I didn't get to see all the teams, I did watch: Santa Cruz, Cal, Claremont, UCSD, Chico, Humbodt, and Santa Barbara. From what I saw graduation hit a lot of these teams hard. I'd say the level of play was slightly down at this years tournament, Daryl commented "I think the Slugs were playing at the same level as they have in the past at Sean Ryan, the other teams just looked bad."
Anyway, team by team:
Cal: Mateo played well, as did Hagen. They lost a lot of guys to graduation, but they still play smart and break the mark well. They have good coaching and team speed, they're still a presence in the NW.
Chico State: The Hops looked much better than they have any of the past three years. They have throws and athleticism, we'll see if the work ethic is there come spring. They'll make regionals, but I'm not sure how far they'll go. Oh, and they still love hucking.
Claremont: Is back to the level of competition of 2006 or so, but they aren't a similar team. The team is smart on O, and committed to having a system. Although they had a good weekend, Maniac didn't play well. If he and Markham can start connecting on hucks for their D line they'll be really scary. In classic Claremont fashion have to work on not playing down to the level of competition.
Humboldt: The Ben Carlson show!
Santa Barbara: Didn't get to see much of Tide, but they look to have the same intensity and discipline that they're known for. They peak really well, and I didn't recognize more that three faces from years past.
Santa Cruz: The Slugs have a lot of potential, but they'll have to make sure they don't get complacent after winning their home tournament. I think Cassidy, Russell, and Max will lead by example well. If they can avoid the injury bug that bit the team both of the last two years they could have a very successful spring.
Jay, let me know if you need more.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Post Sean Ryan NW and SW all Region Preview
The Slugs won Sean Ryan for the first time in a long time. This means Sean Ryan is over and we have a better idea of who's good in the NW and SW. As such, here goes my all region preview.
NW - A lot of this is speculation
1. Cassidy Rasmussen - UCSC
2. Russell Wynne - UCSC
3. Andrew Hagen - Cal
4. Eli Janin - Oregon
5. Eli Friedman - Oregon
6. Jordan Mcphee - UBC
7. Taylor Lahey - Davis
SW - None of this is speculation
1. Dominic Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
2. Dom Captan of SLOCore - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
3. D.C.S. - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
4. Dom "Cunnilingus" Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
5. Dom King of SLOCore - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
6. "You can't spell dome without" Dom Sheehy - Cal Poly San Louis Obispo
7. To Be Determined
Word.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Cal States 2009
Cal States is one of my favorite tournaments and provides an interesting early season glimps at the best west coast teams. I only had a chance to watch Open and Mixed this past weekend, so here's what I got.
Notes from the Open Division:
NW:
Tier 1:
Jam: Didn't get so see much of the defending champs, but I did notice a lot of roster changes. Gone: Bruss, Cissna, Gabe, Husak, Scow?, Steets, Woody?. more?
In: Julian (Kansas/CLX/Monster/BCBC), Tommy (Cal), Fast Asian Guy (MagnUM), Johnny Hester (Condors), Ian Ranahan (Revolver), Will Chen (Harvard, Stanford Coach). Maybe more?
As long as Damien is around, the team will be strong.
Revolver: This years Revolver team has the most team speed I have ever seen. An already very fast team with Chapman, Weisman, Martin, and Jit has added Ashlin (Davis), Cassidy (Santa Cruz), and BEAU (word on the street is that there might be a late addition). Damn. It didn't look like they were challenged all weekend. Oh, and Cassidy was unstopable in the finals (while being guarded by a high school tryout on Sockeye). He played every O point and had 2 goals and 2 assists with 0 turns and 1 awesome spike.
Sockeye: Looks like they should be keeping Skip and adding BJ and Kurt Gibson. I hope they take The Sultan, and we'll see if Seth chooses to play club or just focus on team USA. There were some other no shows this weekend, but I have no info on that front.
Tier 2:
Portland: Looks like Thompson High from regionals with more bodies. More skilled then Rhino, less desire // work ethic. Their fate depends on Aaron Richards.
Rhino: A fast hard working team. Didn't see any UO guys, but they do have finals next week, so Solstice might show a fastly differend Rhino team. They seem like the team most prone to runs, either for or against.
Scumbags: Looks like they had a lot of fun. This team was sharing a bid with the Slugs, so there were a ton of players, with lots of them coming and going. It will be interesting to see what the roster looks like at Solstice, and how it changes at tournaments closer to the bay.
Shark (YR): It looked like their O line rotation wasn't nearly as tight as in years past. I think having Will the Thrill captain will really help that, and I think it could change the culture of the team. Loosing 808, Joey D, Corey Lee, and Charles also changes things. They had a strong showing, but it looks like some of their stronger tryouts decisded to play elswhere (Fedi from Arizona, Kissman, and Jamison from tide).
