What being a Gnome means

[Contributed by Sam #6]

What does being a Gnome mean? What does it mean? According to urban dictionary a gnome is an Evil alliance race in World of Warcraft (best MMO ever) that are too hard to click and therefore... suck. I think we can all agree that is not what a Gnome is. Not even Effing GD close. Now we might agree on the exact definition, but now you have to hang in there while I get sentimental and explain what being a Gnome has meant to me.

Now I've been on sports teams before, baseball, and track, and other ultimate teams, and each of these teams have been great. Sports teams create camaraderie and brotherhood and lifelong friends. None of this is new. But the Gnomes I have come to look towards my teammates as family. There is no limit to what I would do for this family. There are several of our teammates that can attest to that. Through tough times, both on the field and off, being a Gnome has become part of me.

As some of you know, I have had an up and down couple of years since I've gone to college. The summer before college my brother unexpectedly passed away, giving my family and I an insurmountable challenge to overcome. I came to ISU for my sophomore year, and was accepted by a great group of people, who happened to be ultimate players, and Gnomes. In the three years since I have been able to count on this group for whatever I need, no matter the circumstances. I have been struggling to overcome depression and some of the negative effects of losing a family in my time here, and I can honestly say I would not be in the place that I am today without the family I have found at ISU. I can look back at the last year, and the last semester in particular, and say that it has been far better and happier than I could have asked for a year ago. For this Gnomes, I want to say thank you. You have helped me through challenging times without prompt. I can honestly say that college would have been much duller and far more difficult for me without the incredible friendships I have created within the Gnomes community.

While we might not be as storied or successful as many other ultimate teams, I firmly believe that the Gnomes are as close as any team in the country. While we are young, we are well on our ways to creating an ultimate program. Year in, our numbers will continue to grow, but none of us will stop being Gnomes. I would just like to say that I could not be more excited about this coming season. I look forward to making memories playing ultimate, and partying, running sprints till I puke, and shot-gunning beers off of even higher buildings. I look forward to finally making the jump and getting to regionals, and kicking some ass when we actually get there.

Thanks for a really awesome year, and I look forward to an even better one in 2010-11!

Gnomes for Life.

CP Secitonal

[Contributed by Sam #6]

I just wanna start out by saying this is the most proud I have been of the ISU Gnomes to date. We came together and put out such an impressive effort, I have never been so excited about the future of our program.

Saturday

Saturday started with two tough fought games against Wheaton and Indiana, the 1 and 2 seeds in our pool. We had to win one of these games to get to the championship bracket. We came out slow in the first game, against Wheaton, and went down 5-1. We started to get things together and pulled to 6-4 by half. We held till 10-7, and an unfortunate turn on a dump by yours truly gave them an easy score to take the game. Our next game, IU, we came out read to play, and battled like crazy in the first half. We hung in, only down one at half, 6-5, by great play and sheer toughness. Our man D kept us in the game, for a change, and we really shocked Indiana, who thought they would have a walk of a game. Indiana tightened up their game after half, and came out really strong, getting a couple of breaks, and eventually winning 11-7. Two great games that showed we can hang with the good teams out there, but that we still have some work to do. The rest of the day we played strong and beat the teams we were seeded to beat, UofI Chicago, Depaul, and Northern.

Sunday

Placing third in our pool required that we win out on Sunday, to achieve our regional goal. Our first game was against the familiar Southern. We played a good, competitive game against them, but our desire to win the four games that we had to play today, and make our first appearance at regionals helped us carry this first game without too much trouble. We won this game 15-10, Game 1 done. In our second game we were matched against the Lost Boys of North Park. We came out strong in the first half, taking a couple of breaks to get up 7-5, but after a well-placed timeout, the Lost Boys made their own run, tying it at 7's. The point from hell ensued. The point to take half lasted about 20 minutes, with some of our highlights being multiple layout under D's, tight marks, and a general toughness to our D that had been lacking all season. However, our O was also hectic and rushed, and for every great D we got, our O gave the disc back, seemingly forgetting that we were throwing in the wind. However, 20 minutes later, our O converts and takes half 8-7. Coming out of halftime, we let give up another break, tying it at 8's. And then another. A few points later, it is 11-9 NP, and we are getting pressed to score goals, as North Park is not giving us as many chances to score as they were early in the game. The game is soft-capped at 14, and NP has GP with a score of 13-11. ISU misses the chance to score downwind, and NP takes the disc all the way up the field, and calls a timeout on the goal line. We come out of the timeout pumped to D up, but NP gets a breakmark score to secure the win. NP 14 ISU 11. Bummer. We play a half assed game against Chicago, but can't summon a good effort with our goal missed, and a lot of our studs hurting from the rough weekend.

