Free Agency in Ultimate

So one thing that I find really interesting in ultimate is how players change from team to team. Now for the most part a lot of these changes are relatively inconsequential. I move from UCSD to Yale, no one cares. But there are a lot of players out there that have changed from elite team to elite team. These changes are not only good/bad for the teams involved but they are also intersting because it begs the question, "did you move to change teams or did you change teams cuz you moved?". Now I doubt that most people will move across the country to change teams but you never know. I also know that some people's real lives result in them moving and whatever surrounding team gets the benifits. I thought I would talk about some really interesting moves in ultimate over the last 5 years.

Ron Kubalanza - By far the most popular free agent in ultimate today. The guy started out at the university of wisconsin in 1993 and bounced around the east coast playing for D.C.'s Electric Pig and Boston's DoG. Already touching on 2 of the best teams on the east coast. However, in the 21st century, Kubalanza has made his mark on 3 major ultimate programs all in the NW. In '04 and '05 he was with San Francisco JAM. Made the finals in 2004 losing to Sockeye and made semis in 2005 losing to Furious. However, in 2006 he picked up with Furious George where he made the finals again, only to lose again to sockeye. As if this wasn't enough he is now a member of seattle sockeye. Is the third time a charm? In any event, I find this to be very interesting because he has managed to play for 4 teams that have recorded a total of 11 club national championships in the last 13 years (6 DoG, 3 Furious, 2 Sockeye). How can one do this? What sort of life style percipitates this? I think kids in college need to know that they have the ability to bounce all over the country given whatever field Ron has chosen.

Idaho - One of the biggest sluts in the ultimate community. Has played in college in Idaho and Berkeley. Picked up with the Condors in 03/04 when they finished 2nd at club nationals and represented the US in the 2004 world's tournament. Now suits up for Sockeye. In my opinion, I wonder 1) how do your previous team mates look at you? I am sure it is not horrible, but are there any "Jonny Damon" feelings out there. and 2) How can you just pick up with a whole new ELITE team and contribute? Guy must be absolutely unreal. One more reason why these ultimate players are truly as close to professional as it gets.

Tim Gehret/Kurt Gibson - I put these two together because I just want to articulate how screwed Vicious Cylce is. VC rides the two best players in college disc at the pinnacle of their physical ability and talent and then as soon as they came, they were gone. After winnig a college national championship and TG won the callahan, these two went on to dominate MLU (2 best fantasy players) and took Vicious Cycle to club nationals where they managed to beat Revolver on double game point. But with the coming of the club season in 2007, these two took off. Tim headed across the country to Sockeye and Kurt returned to his original neck of the woods (New England) and now plays for the new Boston team. I feel so bad for VC, hopefully they have a chance against Double Wide/Chain Lighting. With a masters in Mechanical Engineering, I am sure Tim sought a job in a lucrative market, such as seattle, and managed to pick up with the best mens team in the world. I wonder if one had anything to do with the other. Kurt on the other hand probably played his cards the best he could and decided to play club where his roots are instead of where he went to school.

Zipp - Now this is a person that I think actually had a life changing event, Med School, and decided to play for the nearest ultimate team, which just happened to be chain lighing. I am sure John Hammond and Jason Simpson were thrilled to know that zipp was planning on attending emory for med school (or so I hear) and hopefully he can carry them to a semifinals birth again, if not farther. I think that this is a solid move because it occurred peripheral to ultimate, not unlike mine. Chain is a great team and I am sure Zipp will be a fantastic contributor.

Seth Wiggins - Now I can only speculate as to the nature of Seth's choices in club disc, and because its my blog, I am going to say what I think. He and big bro make it to the finals in 2003 for college. Kinda get rocked, no biggy. Seth never really gets to the same level in club but does pick up with Rhino, a great team out of Oregon. Big bro, however, picks up with Sockeye and manages to win 2 national championships. He wants in on the deal and decides to head to seattle. Like Vicious Cycle, I feel bad for Rhino because they lost one of the more dominate cutter/defenders/all around players in the country. I wonder if there is any bad blood between these two groups at NW regionals. What I also find funny is that the seminal photgraph of ultimate involves Seth and Chase laying out for a disc which Chase gets in the semi finals at 2003 College Natioanls. Seth gets owned which is funny cuz his mom took the pictures and what is also ironic is that they are now team mates.

Bart Watson - Now this is one of my favorite stories in college ultimate. Bart was the golden boy of Stanford for years. Played there as an undergrad, wins a national championship as a junior, but fails to qualify for nationals his senior year in 2003. Now, a lot of Stanford guys, ie Nick Handler and Josh Wiseman, stuck around and got masters in their respective fields and played with stanford for 5 years. However, Bart wanted a PhD in poli sci and headed across the bay to Berkeley. Now I think Bart's motives are completely pure, but I do find it interesting that he left one elite college ultimate team to join up with Dan Hodges and Gabe Saunkeah. In 2004, Cal is the top dog in the bay area section and the northwest region taking down stanford twice. Oh I wish Colorado had gotten the 1 seed that year so that Stanford and Cal would have met eachother in the sectional finals, regional finals, and college semi finals. I can't imagine what that must have been like for Bart and the SMUT guys. What I also find interesting is that Bart has stuck with SF JAM (probably out of convenience) in the club circuit as opposed to playing with his original team mates from stanford who all play for Revolver.

