Aloha!!

It’s official, the best place to have an ultimate tournament is Oahu, Hawaii. I have been to tournaments in every US time zone, Mexico, Canada, and the ultimate ultimate experience has to be the Kaimana Klassik. I just had myself a pretty sick nasty weekend in the sun and I thought I would share some details about my experience.

I thought I would start off by giving a run down of a few teams of interest.

Lone Star

First and foremost, the best team at this tourney (aside from my own) had to be my boys from Texas. These guys are spectacular. Skip, Natali, Matty, Wheels, Mars(?), and the rest of the boys from the “yee-ha” state are pocket Aces. My cousin Alex has told me about how badass they are for some time, but I didn’t know for sure. If there was a crowd that could match my flare, my stories, my social exploits, and could show me a better time than I could show them, it would have to be the Austin crew. I am glad Billings, Ross and Hartwell already knew some of them, but we were blood brothers before we even played our game against them first thing Saturday morning. Some hilarious comments included, “I want to make an enemy tonight” (Skip), “I’m distracting aren’t I” (Mars), “Ok Match, let’s get belligerent” (Matty), and “Dude, I forgot that I took a weed brownie this morning” (anonymous). I would love to tell ya’ll about our escapades, but yeah, not here. All I can say is that I will be saddling up with them in a month at Centex and if anyone wants a good time, look for a bunch of tall drunken cowboys and a red head. Oh and Mars, accept my Facebook request so we can work out that three way deal with my colt jersey and the XL blue lone star long sleeve. I might just end up buying it when I get to Austin but I’ll send you a fresh jersey once I get back to the Have.

Voltron

Yeah, so this team was the all-star squad. They were probably the most fun team to watch and it sucked that they lost in semis. Notable players were Ben Wiggins, Josh Greenough, John “Kid” Hammond, Parker Krugg, Adam “Chicken” Simon, Andrew Fleming, and that’s about all I can remember right now. I will say that I kinda liked seeing Kid pull a Chris Webber time out move against Ono because it let me know that even the best players make mistakes. I will say that I kind of went over board on bugging him, sorry. He is just so distracting, what with the whole kimono/Paule Shore look-a-like/I’m so good at ultimate I can play wearing a bunch of crap/tight T-shirt antics. If you don’t want attention, don’t go out of your way to draw it. He is a spectacular player though, great D, very dynamic offensive presence, and hugantic running strides. The guy moves like a cheetah.

I also want to take this opportunity to poke some fun at these guys since I massage their egos enough and I actually got a chance to see them interact in real life as opposed to just on the field. First off, wow, way to act like a bunch of high school football heroes. The whole white jumpsuits at the party was a little suspect. Way to go out of your way to make yourselves try and look really cool in a Saved by the Bell sort of way. Well, the teal Ono collard shirts were much worse, but still, you guys looked like you were from Terminix. Also, Chicken’s Carson Daly-esk MC-ing during the dance off had me scratching my head. Manisha "Slap" Daryani's dance moves definitely helped distract me from how pink and pretty Mr. Simon is (side note: it really sucks that Slap got a ginormic concussion putting her on vomit duty during the women’s finals. Had she, Becky, and that girl that destroyed her leg, played in the finals, it would have been a much closer game). I will say it was a pleasure playing against him and the rest of Voltron despite the fact that they spanked us in quarters. I think most folks are aware Chicken is a premier handler, but I was really impressed with his D. Also, thanks guys for printing Voltron hats in blue, it’s my favorite color. You wouldn't think the last 15 seconds of this video would be inspiring but, who’s the savy veteran now?

Hey and ulti arnie, you never told me what your nickname means. You played really well and I hope I get the chance to see you and the rest of NC State this spring.

Ono

HA! This is too easy. Let me just say, Air Squids 1, Black Tide 0.

Stanford

As far as actual ultimate goes, these boys definitely did not disappoint. I wasn’t in Goleta last month for Santa Barbara Invite, but the undergrads really did well this weekend. They started off really slow against the Japanese team winning a squeaker 11-9, but after getting their shit together, they really kicked ass and made semis. Sherwood is a stud, Ezra is a sick deep, and Schlag is as badass as his last name. I wish I could have seen Tom James play more, but he sat out most of our game. We played them in power pools and I was really stoked to get the chance to play against a team I have been following for so long. High points were me NOT getting D’d by Derek Frome despite his extremely tight/physical man D. Low points were my heckling (I sucked this game) and the fact that we lost. Their offense was really crisp and our team, despite a ton of talent, had trouble converting on O because we had never played with each other. In addition, it was really nice to meet Ryan “The Pulse” Thompson. He is a good guy and it sucks that he couldn’t play because of a broken arm.

Skeletor

This team was fun to watch because they were basically the Stanford talent of yester year, in addition to some bay area guys. Wiseman played a great game in the finals and the punk ass cost me a sourdough jack and two tacos. Thanks to his like 11 scores, I had to buy a drunk as fuck Protik 3 Big Macs instead of him buying me some Jack in the Box goodies I can’t get in New Haven. It was also cool seeing Mike Payne (Skeletor, Revolver, Jam, Stanford) line up against Steve Dugan (Ono, Condors, UCSB). I hope they swapped digits after all their marking contact. Skeletor definitely made the finals exciting after letting Ono creep up on them to tie it at 14’s after they had a 14-12 lead. I think the best thing about this game was that it was a semblance of the old rivalry between UCSB and Stanford. Back in the 90’s these teams were both at the top at the same time and I am sure players like Greg “Hollywood” Husak (Ono) and Mike Payne have no love lost over the last 10-15 years. The best heckle from our group during the finals was the Kevin Cissna movie chants. Every time he got the disc we would yell out a different Brad Pitt movie and while I didn’t initiate it, I definitely dropped Thelma and Louise first.

Almos Pau

I couldn’t talk about teams without mentioning my own. What I thought would be a San Diego squad was mostly Mischief and Shazaam players. We had some great handlers, some great cutters, some great defenders, and great overall teammates. Here are a few things that I liked about my team, or I just thought were funny/cool:

1) Leetch, you could totally be a pretty boy douche bag and you aren’t. Thanks for being a lot of fun and I really enjoyed playing with you.

