“You picked the worst possible time to come to Phoenix.” -Literally everyone we met.

With record-breaking high temperatures the past week, Phoenix residents spent most of their time indoors. However, the area seemed to have no lack of brave Ultimate players as we attended four pick-up games while in Phoenix. The games are scheduled either early in the morning or late at night to avoid the hottest part of the day, but the temperature was still always recorded in triple figures. Despite the heat, every game we attended had at least enough participants for 7 on 7 and Sunday and Wednesday night even drew a crowd big enough for two games.

We met some interesting characters at these games. On Tuesday night, John Barber was nice enough to show off some of his athletic skills for the camera. I actually met John about a year and a half ago in Georgia, and it was cool to see a familiar face all the way out in Phoenix. Watch closely, and I think you’ll see a move that up until last night, was only ever completed by my grandpa “Big” Jim Wagner in his younger days.

Phoenix boasts quite a few players with a lot of talent off the field too. Take Ashley Stahl for instance, who invited us over to showcase her flute “beat-boxing” abilities. Speaking of my grandparents, I think the only way this performance could have been better is if Ashley had been accompanied by Kay Wagner ticklin’ the ivory.

My grandparents are pretty awesome, so I wanted to throw a shout out to them. And as you can see, the folks here in Phoenix are pretty awesome too. I hope you enjoyed watching them as much as we did, and I hope LA is as much fun as Phoenix was!