Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Everything's Bigger in Texas - Centex Saturday

This past weekend 24 teams descended on Austin, Texas for the nation's most grueling elite tournament and the crowning event of the 2008 National Collegiate Ultimate Series. Wisconsin had already locked up the title and $5000 check on the mens side, but the womens prize was still very much up for grabs. With rugby kicking Cultimate off of one set of fields, mens fields were shrunk and we played with 12 fields where there should have been 9 already small fields. Stanford came in seeded second, and we were ready to defend our seeding and beat Florida in the last round to prove that we could go farther than semis this year. Unfortunately, the day did not go as we'd planned.

We started with our sectional rivals UC-Santa Cruz, but we were missing Sherwood, whose flight hadn't gotten in until 3:30, and he was sleeping at the hotel. That was probably our first mistake - coming into the Santa Cruz game extremely over-confident. And for an over-confident team, we played terribly. Our defense couldn't stop Chapman, and Karlinsky broke the mark easily. And we made it easy for them because our offense coughed up the disc a lot. We attempted a spirited comeback at the end of the game, and Sherwood played two or three points, but we squandered our chance when Sherwood threw a goalline scoober to Ben Kenigsberg, who laid out for the disc and landed out of bounds. We fell, disheartened, 10-13 to the Banana Slugs.

We found out that Illinois had taken Florida to double game point, and I already knew that they had an extremely solid offense that didn't give up breaks. But I was confident that we could run our own offense well and get a few breaks. However, we got broken on our second offensive point, and while our offense played well for the rest of the first half, our defense was being run ragged by Illinois cutters. We were trailing instead of dictating, and they had their way with us, launching big OI forehands for goals. Illinois has a ton of solid receivers, with a couple shifty handlers, and athletic players willing to lay out on defense. Halftime was at 7-6, and we had to get a break at some point. Instead Illinois reeled off five straight goals. Our offense was dropping discs at our own goalline and getting layout D'ed instead of going to the disc. It was horrible to watch, and if we play like that at Sectionals or Regionals, a lot of teams are going to beat us. We lost 7-13, but we threw that game away. We matched up poorly - Sherwood shouldn't be covering Joel Koehneman - and didn't correct our mistakes. Hopefully with our coaches back, we'll recover.

But we were still without coaches for the weekend, and our slide continued against Minnesota. From halftime against Illinois to the first 5 points of the Minnesota game, we were outscored 11-1. Down 5-0 with an abysmal offense, we had to reevaluate ourselves. We were generating turns against Minnesota, but we couldn't score for the life of us. Our offense was stagnant, and it wasn't their defense, it was our players afraid to cut. Michael Arenson played well for Minnesota, but he was an interesting choice for freshman of the year over Sam Kanner. We tried hard to claw our way back in this game, but we had too many turnovers and more lazy defense. We fell to 0-3 on the day with our 9-13 loss.

Our low point came in our next game against Georgia Tech. After starting strong and coming out with a 3-0 lead, we started playing horrible defense again. Russell Snow took advantage of poor matchups again, and we turned the disc over on offense like it was our job. Georgia Tech is not a deep team, and we were too disheartened and mentally absent to take advantage of that. This loss hurt the most - we finished at 8-13 and had a long team meeting after the game where we decided to turn things around against Florida.

So, after hoping to be 4-0 and facing a 4-0 Florida team to see who would take the top spot out of the pool, we found ourselves 0-4 facing a 4-0 Florida team that featured probable Callahan winner Kurt Gibson. But with a pep talk behind us and more motivation than we'd had all day, we matched them for the first 9 points, holding serve as Alex Hill, Brodie, and Kurt all went deep to score on us. We managed to force turns on defense but couldn't convert - Ezra threw away a break around backhand just outside their endzone in one of our best chances. I matched up on Cyle, and after my layout D attempt, he accidentally savagely cleated my chest and balls - Matt Lane has a great picture. After that, Florida came down zone and we struggled with their tall cup. Our handlers worked the disc well, but the downfield players turned the disc over a few times, although Angus Pacala made a great hammer catch in front of a charging Kurt Gibson, who is an amazing deep deep.