2) I ran into a guy I played with at Acapulco (Jeremy Clark) before games started and we were both happy to see each other and he mentioned that Cole (another friend from Mexico last year) was at the tournament as well. I was stoked and looked forward to crossing paths with him. Needless to say, the guy was actually on my team and I didn’t know it yet. HA! We had fun.

3) After the tournament ended, I got the chance to tell Brett Kolinek from Bravo/Colorado State that I hated him when I was a squid and he played for Hibida. I told him why and we both laughed at a story that is now ancient history. People, get used to liking all ultimate players because you never know when they will be your teammate some day.

4) Beevers, you make me laugh. You got balls and very interesting taste in women.

5) Protik and Becky are two of the best people I have ever met. Pro let me play for Almos Pau and he and his wife Becky basically babysat me the whole weekend. They shuttled me to and from the airport, let me stay at their house, hooked me up with showers/food/greenery, and were just good friends. Oh and did I mention I had never met them before? Gotta love ultimate players.

The whole team was a ton of fun and not only were we fun, but we were good. We went 3-1 in pool play and managed to battle back and beat the Doughboys (Australia) on double game point to make quarters. I wish I had actually caught this fucking disc, but later I managed to call a game saving pick that got us one of the breaks we needed to win the game.

My Gripes

So this tournament was fun but there are some things that I want to bitch about and since it’s my blog, I am going to say whatever I want.

First, the fields are HARSH. My joints look like burger right now. They are like playing in a thorny bush. Yikes. My scratches were definitely excessive and not the norm, but when you are stuck indoors for 5 months, you are going to take every bid opportunity you can. It was worth it.

The food was ehh. The only stuff that was actually good was the pig you had to buy for lunch everyday. That stuff was legit and only 5 bucks. Dinners were forgettable though. Weird Mexican stuff with processed nacho cheese? Meat paste egg rolls? Whatever the hell that salad stuff was? However, there was a TON of free liquids including copious amounts of booze, juice, Gatorade, and coffee. That made things extremely helpful in battling the blistering heat and getting hjammered (no typo) come party time.

Hippy bullshit. This has been bugging me for a long time and I am going to bring it up now. I am so god damn tired of the PC/green peace/sensitive crap associated with ultimate players. COME ON!! Yes I am a male, yes I am heterosexual, and yes I want to eat meat. In the food line, the first thing asked was not “chicken or beef?”, it wasn’t “pig or fish?”, it was “are you vegetarian?”. Really? Since when did eating meat become this unpopular? We have been doing it for a million years and now it’s a crime against nature? It’s an unhealthy lifestyle? It’s unsustainable? You guys are almost as bad as the Atkins nuts. Maybe I am just part of a sport that has a lot of green minded people and I suppose that is ok. It’s like being a Pink Floyd fan as well as a stoner, but I am going to bitch anyway.

Yeah and after the finals, I sucked it up and my drunk ass stayed and picked up trash. Most folks left but I was a contributor to the mess and I wanted to do my part. I walked around for like 20 minutes rounding up garbage. However, when I went over to the stockpile I got frowns because I didn’t separate the recyclables from the non-recyclables. Are you fucking serious? Have you ever been to a sporting event or concert? Large groups of people don’t pick up after themselves. That is why people are paid to pick up trash. Get used to it. And when someone actually sacks up and does pick up after themselves, you are going to give them shit for not sorting it? I was pissed, but drunk, so I probably overreacted. But come on!

And the whole sex thing, yes I sometimes use words like “raped”, yes I am going to draw attention to hot women in ultimate (in what I believe to be a respectful manner) and yes I like to tell offensive stories/jokes. Sorry, I really enjoy having that Y chromosome and I act like I have a pair. I try and keep it clean here but have any of you ever let yourselves laugh? I am having a kick ass time in my 20’s and securing a topnotch future in the process, not to mention entertaining some people in the process. I’m not going to be like this in 20 years (I hope?) but I will have the satisfaction that I did it right when I was young and I am not going to be a 40-something in a midlife crisis because I haven’t had any fun. Folks, it’s called age appropriate behavior. Enjoy life and don’t be a BUZZ KILL!! For help, watch more Family Guy and less Lifetime.

(I am probably barking up the wrong tree and I am going to get a lot of “Get used to it Match” but god, no wonder people make fun of our game and call it things like “fag-toss”. Not my words, so don’t give me that homophobic crap.)

Closing Thoughts

In any event, I loved Kaimana. I am not much of a camper because my dad drank and sucked at taking care of his sons, so I was a bit unprepared, but I had a great time none the less. I hope to return in 2009 with more friends than enemies, but we’ll have to wait and see. Thank you to the TD crew, you guys run a hell of tournament and I can see why the best in the world come all the way to your polo fields to rock out under the sun. Thank you to my team organizers (Pro and Ross) as well as our team mom (Becky), you gave me something I have wanted for a long time. Thank you to my Texas homies, you made this weekend unreal. Thanks Billings for being Billings. Thanks Hartwell for being a friend when you should have been one 3 years ago. Thank you to my teammates, you let a fat red head enjoy ultimate he can’t get in Connecticut. Thanks to anyone that laughs at my spittle and doesn’t toss too much shit at me when I unload it all over the place. And thank you for taking the time to read this, I am nothing without my audience.

Next stop Paganello?

just my thoughts

match diesel

Jerseys to Sport and Jerseys to Burn

So I was thinking about all the jerseys out there that I wish I had and for symmetry I was also thinking about all the jerseys out there that I wish I could watch burn. Ok maybe not burn, but jerseys I don't like.

Top on my list to own would be the Stanford's 2002 jerseys. Great White/Black backgrounds with a sick red logo. These things are awesome and Stanford went an unheard of 37-1 that year managing to win Chico, Santa Barbara, Stanford, Davis, Easterns, Sectionals, Regionals, and Nationals. They also made the finals at Kaimana but lost to this team with some guy named Mike Grant on it. Notable Holders: Bart Watson (Jam), Nick Handler (Revolver), Mike Whitaker (Bravo), Jit Bhattacharya (Revolver), Danny Cox (Revolver). Truth be told however, I actually like the 2003 Stanford 2003 Stanford jerseys better but that was the year they failed to make nationals. There was actually a guy on my winter league team last year that has one, Cameron Shelton. I woulda mugged him for it, if I could catch him. Their new ones are also pretty bad ass and I especially like how they have the names of each player on the back.

