Finally

The anticipation of our first FULL tournament was killer. Prior to Sectionals we were a team without a purpose, in a somewhat literal and metaphorical way. We practiced, hung out, worked out, pushed each other, laughed together, yelled, fought, drank together but hadn't experienced the point of it all: playing ultimate. Now obviously we played ultimate, but when you play three times a week with the same people, it doesn't really count. So we did our best, as a team we strived for perfection from each other but were still missing the most vital component. Because of four cancelled tournaments, we hadn't become cohesive and hadn't played to any of our potential.  People were getting angsty to play other teams, practices came a bit drearier, and the soul of the team hadn't come out.  Let me say that, when Pitt plays well, with heart, friends, teammates, brothers - hand in hand - we are a force to be reckoned with; a team that plays some balla' ass ultimate.  We hadn't had the chance to do that yet, and

 we were begging for it.

To reiterate, we were REALLY excited to play. I don't remember much of what happened in the first games other then the fact that we were having fun, running our system and because of it running train. I don't remember much other then it being beautiful outside and just being really 

happy and excited to play. Playing was phenomenal. What struck me as i started to cut and move, go deep, go in, whatever was the fact that my teammates are really fucking good. I remember a point at which i literally made five or six incuts and got the disc each time, moved it quickly and got it right back. In practice people are all over my back, getting an incut is - for the most part - a bitch to do, a defender draped on you, a tight throw, basically you have to be perfect. Here i was just jogging around getting the disc at will - an exaggeration, but the point is valid. I do remember getting a breakside cut and pulling a sweet ass drop step for the goal: first drop step evaaaa, definitely invoked my inner Chow.

The Edinboro game was another story; aka not a cake walk. They're a good team. They are dangerous on every possession of the disc because of the ability of each person on the disc: this is mostly Taft or Tad, but it's still a huge threat. The main contributors to the offense can all huck pinpoint hucks and have recievers all who range from 6' to 6'5"; hence, the deep was a bit of a threat. The downside is their total lack of depth. I think they played an eight or nine man rotation the entire weekend, and this is for sectionals. Apparently it ended up working as they got the final bid to regionals beating Penn State - LOLlerskates - badly, something like 13-9. Our game against them seemed really close, but with a second glance at the score it apparently wasn't.  They're defense really isn't anything special and it really confused me why they kept running it when we figured it out and were moving the disc with ease.  

Sunday was a cake walk for the most part. Bucknell, in the finals, was a team that just couldn't hang with us. They had a solid handler and one cutter - everyone else was really just fodder. They may have bagged the game against us, but still aren't anywhere close to the level of play we were bringing. 

Which brings me to a thought about our play. The thing i noticed about this years team is that we are not flashy. We do not get lots of layout Ds or sky tons of people - unless your Tyler and Chris literally throws it 30 feet in the air for no reason whatsoever - we play hard and we play with tons of pressure. That is by no means saying we are not capable, but alot of the turns come from stall 8 or 9 tight throws that are behind the guy or into one of our defenders. The offense seems to be running smoother as the days went on O line looked solid and i think was broken 1 time all weekend (against Edinboro?). The D line offense at points was amazing. My dropstep point was a pinnacle (not to brag or anything). We moved the disc from the opposite goal line to our goal line in probably 15 seconds with at least 10 throws. Moving the disc that fast made us literally unstoppable. 

Now on to the real matter of the day. Who is the front runner for the FOTY?

Alex Thorne

#21

Pros: Doesn't turn the disc over. Alex will not turn the disc over and will still make the big throws when it counts. He throw a goal line to goal line huck for a score and threw a ridiculous high-release bullet-flick breakside for another. He is also great in the air and is a scary little cutter when he wants to be. When this dude bids, it's pretty. 

Cons: Doesn't get any love. With our star studded offense, it's no wonder this little pull catcher doesn't need to do much. When Alex wants to he can kill bitches, but most of the time he really doesn't need to. 

Colin Connor

# 5

Pros: Colin is the glue to our offense. When Colin isn't getting 

the first pass, he is getting the second. He knows the right spaces to find, and knows how to get to them. He can also sky the fuck out of mad bitches. His name is the Coroner for a specific reason. On defense he is tenacious on the mark and gets layout Ds (even on me, i still blame Rakers).  He is also a big thrower. If a flick side break huck is open he will throw it to space: ask Tyler.