All in a all this has to be the best an ISU ultimate team has played. I could not be more proud of the effort, toughness and camaraderie, and I have to say, I am effing pumped for next season. Regionals 2011 Gnomes. Lets get after it.

Chi Invite Recap

[Contributed by Sam #6]

Going into the weekend, we had a well established goal of winning our pool and playing into the championship bracket come Sunday. Goal = Success, even if we didn't get to play it out on Sunday. Despite being ranked 3rd in our pool, congrats on fighting it out and winning the pool Gnomes. Great tournament despite the awful weather. Snow, tons of wind, and freezing cold made for a great tournament.

Game 1: Dayton

The 1st seed in our pool, we had to win this game to have a chance to play into the Champ Bracket. We won the flip, and started with the disc going downwind. An unfortunate drop on a swing gave Ghetto a short field, and an easy upwind break score, giving us a whole to fight out of. We converted every downwind for the rest of the game, no matter how many tries it took. Our Zone dominated their offense, and gave our shaky D-line O all the chances it needed. We went down at half 7-5. After their first downwind after half, 8-5, we had to get going. In the next 7 points, we scored two upwinds, with contribution from everybody. Great handler movement from David and Crack especially, and a sweet point block on the goal to give us another chance at an upwind score. After the horn blew, we scored a downwind to tie it at 10. DGP with the Gnomes going upwind and needing to D up first. Hero line gets a turn and works it up the field, Don catches a goal, Gnomes 11 Ghetto 10.

Game 2: Minnesota State Mankato

We lost the flip in this game, but came out and battled for the first upwind, and after a super long, cold, brutal point, we put in the break. Our zone fought through the developing mud pit for the rest of the game to keep their O at bay, and our upwind O got close a couple of times but couldn't quite connect on another break. The rest of the game we held serve to end up winning 10-7. Killer Whale Shark Whales are born.

Game 3: Hope College

This was our biggest win of the day. Our zone held their O at bay, getting ample downwind chances at scores, and our upwind O put in two breaks, and got close on several more. Highlight of the game was Rob killing their spirit with a layout Callahan. Gnomes win 11-7.

Game 4: St Louis

This game was for our play in to the Champ Bracket. St Louis lost their games in the power pool, and we came into this game riding the momentum of three straight wins, despite mother nature's attempt to ruin the day. We lost the flip for the third straight time, their score the downwind, and our zone gets beat all the way up the field. Down 2-0. Its do or die time, and we load a line to go upwind, which scores at will, plus the downwind, its all tied up again. We put the same line back in, and score another break up wind, and hold back downwind, ISU 4-2. We trade points till its 6-5, with SLU going upwind. This was the closest we got to giving up an upwind point without actually conceding. This point drags on for about 15 minutes, and SLU gets the disc to the goal line and calls timeout. After TO, ISU buckles down in zone and forces a turn. SLU gets to the goal line again, and we play great man, and force a high stall turn. We eventually hold the point and score downwind. ISU takes half 7-5. We come out of half to take our downwind with our O-line and the horn blows. ISU wins 8-5.

Despite Sunday getting cancelled, ISU ultimate plays one of its best tournaments ever. We showed resolve and guts, and never gave up on a point. Active sidelines and great intensity helped us to these wins. Keep working gnomes and we will have days like this come sectionals. Keys to success will be converting on O after our D-line gets turns, and maintaining possession as an O-line. Great tournament Gnomes, now lets go after Huck Finn.