Next would have to be Team Canada from World's 2004 . I like this one because the blend of the Furious Monkey and the Candian Maple Leaf is pretty stellar. This team also just happened to be the best team in the world at the time. I would have this one at #1 but I already have 2 Furious jerseys so I suppose I can't be greedy. These things are freaking sweet though. Notable Holders: Mike Grant, Andrew Lugsdin, Oscar Pottinger, Al Nichols, Jeff Cruikshank, Kirk Savage etc..(Furious). I also think that their new red jerseys are awesome, but we all know what they did this year.

One jersey that has been constant through the years and always seems to strike fear into the hearts off opponenets everywhere is the Colorado Gold. I know that UCSD has fallen to the boys wearing these more times than I care to count. I think this jersey is particularly awesome because the logo is very classical and the gold is a color that I don't think anyother major college team can boast, making it unmistakeable and just as intimidating. They wore this jersey in the 2005 finals and lost so I guess it can't be that intimidating. Then again they wore black in 2004 when they won it all and in 2007 when they lost in the finals. I suppose its a crap shoot but if you see gold on the other line, you know you are in for a tough game. Notable Holders: Richter, Beau, Chicken, JV, Jolian, Parker etc...(Bravo)

Another one that comes to mind that I wouldn't mind sacraficing something significant for is a 2004 No Tsu Oh jersey. No Tsu Oh is a pickup team of basically the best 15 guys in the world and they play at a beach tournament in Italy every spring called Paganello. No Tsu Oh is a team that is loosely connected to the orginal Houston Houndz, a club team out of Houston. The name is not exactly creative, just Houston spelled backwards. They have won this tournament several times and they have awesome jerseys every year. In 2004 though, their jerseys were particularly sweet, what with the retro Houston Astros layout. Notable Holders: Mike Grant (Furious), Damien Scott (Jam), and Mike Namkung (Jam). On a sad note, No Tsu Oh failed to win this tourney this past year and the grass equivalent, Nada Mooger, failed to win Kaimana stopping their streak at 7 in a row. Tough year, but hey they all have overflowing trophy cases anyway.

Following this trend of all-star pick up teams, I think the absolute holy grail for jerseys would be an MLU NW Wolves jersey. This team was the ultimate (ha, play on words) fantasy team in that it was the combination of the two best club teams in the world (Furious and Sockeye). The colors weren't great and neither was the mascot but to be able to wear a jersey that carries such a symbol for elite ultimate has got to be pretty awesome. The best part about the UvTv footage from Potlatch that year was the time outs. I mean you have Buruss or Lugsdin calling plays in the huddle and he is rattling off, "I wanna see Moses, Shank as dump, Al Bob at the front of the stack etc.." I mean come on. That'd be like Steve Nash in the huddle and calling on Kevin Garnett to get the rebound, dish it to Kobe to make his own shot and if that doesn't work, give it to LeBron to go the hole. I wonder if there is a team out there that would be able to beat that MLU team (given sufficient practice time). I also like how the names are on the jerseys and they have the numbers on the front and back. To be totally honest I think the SW Entourage jerseys were probably the best MLU jerseys. Most original team name and logo, but the NW won it all and so their green and grey stands for quite a lot. Notable Holders: Mike Grant (Furious), Chase (Sockeye), Alex Nord (Sockeye), Andrew Lungsdin (Sockeye), Roger Crafts (Sockeye), Al Nichols (Furious), you get the picture.


Lastly I think another jersey that I would love to have in my closet would be the Black 2001 Carleton jerseys. This team was absolutely stacked and half of them are now on Sockeye. Nord was wearing this jersey when he made his epic concussion sky and when he toed the line against UCSB in the semis. They also had white and red jerseys at nationals that year but I like the black and red ones better. Notbale Holders: Alex Nord (Sockeye), Sam O'brien (Sockeye), Chase Sparling-Beckley (Sockeye), and Jimmy Chu (Condors). I think it is also funny that Carleton makes just about every color permuation of logo and jersey you could ever imagine and who wouldn't, their logo is probably one of the best ever in ultimate.

Ok now for those jerseys that I wouldn't miss if they vanished from the face of the earth

First and foremost, those god awful Black Tide series jerseys. Oh do I hate those things. Every year we would see Santa Barbara at SoCal, Santa Barbara Invite, Stanford, Centex, Vegas the works and they always have the same black jerseys with the same oil rig logo on the back, no numbers, just BLAAAACK TIDE (yuck). Anyway, for sectionals, regionals, and nationals they pull out those atrocious two toned POS. I suppose the advantage is that you never have to chose between light and dark, you just always have yellow dipped in blue. There are a lot of folks out there that think that these jerseys are the absolute best ever and I could not disagree more. I think that they are original but if I never saw another one of these the rest of my life it would be too soon. Notable Holders: Mike Namkung (Jam), Greg Husak (Condors), Brandon Steets (Jam), and Jason Seidler (Condors). I am sure I am going to get some angry responses over this one and I will say that I have nothing but respect for the players that pulled these jerseys over their heads, but I don't have to like them.

Another jersey that has left some visual stains in my brain is the Brown 2005. I mean come on, when has there ever been a champion with weaker jerseys? I mean they have made progress, they changed it to some sort of fish thing, but anything would be better than just "BROWN" across the jersey. I will say that there are probably some nostalgic reasons and maybe some pride issues concerning these jerseys but boy are they just butt ugly. When I saw these at nationals I thought 2 things immediately 1) Wow, Brown is the real deal, that #2 is legit and 2) So thats the best an ivy league ultimate power house can come up with in the jersey department? What? Aren't there like graphic design or whatever majors at Brown? I make fun but they are good, everyone knows that, but the last time they won it, their jerseys sucked. Notable Holders: Josh Zipperstein (Chain Lighting) and Colin Mahoney (Tandem).

