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.

Solstice Recap

This is the latest recap I've ever written. I guess I just have to post it so I can move on to writing about other things.

I am now officially part of the leadership of a team again. We were called the Yeager Bombs at Solstice in Eugene, but we're not settled on a name as of yet (okay, the program said Jaeger, but we all know it's with a Y). It seems like being a captain has potential to change how my tournament recaps go. Well, here is the first chance to see if it does. Game by game:

Game 1: UOish

Both teams looked horrible to start, with a 5 turnover point to start the game. Both teams were clearly learning to play with each-other, and I think they had a bit of a head start on this. Things that stick out: Us having bad zone points (these were gone by the end of the weekend), and Kevin Stout getting an amazing D on what looked like a great hammer from Yeager to Jughead. We wound up wining, and thus started and undefeated season (or so we joked).

Game 2: UWish

This was the game we played our poorest in for the weekend. Jughead played maybe 2 points due to a sore hamstring, Laurent was out due to a gimpy calf, and Aman reinjured his rotator cuff. Anyway, they wound up winning a close one. Our shorthanded roster couldn't keep up with their deeps, and we continued to learn to play with each other. I guess our undefeated season was over. We were down to 11 at this point, and we could have mailed it in for the tournament but we resolved to stick with it.

Game 3: Predator (Tacoma)

They looked really organized, and had a really tall receiver. It was our third game of the day and they came in really confident, we came in really tiered. Well, the wind picked up a tad and made the game noticeably upwind downwind. I think it was in this game that Yeager hurt himself getting a huge layout D. That Injury brought us down to 10 guys which was pretty devastating considering how out of shape we were (people have been taking a small break since hard college seasons, I was just out of shape). It seemed like we were loosing the whole game, mostly because we were working so hard for the points we scored. Somehow, it turned out the game was really close, and we wound up wining by about 2. We were surprised and excited. The reward was #1 in our pool and a crossover with the Seattle 3rd team.

Game 4: 3rd (Seattle)

We were exhausted. Sitting on the sidelines, sitting during time outs and half, stalling for more rest. It was just bad. It felt like we were being crushed the whole game. Still, somehow half was on serve, and we won on universe point. It wasn't glamorous or pretty, but it felt damn good.

After finishing an exhausting day we went back to the house where we were staying (3 blocks from the fields! sick). And gathered to plan the evening festivities. We were able to grab showers at the Y then head over to the showcase game and dinner. After dinner we regrouped and eventually made our way to the party.

The party was really good. The beer wasn't great, but I enjoyed to local. And of course, any party with Alex Wells will be great. We stayed pretty late, I got good and toasty, and Yeager rocked the dd status seeing as he had hit his head on a bid earlier in the day.

Game 5: Kirkland Frisbee Club (KFC)

Day two started with us playing a young team from the Seattle area. They wound up scoring one or two points, it was a nice warmup, and even better than a bye. Winning this crossover put us in the semis against the UWish team.

Game 6: UWish

Our second game against UW was also really close and contested. We commited to taking away Sean's flick, and we tried to keep the disc out of Gabe's hands. Well, we wound up winning by a couple this time, but not before letting our out of shape-ness catch back up with us. Winning this one put us in the finals against a local team.

Game 7: Eugene Open

Our seventh and final game of the weekend was against the team formerly known as Darkstar. The game was close, with us up one or two the whole time. I don't remember that much because I tweaked my back early in the game, and was relegated to sitting on the sideline trying to stretch out. I do remember Aman dropping one huck because he had to go left handed, then deciding to do the sure thing and catch the game winner two handed.

It was great to win Solstice, even if it was just the open devision. We had victory cigars thanks to Aman (they were for Spain winning in the UEFA Cup), and everyone on the team got excited for the upcoming season. Anyway, we've got Chico next weekend. Maybe having a larger roster can help us throw down.

Lifting

I lifted for the first time in a long time about a week ago. Anyway, I remembered how fun it was. Anyway, I did some easy lifting today after playing a round of disc golf with some friends. So, as a tribute to all of those who post their workouts, here was mine today (I'm also just trying to be a good blogger, look at me!).

Warmup (10 min run, stretch)

Lift:
Bench (3 x 10 @ 100 lbs.)
Lat Press (3 x 10 @ 70 lbs.)
Lat Pull-down (3 x 10 @ 70 lbs.)
Curls (20 per arm @ 20 lbs.)
Leg Press (3 x 10 @ 155 lbs.)
Calf Raises (3 x 50 @ 90 lbs.)
Hamstring Curls (3 x 8 @ 60 lbs.)

Core (all tups done on an incline bench holding a 6 kg med ball, all pushups done with feet on a yoga ball):
(30 situps, 20 pushups) x 2
(20 twist situps, 15 pushups arms wide) x 2
(15 situp then twist side to side, 10 diamond pushups) x 2
lower back thing with 10 lb wait (20)

Shits and giggles:
Campus pullups x 10 (The gym where I workout is the climbing gym I work at. Anyway there is this chinup bar that has another chinup bar a foot and a half above it and maybe 6 inches out. Well, do a pullup on the lower bar and explode to grab the upper bar with both hands, then go down with both. It's fun.)

Anyway, I didn't really push myself on the lifting front, I guess I'm just building a bit of a base. I'll probably do this again later this week, then go a little harder next week. The best part of lifting today was the shower-sauna-shower combo I got in. Word.

My Ultimate Life

So, tryout season in NorCal has come and gone and I didn't make the team I was trying to make (Revolver). The week after that happened I hurt my knee at work randomly, and for a number of reasons I was really close to not playing competitive ultimate this summer. Luckily, James Yeager of UCSC came along with the perfect opportunity.

Yeager realized that the best way to try and get the Slugs back to nationals next year was to have everyone play club together this summer. He also realized that simply turning your college team into a club team isn't amazingly effective, so he recruited me as a co-captain for this as yet to named* summer team. We invited all of this year's Slug A players onto the team, then, using our ultimate nerdy-ness and connections, Yeager and I started recruiting and trying to fill out the roster. Well, we eventually settled on having tryouts, and have been doing so for the past couple of weekends. As of now, we're really stoked on the potential our team has (I'll release a roster once we have a team name, it'll be on the Score Reporter).

So, after starting this team so late, we were stuck without a bid to CalStates, but we came up with an awesome alternative. We held tryouts in the form of a double practice on Saturday, then had tryouts in terms of heckling practice on Sunday. Because we weren't actually playing in the tournament, we were able to go huge at the tourney party Saturday night and bond as a team the next day.

On Saturday, Shy and I arranged to pick up with some LA homies for the first game Sunday morning so I could get in some hungover co-ed play in prep for Potlatch. We got to play against the team Shy left to play with Yeager and I for the summer, LA Metro. It was a lot of fun seeing as Shy and I had a bunch of friends on both teams. Basically we ran around the field doing give and goes until one of us jacked it to an open receiver (if felt like the good ol' days). 808 was supposed to pick up with us, but he overslept, what a bummer. I'll just have to wait until Discos and e-bay to play with Bobby.

That's what I got from the personal side for now. I'll try and get back to spreading rumors about the top teams soon.

*I was originally pushing for us to be the Yeager Bombs, but James has insisted on spelling it with a J, so we'll hold a team vote to settle on a name (hopefully it won't be Justice League**).

**Too Soon?

Quick notes from CalStates

CalStates went down here in town this past weekend, and thus the hype machine for the summer has started. Here's my early contribution.

Condors:
They've been picking up a couple of LA guys per year for the past few years, this time they're just going bigger (also, with only two bids from the SW, the LA guys want to get back to the show). There are no '09 college players not from the SB that are still trying out for the Condors, so they're not poaching the young talent from LA. In fact, they're letting LA do the work in developing the young guys. Still, their roster is not set yet, and we'll see how big of an effect the new influx of personnel will have.

Furious George:
It was cool to see these guys at such an early tournament. It was also predictable because of Worlds. It looked like Lugsdin and Cruickshank both didn't make the trip down, and Oscar, while present, wasn't playing. Also of note, due to CUPA rules, they were trying out a bunch of non-Vancouver guys, 5 of whom were from GOAT. So remember, while Furious will be representing Canada at Worlds, GOAT placed higher at the UPA Championships last year.