Goals for Huck Finn

[Contributed by Sam #6]

Just a quick lil something before I get the recap from Chi Inv done... Anybody who reads this, and is a current Gnome, toss up a comment about your goals for the next two weeks, and what you would like to accomplish before we play at Huck Finn. If you are not a current Gnome, feel free to comment at your own discretion.

Another aside, if you live in the Chicago Area, there is a Combine Tryout on May 15th that all Gnomes should attend, if only for the experience. Mark your calendars.

Practice Attendance

[Contributed by Sam #6]

I would like to start by saying that I think this post is completely unnecessary and should go without saying.

We have about a month of practice once we get back from break before sectionals. We have made it a team goal to make regionals, for which we will need a very strong showing at sectionals. IN ORDER TO DO THAT WE HAVE TO HAVE EVERYONE AT PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This should not be an issue. We should have 17 (or however many of us there are on the A team) at every single practice. If you are not dedicated enough to do that, say so, so you can play on the B team. Playing is a commitment, plan around it. Assignments don't appear out of nowhere, you know about tests months in advance, you shouldn't have to skip practice for them. Our showing throughout the winter has been discouraging, so lets stop that trend. I have never read another team's blog calling its players out for not coming to practice. So just come to practice if you want to play on the team. Pretty simple.

Sweet. I wanna play ultimate. First outdoors practice today! Fuck the snow, fuck Horton, lets ball.

Gamma Nu

Slumber Party: Midnight Edition

[Contributed by Sam #6]

This past weekend, a group of ninjas, or some of the Gnome Vets, ventured north through a blizzard. Slumber Party was held in some soccerplex in Milwaukee, and team PJ's and BJ's pretty much owned. With games not starting till midnight, it was one of those tournaments.

Game 1:

Our first game was against NOISE, a team from Milwaukee and Madison, a pretty competitive mixed team that qualified for regionals this past club season. They came out ready to play, and we didn't. I blame Doug. It was pretty much just his fault we lost this game. Everyone else was perfect. Might have been a closer game, if not for some goal thievery at the end of the first half. Them 10 Us 7

Game 2:

This game was against sLumber Jacks. This game involved great play from everyone, even Doug. Smarter decisions were made, and we had our biggest win of the night (morning). Guest Kevin "Almost as good as Jeff Afryl" Kelly kinda sucked.

Game 3:

Against Dream Team. AKA the Hodags. AKA actual NBA players. A team of college players from around Wisconsin, including some standouts from UWMadison and UWMil. We started slow, even going down 6 to 4 at half after some great play by Andrew Bogut, LBJ, J Rich, and Chuck, but some tightening screws and general awesomeness allowed for a bitchin comeback, P/Bj's 10 dags 7. Second half highlights include numerous skies by T stain and Willtastic, Sam and Steve bitchin up hodag rook Steve Nash, and lisa decking sam into the boards on a layout block. J's FTW

Game 4:

Having trouble remembering anything, got really tired by this point. We played a game here, and I think we lost. Thats all I can come up with. Doug played well this game. I think this team had a fast girl that scored 95% of their goals. If only we had Jeff Afryl, we might have won. Oh yea, and Doug had a stupid layout block, that popped up into a girls hands.

Game 5: Postseason

This was our closest game, against a bunch of Madison Club players. By this time it was 5 or 6 in the morning, and everyone was ass-tired. This game was a battle the whole way, Madison was ahead the whole time, but never by more than two points. This close game was mostly atributed to AssButt being redonk, with a couple of great plays, including a sick layout bid. We got it to 8-7 as the buzzer sounded, but couldn't get the D on the last point of the game, so Madison Club etched out a 9-7 win over team J's. So we missed a chance to play for the finals, and went home to Momma Fish's homemade breakfast.

End result Tie for 3rd and lots of fun.

PS. Kevin Jumped over Dwight Howard.

