savannah polo doesn't do enough promotion. damn jerks. do i need to be their PR guy again?
Savannah Friendlies January 23-24
Yo Georgia, what's up with the friendlies you had last weekend?
Are you really going to let this article and video be the only record? Pics! Videos! Details!
Fill us in.
Ha, well man is this a story.
Tony from charleston contacted me about doing a jax-sav-char meetup. I said yes, obviously, and then things kindve snowballed.
We put it up on facebook and soon had over a 100 rsvp'd (we didn't post here bc as out of towners kindve hosting it we couldn't make a lot of guarantees). Ann from sav did all the housing. The thing extended to two days including pick up on sat and a tri state tourny on Sunday.
Winners were
1- jeff, Cris and Paul NO
2 - Joe Thomas and myself jax
3 - chris, laura and Sean Atl
I think about fifteen teams ended up playing..
More info when I get home
But I'm just really stoked everythig worked out and people had a great time
Way to go Cherri! That's radical.
Those tires inbetween courts and the side of the road lookingness of it makes for some weird polo doesn't it?
What were the tires like? Like rubber hay bales?
the side concrete walls were awesome. the tires behind the goals were completely unpredictable. sometimes the ball would come to a dead stop, sometimes the ball would defy physics and bounce at a random angle. the ground was a little rough, almost like a cheese grader for tires and flesh. i heard several tire burn-through blowouts. there were also square openings every few feet on one side of the courts that were just big enough for a ball to slip into. besides all of that stuff, i thought the courts were adequate. i liked the width and that there were 5 courts set up with room for more. during pickup it seemed there was only a few minute wait for an open court, which allowed for almost nonstop play if you wanted to.
we had a blast. it was great playing atl, athens, and jax again. nice meeting all of the newer cities' players. between us winning the tournament and the saints winning the nfc that night, i was so pumped that i almost jumped out of a second story plate glass window... literally (ask chris and jeff). kinda makes me wish we were in y'all's region... the competition is fierce!
savannah was really fun.
and that article made me laugh.
Tri-State Polo Pick Up in Savannah, Ga
Date: January 23rd and 24th
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/event.php?eid=216586616936
Location: Hutchinson Island, across the river on the old racetracks.
Five courts set up.
Saturday - Pick Up
Sunday - Tournament
Original idea was to have captains choose teams middle school kick ball style. Due to public opinion that changed to individually chosen teams.
Cities that came:
Atlanta, GA
Athens, GA
Charleston, SC
Jacksonville, FL
Tallahassee, FL
Fort Lauderdale/Orlando, FL
Tampa, FL
New Orleans, LA
Mobile, AL
I think the event could be called a success, great weekend of pick-up that went into Sunday due to access to so many courts while the tournament was going on. Housing got taken care of courtesy of Ann Silver, everyone had a place to stay. (Athens stayed in a hotel, unsocial jerks. :-) )
Tony did a great job running the official duties of the tournament, sacrificing being able to play.
Things are still a bit unorganized in Savannah, we're a young crew, still developing with representation ect.
Results of Tournament:
1- jeff, Cris and Paul NO
2 - Joe Thomas and Cherri jax
3 - chris, laura and Sean Atl
4- Chris, K, and Jake Athens
The rest I leave to Cherri and Tony to fill in.
Thanks again to Cherri and Tony for instigating this event, and everyone that showed up to make it such a great time!!
That article was written by a student for the local art college newspaper, SCAD.
It's hysterical.
I'm not sure where they researched their rules but I think they may be been researching grass polo.
ex. Contact: Intentional contact of any kind with an opposing player or bike is illegal!
- Cuddlers on the court, you are illegal!
and:
A mallet may only intentionally strike the ball when the frame of the rider’s bike has been parallel to the sideline for at least 21 feet (and)
The sprinters take start on the command of the referee.”
Thank you for the great journalistic research.
But really, thanks for the free PR for recruiting for Savannah Bike Polo!!
savannah was totally awesome...even though cherri and mostly everyone there hated me, i had a great time...
that video looks amazing....i cant wait to see you dudes at sespi!!
i got really sick after this from too much beer, little sleep, and cat allergies, and shitty food.
goodtimes and i cant wait to see you fools again!
i'm still laughing about how after each of your guys' goals there was dead silence
i know, right? it was eerie. i heard the term "evil polo" being used. haha.
as unbelievable as it may sound, during those last two games and throughout the past week, i've totally stood up for you jeff!
