As per T-Dig's request, I've compiled a more comprehensive set of links which can be found on the right side of the page. The following is a list of my favorite link in each category, and why:
Favorite Ultimate Blog
This is a tough one, but I'll have to go with North Park's blog. It's perhaps not the best written or most informative blog, but I like it because of it's relevance to our team. The only other blog I'm aware of in the Central Plains is the Illinois blog which I also like, but the North Park guy (Luke Johnson) has him beat with a consistent flow of mid-tournament score updates, highlight videos, and in-depth tournament write-ups, although the NP blog could use a little more of a sense of humor. This is ultimate, after all. For a more complete list of ultimate blogs go here.
Favorite Ultimate Apparel Site
This would undoubtedly be Five Ultimate's Site if they put any work at all into keeping it up to date. I don't understand why they have so much great merchandise and such a primitive website. Given that Five's site sucks, Breakmark takes the cake in this category. They have by far the best selection of ultimate apparel on the net that I'm aware of and they have real images of their merchandise, which is something that VC and Under Armour are still struggling with...
Favorite Ultimate Resource
The Huddle has emerged in the last year or so as the premier ultimate news magazine, although they haven't gotten much competition. The closest is probably MSSUI which is a Cyle Van Auken creation which was run anonymously for about a year which I think speaks against its credibility. The Ultimate Handbook is also a nice little resource but I disagree with some of what they teach so, yeah.
Favorite Ultimate Video
Now this is tough. Unfortunately, there is no one site with every ultimate video ever made, but the next best thing is Ultivillage, which is a very well run and professional ultimate video site. They cover elite club ultimate for the most part, and sell DVDs of most of the National and World club competition in Open, Women's and Mixed.
Some others:
Michigan Nationals 06
Luke Johnson's Vimeo (NP/Rhino)
...and if none of those get you excited to play ultimate, this one's pretty good too
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Writer's slump?
Dear reader(s),
It's been a while since my last post, and now that finals are over I'm back home and looking for something to do. Being that there are no tournaments or huckumentarys coming up, I'm somewhat stuck on what to write about. So, I open myself up for questions. What would you like to read about? Do you have strategical questions that you'd like answered? Would you like a guest article from someone else? If so, please provide a topic and a guest author. What else would you like to read about? Either contact me directly or post in the comments section underneath this post.
It's been a while since my last post, and now that finals are over I'm back home and looking for something to do. Being that there are no tournaments or huckumentarys coming up, I'm somewhat stuck on what to write about. So, I open myself up for questions. What would you like to read about? Do you have strategical questions that you'd like answered? Would you like a guest article from someone else? If so, please provide a topic and a guest author. What else would you like to read about? Either contact me directly or post in the comments section underneath this post.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Huckumentary Predictions
As most of you know Hollywood is going to premiere his documentary about the 07-08 Gnomes. I think it's fitting for me to give my preview of what we'll probably see in it.
- 15 minute (minimum) tribute to Eric Huber's calf muscles and bids, probably to the tune of this song
- Pat Moran spending the majority of his interview gushing about the only thing he misses from the ultimate team is Dave Riley (don't hate, they're dating)
- Hopefully some drunken confessions caught by the camera in the party footage which will probably carry the storyline. In particular I'm looking for Steve to admit that he really isn't a 16th black, Padula to admit that he's been applying to Missouri S&T for the past 3 semesters, and Sam to admit that he's had a threesome with Doug and Georgia at last year's Stanley Cup
- I'd also imagine that all of the good footage of us playing will probably be blocked by either Don or Georgia's back.
- Ashley Betke won't remember any of the premiere, so she'll have to watch it again the next day
- Pete Overright and Doug will be in the running for best dressed, but I think Doug will take it with one of his zazzle creations
- It'll easily shoot to the top of my favorite movies list
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Making the Team, Part III - Special Teams?
Leave it to Doug to write a special teams article about ultimate. As ridiculous as it sounds, I agree wholeheartedly with a solid 77% of the points he makes in this article. Enjoy.
"There are also many intangibles to being an A-team player. These are things off the field that set you apart.
"There are also many intangibles to being an A-team player. These are things off the field that set you apart.
- The first is spirit. Spirit is the most important rule in the game. Without it, we are just like athletes from any other sport. If you play on our A-team, you are representing the Gnomes. We’ve built a good reputation of being a fun team that plays hard and plays fair. We want you guys to want to win, we want you guys to play hard and leave it all on the field, but we want you guys to be fair. Other teams notice when teams are unspirited and it hurts our relations with them if we have players who aren’t.
- The second is being named Eric Huber. This helps a lot if you want to make the A-team.
- The third one is drive. Now I know that a lot of us got our licenses suspended, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean you have to want to win, and more importantly to be all that you can be. There are two kinds of drive: you can either say you want it or you can show you want it. Showing it means playing hard every second you’re in the game, wanting to play every point and every chance you get. It means getting someone to practice throwing with on the quad on an off day. It means going out in a -50 degree blizzard and doing sprints. Ok, maybe that last one was kinda extreme, but you get the idea. If you don’t want it, I don’t want you.
- Next, and possibly the most important, you need to have or have had a Mohawk. It’s aerodynamic and makes you jump higher, run faster, and last longer ;) if you know what I mean. You must also have the ability to suck up to Ryan, Steve, and myself. I love gifts and candy. [Editor's note: Doug also likes hugs] Also, your game must look like an art form like when Steve gracefully leaps over people and gets the disc at his highest point, or when Ryan fakes a dump cut and goes up the line like a gazelle, or when Shane shaves his head and then flexes in front of the mirror. It’s not enough to play good, it must also look good.
Making the Team, Part II - Defense
The defensive installment of the "Making the Team" series comes from our beloved captain Steve, with a couple minor edits from yours truly. This article goes a little deeper into expectations from a D line player past tryouts and into responsibilities especially in zone D. I'd recommend referring back to this article throughout the spring. Thanks to Steve for taking the time to write it.
Defensive Lines
First and foremost, Defense is easy. When you are on defense, the primary goal is not scoring, catching, or throwing like the O line. The goal is to not let the other team do any of those. There are a few things you have to do.
The first is BE IN POSITION! A defensive player who is out of position makes the rest of the team look bad. Everything can be going right, but one bad apple spoils the rest of the apples (or something like that).
The second is HUSTLE! I want to write speed, but hustle is close enough and I can teach hustle, but I can't teach speed. Hustle is laying out for a disc that is just far enough away, helping your teammate on a man going deep, or running down a tipped disc to make sure no one but you gets it.
