Defensive Mind Set

You have heard all the captains saying it, defense is the fastest way to make the A-team. Its true the offense is going to be filled up with the old guys with weak ankles and knees who can throw. Defense for all you young bucks out there is what you want. You don't want to just receive the pull and not even have to work hard to get the d first. That's just boring and lame. So tonight when you are doing some defensive drill get it in your mind that you wanted to be on defense, you want to run right past him and get the d. Basically you make him your bottom bitch. He wants to cut in nope you intimidated him so much from the last in cut he made where you just ran right past him for the d, that he went deep and you just skied him for the d. The rest of this is just some tips on how to do that.

Part I

For defending a cutter one of my old coaches used to call it the gate position. This is just how you are trying to step up on a cutter down field while they are in the stack or any other formation. This starting position is so important I can not stress that enough. Not just on the first cut, but every cut of that point. If you are not in a good position each time a cut happens you are screwed before that guy even got into the lane. It is tough to fight after every cut to get back into a good position, but this is what separates really good defenders and just mediocre ones.

Now each person will have a slightly different gate position, it all depends on your athleticism. Typically your going to be a yard or two away with your body angled is such a you are going to force them in or force them out. You will also be either slight deeper, even, or slight shorter then the cutter to also accomplish this. As the cutter starts his cut you want to stay step for step with him. If he takes a step towards you are taking a step back, if he takes a step in you take a step in etc.

(side note I have seen this a lot this fall. When defenders are trying to maintain that gap they are trying to step in the way they should be, but the cutter still beats him. I really see this happening when the defender is backpedaling. Try shuffling a little more. You will have to work hard but when the cut happens you will be better prepared to go with him instead of being on one foot and backpedaling.)

I wish it was just that easy, but it isn't. You have this space or gap between you and the cutter. Cutters are going to want to take all of that away and use it against you. You can not let this happen. You hustled back from the last cut to get that cushion, you don't want to give it to him easy. As the cutter finally makes his cut don't just blindly start sprinting that way. Cutters are going to try and fake you out. Two tips I have here are if you can shuffle/side sprint (whatever you want to call it) for those first few steps when they commit if you put yourself to start off with in a good position they aren't going to beat you with these few steps where you are shuffling. What this helps with is when a cutter makes another fake. You will be even better prepared then he will on this one and you will shut him down. This is a lot more true for when the in cut comes first. He your guy busts deep you really need to be next to him the whole time and you can't let him have a head start. The other tip I have is watch the hips. There hips never lie. Still be carefully of the double moves. If their hips are pointed a certain direction that is the way they are going for the immediate future.

Misery Loves Company

*Missouri - This ended up being a pretty appropriate name for the tournament for Illinois.

The short story is that in a relatively brief period of time, our roster for MLC dropped from 36 to about 16. This was the difference between one short-handed team and two comfortably sized teams. No need to go into that aspect here, because the heat will be directed toward the team rather than the interweb.

Anyway, the crew that did show up in Jefferson City ended up being a little less than successful. Illness played a significant part in this, with Jack Krieger being completely out and Mickey and I not feeling much better. Neal Phelps, Shabby, and Papa Bear stepped up to take over as our main longs. They, along with Smith and McKinley, shouldered the majority of the load. Mickey stands alone in this category - being sick and broken, yet still playing a high number of points both as long and cutter.

In individual games, there's nothing really to summarize. We lost to Southern Illinois, then Iowa State, then Colorado B (sigh..), then Oklahoma. The biggest problem in every single game was our poor marks. Every team we played, including Colorado B, was able to slice through our marks like we weren't even standing there. Luckily, it has already been decided that marking will be one of the main focuses for the team this year. After the initial loss to Southern, and especially after the loss to Colorado B, very few managed to keep their spirits up. I know I fell victim to this, though I attribute some of it to the hacking and wheezing I was doing on the sidelines.

Luckily for us, but not for the team wallet, the second day of the tournament was cancelled due to stormy weather.

Personal favorite moment from the weekend:
Jack Rabuck reaching waaaay over the top of one of the captains of ISUC for the sky in the endzone, prompting everyone to rush the field.

Austin

Border Brawl Recap

This is tournament recap numero uno for my blogging career, hopefully it's good.

Saturday started early because round 1 started at 8 am. This seems pretty silly considering even though we only played four games, the rounds were soft capped at 60 mins and hard capped at 70. Maybe because cultimate had that killer showcase game in round 6 between colorado and carleton that i think no one stayed for.

Iowa:

We warmed up and then played our first "A-team" game of the 2009-2010 season against Iowa. We traded scores for a while in the beginning before our d-line got it going with a few breaks in a row to put the game in our control. We kept that control for the rest of game and ended up winning 10-7. At this point the games were still to 15, so there were basically no points after halftime. Offense went the whole game without getting broken.

Bye Round (I think this is when cultimate decided games to 15 in 80 minute rounds were ridiculous and decreased it to games to 13.)

