Post Sean Ryan NW and SW all Region Preview

The Slugs won Sean Ryan for the first time in a long time. This means Sean Ryan is over and we have a better idea of who's good in the NW and SW. As such, here goes my all region preview.

NW - A lot of this is speculation

1. Cassidy Rasmussen - UCSC

2. Russell Wynne - UCSC

3. Andrew Hagen - Cal

4. Eli Janin - Oregon

5. Eli Friedman - Oregon

6. Jordan Mcphee - UBC

7. Taylor Lahey - Davis

SW - None of this is speculation

1. Dominic Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

2. Dom Captan of SLOCore - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

3. D.C.S. - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

4. Dom "Cunnilingus" Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

5. Dom King of SLOCore - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

6. "You can't spell dome without" Dom Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

7. To Be Determined

Word.

Cal States 2009

Cal States is one of my favorite tournaments and provides an interesting early season glimps at the best west coast teams. I only had a chance to watch Open and Mixed this past weekend, so here's what I got.

Notes from the Open Division:
NW:
Tier 1:
Jam: Didn't get so see much of the defending champs, but I did notice a lot of roster changes. Gone: Bruss, Cissna, Gabe, Husak, Scow?, Steets, Woody?. more?
In: Julian (Kansas/CLX/Monster/BCBC), Tommy (Cal), Fast Asian Guy (MagnUM), Johnny Hester (Condors), Ian Ranahan (Revolver), Will Chen (Harvard, Stanford Coach). Maybe more?
As long as Damien is around, the team will be strong.

Revolver: This years Revolver team has the most team speed I have ever seen. An already very fast team with Chapman, Weisman, Martin, and Jit has added Ashlin (Davis), Cassidy (Santa Cruz), and BEAU (word on the street is that there might be a late addition). Damn. It didn't look like they were challenged all weekend. Oh, and Cassidy was unstopable in the finals (while being guarded by a high school tryout on Sockeye). He played every O point and had 2 goals and 2 assists with 0 turns and 1 awesome spike.

Sockeye: Looks like they should be keeping Skip and adding BJ and Kurt Gibson. I hope they take The Sultan, and we'll see if Seth chooses to play club or just focus on team USA. There were some other no shows this weekend, but I have no info on that front.

Tier 2:
Portland: Looks like Thompson High from regionals with more bodies. More skilled then Rhino, less desire // work ethic. Their fate depends on Aaron Richards.

Rhino: A fast hard working team. Didn't see any UO guys, but they do have finals next week, so Solstice might show a fastly differend Rhino team. They seem like the team most prone to runs, either for or against.

Scumbags: Looks like they had a lot of fun. This team was sharing a bid with the Slugs, so there were a ton of players, with lots of them coming and going. It will be interesting to see what the roster looks like at Solstice, and how it changes at tournaments closer to the bay.

Shark (YR): It looked like their O line rotation wasn't nearly as tight as in years past. I think having Will the Thrill captain will really help that, and I think it could change the culture of the team. Loosing 808, Joey D, Corey Lee, and Charles also changes things. They had a strong showing, but it looks like some of their stronger tryouts decisded to play elswhere (Fedi from Arizona, Kissman, and Jamison from tide).

SW:
Tier 1: Only contains Bravo until proven otherwise.

Tier 2:
Condors: AKA Black Tide alum from '06 or later with some SLOCore. Look for them to improve as the season goes on, while having the best fundimentals of any tier two team. The SB isolation will help the Tide, especially if Husak and Steets decide to come out for the later half of the season. Word on the street is that Dugan will be around to help, but will be playing masters with DoG come fall time.

LA (Strike-Slip): LA is once again full of talent, but it's all from different college programs that teach different things. The team will take time to jell, and they need to get on the same page ASAP. The team also seems short on blue-colar type players. To many people who are used to being the star. Until their downfield cutters work hard consistantly, they are going to have issues. I predict Dr. Buel will bring it all together. Also, a lot of their hopes rest on where Matt Welsh decides to play.

