#16 - David Hogan

Nickname: Hogan
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 175 lbs
Position: Spiking Ravi
Years w/ESN: 2006-Present
Major: Exercise Science
Hometown: Burke, VA
Dating Status: Sahara-like drought
e-mail: dph17 AT pitt DOT edu

Biography:
I was an untimely pulled hamstring away from running track for Pitt, but really that injury during April of my senior year of high school was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. After a very strange string of events (ask me about it!) involving the hamstring pull, the World Cup, randomly facebooking a drummer at Pitt, my sister going to Ukraine, me already owning a lot of blue shirts, writing music and stories with a friend for two years, and an overwhelming desire to buy a Nerf crossbow, I joined Pitt Ultimate. After deciding to take a year off before running track here, I thought I'd try club soccer, a sport I played early in high school. Turns out most of the kids on the team were pricks. I wasn't just looking for a sport to play, I was looking for brothers, so that was no good. Looking at the ultimate frisbee flier I was given earlier in the week, I noticed the tag "athletes wanted-experience not needed," and I realized hey, I'm an athlete, and I don't have experience. Clearly, I was perfect for the job. I went to practice with absolutely no knowledge of competitive ultimate. It blew me away. It combined my favorite aspects of the sports I loved to play, all in one. I honestly couldn't think about anything other than ultimate for a couple months after the first practice. My grades declined. I stopped hanging out with friends. I stopped eating and playing guitar. People were worried about me. And then they realized I'm kidding, so freaking calm down.

I knew by the end of the first practice that this was what I wanted to do. By the end of the week I had made a five-year commitment. And I'm really hoping my parents don't read that last sentence. But seriously, it wasn't just the sport itself that got me playing: it was the people playing it. I quickly had a group of brothers I belonged with. But they weren't just great friends- they answered any question I had about ultimate, and took time out of their schedule to teach me things like flicking. They taught me valuable life lessons, like the effectiveness of the forehead peck (Josh), the effect of a freezer on a lot of carbonated beverages (Brent), and ROBOT HOUSE!!! Futurama is awesome. I didn't learn that here, but The Bird confirmed it. In summary, the vets helped me go from a clueless freshman who had hardly ever thrown a frisbee to a clueless freshman with some awesome nicknames. Ultimate is not just a sport. It's a passion. It's a community. It's a brotherhood. It's life.