SW:
Tier 1: Only contains Bravo until proven otherwise.
Tier 2:
Condors: AKA Black Tide alum from '06 or later with some SLOCore. Look for them to improve as the season goes on, while having the best fundimentals of any tier two team. The SB isolation will help the Tide, especially if Husak and Steets decide to come out for the later half of the season. Word on the street is that Dugan will be around to help, but will be playing masters with DoG come fall time.
LA (Strike-Slip): LA is once again full of talent, but it's all from different college programs that teach different things. The team will take time to jell, and they need to get on the same page ASAP. The team also seems short on blue-colar type players. To many people who are used to being the star. Until their downfield cutters work hard consistantly, they are going to have issues. I predict Dr. Buel will bring it all together. Also, a lot of their hopes rest on where Matt Welsh decides to play.
SD (Street Gang): The actually united Sand Diego team looked very strong, and a lot less like a Squids Only club than either PBR or SD United looked. They also emerged as the potentially dominant team in SoCal for the season. If this weekends results (and team rosters) are any indicators, I'd expect SD vs LA in the Game to Go come regianls with SD going back to Nationals for the first time since '05.
Notes from the Moxed Devision:
A lot of teams in the Mixed devision are waiting on Womans teams to anounce their rosters. Mischeif and CTR are not among those teams. Scotty Conway was playing with the home town people after playing with Flycoons last year and Family Style before that.
Personal: I played co-ed this weekend working on my recovery from ACL surgery. I felt faster than last time I played (Memorial Day), but I think I was limping a bit more. I've decided to stop climbing for the next two weeks and focus more on rehab. Hopefully I'll be able to play Open come Solstice, if not, maybe I can find a co-ed team to take me.
Notes from the Open Division:
NW:
Tier 1:
Jam: Didn't get so see much of the defending champs, but I did notice a lot of roster changes. Gone: Bruss, Cissna, Gabe, Husak, Scow?, Steets, Woody?. more?
In: Julian (Kansas/CLX/Monster/BCBC), Tommy (Cal), Fast Asian Guy (MagnUM), Johnny Hester (Condors), Ian Ranahan (Revolver), Will Chen (Harvard, Stanford Coach). Maybe more?
As long as Damien is around, the team will be strong.
Revolver: This years Revolver team has the most team speed I have ever seen. An already very fast team with Chapman, Weisman, Martin, and Jit has added Ashlin (Davis), Cassidy (Santa Cruz), and BEAU (word on the street is that there might be a late addition). Damn. It didn't look like they were challenged all weekend. Oh, and Cassidy was unstopable in the finals (while being guarded by a high school tryout on Sockeye). He played every O point and had 2 goals and 2 assists with 0 turns and 1 awesome spike.
Sockeye: Looks like they should be keeping Skip and adding BJ and Kurt Gibson. I hope they take The Sultan, and we'll see if Seth chooses to play club or just focus on team USA. There were some other no shows this weekend, but I have no info on that front.
Tier 2:
Portland: Looks like Thompson High from regionals with more bodies. More skilled then Rhino, less desire // work ethic. Their fate depends on Aaron Richards.
Rhino: A fast hard working team. Didn't see any UO guys, but they do have finals next week, so Solstice might show a fastly differend Rhino team. They seem like the team most prone to runs, either for or against.
Scumbags: Looks like they had a lot of fun. This team was sharing a bid with the Slugs, so there were a ton of players, with lots of them coming and going. It will be interesting to see what the roster looks like at Solstice, and how it changes at tournaments closer to the bay.
Shark (YR): It looked like their O line rotation wasn't nearly as tight as in years past. I think having Will the Thrill captain will really help that, and I think it could change the culture of the team. Loosing 808, Joey D, Corey Lee, and Charles also changes things. They had a strong showing, but it looks like some of their stronger tryouts decisded to play elswhere (Fedi from Arizona, Kissman, and Jamison from tide).
SW:
Tier 1: Only contains Bravo until proven otherwise.
Tier 2:
Condors: AKA Black Tide alum from '06 or later with some SLOCore. Look for them to improve as the season goes on, while having the best fundimentals of any tier two team. The SB isolation will help the Tide, especially if Husak and Steets decide to come out for the later half of the season. Word on the street is that Dugan will be around to help, but will be playing masters with DoG come fall time.
LA (Strike-Slip): LA is once again full of talent, but it's all from different college programs that teach different things. The team will take time to jell, and they need to get on the same page ASAP. The team also seems short on blue-colar type players. To many people who are used to being the star. Until their downfield cutters work hard consistantly, they are going to have issues. I predict Dr. Buel will bring it all together. Also, a lot of their hopes rest on where Matt Welsh decides to play.
