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Flatball Radio | Andrew Schwartz – “Sometimes, Good Friends Lie”

by | July 22, 2015, 6:19am 0

I met Andrew Schwartz through mutual friends and his sporadic flirtations with playing for my club team, Rhino. We never spent much time together, but our paths intersected occasionally over the years. Since we didn’t know each other all that well and he lived in New York City, he wasn’t on my radar when I was thinking about storytellers for the Portland show. Then one evening he showed up at my bi-weekly Blazers watch party. There, I remembered he was a published author for the Huffington Post, and also a talking head on national television shows. Plus he had moved back to Portland. My interest was piqued.

Andrew was cautious when signing up for Flatball, and not because he was unsure of his abilities.  He wanted to make sure his intermittent relationship with ultimate wasn’t going to be a detriment to the project. Luckily, diverse perspectives are not only welcome, but necessary at a Flatball show.

Once he committed, Andrew took a serious interest in not only his story, but also the art involved in crafting it. While he labored over the narrative structure, we met up at a local brewery to talk shop about his story and the direction it should head. After about 45 minutes of workshopping, we put down the notebook and just talked about life. The subsequent two hours brought us closer as friends than 7 years of sporadic run ins at ultimate events. The opportunity to connect with people and deepen relationships is reason enough to do this project.

More about Andrew: Pacific Lutheran alum. Stumbled into pro ultimate. Huffington post writer, TV talking head and master wordsmith.

Photo by Gene Buonaccorsi — www.eugenebuonaccorsi.com

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