Today’s OnThePitch is quite a few years overdue.
We took a moment after halibut to sit down and hope into bed with the Heroes numero-uno to get his opinion of the current mob of heroes. We caught Huddy feeling a bit off and under the weather... and the sheets.
Me: G’day Huddy, c’mon move over...
Huddy: sure... (A moment of awkwardness)... I'm still feeling like c***; I just got into bed :(, so I've got plenty of time for this interview
Me: oh really... geez, it’s knocking you about
Huddy: has a bit. Doesn’t matter, I'll drug myself up, and hit the field hard on Sunday :) (I'm playing in Melbourne)
Me: oh gosh, you certainly get about mate and totally glad to hear that you’re getting into bed to sleep and prepare for another ultimate tournament. (Readers should know that Huddy came down ill with this same batch of sickness at last week’s Halibut)
So tell me about this Melbourne tourney?
Huddy: It's a one day Kings and Queens Hat tournament run by Monash uni. It’s a hat, but the teams change every game, and the winner is the individual woman, and individual guy with the most number of wins.
Me: Hey that’s a cool concept; we might consider that for the Heroes hat tournament that’s in the planning stages at the moment. Would you be willing to lend your support behind that?
Huddy: :D I love how keen everyone is, and will support just about anything. I'm happy to do whatever I can to help, given that's a bit limited being in Tassie.
Me: whilst we're speaking about tournaments, how did you find Halibut this year?
Huddy: It was good! Although smaller than I remember from 07, but a lot of fun. I loved playing with Heroes again, even if I've only played with 3 of you before, and I see a lot of positive signs in the team. I'd love to sink my teeth into some of the finer points of skill improvement in the team. Give me a few hours and I reckon I can improve most people's throws and game play. More than anything else, it got me enjoying ultimate again, which I haven't done for a while
Me: I guess the cold Tassie climate can be a dampener down there: P. so how does the current mob of heroes compare to the first team you fielded?
Huddy: less rag-tag :). Having you, Gav, and Bev helps a lot with the skill/general sportiness. The first team was thrown together with whoever we could get, so to see some talented people playing for Heroes now is very pleasing. I guess the big difference is the focus. The first team was tacked together with a core of 3 of us, Lauren Me and Matt, and then whoever else we could find. The first few seasons our personnel changed regularly, so we couldn't get any sort of continuity. Then I handed over to Danny, and wasn't sure what would happen, but he got all of his mates involved and has done a much better job of making it what it is today than I could have.
Me: Yes Danny and Sean are the modern day grandfathers of the club, without those two we wouldn’t be here. Well with the development of the club are you happy with the naming of the incredible HUC?
Huddy: It's a good name, I like it. I think that Captain Sam would've been appropriate, as the original was drawn by Sam Challis, but The Incredible HUC is a worth name as well.
Me: well the HUC stands for Heroes Ultimate Club - so we thought it fit rather well too
Huddy: Ah! Now I get it. That is good!
Me: You've made your aspirations quite well known about seeing heroes in other competitions, can you tell us about that?
Huddy: I love Heroes. I put everything I had into it when I was in Brisbane, and made sure the name was just "Heroes" rather than "Huddy's Heroes" as it was at the start, so that the name would continue. I love the idea of tradition, and having Heroes built on ideals of Effort and Spirit above all else- and continuing to play with these ideals- makes me love the club even more. The idea of playing at WUCC actually came when I heard that the club was planning to incorporate. It was at a time when I was mad-keen to play more and higher level Ultimate, and when I thought of it, the following thought was "why not?" On top of all that, I want to stay involved with something that is great. Although I started the team way back when, and seem to have a somewhat undeserved mythic status, it's through Danny, Sean’s and Carl's hard work (and probably other people I'm not aware of) that the club is what it is today, and I'm greedily being as much a part of it as I possibly can.
With Danny getting his friends involved, the club now has much greater social cohesion, and this change in focus, coming together to play together rather than being thrown together by happenstance, is what I think really started the club feel.
Me: Huddy that’s very philosophical... ok lets now have a look at the real Huddy, as it were
Huddy: ha! Okay.
Me: Apart from throwing a disc, what is your favourite buzz?
Huddy: I'm currently saving up to buy a hang-glider. My Ultimate trips are slowing this saving down, but I'll get there soon enough. Apart from that, I like multi-day hiking, reading, cooking. I'm primarily studying med so that I can support my sporting, cooking, and book habits.
Me: nice that’s awesome! Ok name five things that you hate?
Huddy: Hate hey? Well I hate people writing "could of" as opposed to "could've or could have"
I have a lot of trouble tolerating intolerance
Med Students Gall me
People discarding cigarette butts, and I'd have to finish with people who want to lose weight from a pill.
That was a hard one though!
Me: ha-ha love it. Alright this one is a little closer. It is common knowledge that you are a ranger, no offense. So all the readers out there have asked me to ask you; have you ever dyed your hair?
Huddy: hahahaha! Twice. When I was 17, I thought it might be funny to go blonde. It was funny, but not in the way I thought. Then I dyed my hair black for a "Doctors and Nurses" dress up party in 02, when I went as Dr Spock. That one washed out though.
Me: ha-ha if you’ve got pictures we'd love to see that. Ok 2 more questions. What did your teachers say about you in your school reports?
Huddy: In primary school I was well loved, and my teachers all thought highly of me. As I moved into high school, I still thought highly of me, but recognised quickly that I wasn't terribly motivated. Generally it was comments like "Huddy is a quiet, conscientious student who thinks of others. A Pleasure to teach."
Me: yea I guess id believe that, well you’d want to hope your doctor had reports like that... one last one. What’s the most embarrassing mistake you’ve ever made?
Huddy: the really embarrassing ones I've managed to blot from my memory. I know there's a couple of bad ones in there, but I honestly can't recall. I guess one of the best would be tearing my hamstring doing the splits on the dance floor at a wedding. I managed to cover it up, but when I told my then girlfriend, she found it very entertaining. Apparently the Mother of the Bride still talked about it years later.
Me: ahaha yea that’s quite good, I imagine that hurt too
Huddy: well it was only a small tear but it hurt enough to stop me from dancing.
Me: maybe it was just a sign from above :P
Me: And with that Huddy immediately kicked off the sheets, stood up, kicked a chair over and stormed out of the room. And that was the end of the interview. I don’t know readers, you can’t seem to have a joke with these Tasmanian red heads...
**Note: Huddy was not actually present at the interview and said chair did not exist. Parts of the end of this interview may have been edited for theatrical effect and presentation.
**2nd Note: Huddy was indeed sick, but more than willing to have a joke
No comments:
Post a Comment