Jam:
They took 3 new guys this year, and it wasn't to get younger (although they did a little of that). I don't know how much of the JL stuff is carrying over, seeing as JL ran a ho while Jam seems to primarily be a vert stack team. Their performance at CalStates was a little surprising, but I think it'll just light a fire.

Revolver:
Funny thing, of the new players they took, there is only one player who will be playing college ultimate next year, and none of the players they took were from Stanford. In fact, I'm not sure if any Stanford guys even tried out this year. They got a lot taller with their additions, picking up Seth Wiggins, David "Fetch" Janinis, Tyler Grant, Chuck Kindred, Alex "Dutchie" Ghesquire, and Patrick Sweigert. As per CalStates Seth Wiggins spent most of his time playing with Sockeye, and both Nan Gao and Nat Kinsky were out.

Sockeye:
They did their usual CalStates thing. Winning a lot of games, and getting the tryout guys a good amount of time. They moved all the tryouts onto the finals team to get a closer look. Seth didn't play for either team in the finals.

That's it for the 'Elite' teams. It's weird writing about people I know (and some I don't), but I guess I'm just trying to get some information out there. Does the public really have a right to know? I'll have to struggle finding the answer to that one.

D-III Nationals - Why We Didn't Go

The first year of D-III nationals, captain Alex and I talked about attending it briefly after the tournament announcement and decided the we (Claremont) wouldn't go. We decided that the combination of school being out of session and the team not being accustomed to flying to tournaments was enough to not go. In addition, we thought we had a legit shot of making it to UPA Nationals that year, and we didn't want settling for D-III nationals to be okay with anybody on the team. Some people brought up the idea of going, but the majority of the team was in favor of out decision to focus on the UPA series.

The next year I was a senior and a captain and the team had almost no shot of making nationals (we wound up tied for 3rd in a region with one bid, but we knew Colorado and SB were better than us that year). We decided to have a team meeting about D-III nationals (it's not that hard to have team meetings when everyone lives on campus). My stance, along with that of many of the other seniors, was that we wanted to be as proud of our senior season as possible. To us, that meant finishing as high as we could at regionals, and pouring our harts into doing so.

At the team meeting, the general consensus was that because D-III nationals isn't hosted by the UPA, and because we knew other top level D-III teams wouldn't be there, any victory wouldn't be satisfying. We also wanted to put the team in a position to succeed in years to come, and we thought having people focus on regionals was the best way to do so. The team voted something like 16 to 3 not to go to D-III nationals that year. If the UPA hosted some sort of devision two event for small schools, we would have gone (especially because our club sports department would have paid for our trip).

So that's where Claremont stood on D-III nationals while I was there, and it seems like not much has changed. Also, as the team improves, I wonder if they'd even go to (or be eligible for) a UPA hosted D-II style event (still, it'd be hard to pass up the free accommodations).

Word.

The End of My Season

I drove Connor to the airport this morning so he could fly to Boulder and play in college nationals. It really happened, and I could have been there. I'm happy with my decision not to go to school. Anyway, I get to go to Claremont instead.

NW Regionals

This was my first time ever as a spectator and not a player at college regionals. Man that sucked. Still, I got to watch the team I should have been playing with win regionals. It was great to see all the guys I call friends and used to call team mates step up.

What stood out to me:

All of Stanford's cutters not named "Ezra" or "Tom James" are willing and eager to loose yards to give the disc to Sherwood. They'll catch an in cut and turn around and give the disc to Sherwood loosing 5 yards. By now Mark must have a sore back.

Jeremy Nordan played great in the Whitman vs. LPC game. I thought that if Whitman was eliminated on day 1 things would be a lot easier in terms of FOTY voting, well, Whitman wouldn't let that happen. Of note, Daryl, the SC coach was kind of fed up with all the Cassidy vs. Jeremy talk and said "Why can't they just be co-freshman of the year? It's happened before, it should happen again. One as a cutter, one as a handler." Seeing as both were within 5 yards of him at the time I just said, "Maybe they should fight to the death."

Speaking of Daryl, he doesn't get enough credit for the development of the young players (and even the vets) on the Slugs (I know, he doesn't really want the credit, well to bad!). Yes Danny is the on field leader, and yes Danny is deserving of their callahan nomination, but he isn't responsible for the Slug's hard nosed D or team wide understanding of the rules, or their practicing calling marking violations in practice. Also, Daryl called all the lines at regionals, and is a great calming force to counter Danny's fiery-ness.

Um, it was 99 degrees when I got in my car to leave Davis. So yeah, as hot as SoCal Sectionals. People were talking about how they couldn't believe they were playing in that kind of heat, try playing in the desert section, or a lot of SoCal.

I know, it's not much, but who needs scouting reports now that the best part (regionals weekend) of the season is over?

Word.

Re: I'm not feeling the love

I guess I'm writing this because Cassidy Rasmussen is my boy, but also because I feel like the FOTY* award isn't discussed enough. The guidelines for the awards are laid out pretty well on the UPA website (and I wish they weren't, screw them, I'm sticking with my definitions. Also, can we get a search function UPA? thanks.) but the chatter is definitely pretty low quantity (and low quality, I don't pretend to help there) regarding FOTYs.

I think the FOTY award isn't about the best individual freshman in the region, but instead the freshman that contributes the most to a relevant team (that's right, I don't think a FOTY should come from a team that isn't competitive at regionals, same with all-region players).

In my All-Region post (column? maybe when I get an editor) I talked a little about FOTY candidates, but I didn't want to distract from my real purpose. Anyway, I wrote:

[NW] FOTY: Jeremy Norden, Whitman - I think he's had this locked up since Vegas. That being said, I think Cassidy Rasmussen should get some dap if UCSC wins regionals.

I stick by my statement, still, I'd like to explain. I think Cassidy is an exceptional player, and if I had to choose between the two, I don't know who I'd take, (but I do know I'd have Cassidy play D). The thing is, I think Jeremy has had to do a lot more for Whitman than Cassidy has for UCSC. Also, I think Whitman stepping up and being better than expected has helped Jeremy, while UCSC underperforming for much of the season hasn't helped Cassidy. If UCSC wins regionals and Cassidy plays huge, I think people should consider him for the award. Still, I expect both players to make the all region team in the coming years, probably as soon as next year.

As far as the SW debate goes, I just don't know enough about Hylke Snieder from Colorado to comment. I guess I'll let The Pulse (that nickname was for you, Conor) do the talking for me:

I've played against both Markham and Hylke, and Markham, while I do think he's the better player, also means so much more to his team than Hylke. . . . He's a big part of [Claremont's] rise to contention in the SW.

Okay, there you have it.

*Can we all agree to pronounce FOTY like E-40 when he calls himself 40 Water? Just listen to Yay Area, and focus on the chorus.

Notes From SoCal Sectionals (Sexuals?)

Last weekend I used SoCal open sectional being hosted in Claremont as an excuse to make it down south and visit my alma mater and catch up with some non-frisbee friends. Well, I know you're probably not here to read about me chillin' at Mudd, so here goes that sectionals scouting reports thing.

I managed to watch:
Cal Poly-Pomona
Cal State-Long Beach
Cal Tech
Claremont
Claremont - B
Occidental
Redlands
San Diego
SDSU
UCLA
UCSB
USC

I figure I'll keep the reports down to teams that made regionals (it's always a shock to me the quality of some of the teams that make SW regionals, I guess that's what happens when your section sizes are 20, 8, and 5 for a region).

Cal Poly-Pomona: Um, they have girls on their open team. Their program is really young, and the enthusiasm for the sport is inspiring. I with them the best of luck as their team grows. They go into regionals seeded 16th, and will finish as such IMO.

Claremont: Their zone O is a lot better than the last time I saw it (in fact, it's good now). They rely on Stout and Jay to heavily, also, more people should want the disc in their own hands, sometimes it's just chicken shit to only cut deep.