Now in 1999 DoG was the best and they knew it. Everyone knew it. During the late '90s, DoG was far and away the best ultimate team and maybe the best in history, or at least tied for that title with NYNY. This team came to San Diego and won their 6th national championship and earned the right to represent the US in 2000 in Germany for World's. Now the only thing worse than having a team kick ass like this and really beat everybody in every way, is a team that does all this and has these jerseys. I mean come on, not even a logo, but more of a drug induced halucination with the psychodelic color scheme to boot. I can't believe they got Forch to put this on. Well I am sure he was humbled with the oppurtunity, but over the years they developed (slowly) to a decent logo but yellow and black? At least they had an OK logo which Parinella simply describes as "art". As of their final year in existence they had come a long way and I am sure Forch was glad to finally get something a little more stylish. I will say that having your team name on a jersey that says Team USA Germany World's 2000 has got to be pretty sweet and I am sure thats why Parinella still plays in that old rag. Notable Holders (DoG 1999): Jim Parinella (DoG), Fortunant Mueller (Boston), Justin Safdie (Jam), Steve Mooney (DoG).

Just my thoughts

match diesel

Ultimate Upsets

I was watching my favorite college basketball team (Kentucky) get rocked by Gardner-Webb by 16 the other day and it made me think about upsets in the ultimate community.

I first want to say I think that tournaments outside the series are basically irrelevant. I can understand that there are a lot of great games out there, but looking at non-series tournaments is a bit too subjective. You never know about injuries, when teams are gonna peak, and who is trying their hardest (especially in club). With that in mind I thought I would talk about a few upsets that I think are interesting.

Delaware 15 Florida 13, College Nationals 2007 (Pool Play)
First and foremost, probably the biggest upset in college ultimate over the last few years has got to be Delaware over Florida this past year at nationals. I made predictions for college nationals and this was the only game I got wrong. I mean come on, Florida, former champion, the 2 seed in the tournament, favorites to make at least semis. Delaware, an up and coming team, has never played in bracket play at nationals, the 11 seed and WHAM!! They take down Florida 15-13 in the first game of pool play. The year before Florida only had 15 points scored on them in all of pool play (actually it was 22, but who's counting). They also played Delaware last year and took them out 15-5. However, in 2007, minus TG, the gators get upset HUGE in the first game. I wish I could have been there to watch it but I was over at the Stanford/Georgia game. Regardless, Delaware really showed in 1 game that the Metro East isn't all that bad. I have a friend on the team, Dan Cuoco, and he told me going into nationals 2006 that they were gonna turn some heads at nationals. Didn't happen that year but it DID happen in 2007. Good for Sideshow. Too bad they left it all on the field and an absolutely gassed team got their tits lit by Oregon 15-3 and they lost again to Indiana 15-10. Oh well maybe Delaware will make Pre-Quarters next year, good luck to them.

Georgia 17 Colorado 16, College Nationals 2006 (Quarterfinals)
Another huge upset that I also think was really interesting, albeit depressing for my region, was the Georgia over Colorado quarterfinals game at nationals in 2006. This game was actually really exciting to watch because Beau and Dylan were absolutely tearing it up. I think that Colorado came in wayyy over confident and it hurt them in the end. They had been to the finals the previous 2 years and had a great team with Jolian, Beau, Rabbit, Chicken, etc... However, the previous day they pulled out an AMAZING double game point win against Stanford. I feel like this should have been a wake up call to Mama Bird letting them know about their weaknesses. In my opinion I think the major weakness of Colorado that year was their D line. Their O Line was ridiculous and like most elite teams now a days, they played a strict O/D line game. However, this is college, everyone is bound to screw up at some point. I think that Colorado assumed their O line was perfect (and it was close) and their D line would get them the breaks they needed to win. However, there are some good defenders out there and they got breaks that Colorado wasn't expecting. In the Georgia game, the Colorado D line could not put the disc in the end zone. They have some great defenders, and they would generate Ds, but they would just give it back. I guess that’s what happens when your best offensive players are on the sideline. Anyway, by the second half, Georgia was already up enough and despite the fact that Beau and Chicken played every remaining point, they didn't have the time to get back in the game and they lost 17-16. This game showed me two things, 1) Dylan is really good. He played so well and I think it was when he peaked. He didn't seem as good in 2007 but this game, he was on. 2) Beau is ridiculous. I mean he had jumped over David "Runner" Flock at Regionals that year but I can remember a huck going up to Dylan and maybe Jolian was covering him. From half way across the field Beau comes a running and as usual, skies the piss out of both of them. Guy is an athlete.

UCSB 15 Colorado 11, SW College Regionals 2004 (Finals)
Keeping with the Colorado upsets, I think the UCSB/Colorado regional finals game in 2004 is another great example of an epic upset. Since I have played disc Colorado has always won the SW. They won it this year and last year and the year before and so on. However, arguably the best Colorado team (2004 Champions) lost in the regional finals to a soon to be DQ'd UCSB Black Tide team. Now this team got DQ'd but Nate Bouxsein was not one of their marquee players. He was a better version of Sean Laing. An experienced guy with good disc skills that was there to support the team, not dominate, so despite the fact that he got UCSB booted form natties, doesn't mean he really helped them get there on the field. Now I have talked about this game a number of times, and I just want to express how big a deal this game was. I mean this Colorado team had everyone, there weren't any "just graduated" players worth mentioning. Richter, Parker, Beau (at his best), Rabbit, Chicken, JV, they were all there. This was the Colorado team that beat Cal 15-7 to win nationals and they lost to UCSB? Black Tide? Yeah they were good in the late 90's and what not but they hadn’t made a nationals run in some time. Yet their zone D completely shut down Colorado's offense, in a stadium no less. How do you do that? Regardless, this game was amazing to watch not because I liked UCSB (in fact I hated them) but just because I was there, I got to witness a perfect team get pwned. It did suck however because then UCSD had to play a pissed off Colorado team and Beau went up and down the field on Kubiak and Colorado won 15-11.

UNC Wilmington 17 Carleton 16, College Nationals 2001 (Pool Play)
If you look back a bit further another great college upset that needs to be remembered (and I think Gerics will agree) is the UNC-Wilmington/Carleton game at nationals in 2001. This was the last time a team lost a pool play game yet still won nationals. In Devens, the year Nord went horizontal over a Colorado player and knocked himself out, they lost a pool play game. UNCW beat them on double game point (17-16) in the second round of pool play. That has got to feel so bizarre. You beat a team that wins nationals AT nationals. This is similar to the Delaware/Florida game in that UNCW didn't manage to win another pool play game, but at least they took down CUT. I really think a game like this should never be forgotten (well maybe forgotten by that CUT team but no one else) because it goes to show you that not every national champ is perfect. I know Wisconsin basically treated the competition at nationals this year like asian schoolgirls at my house this past year but these teams can still lose. Florida can, Colorado can, CUT can. As Chris Berman says, "upsets are why we play the game" and I think college players out there should know that a seed or a ranking is just an arbitrary number and any team can have a bad game, any team can lose and any team can win.

