Remember when you were a kid back in elementary school?
Once or twice a day, you went outside to burn off some excess energy. It kept your teachers sane. They needed the break. It did the same for you, too. All was fun and games until, well …
It was time for actual fun and games.
I’m talking about picking teams for kickball, basketball or two-touch football – any sport, really. That’s when the anxiety set in. For captains, walking the fine-line between recruiting talent and offending somebody was tough sledding. And for players, the fear of being chosen dead-last …
Pour one out for the heavy-set kid with seasonal asthma and two left feet.
Thanks to Jeff Spring, for the 2022 DGPT All-Stars, yet again, that fear would rear its ugly head. Before the draft had even begun, disc golf fans knew who the captains were. They also knew who the most “desirable” of the All-Star golfers were – only a select few would suffer …
On the MPO side, Paul Ulibarri was chosen with the second-to-last pick by Calvin Heimburg. Weakening the blow, however, was the fact that – along with Garrett Gurthie – Ulibarri had been brought in as a last-minute “wildcard” by the DGPT. Each team could only draft a single MPO wildcard. As Eagle McMahon chose Gurthie early on, by default, Ulibarri was the final pick.
The honors for “last-picked” amongst the men fell to Nikko Locastro. Nikko’s fiery and intense. “Psycho” might be a good word. If you’re a fan, you love him or hate him. One would assume the feeling’s the same for players. On the plus side, though, Locastro was arguably the highest value taken at the lowest position. He’s now teammates with Drew Gibson, so yeah …
That’ll be fun to monitor.
For the ladies, Rebecca Cox was the penultimate pick for Team Catrina. On paper, though wildly talented, she was always in the running for final selection. The “cherry-on-top” choice was none other than Madison Walker. There’s a bright side to this for Walker, though. The sympathy she’ll undoubtedly garner from MVP fans should help her round out her bag to start the year.
Here’s how things shook out across the board for each of the four All-Star teams:
The picks are in! Here are your official #DGPTAllStar Teams. pic.twitter.com/HW3ZU4LvFl
— Disc Golf Pro Tour (@DiscGolfProTour) February 11, 2022
And to wrap things up, 10 random, draft-night observations from yours truly:
- This was fun.
- Eagle needs a haircut.
- The event felt like a banquet.
- Ulibarri and Gibson dressed way too much alike.
- There were a few audio issues, but nothing major.
- Calvin was extremely uncomfortable the entire time.
- Eagle didn’t choose himself for the distance competition.
- The backdrop for the draft looked like the inside of a shed.
- The accuracy competition was the “junk drawer” of disc golf strategy.
- Paige dropped an “S-bomb” into her mic, forgetting she was on live coverage.
I joke and poke fun, but in all seriousness, the DGPT is doing big things for professional disc golf. I’m excited. The fine-tuning of All-Star Weekend will take some time, but it’ll get there.
In the meantime, enjoy the show.
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