SD (Street Gang): The actually united Sand Diego team looked very strong, and a lot less like a Squids Only club than either PBR or SD United looked. They also emerged as the potentially dominant team in SoCal for the season. If this weekends results (and team rosters) are any indicators, I'd expect SD vs LA in the Game to Go come regianls with SD going back to Nationals for the first time since '05.

Notes from the Moxed Devision:

A lot of teams in the Mixed devision are waiting on Womans teams to anounce their rosters. Mischeif and CTR are not among those teams. Scotty Conway was playing with the home town people after playing with Flycoons last year and Family Style before that.

Personal: I played co-ed this weekend working on my recovery from ACL surgery. I felt faster than last time I played (Memorial Day), but I think I was limping a bit more. I've decided to stop climbing for the next two weeks and focus more on rehab. Hopefully I'll be able to play Open come Solstice, if not, maybe I can find a co-ed team to take me.

Notes From Bay Area College Sectionals

I went to my first Bay Area sectionals this past weekend to help out the Slugs and watch the first suspenseful college sectionals in the Bay Area in a while. I was with the Slugs pretty much the whole time, so I don't have much insight on either Stanford or a non-tiered LPC. So, notes from the teams who are going to regionals (and a little on LPC).

Cal: The team nobody seems to want to play. They have a ton of versatile players that are conservative and break the mark well. They play to their strengths as a possession team, and communicate better on D than most teams. They have a lot of depth and work very hard, but from what I saw, they don't have a ton of team speed (note, when the Slugs played Cal, Choongil wasn't playing). Also of note, Ryo seems like an evil genius sort of coach.

Davis: The Davis Dogs are a very fast team. They have lots of height and athleticism to go along with strong leadership from Taylor Lahey. In the game against the slugs the did a good job possesing the disc amongst their handlers on both D and O. They also run a lot of called huck plays on the D line. Look for the Dogs to be strong again next year returning their top two players, and geting a lot of cub experience.

Stanford: I only watched them a little so my observations are limited. First, props to Will Chen for rocking the suit on Saturday, baller. I was surprised by the inconsistancy of their O, especially considering the individual skill of their players. Look for them to play much better at regioanls. Also, Alex "Glass Eye" Drlica-Wagner

UCSC: What a difference a day makes.

LPC: Watching their game against Davis it was clear that they were puting all their regionals eggs in that basket. As the game went on, and as the heat ramped up LPC's regionals hopes grew dimmer. Still, they stuck to their guns, and played their top guys almost the entire game in the game to go to regionals. If Adam, Zip, 808, Ernst, and Sticks are indeed done, I wonder what comes next for their program.

That's all I got for now. I'm intending on going to NW club regionals, so maybe I'll write something about that. Hell maybe I'll write somehting about all region hype again. Or maybe I'll not post for 4 months. Honestly though, I think I'll post more as I satart to play again.

I Love This Game (Warriors Basketball)

It's true.

I'm a big time fan, and have been through bad times and good. The current state of the team is a bit depressing, but it doesn't mean I'll jump ship, it only means that I have a lot to say (and that I'll be able to go to more games because people will be StubHub-ing their season tickets like hot-cakes).

Over the next week or so I plan on breaking down my thoughts about the team. I'll start with the summer // going into the season, then move on to the early season and the play, and finally move into what I'd like to see happen. A lot of change within the organization appears eminent over the next few months, I just hope it goes down at all like I'd want it to.

My current top 5 favorite Warriors:

5. Capn. Jax (More so when there is a real play maker to bring the ball up, he's not a point forward. Loved him the last two years).

4. Marco Belinelli a.k.a. poor man's Manu

3. Andris a.k.a. Drago

2. BWright (I really liked him last year, and he seems to do good things for spacing and ball movement when he's out there. Sure he'll make some mistakes, but he's young let him develop.)

