UGMO, back in blue?

Back in 2004 Cal was royalty. They were the most feared team in the country. After graduating from Stanford, Bart Watson saddled up with UGMO as a grad student and led them, along with Dan Hodges and Gabe Saunkeah, to a phenomenal season. They won Santa Barbara. They won the very first Centex tournament. They won the won the Bay Area section, something that Stanford had done the previous three years and has done every year since. They also went on to beat Bloodthirsty at regionals earning the #1 spot at nationals. They swept through their pool and bracket play until meeting their match against Mamabird in the finals. However, since then UGMO has dropped off the radar. They haven't made nationals since losing to Colorado and have yet to even make a game to go.

However, I believe that this year can definitely be different. My attention was drawn to Cal when they won Sean Ryan over an equally up and coming UC Santa Cruz team. This tournament featured the best west coast teams such as Stanford, Oregon, and UCSB, all of whom will probably be at or close to making nationals this year. I have some family in the bay area and I managed to get ahold Choon, their team president, and he answered some questions. I am really excited to see what UGMO can do this year and I would like to share my thoughts.

Club Experience

I think the one thing that has really helped UGMO break back into elite level discussions is their chemistry and their synergy. I am lucky that I have a lot of ultimate contacts and my cousin Alex at Santa Clara has been helpful in giving me some tid bits on Cal. UGMO did something brilliant in that they formed their own Club team to play through the summer, THBC (Thunder Hatchet/Bear Claw). For teams that want to improve (and I mean truly want to improve) this is the best fucking idea to get your undergrads to play club. The only way people get better in this sport is to play club. Think about it, when you came out as a freshman you got schooled by some junior or whatever and you learned from him and now you are on the same level. Learning how to play ultimate does not stop at 20 however. The next step is to find more people to play against that school you up and down the field so you can learn more. It is no wonder that Stanford has dominated, they have their best players playing for Revolver over the summer. Brown does the same thing with the Providence Pack Dogs, Mamabird has Bravo, CUT and Wisconsin have Sub Zero, Florida has Vicious Cycle, Texas has Double Wide, etc... It is year around ultimate, it is tough, but it is the only way to get better.

Ok back to UGMO. So in forming a club team, players like Charles Denby, Choon, and Alec Berg basically extend the college season another 4 months and make Cal ultimate a year round experience. This has the benefit of getting touches between team mates. Believe it or not, aside from drills and conditioning, just playing together A LOT really helps a team improve. That is why teams like Furious do so well. MG, Lugsdin, Oscar, Shank, Savage, Al Bob, etc... can basically read each other's minds making their offense intensely fluid. In ultimate, offense is your biggest concern. It is the only sport I can think of, where good offense beats good defense. If your college team can figure out a club level offensive feel, then you will be able to take down teams that may be faster and more athletic than you simply because you don't turn it over. THBC was nothing to write home about in club circles but they did qualify for NW regionals (thats club mind you) and got experience playing the best teams in the world. This experience is invaluable. Do you think Alec Berg saw a mark as good as Oscar or did Charles Denby have to shake a defender as good as Roger Crafts at Santa Barbara? Probably not.

Roster Status

As far as departing talent goes, Choon told me that the only real loss Cal has to deal with is grad student Rob Tipton. However, he also told me that they have reeled in some new talent and "have a large team with a good core group of rookies. Expect some big athletic plays from Andrew Hagen and ridiculous throws from Erec Hillis". I suppose this and their club experience I mentioned previously is why Choon said "everyone" when I asked who will be the standouts for Cal this year. However, in talking with my cousin, he told me that Cal's offense runs through Charles Denby, a 5'7" grad student with great throws, hands, and cuts. In addition, Alec Berg seems to be Cal's premier handler, nothing flashy, just consistent, confident and dependable. I think most teams could use more of these. Choongil Fleischman, or Choon, is one of Cal's best defenders and despite only being 5'11" has incredible ups and speed. Another bonus that I am sure Cal is using to strike fear into their opponents hearts are the twins John and Scott McLaughlin. Not only are these kids seniors with experience and talent, but they are both 6'7".

Tournament Schedule

Cal will be attending Santa Barbara as well as 3 CCS events, TiV, Stanford and Centex, before starting the series. If they can reproduce their success at Sean Ryan I think Stanford, Oregon, UBC and Santa Cruz will have another team to worry about. I keep mentioning Sean Ryan because this tournament was a big deal to these guys. It was their first tournament win since NW Regionals back in 2004 where, like I said, they were royalty. Their tournament schedule is no different than years past but this year they hopefully will pull out their established chemistry and show the rest of the elite a thing or two. There will be a lot of pressure on them in Santa Barbara to prove that their Fall success was not a fluke or just pre-season laurels. If they do well they can write their own ticket, if not, they have 3 years of disappointing seasons to motivate them. Either way, I will be paying close attention.

I will say that Santa Barbara this weekend seemed like a bizarre experience. From what my undergrad buddies told me, the weather was fairly crummy with wind and rain to deal with. However, I think the major issues is the cap situation. Games were played to 9 or 10, maybe sometimes 13. Not unlike Vegas, I think you get less than representative scores. In addition Cal only lost to SW teams which is good for them and they also managed to beat both Santa Cruz and Stanford. Aside from their 10-4 loss to UCSB, they had a decent weekend.

Challenges and Goals

The major challenge for Cal this year will be to overcome injuries. Several sources have informed me that Cal's health status is questionable. Apparently Choon is routinely injured which is not surprising for a defensive specialist. Alec also has foot problems and his status could affect Cal's ability to generate scores on offensive points. Aside from injuries however, Cal really controls their own destiny.

As can be expected, the major goal for Cal this year is to qualify for nationals. A lot of teams have come out the NW since I have been watching ultimate. Stanford and Oregon are always at the top but teams like UBC, Washington, and Cal are always waiting for a chance to break out. I am not positive as to bid status, but I am guessing that the NW has 2 bids to nationals. If Cal can generate the fire power they might be able to sneak past Oregon or Stanford in that game to go. I don't see Stanford losing 2 games to go, so Cal's best bet is to hope that Oregon slips. With three years of regional woes, I am sure Cal wants to show the rest of the NW that UGMO didn't die with Bart, Gabe and Dan's eligibility. With this motivation I think Cal has a shot if they stay healthy. They have nothing to lose and like CUT are ready to strike at the regions best to show their worth.

College Nationals

When I asked Choon what he thought about the new college nationals schedule he said:

"It’s pretty weak; right in the middle of finals. Of course there are always conflicts in scheduling but this is one that affects a large number of the participants and seems very easy to avoid."

Hopefully the motivation to make nationals is peripheral to the draw backs. I am sure with their level of commitment the weekend nationals is will not be a concern.

Closing Thoughts

When I talked with Mike Payne I asked him about Cal and he told me that they were definitely on Stanford's radar. Apparently Cal alum and Revolver teammate Ryo Kawaoka is coaching UGMO this year and Payne definitely expressed considerable respect for his club and coaching peer. Hopefully the series will be good to these kids. Like the rest of the NW, the AC, the SW and the Central regions, Cal will have to face the best just to get a shot at Boulder and come April/May, all their work will be put to the test. Hopefully they are ready.

I also asked Choon if there was anything he would want the rest of the country to know about UGMO in 2008, to which he replied "If you don't know, you'd better ask somebody". I didn't know and had to ask Alex and Mike Payne.

Just my thoughts

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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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