And a Great Idea...

One more thing... I heard someone saying that they were playing for team Fisher-Clark (I think?) at Potlatch. The idea is, two ultimate players are engaged and they invited all their friends to be on a Potlatch team. Their last names are Fisher and Clark.

One of the days, they are going to pick names out of a hat and have Team Fisher and Team Clark play against each other in an exhibition game. The winning team will become both of their last names.

What a fun idea, and what a story for them to tell. I really want to see the game. I wonder how intense it will get. Playing to keep your last name. Wow.

Huck It Long Beach!

I played in the Long Beach beach tournament this passed weekend, and I had one of the best times I've had a tourney in a long while. I haven't played in a social tourney since Lei-Out and it was great to enjoy a more relaxed brand of ultimate.

Calle invited me to play with BCBC for the weekend early in the summer and I'd been looking forward to it after the pressure of Strike-Slip tryouts. The team lived up to expectations. Here's the roster:

Fellas:
Jeremy
Dan O
Peaches
Calle
Dean
Nowak
Whitey
Jacuzzi
Adam Slo
Jason E.
Matt Whited

Trevor Smith

Chuck Kindred

Ladies:
Beth
Alice
Astrid
Hawkins (Saturday Only)
Emily and Friends (Sunday Only)
Roswell

It was a luxury having so many guys on the sand because we had five games on Saturday. We had had Strike-Slip practice that morning in LB to learn stopped disc plays, so I was a little tired. You would think that there wouldn't be enough playing time to go around, but I thought that it allowed me to play as hard as I could with no worry about saving anything. The depth of the talent on the team was also very refreshing because you could count on everyone to come up with huge plays, allowing you to not worry about anyone's responsibilities but your own. I also got to enjoy quite a few beverages without worrying about my performance hurting the team. Even though the entire team was impressive, I especially enjoyed playing with Chuck, who I'd previously played against on Revolver and CGNU. He looks unassuming, but the guy is a serious stud and a great teammate. Plus he plays his violin on the sidelines and has a great sense of humor.

In our five games on Saturday, our closest game was 13-5. We absolutely stomped on teams and our games were really short. That game was against a very decent team with Knuckles, Barrs, Milhouse and Concord on it. The team was not only extremely athletic, but very experienced too. There was no teaching necessary. It made me realize the big difference between good college players and good club players. It was fun to be on the winning side of games like that for once. Personally, I played very well and I was really feeling the benefits of the lifting that I've been doing. I pulled down a lot of floaty stuff and it felt pretty awesome.

Saturday night I saw Explosions in the Sky with Fei, Finn, and Lupin. The show was amazing even though my knees were aching from running on the sand all day. They played four about an hour and half and they played all the songs that I wanted to hear. Afterwards we got some bomb cheap thai food in Thai town.

Sunday at 11:30 we played the Cal Poly Pomona team + Jeff Silverman and Norm from USC. We won easily 13-5.

We played Semis against Chik's team who were mostly Last Call guys plus Lindsey Cross and Pebbles. After going up 2-1, we trailed for most of the game, falling behind as much as 10-6 at one point, I think. Up until this point, we hadn't been challenged at all, and they were all super athletic. However, we started playing with fire and brought the game from down 10-12, game to 13, to 12's. On pulling downwind, we got a turn on our goal line and immediately hucked it away out the corner. On their next possession, they threw a dump pass that popped up over the receiver to a laying out Whitey. Callahan to win on universe!

We met a very good Beeeaches team in the finals with a lot of ex-Condors ballers, including Husak, tall Tommy, Welsh, Corey Sanford, Rhett, Sam R and Bofa. It was my first club finals of any kind and I was super excited to play in front of a crowd. The other team had won the last 2 or 3 consecutive Huck It's.