Thirdly, you must be able to LISTEN! Communication is important. Tuning in and out the right voices is crucial. Listen to the experienced players on your team. [Editor's note: Along with listening to the experienced players in practice and between points, listening to the other 6 guys who are on the field with you is maybe even more important]
The Cup
0/The mark The mark should be a person who will only let throws go to the force side. NO BREAKS! This is a huge task, but a throw that goes to the break side puts lots of people out of position. Let them take that dump first and if a force side swing comes off that throw, which will happen, get over there and start all over. This person should be speedy, a great mark, and must have lungs (endurance).
1/Top o' the Cup
The top of the cup MUST LISTEN! The MM will be calling left, right, closer, further, and crashes. YOU are in charge of those crashes. Just in case this needs explaining, you may go within that 10 meters if someone crashes because you are now guarding them. When the disc is swung to the force side, watch out for a big throw through where you should be. If need be, round off that cup to keep that throw up field.
p.s. you should be laying out for any throw that goes through the middle of the cup.
2/ Wall o' the Cup
This is probably the hardest part of the cup to figure out where you need to be. The best way to think of it though is to be in position to stop the upfield throw, but still allowing them to get stuck on the sideline. Other than that, you need to have that hustle, speed, endurance, and must be able to lay out for throws through the cup.
MM/Mid Mid
This guy/gal needs to be experienced. There are so many split second decisions that I will be happy to talk to you about in person, but writing them is a whole different task. The biggest is figuring out who the most dangerous man is. There will be lots of times when you have two people in your zone and you have to decide who you are going to take. Who you take depends on several things. Usually, go with whoever is going to the force side and cutting towards the cup. That is easy to do when the disc is stopped with the cup on, but off a big swing, it can be a difficult position to find yourself in. Listen to your Monster. While you are in charge of telling the cup what to do, the monster is in charge of helping you know what to do. So BE VOCAL, but also LISTEN! We will go over this position more in practice, because a blog does not do it justice. [Editor's note: my blog is just as good as practice, if not better]
WS/Weak Side
Not to be confused with Weak Sauce. This position can be two things. One, a relaxing position where you hope the cup doesn't allow the disc to get to this side. Or two, THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON EVER....not really, but a person who can create havoc on the field. First thing (most important thing) is you are in charge of stopping throws up the break side part of the field, along with the MM. After that, you are in charge of hammers across the field. If those things are secure (AND ONLY IF THEY ARE SECURE) use your best judgment and start creating havoc. You can:
You have the job of stopping throws to the throws up the force side of the field. It seems simple enough, but it can get difficult when there is a lot of room for the opposition to work with. If the disc starts way over on the break side of the field, the handlers are going to work it to your side of the field, and teams who can time their cuts will try and make you look foolish. DON'T LET THEM. You just take the most dangerous guy out of the play on your side, and if two people cut to your zone, you might have to let one of them get the disc, but you helped the team by having them move the disc to the strong side of the field, where our cup can trap them on that line.
NOTE TO ALL THE MIDS: This is a pretty hard job, so either Listen back to the monster, or before the pull, get someone on the sideline to help you out. This can be beneficial if your only job is to listen.
Monster
I'm tired of writing. DON"T LET PEOPLE GET BEHIND YOU! TALK TO THE MIDS. SKY PEOPLE! but most importantly DON'T GIVE MALONEY THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAY "Oh, I would have caught that if I was monster."
This was a lot of writing, and some of it is kind of difficult to read without being in steve's head. So if you have time, come join me in my head, or ask me what it all means. or do nothing and watch the D from the sideline while you play O. Defense is more fun. And always remember, the better the D line does, the more the D line gets to play.
im gonna go watch role models
Defensive Lines
First and foremost, Defense is easy. When you are on defense, the primary goal is not scoring, catching, or throwing like the O line. The goal is to not let the other team do any of those. There are a few things you have to do.
The first is BE IN POSITION! A defensive player who is out of position makes the rest of the team look bad. Everything can be going right, but one bad apple spoils the rest of the apples (or something like that).
The second is HUSTLE! I want to write speed, but hustle is close enough and I can teach hustle, but I can't teach speed. Hustle is laying out for a disc that is just far enough away, helping your teammate on a man going deep, or running down a tipped disc to make sure no one but you gets it.
Thirdly, you must be able to LISTEN! Communication is important. Tuning in and out the right voices is crucial. Listen to the experienced players on your team. [Editor's note: Along with listening to the experienced players in practice and between points, listening to the other 6 guys who are on the field with you is maybe even more important]
- Before I explain what I want in a zone, things to think about while standing on the line. Good work O line, you just scored (or maybe the D line scored) and that is why we are on the line.
- I want to keep playing so we're gonna get another turnover, score, and play D all over again.
- When counting off a line, figure out who is best for you, what he is going to try to do, and how you are going to make him fail. Think about this every time you place your knee on that chalked line (hopefully we keep playing on lined fields).
The Cup
0/The mark The mark should be a person who will only let throws go to the force side. NO BREAKS! This is a huge task, but a throw that goes to the break side puts lots of people out of position. Let them take that dump first and if a force side swing comes off that throw, which will happen, get over there and start all over. This person should be speedy, a great mark, and must have lungs (endurance).
1/Top o' the Cup
The top of the cup MUST LISTEN! The MM will be calling left, right, closer, further, and crashes. YOU are in charge of those crashes. Just in case this needs explaining, you may go within that 10 meters if someone crashes because you are now guarding them. When the disc is swung to the force side, watch out for a big throw through where you should be. If need be, round off that cup to keep that throw up field.
p.s. you should be laying out for any throw that goes through the middle of the cup.
2/ Wall o' the Cup
This is probably the hardest part of the cup to figure out where you need to be. The best way to think of it though is to be in position to stop the upfield throw, but still allowing them to get stuck on the sideline. Other than that, you need to have that hustle, speed, endurance, and must be able to lay out for throws through the cup.
MM/Mid Mid
This guy/gal needs to be experienced. There are so many split second decisions that I will be happy to talk to you about in person, but writing them is a whole different task. The biggest is figuring out who the most dangerous man is. There will be lots of times when you have two people in your zone and you have to decide who you are going to take. Who you take depends on several things. Usually, go with whoever is going to the force side and cutting towards the cup. That is easy to do when the disc is stopped with the cup on, but off a big swing, it can be a difficult position to find yourself in. Listen to your Monster. While you are in charge of telling the cup what to do, the monster is in charge of helping you know what to do. So BE VOCAL, but also LISTEN! We will go over this position more in practice, because a blog does not do it justice. [Editor's note: my blog is just as good as practice, if not better]
WS/Weak Side
Not to be confused with Weak Sauce. This position can be two things. One, a relaxing position where you hope the cup doesn't allow the disc to get to this side. Or two, THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON EVER....not really, but a person who can create havoc on the field. First thing (most important thing) is you are in charge of stopping throws up the break side part of the field, along with the MM. After that, you are in charge of hammers across the field. If those things are secure (AND ONLY IF THEY ARE SECURE) use your best judgment and start creating havoc. You can:
- move towards the center of the field to help the MM (if this happens MM can move over and help the SS/Strong Side.
