Four years of Miami Ultimate

I’m sitting here at one in the morning and thinking about what I want to say to sum up this season and my four years at this program. It’s hard to quite know what to say. I do know that I will never think of college without thinking of ultimate. It has become such a part of me, who I am, and what college was about for me. The practices, tournaments, road trips, friendships, ups, downs, and everything in between; it’s been unbelievable. It’s defined so much of who I am and what my college experience was.

This season was the pinnacle of the four years I spent here and most likely the pinnacle of our program thus far. We went from regularly traveling to crappy tournaments and placing at the middle or bottom of the pack at Sectionals to making long road trips to the best tournaments in the country, becoming a force at Sectionals, and mattering at Regionals. The transformation has been quite extraordinary.

My personal transformation is an interesting evolution in its own right. I came in as a freshman who couldn’t throw a backhand and was incredibly unskilled. Then I was a sophomore with a major knee injury and someone who was placed in a surrogate captain role for the majority of the year (one which I was wildly unprepared for). Then I was elected captain my junior year and started to come into my own as a player and a leader. My senior year was the genesis of my college career, where I finally put a lot of the pieces together and felt comfortable in myself as a player and comfortable with where I was leading this team.

In a lot of ways, it wasn’t the end result that drove me, it was the struggle. It was to be a part of something bigger than myself; to dedicate myself to a team and work relentlessly hard to be great. I’m going to remember that time you woke up with me on a Saturday morning to do sprints when we could have been sleeping in. I’m going to remember that time you sacrificed your weekend to make yourself and our team better. I’m going to remember when you e-mailed me and asked what you could do better. I’m going to remember that time that I stood beside you on a line and we played with everything we had.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard as I did this year. I wanted to make sure that I paid my dues off the field, so when I was on it, I knew I was better and more prepared than the guy marking up on me. These last eight months have seen us give so much as a team. Two hour practices 4 days a week, conditioning on off weekends, plyometrics, water practices, indoor practicing, track workouts, monsters, drills, scrimmaging, and more drills. That’s what put us on the field on Sunday in Detroit. That’s why teams no longer look past Miami University.

There are few things in my life that I’ve ever been so passionate about and I feel fortunate to be able to play a four year college career. I have had opportunities that only few people do. I travelled the country playing the sport I love. Not only that, the school paid for most of my expenses. How fortunate I’ve been is truly humbling. I sometimes have difficulty reconciling how privileged of a life I lead and my experience with ultimate is a big part of that life. I’m healthy enough and financially capable of pursuing the life I want; I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’ve taken advantage of my privileged position and invested so much of myself into this team and this sport.

The culmination of my college career in Detroit was an unbelievable personal experience. It tied so many things together for me. I felt like we truly put together a weekend to be proud of and we played our best when it mattered. I went into this weekend thinking it could be my last (but always fighting for a shot to play in Boulder) and soaked in every moment on that weekend in Michigan. It felt so good to captain a group of guys to College Regionals that wanted to be there, that paid their dues, and were so deserving to be there. Sharing that experience with all of you will stick with me for a lifetime. I even got to share this weekend with my brother. His support, enthusiasm, and genuine love for what I do is tremendously moving. It means everything to me.

One of my absolute favorite parts of this experience is stepping back and looking at what we did. We took this program on our backs and made it something. It felt so gratifying to stand in a circle with some guys after Regionals and talk about how much we’ve made out of this team. We came in and decided to define an era of Miami Ultimate. Together, day by day, year by year, we built a legacy. Conditioning practices when we were freshman were maybe a mile around the track; could you imagine that today? We’re used to grueling 90 minute workouts of plyometrics, intervals, sprints, and miles upon miles of running. That’s what we did, we changed this team. If nothing else, always remember that. Always feel proud and accomplished of what you did.

I think we built something. I hope this program goes on to eclipse all of the accomplishments of last year. There’s nothing I’d love more than to buy a plane ticket to watch Miami University at College Nationals.

Soon I will be an alumnus of Miami and follow this team from a distance. It’s sad to leave, but I’m excited to see this team under new leadership and see new players come into the system.

It really has been a hell of a journey and in the moments I look back I can only feel gratitude for all of the memories.

It’s hard to read Toes’ comment on “Regionals – Day1” and not get tears in my eyes. It’s hard to talk about the past four years, hug a teammate, or think of leaving all this behind and not get tears in my eyes. A part of me will always be on those van rides, the team dinners, the sprints off the pull, the pre-game jog, the post game celebration, and all the moments I’ve shared with this team. I can honestly say I put everything I had into this program and will leave this school and this team with a piece myself still in Oxford.

Matt Mastrantuono
Miami University ’05-‘08