Jimmy Chu - A more recent addition to the ultimate free agency, Jimmy Chu has revitalized a struggling condors squad. After amassing 2 club national titles with Sockeye, Jimmy gave up the life in Seattle and went back to school at UCLA. Attempting to decide between Monster and Condors, he settled on the boys from Santa Barbara. I for one am a big fan of jimmy and hope he does well there. Also, another example (I think) of life changes affecting ultimate. Hopefully he won't have to play against his old buddies at club natties.

Moses Rifikin - Now Moses is an interesting character because I think he probably decided to change teams because he wanted to return to his home state, pure speculation. However, take a look at who he has played for. He goes from Brown to DoG (the standard move for NE players) and plays in Boston for 5 years. Very Forch/Parinella esk but then decides to leave Boston and join up with arguably the most polar opposite of teams in seattle sockeye. DoG seems to be very conservative, in my opinion, and Sockeye, well they are a bit more flashy. I think this was an interesting move and after two finals appearances and a national championship, I bet Moses is pretty happy with his decesion. I wonder how DoG felt about it though during that 15-11 semi final game aganist the fish at club nationals in 2005 the year after Moses left.

Sam O'brien/Nord/Chase - Now these 3 are defintely some of the more exciting players in club disc and they all seemed to end up on the same teams. At one point or another they all played for Carleton, then made the obvious switch to sub zero and as the pipeline dictates, headed to seattle. I think Chase and Nord are from there, but Sam, I have no idea. In any event, i am sure Sub Zero knows that among there alums are 3 guys that are now 2 time club national champs. Once again, another sad story like VC and Rhino, of players just growing up, getting better and heading to better teams. Life choice or ultimate choice, I wonder?

Jack Marsh/Will Chen - Now this is just too cool. You have 2 guys who are team mates for 4 years as well as co-captains of a very respectable Harvard Redline team. They make the trip to natties a few times and then decide to move on to bigger and better things. Two harvard grades should be able to go anywhere and they do, Will heads to Stanford for computer science and Jack goes to Wisconsin Law School. So they leave a great school for 2 great schools and 2 great ultimate programs. What is so awesome though is that these two met in the finals at Centex and the semi finals at college nationals. I can only imagine the emotions going through their heads. I suppose Jack was a bit more relaxed seeing that the Hodags took stanford down by a combined 30-17, but I am sure it was a fun experience. Too bad they didn't cover eachother

shane hohenstein - now this pick up by wisconsin just isn't fair. A transfer student from Winona comes out of no where to become arguably the best defender in college disc. I can only imagine what Heijman, Muffin, and Dan Miller were thinking when they saw this guy come out for the first time. A national title was almost guarunteed.

BVH/Danny Clark/Bailey Russell - I can barely keep track of the teams that these guys play for. Danny and Bailey start out with Pike while BVH is on DoG. Then Danny and Bailey head up north and play for Metal for a year (not a bad set of pick ups). But then BVH and Bailey drop down to play for PoNY in New York once Boston ultimate mixes it up, maybe help get them to Sarasota, good luck. I dunno where Danny plays now, but I can only imagine what sort of circumstnaces precipitate moves like this. I suppose, once again, it is nice to be able to just cleat up for anyone, but you'd think players of this caliber would stay put once they played for a club nationals team, or another one, or another one.

To compliment this kind of observation, I thought I would also talk about some players that have managed to avoid the migration temptation.

Will Deaver - Now this guy is really a team player. Granted he is the championship director and probably should stay in boulder, but the guy could easily play for anyone. However, he has played with Bravo for as long as I have been around and he has helped them go from a team that didn't even make nationals to a semi-final elite bunch of
ballers. His commitment to them has been outstanding.

Jeff Eastham - Another class act. This guy has been on JAM through it all. Played with them when they made the finals in 2004 as well as 2006 when they didn't even qualify for nationals. I am really glad this guy was on the 2005 USA team. Fast, got ups, and as dedicated as he is skinny. Never faultered, never changed jerseys, stuck it out and is a true semblance of a team player.

MG/Shank/Lugsdin/Savage - it seems like these guys have been together for life. I can remember watching "above and beyond" which chronicles club nationals in '99 and '00 and its the same guys. Now, 8-10 years later they are still together and still winning championships. I dunno what they have in the water up there, but its unbelievable.

Parinella/Forch/Al - the true heart of DoG and I am sure there are more. There in the good times as well as the not so good. I suppose, like Furious, its tough to walk away from a team that is winning national championships, but I still think its cool that they stuck it out and played with the same team for a decade.

Roger Crafts - probably one of the most verteran and muscle bound members of sockeye. This year will be his 10th as a fish and I think he is really a showing of team dedication. I don't know how this guy does it. In a few years I'll talk about Sammy CK, Mike Caldwell, Jeremy Cram and Will Henry like this, but for now, Roger Crafts is the balls. 6 years on the team before they won their first title, way to stick with it.

Now I do not think that any of these moves are suspect or shady at all. I think people should play where ever they want to. I just think that it is interesting to follow these sorts of moves. It also goes to show you that ultimate is not too different from any major sport. There are the mobile superstars like Alex Rodrigues out there as well as the stable giants, like Brett Favre. I wonder if in 50 years there will be a draft system so that teams like Sockeye don't end up with 3 callahan winners.

just my thoughts

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