- OR, you can move forward and help take away some of the handlers far swings, (but just remember, if a handler gets the disc on your side of the field and you are out of position, well then you "screwed the pooch" (note: reread the beginning where I mention always being in position).
You have the job of stopping throws to the throws up the force side of the field. It seems simple enough, but it can get difficult when there is a lot of room for the opposition to work with. If the disc starts way over on the break side of the field, the handlers are going to work it to your side of the field, and teams who can time their cuts will try and make you look foolish. DON'T LET THEM. You just take the most dangerous guy out of the play on your side, and if two people cut to your zone, you might have to let one of them get the disc, but you helped the team by having them move the disc to the strong side of the field, where our cup can trap them on that line.
NOTE TO ALL THE MIDS: This is a pretty hard job, so either Listen back to the monster, or before the pull, get someone on the sideline to help you out. This can be beneficial if your only job is to listen.
Monster
I'm tired of writing. DON"T LET PEOPLE GET BEHIND YOU! TALK TO THE MIDS. SKY PEOPLE! but most importantly DON'T GIVE MALONEY THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAY "Oh, I would have caught that if I was monster."
This was a lot of writing, and some of it is kind of difficult to read without being in steve's head. So if you have time, come join me in my head, or ask me what it all means. or do nothing and watch the D from the sideline while you play O. Defense is more fun. And always remember, the better the D line does, the more the D line gets to play.
im gonna go watch role models
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Making the Team, Part I
I apologize for the lull in posting over the past 2 weeks. It's been partially a result of me being bogged down with schoolwork and also because this post has taken so long to compose. Originally it was going to be just one post about expectations for the spring, but from there it has pretty clearly evolved into 3 separate (but equal) articles. Here's the first, written by me. Enjoy.
Given that the spring is coming quickly and the team split will happen probably in a couple months, I thought it would be a good idea to post about what Steve, Doug and I will be looking for in an A-teamer this spring.
O and D lines
We played somewhat exclusive lines last year for our last tournament of the semester and it worked well for the most part. This year we'll be doing it all spring. We'll be creating starting O and D lines and the rest of the team will be subs with an offensive or defensive focus. The main idea behind this strategy is that we'll be a better team if we're able to focus on one playing one position and play with the same 6 other players every time we're on the field. In the rest of this post I'll break down all of the positions on our O and D lines, and what we're looking for at each position. First I'll talk a little about what the O and D lines are expected to do as a whole.
Note: Ultimate players that know more than I do about the sport (easy, Padula), feel free to add some input in the comments section
O line
The O line will play all offensive points (meaning when we receive the disc) and they're expected to score every time they step on the field. Ultimate is all about break, not points. Definition of a break: If our O line gets scored on, the other team is up a break. The O line can't get broken or it puts our Defense in a "must break" situation. We've talked about it all fall (remember - last week of practices before Hucktoberfest this fall): Disc security comes first when we're on offense. Every O line player should feel comfortable with the disc and display the ability to make good decisions especially in high pressure situations (translation: learn how to dump. do it well. do it often). An O line player's priorities on the field are as follows, in order:
1. Maintain possession of the disc
2. Move the disc
3. Advance the disc
D line
The D lines job is to generate breaks, plain and simple. A D line player should bring a high level of intensity to the field every time they step out on it, and should bid for everything. In addition to being absolutely nuts on defense, they also need to know how to quickly switch over to chilly mode once a turnover is generated in order to avoid marathon points that will come back to haunt us in the form of dead legs later in any given tournament. A D line player's priorities are as follows, in order:
1. Prevent your man from being a viable option
2. Get the D
3. Put it in
O Line Handler
A player in this position is under a lot of pressure. An O line handler must have excellent field sense and decision making abilities. One throw-away at this spot could be the game. Again, disc security is first priority so an O line handler can't drop dumps, and must always get open for a dump when the time calls for it. This player must know how to handle the pressure of getting the most touches out of anyone on the field, especially in big games when the intensity and emotion is at its highest. Remember, a wise man once said: "When you have the disc, you're the quarterback of the team"
O Line Mid
I know that we don't use the terms "mid" and "long" anymore, but for the sake of this post a "mid" will be 2 & 3 in the H-stack. I'll say it again: disc security. An offensive mid will be able to get open consistently (even off of a stopped disc) and won't drop discs. The main cut we look for from our mids is the short to mid-range in-cut, so an offensive mid should be quick footed and run through every disc. I can't stress this enough. Another great attribute of an offensive mid is the ability to exploit the give n go. Your main priority is to keep the disc moving. Catch, dump, repeat.
O Line Deep
"Deep" refers to 1 & 4 in the H-stack. This is a tough position. This player should have the same mindset as the handlers and mid of maintaining possession of the disc first and foremost, but must also be able to put up the deep ball off of an open in-cut and sky for the huck when the time comes. It's easy to get trapped on the line in this position so a proficiency in dumping/swinging is crucial.
In the end...
In this post I've talked almost exclusively about physical attributes and abilities that we look for in A-teamers, but by far the most important quality in an A-teamer, and any player for that matter, is commitment. I don't care if you're the best player on the team, or the most talented rookie, or even the best disc chugger--if you want to play a role on this team, you have to be committed to improving at every practice, and making your team better in any reasonable way that you can. In conclusion, show up to practice, hussle your a** off, and play hard D and you can play on my team any day.
Given that the spring is coming quickly and the team split will happen probably in a couple months, I thought it would be a good idea to post about what Steve, Doug and I will be looking for in an A-teamer this spring.
O and D lines
We played somewhat exclusive lines last year for our last tournament of the semester and it worked well for the most part. This year we'll be doing it all spring. We'll be creating starting O and D lines and the rest of the team will be subs with an offensive or defensive focus. The main idea behind this strategy is that we'll be a better team if we're able to focus on one playing one position and play with the same 6 other players every time we're on the field. In the rest of this post I'll break down all of the positions on our O and D lines, and what we're looking for at each position. First I'll talk a little about what the O and D lines are expected to do as a whole.
