So i've had the urge to introduce the scary and frigthening faces of Pitt Ultimate for a while. Hopefully, a motivational and fun tool to get people pumped up for the series and the end of the season. If you guys haven't seen so far there are pictures attached to each person. They are a bit candide, but me and Tyler really took the time to search them out and post them here. Problem is it doesn't look like it due to my crappy color choices.
Let's start off with the tenacious handler unit. In the back field we have #8 Michael Plunkett, a big thrower with a knack for finding a layout d when needed. This dude will spike it so hard when he is totally uncovered, possibly cause he is like... really fast?... and scores a goal, it'll make not only taco the game disc but will taco any discs within earshot. When he can't find the room to throw a big huck you gotta' watch out for Alex 'A-Theezzy' Thorne. #21 loves throwin' the big huck or the high release break flick: watch out though when he isn't throwin' he's skying bitches and 'GIVIN' SOME' to the other team. Another weapon in this versatile arsenal of handlers is none other then Kyle Baynes, he's been breaking ankles and breaking marks since he was born: low release flick huck to the break side in stride is what Mr. Baynes has been doing since his high school days. And you can watch it rain on dem' hoes when he teams up with his former roommate Geoff Zettel.... this shit is bonkers... A little bit on him, when Geoff isn't actually making people fall down from his fakes, he's pulling into the back of the endzone, floating it there for about 5 minutes, and then getting the first d. Goodness forbid you have to gaurd him: honestly... honestly, just take a seat and let him score, save yourself some embarrasment. While we're on the subject of being nasty, one angry and ferocious little man comes to mind: Jake 'the Living Paradox' Christan. Not only does he throw huge flicks and backhands, but the man, the myth, the legend never stops running. # 35 is grinding away at your handler long after he's called foul. On the other side of the spectrum is Brad 'Boo' Bellinger. Not only is he the best looking, nicest, and debonair Pitt Ultimate player, he is also one of the best defenders on the North or South hemisphere. Ask Sherwood how much fun he had.
Always knowing where his man is going - because of his always thinking ultimate mind - Nick 'Killz' Kaczmarek proves on and off the field the meaning of dedication. He works hard for the team and pushes the best from each player: if this lovable lefty isn't preaching team philosophy, he is probably wrapping around his man and getting gnarly blocks to demonstrate. Being sick doesn't mean speaking a lot and although what #23 may say doesn't make a lot of sense, what does make sense is that he is a baller. When Eddie Peters sets his mind to a block or a layout, you know it's going to happened: it doesn't matter if its a world's player or a chump - he's getting the D. And while we're on the subject of laying out your best player, Mike 'Pants' Pannone has a knack for getting sick Ds on the best players and having them called back. Not because of a foul, but mostly because it hurts there feelings... and that just ain't nice. If he could only learn to harness he's ridiculously fast speed he'd be the scariest dude who knows how to hack a Wii.
Now the people that burn you for goals come from all corners of this team. When Colin 'the Coroner' Connors isn't murdering everyone and anyone, he is with his girlfriend: oddly enough no one knows her name? Sup with that Col? But seriously, this dude skys the living shit out of people and then throws lefty high releases for nonchalant goals. Not only does Colin dominate the airways for Pitt but so does Tyler 'Ty-Lord' Degirolamo. With a plethora of sick ass freshmen this year it's hard to say who is the best, but it's easy to say who is the most ridiculously athletic. Tyler not only catches all of his goals while in the air 47 inches above the ground, clapping them in his bread basket, he also scores all of the goals. A-L-L. On the defensive side of this swooping falcon like team comes Nick Rivers, number twenDEE. The DEE standing for the Ds that he gets at will: god forbid you throw a swilly huck or even something remotely not-perfect, cause he will out jump, out run your player and then mack on his girlfriend. Ask Julian 'the House' Houseman. After makin' out with a girl, #20 took his gal and banged her. In the room J-House was sleeping in. With him there, ten feet from the deed. BOOM roasted. But seriously, Julian is sick - and if he wasn't totally passed out and like at a thirteen, he might have gotten with that girl - not only does he negate your best handler, he also makes him look foolish, by either point blocking him and then throwing a huck, or point blocking him and throwing a HUGE huck.
