Match is seemingly calling out the Ultimate media so here are some of my person observations. I haven't really dont that much research, just the normal RSD reading, so these are mostly what I have noticed. Im sorry if this reads choppy - i typed this pretty fast, maybe ill edit it later. Anything I got wrong? Please leave a comment.
The West coast season started with Sean Ryan on UCSC's beautiful fields with an ocean view and produced lots of interesting results. The Squid lose to UCLA on DGP to end Saturday which lights a fire under me personally that will remain burning all season. Cal Poly finishes 4th with a bunch of players reaching highpoints in their play simultaneously - can they keep it up? . The Northwest shows their dominance - Stanford over LPC on universe point. Davis takes third.
I am particularly interested in the Northwest results because my brother is a freshman on what seems to be a very talented Davis team (wins over UCSC and Tide at this tourny) and I have many friends on the LPC team (they would have won if that last huck had been 5 feet shorter). I have high hopes for both of those teams, I hadn't seen Cal or Oregon or Western or UBC, but i leave NorCal with a general excitement for my team and for my buddies.
I am the tourney director for the SoCal Warmup at UCSD and it goes smoothly for the most part (Im really upset that Arizona didn't get to come because of an error on our part). This tourney is a warmup event - Tide, UCLA and the Squids bring split squads (we had 3) so not to much can be taken from this but I do have some observations. 1. Long Beach wins the tourney with some nice looking play. They are a contender - they've come a long way as a team in a relatively short period of time. 2. We have some sweet freshmen with serious potential. Look out for Michael "Hyzer" Tillman and Danny "Didj" Broberg both as potential FOTY candidates. 3. Claremont always comes to this tourney with a theme and really plays the part. Last year's manly lumberjacks were real good but didnt the flannel get really hot? This year's baby blue T's with the perfectly stencilled Hodag were perfect. There was cursing and spiking and did one of their guys really take steriods for a month to nail the role? As TD, I should plan more in advance.
SB Invite has always been a important one in my mind. I love coming out of Winter Break's hibernation ( hey, 40F is really cold if you are not used to it) and showing the ultimate world what we've got. There is always a intense aura Saturday morning - its as if everyone is holding their collective breathe and wondering who is for real. Looking into other team's eyes durring the warmup lap, catching up with old friends, there is so much potential to put up a statement. LPC loses to Stanford again on DGP - if only they played at the beginning of the day when LPC's top 7 were fresh... We come out hot which is a real nice contrast to years past. We beat Arizona well but their roster is still in question - are some of their great players returning - I geuss we'll see this weekend. Cal lost the showcase to Tide but I suspect that just decided to give it up cause they already head thier pool won. No matter, they show everyone whats up by crushing LPC and Stanford in the semis and finals.
Vegas - my team decides not to go this year, I go for the observer clinic. Apparently our sport has rules. The obverver clinic was indoors durring the downpour but we saw the carnage when we got to the fields later - it was pretty bad. Correll looked good in their quaters lose to Mama which happend to be my first game ever as an oberserver - who is that 6'8 dude? He's good. I observe the Belladonna/Blu Semi - who is the chick with the dreads? She's good but watching a full game of women's in the wind is pretty hard - they should back crash more. Colorado/Florida final and I get the best seat in the house as an observer. Unfortunatly, it turned out to not be that great of a game: Florida scores with Punt and Z while Colorado is having trouble with basic offense. Brodie has the sickest upwind hammer I have ever seen, what a beast. Yeah he threw or caught 75% of the scores, but its impressive to see a team play to their strengths and adjust to the situation. Yeah, i understand why everyone hates them - its not that fun to play against, but they are pretty savage compeditors - on the last point with the Gators up a few the hard cap sounds. Brodie coulda just let that last Colorado pass go and still have won but he choose to layout shoulder height, full extention, to try and make a play -he missed, cleanly - and got spiked on by the overzealous 'Bird reciever. He gave himself a concusion and earned a lot of respect in my book.
Presday, Stanford, Centex, experiemental observer stuff and of course Sectionals to come when I get back from Long Beach.
2 comments:
Bella Donna chick with dreads: Georgia Bosscher (http://spikingplastic.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1820&g2_serialNumber=2)
"Apparently our sport has rules." Who knew? I don't think I could've made it through a super-windy women's game, props to you. And Brodie has to be player of the year. He is Florida right now, and they are heavy favorites in my opinion. Sure it's not a traditional offense most of the time, but the sport's still advancing. There's a lot of room to work with.
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