SD (Street Gang): The actually united Sand Diego team looked very strong, and a lot less like a Squids Only club than either PBR or SD United looked. They also emerged as the potentially dominant team in SoCal for the season. If this weekends results (and team rosters) are any indicators, I'd expect SD vs LA in the Game to Go come regianls with SD going back to Nationals for the first time since '05.
Notes from the Moxed Devision:
A lot of teams in the Mixed devision are waiting on Womans teams to anounce their rosters. Mischeif and CTR are not among those teams. Scotty Conway was playing with the home town people after playing with Flycoons last year and Family Style before that.
Personal: I played co-ed this weekend working on my recovery from ACL surgery. I felt faster than last time I played (Memorial Day), but I think I was limping a bit more. I've decided to stop climbing for the next two weeks and focus more on rehab. Hopefully I'll be able to play Open come Solstice, if not, maybe I can find a co-ed team to take me.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Notes From Bay Area College Sectionals
I went to my first Bay Area sectionals this past weekend to help out the Slugs and watch the first suspenseful college sectionals in the Bay Area in a while. I was with the Slugs pretty much the whole time, so I don't have much insight on either Stanford or a non-tiered LPC. So, notes from the teams who are going to regionals (and a little on LPC).
Cal: The team nobody seems to want to play. They have a ton of versatile players that are conservative and break the mark well. They play to their strengths as a possession team, and communicate better on D than most teams. They have a lot of depth and work very hard, but from what I saw, they don't have a ton of team speed (note, when the Slugs played Cal, Choongil wasn't playing). Also of note, Ryo seems like an evil genius sort of coach.
Davis: The Davis Dogs are a very fast team. They have lots of height and athleticism to go along with strong leadership from Taylor Lahey. In the game against the slugs the did a good job possesing the disc amongst their handlers on both D and O. They also run a lot of called huck plays on the D line. Look for the Dogs to be strong again next year returning their top two players, and geting a lot of cub experience.
Stanford: I only watched them a little so my observations are limited. First, props to Will Chen for rocking the suit on Saturday, baller. I was surprised by the inconsistancy of their O, especially considering the individual skill of their players. Look for them to play much better at regioanls. Also, Alex "Glass Eye" Drlica-Wagner
UCSC: What a difference a day makes.
LPC: Watching their game against Davis it was clear that they were puting all their regionals eggs in that basket. As the game went on, and as the heat ramped up LPC's regionals hopes grew dimmer. Still, they stuck to their guns, and played their top guys almost the entire game in the game to go to regionals. If Adam, Zip, 808, Ernst, and Sticks are indeed done, I wonder what comes next for their program.
That's all I got for now. I'm intending on going to NW club regionals, so maybe I'll write something about that. Hell maybe I'll write somehting about all region hype again. Or maybe I'll not post for 4 months. Honestly though, I think I'll post more as I satart to play again.
Cal: The team nobody seems to want to play. They have a ton of versatile players that are conservative and break the mark well. They play to their strengths as a possession team, and communicate better on D than most teams. They have a lot of depth and work very hard, but from what I saw, they don't have a ton of team speed (note, when the Slugs played Cal, Choongil wasn't playing). Also of note, Ryo seems like an evil genius sort of coach.
Davis: The Davis Dogs are a very fast team. They have lots of height and athleticism to go along with strong leadership from Taylor Lahey. In the game against the slugs the did a good job possesing the disc amongst their handlers on both D and O. They also run a lot of called huck plays on the D line. Look for the Dogs to be strong again next year returning their top two players, and geting a lot of cub experience.
Stanford: I only watched them a little so my observations are limited. First, props to Will Chen for rocking the suit on Saturday, baller. I was surprised by the inconsistancy of their O, especially considering the individual skill of their players. Look for them to play much better at regioanls. Also, Alex "Glass Eye" Drlica-Wagner
UCSC: What a difference a day makes.
LPC: Watching their game against Davis it was clear that they were puting all their regionals eggs in that basket. As the game went on, and as the heat ramped up LPC's regionals hopes grew dimmer. Still, they stuck to their guns, and played their top guys almost the entire game in the game to go to regionals. If Adam, Zip, 808, Ernst, and Sticks are indeed done, I wonder what comes next for their program.
That's all I got for now. I'm intending on going to NW club regionals, so maybe I'll write something about that. Hell maybe I'll write somehting about all region hype again. Or maybe I'll not post for 4 months. Honestly though, I think I'll post more as I satart to play again.
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