The underneath defense is also unreal on this team. Not only can everyone get you inside, but if you have one of your unlucky non-deep players guarded by #4, your shit out of luck. Ravi 'the Dalllah' Ved not only can save your player from a sudden brain hemorrhage, he will also lay them out... maybe he caused, maybe he didn't ask him, he knows: he's going to be a doctor. Another shortman with huge potential and dedication is #3 Allen Rakers. Not only can he do an up-down or mountain man faster then you, he will throw his 3'2" body around and layout d the shit out of you. What he lacks in height he has in heart, strength, and the phrase, "C'MON ALLEN." On the flip side of this dynamic duo of vertically challenged is our big man with the knack for a sick layout D: Patrick 'PHamm' Hammonds. Roasting your dude under or deep, Patrick will rip it for a goal shouting AND1 and drawin' the foul. This big dawg has it all: including the most lovable girlfriend, how that happened... i don't know. (Love you Pat)
On the current IR we have David 'Hogan' Hogan. Oh god, the Metro East- and the Nation for that matter - is both happy and relieved that Hogan isn't ready to cleat up yet. Not only does this dude layout D anyone, everyone he also skys, puns, and quotes Futurama better. If only he had a fuller beard, then he'd be the all American ultimate player. Jason 'not-a-Pokemon-master' Kunsa, has recently been signed off the IR list, or so we hope. This kid is one of the hardest working players on the team. When he isn't running, lifting, or throwing, he's sleeping or playing pokemon. School? Who goes to school when there's ultimate/pokemon to be played.
Thanks to CCCs and a certain captain we now have a way of starting the other teams offense on our call, "tap it in! tap it in! tap it in!" Chris 'Christo' Brenenborg has been hucking and breaking with the best of them since he was on impulse and that little thing called Team USA. #21, i mean #2 has been on many magazine covers considering his hollywood status, most notably the WUGC 2007 DVD. Did i also mention he went to World's? He won and i think he drank like a liter of Dr. Pepper between each game. He's sponsored by them and Patagucci. Truth. Speaking of World's the coaching staff is start studded. Robert 'Dulabeard' Dulabon has played at the Club World Championships with one of the most elite teams this side of the east or west of the mississippi: Deathstar (?). When he was with Pitt he was a fundamental player on offense and defense, and now he brings the defensive hurt on teams with his knowledge of zone and man. On the offensive side we have David 'Vatzer' Vatz. Not only was he like this [-] close to making the Junior world's team, this dude was also a FOTY and all star cutter with Pitt. Now he sits on the side line making the offense move like a fluid machine. Finally, we have David 'Weasel' Lionetti. The man with the plan, the man with a future sight. I mean this dude went to nationals, I think as many times as Jim Parinella: this has yet to be verified. Nonetheless, working diligently Wease has pushed this team to new levels of sick nasty in recent years; once a regionals wanna-be, to a scary nationals threat Pitt has moved up because of his guidance and tutelage.
And that's the faces of Pitt Ultimate.
Andrej Ababovic* #10
Pictures provided by Andrej and Tyler.
It's dumb to write one for yourself, so if anyone has some witty commentary i'm all ears. *
Series Time
Cool thing about this picture is that at no time was the grab not within my grasp. I knew from the moment i was chasing it down to the moment i bid, that i would get the disc: it was just a matter of when and where - and to be honest that was the last moment i could have grabbed it. I could have bid sooner and caught it at that three foot horizontal period...eh, you live and learn.
There's not really much else to say... I've been working hard. The team has been working hard. I played well. The team played well. With the series coming shortly... not this weekend, what the fuck... we'll be in prime shape and condition to dominate at regionals.
I'm a bit hurt right now, my wrists got effed up, but i am going to be working hard on my legs to make sure i am in great shape. I also need to buy some medicine to get better, cause i've been sick like a motha for the last few weeks. So all's well in the Andrej camp, hopefully getting better.
Work Hard.
Play Hard.
The Week in Review
All in all, this was a bad week (9 days) of ultimate for myself. But it was a great social week in ultimate for me.
