Shorts on Shorts on Shorts

The early years

     Throughout my college Ultimate career I always more multiple pairs of shorts when I played. Whether it was a pick up game in the summer or Sunday morning of Regionals I'd be wearing two pairs of shorts. Everyone thought I was crazy. Opponents would give me wierd looks during play stoppage and ask, "What's with the two pairs of shorts?" My teammates still to this day tease me about wearing eight pairs of shorts, each pair being lower than the next. They would always ask me "Why? Why wear two pairs of shorts?" They told me I'd be faster without them. Told me I looked dumb wearing them. No matter what people told me, no matter the ridicule or logic, I kept wearing them until I decided I didn't want to anymore.  I never really explained it to anyone. I would just say "That's how I play," or justify it by saying "Michael Jordan wore two pairs of shorts." Really, the reason for it is actually quite simple.

Yes, I played this way all through college

     I started wearing multiple pairs of shorts occasionally in high school. I wasn't an Ultimate player back then. I was a basketball player. I loved playing ball even if that meant going to a local park in November and playing in just above freezing temperatures. On this day, the conception of my two shorts craze, I decided wearing two pairs of shorts would keep my legs warm in the cold weather. I didn't do it again until after my junior year of track when I pulled my hamstring. This was my first major muscle injury and I didn't do a great job at rehabbing it, so it never quite felt the same afterwards. I would wear two pairs of shorts on days that my hamstring felt tight, as a way to keep it warm. I never wore them during races or basketball games but held firm the belief that my hamstring was safer with the extra layer. Then, during my freshman year at Winona State, I gradually began wearing two pairs every day. Eventually, it became a part of who I was and I liked standing out in a unique way that was specific to me. I was growing into an Ultimate player and the extra pair of shorts made me feel comfortable playing in the wet and cold weather that always shows up whenever the Upper Midwest tries to host an Ultimate tournament in the spring. I became comfortable playing in the shorts and didn't want to change that, even if it made me a half a stepper faster.

A friend and my future wife dressed up as me for Halloween

    I was comfortable looking like a doofus in two pairs of shorts on the Ultimate field becuase it was part of what made me different. This probably wouldn't have worked in a different environment but the Ultimate community is so welcoming and accepting that my weird quirk of choosing to play in multiple shorts was no big deal. I was just being me and that's the whole point. No matter what makes you an individual out on the Ultimate field, go do that and own it! DO YOU! Whether you wear high socks or tie a bandana around your knee brace, if it's you and your comfortable playing that way than own it. I played with a guy who asked his teammates to call him 'Gloves' because he wore gloves. He owned it and had fun with it. Be who you are as a person and it'll make the game more fun. The same applies to your style of play on the field. If you have an awesome Forehand than set yourself up to use it to beat opposing defenses. If you love shutting down cutters on D than challenge yourself by gaurding the other teams best player. Be who you are out on the field and let the joy and acceptance you recieve from Ultimate carry over into the rest of your life.