The game started with ridiculous chippiness. We went up 1-0 starting on offense. Next point, Adam caught a tipped hammer that the other down called down even though it was clearly up. We got it back on D and then scored on a foot drag layout that the other team called out. Finally, for the third time, we scored and it was uncontestable. For the rest of the half, we could do no wrong. We carried our momentum from Semi's to take half 7-3, game to 13. The Beeaches had been turning the disc over on sloppy hucks in the wind and bad throws from their women. We knew that they were too good not make a game of it, though.

In the second half, we traded points to 10-5. Then Greg Husak went into Incredible-Hulk rampaging destroy mode. We challenged him a few times with hucks and he made sick plays to bring them down. They tightened up their offense and their defense became stifling. A few more bad decisions by us, and a few lucky breaks for them and the game was at 11's. Somewhere around this time I mis-read a floating huck from Chuck in the wind that I really wish I could have back. The tide of the game had turned immovably against us and it was like deja vu of the UCSD game at sectionals. They put in the next 2 points and the game was over. They played typical Santa Barbara ultimate with lots of fouling, beneficial call making, and bitching. But I have to give them credit for stellar play while they were down big, especially from Hollywood.

It was a bummer to lose the game like that, but overall it was a terrific weekend. We went 7-1, I got to see Explosions, and we had a delicious Indian dinner to end the day. It would be a blast to play with BCBC more, except for the following two reasons:

1. I enjoy the discipline and regularity of team practice, and

2. I still have a lot more improving to do in open and I have an obligation to Smaug to become the best player I can be.

However, if they'll have me, I'd love to pick up with them again.

Strike-Slip (Almost) Final Roster

Just got word of the (almost) final round of cuts after Cal States. It's gonna look a lot like this:

AJ
Korb
Allen Lai
BOFA
Dot (yours truly)
ATM
Dean Bolton
Concord
Geoffrey Buhl
George Van Pelt
Linux
Laffite
Matt Welsh
The Sultan
808
Orin Moore
Samuel Regnier
Tim Gilligan (SDSU guy)
Matt Mihm
Knuckles
Trogdor
Jerry

There are a few more guys who didn't play at Cal States that are invited out so the captains can take a look at them.

Parrell (just left for Spain/ has a sprained knee)
ddavisson (LB guy?)
DaVinci
Keith Reschke (LB guy)

Notable last round cuts were Big Jake and Biclops; I'm bummed that they won't be my teammates this year. They captains intend to cut the roster down to "low 20s." The last few cuts will be hard to make, but I feel like they're our spots to lose.

Hmm...new team name: Smaugdors?

Strike-Slip at Cal States

Saturday Morning 8 AM - Sockeye X
Loss 13-9

We had a really tough start to our tourney with Sockeye and Jam in Rounds 1 and 2. Sockeye came as a split squad again, and the team we faced had Trytiak and BJ from U Dub, but that's about all I remember even though they were all ballers. We started the game out on O and I hit Orin with a quick huck score to start the game. The first half was very close, with us going up a break but then giving it back up plus one more with the Fish taking half 7-6.

The second half didn't go as smoothly. Their tight man D forced a bunh of turnovers in our still brand new handler movement and they converted fairly efficiently. It was definitely early season for them, as they had a few unforced turnovers. My main thing that I took away from this game was that I walked away feeling like these guys were not gods of Ultimate, and unlike last year, I thought that our team could really play with them. Last year we with college Monster, we were a little too happy to be on the same field with them.

9:45 AM - Jam
Loss 13-11

Jam plays a distinctly different style than Sockeye. They were running a very similar vert-stack offense to us, but they just had more chemistry and better execution than us. The defense was noticeably less intense than in the first game (not to say it was bad, it just wasn't insanely good). One thing I was really appreciating was how much more physical the club game is than college. My man would regularly push off or try to body me up, and I started to return the favor very quickly. In a college tourney this would lead to foul calls and chippiness, but our Saturday games were surprisingly call-free. Fouls are called basically only for strategic advantage, but almost never otherwise.