In the second half, we struggled a little more but kept fighting, and Florida pulled away. Brodie made some great catches, and the observer made a terrible call on a Chris Gibson catch where he leapt from out of bounds to make the play. Florida was not an unreasonable team to play with observers, despite Windham's two awful (and overturned) calls and the two TMF's they got. My ranking of teams I don't like to play against (in terms of their attitude and calls) now goes Santa Barbara is better than Florida is better than Wisconsin is better than Carleton is better than terrible French Canadien teams. We lost 8-13 but played better ultimate than we had all day. There was still plenty to work on, but we'd started to turn it around.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Stanford Invite Thoughts

Last weekend 20 mens ultimate teams converged on Palo Alto for the Stanford Invite, the first true test of the spring season for most elite teams. As the Stanford coordinator for the tournament, I worked with Cultimate to provide a challenging tournament and great experience for all teams in attendance. It also meant that I spent hours and hours the two weeks prior making sure everything ran smoothly, and arranging the finer details of our showcase game. The weekend was one of upsets - perennial Nationals contenders Oregon and Carleton both failed to make the winners bracket, and in their place stood UNC-Wilmington, 13-4 losers to Maryland earlier in the season, and Las Positas - a Bay Area junior college. But the end result was no surprise to anyone, as Wisconsin rolled in the finals, 15-4.

Carleton - They came out strong against us in the first game. They were missing Grant Lindsley, Patrick Roberts, and Alex Evangelides, three strong freshmen who were at Junior Worlds tryouts, as well as a couple seniors. However, they moved the disc extremely well against us and scored with relative ease. We came out sluggish on defense, and we could have done much better with better marks and quicker defense immediately after a throw to stop their handler motion. Jerome Potter did not hurt us this game - Sherwood and Jacob Speidel played some great defense on him. But 16 throwaways and 4 drops did do us in - including a couple in the endzone. Had we played more patiently on offense I have no doubt we would have won the game, but we were jittery. We could have also used some smarter matchups. Next time. Carleton looked tired in their next 3 games and finished 2-2 on the day.

UCSD - Our next game was against UCSD, and Danny Cox wasn't playing. Their offense ran through a blond player with a wrist brace - #6, I think, and hucks to #80. They took UNCW to universe point in an ugly, ugly first round game, but they did not look good in any of their Saturday games. They're looking at 5th or 6th in the SW again after having a great SB Invite.

UNCW - I invited UNCW for several reasons, chief among them their attitude. NW teams don't get to play against a lot of fiery teams during the regular season, and this was a great opportunity to see which teams will fold and which teams will rise to the occasion. After a shaky start against UCSD, they upset Carleton and Cal and came into the game against us 3-0. With Rusty Ingold-Smith's (Slow White) play behind the disc and huge grabs by "Condor" downfield, they were feeling great about their chances. But they were tired against us, and Rusty spent part of the 2nd half dry-heaving over a trashcan on the sidelines. We took half 7-4 and pulled away to win 13-5, only allowing one goal in the 2nd half. UNC-Wilmington then upset Colorado in the pre-quarters, capping a great tournament for them, where they came in seeded 18th and finished 7th. It will be interesting to see where they will finish come Regionals - they looked a lot better than the shell of a UNC team that came out west.

Cal - Berkeley beat us 8-7 at Santa Barbara when we were missing a lot of players. This was our chance to show who's on top of the Bay Area section. This was also the showcase game at the Stanford Stadium, and it was quite the show. There was a port-a-field, two observers, announcers with spotters, Ultivillage, the famous Stanford Band, and hundreds of fans, including Stanford students, Cal students, and other ultimate teams. It was also a great game for the fans - there were tons of layouts, skies, D's, and even a greatest for a goal. The field was fast - almost like playing on turf - and cuts were smooth by both teams. With no wind in the stadium, man defense was played almost exclusively.

Cal likes to put up the disc a lot, and this time we responded a lot better with our deep defense - having Sherwood, Tom James, Ezra, and Jacob in this game helped a lot too. We were confident and aggressive on both offense and defense, and Cal could not keep up. We took half 7-2, and not until a 3-0 run at 9-2 did they break us. Typically Cal has great spacing on their horizontal stack, but we cut off their easy under looks and competed with them deep. Tom even got a deep D on one of the 6'7" twins. Ezra had a double deep D on one point, and Tom had the crowd moaning in despair as he dropped what looked like an easy deep goal. He won them back with a greatest at 11-7 to Steve Scardato for the goal, and Brian Neil dropped a D at 12-7 for what could have been a Callahan and the greatest back-to-back plays to end a game ever.

Claremont - The Braineaters are an interesting team. They have several throwers and a ton of deep threats, and their offense will put up 6 or 7 points on any team in the country. Their defense, however, is poor, and if their big guys don't come down with the hucks on offense, they'll lose games against good teams. We won 15-10 on the strength of some deep D's and smart offense. They rely on huge hucks from #13, Maniac, to receivers like Michael Stout, Jay Schulkin, and sometimes-thrower-sometimes-receiver-likely-SW-FOTY Markham Shofner. I also got my lefty bookends against Claremont to go +2 for the weekend.

