Illinois Ultimate

Looking forward to Free State

2012-01-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

Free State is February 25-26th. That means we have 5 weeks to go. 5 weeks is quite misleading as it lends to the illusion of time. We only have 14 practices between now and our first game. 8 of these practices we don't even have the opportunity to touch a disc, we also have 4 more Irwin practices and 2 more skill sessions in the Armory.

Totaled up this amounts to about 30 hours of Ultimate. Here in lies the illusion, 5 weeks in reality crunches down to 30 hours. If this still doesn't mean anything to you then consider there are NBA players who spend 30 hours a week on their shots. We have 30 hours to work on everything, over 5 weeks.

It would be easy to fret, it would be easy to go to Free State not perform well and blame the lack of practice. It would be easy to lose to Kansas and Iowa again, and say "well we haven't been able to work on very much as a team," it would be easy to say, "everything will click later."

Or, we could ball as hard as we can possibly ball, we could stop being huge bitches, look our teammates in the eye and do everything we can to not let the guy next to us down. We could go out and throw for 2 hours a week, we could get ourselves to every group lifting time, we can put more weight on the bar, we can come to practice fatigued knowing that practicing hard while already being tired is improving our ability to play hard in the third and fourth games of a day. We could just go nuts and play like our hair is on fire, and when we get to our first tournament of the year we could have tons of fun showing the ultimate community how sick Illinois is going to be this year.

Don't trick yourself into believing that we don't want to "peak to early." Iowa won this tournament last year and made it to Semi-finals of Natties.

Mentally it is much easier to compartmentalize the season, if you focus in on the next tournament versus focusing in on Regionals then the season ends up feeling a lot shorter, and it ends up being a lot more enjoyable since the motivating factor is constantly changing and you aren't carrying one weight for the next 15 weeks.

This is a sweet time for us, our season is now and if we seize every moment we have together for the rest of the season then we are going to be in a position to overtake the 2008 legacy, and that is something I want more than anything else.

Rags to Riches : Adam Wright

2011-12-15T08:52:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: I ramble on a lot in this, read it anyways

In response the Brun's recent rambling, I have decided to tell my story to counter as well as add to his story. Bruns and I are an interesting species, we are the only two players in Illinois Ultimate history to go from the C team to the A team the following year. Lets not forgot the many others from the C team who detoured at the B team before getting called up. People like Steve Haake, Brandon Smith, Papa bear, and this year Jack Rabuck. It also is telling that others from that team stuck it out for their whole career and were not discouraged that at the beginning, they were very bad at ultimate like all people on the C team. People like Conerty, Dana, Jacob, and Rob. At let us not forget the dearly departed, like Alan Jarman, and Charlie Ma.

That's enough shout outs. What I'm trying to say is that being on the C-team was a collection of people that all got different things out of it. Bruns said he was very upset that he got cut to the C team, but I didn't care all that much because I hadn't put much effort into ultimate that spring and had poor attendance to spring practices and tournaments. So getting cut to the C team wasn't that big of a surprise for me. I was also pretty bad at ultimate.

Backing up a lil bit to how I got involved in the program. In high school, Pecs and I went to the same high school and the summers following junior and senior year I would come along to pickup ultimate with a group of people Chris knew from church. We took it pretty casually as we were always the worst team out there, a bunch of high schoolers with no experience playing against people who had played some sort of structured ultimate before. We lost all the time and we referred to ourselves as the moral boosting team, because other teams always stomped us and felt better about themselves.

So basically I thought of ultimate as this game where you just ran around in circles, and Pecs would boost hammers to me in the back corner of the end zone every once in a while. The summer following senior year Chris had a teacher from our high school come play with us a few times and opened our eyes to some of the subtleties in cutting and getting open. He told us to either run away or at the disc, because its easier to get open and easier to throw to. This is an idea that comes up in our offense even now. It was a good point. His tutelage helped and we played a little bit better. It should be noted at this point that I didn't really have an idea of how to throw forehand at all and could barely throw a backhand.

Over the course of that summer, Pecs was super jacked up about playing ultimate at Illinois and did all the research into the Rookie Facebook group they had created and contacted all the right people. I remember talking to Mike Cozza and thinking he was super awesome and I hoped that ultimate at school would be super fun and all that jazz. I was pretty excited about playing, but not to the extent that pecs was at the beginning of freshman year. Similar to Bruns, I didn't attend all the practices, and I don't remember much about that fall outdoor practices. We learned stuff like the vert stack, Beta, which is different that ours now. At the same time, I was a part of the wrestling club on campus and went to that twice a year, I wrestled in junior high and high school pretty seriously so I was probably more interested in that then ultimate.

Once we moved indoors, my attendance was even poorer because face it, the armory sucks dick, and we were practicing 4 times a week in there. On average I probably went to 2.5 practices a week. When tryouts came around, I skipped the first tryout practice and made the first cut, so I was pretty pumped about that. It should be noted that at this time, I was not the little fatty I am now, and was in much better shape compared to now. At this time, Bruns was just a nobody that was only referred to as Chuck Junior, because hes a ginger like a fomer player, Chuck. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember Bruns from the fall of freshman year. I only remember that someone was called Chuck junior.

The next tryout practice came around and long story short, I got cut. Didn't really matter to me though, I knew I had no business being on the A team. B team was huge though, probably like 40 people, although no more than 25 ever showed to practices, but thats to be expected. I guess its important to note that freshman year, I had been playing as a long and saw no reason to do anything different. I was decently athletic and had garbage throws, throw me on the pile of longs in similar situations.

That spring I think I only attended 2 tournaments, the Music City Tuneup in Tennesee somewhere, and sectionals with the C team. I skipped Mardi Gras to stay in champaign and party with old wrestling coaches, because State was in town that weekend. I also skipped out on Huck Finn because I participated in a wrestling tournament at ISU. Needless to say, at this point I was more interested in wrestling that playing ultimate. Seemed right to me because I invested so much time in high school to wrestling and felt fitting to continue doing so.

So when I finally got cut to the C team is when I made the switch from Long to handler, on the grounds that there were only 2 or 3 people on the C team who handled. I decided I would handle out of necessity for the team. By this time my throws had progressed a little bit from where they were in the fall. I distinctly remember being at music city tune up warming up by throwing and feeling really confident in my forehands like I could actually control them and what not. I also remember the first time I boosted a forehand really well was at an Irwin practice right after we had been split into B/C and I went to a handler group instead of the long group and a few people were like wtf are you doing. We were doing some sort of hucking drill and I just bombed a forehand and it all seemed to fit nicely.

C team played at D2 sectionals that spring and although we didn't play all that well, it was hella fun. We had some people on that team that were really bad and we hadn't practiced together and it was all together ugly. We ran Beta X a few times, I had a few good hucks and some people decided to drop them. I do remember in the ISU game they were playing zone or some junk defense and I threw a blade forehand across the width of the field and it was completed. Not much has changed since then I guess.

Here is where the important part of the post should be. How I got better over the summer following my freshman year in order to make the A team, but I've been enjoying myself too much just rambling about myself and ultimate, so it took me 1000 words or so to get to this point.

So essentially the summer after my freshman year, I played tons of ultimate. I was in 3 different summer leagues that allowed me to be playing 3-4 times a week. I was playing in a CUSL-West league, the NUSL, and the church league that I mentioned earlier in my post. Each league had its own little niche of improvement. The most competitive of these leagues was the CUSL league. It was mostly older people with some college players mixed in so everyone knew how to throw and what was going on essentially. This was my proving ground, when I did something well for the team in this league, I was super pumped because it was against decent competition. The NUSL summer league was usually dicking around with other Illinois players as we stomped on high schoolers, but sometimes there would be a decent matchup against some other college players. When we were stomping on high schoolers, I would frequently boost it, do kind of silly stuff that I wouldn't do in the CUSL league because my teammates would get angry. Then there was the church league, which had a lot of people that didn't really know what was going on and the results didn't really matter, so we dicked around a lot. The only players on our team with experience was pecs and I so we had to teach some of our friends how ultimate should be played and helped our game as well. We would mess around even more in this league, I'd throw hammers all the time, recklessly boost it, etc etc.
So the basics of what I did the summer after freshman year was to just mass as much playing time as I could. Young players need to experience different situations and no amount of practice can take the place of what you learn in game. Taking chances in meaningless games helps you identify what you need to work on more and what works in game and what doesn't. I didn't really have the goal of making A team my sophomore year. I was just enjoying playing ultimate, and success was just a byproduct of having fun. That summer I also went to a FC champaign tournament in Rockford which really opened my eyes after playing a summer of pickup and weak leagues. The first game at Rockford was against Beachfront and I was blown away by how fast everything was going and that I needed to step my game up to be back at real time, instead of at a summer league pace.