Carleton: After coming off the amazing second round bye we moved over to field one to play against the defending national champions. We went down big in the beginning of the game as our offense struggled against the more physical carleton defense. For a lot of people on the team this was probably the first real taste of the more intense and physical defense displayed by some top teams. After going down 0-5, we finally got it together and started playing some ultimate. We started trading scores and even broke them a few times coming out in the second half. After the initial second half burst, carleton again turned it on and scored another four times. The game ended 13-7. Even though the score was pretty ugly, we showed that we could play with a top team for stretches. Besides the 2 runs that Carleton went on, we played pretty much even ultimate with the defending champions. Carleton looks like they added some good young talent, including some more height that they did not have before. Carleton's offense worked mostly on quick backhand arounds and movement between their handlers, as well as breakmark throws to isolated cutters coming out of the vert stack.

Luther:

We came off the hard loss to carleton and immediately took it to the Luther team. After the first couple of points this was not much of a game. Our offense scored easily off of fluid handler movement and a surplus of hucks to ridiculously open cutters in the endzone. The defense played some long points and broke the Luther team on several occasions. Luther's offense pretty much relied on #7 Greg Shirbroun running around a lot. Austin did a really awesome job on him and we coasted to a 13-7 win. The offense again went the whole game without getting broken.

Wisconsin:

Our last game on saturday put us against an undefeated to this point Wisconsin team. After playing carleton, it seemed like Illinois was better prepared for what might be the most physical defense in the country. Wisconsin, no matter the skill of the players on the team, brings extremely high intensity defense and a ton of sideline energy to every game they play. Even wisconsin's new players know how to cheat on the mark and on cutters as wisconsin continues to advance its program on questionable calls and spirit. The game started with us on offense, and we immediately got broken to fall behind 0-1. We came out and scored twice and our defense got the break back to put us back on serve at 3-2. Then going into half we had a chance to take half 7-4 but I threw away a high backhand on the goal line which led to a wisco break. This put the score at 6-5. Wisco broke again to put it at 6-6 but then we finally converted to take half on serve at 7-6. The second half started pretty even until wisconsin had a late run to put the game to 11-10. Our defense then broke as hard cap was going off to put the game to 11-11 and send it to universe. We started on d for dgp and quickly got a turn. We almost turned it over but got the disc back after a a foul call that gave us back the disc after a long heated argument. But we turned the disc over again near our own endzone and wisco finally capitalized with the short field to take the game on universe 12-11.

This was I think the best game of the weekend for us even though we ended with a lost. We showed that even with the inexperienced and new team, we could hang with the best in the country. This game was easily the most intense and emotional game of the weekend, and the team showed that they could harness that intensity just as well as the hodags could. I am already looking forward to our next matchup with the hodags, I know it will be a good one.

We ended the day 2-2, and went back to Mark's house where Mark's parents had prepared a feast.

Sunday:

Kansas:

Our first game of sunday was again at 8 am against the HorrorZontals of Kansas. Kansas is similar to Wisconsin in that they play extremely physical defense and make their fair share of questionable calls. We got broke early in this game but rebounded with a break of our own and ended up taking half with the lead. There were some extremely long points in this game so we wouldn't get to play very long after half before the game was decided. We started the second half on offense and finally scored after a long point. Kansas came out and scored on a quick huck to axle. We were up 8-7. Kansas then broke us to put the game at 8-8 and yet another universe point as the hard cap had went on during the point before. We started this universe point on offense and turned the disc over on a huck to the endzone. We got the disc back, and then turned it over again. But yet again we got the disc back, and this time we wouldn't give the disc back. We worked the full length of the field and after a pretty heated "situation" between evil hidaka and myself, ended up scoring and taking the game 9-8. This was huge because two double game point losses in a row would have been hard. We showed that we could take a game on a big point against a relatively good kansas team. Also universe point experience is something hard to come by and having two different games go to universe in our first tournament was pretty exciting.

Bye Round...yay another second round bye

Minnesota:

We pretty much got killed in this one so I am going to keep the recap short. We came out and matched minnesota's play in the beginning but pretty much fell apart in the second half. We turned the disc over way too many times on basic throws and catches, and minnesota capitalized by playing their game of hucking early and often. The game ended 13-5..not so good.

Colorado:

Our last game of the weekend came against last year's runner up, the Colorado Mamabird. Colorado lost some key players including Mac Taylor, but they are Colorado and still have plenty of athletes and skill required to make plays and win games. Colorado would be the eventual winner of Border Brawl as they beat Minnesota in the championship 11-8. We opened up our lines in this game to give people playing time and awesome experience against a top team. I felt like this game lacked any real emotion or momentum from either team, and ended in a very anti-climatic 9-8 Colorado win.

So we ended the weekend 3-4 with wins against: Iowa, Luther, and Kansas and two one point losses to Wisco and Colorado. We lost one game on universe, and won another. The weather was awesome the whole weekend with temperatures in the 70s and almost no wind until sunday afternoon. The fields were full size, for a change, and the tournament was a lot of fun overall. Everyone who came made plays for the team, from returners to first years. Even though this was a fall tournament, everyone should realize that we can and will be a good team this year. We could be great but it is going to take a lot of work from everyone, both with the team and on your own.

So...start now and get after it.

-Sid

Day 2 Glory Days Team Z

Sorry for the wait

Every Illinois team started Sunday in the championship bracket. With pride on the line what team was going to step up and be crowned the best Illinois split squad team?


