The 2025 HoosierMama?s & Calamity Janes Alumni Weekend kicked off with a Welcome Dinner and Bonfire hosted by the one and only Daxman Collins. We planned for 70 people but easily topped 100 — and yes, we ran out of food. (Thanks to everyone who didn’t fill out the RSVP form… really appreciated that.)

Despite the shortage of pizza, spirits were high. Folks mingled, caught up with old friends, and played lawn games while enjoying a perfect fall evening.

As the sun set, the bonfire came to life, and we heard rousing remarks from Joe “Peanut” Dweck and Catherine “CJ” Penn, who thanked everyone for showing up and continuing to support the teams financially, strategically, and professionally. Peanut brought his wife and new baby Rayna — instant crowd favorite — and CJ and Shady are expecting. Congrats all around!

Our group was tasked with being a “spirit squad” responsible for cheering on the participants in the final leg of the course as they approached the finish line in Memorial Stadium. We had a strong showing from the current players this year and a good group of Grandmama?s and Janes alumni as well. Junior Ethan Teske started us off strong by organizing chest painting amongst the current players, spelling out “Awesome!” with body paint to remind the runners how we felt about them as they hit the final straight. Another Junior, Ethan “Steppa” Euribe provided a speaker and his DJing skills to get our energy up to cheer on the thousands of runners we were about to see.  Jane’s alum (and organizer of the event) Amelia Roebuck provided pom poms, noise makers, markers, and posters to aide in our raucousness. My personal favorite sign was simple, “Run.” Hard to get more straight forward than that. 

The seemingly never-ending sea of runners and walkers got a kick out of how silly our group could be. The younger runners in particular loved to get the crowd going by showing off their sprinting speed as they approached us. By the end the last few groups even got a special entrance as we quieted down until they got right to us, at which point we burst into cheering. The very last group even got a special photo op as our “Awesome!” chest paint group was organized into a pyramid and held a couple’s baby aloft in a Lion King tribute. It was a great experience for all involved and a great way to start off a long Saturday of fun and fellowship with both new and old friends. We hope to continue to grow this aspect of the weekend as a way to continue to give back to a Bloomington community that gave so much to us in the brief time we all spent there.

On Saturday, we hosted the IMUF Disc Golf tournament and BBQ to raise money for the program and have some fun tossing plates at immobile objects along with hanging out with our friends. First, I want to say thank you to Kyle Cox and Calvin Rose for helping with the disc golf tournament prep, organization, and trophy creation. Now onto the day's events!

After a rip roaring night at Upstairs, I arrived at Crestmont Park a little later than expected to find Connor Henderson already setting up the food spread and getting the grill going. To him and all those who helped with the BBQ side of the event, major thanks! Once we got Crestmont ready to play with all of the CTP flags and other items, most of the charity event crowds started rolling in between 1-1:30. We rattled off the rules, donation options, and general tournament format. Then in classic frisbee people fashion, we had to repeat nearly everything since we are all such good listeners… A jest rooted in realism.

Once we got going, the tournament ran without hiccups and people started throwing discs, cheering each other on, razzing their card mates or other cards close to them. There was an amazing buzz floating around the park as we fully took over from the shelter across to the furthest holes. As the dust settled from the tournament and cards started to finish, that’s where our valiant grillmasters came in clutch to feed the hungry returners. I saw those flames ripping a few times out of the corner of my eye as those guys put in work on the burgers and glizzies.

(Not going to say who donated to get 2 strokes but a tie is a tie.) Then in second, Josh "J Money" Simon (who also happened to start the IU Disc Golf Club after his ultimate career) with a great round of  -5 with no strokes or mulligan purchases. Pure play. Finally, last and always least, Mr. Opal myself took first with a round of -10 net -12 after stroke donations. It only took Kyle Cox only having 1 arm for me to finally take him down since we started doing the alumni DG tournament.

After all of the disc golf cards finished, there was a small break as people ate food and were merry with everyone else who didn’t play. But we still had 1 more trophy to dole out. That was originally supposed to be a putting and running game but after Friday night’s festivities it didn’t seem like folks wanted to run. So, we pivoted the putting trophy to being a doubles scramble team trophy! Similar to previous years, there is always an appetite for another round after the main tournament ends where we play random doubles. We let disc flipping decide our team fates and we went off.

After a tenacious battle, down to the wire between Aj/Big Bird and Opal/Charlie, we ended up tied after 18 holes, with only 45 minutes till the Mama?s sunset activities kicked in. We were not going to leave that at a tie. A few more holes were played until Charlie/Opal emerged victorious completing the Saturday sweep. All in all, the weather was fantastic, the food spread was perfect for our tailgating setup, and Crestmont seemed like a place to host us without issue for years to come. Thank you to everyone who helped, cooked, participated, and even just came to chill out with friends and heckle the disc golfers. This was one for the books and we can’t wait to do it again next year!