Note: Ultimate players that know more than I do about the sport (easy, Padula), feel free to add some input in the comments section
O line
The O line will play all offensive points (meaning when we receive the disc) and they're expected to score every time they step on the field. Ultimate is all about break, not points. Definition of a break: If our O line gets scored on, the other team is up a break. The O line can't get broken or it puts our Defense in a "must break" situation. We've talked about it all fall (remember - last week of practices before Hucktoberfest this fall): Disc security comes first when we're on offense. Every O line player should feel comfortable with the disc and display the ability to make good decisions especially in high pressure situations (translation: learn how to dump. do it well. do it often). An O line player's priorities on the field are as follows, in order:
1. Maintain possession of the disc
2. Move the disc
3. Advance the disc
D line
The D lines job is to generate breaks, plain and simple. A D line player should bring a high level of intensity to the field every time they step out on it, and should bid for everything. In addition to being absolutely nuts on defense, they also need to know how to quickly switch over to chilly mode once a turnover is generated in order to avoid marathon points that will come back to haunt us in the form of dead legs later in any given tournament. A D line player's priorities are as follows, in order:
1. Prevent your man from being a viable option
2. Get the D
3. Put it in
O Line Handler
A player in this position is under a lot of pressure. An O line handler must have excellent field sense and decision making abilities. One throw-away at this spot could be the game. Again, disc security is first priority so an O line handler can't drop dumps, and must always get open for a dump when the time calls for it. This player must know how to handle the pressure of getting the most touches out of anyone on the field, especially in big games when the intensity and emotion is at its highest. Remember, a wise man once said: "When you have the disc, you're the quarterback of the team"
O Line Mid
I know that we don't use the terms "mid" and "long" anymore, but for the sake of this post a "mid" will be 2 & 3 in the H-stack. I'll say it again: disc security. An offensive mid will be able to get open consistently (even off of a stopped disc) and won't drop discs. The main cut we look for from our mids is the short to mid-range in-cut, so an offensive mid should be quick footed and run through every disc. I can't stress this enough. Another great attribute of an offensive mid is the ability to exploit the give n go. Your main priority is to keep the disc moving. Catch, dump, repeat.
O Line Deep
"Deep" refers to 1 & 4 in the H-stack. This is a tough position. This player should have the same mindset as the handlers and mid of maintaining possession of the disc first and foremost, but must also be able to put up the deep ball off of an open in-cut and sky for the huck when the time comes. It's easy to get trapped on the line in this position so a proficiency in dumping/swinging is crucial.
In the end...
In this post I've talked almost exclusively about physical attributes and abilities that we look for in A-teamers, but by far the most important quality in an A-teamer, and any player for that matter, is commitment. I don't care if you're the best player on the team, or the most talented rookie, or even the best disc chugger--if you want to play a role on this team, you have to be committed to improving at every practice, and making your team better in any reasonable way that you can. In conclusion, show up to practice, hussle your a** off, and play hard D and you can play on my team any day.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Glory Days 2008
Again, this post will be mostly about ISU X since I wasn't able to watch ISU Y at all during the weekend.
The weekend started out well for me when I got into my car Friday afternoon with Doug, Steve, Trevor, and Venus. This was truly an all-star team of roadtrippers, and I knew that I had a great weekend ahead of me. After a brief (3 hour) stop at my mom's house, we got on our way to St. John, IN and invented the best car game ever on the way. Ask anyone who was in the car for details. We arrived at Steve's house for dinner and were graciously welcomed by Steve's parents and given pizza for dinner and warm beds, a great start to any ultimate tournament.
Saturday morning started a little rushed for X as we arrived at the fields with less than a half hour to warm up. Our first opponent, DePaul, arrived even later and was confused about when the game was supposed to start. We began a little after 8:30 and the game went quickly as a combined result of good play from ISU and a lack of subs for DePaul. ISU X takes the win 13-4. DePaul would do better for the rest of the day, winning 2/3 of their remaining games.
With a quick first round and a second round bye, ISU X went over and watched our women duke it out with Kalamazoo. We weren't able to stay until the end, but left with the Lady Gnomes well in control of the game that they would eventually win 13-6. Our third round game would bring St. Louis (or S.L.U.T.) who was fresh off of an intense matchup against Northwestern B and looking for a win. Both teams came out hard and we traded points until we were able to get a couple of breaks and take the game into hard cap, 11-7. To their credit St. Louis fought hard and played well. They brough a team similar in composition to ISU X with a couple of veteran studs and a bunch of rookies. I'd give the credit to our rookies for this win as I believe it was mostly a result of ISU winning the rookie on rookie matchups. Props to the guy in the pink shorts and number 4 for playing a hell of a game and being very spirited while doing it.
Our third game of the day was against Northwestern-B. After watching some of their earlier matchup against SLUT and DePaul, I was expecting this game to be a lot closer. We played well, executing on offense and taking advantage of Nut's turnovers, although not forcing very many. The Nut guys were very friendly and one guy even let me borrow his extra cleats after I ripped open the back of mine during the game. The final score was 13-5, and ISU X was now primed to play Eastern Michigan who, despite being seeded last in our pool was undefeated going into the last round.
It's been a while since the weekend of Glory Days, but I don't believe that we ever took the lead in this game (E. Mich). EMich was led by a couple of solid handlers including one female handler who had arguably the best throws on the field during that game and one seemingly 7 foot tall monster of a cutter who chose to wear a white tennis skirt so short that it would even make Sam Fishman blush. It may have been that we were tired, or maybe just satisfied to take second in the pool, but we came out sluggish and slow and stayed that way for most of the first half. It was the first game of the weekend that we were put in a position where we would have to play from behind. The inexperience of our team showed through in this game as we made some bad decisions and physical errors. EMich played well, but at points it seemed like we were trying to give the game away. Even some of our most reliable players were putting up bad hucks and dropping in-cuts. We rallied to get within one close to the end (11-12) but couldn't get the break to tie it up and ended up losing 11-13.
ISU X would finish 2nd in the pool, breaking seed by one. After finishing up pool play we got some delicious pasta which was provided by the Glory Days staff and sat down to watch Jeffryl Tull, Teleport, and Marinara compete in the rookie game. I missed most of it since I was spending my time either talking to other teams or teaching Afryl Lavigne how to throw a biscuit, but I heard #3 was kicking ass. Watch out for him (or her?) in a couple years.
My car went back to Steve's house for another awesome meal courtesy of the Huizengers and watched Princess Bride for the first time after playing a rousing game of Racko. Now that's a party.