Z vs North Park (8-15)
-Team Z's first game was against North Park. We were warned by Illinois Y that we would be playing against a zone. Good Z was picking apart every zone we played the whole weekend. North Park ended up throwing a zone for a few up wind points but after moving it around the zone like it was nothing they switched to man for the rest of the game. Another thing to point out was North Park was calling very tight lines. In the first half not many rooks were on the field for them. With the wind as strong as it was and playing against mostly returners North Park took a lead into half. After half North Park began to let more people play. That is when we started our come back. Now having better match ups everywhere we started to come back. Again North Park started to call tighter lines and then they finished up the game. This was a hotly contested game. At some times tons of calls were being made by both sides, but even with this it stayed a very intense game. I am definitely looking forward to playing this team with our whole squad.


Z vs Chicago round 2 (11-10 win!)
-With every Illinois team now in the 9th place bracket after losing their first games, Z was matched up against U of Chicago again. Yes we would get to play against the most spirited man in ultimate once more. Much of the same occurred in this game as in the day before, except that there were no big leads. It was back and forth the whole time. Z came out on top in the end again. Without any spirit discs to give out Zubair was shot down again by his former team.

Illinois vs Valpo
-By the end of the day Sunday x,y, and z were all playing with injured players. We worked out a deal with Valpo to combine all 3 split squads and play one game for 9th place bracket. Valpo won the game.

Overall Glory days was a really good tournament for everyone. Every one of our split squads had a good weekend owning 3 out of 4 spots in the 9th place bracket semi finals. On another note we move indoors today, and this year the university has expanded our throwing time. Who's up for the cross fits?

Glory Days

Team Z aka team zylaphones

Day 1 All started saturday at 9am.

Z vs Lake Forest
-The start of this game was rough, just like most first games when you have a split squad. Also I believe the increase in playing time from the last tournament was a surprise to most. After a slow start the pace started to pick up. Layouts started to happen and intensity showed up. Illinois Z came away with 10-7. Having the game come down to the last few points will be the trend of Z for the weekend. That being said we seemed to be ahead in all these close games.

Z vs Southern Illinois
-SIU had some decent players. They were able to move it down the field pretty effectively at times. With a smaller roster they were in the same boat as us, but one thing they had over us was a lot of height. Z step up and played hard after a slow start again. Z wins 11-7.

Z vs Zubair (take 1)
-Finally the game Z has been wanting all day. A Z vs Z matchup. Zubair, the most spirited player in college ultimate, vs Illinois. Not only did we want to beat Zubair, but we needed to find out if anyone really could contest a foul call made by him. Being only on the same team as him before, we had no clue what it was like to play against him. After Zubair took half 8-4ish Z stepped up big time and won 10-9. This game was sick. Everyone on Z was going crazy. This is why I play ultimate, games like this were everyone takes it to the next level.

Z vs Eastern Illinois
-After having the intensity at and all time high during the second half of the Zubair game, Z lost all of it. Everyone was slow and forcing throws. Turned out terrible and we lost 5-13

I'll get to day 2 later when I am not passing out while typing.

No Wisconsequences (Team Y)

This post brought to you by Keenan:

No Wisconsequences Write-Up Illinois – Y aka wYse guys

You’ll have to forgive my forgetfulness when it comes to the breakdown of scores for some of these games, my focus was on winning not the twists and turns along the way

Round 1 – Carleton College GOP

Twas a cold morning to start the day, with what was potentially the best match up of the day for a split squad Illinois team. We came out slow in the first half and GOP took the half by a healthy margin. Second half we decided we should probably play harder and stop being intimidated by their facial hair. Besides, everyone in Minnesota has a fuzzy sweater in order to survive the winter, see Austin Lien.

Final Score – GOP 13 – 8 Illinois Y

Round 2 – Wisconsin La-Crosse

The day was began warming up and still there really wasn’t that much wind involved. La-Crosse seemed to be a relatively new team that was still learning the finer points of college level ultimate and as a result we were able to use our rookies a bit more than usual because of the experience similarities. Some highlights include Neal jumping over a cluster of dudes to come down with some discs and the beginning of the rookie remodel as I would like to refer to it. It’s when we take the boys and make them men, get dirty, lay out, and go nuts

Final Score – Illinois Y 11 – 9 Wisconsin La Crosse

Round 4 – Iowa State X

The dumb game of the day, at some point in time we decided that playing a full game was a bad idea. We came out super fired up from our BYE and smacked ISUC around, but after the half they found heart and we couldn’t maintain our edge throughout. We were able to take advantage of one of the most epic mismatches of all time with Pappy J being on the field, against anyone on their team, while Sid realized that boostability was high and started throwing some major bombs.