UCSD 15 Georgia 6, College Nationals 2005 (Pool Play)
In keeping with the college theme, another upset that was awesome was the UCSD/Georgia upset in 2005. I am biased cuz I was a squid, but that game was so cool. You have Georgia, a team that was really breaking into the elite circle with their first 1 seed (4th overall). They were the 13th seed in 2003. First pool play game was against UCSD, the 9th seed, and the Air Squids took Jo-Jah down 15-6. This was awesome because it was totally unexpected. I thought Ice (UCSD A) was gonna have some serious trouble against such a hot team but Georgia's composure really was not there and they went down without much of a fight. This game was the main reason UCSD made semis that year, because this, and Georgia taking out UBC, spring boarded us to win the pool and we got to skip pre-quarters. Georgia did come out on top in pre-quarters but had to play a very experienced Stanford team. They were so close to winning that game but a costly huck perpendicular to the field on double game sent Stanford to the semis AGAIN and Georgia out of it.

Oregon 15 Stanford 13, NW College Regionals 2003 (Semifinals)
Another college upset that I think is HUGE is the 2003 NW Regional semifinals game between Oregon and Stanford. What is worth mentioning is that Stanford had won nationals the previous year with a 37-1 record (one of the best teams in history), but for whatever reason, there was only 1 bid for the NW the following year. In any event, Stanford and Oregon meet in the semifinals. This was Wiggins’ 5th and last year and this game is where this picture of Nick Handler comes from. However, apparently, everything went Oregon’s way (or so a friend of mine, Cameron Shelton, who was on the Stanford team tells me) and Oregon made it to the finals. I wish I had more information concerning this game, but I just can't find it. In any event, I think Oregon went on to beat Oregon State in the finals and Ego made it to nationals as the 2 seed but lost in the finals to Wisconsin. This is probably the 1 game I wish I knew more about. I would also like to mention that since 2002, this was the only year that Stanford has not made at least semis at nationals. It also seems like Stanford and Oregon have a serious rivalry, very Wisconsin/Carleton esque. In 2006 Stanford was the 1 seed going into Regionals. They rip through their pool and Western Washington to make the finals against Aaron Bell and Ego, who had just taken out Oscar Pottinger, Morgan Hibbert, and the rest of the 2nd seeded UBC Thunderbirds. In this game, Oregon completely blew Stanford away (something that just isn't done) 15-10. I don't know if Stanford was over confident or what. However, it did set up a great Robbie vs Oscar game in the backdoor finals and Stanford made nationals. I would also like to add that Stanford did get the last laugh though. At nationals, as if by some stroke of good/bad luck Stanford and Oregon meet in quarters after Stanford toppled Michigan in pre-quarters and Oregon had won their pool. This game would be all Stanford though and they won 15-11 making semis AGAIN and managed to be the 2nd team to upset a pool winner that year. Oregon was relegated to a consolation game with UCSD to see who would get the strength bid, the NW or SW and Oregon did what they always do to UCSD, won, 15-11. One of the few reasons why I butt heads with Greenough.

Rhino 14 Justice League 13, NW Club Regionals 2006 (Pool Play)
Taking a break from college, I think another great upset was the pool play game between Rhino/Justice League at NW Regionals last year. You have Justice League (aka Jam) and they are up and down all year, talented but not polished. They did win Solstice by by beating Rhino. Actually there is a great ultivillage interview after that game with Kevin Cissna where he acknowledges that Rhino is good and will be tough to be beat in the series, foreshadowing? Needless to say, JL was an elite team, period. However, Regionals was not their tournament. There were 4 bids to nationals that year and all JL had to do was get past Rhino or Revolver. They had beaten Revolver 13-10 at sectionals but boy did they have a tough Regionals. They lost to Rhino (6 seed, JL was 3) in pool play 13-14, ok, lets not panic. Then they lost to Revolver by the same score in the backdoor semis. Ok, now it's crunch time. The prospect of not making nationals is becoming very real. Justice League now has to beat Invictus and then Rhino to take the last bid to nationals. They take out Invictus 15-9 but then get taken out BIG time by the same score only it was Rhino 15 and JL 9. This was really surprising. I suppose it just goes to show you that winning is about a team effort and despite the talent, Rhino was just a better team and peaked at the right time. They had a forgettable performance at Nationals but boy I am sure they relished that JL upset. I think the bigger story than the 4th place game, was the pool play game. Justice League was really knocked down a few pegs by not winning their pool and I think it put them in a huge hole. They would have to go through the best young teams in the country to get out of the region and I think all those games just go to them. Had they won that pool play game and been playing from ahead in bracket play as opposed to being the under dog, maybe they would have made nationals. Regardless, they came back with a vengeance this past year and made semis. Good for Idris, Cissna, Watson, Damien, Gabe, Hodges, and the rest of the Frisco gang.

Rival 15 Shazam 12, Mixed Club Nationals 2007 (Pool Play)
Another awesome upset, and a game that is analogous to the Carleton/UNCW game, is the Rival/Shazam pool play game 3 weeks ago. Here you have Shazam, everyone's favorite to win nationals by leaps and bounds but they lose in pool play to Rival, the 8 seed?!? Shazam had only lost once the entire year (Brass Monkey 13-11 at Labor Day) yet they go down relatively big 15-12 to the 2 seed in their pool. This must have been huge for this Atlanta based team seeing that they had not beaten a top tier team all year. Kendra from Slow White told me that their offense (Rival) is awesome and considering the lack of wind early at nationals this year, I suppose the results aren't too surprising. Too bad they never got to face off again, I wonder what Bestock and the rest of the Seattle folks would have done to Rival in bracket play. AMP would get the honors and got the better of them 15-10 in quarters. I do hope that this game, as well as the UNCW/CUT games are not soon forgotten. As JP said in Angels in the Outfield, "It could happen".