You are Invited to Chicago in 1 Month

[Contributed by Sam #6]

Yo Gnomes, the spring tournament season starts in exactly one month!!!!

Go to practice so we can get in shape (DOUG)!!! Also Doug needs to do dishes!!!

Shane you also missed a sweet hockey game. We watched in your room.

Steve: Doug wants to rail your hot ass; also go to Leadership 101 so you can behave similarly to a captain this season, for a change (more like this guy).

And Steph Curry looks like Elian Gonzalez.

Sam, you really need to take care of that zazu problem.

Spring '09:

The Season is right around the corner, so everyone really needs to be taking care of business and be getting in killin shape. Conditioning workouts are great, but everyone needs to be sure that they are putting in the extra work on their own.

High tide 20ten is right around the corner, that should be a hella good time. Everybody who isn't coming is a sucker.

Tournaments for this spring, so everybody has them on your calendar:

Chicago Invite, Naperville Polo Grounds, March 20-21

Huck Finn, somewhere in St. Louis, April 3-4

Central Plains Sectionals, Naperville Polo Grounds, April 17-18

And when we qualify:

Great Lakes Regional, Bloomington, IN, May 1-2

Also have the Spring Fever 5k on your calendar, April 10. Everyone who has done it in the past is very awesome.

And in other news... Some predictions for this coming season.

Steph Huizenga: Crack his kneecap, keep playing, get a layout calahan to win a game at Huck Finn. Will fail to fill RSK's giant footsteps, yet will still be our best captain. Looses his voice singing sabotage at live band karaoke in Georgia.

Doug Dob: Will not play at sectionals, hasn't actually attended a class at ISU in five semesters. Hates Al Bowman cuz he is...... whack. Will only catch 15% of the passes thrown to him.

Will Fantastic: Probably will not return from Georgia. Gonna try to shotgun a beer underwater and drowns.

Shane Crap: Leads the B/D team all season with his motto "Get your Effing heads in the G.D. game!!!!"

Dave Johnson: Gets confused at sectionals and plays most of Saturday with Illinois, not Illinois State, and can't figure out why his blue doesn't match theirs. Slaps Muffin's face with a rulebook.

Sam Pooch: Knee injury. Gets in a fight over a travel call. Makes nationals cuz he's better then everyone else.

Jeff Afryl: The only one better than Sam. Invented nationals. No one wakes him up for High Tide and he stays home and cries.

Cole Lucas: Shitbrick

Brett, KT, Tom and Venus: quit the team, because of excessive sophomoreitis. Manage to complain about it still.

Pat Lott: Breaks his other collar bone on a reckless layout (playing Madden). Comes to practice now and then to sky Trevor. Finds a duffel bag for his stuff, and still skips a tournament.

Crack: UPA implements random drug testing, fails to show up for sectionals after failing to find someone else's clean urine.

Trevor: brings beautiful life into the world, willy and steve fight over godfather status, and trevor throws a and gives it to... DOUG?!?!?!

Rob Gross: Gets asked to stop playing ultimate after injuring Loyola's entire roster.

Brian Earhart: Is a teddy bear?

Knox Recap

[Contributed by Sam #6]

Great job at Knox this past weekend Gnomes!!!!

Game 1: Knox A

We came out running a vert in this game, and we never really got it going. While we took half, we never built a substantial lead, and knox had a couple of athletes that really kept them in the game. They got out and got some easy points on hucks, and easy points are the key to indoor ultimate. But in the end of the game we played solid D and kept them in check, ISU 9 Knox 7.