Final Score – Iowa State X 13 – 11 Illinois Y

Round 6 – Illinois State Y

Don’t get me wrong, I heart the guys on Illinois States team, but we have prided ourselves as having a better program then them, and I haven’t ever lost to an ISU team. That said, we came fired up out of the gate. We took half 7 – 2 and never looked back through the rest of the game. I hate to toot my own horn, but a dropped Callahan layout around a dude off the pull would have ended the game if I wasn’t such a skinny white boy upon hitting the ground. Balls. Also, got to see Tom and Splash have some wicked bids and there may or may not have been a cross field scoober for a score courtesy of Mickey

Sunday saw a frost delay to start the rounds. WTF polo fields, really? I mean, really? Now that that’s off my chest, the rest of the day went swimmingly for Illinois Y

Round 2 – Lawrence University

These were a bunch of cool dudes that like to play ultimate. Once the stretching marathon was completed, the first time, we were able to pretty much have our way with Lawrence and our offense finally began to click while the defense made got some breaks that helped boost everyone’s confidence. I can’t remember much else about this one, but if anyone from Lawrence ever reads this, I’ll trade jerseys for one of those sick buddy jerseys. Believe it

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 6 Lawrence

Round 3 – Ohio Wesleyan

In what might have been the most intimidating game that had the least actual excitement, Illinois Y was able to beat Ohio Wesleyan. We were able to beat a team that has made regionals at least once during the time that I’ve been playing ultimate. With the exception of travel call guy, the entire team was pretty cool too, which is always a bonus.

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 10(ish) Ohio Wesleyan

Round 4 – Northern Iowa

This is probably the most excited game for me the entire weekend, except my buddy who plays from high school wasn’t at the tournament to heckle. This is another team that made regionals the past year, and I felt that we were able to compete with them very well. There were a couple instances of miscues on the field, but on the whole it went well and I was pleased with the outcome.

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 7 Northern Iowa

I want to say great job to all the rookies who went, for both teams, and those of us who served as the surrogate captains were very impressed with the way you guys improved over the tournament.

Rookie MVP – Neal Phelps / Mark de Chadenedes. Both these guys got on the field and were able to do a great job, whether it was playing tough D or tooling fools on O, they both were able to execute throughout the weekend.

"Western Day 2"

So I may have set the bar too high on posts about Western... We (Y) got fifth, and X got seventh. I'd go into detail, but I waited waaaay too long thinking I'd have time to write something significant at some point.

In other news:

Despite feeling like a sure thing, my mixed club team (Drag'n Thrust) did not advance to nationals. I'm not complaining - we lost our spot fair and square. Twice in fact. I do wish our region would have had another bid though. We would have definitely done some work at the show.

Machine, along with Walden, Stupca, Joel, and Pat, take the number 2 spot out of the region on the open side. Congrats to them. Sub Zero gets bumped off for the first time in a looong time. I have to sympathize with them, seeing as it's my home team, but they probably had a feeling this might come along with the rise of Madison Club (and Madcow).

Next on the Illinois agenda is No Wisconsequences. We're choosing to attend the tournament split squad this year. Hopefully this decision turns out to be a good one, letting the rookies see lots of playing time in a decidedly more competitive tournament than Western. The team list went out in email form, but I won't post it here until it's finalized. Hopefully I'll have some time to post at least a Saturday recap while I'm there. No promises on information about Sunday.

Till then...

Austin

Western Classic '09 Day 1

Greetings from beautiful Macomb, IL

The cars made the trip down mostly with out incident. I say mostly, because a rookie may have been left behind due to lack of contact info. Also, Helen (my Magellan GPS) decided to take my car to Bardolph, IL instead of Macomb. The Macomb Econolodge is solid, and the manager is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Anyway, Saturday:
Early in the morning, Team X (Papa Bear) got whiny and demanded that we (Team Y) relinquish control of Andy Kilinskis on the grounds that Brad was nowhere to be found. Since Team Y had a first round bye, Andy got woken up at the last minute to head to the fields.

Updated roster:
Team X

Ryan Kurnik

Steve Haake

Dave Janociak

Brandon Smith

Kevin Bruns

Neal Phelps

David Zillner

Matt Glazier

David Kohn

Mike Ponte

Antanas Tricou
Brad DeBlauw
Andy Kilinskis

Team Y

Austin Lien

Jacob Nelson

Brian Pierce

Kai Kosog

Colin Reid

Greg Atherton

Jake Antoniello

Mark de Chadenedes

Ryan Kent

Patrick Knapnik

David Mainzinger

Jake Midden

Teddy Yeh

I watched some of the first game before heading back to the hotel to pick up some Y-teamers. X was admittedly shaky, and lost the game to Western by a decent amount, but the game never seemed totally out of reach.
Team Y's first game against the Western Alum didn't go any better. We were still figuring out how to play with each other, and to some extent catch and throw the disc. We lost by a ton.

Fast forward through the day
Team Y goes 2-1 with a great final game against Southern Illinois Edwardsville that went to 13-11. FC Champaign member Paul Holze did some work against us in this game.
Team X goes 2-2 (also losing to ISU-Y by 1) with a huuuuge comeback win against Augustana in the last round going from something like 7-9 to 13-9.

Highlights
The Austin - Pappy connection on a layout backhand greatest. Probably the coolest thing I'll ever do in ultimate, and then Pappy decides to sky everyone in the pile up.
A pass from Andy getting D'd (macked) waaaaay up in the air for Brandon to come down with in the endzone for a goal.
Rookies laying out! They were doing it like crazy! The future is bright.

Lowlights
Some guy swerved into my front bumper while we were driving from BWWs back to the hotel. Maybe this is why I don't drive to tournaments... Looks like I'll be driving home with a brokus front left turn signal.