Occidental: I saw them playing against Claremont-B, so I couldn't gain too much from watching them. I can say that they like to huck, and frequently travel while doing so. Okay funny story. I'm watching Claremont-B vs. Oxy with my boy Monkey (a sophomore at Mudd who wasn't playing ultimate due to injury, he was playing acoustic guitar covers of songs like Digital Love and Ignition (Remix)) and we were yelling at the B guys while they were on D. Well, one of the B guys not on the field turns to me and says, "Did you used to play?"

I reply "Yes." So he says "Why did you stop?" At this point, Monkey can't stand my dumb grinning anymore and says "Manz, do you know who this is? He's Joaq, the captain from last year." The B team kid sheepishly walked away and Monkey said "Sometimes I hate you, wanker."

SDSU: Not much has changed since the Stanford Qual. They don't play good man D, and instead have to rely on a match-up zone with poaches on the handlers. If you move the disc quickly, you should shred it. Steve isn't assertive enough and can be taken out of the game to easily.

UCLA: The Sultan is a baller on D. When Seraph is heated, they're a much better team. And finally, force Fozzy under, he's great in the air, but not as good with the disc. Um, make them throw a lot of throws to score, their handlers are okay with it, but it seems like their cutters don't want to have to grind things out.

UCSB: Rory was out, making Jeff handle. I don't think that'll happen at regionals. I do think that loosing A-bomb really hurt their D, because now not as many people can front. They really want to jam it up the sidelines, and don't want to have to use the middle of the field. They'll throw clam on a turn, and it's pretty good, but not as good as last year's when Alex was lurking deep. Also, Tide has always been good about not showing their hand at sectionals, I think that'll hold true this year as well.

Okay, that's all from sectionals in terms of Ultimate. I can say it was fun doing halftime shows for the easy games on day 1. Also hosting sectionals in Claremont was a great idea for the Brains, and there'll be more field space next year, so it might happen again. Word.

Edit: Jay deserves credit for at least half of my blog posts.

All-Region Hype NW & SW

I think what All-Region really means is ambiguous and I've talked to many people who have different thoughts on the matter. So, before I make my pics, I'll elaborate on what I think the all-region team represents. I've heard two dominating theories, both of which I disagree with (to some extent).

The first theory is the all-region team is a regionals tournament team. I guess the logic here is that regionals is the only meaningful tournament for a majority of the good teams in the region. Still, I think there is more to all-region than just one tournament, and even the people who subscribe to the tournament team view definitely know who their looking for before hand.

The second theory claims that the all-region team is a reword for work put in all season. I think this is unfair because it overly benefits those who have played stronger competition. Also, I think the ability for teams to peek for the series is important.

So, this brings me to my theory. The all-region team is about the series. Basically, players should be rewarded for how they perform when there is something besides sectionals seeding on the line. I think this explains a few all-region decisions from the past few seasons in the SW (no Assa in '06 and no Rory in '07). Still, it makes me wonder how Mike Stout, Senior, Claremont got it last year (the UPA should check with schools before the post all-region teams to make suer their info is correct. I guess someone should also tell them that MStout was a Junior last year and goes by Michael not Mike). Anyway, with those qualifications in mind, here goes my all-region breakdown in terms of people I think are locks, likely, and deserving (I'll only write about the regions I know well, and watching TiV, SI, and Centex doesn't mean you know all the regions well).

NW
The parity and depth in the NW this year makes it hard to decide on an all-region team. Once a player makes all-region it's typically hard to leave them off the list the following year. That being said, I think there is a lot of potential for some of last years all-region recipients to be left off the list this year. I think the team that wins the region will get two players on the all-region team. There is a chance the second place team will also get two, but that more depends on who finishes second. I also think each top 4 team will have at least one representative.

Locks:

Mark Sherwood, Stanford - I think this is an obvious choice. Sherwood is widely considered one of the best college players in the country, and is the focal point of everything Stanford does.

Likely:

Dusty Becker, Oregon - Having made it last year, I only see dusty being left out if UO fails to make a game-to-go. I guess putting Dusty here tells you something of what I think of Ego's chances (um, good).

Mark Leduc, UBC - UBC is a very top heavy team and Leduc manages to stand out among their top players. If the T-birds make the top 4 at reagionals, I don't see how you can leave him off the list.

Danny Karlinsky, UCSC - Danny is the face (or at least perceived voice) of the Santa Cruz program, and his leadership // throws put him among the top handlers in the region. SC winning sectionals is a good start, now if they finish top 5 at regionals Danny will repeat as all-region.

Kevin Stout, Oregon - If UO makes nationals, KStout is on the all-region team. If not, he'll have to once again be the clearly dominant athlete at regionals to make the team (yeah, I think he'll do it).

Deserving (there's some order to this list, see if you can figure it out):

Nate Castine, Western Washington - Great player and nice guy. Western might be a year away, but if they make enough noise, it'll probably be because of Castine. Definitely all-region '09.

Nick Chapman, UCSC - Chapman is the go to receiver for the Slugs, along with one of their best cutter defenders. If UCSC makes nationals, I have to assume they'll get two people on the all-region team. I think Nick is at least second in line from the Slugs, but there is always a chance one of his teammates will steal his thunder at regionals.

Charles Denby, Cal - The perception that Cal has no stars hurts Charles's chances, but his insistence on getting open under helps. Still, I think Cal will have to win regionals for Charles to make it.

Choongil Fleischman, Cal - I think Choon's chances are better than Charles's because of his impact on D. If Cal is in the game-to-go, I think Choon deserves all-region.

Tom James, Stanford - If they win, he's in, in my book. Great on D, and has to do a lot for Stanford to be successful against athletic teams.

Michael Liu, LPC - I don't really think LPC has a chance of getting anyone on all-region, mostly because of the prejudice against them. That being said, enough people like 808 to give him a chance if LPC makes UPA Nationals (they'll go to D-III if they don't make UPAs, I think).

Joe "BJ" Sefton, Washington - Washington's finish at sectionals helps BJ a lot here. If they can make the top 5 at regionals, it'll be because they relied heavily on BJ (and Dutch). Anyway, if they're in it on Sunday, BJ will have a shot at all-region.

James Yeager, UCSC - Amazing handler defender, and the anchor of the Slug's dline O. If the Slugs make nationals there's a pretty good chance Yeager played huge at regionals.

FOTY: Jeremy Norden, Whitman - I think he's had this locked up since Vegas. That being said, I think Cassidy Rasmussen should get some dap if UCSC wins regionals.

SW
Doling out SW all-region spots seem pretty straight forward to me (at least compared to the NW). It's true that there is a depth of candidates, but I think the lack of depth in terms of teams helps in determining who gets it. I'd give the winner of the region three spots on the team, the second place team two spots, and 3rd team would get one, with the last spot a little more up for grabs. With that said, it'll be hard to keep Colorado and Arizona from getting two guys each on the team, no matter where they finish.

Locks:

Jolian Dahl, Colorado - Word.

Austin Gregerson, Arizona - In my opinion Austin is the best player on Arizona (even if he doesn't have the same psychological effect on the rest of the team as Gafni or Kershner). He's both one of the best throwers and receivers in the country, in addition to playing some of the best deep D.

Joe Kershner, Arizona - Everyone's favorite Arizona player, and understandably so. He's a well rounded player, and amazingly explosive.

Michael Stout, Clarmeont - On the team last year, and only more beastly this year (and hopefully less injured at regionals). I really don't see any way to leave him off the list, also, it'd be cool if brothers were on different all-region teams consecutive years.

Mac Taylor, Colorado - Arguable the best player on Mamabird, and certainly the one that creates the most matchup problems.

Likely:
Jeffrey Silverman, UCSB - Missed a lot of the season, but clearly the key player for SB at sectionals (and likely will be at reagionals). If they get only one representative, I'd go with Jeff.

Deserving:

Daniel 'Maniac' Bobrowsky, Claremont - Claremont relies on a pretty tight rotation, and there are a lot of candidates for a possible second representative, I think Maniac stands out the most. Because MStout hasn't been as much of a threat with the disc since his labrum surgery, having maniac step up as a primary cutter // thrower has been huge for the brains. His hucks are amazing, as is his D and ability to get open.