Game 2: Bradley

This game we kept with vert, and our offense remained a little stagnant. We gutted through the first half, and took half, but our play remained pretty sloppy. The second half was more of the same, our offense just wasn't clicking, but we played good enough defense to make up for it. ISU 10 Bradley 9

Game 3: Knox Old people

We came out this game and switched things up, running with a Ho we really got the disk moving and came into our comfort zone on offense. Our D kept up and we took half pretty easily for a change. Our progress kept up through the end of the game, and we continued to move the disc and make the right plays. ISU 11 Knox Alum 8

Game 4: Western ILL

This was our big game for the day, and we started it out with great intensity, just like we needed to. Our disc movement kept up, and we kept Western's offense on their toes with great pressure from our D, we took half with a few point lead, 7 - 3 (or 4, or some variation of scores, depending who you ask). Our play stayed consistent through the second half, largely in part to Jeff Afryl being a super hero. ISU 11 Western 8

Lesson for the day: Intensity is the key for our team. We need to get fired up for the start of games, and keep it going. When we play intense and aggressive we are a great team, but when we don't we play down to a lesser level and allow ourselves to get beat. So lets remember this going into tournaments this spring; Intensity will win us games!!!!!

Sunday

Game 1: Peoria Parrots

Our first Elimination game pitted us against the Parrots, after we got to sleep in. They played a clammy sorta zone, which gave us some trouble in the first half, as we tried to force throws against it and got in some trouble. As a result our D lost a little of its edge and we got discouraged. Parrots take half 7 - 6. Huddle at half, Mega-Captain Stuart Huizinger gets the troops fired up and ready to reek havoc with a zone. We come out of half excited and playing hot, tear up the zone and play great D. Huge turnaround after half. ISU 12 Parrots 8.

Game 2: Semis vs. Eastern ILL

The game starts with a couple of traded points, both teams lookin pretty good. ISU then makes a couple of mistakes and the intensity is gone, poor D is played, and turnovers en masse follow. Reaper takes half 7 - 2. Second half is just more of the same, ISU only improves a little. We stopped playing to our strengths and let the game get away from us. Eastern 13 ISU 7

Weekend lesson: We need to play excited and energetic if we are gonna win. This can't stop with a couple of bad points. For fear of sounding like a broken record - INTENSITY WILL WIN US GAMES!!!!!!!! Great weekend Gnomes, lookin forward to a ballin spring.

* All scores are arbitrary and mean nothing. *

Knoxxx Winter Whiteout: ULTIMATE!!!!!!!

[Contributed by Sam #6]

Its Super Bowl weekend, and that can only mean one thing: Indoor Ultimate at Knox, and some early season domination for Gnomes. This year should be no different, except, knock on wood, no injuries, sorry Hollywood. We are going into it this year with the disappointment of finishing second last year, and hope to put this tournament win under our belts and get this spring off to a good start. This should be a good chance for us to start out with some good fun, and a great opportunity to get some early wins. Not to mention we have put in some great work already this winter, and this will really let us see how our legs are coming.

The schedule at Knox kind of drags by, as they only have one game running at a time, but we still get a full day on saturday with four games.

Game 1: vs. Knox A

This game should be a great chance for us to get going against a pretty decent team that we can beat. Knox has some very solid players, with very good fundamentals, but we should really be able to out run them, and get a lot of easy scores with our athleticism and legs. This should allow us to start out our season on a good note.

Game 2: vs. Bradley

This is another game we should be able to control pretty easily, not to mention I would still like to avenge a sectionals loss to Bradley from last spring. With a combination of smart play and athleticism, we should be able to handle this game too.

Game 3: vs. Knox Alum

The host's alumni are going to be like the Knox A, but with better fundamentals, albeit a little bit older and slower. To have success in this game, we have to get after the disc, and want it more. They will be able to control the game, but we have to use our legs to create opportunities, and really play up our advantages.

Game 4: vs. Western IL

This game is fittingly last, against a team that ISU has played hotly contested matches against since.... I guess the dawn of time. The epic battle of Robots and Gnomes has never failed to disappoint, with countless games coming down to nail-biting finishes. For this game it is super important that we come out intense with our game faces on, and play at a high level from the start. With such short rounds, it is important to get out to a good start in every game, but this one for sure.

With some success on Saturday, we will get to sleep in on Sunday, and get ready for some more domination through the tournament, and a repeat appearance in the finals. Who needs the Super Bowl when the Gnomes are out Bustin' Nuts.