Sunday didn't go as well for ISU X as Saturday. In fact, it was pretty much the polar opposite. Instead of calm and sunny, the weather was cold and windy--and instead of going 3-1, we went 1-3. We did, however, beat Eastern Michigan in a game where I got the first D, no matter what Sam or Corey say. Our first game was against Western Illinois who decided to invite #20, an alumni, back to play with them at this tourney. I'm in the process of filing a complaint with the UPA. Btw Kroger, you're going to have to enroll in some classes for the spring. Western played well, as I would expect them to in the wind. We were unable to score an upwind point in this game, but we held Hysteria to 3 breaks all game, and none in the second half. We were capable of better, but I'm definitely not upset about the effort of a split squad team in this game.
After being knocked out of the championship bracket, we moved on to face our next opponent in the 5th place bracket, Undue Perversity of Purdue University. We gave up a couple of breaks early in this game mainly as a result of deciding to go man instead of zone when defending upwind. We got one of the breaks back late in the game but a shortened game due to a few injury interruptions including one where Hollywood was carted off the field by the trainer resulted in a loss in the hard cap, 10-11. Note: when the hardcap sounded we were in the midst of a 3-0 run. This is definitely a down year for Purdue (either that or they were missing some key personnel this weekend) but even so it was a good showing against a sectional rival's A team as a split squad, and a good sign of things to come this spring.
The close loss to Purdue knocked us down again into the 7th place bracket where we would meet a Hope College team which appeared to have an exclusively 6 foot plus roster. The monsters took the game over a tired and injury-laiden ISU X with one upwind break, 10-7. After being knocked out of our placement bracket once again, we found ourselves playing for 9th against EMich who we had already played. We decided to have a boatrace, a game to 7, and a game of splat with the winner of 2 of 3 would win 9th place. The boatrace was close, but Teleport showed a lot of poise by coming through as the anchor. I believe we lost the game to 7, but Kroger won Splat to claim 9th place and our only win of the day. Good work Kroger.
The Ride Home
All I wanted was one large powerade...
The weekend started out well for me when I got into my car Friday afternoon with Doug, Steve, Trevor, and Venus. This was truly an all-star team of roadtrippers, and I knew that I had a great weekend ahead of me. After a brief (3 hour) stop at my mom's house, we got on our way to St. John, IN and invented the best car game ever on the way. Ask anyone who was in the car for details. We arrived at Steve's house for dinner and were graciously welcomed by Steve's parents and given pizza for dinner and warm beds, a great start to any ultimate tournament.
Saturday morning started a little rushed for X as we arrived at the fields with less than a half hour to warm up. Our first opponent, DePaul, arrived even later and was confused about when the game was supposed to start. We began a little after 8:30 and the game went quickly as a combined result of good play from ISU and a lack of subs for DePaul. ISU X takes the win 13-4. DePaul would do better for the rest of the day, winning 2/3 of their remaining games.
With a quick first round and a second round bye, ISU X went over and watched our women duke it out with Kalamazoo. We weren't able to stay until the end, but left with the Lady Gnomes well in control of the game that they would eventually win 13-6. Our third round game would bring St. Louis (or S.L.U.T.) who was fresh off of an intense matchup against Northwestern B and looking for a win. Both teams came out hard and we traded points until we were able to get a couple of breaks and take the game into hard cap, 11-7. To their credit St. Louis fought hard and played well. They brough a team similar in composition to ISU X with a couple of veteran studs and a bunch of rookies. I'd give the credit to our rookies for this win as I believe it was mostly a result of ISU winning the rookie on rookie matchups. Props to the guy in the pink shorts and number 4 for playing a hell of a game and being very spirited while doing it.
Our third game of the day was against Northwestern-B. After watching some of their earlier matchup against SLUT and DePaul, I was expecting this game to be a lot closer. We played well, executing on offense and taking advantage of Nut's turnovers, although not forcing very many. The Nut guys were very friendly and one guy even let me borrow his extra cleats after I ripped open the back of mine during the game. The final score was 13-5, and ISU X was now primed to play Eastern Michigan who, despite being seeded last in our pool was undefeated going into the last round.
It's been a while since the weekend of Glory Days, but I don't believe that we ever took the lead in this game (E. Mich). EMich was led by a couple of solid handlers including one female handler who had arguably the best throws on the field during that game and one seemingly 7 foot tall monster of a cutter who chose to wear a white tennis skirt so short that it would even make Sam Fishman blush. It may have been that we were tired, or maybe just satisfied to take second in the pool, but we came out sluggish and slow and stayed that way for most of the first half. It was the first game of the weekend that we were put in a position where we would have to play from behind. The inexperience of our team showed through in this game as we made some bad decisions and physical errors. EMich played well, but at points it seemed like we were trying to give the game away. Even some of our most reliable players were putting up bad hucks and dropping in-cuts. We rallied to get within one close to the end (11-12) but couldn't get the break to tie it up and ended up losing 11-13.
ISU X would finish 2nd in the pool, breaking seed by one. After finishing up pool play we got some delicious pasta which was provided by the Glory Days staff and sat down to watch Jeffryl Tull, Teleport, and Marinara compete in the rookie game. I missed most of it since I was spending my time either talking to other teams or teaching Afryl Lavigne how to throw a biscuit, but I heard #3 was kicking ass. Watch out for him (or her?) in a couple years.
My car went back to Steve's house for another awesome meal courtesy of the Huizengers and watched Princess Bride for the first time after playing a rousing game of Racko. Now that's a party.
Sunday didn't go as well for ISU X as Saturday. In fact, it was pretty much the polar opposite. Instead of calm and sunny, the weather was cold and windy--and instead of going 3-1, we went 1-3. We did, however, beat Eastern Michigan in a game where I got the first D, no matter what Sam or Corey say. Our first game was against Western Illinois who decided to invite #20, an alumni, back to play with them at this tourney. I'm in the process of filing a complaint with the UPA. Btw Kroger, you're going to have to enroll in some classes for the spring. Western played well, as I would expect them to in the wind. We were unable to score an upwind point in this game, but we held Hysteria to 3 breaks all game, and none in the second half. We were capable of better, but I'm definitely not upset about the effort of a split squad team in this game.
After being knocked out of the championship bracket, we moved on to face our next opponent in the 5th place bracket, Undue Perversity of Purdue University. We gave up a couple of breaks early in this game mainly as a result of deciding to go man instead of zone when defending upwind. We got one of the breaks back late in the game but a shortened game due to a few injury interruptions including one where Hollywood was carted off the field by the trainer resulted in a loss in the hard cap, 10-11. Note: when the hardcap sounded we were in the midst of a 3-0 run. This is definitely a down year for Purdue (either that or they were missing some key personnel this weekend) but even so it was a good showing against a sectional rival's A team as a split squad, and a good sign of things to come this spring.