That fall, fall of '09, I tried out for FC champaign and made it which was pretty awesome because the only other sophomore on the team was Sid, so I felt like I was in good company. I didn't get to play all that much at sectionals for FC but I got a lot of good practices in with them on the weekends as well as some good playing experience at CHC that fall. I went to pretty much all the practices that fall, just felt like I should, I didn't have any big motivations to make A team, but ultimate was fun and I had fun at practice, so I went to all of them. I felt like I had a chance of making A team and once it got closer and closer to cuts I felt like it was very possible. After Border Brawl, our tryout tournament, I figured that they were gunna take 2 handlers out of myself, Steve, and Pecs. Pecs and I got the call up to the A team and Steve went on to rule the B team.

I'm really glad I ended up making the A team, I wouldn't have had the patience to play on the B team, and although I played a very little amount on the A team, I learned a lot from practice and just watching a lot of ultimate. Walden always like to cover me when he could and would just make my life a living hell ,but I know his intentions were good. Basically over the course of this whole year I just went to practice, kept boosting it and I was happy with that. I felt like I became a much better player over the course of the year just by exposure to good players and tough practice opponents.

The summer following my sophomore year I was working down in champaign, and we would do workouts 2 or 3 times a week and the usual crew would be myself, Sidrys, Pecs, Kurley, Mark, Jacob, Dmac, and Goose would usually run things. That summer seemed like it was 95 degrees and 100% humidity every time we worked out but it let us do some pretty brutal workouts. Goose always seemed to have a good drill for us to do that seemed very applicable. He'd see something and then we'd do a very specific drill to help that situation and would always help. We'd do a hucking drill, but with the special focus of trying to throw the huck directly over the defenders head to make it difficult to D. Drills like this seemed to help control on throws immensely. There are countless other drills we did, but thats just one I remember. We also did a lot of physical workouts with sprints, even when it was blistering heat. Goose would continue to tell us, “Make the heat your friend.” Seemed kinda crazy, but I feel like over the course of this summer is when I made a lot of improvements to my game, my throws, and my physical ability.

One of the things we focused on a lot was flat throw, We'd be doing a huck drill and I would throw a bomb, but usually goose had something to say about every throw that could've made it a little bit better and to concentrate on for the next throw. I feel like this mentality can help make great strides in your throwing technique and throwing skill. After every throw, think of how you could've made it better or how to make the throw more game applicable.

Needless to say, I was pumped up for the year to come, I felt like I was in position to be a starting D line handler behind Kennedy and we would just bomb it all the time on the D line and everything would be awesome. I felt like this is when I peaked thus far, the fall of my junior year felt really good and I felt that I was playing well at the fall tournaments I attended. Some mental errors I could've done without, but physically I was at my peak that fall. As many of you know, at rivalry reheat I tore my ACL and I haven't really been the same since. I had the surgery on my knee just about a year ago, (December 19th, 2010) and I thought by this point my knee would be no issue. Sadly, It still kind of is, and I need to take the proper steps to get it feeling where it needs to be.

In my time of being injured, I spent a lot of time just throwing during practice with other injured people or sometimes goose would come hang out and we'd throw. One drill that really helped with accuracy is you start standing like 10 yards away from each other and each of you throws 5 passes to each other, and if the other person had to move their pivot you start over. After 5 completions each, you each take a few steps back, and you keep doing this until you're throwing 40 yarders directly to each other. It just goes to show that with a lot of concentration its easy to throw really accurately.

Another throwing thing I did in the armory into the net, was throwing while off balance or with odd body momentum. Snackman does it sometimes and just kinda looks stupid, he stands on one foot and throws. I would step backwards and throw. It makes it so you kind of detach your arm from your body and prevents you from using your body to influence your throws. Practicing this is what allows you to throw fadeaway 60 yard hucks. Its pretty cool. Credit goes to some dude on Jam that Walden sent me an email about.

Basically theres so many things you can do to get better at throwing with pretty minimal effort. Kennedy sent out that wiggins throwing stuff a while back, and while I read through that, a lot of the main points were stuff that I usually thought about or goose lectured us on. So if you haven't read that, it would probably be a good idea to do so.

To kind of wrap everything up, a lot of rookies are at a point where they have no clue what they need to get better at, or more so just need to get better at everything. My advice to you is play ultimate to get better at ultimate and just to learn what the fuck is going on. Just learning how everything works and seeing a bunch of different situations and high and low levels of play will help your ultimate intelligence. Once you know whats going on, then you can take the proper steps to improving specific aspects of your game, and learning what your niche of the game is. Are you just gunna run around like a squirrel and layout and get D's like gibby or are you gunna be the gunslinger, boosting it all the time like me, shifty hips like JR or long cuts like Bsmith.

Play ultimate to get better at ultimate.

Read this:

Read all of these: http://www.brown.edu/Athletics/Mens_Ultimate/media/zipstips/

Throwing article I referenced : http://skydmagazine.com/2011/11/wiggins-zen-throwing-routine/

Theres loads of other information on the web, dig through skydmagazine, they have lots of cool articles on there

This is me Rambling

2011-12-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

Obviously it is no mystery that I went from near the absolute bottom to near the absolute top of Illinois Ultimate. I constantly tell myself that I should put together a Kevin Bruns Improvement guide. Last year I created a google doc with what I thought would basically streamline all the improvement I made in four years down to about one year. I never shared it with anyone because I constantly tell myself, "No one will care"/"I need to perfect it before I share it."

This is not a blog about my streamlined process. This is just going to be me rambling about all the different things I did and whether or not I feel like they contributed to my development. Obviously I can flesh this out a ton, and if provoked I can go on tirades. Basically I'm using this post so that the Rookies can see how someone goes from C-team to Captain, and so that no mystery remains.

So down to business. I came into my freshmen year with only one advantage, I knew I wanted to play with this team. A lot of rookies first need to be convinced that they want to play/are feeling things out freshmen year/are just trying new things. Forget that garbage, I knew I wanted to play and I was going to go to practice.

Fall of 2008, I attended about 75% of the practices. I went a lot during the outdoor season, taking a few days off as "mental health days" (this is a lie I tell myself when I want to be lazy). I would skip bad weather days too, and I always bounced early because Newman hall stopped feeding people at 7:00pm. I went to all the tournaments, usually I would have one good moment at a tournament that made me feel good about myself and that is all that mattered.

When the team went indoors there were 4 practices a week. The monday night practices I totally just skipped. Mondays were only an hour and a half, and it was straight conditioning. The emails always said these were optional, but apparently if you planned on making the A-team they were not (a good lesson to learn, "optional" only means "optional" if you don't want to make the A-team). I think I had decent attendance tuesday/thursday and saturday.

Outside of practice I did pretty much nothing. I went to the gym a few times, did some bi's and tri's, and some presses, nothing with more than about 25 pounds though. I really liked the jumping boxes because they were fun, so I did a whole bunch of those freshmen year. I would do some quality 3 throwing with friends outside, but I bet I only averaged about 2 hours per week.

I'm going to use this moment to define a Quality of Throwing variable. So obviously there is a difference between throwing with some girl that you're hitting on, and throwing with another ultimate player who is way more dominant than you. So I'm going to use a base ten scale to score Quality of Throwing. E.g. a 1 is being bare foot with a drink in hand throwing to impress the ladies, and 10 would be cleating up and throwing 10 break marks against the best player you know and then switch and letting him break you 10 times. To flesh this out a bit more, in practice we do break marks and there is some variance in the quality based on how hard people are trying. Let's say we just did a cross fit, quality will probably be at a 5, however if we are all focused and going hard we can get to a 7. There is no variance in throwing with a good player, because if you start to check out they will foot block you ten straight times and then you just cry as you walk home.

During tryouts I got cut right away, which was way upsetting because fat little Adam Wright made it further than me. Throughout the spring I continued to go to practice, and continued to take "mental health days." I went to 3 out of the four tournaments, and remember getting super upset about being cut to the C team, but it didn't matter because PBear was my captain so it was exciting.

The summer of 2009 I had a rough job. I worked about 65 hour weeks, and had a long commute. So I did nothing to help myself improve. I worked the job with a friend of mine and during our hour lunch breaks we got in some quality 3 throwing. I did manage to squat 2x a week, with no lifting plan at all. I would do some calves and sit ups and push ups and squats, but the weight was just like whatever felt fine I would do.

Fall of 2009: I went to almost every single practice in the fall. A kid who lived on my floor was also going to practices so we would throw quite often. I did the elliptical the entire fall (I had convinced myself it was a good idea because I could turn up the resistance and it wouldn't "stress my joints", just another lie on the list of lies i tell myself).

After making the A-team I started lifting with Rabuck and Kennedy. I'm pretty sure I said "Now that I made the A-team I guess I should start acting like an A-teamer." During the winter and the fall I didn't pay attention to the method or anything behind lifting, I just followed Rabuck and Kennedy (Kennedy eventually abandoned us so it was just me an Rabuck with occasional visits by Papa Bear). We squatted, did some belgian squats, some assisted pull ups, some abs, free weight shoulder things. It was just me going through the motions.