Texas - They are a good team that somehow scores a lot. They are (generally) smart with the disc and have great handler motion, and they can punish poaches with hammers and breaks. They're not the most athletic team, but they will run with you. They like the around looks and Stephen Presley and co-captain #10 will move the disc around all day in the backfield and on the break side if they have to. There is no way that this game should have been as close as 14-12, but poor decisions on our part helped Texas claw back into the game. And so did my D on Stephen Presley that I immediately threw right back to the thrower for the instant turnover.

Wisconsin - It's no surprise to meet Wisconsin in the finals, but it is a surprise to watch your team's offense just crumble. We came out flat and immediately went down 4-0, and we never really gave our defense a chance to get on the field. We forced turns on at least two of their four O points, but when our offense was playing as poorly as it was, we were never in the game. We were down several handlers, but when Sherwood and Tom are both playing behind the disc we will never do well against a team like Wisconsin, especially if they don't trust the downfield cutters enough to throw to whomever Muffin is poaching off. On the plus side, we got a lot of players good experience in this game, and it's better to get romped by Wisconsin now than in the semifinals of Nationals. The next time we see them, we will not go down so easily.

Colorado - We never played Colorado, but I watched most of their Cal game and they have issues. Their handlers are in serious trouble - turfing regular short throws, unable to break the mark, and turning the disc over on dumps. Downfield they are slightly better, but with Mac making poor hammer decisions and other players dropping passes, they need to get their mind right before they can consider themselves a Nationals-caliber team. There were some spectacular plays on defense, as you would expect from some great players, but in general defenders were just trailing their men and getting beat up and down the field. Cal worked the disc easily and probably should have won the game.

UCSC - Santa Cruz is a very solid team with a few very good players but little depth and without the sheer athleticism necessary to compete at the elite level. In a year when they were looking to move up in the NW, they will struggle to make it far at Regionals unless some favorite slips up.

UNC - This was a shell of the UNC team I saw at Nationals last year, and I know that they were missing a lot of players. But they looked terrible at Invite and if they keep it up, could be looking at 5th place or even lower in the Atlantic Coast. Like the NW, it's an extremely competitive region this year, and preseason favorites can slip out of contention extremely easily.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Kaimana: Still Recovering (The Post 2 Weeks in Coming)

What's the verdict on Kaimana 21? Those three days might be the best three days of my life so far - and I didn't even get to play (much). Some of the best ultimate players and the most fun ultimate players in the world converged on Waimonalo for an epic tournament that featured 4 Stanford-affiliated teams - women, men, and two sets of alumni. Despite half of our teams coming down with the plague, I stayed healthy - unlike last year - and spent my days coaching and nights partying. It was great to get to know alumni better and finally meet (or meet again) some of the ultimate community's more prominent figures. I was even belligerently called out at the party on Friday night by Match Diesel.

I got to Hawaii on Thursday, and our team was boarding 36 in 6 rooms at the most secure and most annoying hotel in Waikiki. The problem was that we only registered 12 people, since it was $30 extra per person - it seemed like no trouble, until the cops came. Or a single 18-year-old rent-a-cop came because our attempt at a game of Kings was getting too loud. He relayed all of our names down to the desk in military alphabet, and they found out that only one of the 13 people in the room was actually registered to the hotel. After a protracted attempt to kick us out failed after we threatened to sleep in our cars, they let us register for free because "there was a shooting at a hotel yesterday." On another island. So we all slept in the hotel, but our festivities were cut short.

We woke up in the morning to find that one of our rental vans had been broken into, and one of our rookies lost his laptop, iPod, etc., and Alicia lost her wallet, keys and cleats. But we put that behind us and went out to the beaches and campsite, where people set up tents and we played many epic games of Double Disc Court - broken-leg-Chris and broken-wrist-Ryan even managed to win a game, 11-7 over chump rookies Alec and Angus. We were quickly brought back down to earth by Lauren Casey and Jenny Founds, who beat us handily, 13-9. Too many cheap shots to injured body parts in that game - typical Superfly.