In both tournaments i went to Terminus Club edition and Terminus College edition i played poorly. Why? I don't know. For the club one with Forge, it was a totally different experience. I played with some guys i knew and some i didn't, so i was very happy and excited to see old faces and also excited to meet some new people. But in all this is the strickening feeling that your being judged and that it's a tryout tournament. Not to say this is a bad thing, in fact i thought it was going to be awesome; i wanted to do things people don't usually see me do, perhaps get a chance to make a nice play or two. But continuing...
We played Chain and Ring back to back, both games were an event, yet uneventful (if you understand what that means), in themselves. I don't remember much about the Chain game other then covering my guy and playing good defense on them, i probably screwed up at some point or another, but i felt as though i was hanging - if not more - with Nationals caliber players. On the converse i remember the Ring game pretty well. They were good, not as good as i had imagined - but damn good at that. Three things stick out in my mind.
- Rob is like pretty good at ultimate.
- We threw a really shitty turn and a guy broke deep. No one picked him up, and instead 3 guys surrounded the thrower and hassled him. Neither the thrower nor anyone on the field cared, he simply took his time and found an opening and jacked it to the WIDE open player for a goal. After the point, some guy on the Ring bench yells, "Nice intentional fouling, douchebags." To which both the thrower (Ring player) and everyone else collectively says, I'm paraphrasing, it's not like we've never done it?
- This has been a really reoccurring theme for this week and been pissing me off. I'm getting beat by shitty ultimate. I cover my guy deep, he stops, i stop, begin to front him - since we're 40 yards deep and a huck seems retarded - the huck goes up and with me in a standstill waiting for a movement forward my defender takes off deeper only to receive the disc in the back of the back endzone for a goal. In total this happened to me 4 times on the weekend most notably twice against Penn St.
Against Ring this happened once, i began fronting the guy, i'm guessing they were playing some kind of handler weave nonsense and my guy stops i look at him, turn my head back for the disc, here 'UP,' look up for my guy and mutter words i hate, "Fuckin' balls." I caught up to him, bid over his back, he comes down with it. He said nice play, which made me a feel a bit better (?), but knew i fucked up. It was annoying on two levels. He was 5 inches shorter then me and that was the play i wanted to make and i didn't do it. I hoped the intensity i showed was good, but i was still really disappointed. Later in the finals i saw the same dude grab a disc between two, much bigger, bidding Chain defenders.
Now the week in between was awesome, Spring Break in a fuckin' mountain top mansion. I'm not going into it, but a lot of fun stuff happened. The team officially knows every good line of 12 oz. Mouse and the Chappelle Show, without ever needing to watch them. I've found a new appreciation for hot tubs. I hate baseball world series. I'm not good at poker and Eddie's crazy ways of getting me to pay are awesome. And i need to stop falling asleep at 3AM. But on the Ultimate side of it, it was not good... I think a few of us actually ran around when we found the time. I had a restless morning on Tuesday and went for a jog. It was nice, if not bland, but other then that and throwing a disc 130 yards off the porch of our house, that was the extend of my ultimate training.
This did not pay dividends when it came time for Terminus 2nd ed. I felt slow and i didn't have my 5th gear. The 5th gear used for getting that second acceleration and that second quick step for a D or for a finish to a disc, i just couldn't muster. I remember during the first game against Georgia Tech, Chris threw me a disc deep when i just began a cut in and in my usual motif, i would turn quickly and try to find the gear to go get it, but when i turned i just couldn't do it. It was not a good way to start the weekend.
From there it was a muddle of busying work in the midst of a few good things done well. I thought my zone offense was good, i got a lot of touches and moved the disc efficiently. But other then that, i was out of rhythm and not seeing lanes on the offensive side of the disc. Defense was also poorer then with Forge. I was getting beat to spots i wouldn't have and i was losing match ups that i shouldn't have. I had a few really good spots against Penn and some really low ones. Against Georgia Tech and Tuffs i played well, if not memorably, i remember that anytime my player caught the disc it was a 71% chance of a turnover against Georgia Tech (5/7 total, 3/4 on their main handler/cutter dude), and against Tuffs it was 50% (2/4), Dayton it was 3/5 or 60%. That's not a lot of statistics, but i think that also does show something within itself and i did keep very specific note, considering i didn't make any key plays that i wanted to. Against Penn i didn't have that kind of success i think the guy i covered for most of the game threw back field and the other guy i covered for a point did break me for a goal, lowest point of that game.