Cons: Being a glue man doesn't constitute lots of praise. He works hard and consistently, but unless you're getting the disc every other throw and being a bit of a show off, its hard to get kudos.  Also likes to start fights? Kansas, Edinboro, any others?

Tyler Degirolamo:

#81

Pros: 

Freak athlete. Not only is he the fastest kid on the team, he can jump the highest, is the tallest, and has a fucking INVISIBILITY CLOAK. I swear to god, against Bucknell Tyler jogged through the endzone, wide open, yelled 'Hey I'm open,' of the three defenders in the area no one decided to pick him up. So he clap caught the goal as me and the rest of the sideline were baffled. Oh yeah and then he also gets lots of D's. Hopefully this weekend is more of whats to come from Tyler, but he did get a shit load of sky Ds.

Cons: Still a bit of a freshmen. Throws need to be worked on, but are always improving. Needs to keep his head up when things don't go his way. Tyler needs to keep his cool a little bit more. During the Edinboro game he got a sweet D on some dude (not pictured) and freaked out at him for calling foul. Yes it wasn't a foul, yes we know it was a bitch call - but he did take it back. So just take a breath when someone calls bullshit and call them out on their shenanigans.

Personal frontrunner. A-Theezy. Though he hasn't needed to show up yet, i feel like when he gets a puuuuurdy layout snag for a goal at regionals people will be all up on his jock... fo' sho. Tyler could steal it away if he plays out of his mind like he did at sectionals. And Colin is one back motha fucka, so i can't discount him. Plus he's got the Bird's endorsement.  

Georgia Slowdown

There is nothing much to say about CCC on the whole. It was a good tournament to see what the Spring team will look like, see what we have to work on, and see the players and their capabilities. I felt like we achieved that, at least to an extent that a fall tournament can show you. There were quite a few slowdowns that i feel like all are because of one complex problem. The problem I really saw and lamented on was our idea of subbing and how it should work. Let me first just approach the bench and say that, i am in no way displeased or unappreciative of either PT or where i played.

The problem that i see is the one that i saw last year too. We will play our best players tired. Honestly, we harped on it this weekend that veteran players who are exhausted will not be playing over fresh rookies. It happened. It happened alot. I understand that a rookie is not a someone you want on your O line if you really need to score, or if you really need a break you can't take out your best defender, but something does need to change.

I think i read in Eddie's blog that the team is going to take a more active approach in subbing, in the sense that even the tight O line will have a few active subs, and this is in my opinion the correct way. Last year - i bring up last year because a) i can't see into the future and b) because last year was when it was the most prominent - we had roughly two lines worth of players that were the go to guys and if a game was close or remotely close those are the guys who would be playing alot. If Ultimate was not a tournament based sport this would be perfectly fine, you play your best because at most there might be 33 points and you have subs so whatever - but it's not. This is a tournament sport and we have 21 or whatever guys.

Having six to eight guys not see a lot of PT in a game has many drawbacks. First and foremost is the fatigue the others take. We are all not Tim Gehret, we can not play 17 of 20 points and be solid rocks. No one who has played 4 to 5 points in a row can say that he is 100%, and if he does he is lieing or, is not working hard enough. The second is the morale of the sideline and the a fore mentioned players. It's not surprising our sideline becomes lulled when players have little emotional attachment to a game. Being out of a game and not playing is hard, it's hard to just sit and watch and say, i wonder how i would have played. But now if the sidelines are lull how is the team suppose to be up and active in a game.

Rookies and players in general have a more crystalline memory - i'm envoking some sweet psychology information. There is a theory that older people have a much more crystalline memory and happiness mechanic, what this means is that if they see their grand children every two to three weeks they will be happy with those small few moments for a longer time, while a younger person has a more fluid happiness (happiness comes and goes). I feel this also applies easily to Ultimate. If you are out of a game for ten points, you will be not as good in the one or two points you may play: basically you are either upset and can't get up for the game, or you're injured and actually can't get up for the game. On the other hand, playing two points every three or four rotations keeps you happier and more involved.