Vagabonds 16 Team USA 15, Potlatch 2005 (Semifinals)
Thinking about coed, another game that must have been spectacular to be on the winning side of was the Vagabonds/Team USA game at Potlatch in 2005. Now this isn't a series game, but it's still a pretty cool story. You have Team USA, who was hand picked by the UPA and coached by Ted Munter. Now let me make sure I articulate this well. This Team USA was going to World's in Germany. This is not like the WUCC World's in Perth last year or the WUGC World's coming up next year in Vancouver (confusing I know). This World's is a coed tournament where the players are chosen, it's not like a team earns the chance to make it to this particular World's. This Team USA had a collection of all stars that were chosen not only based on their ultimate skills but their service to the game as well. It had greats like Zipp, Watson, Namkung, Miranda Roth, and Chase. However, it was not a team per se, like Sockeye will be next year. Anyway, you have this all-star team (Justice League-esque) playing at Potlatch as a warm up for World's. They had already won Poultry Days and looked like they were the best coed team in the country (better be). They managed to take down Canada in the showcase game (great game) and were looking good, at least to make the finals. However, the Vagabonds, a pickup team from Portland, had other plans. They took down team USA in the semifinals, I don't know what the score was, I had to catch a flight. This propelled Vagabonds to the finals where they lost to Team Canada. I think it is worth mentioning however that team USA probably got a wake up call and went on to dominate at World's beating Australia 13-11 in the gold medal game. I would imagine Keith Monahan gets drunk at bars and talks about how the Vagabonds were the best co-ed team back in '05, at least I would. But he's got a few club championships to keep him happy.

Truck Stop 15 Furious George 10, Club Nationals 2007 (Pool Play)
Another game that is a huge upset (and I don't want to write this but I will) is the Truck Stop/Furious game a nationals this past year. I think this is up there as the biggest upset in recent club ultimate history. I think Furious was better than 15-0 in pool play over the years and that loss to the boys from DC was probably earth shattering. Had Furious actually pulled that game out they might have made a decent showing at nationals. It seems like Furious doesn't enjoy losing and really doesn't play their best once the odds are heavily stacked against them. I think everyone in the country was surprised by this game. I am curious to know what feeling was more intense, Furious' depression or TS's elation. I would like to go with the latter, but I think it's the former. In any event, hopefully Furious re-groups after this and I think TS will be able to pick up some serious talent now that they have a win like this and a great overall nationals performance under their belt.

Illinois X 16, NC State 14, College Nationals 2003 (Pool Play)
I am going to be honest, I don't know a whole lot about this last game but I know it was a big deal. NC State was looking very good this year. They were 37-1 going into nationals, they had 3 tournament wins (probably some combination of Terminus, Southers, Easterns and Ultimax) and because Stanford lost at their regional tournament, they were granted the #1 seed at nationals. Now this pre-dates Centex so there was no nation wide tournament before nationals that really helped establish who was the best in the country. Oregon had won Pres Day (the best college tournament on the west coast at the time) as well as the NW region so they were given the #2 seed at nationals. Wisconsin and Carleton were the other 1 seeds. I like to think that this NC State team was not dissimilar to Queens-Kingston back in 2005. They were a team that had a good record but hadn't necessarily seen the best in the country. Needless to say they took out Michigan (the 3 seed) 15-10 but then played a really close regional rematch against Georgia 15-13. This left them moderately gassed for Illinois X (2nd seed, 8th overall) who took them out 16-14. NC State then went on to pre-quarters against another regional rival, William and Mary, and lost 15-11 sending them from the 1 seed all the way down to a 12th place finish. I think it is also worth mentioning that at that same nationals, Colorado (10th seed) went from a 1-2 pool play showing all the way to the semis with huge wins over higher seeded Ohio State (7th) and Illinois (8th). They were also the only team at nationals that year to score more than 10 points on Wisconsin, 15-12 in semis. Lastly, the Oregon/CUT semis that year was probably one the best games in the history of college disc. The epic Chase/Seth picture (cover of Parinella's book) is from that game. Can you believe that Chase (CUT) and Seth/Ben (Oregon) are now team mates on Sockeye? And Jimmy Chu (CUT) used to be in that mix as well before he moved to LA. That just seems weird to me.

I am sure that there are a ton of other games out there that I have neglected to mention. Feel free to contribute.

just my thoughts

match diesel

Notable Tourney Performances

I thought that since the series is still in full swing, i would write about some tournament performances that I think are very interesting over the last 5 years or so.

North Carolina Darkside, Stanford Invite 2004 - This was a stellar performance by UNC. They get a the bid to stanford and are slated as the 15 seed. That is bascially dead last because they give the 16th seed to the stanford qualifier winner. In any event, UNC comes out huge on saturday and beats Stanford in pool play, wow. Ends up making it all the way to the finals and falls just short of winning the tournament. They had to face off against Stanford again in the finals where they lost on double game point 16-17. They broke 13 seeds and I am sure enjoyed themselves on the west coast.

UCSB Black Tide, SW Regionals 2004 - Arguably the best UCSB team in the 21st centruy. Take down UCSD at sectionals and in semis at Regionals and have to face Colorado in the finals. Colorado had won the past 2 previous regional finals game and was going for the trifecta. This colorado team had Beau, Richter, Chicken, JV and Parker. Needless to say, Tim Henshaw, Mike Brown and the ineligble Nate Bouxsein took them down 15-11 in a stellar game that had UCSB own Colorado's hammer happy zone offense. Too bad UCSB got DQ'd and Colorado went on to win it all.

Florida, Trouble in Vegas 2006 - This tournament was the first showing that Florida was the real deal. They had previously won the Florida Winter Classic, but beating CUT in the finals and taking down Wisconsin, not to mention other college national qualifiers was their acid test. This tourney result showed that the likes of TG and Kurt Gibson were the best in the country and could potentially do the unthinkable, go to nationals for the 1st time as the #1 seed and win it all.

Stanford Bloodthirsty, Kaimana 2002 - This has been, historically, the best college ultimate team ever (maybe not anymore), but their dominance has never been more prominent than in Hawaii in February 2002. They travel to Kaimana, as usual, only this year, they bring it. They go a spectacular 7-2 making it all the way to the finals, beating eilite pick up squads like Grey Tide. One would think a flashy college squad would go down fast and quiet to some cagey experienced veterans, but these guys came to ball. However, they hit a brick wall known as Nada Mooger and fall 17-12. However, they were down 9-2 at half and fought them 10-8 in the 2nd half, not bad for a bunch of under age, barely shaving, undergrads.

