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.