That night was registration and the opening party. The theme for Kaimana 21 was "Finally Legal," and the gear was all designed with a playing card motif. Unfortunately, the Hawaiian aspect of the design wasn't quite there this year. I ended up at the captains meeting for Bloodthirsty, Superfly, and Superflown after meeting Match and then caught up with Brett Matzuka (formerly UQueensland/Nhara Moku, now NC State/Voltron). It was a relatively tame night, with no open bar and traditional island music instead of a roaring DJ. Notable and shameful occurrence from the night: our rookies getting roasted by the women in a boat race. Early to bed in the van in order to keep the wrist elevated, and I woke up around 7 and hit the fields early in order to grab some delicious smoothie and muffins at the tent.

Our first game was against Freaks, a Japanese team in some way affiliated with Sophia University. They were a quick team that moved the disc well and killed us with upline cuts at first. We started out with a 4-0 run, then they came out with a 5-0 run after making some adjustments, and then we clamped down on their dumps and got a lot of sideline turns during our next 4-0 run. In a common thread of the weekend, we were up 11-8 and pulling when hard cap went on, and they scored the final point. They were good, and they proved it by winning Ninals on Monday. Notable from this game: a rookie (with B-team experience) got a D, caught the disc out of bounds, and then threw it back at the field for a turnover. In front of the heckling sideline, no less. How embarrassing.

Our second game was against Helolo, a team we played last year in our first game. They're an older team from the Big Island but incredibly fun, and we had a great time during this game. We started out a game with a spandex vs. pink thong point (victory: spandex!), took half 8-5, won the halftime boatrace to receive the pull, and immediately sent out our rookies for a naked point. Helolo didn't want to be upstaged, and six of them joined in (one pink thong). Unfortunately, they won the naked point, but fortunately it took a while, so our womens team got the full monty. We won 11-6 and headed for some delicious Keneke's plate lunches in the main tent. Highlight: a rookie toes the line for a catch right in front of Superfly, then pivots out of bounds for the huge forehand as the girls watch in horror/delight, only half-pretending to cover their eyes.

After a bye and a round spent on Superflown's sidelines (Lauren Casey is a turnover machine when she's not on Fury's leash), we had our most important game of the weekend against Doughboy for control of the pool. Skeletor had a bye and controlled the far sideline, and as the game got more intense they moved from heckling to cheering. We started with a 3-0 lead, and Doughboy never really recovered. They are an athletic, strong team with great throws and defense, and we battled the entire game. We led until the very end, despite a comeback at the very end of the round. We found ourselves receiving at 11-10, with a score to win the game. Sherwood took the pull at the brick mark and immediately threw a huck to Jacob Speidel, who went up early and posterized his defender, who was playing good defense and even with him. Game, blouses. 12-10. Afterwards we sang about bestiality with the Aussies, but their heart didn't seem to be in it. It was actually really sad.

The dinner was decent Mexican, which was okay. The music was more upbeat, which was good. And the bar was open, which was great. We played several rousing games of Blowy Baggy, which we learned from the Aussies last year - an almost empty gigantic bag of tortilla chips is placed in the middle of the table, and everyone seated blows at the bag. When the bag lands, whoever it's pointing to must drink - and if it touched someone, that person has to finish their drink. Thanks to focused efforts, we managed to hit Laurent "LARE-AUNT" Lessard, our hapless B-team coach, something like seven times in a row before he tapped out. I missed most of the rest of the party, since both Bloodthirsty and Superfly were initiating rookies behind the tent. Before we knew it, it was 1 am and Tom James was shaving an arrow into my chest hair.

Sunday morning brought on Aloha Spirit, and I was determined to play. Despite intentionally leaving my cleats and compression shorts behind, I warmed up barefoot, throwing lefty. Unfortunately, the rest of the team was not as enthusiastic - I was the first person down on each pull, and we only took half 8-6. They had a great lefty thrower who launched some big hucks to a strong receiver. I did have a point block - not with the casted hand. We pulled it together in the second half, and at 14-8 with the disc on the endzone line, we called a reverse injury sub and put in Chris, who hopped past his man and layed out for a disc at the front cone. But Tom put it way out of bounds, and Chris had to call an actual injury timeout. Final score: 15-8.

Next up was Match and Almos Pau, which was a must-win game for us if we wanted an easier road to the semifinals. They were a good group of players, but we just outran and outfocused them. They had miscues and didn't deal well with our variety of defenses, and when we shut down their hucks they crumbled. We let them back into the game by trading with them at the end, but it was too little too late as we came away with the 12-8 victory.

