism, and which single drink has the greatest potential to heal this broken world.

Pat and Tad return to where it all started with their annual Wildwood episode. As they gear up for a weekend that no one's body is in any way ready for, they break down some important questions: is warming up for a beach tournament lame? What is the drink of the Wildwood going to be this year? And most importantly, what is the best team name?An exciting new sponsor joins the team this week, the guys celebrate the show's sixth birthday, and T/T/F somehow avoids the beach altogether.

STF is back, as Pat and Tad examine the rumors swirling around a fight during a Roughnecks-Cascades game and discuss ultimate's history of pretending that fights don't happen. They also talk about the ideal weeknight to play summer league, an out-there idea to make disc golf more like ultimate, and give a salute to everyone both playing and being forced to miss Masters Nationals.

It's a wild time right now, with league starting up, club tryouts coming to a head, pickup going full steam, and mostly all of it being played by people whose bodies aren't quite ready.As ultimate comes back to a wider community that might not be as ready to play as they think, Pat and Tad try to reconcile the joy of playing with the oncoming injury crisis.

After a week off, STF is back with hard hitting updates on the Pittsburgh Summer League Draft, the thirsty jokers of Co Cup, and how to perfect the ideal cut off T. It's all a prelude to the main event - breaking down the ultimate player's scheduling nightmare: Tournaments v Weddings.

Pat and Tad are getting ready to re-enter the world of pickup as the rest of ultimate comes back to life. They have a few questions, comments, and concerns for everyone getting back out onto the field, mostly involving dudes from New Jersey making up for lost time when it comes to big timing people. All that, plus some talk about whether the AUDL matters, what going back to bars is like, and the confusing history of chimp fighting.

STF welcomes back to the program Dr. David Geier to answer all of your burning questions about return to play injury prevention, sketchy supplements, and the medical virtue of tequila on rocks. If you're frantically formulating a plan to get back in playing shape for this summer, this is the show for you.The guys also talk about how to boost your section's size bid numbers, what the ideal alumni tournament would be like, and answer other listener questions in a long overdue #askSTF segment.

STF welcomes podcasting guru and PoNY partisan Jody Avirgan back to the program to unveil a new segment: This Day In Esoteric Ultimate History. On the 5th anniversary of MLU commissioner Jeff Snader tweeting a picture of his shoes at the airport, the crew dives into how these pictures explain the rise and fall of the MLU, and what we can learn about the history and future of semi-pro ultimate as a result. It's a guest packed show this week, as Scotti D and Pockets from Ultiworld's new podcast Laying It Out stop by the show to talk about their college ultimate focused show, talk about playing for a club team whose name got blacklisted by USAU, and shame Pat and Tad for being old as fuck. All that, plus a TTF featuring the European Super League and a child who straight up sucks.

As the return of ultimate appears imminent, STF turns toward summer league. To get an edge, they welcome former NFL player and current Pittsburgh sports media guru Dorin Dickerson to the program, and pitch him on baggage-ing with Tad this summer. His answer was genuinely surprising. Dorin talks about his experience as a pro athlete, predicts how some top ultimate players might measure up with NFL pros, and lays down a special challenge to a member of the ultimate community.All that plus some talk about the Richmond Cup, best ever league draft picks, and TTF.

USAU has a plan for the club season: Make it 2009 again by science or magic. Join STF as they go back to a pre-Triple Crown Tour era. No rankings, no requirements, no spirit! Is this truly the way god intended the sport to be played? And with Masters Nationals now bid-only, what lengths is Tad willing to go to in order to lock up a bid?STF also welcomes Felix Shardlow to the program, giving the Englishman a chance to defend himself and the Hex after some recent slander on the program.All that, plus mascot drama and the perils of meeting new people post-vaccination in an impassioned TTF.

After receiving a mountain of responses, Pat and Tad sift through the worst ever tournament experiences from listeners and give their own personal bottom three. If you're nostalgic for ultimate despite horrible weather, incompetent TDs, and weird disqualification scandals, this is the show for you.The guys also welcome Leah Tsinajinnie onto the program to discuss her meteoric rise from notable ultimate player to notable and PAID disc golf player, and try to to answer the question everyone has been asking this year: did ultimate players choose the wrong god?

On the week that would have seen Pat and Tad convalescing after Nocturnal Decisions instead sees the STF guys get into the hottest not-so-new thing in ultimate: The Hex Offense. Is it the way of the future or just some trumped up European hipster bullshit? Pat and Tad look to both sides of the Atlantic for answers, and weigh in themselves. All that plus deciding the stakes of the ten year bet, introducing a new member of the STF family, and bringing some heat on T/T/F.

It’s an intercontinental pod crossover spectacular as STF welcomes Ravi and Liam from Eurozone to the program. They discuss the differences between European and American party tournaments, and give recommendations for tournaments that post-COVID American ultimate players should check out.All that, plus a very special Eurocentric T/T/F.

It's an all Metro East show this week as Pat and Tad peel back the layers on one of the defining questions of their lives: Is there a method to the madness of the Metro East? To get to the bottom of this, they bring in two heavy hitter guests from the annals of Metro East lore: coach Bryan Jones and the Metro East's lone Callahan winner Lindsey Goldsmith-Markey. There may be no bottom to the Metro East, but if there is, this is the group to find it. There is all that plus a 10 year bet, some dad content, and an all Metro East TTF.

Isaac Saul -- PoNY Captain, Pitt alum, notable heckler -- bet Frank Huguenard $15,000 in gold that Joe Biden will get inaugurated. He comes on STF to fill Pat and Tad in on all the details of this somehow real wager (and a possibly weirder almost bet that nearly went down). Check out Isaac's daily politics newsletter Tangle News. You can follow him at Twitter @Ike_Saul.

Pat and Tad are snowed in at the STF Subscribers Only Lounge over the holidays. Luckily, several friends are on the way to save their lives, and more importantly, the life of the STF Holiday Party.Ingredients for Katie's cocktails- Rum- Peppermint tea bag- Lime juice- Simple syrup (equal parts sugar & water, boiled until sugar is dissolved)- Amaretto- Flavored creamer (like for coffee), flavor is your choice- Whiskey of choice- Earl grey tea

Following USAU's big announcement, Pat and Tad take a break from staring into the void of Christmas this year to look forward to some actual ultimate that might be played at some point, specifically college ultimate that might be played by 25 year old adults in their seventh year of eligibility. They also discuss the distressing state of online ultimate culture and react to the breaking vaccine news.