Martin Cochran, Colorado - Martin is an interesting case. He's made the team the past two years, but if Colorado doesn't win the region this year, I don't see them getting three all-region representatives. Still, his impact on Mamabird is immense, allowing people to not play out of position.

Eric Gafni, Arizona - Gaf is a big-time leader and receiver for Sunburn. In addition, he's not hesitant in putting up hucks (like the rest of the 'zona guys). If Arizona wins the region, I think he'll get their third spot.

Rory Orloff, UCSB - Rory was hurt at sectionals, which hurts him a little, but he can easily make that back at regionals. Hopefully he'll be able to play, I wouldn't with missing your last two years of eligibility for injury reasons on anyone. If the Tide goes to nationals, Rory is easily on the all-region squad. If they make the game-to-go, I guess he and Jeff will just have to fight to the death to determine who get all-region.

Steve Prodan, SDSU - As Steve goes, so goes the feds. When he's able to get the disc you can count on break mark hucks and easy goals for SDSU. Otherwise, their O often becomes stagnant. With the results SDSU has put up this year it wouldn't be too surprising to see them in contention on Sunday, if they're there, Steve deserves a lot of credit.

Chris Shepard, Arizona - Shep is a great thrower and a reliable anchor for the Arizona offense, weather dline or oline. Without his calm handling, their other stars wouldn't be able to shine.

Ben 'Seraph' Tong, UCLA - Seraph is probably the most explosive player I've ever played with. He has all the tools, and is clearly the focal point for UCLA when they're successful. It sometimes seems like he gets frustrated with his team to easily, but other times it seems like he makes every big play in their victories (like over SDSU at sectionals).

FOTY: Markham Shofner, Claremont - Word.

I realized I left out two teams that have good chances of being in contention on Sunday of their respective regionals, Whitman and UCSD. Don't worry, I had my reasons. Whitman because I've haven't seen much of them, and because I don't think Jeremy has a shot at all-region as a freshman. And UCSD because I think they're even more of a faceless army than Cal.

I won't give up who I think will actually get all-region, because that'd give away my pics for regioanls, and I'm not quite ready to do that. Anyway, feel free to comment, but please actually address the post instead of just throwing out more names. it's lame to not respond, but instead try and just make your own mini post (I guess I'm just asking for it now, fuck).

DUI Recap

This past weekend I played in my first ever tryout tournament. I think I'm moving into the veteran ranks of trying out soon. I played with half of Revolver (we were called Bulldog). Anyway, game by game . . .

Game 1: S-M-A-U-G Smaug! Smaug! (UCLA)

We got to play my old SoCal friends first game. They've got sectionals next weekend and are looking to peak at the right time. The game went about as I expected, UClA made some execution errors, and we didn't. Still, there were some things I didn't expect, notably UCLA hucking a lot, and those hucks not coming to or from Seraph. I think they'll tighten the rotation a bit next weekend and lean more heavily on Seraph/Sultan/Devinci. Final score 15-7 ish.

Game 2: YR

They came out fired up, we came out without much chemistry on O. Not a big surprise for a team with only 7 returners, at least 4 of whom played D last year. We scored on O first, then they scored 5 strait before we finally scored on O again. Well, getting our D on the field was a good decision. We wound up taking half 8-6 to on a 7-1 run. Early in the second half we were able to reap the benefits of them having such a tight O rotation and continue take and build to a 12-8 lead. And a 15-9 final. I think this game speaks volumes towards teams giving the D line a shot on O after maybe two consecutive breaks.

Game 3: Condors

Um, I think they broke us three straight times before we got on the board. That's right, in typical Bulldog fashion we were down 3-1 before the D got on the field. Well, also in typical Bulldog fashion we took half 8-6 (awesome). We wound up winning 15-11 ish. Wow, that was my first time beating any team called The Condors. That was a big moment for me. I played all right, but got beat deep once or twice (I also got the D on a deep shot).

The game against the Condors concluded our day and Revolver headed over (two blocks over) to The Graduate for greasy food and final 4 b-ball. Well, I could only stay for like 30 min before having to jet to B-town for a dinner party (so good). Anyway, the night was fun, but I didn't quite have the time I usually do in Berkeley, but only because I had to get up at 8:20 to make it to the fields by 10:00.

The next morning was easy and headache-less (rare for Sundays when I wake up in Berkeley) and I was able to make it to the fields 3rd out of everyone on my team.

Game 4 (Quarters): J-men

Um, it was lame and boring. Luckily, this was the game I played worse in (two drops, the only two turns I had with Bulldog).

Game 5 (Semis): Spoonbender (Jam)

I spent this game trying to stay with Matt Bruss. It should have gone better, but I can't say it was a total failure. There was only one point where my man touched the disc multiple times, but Matt did score some goals on me. While I was guarding him Bruss was hucked to 5 times, 3 resulting in goals and two in turns. Unfortunately, we didn't convert any of our upwind chances on D, turing it over 5 yards out twice, and turning it after both of the timeouts the D called. Anyway, this was a game we could have won, and I'd like to be in this matchup again.

Magnum, the other Revolver split squad, also lost in the semis. So, instead of essentially scrimmaging, both teams called it quits to socialize instead. Well, Charles and I decided it'd be more useful to us as tryouts to play with YR in their last consolation game.

Game 6 (with YR): Smaug

Both teams were very tiered, one happened to play a game predicated on high percentage throws and disc movement while the other relied on big strikes. It was fun playing with YR and getting to be a primary cutter. I found that it was easier to take on a large role with these guys than with the revolver guys. Mostly, I didn't feel out classed in the throws department. Anyway, we won easily and I played well scoring a few goals and assisting on a couple. Still I had a turnover, that shouldn't happen. I had a good time playing with these guys.

All in all it was a fun weekend, the tryout season is in full swing. I can't wait until the season starts after Cal States.

Fools Recap

Last weekend I got to play with my two favorite teams in my favorite tournament. What a treat. Anyway, here goes the boring style recap.

Game 1: Claremont vs. YR
Claremont was without their three primary throwers for this tournament so I tried to fill that role (luckily it's what I did last year). Also of note, this version of YR was clearly a tryout team, and they weren't trotting out top lines or anything like that. I don't remember all the specifics of the game, but I do remember that we went up a couple of breaks in the first half. We then proceeded to give one or two back in the second half before the hard cap blew with us up by two. They had the disc and Gordy decided he'd pad his states getting his 4th layout D of the game and letting us score the final goal.

What stuck out to me most in this game about my own play was how out of shape I am compared with this time last year. I played far fewer points then I would have last year and was far more tiered. Where the two teams are concerned, YR really liked their IO breaks, and they moved the disc really well. Still, height on D was an issue for them, but I think that will get worked out as the season approaches. Where Claremont is concerned, I was impressed with the younger players, they seem to have good heads for the game, instead of just running aimlessly. I think it's more a lack of skills instead of understanding (play club this sumer guys, really).

Game 2/3: DTB vs. Cruz current and past.

These games blended together for me. It was all a swirl of sweet beats and playing against UCSC hommies. I played pretty well in these games, as did my brown teammates. Still, I got D'd once on a huck, that sucked, and I put a little too much zing on an upline throw to Jimmy. I had a couple of goals and assists, along with a D or two. Winning these two games won us the pool and put us in a crossover game with YR.

Game 4: YR (again)

This time the outcome didn't seem as uncertain before the game. Also, it was funny to hear people getting frustrated about Nick getting touches. They were like "Will someone shut down the fat kid?" I just bit my tongue. We won.

That was it for the games on day one. We helped DJ dave load up the truck and all sat down for the circle. It was great, it always is, and I look forward to sitting down with everyone once again. After we finished up Haddock and I picked up some food at Charlie Hong Kong's and headed back to my place. We eventually made it down to the party at Rosie's. It was a lot of fun, as it always is. Okay, on to day two.

Game 5: Claremont

We rejected the box, mostly because we don't take handouts (and we were afraid they wanted Manhattan). Anyway, I didn't play in this game until it was like 7-3. I went on for D, guarded Rook, and we scored. Rook did manage to get the disc once, that kind of bothered me, but hey, he has broad shoulders and I wasn't going to try and bit through a good friend. Anyway, I only played like 6 points that game. Jay commented that it was boring while I guarded him. It was like practice or something. Jay did have a good game though, including a layout D on the first point. We wound up wining 15-10, I think it would have been a bit closer if Claremont wasn't missing 3 of their top 10 guys.