Our final game of the day was a no-pressure game against Ono, the defending champs and a team stacked with experienced club players. We started out strong with two breaks, but Ono came back strong and hard. We worked the disc well against their man and they eventually came zone, which we broke well with hammers, scoobers, and give-go power moves. But we did turn the disc over a few too many times. Their offense was extremely strong and efficient, and while we managed to stop their hucks with some straight-up defense, they worked the disc underneath extremely confidently and with good breaks. It's easy to see why they won last year. But we were grinding hard on defense and pressured them into turnovers and several long points. Sherwood had great matchups on Dugan and Jacob played well against Hollywood too. This game showed us that we can play with any team in the country - we'll see how we've improved when we play against Jam and Revolver at DUI. Ono won 11-7, but we were the first team to take them to the cap.

After a quick "shower" in the water fountain and sink at the beach campsite (can't get that cast wet!), we went back for the Keneke's take on Chinese food dinner. I spent some time behind the table handing out egg rolls (spring rolls?) and then sat down and began the night's festivities. I got recognized by Meredith Tosta at the bar while Miranda poured me a stiff drink (her choice, not mine). After a while of just sitting and talking with Superflown and Skeletor players, I picked up another drink and talked with rookies about their debauchery the night before. There was plenty to go around. On my way back to the tent, I inadvertently walked into a big circle that had formed around a wheel attached to a pole. I was peer-pressured into spinning it, and imagine my horror when the wheel landed on "LANDSHARK."

After a couple half-attempts to avoid it - "I don't have a disc" and "Who will carry me?" - were taken care of, I shucked my clothes and got paraded around the dance floor. Several times. Right in the midst of the Stanford/Stanford alumni crowd. Thanks anonymous carriers! Except for the one that dropped out and the one that kept cupping my balls. Of course, Chris McQwerty couldn't be outdone, and he followed with his own landshark - where he swung his crutches around at head height and cleared the dance floor. After getting his clothes back, Chris tried to crutch back to his beach bed, but ended up sleeping on the fields for about two hours. It's okay - he wasn't alone.

Back at the tent, the dancing went well into the night, and the Stanford teams were well represented, along with Lone Star, Voltron, Ponies with Uzis, and Smoke Fire Higher Lower. The guys from Philthy and Phlllbt and the Phine ladies were still around but off the dance floor. Despite having our important early morning quarters game against Mulva Park, we represented at the party. That was one of the most fun nights I've ever had - I love you Kaimana!

The team wandered over to the fields in a slow trickle from 7:30 to 9, with a couple sudden victims of the plague coming several hours later. Our game against Mulva Park was never in doubt, as we went up early and traded out. They had some good players, and Rocky in particular hurt us. But we were more disciplined and never let the game get out of our hands. We were pulling at 13-10 when cap went on, and they scored the last point to finish the game 13-11.

Our final game of the weekend was the semifinals against Skeletor. We should have been fired up to play our alumni team, but we came out flat and they were incredibly energized. We started out even enough, and Angus even took Josh Wiseman deep. But soon we found ourselves staring at a 5-13 deficit. We battled back, though, and went on a 5-1 run where Skeletor's only goal game on one of our pulls that went out of bounds at the goal line and never came back in. Hard cap sounded at 14-10, and we requested to play out to 15. Kevin Cissna quickly interjected that the game was over, and Skeletor wouldn't play anymore. Instead of playing to 15, we never even got to play the meaningless last point. Discuss: did Skeletor sell out by having Davis alums and Daryl play? We match up better without Halverson and Mike Stintenos on the other line. Rematch? Just alumni vs actives.

Regardless, there was a bye before finals, so more Keneke's was had by all. I had the bright idea of filling up a pretzel barrel with 160 ounces of beer, and Chris and Tom finished it all themselves. This was only the first barrel of many. Half of the team was passed out by the time we got to our house Monday night. For those of us still lucid, the finals was a great game. Skeletor led most of the game, and fantastic catches and D's were on display. At halftime, a landporpoise and Chris's 2nd landshark were on display. Brandon Steets made an amazing endzone grab right in front of me and came down injured on the play, and Robbie Cahill had a spectacular layout grab of a leading pass in the same general area. Ono came up with several crucial breaks late to force universe point - it was a final for the ages. When Skeletor scored the last point, the sidelines erupted and Stanford rushed the field. In a couple years, when we join Skeletor, we'll be able to remember when we won the championship.

Striking the campsites at Kaimana is an interesting feeling. We rent a house for several days afterwards, so there's still plenty of fun to be had. But the camaraderie of Kaimana isn't exactly present - it's just college kids (and the occasional sketchy alum) having fun in Hawaii. Kaimana is hundreds of ultimate players enjoying Hawaii and the spirit of ultimate in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's a good thing that the competition is great too, otherwise we couldn't justify coming back year after year. I hope the competition stays great - I plan to return for many years to come.