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.