All i am saying is that when we start going on runs of Defensive breaks, you need to start subbing more evenly. Whether that means taking the sockeye method and making Pods of rotations or something crazier. Basically people need to play to learn, to grow, to be active. I don't think it will be a big problem this year, i actually feel like was better then last year and it got the job done. I think the POD system is really cool and would be great to implicate on this team. The tough part of all of this is that you want to WIN games, it's not a matter of always being happy and having people like you. This is a sport and people want to WIN.

Sharing some thoughts.

Regional Thoughts

Not winning the region is something that has been on my mind for a while. The game was really rather lopsided unlike the score suggests and we were for some reason in a huge rut. Delaware was a one dimensional team that consisted of bombs from their main handler to their main cutter. They had played a really tough game against Edinboro and we had been rather well rested: demolishing Princeton 15-2. Yet for some unknown reason to me we couldn't even touch them. The score and game was slow, boring, and frustrating. Our cutters couldn't catch and our D line couldn't break. The drops in the game edged into the teens and the unforced errors were much higher. We played shitty. We played slow. And we really didn't preform.

Reflection:

1)
I am really, really proud of the O line. Not only did they keep us alive in the Edinboro game and game us a fighting chance in the Delaware game, they also played nearly flawlessly. I'd rather not put the competition down, but would rather talk up the fact that our O line is really a brilliant, cohesive, gelled unit of guys who really don't take on too much on their hands. They played smart in every game and were truly keeping us alive in a few games when for some reason the D line couldn't score.

2)
I'm rather surprised at the D line. We played unemotional, boring, and without urgency. It was really shocking to watch Delaware put up fucked up, swilly, nonsense bullshit and see their players come down with it. There isn't much to say other then the fact that no one was fired up.

3)
I was talking about this with some one. The D line plays great when the team is fired up and screaming in their ears, but the problem lie with who is on the sideline when the D line is on. It's not that i am bringing fault on the O line for not being excited and urgent, but it's the fact that the mentality they need on the field is not conducive to the emotion the D line needs from the sideline. Chris, Josh, Vatz, Chowder are all very cool, calm individuals, but that's not what the D line needs when the disc is on the sideline, they need people screaming kill, strike, whatever to make sure the turnover is coming.

4)
I'm not really shocked about the RSD posts about us being in the bottom tier of the Nationals rankings, but honestly, i don't understand what people see when they put us in the bottom 4. I'm perfectly fine with, somewhat excited about the upsets we're going to make. Vatz, Weasel, and I were talking about it after regionals and we are going to be the shittiest draw for a 3/4 seed in our pool as we come in with an underdog mentality and a yearning to win the pool. Much like what happened at UCCs last year where pool D turned over, i have a feeling we're going to make a lot of people upset and a lot of noise. I know there won't be any lack of urgency or complacency from the sideline, or from the players on the field so i'm truly excited.

That is all. Otherwise i am just pissed the someone stole my camera.

Mourning Aftermath

Lately, I've been listening to Sage Francis. He's actually one of my favorite rappers, mainly because he is lyrical and very different. I don't like the whole gangster rap, bitches and hoes, rich bitch shit; I'm about actual music, not the ridiculousness behind them. But i digress. The reason i say all of this is that all my titles have come from his music, titles, and CD's. I don't actually think this is pertinent to my blog post, but just a fun little factoid.

So here's my deal. I feel like ultimate itself has been on the back burner recently. It's weird to say and think about, but when i take a step back, i can't say that i have progressed in ultimate at the moment. My throws have gotten exponentially better, my fitness has gotten better, and my knowledge of the game has gotten better. But i still haven't improved as a player. I know i sound retarded right? But bare with me.

Cutting, playing defense, throwing to space, skying, laying out is what ultimate is about. I have learned about it, but i have not done it. It's like that philosophical example. Jane learns everything in a bubble, she only knows about things through books, she lives in a black and white world, no color, nothing but books. When she steps outside and sees a red apple, does she learn something new, even if she has "learned" about it. The answer is yes. And it's an obvious one. It makes sense right, experience and knowledge together will build.

So this is my deal, i will probably not transform as a player until maybe, hopefully sectionals. I'm honest with myself. I know i won't play at Stanford, at Centex, and i know it's because I'm not a great player. I understand that. I know I'll play maybe 5 or 6 points total at a tournament and that i should take it to heart and take as much as i can from them all. But the thing is, playing 5 points were no one expects much from you does not a player build.