1. Monta (I don't care that he hurt humself in a freek accident, kid is sick. I was going to buy a mid 90s throwback Monta Jersey if the Ws made the playoffs last year.)

More to come.

Questions for the Upcoming College Season

Okay loyal fans, I'm sorry that I'm a bad blogger.  It happens.  There is no way I can catch up on all the post ideas I've had in recent months, so instead I'll throw out something quick to try and get me going again.  So, with all the controversy this fall over the '09 college season, and all the eventual inactivity, I figured I'd review some things to think about going into winter break.

1) Who will emerge as the Open devision front runner in SoCal?  We should get the answer to this question post SB invite.  UCSB has historically performed very strong at their home tournament, but I don't know if that can be expected from them in this rebuilding year.  As I see it now, Claremont, UCSD, and UCSB seem to be relinquishing the hold they've had on the section of late with a Semis birth at Sean Ryan for SLO and a SoCal Warmup Championship from CSULB.  My instinct tells me this is SLO's year (they've got this guy Dom, Captain of SLO-Core, and I think he'll wind up being the difference maker).

2) How strong will Arizona be?  Sure, they lost a lot of guys, but they've built dedication, and their younger guys got great experience last year.  I predict they make semis at SB Invite.

3) Will any SoCal team make semis at SB?  Right now I'd go with no.

4) How strong will the NW be this year?  After a recent low in strength as a region last year, can the NW rebound?  I think it will, and I think there will again be a top 10 team left out of Nationals because of the current bid allocation process.

5) When will the Stanford invite happen?  Well?

6) Where will the competition go?  In a way, this was the question that defined the fall, and it can still define the spring.  Most of the teams invited to C1 were prepared to go where the competition went.  Now the question is, where will they go next.  I think Vegas, Stanford, and Centex will prove strong again this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of teams defected from Centex for Southerns or Easterns (tournaments where the men's and women's teams could both play, and then spend the week together).  Also, I wonder how many teams can really afford to travel across the country all the time anymore.

and the big one for me:

7) What does the separation of Women's Centex from Open Centex, and the emergence of Pres Day as the choice tournament for top women's teams early in the season mean for the future of college ultimate tournaments?  Will we see more single gender events with the creation of a regular season.

I do like the evidence of growth in the women's devision this year.  With the expansion of Women's Centex and the addition of a Qualifier for the Women's devision at the SB invite.  Maybe we'll see more college women's tournaments this spring.

Co-ed Scouting Reports

Last weekend I attended the one day co-ed thing in the bay as a member of Brown Chicken Brown Cow (BCBC say the name with a 70s porn bow chica bow wow melody), but wound up being a spectator. My plan was to have fun for a day, and maybe right something in the blog about scouting reports, my thoughts on co-ed, and why I'm playing open this year. Well, I don't really feel up to all of that, so I'll just stick with the scouting reports thing. Honestly, I wasn't as observant as I usually am, instead focusing on drinking and being obnoxious (I call it heckling). Still, I'll try and dig through the fog to say something useful.

Australia: I'm not sure about the ethics of giving stuff about a National team away right before worlds, but in reality, this probably won't help anyone. They run a vert stack and the dump goes up the line when activated. After that they like to hit the inside to the front as a space throw. Off the break the love to continue down the line. Even when you think you've cut off the around, they'll still take it, especially if you're forcing backhand. Aside from that, their cutters aren't the strongest throwers, but they are all good athletes. Employ hucker calls.

Night Train: I think loosing Nilla hurts them, they seem like they could use another set of hands. They still love the deep game, and Will DeBello is still the go to cutter in terms of the guys. Bethany is good, don't let her go deep on you. Doug needs to do more, he just doesn't have enough ego to assert himself like he should. Brian Yoxall is so married.

Mischief: They're a very different team at these things then they are once the series rolls around. They're also a very different team this year without Kevin 'Dollar' Smith and Tyler Grant. They still rely heavily on their athleticism, and seeing as most teams in co-ed can't match it, they probably won't regret their strategy any time soon. Chucky needs to sack up and drink more, I don't acknowledge 'I've been drinking for the past three nights' sort of excuses; sometimes it's 10 am and you need a beer.