The close loss to Purdue knocked us down again into the 7th place bracket where we would meet a Hope College team which appeared to have an exclusively 6 foot plus roster. The monsters took the game over a tired and injury-laiden ISU X with one upwind break, 10-7. After being knocked out of our placement bracket once again, we found ourselves playing for 9th against EMich who we had already played. We decided to have a boatrace, a game to 7, and a game of splat with the winner of 2 of 3 would win 9th place. The boatrace was close, but Teleport showed a lot of poise by coming through as the anchor. I believe we lost the game to 7, but Kroger won Splat to claim 9th place and our only win of the day. Good work Kroger.
The Ride Home
All I wanted was one large powerade...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Fall 2008, Part 2
Western Classic
For our third tournament of the semester, we once again chose to split up our team X/Y as we were committed to giving our rookies opportunities to play with and learn from the vets. This ended up being the right decision, as we saw throughout the weekend. We arrived Saturday without sufficient time to warm-up like we would have liked, but and it showed for my team (ISU X) in our first game against Truman State X (Note: Truman State only brought one team to this tournament, and as such they were by no means split-squad). Truman quickly went up 3-0 (at least) before we got our first score, skying and breaking us like nobody's business. This looked more like an A team playing a B team than two supposed split-squads. They took the game quickly 13-4, and we moved to our next field a little dejected and looking for something to lift us up and give us a shot at hanging with our next challenge, Illinois Y.
The game started off slow and sluggish from both sides as we traded points until half, 7-6. The Illinois Y squad was made up of primarily rookies with a couple vets helping out including Sean O'Brien's brother (whose name unfortunately escapes me at the moment) who played nearly every point, as did I. He showed us why Illinois is a contender for Nationals every year by putting up some great hucks and pulling down a few as well. After more point trading it came down to Universe point where there would be at least 2 turns by each team and where I came up with two layout (more like fall over) D's, showing both teams how bad I wanted the win after our embarrassing loss against TSU. Illinois would end up making the last turn as we put the upwind point in to take the game 13-12.
X's final game of pool play came against Knox College, a team who we've played many times and have a great relationship with. Knox was suffering from a short roster with only 2-3 subs which gave us the advantage in numbers. This combined with some tough defense and good decision-making (for the most part) led to a quick win for X, 13-8. Lots of credit to Knox for fighting hard the whole game, even when it must have seemed out of reach. Gotta love those guys. Also, the guy in the yellow short vs. Peteo was probably the most entertaining matchup I've seen since Eric vs. Peteo. We took 2nd in our pool.
ISU Y also took 2nd in their pool, but took a much different route. Instead of coming out sluggish in their first game they came out hard and won a nail-biter against North Park X on universe point. To be honest, I think it was that victory that spurred X on to win their second round game against Illinois Y. Good teamwork, guys. Anyway, the final game of the day turned out to be a crossover game pitting X vs. Y. Props to the captains for splitting up the teams evenly because the game went, like it always does, to universe point. Steve came down with the disc in a crowd after a 20 yard bladey huck from Hollywood. Not a great ending to the game, but I'm sure it gave those two a much needed ego boost. The victory for Y would put them in the winner's bracket and X in the loser's bracket with an opportunity to place no higher than 9th place.
I'm going to fast forward to the last game on Sunday, because writing is exhausting and I just want to get the good stuff. The placement game on Sunday placed Illinois X vs Illinois State X in the game for 9th place (winners of the loser's bracket) on field 5 and Illinois Y vs Illinois State Y in the game for 5th on field 3, which somehow ended up being next to each other. All 4 teams shared one sideline along with most of our women's team and somehow it never got crowded. I can't speak for Y, but I know that X was winded and tired from the weekend and I personally was not looking forward to playing an Illinois team since they always seem to have twice as many players as any other team. On this day it was doubled. Looking on from the opposite sideline it looked like a sea of orange with only a few white jerseys poking through. Illinois' historic cheer of 'I-L-L...I-N-I' was answered with an enthusiastic 'G-N-O...M-E-S' led by Sam and Vicius of team Y. You could cut the tension with a knife, and all 4 teams were in it to win it. I couldn't have asked for a better ending to this tournament
I'll be honest, I was not optimistic about this game. Although I knew we could win I was tired and my team was suffering from a few injuries leaving us with 3-4 subs to Illinois' 10-12. Only 2 points in there was a questionable call on the goal line and I let my emotion get the best of me when I got into an argument with the Illinois coach about the call. I let this argument get into my head and I wasn't much of an asset to my team for most of the first half as I handed over the captaining duties to Doug and only played when he called me in. Illinois took half 7-6. We played from behind the entire second half I think (I say I think because I deliberately didn't pay attention to the score in an attempt to get my head back in the game). To their credit, everyone on my team played their hearts out the second half and deserved to win this game. Again, not knowing the score, I heard the hard cap go off in the middle of a point which ended up being 10-10. Most of the point is a blur but I'll never forget the last throw. Afryl Lavigne made a hard cut to the right front cone of the endzone while I had the disc trapped on the line. Seeing that his cut was shut down I faked hard to the force side getting my mark to jump over as I pivoted to the break side and let the disc go hoping that Jeff would make the cut that I wanted him to. Sure enough, he did, curling around his man like Jerry Rice on a hitch route, and the play looked as if it had been laid out before the point. Illinois State beat Illinois on Universe point 11-10.
On the next field the story was a little different. They too heard the hard cap go off during their point, and they too scored the point, but theirs was to tie the game at 10-10. With the X vs X game being over all eyes were on this final point of the tournament. After a turn by each team Illinois Y would put it in, evening up the series at 1 each. I guess we'll have to play a tie breaker this spring...
Again, it's late, so I'll do Glory Days tomorrow
For our third tournament of the semester, we once again chose to split up our team X/Y as we were committed to giving our rookies opportunities to play with and learn from the vets. This ended up being the right decision, as we saw throughout the weekend. We arrived Saturday without sufficient time to warm-up like we would have liked, but and it showed for my team (ISU X) in our first game against Truman State X (Note: Truman State only brought one team to this tournament, and as such they were by no means split-squad). Truman quickly went up 3-0 (at least) before we got our first score, skying and breaking us like nobody's business. This looked more like an A team playing a B team than two supposed split-squads. They took the game quickly 13-4, and we moved to our next field a little dejected and looking for something to lift us up and give us a shot at hanging with our next challenge, Illinois Y.
