No egos on EGO

Another team on my list for college write ups is University of Orgeon's Eugene Gentlemens Organization or EGO. Their team contact, Kevin Minderhout, was helpful in answering a few questions for me and I thought I would share some things about the boys in green.

Oregon History

Like Georgia, I figured I would start with why I wanted to write about Oregon in the first place.

Back in 2003 Oregon was one of the premier teams in college ultimate. This was Ben Wiggins' 5th and final year and this team was ridiculous. This roster included current club stars, Seth Wiggins (Sockeye) and Doug McKenzie (Rhino), as well as Justin Grishkin and Jeremy Forrest. I watched them win Pres Day my fish year and they managed to win their region, mainly by beating Stanford in the semis, to take the sole bid out of the Northwest. They came into Austin seeded 2nd and managed to sweep through their pool and quarters with a combined score of 60-27. They faced Carleton in the semis, which I believe to be one of the most exciting games in college ultimate history, and they won 15-13. This put them in the finals against Wisconsin, where their epic season success came to an end and they lost 15-8.

After this year however, Oregon definitely suffered some performance woes. The Northwest was the strongest it has ever been in 2004 producing two #1 seeds at nationals, Cal (1) and Stanford (3). This proved to be quite the challenge and without Ben, Oregon lost two 14-13 heart breakers to Washington in Quarters and UBC in backdoor semis. 2005 would be the same story, different verse. Despite 3 bids out of the NW, Oregon lost to UBC in semis (15-10) and Cal in the backdoor semis (15-8). They would have to go another year without a trip to nationals which must have been even more difficult considering nationals was played less than an hour away in Corvalis, OR. However, Seth did manage to break into the Callahan top 5 that year.

In 2006 things started to change. Aaron Bell came over from PLU as a grad student and managed to lead Oregon back to the promise land. They won the NW region for the first time in 3 years with a 15-10 routing of Stanford in the finals. This set them up to be the seeded 4th at nationals where they won their pool and were set to play quarters against Stanford. This time Bloodthirsty would not be denied and Oregon would fall 15-11. They then went on to play UCSD in a game to determine where the strength bid would go, NW or SW, and EGO won 15-11 (bastards) ensuring 2 bids for the NW the following year.

In 2007, it was all about the handling of Dusty Becker, a former South Eugene High School standout who led the Oregon offense back to nationals. They didn't win regionals but they did beat UBC convincingly and were the 7th seed last year in Columbus. Aside from Stanford and Colorado, I believe Oregon had the toughest schedule at nationals having to play Florida (pool play) and Wisconsin (quarters), losing to both. Another year, another quarters exit.

2008 Standouts

The first question I had for Kevin was who we can expect to be fantasy players for Oregon this year. Aside from losing only 2 major players from last years team (David Needleman and Adrian “The Bruce” King) Oregon is returning a hell of a roster. First and foremost, Dusty Becker is back for his senior year. Despite his goofy hair-do at nationals last year, he still is extremely composed on the handling front and has very good vertical ability despite his Jacob Goldstein-esk build. Eli Janin will also be a go to offensive threat for EGO this year. Another spectacular threat for Oregon will be Kevin Stout. He has the height and the speed to not only own on D but utilize the throwing threats on Oregon.

Young Guns

I was also interested to know who will be keeping the Oregon flame burning in the future. Oregon is very similar to Colorado and Stanford in the sense that they always seem to have generation after generation of talent. After Ben it was Seth and then Aaron Bell and now Becker and Stout. This is what Kevin had to say about EGO's young talent:

"Cody Bjorklund is a sophomore this year who played big points in big games as a first time (first time playing ultimate) freshman last year. Also look for John Bloch, freshman from South Eugene HS. He’s got both the throws and the athleticism."

I will say that it looks like Oregon definitely benefits from having stellar high school ultimate in the area and I am sure they will continually develop the best in the game.

Tournament Schedule

Oregon's schedule is nothing new in the sense that they will be going back to TiV, Stanford and Centex. I am sure most teams would love the opportunity to play in 3 CCS events, but thats what you get when you continually make nationals. The one thing that I will say that is interesting about their tournament schedule is Stanford Invite. The major players in the NW have already seen each other a few times at Sean Ryan and Santa Barbara. Cal, Stanford, and Santa Cruz have all had a chance to beat each other up but the other major NW powerhouse really has yet to show what they can do in the spring. At SI we will see how Oregon matches up to the rest of their region and we may begin to see what we can expect for the series.

Challenges and Goals

The major hurdle for Oregon this year is to prove that they are better than a 5/8 team at nationals. Their main goal is to "[win] big games. We need to come up with big wins that will allow us to get past quarterfinals at nationals this year." This may seem like a no-brainer, but it will be on Oregon's shoulders to show that they have what it takes to be elite. With big wins at TiV, Stanford, and Centex, they may have the ability to develop the confidence among their team to know that they are a semis team. No one on this roster has made it past quarters and therefore they have no egos. They just want to win and Kevin tells me that "we've got a deep roster, full of athleticism. Every player on the team makes a contribution". This could not be better for Oregon because they need to do this as a team. They have some stellar Rhino experience in Dusty, Janin, Stout and John Block but no one has been as far as they want to go. They have the memory of better Oregon days, but if they want to get to the next level, they are going to have to grind it out together.

College Nationals

I like to ask this question a lot and this is what Kevin had to say about the change:

"It’s a tough call. Boulder is a nice place and will host a great tournament. I’m down with experimenting with new things that might help to increase the exposure of ultimate. As long as the quality of the tournament isn’t worse this year then I have no problem. Its hard to make too many comments until it happens."

Kevin said that they view "every team as a challenge" so it is not surprising that he isn't looking that far ahead. Hopefully school and ultimate do not conflict as with other teams and this will be what Mike Payne wants, "the most enjoyable experience possible".

Closing Thoughts

Oregon definitely has their work cut out for them. The Northwest has always been a power house but their dominance has slipped slightly since 2004. However with Cal's resurgence, potential upsets circa Santa Cruz, and Stanford's usual elite level play, getting out of the NW is going to be no easy task. Not only does EGO have to deal with the best in the country, but they also have to deal with rivalry games and when it comes to rivalry games, all bets are off. This is what Kevin had to say when I asked him to comment on the relationship between EGO and Stanford:

"Stanford is a talented team with talented players, but there’s nothing Ego likes better than to send them home with an L. Our two teams have had historically similar styles of playing and we like to show Stanford that we do it better"

I have never been much of an EGO fan, mainly because they always owned UCSD, but I will say that I like their team dynamic. Like Stanford they really try and spread it around and have the ability to grind out games. Despite losing in quarters this past year, they did manage to score the most points of anyone against the Hodags (9) and their team is more or less the same as it was in 2007. With more experience and constant talent, EGO has the potential to show that their team deserves to play late on Saturday in Boulder. However, they will need to fight for every win and with the each player leaving their egos at home, they may have the chance to use their roster top to bottom to take it to the best in the nation.

just my thoughts

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