The remainder of that year I would throw a lot with my floor mate, lift with Rabuck and go to practice.

By Nationals of that year I think I was maybe the 12th long on the D-Line. After Natties I got some ideas from Walden, and I had a job downtown which required no manual labor, and only worked me about 35 hours and paid me for 40. I was able to get up and lift 3x a week. So MWF I would squat, calves, bench and abs. My squatting technique was load really heavy and then get as much motion as a I could, inevitably I sacrificed a ton in my range of motion, this is not a good idea. Fortunately I never injured myself, and I think I got a little stronger.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I would pull out an old mattress in my basement, set it up against the wall, get down on my knees and throw 100 forehands and 100 backhands at the mattress. I used a mattress because it was usually about 5:30 am and I didn't want my dog to start barking when he heard frisbees landing and effectively wake up my entire family. I credit this as helping me improve more than anything I have ever done.

Throughout that Fall I would lift 3x a week, just squatting and benching, all the while convincing myself that Rabuck (who was in Australia that semester) would come back stronger than me and I couldn't look myself in the mirror if that happened. Went to every single practice, tried to guard Papi every time I was in and tried to play as many points as possible each practice.

I got to practice early and would do hill sprints in the southwest area of the complex. I would also throw in cross fits of squatting/crunches/push ups.

When Rabuck got back in the fall my lifting shizz started to get real. It was the first time I paid attention to the lifting plan and it all made sense. We have 5 lifts, squat, bench, overhead press, dead lift, bent over row. 3x a week we lift and each time we do Squat plus two of the four lifts. The plus two are in groups, bench/bent over row and ohp/dead lift. The numbers also mattered. There are always 3 sets. On monday we do 3 sets of 5 reps, on the bar is 65% of your max, then 75%, then 85%. On wednesday we do 3 sets of 3 reps, on the bars is 70%, 80% and 90% of your max respectively. On Friday are 3 sets, first is 5 reps, then 3 reps and then 1 rep of 75%, 85% and 95% of you max. This holds for all your lifts and you just rotate through it all. At the end of 2 weeks, you should have completed the cycle twice for squatting and once for the other four.

Goose also got me, Papi, Rabuck, Sidrys and Sul doing some track workouts. The always consisted of 2, 1000 yard runs as a warmup, and then we would do either 4 400's or 6 200's or something in that range of difficulty.

This summer I went to a bunch of chicago club tryouts, which definitely helped me see how good people can be at ultimate. I had a job that required me to live on the road for about 8 weeks. I was in a hotel monday through friday and hanging with Rob in champaign on the weekends. MWF I would take my speed ladder outside and do a bunch of those, and then a bunch of 40's. During two weeks I was working up north and was able to get I think 4 workouts in with Waldo.

I'm pretty sure this is the bulk of it, these hours really build up, but there is no way I can add how up the hours I have spent just thinking about ultimate, which is also a valuable activity when trying to improve.

I'm done, that was me just spitballing so if anything is unclear people should totes talk to me.

5 months until Regionals

2011-12-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Fall of 2011 curtain has dropped on Illinois Ultimate, and the moment leaves me at a loss for words. As I was going through the phases of an Illinois Ultimate Fall for the last time, I would constantly wander back to my days as a rookie. It feels like yesterday that I couldn't throw a forehand, or was getting blown away by every team at No Wisconsequences. When I add up all the events that have transpired since my first month of college, everything falls back into perspective and I'm reminded of how far I have come.

Specifically reflecting on this fall, there is a ton that will stick with me.

The most important thing is that our rookies are nasty. Fall 2010 provided us with 4 very special rookies, and during the Fall of 2011 26 ballas graced our practices with their presence. Their attendance has been way above average for a class of rookies, and I'm pretty sure that four years from now they will be stunting through Nationals.

More imminently is the final push of the class of 2012. Four years ago the captains (Denis and Phenom) sent an email to the listserv trying to pump us younguns up and get us excited to come to practice more. In that email they said, "Four years from now you guys are going to be sick." Since day one I feel like we have had high expectations of ourselves. In 2010 there were whispers about how nasty 2012 was going to be. Our rookie class had two starters on the A-team, and an All-Region Freshmen of the year. It didn't take a genius to add two studs and the Roman Legion that was our rookie class and predict a sweet finale. Now here we are about to begin writing our final chapter together and I could not be more excited.

Our D-Line longs are as athletic and deep as ever. Sometimes when I toy around with play time depth charts I convince myself that our D-Line longs could be terrorizing offenses with up to 9 guys getting significant play time. An important note needs to be made on this statement. When Illini Basketball brags about having 7 people come off its' bench, it's usually because they all stink and they don't have a guy to go to, when Bruns brags about his sick D-Line longs it's because they can all go out there and get a D.

The D-Line handlers are almost as hungry as they were in 2010. Realistically, it is impossible to find an individual hungrier to play every single point than Kurt Zoellick. This year we might come close. When we get down we have a pair of seabiscuits at D-Line handler who are going to keep working and keep our sidelines energized by trying to make plays. Colin and Gibby have both put the team on their backs at different points this fall and it makes me very optimistic that they got the meddle to drive some clutch comebacks this spring.

There are two all-Region locks at O-Line handler. As long as those two don't put their tails between their legs when we are in the red zone, magical things could happen.

Our O-Line long unit is suffering the most from graduations. This definitely hurt and will continue to be tough to bounce back from, but we have enough motivated individuals to get better. Right now we are much worse throwers and worse at getting open, but something tells me that our defense on turns will be fine. There is tons of work to be done here, and four weeks at home is usually enough time for people to search their pain cave for their spirit animal, realize it isn't there, and then step back out into the light and have an epiphany.

Going forward from here, a few things are evident. First, our conditioning is so far from where it needs to be.

Second, our rate of injuries needs to decrease and under no circumstances should it increase. Injuries are always stupid, and injuries in the early part of the season absolutely kill us. Winter break needs to be used to keep lifting and keep stretching.

Lastly everyone needs to keep in mind that we have accomplished absolutely nothing yet. There are a handful of people that walk around with some unearned swag. We have not done anything on the ultimate field to earn that swag, and why we are wearing it so proudly escapes me. After break we have 3 months of work before we even have a chance of earning that swag. Always remember that not only teams but individuals, are only defined by Regionals and Nationals.

Bruns

First A-team tourney

2011-11-09T18:12:00.001-08:00

Ultimate has only provided me with 3 sleepless nights. One of them was the night before my first A-team tournament, and in my defense the lineup at Border Brawl '09 was amazing. It was an 8 team tournament and you were guaranteed to compete against every team.

The Schedule was:

Iowa

Luther

Kansas

Colorado

CUT

Wisconsin

Minnesota

7/8 of these teams ended up making it to Nationals. Extremely similar competition to what we get to face at MLC.

As a sophomore I had big dreams of some day being one of Illinois' 'guys'. Making the team as a Sophomore would go a long way in getting me to a sweet spot on the depth chart.

I had my nervs pretty well contained until I got in the car Friday afternoon. It is a seven hour drive to Kansas City, and my car was full of a bunch of returners to the team who knew they had spots and the topic of discussion was how well they thought the team could do that year. The conversation forced me to think about just how badly I wanted to be apart of a team that competes for Nationals.

When we got to Mark's lovely abode in Kansas City, I grabbed my sleeping bag and searched for a place to sleep. I spent the first hour just laying, staring and psyching myself out. Everything I knew about the teams we were playing terrified me, and nothing about my skills comforted me. Beyond the anticipation of playing a couple teams that have recently won National Championships, was the everlasting desire to not let down my teammates. I fretted about potentially seeing the disappointed looks in their eyes after I got beat down for an entire point.

These thoughts poisoned my mind until Adam Wright started snoring, and once that happened there was no way I would get any sleep that night.

When morning finally came, it dawned on me that the only thing I could control was how much effort I put into every single point. In hindsight, that was the only thing that mattered.

Why you should Watch Club Nationals

2011-10-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

It's the last weekend of October, and that means it's the weekend of Club Nationals. Even if you don't feel a special affinity for any team there, or feel like you don't care about what happens throughout the course of the weekend, you should still try to watch a couple games... Why?

A. They are a lot better than we are. This is by far the most important factor, the individual pieces are better than us, and the sum of their parts are better than ours. What are they better than us at? Well they are better throwers, cutters and defenders. More importantly they are on a whole other level in terms of running their offenses. When you watch a club team run a good offense it seems like cutters have tons of space to work with and the pressure on throwers is non existent because they are not trying to hit people's guts, but rather floating it out into the wide open spaces. They are extremely disciplined and very rarely do they do stupid things, it is a pretty amazing thing to watch.