Stanford Superfly, College Nationals 2007 - This womens team showed 2 things at this tourney, 1) heart and 2) experience. Stanford has won like 4 college national titles in the last 6 years and this past year was probably their toughest. They come in as the #5 seed (nothing special) and in retrospect, how can a national champ come in ranked 5th? I'll tell you, the weather sucked and they were the only ones that could play in the wind. In any event, they start out OK, and go 2-1 in pool play, losing in the last round to the burning skirts. However, they claw tooth and nail to win prequarters/quarters/semis/finals. I don't know of another champion that has had to play in pre-quarters, not to mention get through quarters and semis by a combined 5 points. I am sure that the finals rematch between Stanford and UCSB was spectacular for Stanford taking them down 15-7 (after a 15-11 loss in pool play).

Wisconsin Hodags, Centex/Nationals 2007 - This team is freaking good and there is no more proof than them completely dominating at centex and nationals, a feat that has never been done. For the first 3 years of Centex, the winner was always the loser in the finals at nationals. Colorado loses 14-15 to Cal at Centex and Wins 15-7 at nationals (2004), Colorado rolls Florida 15-7 but loses to Brown at nationals (2005), Florida loses 14-15 to Wisconsin only to beat them 15-12 at nationals (2006). Wisconsin was better than the curse, better than the rest, they stand alone. I am glad I never had to play them.

UCSD Air Squids, College Nationals 2005 - After years of taking a back seat to UCSB and Colorado, UCSD finally earns its bid to nationals. Comes in ranked 9th, the best seed for a non #1 seed at natties. Takes on Georgia in the first round and shocks Dylan 15-6 (that was a fun game to watch). As per usual, we lose to UBC (Oscar and Morgan owned UCSD) 16-17. However, by some miracle of existence, UBC loses to a revamped Georgia and by differential UCSD makes it into quarters. How serendipitous? Instead of having to play Wisconsin, Colorado, or Standford in quarters, we draw the winner of Texas and Queens Kingston, Texas, which is a much better game than we could have dreamed for. manage to cruise into Semis (without a close win) and play against Colorado. We still choke though losing 15-13 to our regional rivals. If only Phelps were there. Not every team in semis is missing their all region deep/defender/etc... cuz he is abroad for a year.

Chain Lighting, Club Nationals 2006 - Not unlike UCSD of 2005, these guys went from a 10 seed all the way to semis. Great wins over Sub-Zero, Revolver and Ring, not to mention a close 14-15 loss to the eventual champs, Sockeye, in power pools. I don't think anyone had John Hammond, Dylan and Jason Simpson pegged for the semis, but they definitely earned it. Too bad they didn't have it against a more dominant Furious. Maybe Zipp will sling this late peaking team to another semis berth or maybe the finals.

Southeast Storm, Potlatch 2006 - This was 1 of 4 MLU teams at Potlatch and I think was the most surprising. After winning college nationals Kurt and TG were brought up to the big boy table to play with the club all stars. Seeing that they are truly as good as billed, and maybe in better shape, they teamed up to be the best fantasy 1, 2 punch. SE Storm shocked most, me at least, and made it to the finals where they almost won. I think most figured the NW would roll seeing that they were all FG or Socekye guys, but SE held tough and showed that the region with the best combination of warm and active weather can ball.

Mischef, Club Nationals 2006 - Coming in as the 2nd seed, expectations are always high. But after 2 close pool play games (15-12 to poodle club, 4 seed, and 16-15 to 2nd seed AMP) I didn't think Mischef could win the 8 games to win natties. Power pool was more or less the same, win 15-12 (gendors), win 15-13 (slow shite), on to quarters. A barn burner against quarter final against Tandem (15-13), a 15-13 semifinal close one (Gendors) and then another game against Slow, this time they won it all, 15-11. Thats a lot of points to play. I could not believe that Mischef kept winning these close ones. They won their first game easy (15-9) but after that they finished with a combined score of 106-89, thats an average score of 15-13. By comparison, Fury went 120-45 or an average of 15-5/6. Lots of heart/legs on that Mischef squad, they ain't gonna blink at the wire.

Ring of Fire, Club Nationals 2002 - This team came in ranked 8th and had a decent run through pool play (2-1) and power pools (1-1). They draw Bravo in quarters (who came out 2nd in power pools after a great win over Furious) and manage to win a universe point thriller 15-14. Then they have to play Sockeye who looked pretty legit after owning in power pools. For whatever reason they roll the fish 15-8 and successfully claw their way into the finals. They have to play Furious again and go down 17-12, but they brought it and I am sure they were as intense as I am long winded.

Carleton, College Nationals 2001 - They come out the 4 seed and potential national champion. However, they get shocked in the first round of pool play, 16-17 by UNC-Wilmington. However, rather than hang their heads, they kept it together and rode Nord all the way to the finals, winning most games by 5 or more. I think they are one of only a few teams to ever win college nationals without a perfect memorial day record. Never the less, they still won it all. Hopefully natties will be in Devens again while I am stuck in New Haven.

Next week will be my preview for natties. Good luck to all remaining teams in their regional tournaments.

Match Diesel

Sports Scandals - Ultimate

So in sports today there are 2 major scandals going on, the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal and the Donaghy gambling situation. First, I think the situation is initally hilarious because these two scandals just happen to involve sports that are not in season. How happy are Tom Jackson or Steven A Smith that they get to get pulled out of seasonal retirement to comment on occurances in their respective sports (football and basketball, respectively) despite the fact that no one will really care about either sport for another 1-2 months. Now NFL/NBA Live at 1:30am on ESPN has some substance. I suppose this is not unlike the summer of 2005 when Terrell Owens was headlining ESPN with his training camp antics. In any event, I think that these two situations (Vick and Donaghy) are very interesting. For some insight into either one check out espn.com and for the Donaghy story, check out Bill Simmons' July 24th article because it is really cool.

Ok, long into, why do we care? After hearing about all of these scandals I began to think about scandal in the realm of ultimate and I immediately remembered probably the biggest and only real scandal (that I can think of) in recent memory. I am referring to the UCSB Black Tide disqualification in May of 2004. I thought it would be interesting to give my account of the situation considering the fact that I was moderately affected by the situation.

