Bodies and suitcases piled into three vans, for  16 hours of driving, and we set off on our journey to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for our 2018 spring break. Stopping every couple hours to swap drivers and to fuel up the vans, we slowly, but surely, made our way down the eastside of America. After a couple of McDonalds purchases and a lot of coffee, we finally arrived at our home for the week. We quickly piled out of our vans and made the one-minute walk to the beach, where we were finally able to stretch and walk around.

Photo contributed by Sarah Smith

After the beach, we had a team meeting where we went over rules and what we would be doing for the week. Our first order of business was going to the grocery store to stock up on meals for the week. Everyone was in a rush to get everything they wanted, which mostly consisted of Ramen Noodles and Hot Pockets, so we could get back to the beach and soak up all the sun that we’d been missing out on in the North.

Then came Monday, the day that High Tide, one of the biggest Ultimate Frisbee tournaments in the country, began. Monday was the beginning of the hat tournament, which placed everyone who signed up on different teams in a couple of pools. Winners of the pools played each other and the final winning team got special hats. My team had just won our second game when it started to downpour, forcing the people in charge to enforce a two- hour delay.

Soaked and shivering, we ran back to the vans where we all decided to head to lunch and go back home for the day. As soon as we got back to the house and showered, the rain finally stopped and we were all pretty bummed that we would be missing the rest of the day.

Tuesday was the first day of the official team portion of the tournament. We had a rough start, going 1-2 for the day. We were able to turn it around on Wednesday when we went 3-0 playing some very good teams. Our team was playing as well as it ever has, as one unit. Thursday, our team was able to do something we’ve never been able to do: We went 3-0 once again and we won our brackets’ championship game. It was one of the most exciting moments of my and my teammates’ lives. This weekend we will be driving to Saratoga Springs, New York to compete in another tournament, where we will have a blast playing frisbee and meeting new people.

Ethan Platt can be contacted at eplatt@kscequinox.com