The game started off slow and sluggish from both sides as we traded points until half, 7-6. The Illinois Y squad was made up of primarily rookies with a couple vets helping out including Sean O'Brien's brother (whose name unfortunately escapes me at the moment) who played nearly every point, as did I. He showed us why Illinois is a contender for Nationals every year by putting up some great hucks and pulling down a few as well. After more point trading it came down to Universe point where there would be at least 2 turns by each team and where I came up with two layout (more like fall over) D's, showing both teams how bad I wanted the win after our embarrassing loss against TSU. Illinois would end up making the last turn as we put the upwind point in to take the game 13-12.
X's final game of pool play came against Knox College, a team who we've played many times and have a great relationship with. Knox was suffering from a short roster with only 2-3 subs which gave us the advantage in numbers. This combined with some tough defense and good decision-making (for the most part) led to a quick win for X, 13-8. Lots of credit to Knox for fighting hard the whole game, even when it must have seemed out of reach. Gotta love those guys. Also, the guy in the yellow short vs. Peteo was probably the most entertaining matchup I've seen since Eric vs. Peteo. We took 2nd in our pool.
ISU Y also took 2nd in their pool, but took a much different route. Instead of coming out sluggish in their first game they came out hard and won a nail-biter against North Park X on universe point. To be honest, I think it was that victory that spurred X on to win their second round game against Illinois Y. Good teamwork, guys. Anyway, the final game of the day turned out to be a crossover game pitting X vs. Y. Props to the captains for splitting up the teams evenly because the game went, like it always does, to universe point. Steve came down with the disc in a crowd after a 20 yard bladey huck from Hollywood. Not a great ending to the game, but I'm sure it gave those two a much needed ego boost. The victory for Y would put them in the winner's bracket and X in the loser's bracket with an opportunity to place no higher than 9th place.
I'm going to fast forward to the last game on Sunday, because writing is exhausting and I just want to get the good stuff. The placement game on Sunday placed Illinois X vs Illinois State X in the game for 9th place (winners of the loser's bracket) on field 5 and Illinois Y vs Illinois State Y in the game for 5th on field 3, which somehow ended up being next to each other. All 4 teams shared one sideline along with most of our women's team and somehow it never got crowded. I can't speak for Y, but I know that X was winded and tired from the weekend and I personally was not looking forward to playing an Illinois team since they always seem to have twice as many players as any other team. On this day it was doubled. Looking on from the opposite sideline it looked like a sea of orange with only a few white jerseys poking through. Illinois' historic cheer of 'I-L-L...I-N-I' was answered with an enthusiastic 'G-N-O...M-E-S' led by Sam and Vicius of team Y. You could cut the tension with a knife, and all 4 teams were in it to win it. I couldn't have asked for a better ending to this tournament
I'll be honest, I was not optimistic about this game. Although I knew we could win I was tired and my team was suffering from a few injuries leaving us with 3-4 subs to Illinois' 10-12. Only 2 points in there was a questionable call on the goal line and I let my emotion get the best of me when I got into an argument with the Illinois coach about the call. I let this argument get into my head and I wasn't much of an asset to my team for most of the first half as I handed over the captaining duties to Doug and only played when he called me in. Illinois took half 7-6. We played from behind the entire second half I think (I say I think because I deliberately didn't pay attention to the score in an attempt to get my head back in the game). To their credit, everyone on my team played their hearts out the second half and deserved to win this game. Again, not knowing the score, I heard the hard cap go off in the middle of a point which ended up being 10-10. Most of the point is a blur but I'll never forget the last throw. Afryl Lavigne made a hard cut to the right front cone of the endzone while I had the disc trapped on the line. Seeing that his cut was shut down I faked hard to the force side getting my mark to jump over as I pivoted to the break side and let the disc go hoping that Jeff would make the cut that I wanted him to. Sure enough, he did, curling around his man like Jerry Rice on a hitch route, and the play looked as if it had been laid out before the point. Illinois State beat Illinois on Universe point 11-10.
On the next field the story was a little different. They too heard the hard cap go off during their point, and they too scored the point, but theirs was to tie the game at 10-10. With the X vs X game being over all eyes were on this final point of the tournament. After a turn by each team Illinois Y would put it in, evening up the series at 1 each. I guess we'll have to play a tie breaker this spring...
Again, it's late, so I'll do Glory Days tomorrow
Monday, November 3, 2008
Fall 2008, Part 1
I wanted to write a post to summarize all that happened this fall, but I definitely don't have that kind of time and I probably wouldn't remember it all anyway. Here's what I do remember:
First Practice
I hope it didn't show, but Steve and I were pretty nervous about running the first practice. We had a group of guys at the informational meeting that was probably double the amount from last year, and last year we had only retained (I think) 1 sophomore by the end of the school year. So, we sat down and carefully planned out a practice that would both challenge the new players and not scare them off. Shockingly, it went exactly as planned and we only lost about half of the guys that came out (Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Ask any captain of a college program). By the end of the first day the noobies were throwing dumps and cutting better than a lot of the returners did at the end of their first semester. By the end of the first week they were starting to develop flicks and after a month they were starting to understand some of the more subtle nuances of the game such as giving solid fakes as a thrower making space for other cutters. Needless to say, this batch of rookies made me pretty excited and kinda made me want to stay around until they were seniors just to see what they'd look like then. I'd imagine they're going to be pretty sick.
Stanley Cup II (or IV)
Again things went almost completely according to plan. I think this is karma for how hard we tried last year and how Murphy's Law kicked us in the ass over and over (i.e. Western being cancelled, losing our bid to Whitewater, taking 6 months to order jerseys). We split up into 3 teams of equal strength and Doug and Emily got their first experience captaining a mixed team (and Doug his first captaining any team). They ended up getting 9th, the lowest of the ISU teams, but I think that was mainly a result of a lack of a solid handler core, forcing some of their better cutters to play the handler position for most of the weekend. I know that their game against X was hard fought, and I don't think their finish was a good representative of what they were capable of. ISU X (Squirrels/Sextacy) and ISU Y (did they even have a name?) made their way into the Championship Bracket Sunday only to be knocked out in Semis and Quarters respectively. The party went great, and I think we ran a good tournament that teams are going to want to come back to (Thanks mainly to Gamehube, he did an awesome job of being TD, and also to Reynolds and Sam who nursed their injuries at the scorers' table and helped everything run smoothly). It was a great showing for 3 teams composed of more than 50% rookies, and also a great way to start our season. Opening the season with a home tournament was great because it allowed almost all of our rookies to get some experience without having to travel far or sleep on the floor, and the level of competition was just right - no teams that were out of our league and no teams that didn't give us a good run. Hopefully it goes just as well next year, I'm sure it will.