Game 6: LA/SB

We were up 10-9 on O going down wind on O. They got the break, we didn't recover. I can't wait for a shot at winning this tournament next year. We'll see.

I really enjoyed playing with and meeting new people. Also, I dug playing open again (first time since college regionals last year). DTB will come back stronger in '09. Word.

Stanford Invite // Qual Scouting Reports

These past two weekends have been great for watching and getting back into the swing of things with ultimate. Seeing as game by game recaps would be boring, and nobody really wants to know the details of me hanging out with X at the 5 booth or hitting on the Texas girls (hot), I figured I'd just throw out some scouting reports (kind of like what I did for club teams this past summer, man, I didn't know what I was talking about, that seems to be a theme). Anyway, here it goes.

From the qual:
UW: They have a lot of height, but they don't seem to be that explosive outside of a few top guys. I think they would benefit from having Dutch and BJ play more on both sides of the disc. On the other hand, they focus really well, and seem to have dedicated coaches. Not much, but that's all I got from one game watching them. Um, force backhand, Dutch's flick is that good.

SDSU: Make Daze work to get the disc. It all runs through him, and if he's tiered he'll have more turns. Also, have the dump defender watch his feet for the first three-four seconds he has the disc. He travels to set up his throws, but not on the throws themselves. Also, their dump set is always the same. First guy up line, front of the stack strait back. It works a lot, but they don't do a good job of going deep from the front, so it should be easy to adjust.

Claremont: You're fucked. :)

From the invite:

Pitt: They move the disc well with their handlers, shut down the around and they'll be hurting. Also, pressure their under cuts, they're not trying to huck right away, so make those first few hard. They have a good 4 man cup zone, and you won't beat it by working the disc side to side; once you're around the cup you need to attack downfield by fast breaking // give-and-go-ing, then they'll crumble (out of the zone).

Arizona: Loppy and Snatch are all region players. I like these guys to give up too much more for free. Um, pressure the dump.

Stanford: Make Sherwood stay around the disc, it's not that hard, because he's often near the front of the stack. Make people besides Ezra, TJ, and Sherwood beat you. Pressure their young throwers, intelligent poaches can hurt them.

Texas: No around, make them prove it with the IO throws. Go deep on them. stay at home, poaching won't help you.

UBC: They want to huck, don't over commit on the first in cut, they're just setting you up to go deep. Make them throw more throws, and expose their lack of depth with patient O.

Wisconsin: Their defenders really want to get the D on the inc-ut, once you turn you hips and take a step or two, they'll close their cushion. Take them deep on the double move, oh, and don't float your huck. Um, try poaching? I really don't know how to stop their O.

That's all I got for now. Maybe I'll write something else, like about how awesome 5ultimate is, or how cultimate is trying to good things, even if they seem unresponsive, but don't count on it.

Lei-Out

What can I say about Lei-Out besides the fact that I love it. I mean, I love all of it. I love the people who organize it, and the people that attend it. Lei-Out will always be one of my favorite tournaments.

I think going to three days this year was a worthy experiment. Three days makes the tournament more worth the time to east coasters, and it allows for more games without all the soreness usually associated with beach. Also, I love going to player fees and lifting the roster cap. I guess the only other thing I would want is a second party, that'd really set it off for me (yeah I know, higher player fee, but come on, $50 wouldn't be unreasonable). I'm sure Drew will set up some sort of polling to determine where to go with the tournament next year. I think Lei-Out is definitely in the top tear of tournaments for both competition and fun.

As for my team this year, I loved that we all managed to stay in one hotel room. I think we had 12 people in the room, (don't worry, there were three beds). Basically it really added to the whole team chemistry thing, and was a great way to reconnect with everyone. I like that Lei-Out is the first time everyone sees each other for like a month because of winter break (and longer for both the alums and the kids who were abroad). Anyway, Lei-out was my first US tournament since Sean Ryan, so seeing everyone (not just my teammates) was extra special. Just thinking back on it makes me hunger to play again.

Brazil IV - The Last One

The morning of the finals seemed very normal, but everyone was a little more distracted than usual. I borrowed a bike someone had rented so I could get to the fields faster, but then the chain kept on coming off, so then I tried to put the chain back on, but I should have been mentally preparing // warming up. Anyway, that's just the sort of distracting thing a lot of people were going through. I hope I can learn from this sort of lack of mental preparation and be more diligent before tournament finals in the future (well, I mostly hope I'll have reason to learn from this).

The other big distraction was that the masters final was going on while we were warming up, and a lot of us wanted to support the masters guys in their effort to take home the title. Well, we were ready to take the field just as they were pulling for game point. Up until that point their puller, Jason Trevor, was throwing rollers so they could get down field without giving the other team a brick. On the last point he made a great adjustment telling his team he was going to float one to catch the British off guard, so the D needed to hustle down. The adjustment worked brilliantly and the US guys got the block on the second or third trow, then converted the break to take the title. It was really great, and inspirational leading up to our game.

Our game started with us going down wind and our O scoring on one possession. Our D then went out and forced a turn pretty quickly. Well, we weren't able to convert, but we got it back again, and once again weren't able to convert, the Germans finally scored, and I knew things were about to go south. Basically, whenever a team wins a hell point, they'll definitely win the next point, or at least that's what I've observed recently. Well, sure enough our O turned it and the Germans converted on their first chance, putting them up a break. I went in on the next O point and set my guy up for a deep cut right as the disc was being centered to our captain and main handler Dave. Well, the throw went up, but it was a little slow (dave puts a ton of spin on his throws, so they tend to move slowly, but they're very accurate) and thus gave a poaching German defender enough time to catch up to the disc and make a play on it, well, I was ahead of the disc waiting for it to catch up to me, and I understood that I had no chance to make a play on the disc until after he did. He layed out and tipped it, but I was still able to catch it easily for a goal (check facebook for some pics). Well, we traded for the next 30 min or so (only really eventful moment was me turning the disc over right after calling a timeout, man I'm good).

Anyway, the game was tied at 9-9 and we were going downwind and once again on D. Well, they moved the disc well, but we finally get them to turn it on a high stall count throw that they try to put up the line. Finally, our D fastbreakes effectively and we move the disc down with two long gaining in cuts. After the second in cut Erin gives me a quick little dish and so I have the disc 5 yards out and maybe 5 yards from the left sideline. Well, right as a catch the disc Erol runs between me and the near sideline and says, 'Yeah Joaq!' as he's running towards the flick side of the endzone. Somehow I knew what he wanted and put a high backhand right in the near side of the endzone and he turned just as he crossed the perpendicular between me and the endzone. He caught the goal easily and we took our first lead since 1-0 at 10-9.

Between points the time cap went on, and according to the rules of the tournament we then played to 11. A fresh D line went on and we pulled for the win. The D got the turn near the endzone, and after a few quick passes Arnie threw to Carla for the win, and the gold. We all rushed the field and partied on Carla for a minute or so before going and having our post game spirit circle with Germany. Right after the spirit circle, the guy I was covering most of the finals comes up to me and says "Do you want to trade jerseys?" I quickly replied "My white for your white?" He said "Yes." and we had a deal. I was stoked that he was down with the white jersey, because I had already arranged to trade my red to a Philippines player.

After hanging with the Germans and cheering them multiple times, we all set up in the bleachers with beers to spare to watch the next two finals games. Both games followed a similar path. The team with fewer players come out strong and gets a couple of breaks before running out of gas and eventually succumbing to the depth of the other team. The only difference was that the US women were not only short on players, but aside from the other Americans, they were short on crowd support. The Philippines on the other hand, were the darlings of the tournament, so in a way it was nice to see the 'villainous' Ausies win, seeing as they were put in the same spot as we were.

When the open finals ended the tournament awards ceremony was held in the stadium. There were commemorative discs presented to the people who got the most assists, goals, and D's in each devision, along with and MVP disc for each devision presented to the person with the greatest sum of D's, goals, and assists. Well, three awesome things came out of this. First, in the open devision, guys from the Philippines won in each category. Second, in the Mixed devision, we didn't have a single person win any of the discs, in either gender, showing how much of a team we were. And finally, in the Woman's devision, Becca Tucker from the US won all four awards, now that's just sick.

