Players Experience Worlds, Return with Beards

One thing became noticeable during bike polo action last Wednesday at Coolavin: the soft clean faces have gone the way of summer. And while the bearded action is no doubt the practical end result of falling temperatures and strong seasonal winds, this sports commentator would like to offer another reason: the playful boys and girls of summer have grown up into the hardened, weather-worn men and women of fall.

Things came so easy to the players this summer, as various individuals and teams began racking up deep tournament runs, culminating in the wildly successful Bluegrass State Games Bike Polo Tournament, held right here in Lexington. But with the end of summer, our freshly shaved sports heroes left the friendly confines of the state and traveled to the World Bike Polo Championships, a tournament held on the hard streets of Philadelphia. With teams flying in from as far as Europe and the Pacific Northwest, the competition was fierce. No Lexington bike polo player or team placed in the tournament; even the Comosexuals from Missouri, who blew through last year's BG Games Tournament undefeated, failed to place.

As a sports journalist covering the local bike polo beat, I have been hard pressed to get much out of the players who went. Lopez smiles and looks off into the distance, whispering something about stealing the Comosexual flag; Combs mentioning how great an experience it was.

Vague utterances, but reverent ones. The players returned, beaten yes, in some games to a messy pulp, but they survived and learned. They returned home a bit wiser for the experience.

The beards says so: In the month since they've returned, the game at Coolavin has picked up. As Flowers noted last week, the defensive intensity has picked up all around. Flowers should know. He did not attend the Worlds for what some say was a chronic case of athlete's foot, and he wore no beard this Wednesday night.