More to come after tomorrow

Austin

Some things to watch

Hey guys. So it came to my attention today that we haven't posted any sweet videos aka sweet videos where we are playing ultimate. Anyhow here are a few links. Also as you will see we didn't film any of these. We should try to film some this year. If anyone knows any other videos out there leave a comment. Thanks to North Park for many of the videos .

2008
Sectionals ~5:57

2009
No wisco ~8:41

FallOut

tufts game at nationals second half of video

And finally the best for last


Enjoy and rooks get pumped! First tournament with Illinois its going to be crazy!
Kennedy

Look! I can type!

Well, I don't actually have anything to say. I had some time to kill between classes, and I realized I hadn't come anywhere near attempting to write anything for this blog yet. Have no fear - it's on my radar now.

Recent highlights:
About half of a rookie tournament
Night of Mayhem

Upcoming events:
Inaugural Thursday scrimmage
An exchange?
A soccer demo?

More to come

alien

Idris Nolan's Blog

Idris Nolan was/is a mad good handler for Jam so read his blog. A lot of the archived stuff is really good so check all that out too. Link is on the right. --->

Austin says "he pretty much threw whatever he wanted whenever he wanted".

Bios Brought to You by Keenan

Keenan is hookin up some bios. The rest of the teams' can be seen on Booomland's blog which conveniently has a link on the right side of this page.

Brad Johnson – Brad would have been one of the most potent handlers on the field if he could have been on the field. However, he has the astonishing ability to be injured more than the author. Luckily for the team, he was able to channel his ultimate mind to be a great president that took care of all the stuff with the university. And for that, my hat is off to you sir.

Paul ‘Rip” Ripsky – What to say about Rip? He was once the greatest triple threat to ever grace the roster of the Illinois roster. Then he went and got engaged. Wham. He hasn’t lost his desire to ‘murder, bury, and desecrate’ however. Although he complained about being old, Stupca and Simeone set him straight with their heartfelt ‘closer to death’ card at Natties. Also was the author of the most potent Illinois Men’s Ultimate blog for the past decade before his retirement, read graduation.

Don ‘Lamp’ Lambka – Once thought to have the ability to pull over the mountains, he had his chance last year in Boulder. Although there were no mountains in Columbus for a first hand account to be seen, the pulls were nasty nonetheless. Also responsible for the injury that shall not be named, aka Rip’s leg; but he’s atoning by going to Med school.

Miles Corcoran – Now I know I mentioned this last year, but Miles is a ladies man. He is, what we like to call in the business, an excellent social chair. He’s a monster O-line long on the field from his bounciness and throwiness. He will be traveling to Honduras for the Peace Corps. for the next two years, read training a wise jaguar to ride. His return to the states will be hailed by coaching the new Honduras Ultimate team to glory and usurping soccer as that country’s national sport.

Denis Agniel – Denis may or may not be the tin man. However, Denis did have nasty throws, tricky cuts, and the ability to get the team going when was needed. He’s finally made it off the injury train with his brace’s help and teams throughout the region have come to fear his return. Rumor on the street has it he’s going to Harvard for a PhD in statistics. Smarty pants. Has unhealthy obsession with Walden, but then again who doesn’t on this team?

Max Komnenich – Max returned from France after a year of the high life over on the continent where the cool kids are. He’s found a sweet place as a long and singlehandedly took Minnesota for a point at Natties. May or may not have been the one to help bring brah-ticelli to the forefront of spring break.

Austin ‘Boston’ Lien – Our rookie phenom from last year, is now our sophomore phenom. Although him and Stupca have had some sticking points, he is going to be leading this team in the future. Whether or not that is due to him breaking people with his ‘I’m from Minnesota and laying out through you ability’ or tricky throws remains to be seen.

Kurt Zoellick – The first of our grad school transfers we got for this year, the man from Valparaiso has been able to do some crazy stuff with a disc. When he’s not on the field he enjoys telling jokes, researching fluids, and having team showers.

Ryan ‘Kennedy’ Smith – He hails from the land of Pittsburg, and although he believes the Penguins are God’s gift to man, he still manages to play some mean ultimate. He managed to bring the Freshman of the Year award back to Illinois for the first time in 3 years. He’s got some nasty layouts, and his little flaws are going to be gone in the next year and then he’s going to be a real problem for the rest of the region.

Brian McLain – What can I say about Mr. Mclain? When he was still recovering from his shoulder surgery he didn’t miss a tournament, couched the B team in the fall, and wore a tie dye onesie as much as possible. Epic. Add to that he’s the president of Fun Squad and you have one guy sure to entertain both on and off the field. He could tell you what he’s doing after graduation, but then he’d have to kill you, with kindness.

Chris ‘Halvsies’ Hidaka – Frequently the target of Phenom’s bombs, Chris was often the most favored target of O-line throws for scores. He retains his twirly catches, but has added the element of tooling anyone on the field, instead of just the unawares ones. Look for him to be a major threat again next year, but it probably won’t matter that you are looking for it. He’s going to find a way to score anyway.

Kyle ‘Somer-insert noun/verb here’ Somerfield – Kyle has come into his own over the past year as an o-line long. He has the physique of a tank and a mind that can internalize the finer points of combustibility as it relates to the internal combustion engine. And if that isn’t enough to win you over, he has a quick wit and is also a member of the ginger army. Sorry, ginga, ginger is their word.