It was a beautiful fall day in Bloomington light breeze sunny and a group of familiar faces, new faces and a new coach taking the helm for the Alumni... me.

To get things started, Connor "Pretty" Regan and I flipped, there was already controversy afoot as we did not discuss with one disc which side of the disc was up and which side was down, after a reflip, the Alumni won the color choice of light.  After a second flip, the Alumni won the side selection of starting downwind and on offense. Pretty was feeling generous as the Alumni have been bested for 3 consecutive years in a row at this point. 

Alumni started off the game ON TIME on offense in light.

If you know anything about the alumni scrimmage, you know that the alumni, with their infinite years of experience, came out hot to a 3-0 start. Current team take a time out.

Out of the timeout, the current team draws up a good set and they score to make it 3-1.... if you're expecting things to get better from here in the first half if you're rooting for the current team... it doesn't get better but there are some highlights!

Connor "Rodman" Blalack, Ethan "Steppa" Uribe, CJ Santiago, Aidan, Ball.

CJ Santiago, it didn't matter who was guarding him.. he was gonna get the disc,  has infinite energy, and look out in the deep space he gets UP!

If Ethan "Steppa" Euribe was ISO'd in the endzone set... it was a goal every time churned a lot of yards in a small amount of time Steppa, Mova, Throwa, he had it all.

Connor "Rodman" Blalack had every throw and go, every huck, everything was connecting... even an unintentional punch to Jimi Cantwell's jewels... (everyone was okay!)

Alumni tried our best to contain them but... they simply could not be contained.  With intense pressure on a throw from recent graduate Collin "Big Country" Rassell he's able to make an absolutely INSANE layout grab (ON OFFENSE) to maintain possession, a few throws later they turn it and at this point our D line offense of let Cam Thatcher huck it to someone that's open is working.

Which... pause the tape... CAM THATCHER FOR THOSE THAT DON'T KNOW IS CANCER FREE AND MADE IT HIS GOAL AT COLLEGE REGIONALS 2024 TO BE BACK TO PLAYING BY ALUMNI WEEKEND, AND HE STILL HAS IT, it was absolutely incredible to see him back playing again.

team was making an impact... and let's just say .. another Galle is LIKE THAT when it comes to getting buckets in the deep space.  Drew Galle, remember the name, outran every matchup, and once he puts it all together is going to be a player to watch in the future.

After a fake halftime call, it's 7-4 at this point... alumni are in full cruise control and take half 8-4. We WERE KEEPING SCORE TO AVOID ANOTHER YEAR OF HALFTIME CONTROVERSY!

Halftime speeches happen, alumni are on D out of half.

New players arrive on the scene out of half for the alumni who were making sure they were fresh for the second half.

We get a break pretty easy and it's 9-4

Conner Henderson, feeling generous as an IMUF Board member lets the kids play by having a different idea of what to force and current team holds 9-5.

Matthew "Big Bird" McHugh is involved on tall on tall play calling and runs past another tall  Sam Greenfield for a perfectly designed huck play and it's
10-5.

Alumni break 11-5
Current team holds 11-6
Alumni Hold it's 12-6
Alumni break it's 13-6.

Another timeout is called..

As a coach of the Alumni team.. I'm instilling confidence in the older players to go have fun. Let's just get wacky with it.. because it's not fun for the fans if we just win 15-6. I know this did not feel good for Charlie "Chuck" Riedel who was a welcomed special guest for the alumni as a recent player  for the team who moved to be closer to family and STILL is a dawg on the field.

The alumni receive the message well and start throwing exciting hammers, blades, scoobers, really exciting stuff for the fans.

Current team was mentally resilient and they never let the pressure get to them.

At this point the youth start clawing back and get a hold, then a break! and just like that it's 13-8.

Remembering that we still have two timeouts in the half, the alumni offense is instructed to score and then we are immediately calling a timeout.  We do exactly that and it's 14-8, game point for the olds.

The line was simple, the tallest alumni we have + recent graduate George Peterson and we're running a zone with George as our deepest and the rest of the tall stars are a cup around the thrower.  A jump ball goes up and CJ Santiago catches the disc in a pack of talls and does a headtap celebration while being stalled, as many know, conservation of greatness comes for all of us and there's an immediate turn on his next throw.  Alumni get the disc and we call a timeout.  AJ Novosad calls an injury sub and we get a fresh set of legs out there.

The play call is simple... "ball game", get the rock to George.

Cam Thatcher sends up a huck to George.. he skies Drew Galle and that's the game, alumni win 15-8. 

It was incredible to see so many generations of Mama?s come together and play a really incredible team and give the current team a competitive game to help propel their season.  It truly is an amazing event year after year and I love being able to meet new players on the team and talk with current players that I already know.

I cannot think of a better way to punctuate a fun weekend regardless of the score. It's always a blast coming back to Bloomington united by the same joy of chasing around a piece of plastic.