Here's my point or remark. Rob, Nick, Wes, Brent, Sean were all like me at one point. Maybe they were better, maybe they were worse, that's not the point. What I'm saying is, they were inexperienced players; they threw a throw behind someone as they cut to them, they may not have layed out when they could have, they maybe have been beaten deep, skyed, ded whatever; but they learned, from each of those experience you learn something. Each of those games, where they won or lost, they learned something about themselves, their opponents, tendencies, anything. But now as the team gets better and better, the stakes grow and there is less room for error.

Some will say practice is that time for you to grow and learn. Which i agree with completely, the more that you practice the better you get. Yet here's the deal. You will eventually guard everyone on the team, you will learn about them and they will learn about you. It becomes monotonous and monotony does not promote growth. Which is why tournaments become, maybe, the most important thing to the growth of a player.

From playing at Collegiates i learned so much. I played maybe nine or ten points in those first few games before getting injured, but i learned so much. I learned a bit about how to cut, i learned how to play ho-D, i learned some things about guarding in cuts, out cuts, deeps, everything. And it all happened in those first two games. It was amazing, i felt like i had learned a whole new facet of the game. I was exposed to new players, new tendencies, new cuts, new threats, and from each of those things i gained at least one valuable thing.

I may have made this remark in a prior post, but it's a valuable one. I had talked to Weasel at Collegiates, and had told him that when i attempted to restart playing on the Sunday of the tournament, and had made some obviously freshmen mistakes and dumb ones, that i beat myself up about, i felt as though it was because of the time i had been injured the other day. It sounds odd right. How can i say that the time i had missed from the day before could possibly affect me? Easily. We played 5 games. That's 5 opponents with different players, different plays, different tendencies, different everything.

Honestly, i think i have the best attitude about my situation now. I admit i was pissed after QCTU because i had played 4 points on the weekend, and i had every right to be. I understand i had just come back from injury, but i couldn't grasp how i didn't play in the first game where we had beaten VU by 8 or 9? Whatever I'm over it. This isn't the attitude i was talking about. I had an idea that i wouldn't play a lot of points, i told Nick that weekend that we weren't going to play like the veterans, and he was shocked, i actually just hadn't recognized the magnitude that this was true. My wave length was this, "I will play enough points to learn things and be able to take ways of changing my game to improve it." What i ended up with was a shaky resolve and a disheartened out look.

That was my attitude after QCTU. But, after the first week of being mopey, of being a little pissy, i said to myself, "fuck that, I'm not breezing through my freshmen year, being pissy and sitting around not caring." So what did i do. I worked my ass of at practices and still have. I started retraining in swimming. I've started running at nights to make up for missing track practices. I've done everything shy of skipping classes to lift, to improve myself. My backhand is now very respectable, i can fight through an Eddie mark. I can pivot better (it's really not that impressive, but it's better then ever before). I've learned a lot more about cutting and defending. I've regained a sturdy resolve, I've realized being a bitch isn't going to get me playing time. Work is.

This all brings me back to my first point. I've worked hard outside of ultimate. I've improved myself as a player, but does my play actually follow suit? I don't think so. Sadly, i know this. I won't get better at throwing a backhand unless i get a stiff mark and have to throw to a player who is being guarded tight. I won't get to defend unless I'm fighting with a guy to get a disc in the air. But does that dishearten me like it did after QCTU. I'd like to say no. I know I've worked hard prior to this coming season, and i know i can say that I'm not ashamed or regret anything i did - following my injury - and hopefully it gets me somewhere.

Recap of the Month

Alright, it's the end of the month and i wanted to recap as i wait to figure out when the fuck i get my paycheck. Alot has happened, I've made the A team, we played at Collegiates, I've started strenuous workout regiment, Josh's dad kicked our asses, and we're doing team workouts.

So i made the A team. A big whoopy! That wasn't a joke, i don't know how to express joy over the internet. I digress. Charlie was talking about how he was on the "bubble" when before the final cuts and we both chatted about our chances and how hard we had worked. But here is the deal, i felt like i was on the bubble more then Char. He is a solid handler, reminds me of Chowder minus the muscles, and i am a ______ . Exactly. My game has improved seriously from defense, to offense, to intensity, but improvement doesn't mean i have a specialty. So before and after cuts i've had a very strong sense of "i need to be able to do something?"

