Regionals Preview

Score Reporter has the seeding finalized. Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and the Illini come into the tournament as the heavy hitters. North Park, MSU and Indiana are the upset hopefuls. Miami of Ohio is a legitimate long-shot, and I don’t think any of the other teams have a chance of getting to the quarter finals much less advancing past that round.

Our road to Columbus starts with Kenyon. I have no information on this school or team, which may or may not be a good thing. Last year, North Park stumbled in the first round at regionals, so I doubt they’ll let that happen again. Either way, it looks like we’ll have a semi-final matchup against Michigan and then another game against either Notre Dame or Ohio State for the bid to nationals.

If you never lose a game, then you only play four. Lose in the first round, then you have to win the next seven games in order to go to regionals. You can see where I’m going with this. You can’t take it easy in the early games, or you will end up paying for it in the later rounds.

Most of the chatter on RSD has Michigan as the clear favorite with Notre Dame and Ohio State duking it out for second. These assessments come from people outside of the region. Inside the region, the competition for the 2 bids to nationals is a lot tighter than most people think. Even Michigan could be left out in the cold if they get too cocky.

Get it in your head that we’re going to nationals. Get it in your head that none of these teams stand a chance against us. We have the advantage going into this tournament. Only Notre Dame and North Park have any idea how good we actually are. The rest of these jokers will underestimate us, and we’ll win on Sunday with quiet confidence.

Mental Toughness: Why You Need It and How to Get It

We’ve all come across that moment in our ultimate careers numerous times. Whether it’s in practice or on the championship field, our mind seems to tell us, “It’s okay, you can rest for a minute. Just jog. I promise it’ll feel good.” And then your man catches an invert and throws a break huck for the score. Well maybe it wasn’t a break huck, but you were still caught napping because you lost focus and intensity.

Mental toughness, as I define it, pertains to your ability to keep your focus and intensity while facing adversity. As ultimate players, we face a lot of adversity. We run until the muscles in our legs lock up with lactic acid. We play in the rain, the wind, the cold. We make a bad throw or miss an easy opportunity. The other team goes up 14-13 after we had a 6 break lead. These things happen, but the good players transcend adversity. They grit their teeth and head back for more.

The best example of mental toughness comes from Pat Stephens. Last year at sectionals we were down near the end of the championship game against North Park. Mr. Stephens made up his mind that we weren’t going to lose. The intensity he brought lifted the entire team and we won 17-15. He played six points in a row and never let up. He got the D in almost all six of those points, and then got open on every cut after he got us the disc. He played with unrelenting grit and that was after 7 and 2/3 games.

Another instance of mental toughness occurred in the regional final against Michigan. Joel got beat deep by Will Neff and the disc went up (Joel was probably poaching and calling out a switch but whatever). Instead of giving up, Joel got on his horse and made up the 10 yards to deflect the disc out the back of the endzone mere moments before it would have hit the Michigan Callahan nominee’s outstretched finger tips.

The mental toughness I speak of goes by a few names: “lockdown” and “kill mode” just to name two. It’s that switch you flip in your head when you decide to play without any reserves. It’s been a long time since I’ve flipped that switch. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone on this team flip that switch. We’ve been close a few times, like when we played Wisconsin at Huck Finn. I’ve seen some flickers from Kennedy, but no one has been able to turn the lights up all the way.

Mental Toughness is something you have to practice. You can’t think that it will come to you in big games at big tournaments right when you need it. The switch doesn’t work like that. If you wait for it to happen, then you’ll be stuck waiting while your opponent is catching goals. We’ve got a little more than a week before our Nationals hopes are put on the line against some really good teams. We need to flip the switch now.

Sectionals Recap

It’s about time we started winning and last weekend was a good time to start doing it. The Illini started their run for the UPA title on a beautiful Saturday in the Utopia. No opponent scored more than 5 points that day. The Illini also set a record for their fastest game. We rolled FUNK 11-1 in 24 minutes. This beats our previous record of 13-0 in 34 minutes against Loyola in club sectionals 2007. I want to make note that FUNK’s only score came when Kurt’s brother skied Kurt on the end zone line and then threw an easy score since Kurt was so taken aback by his brother’s ability that he forgot to drop off an guard the open receiver. Looks like the intern still has a lot to learn.

The real games began on Sunday. Well, not our first game. We showed Hysteria that they were way out of their league by stomping them 15-2. When you see these kinds of scores in the quarterfinals, you begin to wonder why Cultimate’s season structure didn’t catch on. Separate divisions would prevent such massacres. Sure, I understand that everyone wants the chance to “win the big one”. But still, 15-2? That just seems unreasonable to me.

Anyone watching our semi-final match-up against North Park would have thought it was the Luke and Lars show. Seriously, I’m fairly certain that all of their scores came from that combination. The game was tight for most of the way, but the Illini knew that our unrelenting defense would eventually break them down. We got three breaks in row in the second half and won the game 15-12.