Anyway, after the discs were presented, medals were given out, and each gold medal wining team got to give a short speech. Everett was very eloquent in giving ours, and made a point to shout out the Spanish team seeing as they were the only ones to beat us. After the ceremony was over the Peace Team organized a small ultimate clinic for the local kids, it was really cool, and they all dug it. I don't think it'll last long in Maceió, but it was all the rage while we were there, and there's a small chance it will have some staying power.

I left part way through the clinic to go back to the hotel and do some packing//sopering up//cleaning up for dinner and partying. We tried to get a team dinner at the nice all you can eat place in the back of the beer themed party venue, but it didn't quite go down. People from both the mixed and masters teams rolled through, and we all had a good time (I mostly ate sushi, I mean, it's not that often that you get down on some all you can ear sushi). As dinner was ending everyone was feeling real tiered, but a couple of shots of espresso later and we were inspired to make the trek to the party.

Once again we were duped into walking do to faulty information, and once again we walked through some sketchy ass places to get to the party venue. When we finally arrived we found that the party venue was full, and that no ultimate players were there. Luckily there was a sweet bar with a huge patio just down the street and all the ultimate folks just changed venues (and I was able to sneak some jungle juice in, so there was no need to buy drinks inside). Anyway, at the party I was introduced to the medal game by some of the Ausie girls. The game goes like this, if someone is able to dunk their medal in your drink while it's still around their neck, you have to finish your drink. All in all, it's pretty sweet, and a good way to make friends and get drunk, what more do you want?

I think this party is where I let loose the most, it was really fun. Even though I left earlier than from the other parties, I'd say I partied harder. So, I guess you could say I mailed it in, but I'd just say I went home early.

Anyway, the next day went by quickly. I packed then caught a cab to the airport with some teammates. The whole trip home seemed much faster than the trip there (and that's not only because we had a 2 hour layover instead of a 12 hour one). The most memorable part of the trip home was saying goodbye to all my new friends, but seeing as we all play ultimate, I'm sure I'll see them all again. Anyway, Sunya and I made it home safely and swiftly.

Okay, that's it, nobody has to endure any more poorly written brazil posts. I guess it's time to asses the college ultimate scene (and maybe write a quick something about lei-out). I should have a post up after next weekend's Stanford Qual. I'll be out in Palo Alto on Sunday, so I'll try to write about the elimination games. Word.

Brazil III - Pool Play (II)

Here we go agin. After getting a whopping three and a half hours of sleep, I got up for food and warmups. I made it to the fields around 9:15 and began warming up down by the beach fields (our game against Germany was on the main stadium field, but it was occupied). Anyway, the Germans had played a game already that day, so we knew they'd be warm and that we couldn't afford to come out cold against them. Well, we were probably more ready for this game than any other of the tournament. We started out on O (as was our want seeing as we were playing timed games with no halftimes) and converted. On our first D point I guarded Rue and got a D when they had to try a bail out huck to him. We then converted the break and were on our way to victory. Somehow, I wound up guarding more handlers than cutters latter in the game because we had a lot of tall guys on D. Anyway, the strategy they were employing in terms of dumps was to break the mark without having the handler move. After a lot of yelling by one of the masters guys watching the game (I heard he coaches Florida), we adjusted and started playing right on the dump's hip. Well, this adjustment led to me getting a layout catch D on a dump pass then throwing a goal. Over all, I think this was my best game of the tournament, we wound up winning 11-7.

After the game we had a great rapport with the German team, and, luckily, we had a great cheer that was set to an old German drinking song. Well, after hanging out with the germans for a bit we had a long break until three, at which point we were to play the Canadian team.

Going into the tournament we had all assumed that the Canadian team would be strong, and that playing both them and Germany on the same day would really test us. Well, much to our surprise, the Canadians were floundering for the first few days of beach worlds. Our game with them wasn't necessarily representative of their abilities due to the very windy conditions on the beach fields that day. I don't remember too much about this one, I think Tucker got his callahan in this game (another tall guy eats up a floating upwind dump pass), and we won easily 10-2.

Well, after having only two games we all stuck around the fields to watch the game between Great Britain and the Philippines on the showcase field. It was the only game going on at the time, and as such had a huge crowd. It was during this game that everyone at the tournament fell in love with the Philippines team. They had a total of 8 players, one of whom was a woman, and another was a water boy during important games. So, they were playing one of the top four open teams at the tournament with a rotation of 6 players, and because there were only 60 seconds between points, the Philippines players would drink water on their way back to the line.

The O that the Boracay Dragons ran was very give and go heavy and made great use of the amount of touch they had on their throws. Basically, they'd overload one side of the field with 4 players, letting the 5th rest upfield from the disc on the far sideline. They'd then throw as many quick passes as they could to gain yards, and when the D adjusted they'd either reverse the field and use the resting player, or they'd swing, and the player who wasn't involved would cut deep. Every possession they had was a ton of fun to watch with multiple rediculosly athletic plays. Also amazing was how GB kept hucking, assuming they could get jump balls over the smaller Philippino players, but inevitable, one of the Dragons would make a sick play, and they'd get the disc back. I think my favorite part of the game was when the game was clearly already won by the Boracay Dragons and the relented to the crowds chants of "Number 9! Put her in!" It was really cool to see the whole team get playing time, especially in such a big game.

Well, after the game we had an impromptu west vs. east us scrimmage, which turned out to be very fun, with the west dominating (I don't actually remember how it went down, but I'll at least claim we rocked house). Anyway, after the fun, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up then off to a team dinner at pretty nice Brazilian all you can eat place. The food was good, and it was nice to hang out as a team. After dinner we went as a team to the party. I really enjoyed the dinner to party transition, it lead to a warm team bonding sort of feel to the whole night, and I think it translated well onto the fields in the following days.

The party that night was at a large beer themed bar that had a very fancy all you can eat place in the back (if only we had known that ahead of time). The place had a very classy feel with good lighting, hardwood floors, a large outdoor patio, and a stage and two bars inside. All the classiness and chillness almost made me feel bad for sneaking in some jungle juice, almost. There was a cover band playing classic rock like the Beatles and Pink Floyd. They rocked some harder stuff towards the end of the night, but it was all good. I think it helped the social atmosphere, but there was still a sweet dance party. The biggest effect the music had was determining who won the party. Even though some of our team stayed until the end, the swiss were there in force, rocking out. It was a decided swiss victory.

The next morning we had an early 8 am start (our first of the tournament) against the winless host team Brazil. It was a chill game, and we wound up winning 18-3. I don't remember to many stand out plays, but there is a big one I'll shout out. Grant got a layout callahan on a dump pass, where he landed on his knee, thus staying in bounds for the goal. So, that made four of us with callahans on the tournament, we joked we should make "I got a callahan in Brazil" T-shirts, I still think it's not a bad idea.

With our victory against Brazil we secured an afternoon by and our spot in the finals. Still, we were left with a final pool play game against the Spanish team that was ineligible for the finals. We had to play them on the windy beach fields, and they were incredibly motivated to beet us. Well, we had a turnover riddled windy zone-y game and they wound up winning. We had a lot of trouble stopping their three woman possession oriented O, and he had even more trouble scoring up wind. This was also the first time we didn't come out strong in a game, something that was troubling, especially since our only remaining game was the finals. Well, even though we were humbled by a loss, I don't think it helped us in the next game. After the game I went to lunch with Kali before her women's devision semifinal with Australia. After lunch we went back to the fields where I watched and supported the other US teams in their bids to make the finals.

After the games ended that evening there was a lot of drinking and a pickup game between the pickup teams at the tournament (Currier Island and the Peace Team). I played with my hommies on the peace squad, and I'll say we won the battle of the pickups. I then headed back to the hotel before going to the trade night at the point.