The story (at least from my perspective) begins at Sectionals in 2004. Now I was no A team star, in fact I was just 1 of 2 B team captains for UCSD B. However, in 2004 UCSD was a decent squad. We were coming off a good year (I didn't really know all the ins and outs of tournament performance at the time, so i don't really know how good we were record wise), but more importantly, it was the year after we lost on double game point to Colorado in the game to go to nationals. We only had 1 bid that year (2003) out of the SW and Colorado went on to make semis and be the only team to score double digits on Wisconsin in Texas. In any event, in my eyes, we were clearly the best So-Cal team. However, at sectionals that year Black Tide beat our A team 15-11 and won the sectional tournament. Yikes, not good for our moral, and Black Tde seemed like the team that was gonna take either the 2 spot for nationals that year with Colorado taking #1. So a few weeks later, regionals takes place in Santa Barbara. As usual Colorado, UCSB, and UCSD all crusie through their games en-route to the 1 spot semis. The semifinals (if I remember right) were Colorado/Arizona and UCSB/UCSD. Colorado steam rolls Arizona and I watched Black Tide take down our A squad 15-11, again. So its Colorado vs Black Tide in the finals. Now this was Beau's freshman year and this was the year Colorado won nationals by beating Cal 15-7 in the finals. Colorado had arguably the best offense ever assembled with Parker and Chicken as handlers, Richter (callahan winner that year) and JV as middle cutters and Beau as a deep. Quite intimidating. But what will be forgotten about that year is how good Santa Barbara was. The team was led by the very talented, albeit scary as hell, Mike Brown who had the likes of Asa Wilson, Jonathan Hester, Rory Orloff and most of all Tim "Hand" Henshaw-Plath. Now most folks have never heard of "Hand" but this dude was fucking good. The guy was awesome in the air, a smart player, great throws and had several years of black tide disc to look forward too. However, I think he tore his ACL (I think) and never really broke out. Too bad.

So, the finals. UCSB comes out with their sterotypical zone D and it literally shuts down Colorado. Despite playing in UCSB's stadium with little wind, Parker's hammers sail out of bounds and UCSB takes control. I'd also like to mention that "Hand" managed to sky the crap out of Beau on a huck. However, he spiked the disc in celebration while not being in the endzone, turn over, Colorado's disc. In any event, UCSB shocked the #2 team in the country (Cal being #1 after beating Colorado 15-14 at the first Centex) 15-11. In that game i believe Mike Brown laid out into a team mate, a no-namer in Nate Bouxsein, and I think broke his jaw if memory serves me right. This sucked for several reasons, 1) Nate was actually a nice guy amongst arguably the douchiest UCSB team ever 2) he was one of 2 captains and 3) It took him out of the series (an irony that will surface later). In any event, Colorado is now playing UCSD (coming off a win against Colorado State) in the back door finals. UCSD had only beaten Colorado once in our hostroy (Pres Day '03 show case game) and now had to play colorado in the "game to go" for the second year in a row. This time, there would be no double game point and Colorado's seemingly perfect offense and the indefensible and impervious Beau went up and down the field on our best player, Kubiak, in a 15-11 beating. This game was depressing. UCSD goes down hard. UCSB is elated. First trip to natties in 2 years, they are in good shape. Colorado is shocked but they are still going. UCSD still has yet to get passed either UCSB or Colorado and has yet to break their nationals cherry.

(Sorry for all the exposition, I know I get wordy, I but I just want folks to know how good UCSB was that year and how important this next series of events were given the previous occurences.)

Now for the scandal. This was back in the day when Greenough or whoever was trying to set the tone for UPA registration and legitmacy and rightfully so. In any event, the UPA finds out that Nate Bouxsein actually is a grad student at UCSB and was an undergrad/captain at Northwestern University. This is quite perplexing considering 2004 was his 4th year on Black Tide and would make him wayyy out of eligibility. In order to set an example, Greenough decided that Nate's eligibility was invalid and he deemed Nate ineligible and because he had played for UCSB through the series, Black Tide now had an erroneous roster and were now disqualified from nationals. Now this was huge for several, obvious reasons. 1) UCSB had just knocked off the #2 team in the country and, in hindsight, could conceivably gone on to win nationals 2) Nate had gotten injured at regionals and would not have played at nationals anyway 3) he was more of a coach than anything and, despite his captainship, was not a play maker on arguably one of the best teams in the country. All told, this was a big deal.

Now as a UCSD student this was actually good news. A friend and team mate of mine had a little brother on UCSB and word got to him that UCSB had been dis-qualified. It was later confirmed when Greenough informed the captains. Later, the captains revealed to our team at our Alumni Day (quite serendipitous) that UCSB had been DQ'd and we were going to take their place. Long story short, we get the 13 seed at nationals, mange to go 1-2 in pool play with a win against MSU and a close loss to Wisconsin (we got raped by Cal). Took down William and Mary in Pre-Quarters allowing us to make quarters and with Colorado's national title, the SW managed to maintain its strength bid. This gave UCSD some long needed confidence and we managed to reload and make another nationals run. This time earning it by taking down UCSB at regionals in 2005 and we made semis (albeit the easiest way possible) giving the SW 3 bids for 2006, and the rest is history.

In any event, I thought that this was a crazy story because 1 single player managed to change not only his own team but change the future of several programs. Had he been eligible or just not played, Black Tide may have earned thier 7th national title, Beau may never have become such an icon, Richter might not have won the callahan, UCSB might have made natties in 2005 with a national title as a recruting tool, UCSD may never have made nationals even to this day, and so on and so on.

I guess peripheral to the whole scandal business, it goes to show you just how important a bid to nationals is. There is always talk about the metro east or the NE or the great lakes possibly getting undeserved bids and I am not saying that they don't deserve them, but realistically, a nationals bid is something to be treasured. It is so difficult to make it to the show and every year there are teams sitting at home on memorial day that could very well dominate at nationals. UCSB only lost to Colorado 16-14 at regionals making Black Tide a serious contender. Had Colorado won that quarters game at nationals in 2006 against Georgia we might have seen Black Tide, not Florida or Colorado or Stanford in the semis, yada yada yada. Take home message, size bids are crap. 20 team nationals format, 4 strength bids, 2 bids per region. That is all.

match diesel