I've loved playing defense as much as i would hate my self a year ago for saying something like that, but it's true. I find offense quite boring, watching Rob and Christo and the other cutters literally make 2 or 3 cuts and then score. Which is amazing, literally amazing, but i find it boring and see that it is a much tighter rotation on the O line. Defense on the other hand, you don't know what you're doing, you just know that you have bust your ass down the field and shut down you're guy.

Which brings me to Fall Collegiates. We played very well as can be seen on the UPA score reporter, and there was nothing much to say, considering i had a groin injury. Hmm, when i did get to play i felt as though i was making a difference, ie not letting my guy get the disc, but as soon as i got that pesky injury along with sitting for a game or two, i couldn't do the same: couldn't sprint, keep up, or bid, i felt terrible. So i sat the rest of the time, the next day i felt better and still realized that i couldn't play [at all] so i just sort of sat and watched.

Workouts and Mr. Suskin. I feel as though Mr. Suskin has taught us a lot in his short 7 hour (cumulative) stay. I learned i don't have baby making muscles. I learned i need to strengthen those bad boys and i learned that i will never do martial arts. First off, a lot of what he showed us was great the leg lifts and the things for the core; all the things he showed us reminded me of swimming and how i use to be absolutely dominate at them and how i need to get back in that shape ASAP. Second, i think some of the stuff is great but useless, no offense to him, he showed us many different styles of kicking and bobbing and weaving stuff which was fun and hilarious [Chowder the Ewok]. The thing is, he is a martial arts sensai (?), he knows his martial arts backwards and forwards, he can teach me how to kick higher, punch faster, hit stronger and roundhouse kick some into next Thursday; but i feel like some of the things don't correlate extremely well to ultimate. People say, well it makes your muscles stronger which is always a benefit, but that would be like me training a rower by showing them how to box, there muscles would be stronger but they wouldn't know how to utilize them. I understand the metaphor was a big wild and ridiculous, but my point is this: making muscles stronger and utilizing muscles on the field are two different things. I could show everyone on the team a great water workout that would work your upper body and back and core, but i know that using something in the water and using it on land are two different things.

Bringing me to workout regiment/team workouts. Both are great. I've gotten into a rythm at the moment, MWF i do lifting on machines and things at night - this is the only free time i have and i personally hate free weights - and i am running and rehabbing my groin/lower back on T&T, this is feel is going to be the most beneficial for me: i am doing the stuff i am bad at (running) and i working the muscles i have lost. The team workouts (for me at least) lack exhaustion. Last tuesday i fell apart, not literally, doing stairs and that was great, i felt like shit and was ready to do it again, but we were done. I later realized i was wearing a heat shirt and that was making me overheat and die. When we got to the core i started to feel the burn at bits at a time, but nothing actually amazingly helpful. I feel my abs whenever i wake up, meaning they are getting worked, but if it would be more helpful if we did more repetitions, not just one. I return once again to swimming, drylands (core) for us was absolute hell/fun. We did everything with a partner. Medicine ball work and we did tandem core stuff, but then we did everything else to a time. So planks we did to two minutes, leg lifts to two minutes, abs for minutes at a time. And that's the mentality people don't have yet: Rob says, "go til you drop," well i could drop at 5 seconds or i could drop at 2 minutes; we need people to push themselves if they have it or not: planks for 2 minutes, no question, no bullshit, if you fall get back up.

At least that's my mentality. Bust your ass, grit your teeth.

Time Killing

Since i have about half an hour to literally kill, before i begin a hardcore study session followed up by hardcore math test, i've decided to type out some stuff and recap the last tournament we (the rookies) had gone to. On a side note, that is what the picture is of; the rookie class of '11 that had gone to the Rutgers tournament.

How to begin, oh yeah. On a quick side note, the captain of the team sent out an email late the night before probably around 10ish or 9ish and told everyone to be at the buses a half our earlier then his original departure time; funny thing is most people had already left by that time to go out and party. We were leaving saturday morning, we had friday completely to ourselves, so what else are we going to do? Ah but back to when we left. We left around 8:30. Thank you hangovers.