2. It's a lot different swimming with great whites than it is watching them on Discovery channel. When you watch club nationals your first instinct is going to be "Why am I not impressed? I bet I could keep up with them." Let me be the first to inform you that you are lying to yourself. Club marks are tight, and club throwers could not care less. The best part of watching good ultimate is picking up new tricks to use when throwing and watching what makes a good marker a good marker. Club markers don't just sit there and foul away at people, however they are very close, balanced, quick and use their feet extremely effectively. Despite all this pressure the throwers still get their shots off. Faking is something that I don't find intuitive, but watching people who have spent about 10,000 hours refining the craft really helps you develop an idea of what can be done to break the mark.

D. It is still a game of runs. I remember when I believed that high level ultimate was usually decided by about 1 break. This is a ruse. Even at club natties it is a game of runs. Teams never mentally check out (Machine was down 5-1 to Furious and won 15-12). Illinois really takes pride in its ability to check out at random times throughout a weekend. Seeing how the best players in the world compose themselves under the highest pressure in the game is a great model for how you should carry yourself every single weekend.

Finally, If Revolver plays Doublewide you might get to watch Beau Kittredge and Brodie Smith go at it, and that alone should be good enough.

How much better I am than my guy and Eminem Lyrics

2011-10-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus. The past couple of months I have been enjoying the fall season. Practices have been full of young and chipper rookies working hard to learn the game. Tournaments have been successful for everyone who was able to avoid the curse of the Bümhaus.

However, this is not the reason for me to break my silence. A question was posed to me this weekend by Erik "Heff" Huemiller. The question: What are you thinking when you find yourself here,

on the line staring down your opposition?

At first I didn't really have an answer. Honestly I'm not thinking about anything. Usually K-Train and I talk about "deuces of fire" and related topics of poop being on fire. On a more serious note, it bothered me that I didn't have a real answer to this question. So I listened as Heff began to do some more digging.

Neal mentioned that he thinks about "usually how much better I am than my guy and Eminem Lyrics." This was a great answer and It reminded me that throughout Regionals I was thinking

About a year ago I was talking with Crayon. I was trying to get him stoked to play for Illinois. During the conversation it came up that at the beginning of game I was afraid of my opponent. This fear goes beyond respect, there was a time when I was generally scared that my guy would beat me and I would let down my entire team. I was also scared that I would never touch the disc and I would never garner the attention necessary to move up on the Illinois Ultimate depth chart.

This fear always faded sometime in the first third of the game. Usually I would get pretty open going deep, or get a couple easy incuts and that would settle me down a ton and the fear subsided and then I would get pumped because I knew I could play against the fool that was trying to guard me.

I had this fear during MLC 2010, but afterward it never reared its ugly head again. I never reflected on losing this fear until Heff brought up his question. It had been a long time before I had even thought about the guy I was guarding or how good that person could possibly be.

So what was the moment that broke this fear?

I asked Chris Hidaka to talk with me a bit about cutting, and he graciously gave me some of his time. I tried to ask some questions about how Chris adjusted to where his defender was and what his defender was doing. He thought really hard for awhile and then he dropped the bomb, "I really never notice my defender." He doesn't set up his cuts based on where his defender is, nor does he adjust things because of what his defender is trying to do. Instead he just feels. Just feel the space, the gaps and the windows that are opening and closing. For me this was huge, and I consciously took it into practice and slowly played with idea of never looking at my defender. Before I had been in the habit of looking at my defender as I cut, breaking that habit led me to another place in my development.

When consciously looking at your defender and trying to read his hips and trying to adjust to him, you find yourself throwing some weak fakes and unconvincing jukes. When you stop looking at your defender, faking disappears. Instead, just feel the space and cut really hard to it, if you feel that you have lost the space, stop and go another direction that you feel has a bunch of space.

At the end of the day I am not sure if this mentality helped me become a better player, or if becoming a better player allowed me to not care about where my defender is. I like to think it was an incremental moment in my development, and so I share it with you guys.

Also it really helps to think about this

Bümhaus

NexGen v. Machine

2011-08-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

The only thing that looked good about Machine was their new Jerseys. The game started out with a Machine Oline, that didn't even closely resemble the Oline that will be stepping on the field at Regionals, punching in a score. Machine followed with a strong break and then decided to take a nap for the next five points. Down 5-2 it never really felt close again. Machine got as close as 7-6 I believe, but the game ended 15-9.

Some notes from the Machine side.

-A few key players were missing, most notably Machine Captain Mike Shiel and Illinois Superstud Joel Koehneman.

-Illinois Captain Ryan Smith made his first Chicago Machine appearance. 6 points played, 2 turnovers, 1 assisst... I'm not sure about D's but I am going to go out on a limb and say 0.

-Rory of Machine came down with some great jump balls.

-Machine threw a Clam that seemed to work fine early but as points, and the game, wore on it was just bad.

From the NexGen side

-Their experience as a team is definitely what set them apart from Machine.

-Stubbs' ability to shine on a team of all stars says more than a ton.

-When Dylan Freechild had space to work with no one could keep up with him. When he didn't have free space, he made some.

One final point in the game bummed me out. After Matty and Jimmy Mickle combined for a score the announcer referred to it as Colorado to Colorado, a few points later Ryan Smith and Walden Nelson put together a goal and the announcer totally misses on the Illinois to Illinois connection. Oh well... #cantgetnorespect

Yo We're in Boulder

2011-05-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

After Finals were boomed and roasted, we took our free time to the south campus, or the Complex Fields south of Kirby.

As a team we spent four days fighting through two-a-day practices. Morning practices were easy warm-ups, lifting and then half an hour of throwing. The afternoons were basic drills and skills, and then topped off with some sweet scrimmages. Monday scrimmage the O-line rolled, Tuesday the D-line trucked, Wednesday we broke into a three on three tournament, and Thursday a three on three tournament with special throws required to score reminded us that Ultimate is fun.

Wednesday Pools for Natties came out. We learned we were the 17th seed, which fits since we finished 17th twice now. We are in a pool with number 1 overall Pitt, Colorado College, Iowa and Tufts. The Iowa game will be a rematch of a pool play game in Madison that was pretty tightly contested, and the Tufts game is a rematch of a placement game in Columbus that was a big heartbreaker to a lot of the older guys in the program.

After going home for two days the team regrouped in Champaign for the trek to Boulder Colorado. We stopped in Kansas City Sunday night to sleep at the Hirshman's and Krieger's. The rascals over at the Krieger's thought it would be hysterical to saran wrap Adam Wrights van... I also thought it was hysterical. Monday morning we bounced out of Kansas City and 11hours later showed up in Boulder Colorado!!!!!

There are mountains here, being a bunch of boys from Illinois we feel quite out of place.

3 days till first round.

84 Steps to Nationals

2011-05-02T09:46:00.001-07:00

For the second year in a row Illinois took the three seed into Regionals. This year however it was a tournament with only one bid to Nationals. Before the weekend even began, the realization set in that the team would have to go through both Michigan and Michigan State in order to punch their tickets for a road trip to Boulder, CO.

The team made the comfy three hour drive to Rockford, the same site as Club Sectionals where a majority of Illinois players ended their Club season last October. I was one of the fortunate few to be staying at the luxurious home of Gibby, I only heard shady things about the hotel so I can’t go into detail but I do know that it was an experience for those privileged enough to be there.

Saturday morning we rolled into about 60 degree weather with about 15-20 mph winds. It was an upwind downwind day, but not dramatic enough to make it a significant advantage for the downwind team.

Our first game of the weekend was against Darkwing from Loyola with observers. The game began and it became apparent pretty quickly that Loyola had some great upwind throwers. We traded the first points and then had a very long o-point to take the lead 2-1. Another Marathon point ensued which included a lot of punting and a lot of missed shots to Dane and Neal. At 3-2 our D-line used some great catches and blades to get the first break. After being called for offsides our Defense steps it up and D’s it on the goal line then marches it down for another break, 5-2. Loyola came back with an O and a Break point of their own, which put our O-line going upwind to avoid the double break. The O-line marched it upwind for the score, setting up our D-line to take the downwind break back from Loyola. Halftime came at 8-5. Out of the half Loyola played like it was Regionals and we didn’t, they brought the game all the way to 8-8. Universe ensued. Walden intentionally didn’t inform us we were playing a universe point for our own sake. A jump ball to Dane won us the game and got the nerves out for the rest of the weekend.

Gibby got interviewed by the news for being the hometown hero in between this game and the next

Western Michigan was the four seed of our pool. All we knew about them was that they played Michigan tough at Conferences. The O-line started the game very smoothly and the D-line took their time to get comfortable with the competition. The teams traded to 5-4, before Austin stepped on the D-line and used some great throws to get us our first break. Going downwind on D, Crayon dunked to earn us the turn and we used the wind to punch it in. Trading into halftime put the line at 8-5. Coming out of half Western Michigan began cheers of “They’re Crumbling” to inform us that we were crumbling. I found this to be hilarious and can’t wait to steal that cheer in the future. After a few o points, Pecs found Crayon for the break score. D-line ran it to 13-6 and O-line finished it from their 15-8… THEY’RE CRUMBLING!!!!!!!