Trade night was held in the cleared out banquet room at Hotel Ponta Verde (the sight of player registration). The room was very bright and different teams had their own sort of trading stations set up around the room. Also, Michele played some music for the people. I had a blast and got to see a lot of sweet jerseys and shirts from around the world, and I also arranged trades for Brazil shorts and sandals, and a Philippines jersey. After the trading I headed out to dinner with the guys from the Peace Team, some of the younger guys from the US open team, and J9. We had dinner at the all you can eat place close to the fields. Dinner was light (relatively) and I capped it off with an espresso before heading out to the party.

Due to some confusion and accidental misinformation we thought that the party bar was close and easy to get to, so we decided to walk. Well, it was relatively close, but out walk was mad sketchy, and we probably should have been a lot more nervous then we were. I guess we were to excited about meeting sweet people and being in Brazil to be overly concerned about where we were walking. We wound up making it to the bar after about 20 min.

This party was awesome. All the teams that had been eliminated were getting real shitty (especially the US guys and the Australian women). Anyway, for a team with an early finals game the next day we made a great showing. Dave, Ken, and Erol were their with the Brazilian girls they had met earlier in the week, X was there being his usual 24 hour party self, and J9 and I were busy meeting new people (and trying to mediate the stolen hat affair going on between the US open team and the Australian woman's team). Well, despite our presence, we were outlasted by one German man. That's right, in the battle for the party, we lost because one guy from the other team held down the fort (to be fair, he was their with his hot girlfriend from the Spanish team).

Well, we all made it back in time to get at least 6 hours of sleep before the finals the next day. I guess that wraps up pool play, at least I made my personal goal of getting this post up before the end of January. Still, I have to write another Brazil post and a Lei-Out recap in the coming weeks.

P.S. I hope you enjoyed my lack of proof reading.

What I Did This Week

I arrived home from LA Tuesday morning to find cold weather and a need to restock the wood piles (downstairs inside and out, and upstairs) . What I didn't anticipate was my dad's back acting up and the need for me to take my mom to Stanford for her 8:00 a.m. appointment on Wednesday morning. Without much time to relax, I updated myself on the world through the internet, then hauled some wood out in the cold.

Stacking and hauling wood affords me the opportunity to reflect on life; it's the time when I'm most introspective. I usually think about my house and what I want it to be like. I look out at the woods and picture what they could be like; I think about a vibrant and healthy forest. I look back towards the house and picture it in different colors, with different decks, and with a better kept garden. Basically, I picture my house as my paradise. I think this process is my way of dealing with loss. I think about what things will be like in a few years, how they'll change, and what will be good.

After finishing the wood it was time to head over to Palo Alto for the night. My mom and I left around three, just avoiding traffic, and got into Dinah's Garden Hotel around 4. I don't like dealing with people I don't know well (and even more so when they know of me), especially if what I'm doing is a personal matter, so when we arrived mom checked us in while I waited in the car. Through my parents frequent visits, my mom knows the whole staff of Dinah's Garden Hotel well. In particular, my parents have become friends with the concierge, David. David is an ex-navy man and, according to my parents, an exceptional concierge. He's in his late 40s and wears a smart blue suit, a buzz cut, a sizable belly, and small glasses with a strap the connects the ear pieces. After checking us in he showed us to our room and told us that we should feel free to ask if we needed anything.

He left us outside the apartment that was to be our room for the night. I was excited that we had an apartment, because I knew that whatever the room looked like, I was stuck with it as my stomping grounds for the next 18 hours or so. Basically, there was no way I would be roaming around Palo Alto looking for things to do. The space was nice. The living room had a couch, a typical hotel TV, and a nice desk. The kitchen was attached to the living room, in fact, the only reason it wasn't part of the living room was the floor changed from carpet to linoleum tiles. The kitchen was fully furnished with a small table, a stove, a microwave, and a full sized fridge stocked with soda, wine coolers, juices, and a coupe of Heinekens. The bedroom was sizable with two beds, and the bathroom was a typical hotel bathroom.

After having a quick look around, I helped my mom mover her stuff then settled down for a night of internet browsing and IM chatting. I had brought a couple of books, but I didn't feel like I had the focus it would require to read either of them. The night went on uneventfully and I eventually went to sleep around midnight. The following day was simple and went according to pan. I took my mom to the hospital then returned to the hotel. To my pleasant surprise I had the focus to read while I waited to go and pick up mom. When the time came, I went back to the hospital, picked up mom, then we went back to the hotel to pack and check out before heading home.

When we finally got home I went strait to work then had a typical Santa Cruz do nothing night.

Okay, so what's the point of this post. Well, I've started reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and I decided to write a little something now, and compare how I'd write similar things as I continue to read. Basically, I'll try and write little "What I did this week" posts every once and a while, and we'll see what happens. I think the first thing I've noticed is that I need to be more descriptive in my writing. I guess I'll see where this all leads, hopefully it'll make my blog a bit more readable.

Brazil III - Pool Play (I)

Well getting the next post up quickly really didn't happen, but I can blame the massive power outage I went through for that one. Anyway, I'll try to tackle at least the first few days of pool play.

Well, there was a rain storm the night before our games started, and we lost power for a while (meaning the AC turned off and I woke up all sweaty, how lame). Anyway, it was relatively clear when we woke up for breakfast but you could definitely see stormy weather on the horizon, Our first game was against Ireland and conditions were clear when we started. Games were to time with no half so we chose to start on O. We scored the first point easily, then got the break right away. Things were looking good and it seemed like we would role. Then the weather happened and we all know that wind is the great equalizer in ultimate. Anyway, we began trading down winders, but somehow it still felt (to me) like we were rolling. I guess we just came out of the gates quickly so I figured we continued. Well, the eventually got a wind break, making to score close, but we were able to get it back and score downwind to win 8-6 (the games were like 50 min long).

After the game we had a spirit circle, as is costume in international ultimate. What our captain didn't know is that the wining team's captain is supposed to summarize the game with what worked and what didn't, then the other team's captain talks, then the teams to the gifts and such. Well, this lack of knowledge made out first day's spirit circles kind of awkward, but I think things got better after that. Also, we were blessed to have someone who's a cheer expert on our team, and always had great songs for our opponents.

I think it was after this game the J9 decided we should mix a bunch of jungle juice (how American, right) and give bottles of it as gifts to our opponents. After the 10:00 am game we had a long bye until 3:00 then another game at 5:00. We used our huge bye to go to the super market and buy ingredients to mix some delicious jungle juice. Our first attempt at mixing our gift involved stealing the large trash can from the hall and a big trash bag from the kitchen. Well, this round wasn't incredibly successful, that is, we lost a lot of the juice in the poring process, but it was delicious. Well, we finished with two 1.5 leader bottles of our new gift, and just in time to get to the fields and not warm up for our game (we also learned that we needed to make some sort of funnel).

Our 3 o'clock game was against Great Britain, and we went into it really confidently; we had done well against them a couple of nights before, and that was without our whole team. The game went by smoothly, I had my first layout D of the tournament in this game, and I scored a few goals. We wound up winning 18-3 (no wind makes a big difference). Chilling with GB after the game was maybe better than with any other team, I guess there just isn't as much of a culture gap.

Our Last game of the day was in the arena against Trevor and Tyler's team, the Peace Team (a pickup team that also volunteered to do some outreach stuff in Maceio). This time our start wasn't as strong, it seemed like they lulled us into playing pickup style disc, still, we never trailed. the game was 4-3 then there was a hell point where Xtehn and I were the guys for our team and Trevor and Tyler were in for their team. It was really fun playing against those guys, and we eventually got the break to go up 5-3. After that we went on a huge run (partly because we had a lot of depth, and with Trevor and Tyler tiered from the hell point, they had lost two of their top three guys). It was 10-3 before anyone really noticed. We closed out the game kind of slowly and wound up taking it 13-6.

With our games for the day over and the sun setting we all headed back to the hotel and the adjacent little burger stand for showers and dinner. After dinner J9 and I got to mixing jungle juice for Ireland, our opponents for the next day, and to have at the party that night. Our refined mixing technique involved a smaller trash can that we got from one of the bathrooms, a 1.5 liter bottle with the top cut off and turned upside-down to create a funnel. We also began to rock a new recipe with a 12 pack of beer, a fifth of Pitu (cane sugar rum), and a lot of powdered flavor packets. So, with our concoction in hand we went to the party.