So in all honesty van rides suck. We tried to get boobs, but boobs didnt want us. I don't know whether the order of the signs (Show titties, c'mon, please, be a legend, :( ) detoured the girls from showing us them or what, but we didn't get any.... The saddest part of the trip though was missing the Sheets that everyone was dieing for. Nick, no fault to him, thought it was the next exit in four miles, but it was actually off the exit and then four miles. We were all shocked and hungry, but none such as Mumbles. As we drove mumbling and grumbling in miles of construction and between two very high cement walls, Mumbles stared blankly at Nick and shouted, "Turn the van around, now!"

One stop at a wa-wa later and 300 miles between us and Pittsburgh we finally made it to the tournament. Our first game was against a NY team called Purple Haze, who i had oddly enough looked up recently because of my lingering thoughts about "what if i had gone..." As we played them i realized my choice.... let's put it this way: THANK GOD. I'd played these bums before at a previous tournament, in which literally a bunch of kids took them to universe point. But then again we were a bunch of kids who had played a lot of ultimate and played together for a long time. Sadly thats the two things we were missing, in this early morning game, chemistry and all around ability. We played well though, but no one knew anyone really, we didn't know what to expect from each other. But as the game got going people just began playing better, D-bands were handed like hotcakes (whatever that means). In the end it came down to universe point, after the NY team had rallied back two or three. We put a studly D-line out, but to no avail, they threw a swilly huck that floated out to a receiver, and no amount of laying out could stop him from scoring. On a postive note, they sucked the big one and went 1-2 in our pool, losing to the two teams we crushed...

Second game was against Franklin & Marshall. It was a blowout, i don't actually remember anything memorable, except for when i d-ed a guy, who called a foul... caused by his own player. His team mates were telling him it was his own guy, but he didn't want to hear it nor did he care. It didn't matter though, we scored that point. We won 15-6.

This was the highlight of the day. We were rolling. All i remember is hearing people yell, "GET THAT MAN A D BAND!" People were possessed everyone wanted a d and no one would let their man catch an easy throw. Everyone was running their asses off; whenever some one came off the field they were weezing and tired, yet still ready to play. This game was the contrapositive of our first game, we played stingy and shiesty defense and were rewarded. Nothing mattered and everyone was laying it on the line. Before the game started we were told that they, Salisbury, were going to play well and efficient and that we needed to really step up and prove ourselves. I guess people get fired up hearing that, and we went insane. 15-9 Win.

Weslyan was seeded second in our pool and had beaten both teams they faced that day. Apparently in their last game one of their stars was injured and their play really slowed down. We ended up beating them pretty swiftly, trading for a while before we broke them a few. The game really highlighted people's ability to catch anything and everything. One point i was on the sideline with some other guys and we watched as one of our guys send a huck on the opposite sideline, the first guy macked it out of his hands and then two defenders followed his lead, macking it to the ground. As it spiraled towards the ground a kid layed out grabbing it literally centimeters before it touched the ground. Brilliant! Overall it was a good game, we played well and everyone got to play. Win 15-9

The next day we played Princeton. Whether everyone was over stuffed from the feast at the Zettels house or what, we started playing real slow and painfully. We started real slow and got broken 3 points in a row before finally getting one off, but as the game went on the athleticism and true tenacity of the our team shined. Our d was playing great and our o was rolling. Final score 14-8.

Sometimes, only sometimes, can you say, "it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you played." This may be one of those times. JMU comes from one of the top regions in the nation Atlantic Coast, they got fourth which is amazing considering their competition is Georgia, Florida and UNC. They started play off very well, they were big on D and even bigger on O; sadly that's not a good thing for us. The game started sorely as we went down early and we went down big. Four straight breaks for them had us begin playing a tighter rotation and made peoples heads slump. We picked it back up but they managed to take half 8-4. This is where people apparently said to themselves, fuck this shit? What the hell are we doing? We started playing harder and harder doing anything and everything to stop them from scoring. We came back to 11-9 and softcap went off; game to 13. They scored the next point making it 12-9. We knew we had to step up, we scored two gruelingly long points consisting of many turns, many ds, and lots of miscues on their part. We clawed our way back in 12-11 but it was too little too late. They managed to get the benefit of a rule we hadn't heard and had to end the game there. 11-12 lose.

We played really well, and i am super excited to play here and hopefully make the A team. I've been busting my ass learning from each thing a veteran has said to me, and been trying to improve my game with each passing day.