Papal Rage of Notre Dame was our last game of the day. Early in the game, our hometown hero Nate Gibbons got a sick D, and Andy K-Train Kilinski laid out past someone’s face and the crowd…went…crAAAAAzy. Austin had some great throws, Sid put a full field hammer Papi started to unload his scoobers and D-line worked to take an 8-4 half time lead. The second half was really exciting, both teams O-lines scored every point and the game ended 15-10.

We went to watch our B team become the Dev Regional champions, and then headed back to the hotel and the Gibbons house. Those that went back to the Gibbons house got some great Chili and some homestyle love.

The next morning is going down in my book as the best Sunday morning warm-up of my life. Three reasons why.

1. It was warm and not windy.

2. Indiana brought their boom box and I love warming up to music

3. During their warm up jog Michigan ran past us and gave a nicely timed M-A-G-N U-M cheer right by our warm up. Why does that make me happy? It was the first time they have ever recognized us a rival to them… it was awesome

Indiana was our first game of Sunday, it was also a Quarterfinal game. Kennedy had sat out all Saturday and was using the Indiana game to get his feet back under him. Indiana had two great senior leaders on their team that were not prepared to go down with a fight. They threw the first punch to break at 2-3. It didn’t take long for our D-line to get the break back on a hammer to Neal. Papi threw is fourth and final scoober of the weekend, 100% completion. Colin Reid played some of the hardest defense I’ve ever seen out of him as he matched up with Ed Wu, who was also playing his heart out. Papi and Austin managed to connect for a final break going into half 8-6. In the second half hometown hero Gibby laid out a massive D and Kennedy put the blade to Alex for a nice break that made breathing a lot easier. However, Indiana played lights out against us, I can’t give them enough props for the way they went about this game. They didn’t resort to cheap calls or fouling they just poured their hearts and souls into this game and any member of Illinois who wasn’t familiar with what an elimination game of regionals felt like received a lesson as IU brought it back and tied us at 12-12.

O-lines traded until it was 14-13, a bit of confusion ensued with soft cap being on, we broke for the win but IU felt like the game should be played to 16, but that was it, it ended 15-13. For all but two of the Illinois players, this was our first time ending someone’s season. Great game IU.

Michigan. Just like 2009 and 2010 we got to play MagnUM in semis. Our B-team had hung around just for this game, our women’s team had just finished their season and our alumni were there in numbers. We had the largest sideline in the Region and it was going crazy. They refused to let us lapse, they went nut when we got turns and they made it impossible for us to give up in any way shape or form. Michigan came in having a great spring and was the only team in the Region to truly carry any weight. Going into this weekend they were ranked 15^th and we were pulling in the 20 spot. Michigan got their first break VERY early in the game taking the lead 1-2. I may or may not have freaked out a bit… Our O-line sucked it up and made the next point count. One of the best D’s I’ve ever seen was made by Austin, Kennedy broke the mark to Neal and we were back on serve. Not long after Kennedy boosted a mammoth shot to Dane, who flipped it to Mark and it was Bernie time! The next point we put up a junk stall nine ball and Alex did some magic to come down with it. We had a halftime lead 8-5. Our halftime chat was us being stoked about ourselves. We had each other’s backs and our amazing sidelines had everything else.

The second half would be the most challenging moment of ultimate in most our careers. Be scored right out of half, and the sidelines were so loud they ended up dropping an in cut and we erupted in pure nastiness. UM managed to get a break back pretty quickly and on the ensuing Illinois O point we punched it and capped it off with a SICK 360 spike by Sid, who apparently has just been pretending to be injured all year because he is still really good at doing Sid things.

I think the dagger in the heart was our next break. On the goal line we threw one over our iso’s head and Mark Hirschmanzillazadehscrillaholla came down with a miraculous score. 13-9 our O-line takes the field, we turn it and with the help of the sidelines play some of the best O-line d all season. Michigan has absolutely nothing to throw too and they end up putting a swing pass to no one, giving us the disc with about 10 yards to go. O-line does it. Next d point Dane decides to be a handler and puts a big boost out to Neal for the break and the win. MSU was next.

We had to regroup and turn around for another big game. MSU broke us immediately which was a very sobering moment for the squad. Kennedy’s nice throws got us a break back and then one, 3-1. MSU got a handblock on their next d point and put the game back on serve. Sid’s very tricky throws lifted the O-line over the hump. The next D point Mark caught a score and then proceeded to do a headstand, nearly breaking his back, and held onto it for the break point. A few more monster throws by Kennedy and some calm offense put us into half with an 8-4 lead. Coming out of half time Sul toed the line for a score. The next point was all Neal Phelps. He got a bunch of D’s, several of which he threw down with a little attitude. Eventually the overwhelming defense helps the line score the break. At 12-5 our D-line takes the field. The wind was doing some fun things the whole game, but our D-line was essentially going upwind. After a team D, Kennedy picks up and puts THE GREATEST THROW OF THE WEEKEND right into the wind to a pretty open cutter in the back of the endzone, but it wasn’t to be, MSU took it a went downwind for the score, 12-6. MSU manages to get two breaks in a row, they were hustling because they knew soft cap was going to come on soon. They continue to huck it everywhere hoping to close the gap before cap, they got as close as 14-11. Our best line goes in heading slightly upwind. We have the ball in the redzone trying to punch it in. The pass misses its intended target, but Neal really likes to win so he cleaned up the trash.

We three-peated as Great Lakes Regional Champs!!!! Road Trip to Boulder Colorado

2011 Conference Champions

2011-04-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

The first ever Illinois Conference was this weekend in Rantoul. Vets of the Illinois program remember Rantoul fondly. It is commonly known that the four winds of the world converge on Rantoul. The forecast called for rain but fortunately it held out through our first round game against ISU.

The Illinois team is pretty familiar with the faces of ISU and was pumped to get their first shot at Stanley the Gnome since Whitesmoke. The Dline ripped open the game to 4-0, from there the olines traded into half. We had a nice chat about the ridiculous number of turnovers we had in the first half but really to no avail. The Dline got one more break, thanks to Dane's turkey call, on the game and the oline didn't falter, the game ended on cap at 12-6.

SIU Full Tilt was next on the schedule. A team we were a lot less familiar with. As the game started the heavens really began to open up and the rains came down... I mean sideways. Standing on the east sideline was brutal with the rain coming straight at your face. The game started despite the conditions and SIU grabbed their first o point. From here Illinois opened a 6-0 run, that was capped off with freshman Crayon scoring, and eventually settled into half with a 7-2 advantage. The second half was all dline. Mark caught a Callahan, aka an Autochevron, Sidrys caught a floater over everyone and Chevtom lived up to his name.

The final game of the day was Chicago, a team that features two Illinois alums, Coach Zubair and player Kurley. Fortunately the game was over without much difficulty. We went on a 7-0 run to take half and coasted to a 13-7 victory leaving the fields to chants of R-A... N-T-OUL.

Sunday morning we got a bye thanks to the TD reorganizing things due to the ridiculous Saturday weather. Sunday had lighter wind, sun and no rain. It felt like the best conditions all year. We opened against Northwestern who we had played at Huck Finn when they were missing some big players so this time around we expected a much different game. Colin Reid opened the game by putting the oline on his back and making a big layout grab 1-0. A nice catch by JR and some great D by Kennedy gave us a 4-0 advantage. AJ Nelson played well and helped Northwestern stay in the game as we traded into half 8-3. The second half brought our cleanest ultimate of the weekend. Sul skied people with ONE HAND!!!!! Dane had a sick pair of bookends, and DMac got the wind knocked out of him for the game winning catch.

Eastern Illinois was on the plate for the Championship. This was Eastern's second year in the series. They thought a zone would be a good idea, it wasn't. We opened a 2-0 lead, traded to 4-2 and then closed out the half 8-2. Eastern was pumped coming out of the half and tallied a 4-0 run bringing the game to 8-6. The oline cleaned it up, and the dline made it worthwhile. Eastern didn't seem to go away as they threw another one. Halvies made a great throw to Papi on the next o point, and then Gibby did some things to help the Dline get the game to 12-7. We traded with them from there, the oline had some good moments especially Halvies throwing things and Austin catching an upline as he called his shot. With the score 14-9, the Dline wanted to take the Championship point and did.

Team dinner at Dos and it was official. Illinois Ultimate wins the first Illinois Conference Championship!

Alumni Weekend

2011-04-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

With the series on the horizon, Illinois Ultimate Alumni made their way back to campus for the annual Alumni game. Last year the Students stomped down on the Alumni and the Students mentality was that this year would be no different.

The Alumni that showed up were a competitive group, with several players still active in the game and a large majority of them wanted to win the game.