I also got really unlucky with that mother fucker. This is the shit i was talking about before, huck went up, i got in position, in this case a bit behind him, pushing forward, the disc is high so i'm going to get the D, and then all of a sudden it dips literally right into his bread basket. I tried to grab it, but he caught it as well, i'm guessing first cause i ended up tangled with him and the disc. I thought for a moment to try to argue, but between his yelling and my embarrassment i let it go saying, that i was going to get the D on him the next throw. I over commit to stop the dump throw to him, find myself on the wrong side, bid for the breakside, and Boom, break goal.
I'm not really going to say much about the team. I thought we had moments of beauty amongst a busying performance overall. I was disappointed in two tactical things. The first being our total lack of physicality. There were not many fouls called against us, and even less so bids. The former may sound like a good thing, but a team built on aggressive under defense, pressure and containment can not be doing it's job if someone isn't pissed off at either the cutter defenders, the handler covers, or the marks. The second is our total lack of defensive cutting and our lack of offensive endzone. Our defensive offense is let the handlers do some shit, and hopefully we'll get a huck off and score, if we get to the endzone we're kinda screwed. Our offensive endzone was impatient at best. Everyone wanted the break side cut and everyone wanted the force side cut. I tried to bring calm during our games against dayton and whatnot, but i don't know if that translated well. Needless to say, it sucked.
Goals for myself now.
Run.
Around a month until the series starts, so that means for the week i took off i need to work harder to get back into shape and get back into great shape.
Throw.
No need to explain, be better, throw better.
Agility.
I've had some good ideas about cutting motions that i want to translate into some individual drills and exercises. I need to get my directional change into top gear.
Without going further, i need to refocus, get my shitty performance out of the way, and start working hard. I will be great.
In both tournaments i went to Terminus Club edition and Terminus College edition i played poorly. Why? I don't know. For the club one with Forge, it was a totally different experience. I played with some guys i knew and some i didn't, so i was very happy and excited to see old faces and also excited to meet some new people. But in all this is the strickening feeling that your being judged and that it's a tryout tournament. Not to say this is a bad thing, in fact i thought it was going to be awesome; i wanted to do things people don't usually see me do, perhaps get a chance to make a nice play or two. But continuing...
We played Chain and Ring back to back, both games were an event, yet uneventful (if you understand what that means), in themselves. I don't remember much about the Chain game other then covering my guy and playing good defense on them, i probably screwed up at some point or another, but i felt as though i was hanging - if not more - with Nationals caliber players. On the converse i remember the Ring game pretty well. They were good, not as good as i had imagined - but damn good at that. Three things stick out in my mind.
- Rob is like pretty good at ultimate.
- We threw a really shitty turn and a guy broke deep. No one picked him up, and instead 3 guys surrounded the thrower and hassled him. Neither the thrower nor anyone on the field cared, he simply took his time and found an opening and jacked it to the WIDE open player for a goal. After the point, some guy on the Ring bench yells, "Nice intentional fouling, douchebags." To which both the thrower (Ring player) and everyone else collectively says, I'm paraphrasing, it's not like we've never done it?
- This has been a really reoccurring theme for this week and been pissing me off. I'm getting beat by shitty ultimate. I cover my guy deep, he stops, i stop, begin to front him - since we're 40 yards deep and a huck seems retarded - the huck goes up and with me in a standstill waiting for a movement forward my defender takes off deeper only to receive the disc in the back of the back endzone for a goal. In total this happened to me 4 times on the weekend most notably twice against Penn St.
Against Ring this happened once, i began fronting the guy, i'm guessing they were playing some kind of handler weave nonsense and my guy stops i look at him, turn my head back for the disc, here 'UP,' look up for my guy and mutter words i hate, "Fuckin' balls." I caught up to him, bid over his back, he comes down with it. He said nice play, which made me a feel a bit better (?), but knew i fucked up. It was annoying on two levels. He was 5 inches shorter then me and that was the play i wanted to make and i didn't do it. I hoped the intensity i showed was good, but i was still really disappointed. Later in the finals i saw the same dude grab a disc between two, much bigger, bidding Chain defenders.