Hucktoberfest
Wow, what can I say about this tournament? It was awesome. We got stuck in the Open (B) Division which I wasn't crazy about at first, but in the end it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Having originally planned on bringing an X/Y split squad to this tourney, seemingly everyone had something to do and we were forced to bring one team with the awkward roster size of 22. With such a large roster we were forced to call lines on every point, and nobody played more than 2 points in a row until the last game Saturday against St. Thomas. This game was to decide the winner of our pool and although everybody played at least a few points in that game, the lines were called much tighter than earlier in the day. Purple Reign came out hard, with excellent handler movement and cutters that wouldn't stop moving. We traded points for most of the first half until The Ultimate Player Formerly Known As Puddles came up with a huge layout D, the first of his career, allowing us to put it in and take half 7-5. The game was capped and we ended up winning 10-8.
After a great day of ultimate we hit the showers, set up our tents at the campgrounds, and headed into town for dinner. The minors went to some place that doesn't matter and the 21+ went to Fat Jack's, the host of the Tournament party. A lot of stuff happened, but all that really matters is that we got free pitchers of Long Island iced teas, a $5 pitcher of lunchbox, and some great food while we soaked in the beauty of winning our pool for what may have been the first time ever (Fact check me, Pat) in ISU history. Then we went back to the campgrounds and got over $2,000 in drinking tickets for the minors. whoops...
Sunday was a lot cooler and cloudier, with the wind picking up a little also. We stuck it to a solid Valpo squad in our first game and fell victim to shitty marks and bad throws into the wind in our Semis game against DePaul. They deserved the win, and we went home tied for 3rd in the B bracket (I'm still not sure why this game wasn't played out, and a littled bit p.o.'d too).
It's getting late, and I'm getting tired, so I'll pick this up tomorrow or later in the week and I'll end with a list of some things I liked about this fall:
-A huge freshman class that made me feel a lot more comfortable about the future of ISU Ultimate
-A combined record of 17-13 as X/Y teams
-Winning the pool at Hucktoberfest
-Free pitchers of Long Island, and a $5 pitcher of lunchbox
-Not being the only captain - It was awesome to have Doug and Steve to turn to for help/support
-1 Large Powerade
First Practice
I hope it didn't show, but Steve and I were pretty nervous about running the first practice. We had a group of guys at the informational meeting that was probably double the amount from last year, and last year we had only retained (I think) 1 sophomore by the end of the school year. So, we sat down and carefully planned out a practice that would both challenge the new players and not scare them off. Shockingly, it went exactly as planned and we only lost about half of the guys that came out (Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Ask any captain of a college program). By the end of the first day the noobies were throwing dumps and cutting better than a lot of the returners did at the end of their first semester. By the end of the first week they were starting to develop flicks and after a month they were starting to understand some of the more subtle nuances of the game such as giving solid fakes as a thrower making space for other cutters. Needless to say, this batch of rookies made me pretty excited and kinda made me want to stay around until they were seniors just to see what they'd look like then. I'd imagine they're going to be pretty sick.
Stanley Cup II (or IV)
Again things went almost completely according to plan. I think this is karma for how hard we tried last year and how Murphy's Law kicked us in the ass over and over (i.e. Western being cancelled, losing our bid to Whitewater, taking 6 months to order jerseys). We split up into 3 teams of equal strength and Doug and Emily got their first experience captaining a mixed team (and Doug his first captaining any team). They ended up getting 9th, the lowest of the ISU teams, but I think that was mainly a result of a lack of a solid handler core, forcing some of their better cutters to play the handler position for most of the weekend. I know that their game against X was hard fought, and I don't think their finish was a good representative of what they were capable of. ISU X (Squirrels/Sextacy) and ISU Y (did they even have a name?) made their way into the Championship Bracket Sunday only to be knocked out in Semis and Quarters respectively. The party went great, and I think we ran a good tournament that teams are going to want to come back to (Thanks mainly to Gamehube, he did an awesome job of being TD, and also to Reynolds and Sam who nursed their injuries at the scorers' table and helped everything run smoothly). It was a great showing for 3 teams composed of more than 50% rookies, and also a great way to start our season. Opening the season with a home tournament was great because it allowed almost all of our rookies to get some experience without having to travel far or sleep on the floor, and the level of competition was just right - no teams that were out of our league and no teams that didn't give us a good run. Hopefully it goes just as well next year, I'm sure it will.
Hucktoberfest
Wow, what can I say about this tournament? It was awesome. We got stuck in the Open (B) Division which I wasn't crazy about at first, but in the end it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Having originally planned on bringing an X/Y split squad to this tourney, seemingly everyone had something to do and we were forced to bring one team with the awkward roster size of 22. With such a large roster we were forced to call lines on every point, and nobody played more than 2 points in a row until the last game Saturday against St. Thomas. This game was to decide the winner of our pool and although everybody played at least a few points in that game, the lines were called much tighter than earlier in the day. Purple Reign came out hard, with excellent handler movement and cutters that wouldn't stop moving. We traded points for most of the first half until The Ultimate Player Formerly Known As Puddles came up with a huge layout D, the first of his career, allowing us to put it in and take half 7-5. The game was capped and we ended up winning 10-8.
After a great day of ultimate we hit the showers, set up our tents at the campgrounds, and headed into town for dinner. The minors went to some place that doesn't matter and the 21+ went to Fat Jack's, the host of the Tournament party. A lot of stuff happened, but all that really matters is that we got free pitchers of Long Island iced teas, a $5 pitcher of lunchbox, and some great food while we soaked in the beauty of winning our pool for what may have been the first time ever (Fact check me, Pat) in ISU history. Then we went back to the campgrounds and got over $2,000 in drinking tickets for the minors. whoops...
Sunday was a lot cooler and cloudier, with the wind picking up a little also. We stuck it to a solid Valpo squad in our first game and fell victim to shitty marks and bad throws into the wind in our Semis game against DePaul. They deserved the win, and we went home tied for 3rd in the B bracket (I'm still not sure why this game wasn't played out, and a littled bit p.o.'d too).
It's getting late, and I'm getting tired, so I'll pick this up tomorrow or later in the week and I'll end with a list of some things I liked about this fall:
-A huge freshman class that made me feel a lot more comfortable about the future of ISU Ultimate
-A combined record of 17-13 as X/Y teams
-Winning the pool at Hucktoberfest
-Free pitchers of Long Island, and a $5 pitcher of lunchbox
-Not being the only captain - It was awesome to have Doug and Steve to turn to for help/support
-1 Large Powerade
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Test Post
This is my first time using blogger, so I'm just experimenting with the text editor a little bit. Not too exciting...maybe I should learn HTML.
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