I loved ya jeff.
You guys played hard as hell...probably more back to back games than anybody.
i think we eliminated the athens team of chris, k and jake after eliminating atl, putting them 3rd and atl 4th. again i think.
yeah that's my bad, athens was 3rd, atl 4th.
sorry, that was my bad. i was recalling from memory.
actual line up was:
1. nola
2. jax
3. athens
4. atlanta
5. sav dolphin wulves (dave, don, tucker)
6. tally 1 (i think ryler, justin and danny)
7. i hate muffins, sorry don't recognize this team name
8. ftl/orlando (ben, mikey, anthony)
9. jax/sav (ann, andy and jj)
I hate Muffins was ATL 2 composed of myself. (Jake/braxis), Ray (Del Taco) and Justin Barber (AtlBiker) W00t! 7th place
What are you using for your wheel covers again jake? I wanna steal your idea of using snaps. I think I got the right stuff to do so.
I'm using some sort of HDPE sheet good. It's smooth on one side and textured on the other. The stuff I got is used to make truck bed liners.
how many teams total?
I think 18? there was originally 16, but there were two last minute teams wanted in. so tony spiced up the brackets with two bye? games? (or was it that everyone else got a bye) this is how you ended up getting paired with athens your first game.
okay to summarize it all up..
we seriously did not expect so many people to be interested in this, but I think theres so many new clubs in the south that a lot of people were jonesin' for innercity play.
our biggest worry was the courts and not getting busted. the bigger it got, the more some of us were leary, but we found back up courts had the need arose.
also, we are all lucky ann exists and is amazing. she calmed any and all fears and rallied the troops for housing. once we got there it was all southern savannah charm.
the good about the courts:
- completely free
- in the middle of nowhere
- easy to set up
- we were able to have five courts playing simultaneously. on saturday it was basically just move to a court and throw in. on sunday we had three courts dedicated to tournament play and two to pick up (we were going to have a final exhibition game between the winners of the tournament and the best of the pick up but we ran out of sunlight)
the bad about the courts:
the area where we played was/is the part of a racetrack cars go for pitstops/repairs, so as you can imagine its concrete specified for slowing tires. not the best for skidding.
the last big thing is to underline how absolutely crucial and important Charleston's Tony was in all of this
the way this thing evolved was spectacular, and its great having people who are able to compromise and think on the fly on how to incorporate everything possible. he took responsibility sunday and basically ran the tournament by way of organizing brackets (it was double elimination, but by running three to four courts we knocked it all out in five hours) and making sure everyone knew which court they were on, who they were playing and when. its a big thing to step back and accept not playing so that everyone else can. major kudos to him.
seriously tony, you're awesome! and cherri you are too! you guys both made it an awesome weekend for everyone!
also thanks to:
tucker, patrick, annee, becca, fabian, ahndhi, andrew, david, chelsea, erica, and sarah for letting people stay at your house! yall were a huge help and were definitely the right people for the job, taking our guests and making them feel welcome and at home, you guys are great!
thanks. glad everyone could make it.
And also props to Ann for even giving up her nice cozy bed for me and beth. Now that's some downright warm southern hospitality.
Thanks Cherri. I'm still kind of amazed everything worked out. The goal was to have a word of mouth (word of facebook) polo event with no prizes, no entry fees, plenty of booze, lots of friends and I think that is what happened.
cherri that is awesome and detailed. did you guys have to move the tires to make separate courts and such?
paul you said that the tires were very unreliable do you think that nailing long wooden boards to them would be a good way to recycle tires and conserve the use of wood to make a decent court?
wood + tires would work well. the only problem would be securing the wood to the tires.
we liberated them from their wire bindings and rolled them to more useful life purposes. didn't take long.
TUCKY SEND ME!!
wow, thanks for standing up for me ann silver...its whatever...im not really worried about some dude on fixed gear with a cute hat not liking me....or that dude from tally that hates me now too....whatever i had fun. see you dudes at sespi.....
how many people/ teams? who won? what were the expenses?
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