Sid strategically decided to start going upwind on offense, and the Oline fortunately punched it in setting up the Dline to cash in on a down wind break. Up 2-0 and with last year on our minds it almost seemed as if Illinois already thought the game was in the bag. A few points into the game the Complex Fields closed and we moved from our nice field into the Arboretum which had already seen a long day of hat tournament beat them up. The Alumni maintained focus and managed to put together 5 breaks in the first half.

Half time was pretty awesome. Our Dline came out of half with four straight breaks to put it on serve and soon after took the lead back from those old guys. We were receiving on 13-11 when the Alumni broke the Oline for the 6th time, and a few points later put the game on serve at 14-14. The pendulum swung all the way to universe point at 16-16.

Universe point with the Alumni...awesome. The previous night I had told Walden I expected the game to be about 15-5. The Alumni won the game as soon as they made us run hard, no matter what the final score was the fact that we had to use more than 90% of our energy to beat them was frustrating.

True to form we moved the disc pretty well for a few passes before turning it over on a shot to the endzone. Joel unloaded a deep shot to Charlie and the Alumni pulled the W, making the overall series 1-1.

Even though losing was infuriating and I attribute our loss purely to us being stupid, I feel the Alumni deserve some props for working the whole game and playing pretty well.

Pat Stephens broke Papi's ankles, and roasted almost every matchup he had, Zubair's super sniper bombs were still locked cocked and ready to rock, Charlie was a tough threat deep, Joel Koehneman was poaching on a ridiculous number of incuts. Walden's give an goes were pretty much unstoppable, Jim Haan looked like he never had a knee injury, and Goose's desire to win definitely leached into his teammates. Everyone else who showed up played really well, and I thank them for taking the time to rock our dojos.

2011 Alumni Roster:

Joel Koehneman

Pat Stephens

Stupca

Goose

Walden Nelson

Matt Kurley

Kyle McKinley

JonO

Pavan

Jim Haan

Charlie O'Brien

Paul Ripsky

Zubair Abdulla

Paul Holze

The Road Ahead

2011-04-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

End of 2011 Regular Season USAU rankings came out today. Based on their Algorithm we are number 26 in the Nation.

To qualify for Regionals the Illinois Conference has 6 bids:

Division I Regionals
6 bids: IL (1175)
3 bids: EPL (1051)
2 bids: IL-III (460)
2 bids: MI (1117)
1 bid: EGL-Dev (182)
1 bid: EPL-III (61)
1 bid: MI-III (242)
0 bids: IL-Dev (n/a)
- waitlist: MI, EPL, MI, {IL, MI, EPL, IL-III, MI-III, EGL-Dev, EPL-III, .

To qualify for Nationals the Great Lakes Region has 1 bid:

Region	Total Bids (20)	Auto Bids (10)	Region Str Bids (4)	Team Str Bids (6)
North Central	4	1	1	2
Northwest	4	1	1	2
South Central	3	1	1	1
New England	2	1	0	1
Southwest	2	1	1	0
Atlantic Coast	1	1	0	0
Great Lakes	1	1	0	0
Metro East	1	1	0	0
Ohio Valley	1	1	0	0
Southeast	1	1	0	0

Huck Finn 2011

2011-04-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Huck Finn was our third of three tournaments in a row. We rolled up to the nice fields on Saturday (also B Smiths birthday) and cleated up for our first round game against Northwestern. A little pregame stalking informed us that Northwestern was missing a couple of their captains. Our D line took care of this game and we rolled up a nice lead and won 15-5.

WashU had a couple of studs, and a very good match up for Dane. Dane made some big plays on their stud, Sul grabbed a callahan and both sides of the disc played well to win the game 14-11 on hardcap.

Wisconsin was the game I personally looked forward to the most. They are a great team that always finds its way to Nationals. Seeing how you stack up against the Hodags is pretty applicable to the rest of the field. We had a phenomenal start going up 5-2, and eventually 6-3. After that the oline misplaced some of its swagger and Wisco roared back to take half. Coming out of half Walden made some coaching adjustments and the Oline was back on its feet for the rest of the game. Unfortunately Wisco was too far ahead for the Dline to close the gap and Wisconsin won the game 14-11.

After the other power pool had a three way tie for second we ended up playing Ball State in the cross over game. Going into the game we anticipated them seeking revenge for last years Sectionals. Both Olines held to 5-4 and then finally our Dline busted it out and broke twice to 7-4, then they put the game back in the offenses hands 7-5. Ball State had some fast guys and were winning the gun and run battle. From there both offenses held till 12-10, when Ball State broke to 12-11. After being broken for the first time in the game the Oline and Dline refocused and swagged its way to a 15-11 win.

We spent Saturday night at DMac's house. Personally I was expecting Pee Wee's playhouse...I was quite disappointed. His Dad whipped up a pretty great dinner and his mom kindly informed me that Dan has NEVER been in the Marines.

We drove to the new fields on Sunday morning. Immediately it became apparent why the TD got two fields for this weekend. A nice little incline made going downwind the same as going uphill. The flat area of the fields were littered with sticks and ankle rolling contours which cleared up any questions as to why we were playing on the hill.

We opened the day against OSU. They stomped on us for awhile. Finally Joe Sidrys had a great point where he caught everything in the tough wind, and Kennedy eventually boosted it to him for the upwind/downhill break to make it 4-6 Lead Belly. The Dline rolled for a while till we took half 7-6. We never looked back from there and eventually won the game 11-9 on hardcap.

Semis verse Minnesota spelled a lot of trouble. They took half at 7-3 before we knew what hit us. Much of the same put Minnesota winning the game 13-6.

We were scheduled to play Ball State for third, but both teams agreed on a tie and the TD said that was fine. That ended our regular season and we hit the road for home.

2011 Regulard Season Record: 18-7

Regular Season Top Ten Highlights

2011-04-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

With the regular season done and the Series ahead of us I thought I would look back to my favorite moments of the year.

10. Terminus: Tom "Chevtom Truckwick" Rudwick gets the only lay out D of the weekend in his first tournament back from a long injury.

9. Free State: Andy "K-Train" Kilinskis leaves the tracks to go upstairs against Iowa for a heart pumping sky score.

8. Huck Finn: Suleyman "Sully Goose" Ahmad grabs a Callahan against WashU.

7. Free State: In his first tournament with Illinois, Dane does what we all hoped he would do...skied everyone in sight.

6. Adam Wright makes his return. After 157 days of being out with an ACL injury Adam Wright completed his first practice on March 29th.

5. Huck Finn: Sean "Snack "Beaver" Man" Hill catches his first college ultimate goal and snacks on the disc to cheers of om nom nom nom.

4. Free State: Neal Phelps limits his man to two touches against Iowa.

3. Huck Finn: After being down 5-2 against Ohio State, Ryan "Kennedy" Smith fires up the engines to lead the team roaring back to take half 7-6.

2. Free State: Nate "Gibby" Gibbons manages to lay out more than 20 times in 8 games. Bringing a ridiculous amount of passion and energy to the D-line.

1. Centex: In the revenge match against Kansas, Andy "K-Train" Kilinskis snatches a Callahan on top of everyone.

Part 2 of the Club Experience

2011-04-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

One thing I learned about the club tryout process is that it takes weeks. Often, you’ll travel to one or two tournaments before you know if you made the team or not. Now I know the process in college takes quite a bit of time as well; however, in college, you’re guaranteed to play with the B team as long as you keep coming to practice. In the club process, if you don’t make the team, you need time to find another one.

Since I took a year off from competitive ultimate, coming back to it through the tryout process re-aggravated a number of old injuries. Despite my rigorous lifting, sprinting and plyometric work, nothing quite prepares you for the shock of playing for hours at the top level. As such, I had a difficult time balancing my health with demonstrating to the captains that I can be a valuable asset to the team. It was nice that the captains were fairly approachable and didn’t seem the type of people to hold an injury against you, but they still have a decision to make based solely on what they see from your performance.

Luckily, my injuries were slight, and I knew how to wrap them up and tough it out. As you probably already know, I was offered a spot to play with Beach Front Property and took it. I did want to mention that the ultimate scene in Chicago has grown considerably in both size and talent since I graduated. When playing club with Illinois, I always had the attitude that the second tier Chicago teams just took anyone who didn’t make Machine and were beneath our level. That has changed.

If you thought balancing classes/college life and ultimate was difficult, balancing work life/home life with ultimate is a challenging experience. It’s easy to blow off or sleep through classes the day after a late practice or tourney, but it’s a much different story when working in the “real world”. I’m sure my experience would have been different if I lived in the city and close to our practice fields, but I did not.

For Saturday practices, I drove an hour each way (and that was without traffic). For practices during the week, I worked late, caught a ride to practice with a teammate and then ended up taking a late train back to the burbs after practice was over. I tended to get home around 1am and then had to be up at 6am to head back to work the next day (and that was sleeping in). Now, 5 hours of sleep is plenty for me to function normally; however, coming home at 1am when your wife goes to bed a 9:30 has a whole other set of “issues”.