Walden Nelson – I don’t know what to say about Walden. He was arguably the best defender in the region the past year and was able to shut down one Ryan Purcell on several occasions when the Illini faced Michigan. If his engineering degree doesn’t yield a job for Walden, unlikely, expect him to become a clothing designer emphasizing the layering look. Hats is only the start.

Pavan ‘Air Snake’ Sarguru – Pavan is an animal in the air and a defensive baller. A disc to his general area is probably going to be D’d by Pavan. Off the field he will argue any stat on the NBA at any time, especially if it revolves around the Jazz and Magic and which is better. Also claims to have the most powerful botecelli person of all time, truth remains to be seen.

Noah Bindman – Noah is our other grad school transfer we received this year, from the land of 10,000 lakes and Grinell. He gained fame in the fall with his absurdly large knee brace and the bionic man tag. He uses his lefthandedness and beard to dazzle his opponents. He teaches a chemistry lab at the university, so he’s pretty smart too. And to prove his smartness, he came to Illinois via Michigan, taste it Ann Arbor.

Jon ‘Jonny Wego’ Hatcher – Jon is one of the exciting players to watch for on the field in the next two years. However, he’s gained fame for his exploits off the field, or more appropriately, what his name has caused for the field. In case of an awkward moment, emergency use of some rendition of a kid’s game involving ‘Wego’ is an acceptable bail out. Without McClain around next year to create new and exciting versions of the game we need someone to step up, so start thinking now.

Michael ‘The University frowns on my nickname’ Simeone – Once a superstar of rate my professor due to his ability to ‘be easy on the eyes’ and ‘worth getting up to go to class for’ Simeone is a champ in the classroom. He loves it so much that he’s still doing it, roughly two epochs after his first day on campus. This is good news for us because it means he will be able to keep footblocking for the foreseeable future.

Brian ‘Phenom’ Phelan – Another of our brave leaders from the previous year, Brian is an unstoppable force on the field. He can grab just about everything in the air, and then throw for more scores than any long has the right to. This year he toned his hair down, from the aptly named ‘Boat’s Wake’ to the docile speed stripes, his hair choices only add to his intimidation on the field. He’ll be around another year, watch out Great Lakes region.

Zubair ‘Zubes’ Abdulla – The undisputed champion of the youtube post, Zubair is an entertaining fellow. He is willing to argue the greatness of Atlanta at any chance, frequently prefaced with a ‘HAWKS’ call. He rarely missed practice, never a tournament, and played hurt more than some people played. All that, and now is off to the University of Chicago for Physics grad. school. Look out for a HAWKS bomb 20 years down the line.

Dan ‘Wildcard’ Stueland – Oh boy, Dan will lay out for everything, close or not. And probably get it. But that’s enough about Ultimate, Dan is the single reason that Ultimate is the best thing in the world. Between him, Miles, and McClain the team has come together as never before. Dan will find an interesting of topic of conversation and run with it. For example, Helmet Cams and Bacon Beer, both of which hold potential untapped in our lifetimes.

Suleyman ‘Sul’ Ahmad – Sul is somewhat of a mystery on the team. He has speed unseen since JMan, although the secret to his success is much easier to discern. He’s part horse. We don’t have the confirming evidence just yet, but only one throw has every outraced Sul to the ground and in his defense it was Walden throwing a bomb against Cal. Downwind. Backwards. With Sul on the ground behind him. And he still almost caught it.

Charlie ‘CJ’ O’Brien – Charlie is a force to be reckoned with. He’s the super tall ginga out on the field, and can jump. He spent the spring semester at a co-op in Miami and came up for sectionals, regionals, and nationals to prove that he wants to play. Now that he’s added a solid forehand to his repertoire, there was no need to prove anything.

Zach ‘Sid’ Frantz – Before beginning, I want to reassert that I found Sid. That said, he’s way better than I am. He played handler with a long’s mentality and how to cut and get the disc from his defender. He was also responsible for the blade seen round the world. For those unfamiliar, this was the throw that much Michigan on ice in semis at regionals, after we had already won the game due to hard cap. It’s okay though because he put their entire team on his ‘glock list.’

Jason Mickey – Well, what is there to say about Mickey? Mickey tore his ACL sometime during the year, surprisingly not during his push ups, which as we know are quite loud and at times leave something to be desired. He helped coach Boomland to their best finish in Illinois history, so as long as he doesn’t need to move quickly he is really quite good. He’s managed to stick around for another year, his chance for redemption next. Hopefully he’ll be able to throw off the Mickey mantle and deal some foo

Inaugural Address

Walden is complaining about not posting on the blog so since he is captain and all i guess i'll post on the blog. For everyone who doesn't know Rip handed down the blog's reigns for better or for worse to Austin, Ryan, and I a few weeks ago. First off I will give Rip a well deserved thanks for not only letting me help on the blog but also for all his blogging he has done in the past few years.

I hope everyone's summer is going well thus far. Ryan brought it up but I think we should be changing the layout or atleast the pictures a little bit here in the next few time periods. But for now I thought I would post some vids that are pretty cool. They are of the 2009 world ultimate games that USA is competing in. Anyways here is the link, check some stuff out, and check back the blog in the near future to see some changes.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=upamedia&view=videos

Signing Off

It’s been over a year since I’ve updated the pictures and layout of this site, and I think it’s about time that I gave our current A-teamers their due. Ryan and Sid, it looks like you have your first assignment.