BTW, there are some cool photos from this game. Thanks to Simon Margolis. Check out his stuff: http://simonm.smugmug.com/gallery/8485078_uU798/1/558358386_37Jim

Anyway, this was probably the best game that we played all weekend. I was definitely pumped to play the defending national champs. We tore through their zone pretty quickly early in the game. Concord had a visionary cross field deep pass. Welsh had a couple sick skies to steal a few points from them, too. Our defense really was clamping down on their dumps, and they started taking tougher looks because of the pressure. Jerry in particular had a sick layout on an upline dump cut (I think on Bart, too). We came up just barely short, but we were feeling good about our play and heading into a bye.

12:45 PM - SD Streetgang
Loss 13-7?

This was supposed to be our big rivalry game with the other brand new team, but it ended with disappointment for us. The wind had really picked up by this time of day and made running our offense more difficult. Our cutters were also hesitant with the new cutting patterns and SD was playing like a team very comfortable with themselves. I remember Keenan, Dollar, Wormser and Marcos playing great for them. They have a ton of talent, and the SW is going to be a real dogfight between Condors, Streetgang and SS for that second bid to natties. Thankfully regionals won't be in Commerce freaking City so maybe it might actually be enjoyable to watch this time. We traded with them for a few points, but they took half 8-4 or something like that. They cruised on the lead for the rest of the game.

3:30 Santa Cruz SCUM
Loss 13-8?

Santa Cruz is a pretty good young team, but we should not have lost this game to them. Dan Chazin was doing a great job at the handler position breaking the mark all over the place for them, and they were playing fast and loose. We, on the other hand, tightened up in the wind played very conservatively. He really struggled with our handler sets in this game in particular. I don't really remember too much about this game. I remember one play where I turned it on the endzone line, ran the full length of the field and knocked down a swilly huck. Oh well, emphasize the good, I guess.

When we got back to the hotel we immediately stripped down to our underwear and jumped in the hot tub. Amazing. Bofa showed us a great disc game in the pool which we played very intensely for probably an hour. There was a party with a tab, and I fully intended to go, but after watching Con Air at the hotel for an hour with the team ("I said... Put the bunny in the box.") all I cared about was going to bed.

Sunday 9:00 - Rhino
Loss 13-9

I really like the Oregon style of play. Fast handler movement and aggressive throws makes for a very entertaining game. We were pretty fired up after going 0-fer on Saturday, and we were tied at 9's before they went on a late run to put the game away. They're not as good as the Rhino teams a few years ago, but they're definitely better than last years squad. In particular, one guy in a pair of American flag shorts was killing us deep. I want another shot at Rhino.

11:45 - Journeymen
Win 13-6

I hate playing the Journeymen. It's a lose/lose proposition. It's totally unenjoyable and there's only potential for embarassment if you allow too many points to them. I earlier mentioned that I was loving how few foul calls were being called this weekend. The J-men were the complete opposite of that. They blatently cheat. We almost got into two separate fights because they were intentionally fouling us so hard. Every single D we got they called back, and they called terrible travel calls to bring back our hucks. Alan in particular went crazy in this game and was destroying them all over the field. Their cheating really lit a fire in us and we were getting lay-out blocks all over the field. It was great to see all 7 guys out there giving it there all, and the results were impressive. Still, it's not a satisfying win for us because they're terrible (but just good enough to put up points on you... a Downtown Brown team who won Fool's a month ago almost lost to them.) I hope we never play them again.

It's kind of a bummer that SS will likely only play 2 tournaments this summer, Colorado Cup and Labor Day. Those are two fun tourneys, but it seems like so few for so much time. There's always Potlatch and a few other fun tourneys...

Anyway, I'm still waiting to hear back on the final round of cuts for SS. I thought that Linux, Knuckles, Bob, and Jerry played exceptionally well, and I think they deserve some recognition. All of the young guys played really well, too, and I think it will be really tough cutting the team down to the final roster. It will probably come down to what roles are needed, because everyone who went up is a quality player.