CTR: They're a very meat and potatoes type of team. They move the disc well, and don't really take many chances. Still, if Shasta is indeed not back with them, they've lost a lot of the possibility for big plays (from the thrower end). Mateo is a nice pickup for them, super consistent, and has the ability to dominate as a give-go handler in co-ed.

All I can say about Monkey and AIR is that they have some beastly athletes. Don't underestimate Lil' Tom James or Beach.

Hope that was interesting, and good luck to all these teams as the season continues. Extra good luck to Australia at WUGC.

Word.

My Future in Ultimate

I've spent a lot of time this summer facing obstacles in the advancement of my ultimate carrier, at least, in how I saw it going while I was in college. I always thought I'd make an elite club team within the first two years I graduated from school, and that I'd be traveling around the western US playing high level disc. Well, by the time DUI ended I had been cut from both Jam and Revolver, and I had to settle on how to spend my summer.

If I was still in school at Claremont, the decision of where to play would have been easy. All I would have to do is find the best way to get better individually over the summer off season. Well, seeing as I no longer have a college team as a reason to devote myself to individual improvement, I had to reconsider my reasons for playing competitively. I thought about my personal goals in Ultimate, and decided to by into Yeager's desire to improve the UCSC program.

I agreed to co-captain a team with him, and once again became excited about the game. I wanted to help the Slugs, and have an outlet for playing quality disc with friends (of course, being in a position of leadership wasn't a downside). I also told Yeager that, seeing as I was helping to captain a Slug centric team for the summer, I'd be more than happy to help the Slugs prepare for the college series in whatever capacity I'd be useful. Even with these new reasons for playing the club season, I was unsure of my individual aspirations.

After a couple of practices with our fledgling team, Yeager and I led a rag tag bunch of 14 to solstice and wound up winning the open devision. This promising result, combined with picking up some Stanford kids and a couple more Yay Area club players started to get me reall stoked about the team's potential, and I dedicated myself to actually getting in good shape for Ultimate. Then, right as I had started to get into a grove in terms of workouts, feeling a little in shape, and even climbing reasonably strong (flashing easy 11s, redpointing some harder 11s and working on some easier 12s, still only climbing v5 though, I hadn't broken back into the 6s) I tore up my knee.

Injuring my knee brought me out of focusing on the short term success of SCUC (the Santa Cruz Ultimate Club, sort of what we settled on for a club name, we can still have different team names at tournaments), and back to thinking about my long term plans for ultimate. When I told my boy Robin I was no longer sure of why I play the game he responded "I think I get it. You've invested a lot of time in the community and you're well respected within it. You also have a lot of potential to advance your standing."

Robin is right, it's easy to know I'll continue to play ultimate for a long time just from the fun I have playing, and my involvement in the community. The real question is what are my competitive aspirations. I guess in every short term situation I play for my teammates (and therefore will remain dedicated to the SCUC guys this summer), I've just been struggling with finding a reason I play for myself.

I understand that at 22 I'm still young and have a lot of disc still ahead of me, but I'm no longer sure I'll need to play on the absolute best teams to fill my competitive aspirations. I'll still want to push myself athletically, and playing elite is one way to do that, but wanting to play elite is no longer the main reason I play competitive ultimate. I guess what I do next summer will really answer the questions I have about my competitive aspirations. Either I push myself to get in shape for the tryout season and dedicate myself to the process, or I show up in not the best shape again, and wind up playing with a second tear team for another summer (and likely many more). It seems that in the end I can't come up with the answer just sitting at my house and over-thinking it. I do know I want to make it back to open club nationals, and I would enjoy playing playing with the best. I also know that I don't have to play with the best to be satisfied, I just need teammates.

Word.

P.S. I really appreciate the concept behind Bob's WDUPU series.