Leaving college ultimate is tough. It’s also tough to be in that period of transition: knowing that you’re leaving, but wanting to hold on to it for as long as possible. I think Goose said it best, “We’ve got The Love.”

Playing this game and competing in this sport requires a level of dedication that is unique at the college level. It’s not some after school activity like when you’re in High School, and it’s not some weekend hobby you go to after work. College provides you with the opportunity to make a commitment to the sport. You have the power to choose your training schedule, when you work out, when you practice, when you throw, when you watch game film. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to putting in professional level time. Make sure you take advantage of that opportunity for as long as you can, because you aren’t guaranteed four or five full years of college ultimate.

I had a difficult time this season. Coming back from a broken leg and shredded ankle, seeking a full-time career, and a long-distance engagement took me away from the game. These aren’t necessarily negatives. Life and relationships should come before a game, but “The Love” gets jealous. You lose your time on the field and your time with your teammates, and you won’t get that time back. So, if you’re playing right now, keep giving all your time to becoming a better competitor. You never know when or if you’ll get injured, married, or grown-up.

But enough of this regretful dribbling. I played college ultimate for four years, and I have some damn good memories. Let’s start with freshman year. In the fall of my freshman year, I contributed one of my greatest legacies to Illinois Ultimate: Naming the B team. Boomland came as a result of the combination of Dave’s ignorance and my poor navigation skills (at the time). Anyway, when the email went out asking for a team name after final cuts were made, I suggested Boomland and no one else even attempted to come up with something better.

My sophomore year began with leadership experience. I competed in the AUFL the summer beforehand, and played for a team called Primal. In the beginning, Lamp captained the team, but his incompetence proved too great. I had greatness thrust upon me when I usurped his leadership (I’m sorry I’m not sorry). Our AUFL championship bid fell short in the Semi’s when we lost 15-12 with only 5 players.

The fall tournaments of sophomore year were sweet. Noe shaved a Mohawk for Fall Out and almost started a brawl (that could’ve been freshman year). I caught a Callahan that sparked a comeback from a 11-1 deficit. And Illinois X went on to win our home tournament. We also won the championship at glory days that year. In the Spring, we traveled to Vegas for the first time. Crazy Coed Carl won a beer for pulling the disc around a light pole. He put that pull on the back cone btw. And we won ninals in Hurricane force winds, accentuated by Jacker’s punch spike. We fell short of our Nationals bid in the spring, f***ing Indiana. Luckily, regionals was in Champaign that year, so Pappy got the chance to drown out his sorrows at Clybourne. He got drunk, left the bar early cause he was scared of my retaliation in slapsies. Also, Mickey knocked Brad out that night. I got a call from Max the next morning asking about what happened cause he couldn’t remember why he was hung over and his face hurt.

In my mind, Junior year was “The Year”. It started in the summer. Primal went through a merger with B.I.G. K-Shaw was fired, and the team became known as My Little Ponies. We were never able to get 7 players to a game until the final tournament, but that didn’t matter. My Little Ponies could win with 3 players, and we did by a score of 15-4.

In the fall, the A-Team decided to tear up the club series. We took second at sectionals with our only loss coming against Machine, but that was okay since I caught a goal against Stupca (that’s what you get for poaching off our iota set, coach). We also bageled the Wizards in 32 minutes. At this tournament, we discovered our motto, “Murder. Bury. Desecrate.”

From there we went to Tulsa where the fields were a mix of gravel, dirt and glass, the weather was cold and rainy, and I lost some money playing some weird Indian Casino game. On the plus side, I did get a hand block against Muffin.

In the spring, we had a habit of winning all our pool play games and losing in quarters. We shocked the blogosphere by taking our pool in Vegas with wins over Colorado and Oregon. Besides being kissed by Jolian, I also won $400 at a roulette table in the Planet Hollywood Casino. Life was good. The team also went on its first Spring break trip since Terminus and Centex were on opposite ends of our vacation week. Terminus got cancelled due to a “Bonecoaster”, everyone got sunburned on the beach, and we almost beat those douchebags on Florida at Centex.

We rolled in sectionals until we faced North Park, but Pat took over the game in overtime and Jman skied their big guy for the final score. Going into regionals, no one was talking about us. Everyone was talking about Notre Dame. They won White Smoke, and suddenly they’re a big deal. We put them in their place at Semis. Our nationals bid fell short against Colorado in the quarters. I’d like to think that if I had been there to guard Jolian, we would have won. We still beat Michigan in prequarters.

Well, that’s my memoir of Illinois Ultimate. Looking back on my collegiate career, I came up with some statistics that I find to be significant.

Greatests Attempted: 4

Greatest Completed: 0

Callahans: 1

Skies against Pavan: 2 (taste it)

Break assists up-wind: 1 (put me on the o-line coach)

Tournament Championships: fall out, glory days, sectionals twice, regionals once, AUFL

Net Winnings from Vegas: $200 (bet on red)

Number of times “winning” credit card roulette: 0 (taste it)

Tribute to a Coach

The first time I ever talked to Matt Stupca, I sent him an email before I had even met him. I had a class that conflicted with the start of practice, and I wanted him to know that even though I’d be late, I still wanted to play with the team. I guess I didn’t need to do that, since we don’t make cuts, but I was a young freshman at the time. I showed up to practice, introduced myself, and then he showed me how to throw a forehand.