The ride back down (as well as the ride up) was one of the most fun rides I've had to a tourney. We put 8 people in a Jacob's giant van: Me, Concord, Linux, Knux, Peaches, Scarecrow, Jake and Bogo. We played games and had some very funny conversations and the ride flew by.

Hopefully I the captains mail out the final info soon cause I'm getting antsy.

Strike-Slip Tryouts and Alumni Day

Round 3 of Strike-Slip tryouts were this past weekend. First, the good news: I'm going to Cal States with the team in Santa Cruz this coming weekend. Linux and Knuckles are also are going up, so I'm glad I get to make the trip with some Smauggies. The bad news: some people who I felt very strongly should have been invited were cut. I don't really understand the criteria that the captains are using, but the seeming randomness of it makes the cut's a little more scary.

Tryouts Saturday consisted of 3 man mark, in cut D drill, deep drill, and break mark drill. We then ran some short scrimmages and worked on open field dump cuts in a rotation. I felt pretty great in the deep drill and I think I won most of my match-ups, but I was tired as a dog after the tryouts were over.

UCLA people hurried back to campus for Alumni Day, which is a big event. There are like 4 games, a bbq, and a big party during the night. People flew in from all over, and it was nice to get to see some of the alums that I know like Seraph and Docta. The game ended up being really intense. Despite missing Peaches, DaVinci, and Thor, we pulled a come from behind coming back from down 12-11 to winning 15-13. The alumni had some ballers, including Seraph, Broadway, Beastman, Sideshow, Fozzy, Kobe, Biclops, Yugo and Trogdor. Fortunately, they also had some not-so-good players that they had to give playing time to, too. Punky, though, single handedly almost lead them to winning the game. I've never seen one person affect an ultimate game of this caliber so strongly. You had to constantly be aware of position on the field and try to not pass in that direction. He came flying across the field to ninja kick an open huck look I had to the Arbiter. He had too many skies and D's to remember. He's definitely a rare player who is just an athlete at a different level than everyone else. The ending of the game was just brutal as everyone who had been at tryouts started to hit their physical limits. I was just trying to get out of the way of the guys with legs.

It was awesome to see Avatar and The Flood sky the dominant deeps from the past, too. It was strangely fulfilling beating the alumni team (which hasn't happened in at least 3 years) even though I didn't really play with all of the older guys. It's a sign that Smaug is moving in the right direction. The party Saturday night was great, and I'm a little bummed that I had to call it a night early because everyone was in rare form.

Sunday morning came early. We ran a lot of vert stack cutting drills, practicing things like adjusting the stack away from the disc and cutting cross field deep from the break side to the open side and vice versa. I felt strangely comfortable running the vert, maybe from the seasons that we ran it at USC. I think the fundamentals of a good offense are the same no matter where you set up the stack on the field.

I actually found the tryout process to be a little intimidating. I've never been part of a team where I wasn't in the top 25% of players, so it's a little strange finding a new role. I was trying to find the right balance of taking smart open looks and dumping to more experienced throwers. Still, by necessity I did a little bit of handling, which was pretty fun. Still, it's much easier to perform when you don't have the pressure of having more experienced, older players around you.

The long Saturday caught up with my pretty quickly, and I was really fighting through fatigue for hours. I had a few more turns than the day before, but overall I felt like I did a pretty good job cutting within the new system. I have very high hopes for what Bofa and Buhl can do with this team. LA's problem has never been a lack of talent, but rather a lack of leadership to control all the egos that good players tend to have. These are two guys that everyone seems to respect and (hopefully) won't put up with people's crap.

Anyway, I've started my summer in Thousand Oaks, and as expected, it looks to be mind numbingly boring. I still don't have an internship finalized, so as of rigth now I'm sitting on my ass watching The Wire and Star Trek on Netflix. I'm going to go get a gym membership right now, actually.