As an accountant and former treasurer, I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the finances. Team dues and other expenses are also slightly different at the club level. I still paid a team fee and the cost of jerseys, which actually came to considerably less than what I paid for college dues and jerseys. However, that difference is easily made up with having to pay for my own travel and lodging versus having the team fund cover those expenses in college. We still engaged in carpooling, room sharing and house crashing to cut down on those expenses, but there’s only so much saving a person can do. Also, team scheduling can have a big effect on traveling expenses. For example, I know that Machine’s tournament schedule encourages flying which can easily run you a couple hundred each flight.

Adjusting to a new team often means adjusting to a new role. I played a lot of defense in college, and I tended to get a decent amount of playing time, especially pre broken leg (a.k.a. before I got “Lamped”). On Beachfront, I became more of a “utility” long. I’d play either O or D and usually got 3-6 points of playing time per game. I’m not going to say whether I thought this was good or bad; just that it was different. In going from the college to club level, expect it to be “different”.

One of the great things about this game, is that you can play it for life. I would encourage all of my readers to keep playing the game in some capacity. Whether you’re a perennial at club nationals or a heckler at the summer league championship, this game will always give you new friends, will always teach you new skills and will never cease to be fun.

Spirit Animals

2011-03-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Adam Wright- Rhinoceros

The Rhino has very thick skin and packs a lot of power. It runs with its head down and bulldozes everything in its way.

Alex Komisarz- Gazelle

The Gazelle is quick and when it is hitting its bounds is extremely difficult to catch up to.

Andy Kilinskis- Sloth

Nice and lanky gives the Sloth the ability to move through most jungles. Also it is lacking in the speed department.

Austin Lien- Squirrel

Quick and obscenely difficult to catch. Also in "Over the Hedge" the squirrel loves caffeine...match made in heaven???

Brandon Smith- Bobcat

The Bobcat travels and hunts in solitude. When cornered it is extremely fierce.

Brian Pierce- Crane

Bird with long legs. Not very graceful when running, however very proud and cerebral.

Brian Rathunde- Meer Cat

Timon is an intelligent but unfocused character.

Chris Hidaka- Road Runner

When Road Runner is not dominating Wiley Coyote through the desert he is known as a very cunning, quick and agile creature

Chris Kvistad- Gorilla

Gorilla's are built

Colin Reid- Rabbit

Rabbits are very alert and aware of their surroundings. They are very resourceful in those surroundings.

Dan MacDonald- Anteater

They are ridiculous animals.

Dane Jorgensen- Ruppell's Griffon

A jet engine once sucked up a Ruppell Griffon at 37,900 feet, a mile and a half above Mount Everest. They get really high.

Jack Krieger- Weasel

As an omnivore weasels have a lot of cleverness and guile.

Joe Sidrys- Giraffe

They are tall and goofy.

John Rowe- Wolf

The wolf will hunt you down, and is extremely capable of turning on the jets.

Jon Hatcher- Dolphin

Moves very gracefully and with a lot of smoothness. Also has natural looking layouts.

Mark Hirschman- Raven

Raven's are known for being very mischievous tricksters. They would be great poachers on the ultimate field.

Nate Gibbons- Humming Bird

They Humming Bird is the quickest bird, and doesn't stop from sun up until sun down.

Neal Phelps- Shark

As soon as the shark tastes blood in the water, it finds the source and finishes.

Papa Bear- Panda Bear

Playful, loving and always happy.

Ryan Smith- Bulldog

Small, but has more fight per inch than any other animal.

Snack Man- Beaver

Snax flat out looks like a beaver

Steve Haake- Otter

Otters are very quick in their environment, they also exhibit a lot of patience.

Sul Ahmad- Lion

Bold courageous and strong hearted the Lion is a symbol of strength and defiance.

Tom Rudwick- Elk

Pretty strong and agile runner, however the heavy antlers make it difficult to turn its head.

Zach Frantz- Eagle

The eagle looks down and sees everything. This vantage makes it very wise.

My "Observation"

2011-03-21T07:36:00.001-07:00

I know that I promised you all an exciting part 2 for my piece on the club tryout and season experience. That is still in the works; however, I have more immediate things to share with you all.

This weekend, I took part in an official USAU (USA Ultimate) observer clinic, and assuming all the paperwork goes through as expected, I became a certified observer. The process wasn’t dauntingly impossible, but it also wasn’t one of the easiest things I’ve ever had to do.

I signed up for the clinic in late January when I received a mass email communication from USAU informing me that an observer clinic would be happening in Naperville in conjunction with the Chicago Invite (High School Edition). Since the clinic was happening in my own backyard, I figured I didn’t have a good excuse not to go. Plus, I knew it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on the rules before the club season started, not to mention have a little more credibility when making calls as a player.

About two weeks before the clinic, the instructor sent us a link to an online rules quiz that we had to pass in order to be eligible for the clinic. The clinic itself is designed more to teach how to make rulings rather than what rulings to make. As such, preparing for and passing a rules quiz proves you at least looked at the rules pertaining to the questions on the quiz.

The clinic began at 8:30am in a small hotel conference room which gave off a classroom setting (complete with a whiteboard on the wall). True to ultimate fashion, the first hour of the program is designed as a “meet and greet” to allow other people up to an hour if they’re late.

The entire clinic is designed to follow the Observer Manual produced by USAU, which can also be found on the USAU website. So if you’re interested in a much more detailed account of what observers are supposed to know and do, then you may want to check that out. The first part of the clinic began with a discussion on the Spirit of the Game. USAU tends to preach this a little harder than they should, in my opinion, but it is one of the founding tenants of the game. Without that mutual respect between opponents, captains, coaches and observers, the entire system breaks down (even in sports with referees).

The rest of the classroom session functioned as a discussion between the 12 participants with the instructor leading the way and making sure we knew the basic responsibilities of being an observer: active in and out of bounds calls, active in and out of the end zone calls, keeping track of time limits between points and for timeouts, as well as the active call on a force-out-foul (though players should be thinking of making these calls if an observer was out of position to make such a ruling). After a lunch break, we also went over many common situations involving correct positioning and proper stall count after a foul or violation is resolved.

One thing all players should be aware of: observers do not make active up or down calls on the disc. So if someone makes a questionable catch in the end zone, the observer will signal that the player is in the end zone, but there is a delay between when we make that call and when we signal a goal. So as a player, it your responsibility to contest the catch and then go to an observer for a ruling if the discussion can’t be resolved. Also, when going to an observer with a call, be as specific as possible, especially on travel calls. State why you think the player traveled, e.g. pivot moved or s/he failed to make a proper ground check or s/he failed to place his pivot in the correct spot.

After all the basics were covered, we went over the misconduct system, TMFs and PMFs. From my experience with observers, most of them would warn teams that a TMF or PMF would be issued for the next offense. The observer program is now discouraging that practice and advocating for giving a TMF or PMF right from the start, especially since TMF penalties don’t kick in until the third one is issued.

Before we headed out to the tournament to get some in-the-field practice, we quickly went over the hand signals and how to work a game with one, two or four observers (two is the most common). At the field, all twelve of us and the instructor worked a single game. Each of us got about two or three points of experience. Having played in multiple games with observers, I was quite comfortable in finding the right positioning and making the proper calls when I needed to. Though I must say, the high school kids handle disputes quite well. I’m not sure if any of us actually made a ruling on a foul call. I chalk that up to good coaching.

After our on-field practice, we went back to the classroom to go over any questions we had as well as receive general feedback from the instructor on how we did in the field. After that, we took another quiz that was a bit more difficult than the pre-clinic quiz. The questions were tricky and there was also a short answer portion for how to conduct yourself given certain heated and complex situations. I think it served as good mental preparation for our on-field evaluations the next day.

On Sunday, the twelve of us would each work a full game in pairs while being evaluated by one of the instructors. Our certification would be determined as a combination of our final quiz score and on-field evaluation. I was fortunate enough to work the first round of the day. At the start, it looked like a challenging game. There were strong winds and rain with lightening expected at any moment. Further, the field we were at had specifically requested observers. We didn’t find out until afterwards that the request was simply to experience a game with observers, not because of any ill will between the teams.

The game went smoothly, very few calls were made, and of those calls, even fewer needed an observer to make a final resolution. I was pretty impressed with how these kids handled themselves. There was even an instance where a travel was called on a throw for a score. After a five second discussion (with no yelling I might add), the kid who made the call realized he was incorrect and acknowledged that a goal had been scored. The kids did have a little trouble with off sides, with one team actually getting a penalty, but the timing between points and time outs was never an issue.