The first semester I practiced under his direction, I noticed one thing. He lets the team leaders take charge while still providing guidance. I enjoyed this style of coaching for a variety of reasons but mainly because it allowed the team to put their confidence in the leaders on the field. It also allowed the captains to develop confidence in themselves.

Stupca’s coaching ability increased every year. He became a key player and leader for Chicago’s elite club team, Machine. At this point, his coaching ability fully matured. Practices became more efficient and focused. The workouts were more productive. We went to better tournaments and won games against better opponents. Yes, we had a lot of raw talent, but even the most athletic teams need “ultimate smarts” in order to be an elite team. I fully credit Stupca for molding us into an elite team.

As our coach, Stupca volunteered what little free time a PhD student has. Such dedication is a rarity, and I feel that the gravity his efforts may be lost on some of our younger members. Without his direction, I doubt Illinois Ultimate would be half the program it is today. He has been the one constant through our last six years of sectional championships, regional championship, and national appearances.

I’m proud to have called him coach.

Nationals Recap

The Illini’s trip to Columbus turned out to be fairly disappointing. Since I don’t want my last tournament post to be filled with bad memories, I’m only going to focus on the good things. The team headed down a few days early to get away from distractions. I had a few things to take care of at home after graduation, so I missed the free tuscani pasta from Pizza Hut that Zubair bought for the team. Apparently, I didn’t miss much as most of the team found the dish to be less than tasty.

We played Carleton for our first game on the showcase field. The score claims a pretty dismal performance on our part, but the Illini had their moments. Well, maybe it was only one moment, but Noah caught a Callahan. That’s a pretty big moment.

After a two hour bye, we faced Georgia. Alas, throughout my entire college career, I have never won a game against Georgia. I think this picture depicts our best moment against them. Way to go FOTY. “What is Kennedy standing on?” “The crushed hopes and dream of number 17.”

We had an early morning start against UCSB on day two. Jeff Silverman is good.

Tufts and us was probably one of the best pool play games to happen all weekend. We were fortunate enough to play on field 1 again and draw a large crowd. We were unfortunate in the fact that we lost 15-14. Still, we started to look like the team that won the Great Lakes.

Even though we lost all our pool play games, we still had a shot at winning 9^th place. Minnesota quickly ended that dream. The best part of this game was the fact that Mike Gerics was one of the observers. He likes to keep the game moving, which I appreciate, but he also likes to draw attention to himself, which I do not appreciate. Still, he is a rather animated and entertaining fellow.

After losing 5 straight games, the Illini had to get in their cars and head to the far fields in order to battle Ugmo for 17^th place. The Illini “did not go quietly into that good night”. Dan, adorning a yellow “verb” headband, played out of his mind. Wildcard had three layout D’s this game. He also defended against the huck by knocking the disc out of the receiver’s reach at least twice. Sick. We won the game 15-11.

There are no trophies given out for 17^th place, but there is a trophy for the spirit award. After each game, opponents rate each other on a scale of 1 to 5 on how well the opposing team knew and followed the rules. The Illini had the highest score all weekend. “We got spirit yes we do! And that’s it.”

I have a few more posts coming before I finally sign off and turn the blog over to Sid, Kennedy, and Austin, so stay tuned…

Nationals Preview

The Illini come into the Big Dance as an 8^th seed. This places us in pool A for the first two days of competition. With Florida’s hubris and Oregon’s immaturity baring them from this year’s championship, the field is wide open. No team is guaranteed the title, let alone the top seed from their pool. Carleton holds the one seed overall, but even they don’t have an easy road.

This year’s national event is the biggest in UPA history with 20 teams and four days of competition. The games are fairly spread out over the weekend with 2 or 3 games a day for each team. This serves to eliminate the “advantage” of a well placed bye round or an exceedingly large roster.

The Illini are in the same pool as Carleton, Tufts, Georgia, and UCSB. As mentioned before, we’re the second seed in this pool, and I believe we’ll hold that position. But our loss won’t necessarily be to Carleton. In fact, I don’t think anyone in our pool will go undefeated. Carleton is good, but they aren’t invincible. Tufts is having a great year, and Georgia is always tough (by my recollection, I’ve never beaten Georgia). I’m not sure what to expect from Santa-Barbara, but a top twenty team cannot be underestimated.

Our strength lies in our team-style of play. We rolled at regionals by being dominant with every person and position on the field. If one person started faltering, the rest of the team picked him up. If the opponent shut down one of our cutters, the other three got open and made plays. When we played at regionals, we showed a consistency that had been lacking in all of our previous tournaments, but regionals is over. Now we’re playing at nationals.

We’ve been here before, so there’s no pressure. No one expected us to be here, so there’s no pressure. We’re a good team that puts seven solid players on the line every point, so there’s no pressure. I’ve said this many times, and I’m going to say it again: Ultimate is about having fun, and winning is a lot more fun than losing. So let’s win.