Score Reporter shows that the Illini lost their sectional title to Notre Dame 15-10. The game could have gone either way, and Notre Dame was able to close out more of the close points than we did. We’ll see what happens in Oberlin in two weekends. Bonzai!!!!

P.S. I just wanted to point out that my picks were pretty much dead-on; although, I would have never guessed that the Wizards would advance. Wow.

Also, special thanks go out to all our fans that came out an watched us. Fans are a rarity in our sport and we appreciate your efforts, especially in cold and rainy weather.

Sectionals Preview 2009

For the second year in a row, the Illini head to Naperville to kick-off the UPA series. Two years ago, they told us we would never play on the polo fields again because of new construction. They were wrong. Thanks to a recession and an unruly city planning board, the Naperville fields (which are technically in Plainfield) will be open to ultimate for the foreseeable future.

Last year, the Illini came into this tournament as the heavy favorite. This year we’re seeded second, and even I’m not sure we deserve to be that favored. All of the top teams coming into this tournament have a chance to win it or blow it, but with seven bids up for grabs, I think that all those who expect to move on will do so.

Notre Dame comes into this tournament with the best record and best strength of schedule. They were the clear top seed for this section, but they aren’t invincible. Weather dot com gave a forecast of windy, chilly, and rainy. Expect a cup from Papal Rage if this be the case.

North Park gave us a good scare in the championship game last year, and I hear they’ve still got their height and hucking. I’ve also heard that they’re on a bit of winning streak. Their momentum and a little bit of luck could carry these guys to the final round.

Northwestern doesn’t have Teddy anymore, but that doesn’t make them any less of a threat. They were playing good ultimate at Huck Finn, so I have a feeling that they will surprise a few teams. Hopefully we won’t be one of those teams.

Indiana probably thinks they should be seeded higher than they are. I don’t. These guys are a decent team, but they’re not a good team. Considering the rest of the field, these guys should hold seed and advance.

So, which teams are going to get the chance to prove themselves in Oberlin? Notre Dame , Us, North Park, Northwestern, Indiana will get bids for sure. The other two spots are difficult to predict (notice how I didn’t say the “last” two spots). I’d love to say that our B-team will be in there, but I’m just not sure. It’s too close to call for the rest of the field.

The key to our success will be having fun and making plays for each other. Winning is always more fun than losing, but then again, nothing is easy.

Huck Finn Recap

The Illini finally decided to look like a legitimate ultimate team, and it was nice to see. Sure, the Michigan and Notre Dame games exposed some long-standing weaknesses, but we were able to string together a lot of good points this weekend.

Focus on what happened during those good points. Remember the energy. Remember the mentality. Remember the intensity. We’re gonna need it when we go to Naperville in two weeks.

The Wash U game went exactly as I predicted it. They were a good first game, and we started the tournament with a win 13-8.

We were pumped to face Wiso again. After having a good second half against them in Mardi Gras, we wanted to show them what we were made of. This game was intense. Despite the fact that this team is made up of contestants from Tool Academy 2, the Illini held their composure. I have two favorite moments from this game, both of which involved #11 on their team and #11 on our team, Miles. Their number 11 (hereafter referred to as Tool Boy) clearly fouled Miles on an in cut. When Miles called the foul, Tool Boy got pretty upset. Instead of the normal “contest” that a normal person would say, Tool Boy threw an epic tantrum on the field. No matter how loud and bratty Tool Boy got, Miles stuck by his call. Tool Boy then tried a passive aggressive approach, “No it’s okay if you want to cheat. You just don’t know the rules. No it’s fine. Really, I’m okay with you being asshole about this.” Seriously Tool Boy? Why even open your mouth? My wife uses that strategy (honey, that’s joke, please don’t take it personally). But seriously Tool Boy, that was unbelievably unprofessional. But that’s okay. Remember a few points later when you and Miles both went up for the disc? You both missed it, but then Miles laid out over you to catch the disc in the endzone. How embarrassing for you, Tool Boy.

The Illini lost to Wisco 10-9 on universe point, but it was worth it just to see Tool Boy explode in a steroid induced rage.

The Illini faced Iowa next and quickly took half 7-2. We then went up 9-2 only to have them claw back in it. We won the game 13-8, but it had its scary moments. The key to our success is having the confidence to know we can play well. They rattled us a bit, and we almost lost it. Trust your throws; trust each other. That makes ultimate fun.

I don’t want to talk about the Michigan game. We’ll see them at regionals, and I’ll hopefully have something better to write after that tournament.

The Georgia game, although a loss, proved to ourselves that we could come back if we get down early. They took half by a wide margin, but none of us saw that as the end. We came out and went on the attack. Yes, they won 13-11, but we have nothing to prove anymore.

In the game against Indiana, I guess we decided to test our comeback ability. We let them go up on us 11-9, and then they never scored again. This game had the best match-up. Walden vs. Evil Walden. Good work boys. Good work.

I don’t really want to talk about the Notre Dame game either. We gave them the number one seed at sectionals. I vote we take it away.