Now the week in between was awesome, Spring Break in a fuckin' mountain top mansion. I'm not going into it, but a lot of fun stuff happened. The team officially knows every good line of 12 oz. Mouse and the Chappelle Show, without ever needing to watch them. I've found a new appreciation for hot tubs. I hate baseball world series. I'm not good at poker and Eddie's crazy ways of getting me to pay are awesome. And i need to stop falling asleep at 3AM. But on the Ultimate side of it, it was not good... I think a few of us actually ran around when we found the time. I had a restless morning on Tuesday and went for a jog. It was nice, if not bland, but other then that and throwing a disc 130 yards off the porch of our house, that was the extend of my ultimate training.
This did not pay dividends when it came time for Terminus 2nd ed. I felt slow and i didn't have my 5th gear. The 5th gear used for getting that second acceleration and that second quick step for a D or for a finish to a disc, i just couldn't muster. I remember during the first game against Georgia Tech, Chris threw me a disc deep when i just began a cut in and in my usual motif, i would turn quickly and try to find the gear to go get it, but when i turned i just couldn't do it. It was not a good way to start the weekend.
From there it was a muddle of busying work in the midst of a few good things done well. I thought my zone offense was good, i got a lot of touches and moved the disc efficiently. But other then that, i was out of rhythm and not seeing lanes on the offensive side of the disc. Defense was also poorer then with Forge. I was getting beat to spots i wouldn't have and i was losing match ups that i shouldn't have. I had a few really good spots against Penn and some really low ones. Against Georgia Tech and Tuffs i played well, if not memorably, i remember that anytime my player caught the disc it was a 71% chance of a turnover against Georgia Tech (5/7 total, 3/4 on their main handler/cutter dude), and against Tuffs it was 50% (2/4), Dayton it was 3/5 or 60%. That's not a lot of statistics, but i think that also does show something within itself and i did keep very specific note, considering i didn't make any key plays that i wanted to. Against Penn i didn't have that kind of success i think the guy i covered for most of the game threw back field and the other guy i covered for a point did break me for a goal, lowest point of that game.
I also got really unlucky with that mother fucker. This is the shit i was talking about before, huck went up, i got in position, in this case a bit behind him, pushing forward, the disc is high so i'm going to get the D, and then all of a sudden it dips literally right into his bread basket. I tried to grab it, but he caught it as well, i'm guessing first cause i ended up tangled with him and the disc. I thought for a moment to try to argue, but between his yelling and my embarrassment i let it go saying, that i was going to get the D on him the next throw. I over commit to stop the dump throw to him, find myself on the wrong side, bid for the breakside, and Boom, break goal.
I'm not really going to say much about the team. I thought we had moments of beauty amongst a busying performance overall. I was disappointed in two tactical things. The first being our total lack of physicality. There were not many fouls called against us, and even less so bids. The former may sound like a good thing, but a team built on aggressive under defense, pressure and containment can not be doing it's job if someone isn't pissed off at either the cutter defenders, the handler covers, or the marks. The second is our total lack of defensive cutting and our lack of offensive endzone. Our defensive offense is let the handlers do some shit, and hopefully we'll get a huck off and score, if we get to the endzone we're kinda screwed. Our offensive endzone was impatient at best. Everyone wanted the break side cut and everyone wanted the force side cut. I tried to bring calm during our games against dayton and whatnot, but i don't know if that translated well. Needless to say, it sucked.
Goals for myself now.
Run.
Around a month until the series starts, so that means for the week i took off i need to work harder to get back into shape and get back into great shape.
Throw.
No need to explain, be better, throw better.
Agility.
I've had some good ideas about cutting motions that i want to translate into some individual drills and exercises. I need to get my directional change into top gear.
Without going further, i need to refocus, get my shitty performance out of the way, and start working hard. I will be great.
Genius
I'm too pissed to write about the tournament so i'll leave everyone with this jem...
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/gbo/984476074.html
I'm going to have to start doing this.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/gbo/984476074.html
I'm going to have to start doing this.
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