The party was at a small bar on the beach front, and it was a good thing that we pre-gamed // brought our own drink. The party was fun and full of dancing. As it wound down there was a skinny dipping group (not my thing), and I also threw my fire at this party (a story for another time, all you have to know is that I wanted to throw my fire in Brazil, and I made it happen). I wound up leaving around 1 a.m. and got to bed by two so I could be ready for that 10 a.m. game.

We had the same buys on day two as we did on day one, so that was nice for our internal clocks. Our first game of day two was against Austria. I don't remember too many details from this game, I just remember that it was very clear, and they didn't like the level of physicality we played with. The final score was 13-1 and I know they were disappointed with how they played, but they also said that we were much more physical than they were used to, and they felt that we were unspirited because of that. As I see it, we were a lot less physical than is typical of ultimate in the US and we toned it down more so when they asked us to. I also think that it shouldn't be fully on us to change they way be play. People play the game differently in different places, and everyone has to realize that. I understand that international ultimate is less physical than US ultimate, but I also think that a lot of teams didn't give us a chance and had decided how they would perceive our play before the game started.

Anyway, our next game was against Scotland and it was also pretty uneventful. The Scots were a really young bunch and they relied a lot on hucking to their athletes, the only problem was we were more experienced with better athletes. That is, I don't remember much, and it was windy. I think Erol got our first callahan of the tournament in this one, it was on a floaty dump pass in the up-wind endzone. The final score was 13-4.

Our last game of the day was against Switzerland. They had beat us in the little three team round robin scrimmage thing, so we got up for this one. We came out really strong and played hard D and efficient O. I got called for a couple of travels during this game, and the guys explanation was "you're taking 3 or 4 steps after you catch the disc every time." I said I'd try to stop faster, but I was going left right left then pivoting to throw, so I wasn't really traveling, but good spirit // ambassador of the sport and so on. I also got a callahan by getting a layout catch D on a dump pass after a stoppage (would that sentence be at all readable if you don't play ultimate? I didn't think so).

The post games activities were the same for day two as day one, small time dinner and big time drink mixing. This time the party was at a legit club, so we all took cabs that way after dinner and partied it up. There was a small issue with getting in because the people who were working at the club hadn't communicated well with the owner and didn't understand the tournament party thing, but it just resulted in a sweet 30 min outdoor party and dance circle, so all was good. This night was by far the biggest for me. After leaving the party around 2:30 or 3:00 we went to a little stand on the beach for late night food and drink. I think I wound up not going back to the hotel until the sun was rising around 5:30 a.m.

Anyway, that gave me plenty of time to rest up for our 10 a.m. game with Germany. I'll discuss that along with the rest of pool play next time.

Shelter From The Storm

The big west coast storm did a pretty good job messing things up around Santa Cruz county yesterday morning. The power was out in most of the town and roads were out everywhere. So, if you know where I live, it' not surprising that my house has been without power since 8 a.m. yesterday. Around 1 p.m. yesterday I realized it was going to be questionable whether or not I would be able to make it of the mountain for much longer, so I sought refuge in town. I went to Robin's house to grab a shower (they had watter but no power) then spent the rest of my day at the climbing gym (luckily the power was on in their part of town). Well, knowing I wasn't going home I decided to get good and drunk last night and rely on my friends for a place to stay (I was already stuck in town, i might as well get drunk was the logic I was using). Anyway, the power is still out at my place, and will be until tonight. I'm just thankful that robin has let me chill here at his house, even while he takes his girlfriend to the airport. Basically, I might be out of touch for a while.

Now for the real reason for this post. Drew, I've already read a book this year. That's right, Joaq 1, Drew 0 :). I know I'm going to loose this race so I have to gloat while I can.

EDIT: Still no power, staying at a hotel. Life is surreal.

Brazil II - The Tourist Days

My first few days in Maceió were amazing and really touristy. After raging the buffet and getting settled into our rooms, Sunya and I went back to meet up with Trevor and Tyler. We met up around 10:00 am and spent the rest of the morning tossing on the beach and swimming in the warm ocean water (it was my first time being around warm ocean water, and it was amazing). After finally accepting we were in brazil, we decided to get lunch and a nap before evening pick-up (yeah, there was international beach pickup, under lights, on the arena fields. Well, some teams didn't participate and instead just practiced, but we all know that's lame).

So, we hit up the local fare (burger/sandwich-y things with mayo) and parted ways for some (barely)afternoon napping. Well, I hit the bed around 11:45 and read maybe 10 pages of my book before passing out hard. So, how the hotel we were in worked was, you had to slide the key into this port thing in the room for the electricity in your room to work (well, luckily, the mini-fridge was exempt from this rule). Anyway, I wanted the electricity for the air-conditioner while I was napping, so I had the key in the room. Apparently, at some point in the afternoon my roommate wanted to get some things, but couldn't because I slept through him banging on the door for like 15 minutes. My plan was to be woken up for some beach chillin' before evening pickup, but that never materialized. Luckily, I woke up just as one of my teammates (with a bike) was leaving for the pickup/scrmmages. It was on the way there that I realized there are lights all along the beach-front at night. Also along the beach there is a bike/skate park, volleyball courts, basketball courts, and three soccer pitches (two of which had sand trucked into them so they could become beach ultimate pitches).

We got to the fields just as Switzerland was wrapping up beating GB for the second time (apparently Switzerland, GB, and us were playing a round robin with games to three and a three wins and your out rule). Well, after Switzerland beat GB we were up to play them. I jumped in on the first point (a D point) rocking a sunburn and some sweet DTB shorts. We wound up getting the turn and I went deep and caught a sweet huck from Kenbrah. We didn't get the second break in a row, but we managed to score our O point without turns, then get a break to win the game. This brought us to what our leadership (who was present at the time) built up as the important game of the night. Apparently us loosing to them with our skeleton squad was unacceptable, and we needed to lay the hammer down. Well, we didn't quite shut them out, but we did get one break so we won 3-1 having started on O (I'd like to think my showing up made the difference, but I actually think it was just our team respecting them and deciding to really play). After beating the Swiss we took care of GB again then called it a night (in terms of ultimate).

After playing we headed across the street to one of those all you can eat meat places and gorged ourselves on some delicious food. Brazilian all you can eat restaurants are super sweet. How it goes down is you hit up the buffet for some appetizers, then the waiters start coming around with different cuts of meat on these huge skewers and you just say if you want some. When you do they cut you some meat and there you have it. It was also at this dinner that I was introduced to the Brazilian national drink, the Caipirinha (fermented sugar cane with limes and lots of sugar). After dinner I was once again exhausted, and didn't make it out the the clubs that night, instead retiring early with my book for a good night's sleep.

The next day was awesome. We got up at a reasonable hour, hit up the breakfast then made our way out to the reef on a sweet $7.50 a person boat tour. What happens is you head out to the reef area where all these boar tour boats park and snorkel around with the option of ordering food and drinks from the kitchen boat. Now, these boats aren't motorized, actually there really rickety little sailboats, and the experience is awesome. Our boat tour lasted al morning and involved a lot of waist deep tossing with Grant from L&C. One of the best parts of doing the reef thing was spending time together as a team. I think hanging out together was more valuable than playing together could be. We acted like a team all week, it didn't matter how much we had played together, just that we all got along and gelled well socially.

After the boat tour we had a really low key day hanging out at the hotel, going to the grocery store, and the flea market thing. After lazing about all day we hit up the little burger place next to the hotel for dinner before going to the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was really nice, all the different countries marched through with their flags and formed a huge circle. The TD then gave a speech, and finally it turned into a party. There were frisbee drinking games being played on the beach stadium pitches, and Michele (of Paganello fame) played songs for the crowd. I think the music played until around 1:00, then got some food with J9 (this was probably the best food I had the whole trip, and only because we just asked for the same thing as what the locals just got). Well, we got back to the hotel around 1:45 to get some sleep before our 10:00 am game with Ireland.

Well, that does it for the pre tournament festivities and posts, I'll get to posting about the games soon, and by soon, I definitely mean there will be less time between this post and the next.