Overall, the program was a very positive experience, and I highly recommend getting involved as an observer if you’re interested in such things. Also, if you’re reading this blog and have more questions or you’re thinking that you’d like to have your team get some practice with an observer, then contact me and although I’m pretty much only available in the Chicago area, I’ll do my best to help you out.

No San Antonio This Year

2011-03-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

A 17 hour car drive and 2 days of Ultimate separated the Illinois team from spring break. The trip to Austin seemed to go smoothly for every car. During the ride Dane picked up on a little quirk of Brian "Crayon" Thunder, who uses his phone to check his hair every 30 minutes or so, it's funny as shit.

Saturday was a day that taught us a lot about who we were. We let teams stick around way longer than we should have, didn't put together too good halves and struggled to execute simple throws and catches in the 10-15 mph wind. I don't care to go into the details about all the games, here is the score reporter page. http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/8737. What we need to learn from Saturday is how our intensity and focus correlated with the score of the game. Florida State and Texas A&M both started out a lot more intense than us and we suffered by going down early, but once we fired it up, the turntables. On the other hand we had games against ISUC and Arkansas where we came out super strong, and then stopped focusing, and then lo and behold we let them off the hook.

The game against TUFF in my opinion showed promise. Walden disagreed. At the end of the day I thought our marks were good and we played hard D. The execution on O was just poor similar to the rest of the day.

Sunday felt different. We woke up to play LSU. They were an athletic team and they were able to keep up with us. This was not a game of runs, we went down 2 breaks early but we took the rest of the game to come back and slowly build a lead and finish at 14-12.

Here are my feelings on the Kansas game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6BVyu7Xvi4

and

http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D93Af4zxwrvM

Illinois 14-Kansas 11

Ninals was between Illinois and UCLA. Usually we lose focus on the last game of the tourney and this was no exception. We took half at about 8-2, and UCLA won the second half 8-7 totaling to a final score of 15-10 bad guys. Another case of us losing focus after going up big.

We won Ninals at centex, and we didn't have to drive to San Antonio to do it. So I guess I can enjoy spring break. The team is dispersed over the entire US right now and will converge on Georgia this Thursday.

As an extreme sidenote, I am currently sitting in a Hotel Room with Sul, CReid and Krieger. We are trying to order a pizza and have put Sul in charge of contacting pizza places. I want to share the transcript of one of these calls.

Sul-Do you deliver to the Hampton by the Airport

Phone Person- I don't believe we do

Sul- Come on dog

PP- Sorry dog

Sul- Alright thanks homeslice

click

Cinderella Man

2011-03-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

A Cinderella Man is something to fear.

“I’m not even really supposed to be here right now, so fuck it might as well make the most of it.”

-As a part of this program in 2009 and 2010 there were a lot of times where confidence in the program was hard to have. There are times when the team looked flat out terrible. The outside Frisbee community has taken note, and they want us to prove ourselves before Regionals. In their opinion we don’t belong in the conversation as a perennial Nationals team, however every year we find ourselves in that position. We need to start making the most of the shots we get, because there is no guarantee that we will get more.

“Who can catch lightning in the bottle, Set fire to water,”

-The biggest weakness of this team and program is our inability to bring the fire. We have joked about curb stomping and have forgotten what it means to bring it, way too many of us are too nice to enjoy stomping on people. Almost weekly an email gets sent out to our listserv attempting to provide motivation. However the fires that burn the brightest come from way down low and can only burn at its brightest through internal fueling. Somewhere, somehow, sometime this season we have to find the fire and we have to unload it on everything in our path.

“There’s a storm commin that the weather man couldn’t predict.”

-Any of you who are inept enough to explore the Ultimate forums on the internet wouldn’t struggle to find several places where people are doubting our ability to ball at the highest level. We didn’t have a good Free State Classic, and several people are betting our region only gets one bid. In my opinion that’s awesome because they won’t be prepared for the storm of haterade that is on its way.

“No remorse, I’m showinn they slowin,”

-When the other team puts their hands on their knees to take a breath or calls a timeout of takes their time to get to the line, we have to recognize that as a sign of weakness and use that as motivation to make them hurt more. No matter how tired you are, you should always assume that your opponent is equally as tired and then it becomes a mental battle. First one to show weakness loses.

“Raise hell from hell he came,
but didn't come to bore you with the cinderella story,
nor did he come to do the same,
he can’t afford to be a label in this day in age,
and at this stage of the game
mediocrity cannot be allowed to fly,”

The Mo Factor

2011-03-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Mo Factor is something I normally joke around about. The Mo Factor is the intrinsic connection between motivation and momentum. The way to build momentum is to have lots of motivation, and momentum drives motivation. The Mo Factor is the entrance ramp to this highway of awesomeness.

This last weekend Illinois struggled to maintain control of the Mo Factor in Kansas City. Expectations were extremely high as the team cleated up in 2 inches of snow. Thoughts of potentially winning this tournament went through the teams mind as soon as the pools and tournament bracket went up on Score Reporter.

Saturday opened with a game against Colorado State, a game that we were in complete control of from start to finish. Kansas State brought the first challenge of the season. It was a fairly physical game that also brought the first game time injury of the season. After getting up ridiculously high Chris Hidaka came down awkward and suffered an injured ankle injury that knocked him out for the rest of the weekend. The rest of the Kansas State game remained tough and Illinois pulled it out with a two point win.

Rounds 3 and 4 against Truman State and John Brown went by pretty quickly as the team attempted to gear up for Kansas. Throughout the day great plays were made by new comers to the team. Most notably Dane demonstrated his ability to make ridiculous plays in the air and Gibby unleashed layouts that were somewhere between peoples hips and shoulders.

Kansas was Round 5. They were one team that we wanted to play and really wanted to win. The game played out to be an excellent test of Illinois’ abilities. The game would be very typical of a Kansas Illinois showdown and neither team ever provided a knockout punch until the game was completely over. At the end of the game Kansas was the team cheering and Illinois was the one accepting the bitter pill of defeat.

The team dispersed to the Krieger’s and Hirshman’s homes for some sweet home cooked food.

SUNDAY! If you can’t get up for Championship Sunday you should probably quit Ultimate. Missouri S&T and Illinois squared off in the quarterfinals for the chance to face Iowa. Sunday morning belonged to BSmith who punched in 3 scores to help the Illini get to semis.

Iowa, Iowa, Iowa… In the past year and a half Illinois had a 2-1 record against the cornfed IHUC. They exploded out of the gate with two breaks. Finally the Illinois Oline closed a point and gave the Dline a chance to run. Picking up the slack of the Oline the Dline drove a pretty strong run into half time. It was 8-5 at half in favor of the Illini, and 9-5 right out of half time. But, the rest of the game belonged to Iowa. A Callahan and a bunch of break later they were pulling to us up 14-13. A point of several turns later and Iowa was off to the Championship round and Illinois was busy trying to convince Arkansas to play. Arkansas decided to check out early and Illinois’ weekend ended 2 hours too early.

Back from the Dead, a Post about Post-Collegiate Ultimate (Part 1)

2011-02-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

By rip (that's right, I've still got access)

For some of you, the end of college seems ages away. For others, it seems way too close for comfort. As a person with a somewhat professional career (Auditing/Accounting) and a somewhat amateur ultimate career, I wanted to share some of my insights and offer you a glimpse of the club ultimate scene outside of Champaign (FYI, Goose and Jim run a damn good team in FC Champaign).

Author’s Note: I know quite a few readers are still upset over club sectionals. I’m still quite disappointed in how Beachfront won, and I don’t think either team would have felt good about winning or losing that game. But moving on…

Let me start by saying that my experience may not be typical and other alums who are also currently tearing up the club scene (Dave, Joel, Pat) may have different opinions, so when making a decision involving a club team, it may be beneficial to talk to more than one person. However, I have always been of the opinion that personal experience is far better than external advice.

After graduating, I took a break from ultimate in order to settle into my new job, new marriage and new house. (At some point, real life is going to compete with ultimate. Make sure you know your priorities before that happens. Making decisions will be much less stressful that way.) In order to keep my throws from getting too rusty, I looked for random pick-up games. I first found this one group of high-school kids near my first apartment. While playing with them gave me a significant ego boost, it did nothing for helping me stay competitive with the big dogs.

It wasn’t until winter when I found a decent pick-up game. In that, I got somewhat lucky. I found a group of people who knew what they were doing, and some were involved in the local ultimate scene, ultimatechicago.org. I got talked into signing up for a mixed spring league that I hoped would get me ready for club tryouts come May. The team I played with was a random mix of masters players (many of which were Illinois Alums), recent college grads, college players and a high school player. Playing on such a team was a vastly different experience from playing on Illinois.

Given that we had no experience playing with each other, no set plays, and no set defenses, it forced me to immediately communicate with my teammates to learn how we fit together to win games. I also had to assess who the throwers were, who the main cutters were, and who was looking to actively switch on defense as well as recognizing the same characteristics in my opponents. At the same time, I also had to assert my role on the team. This type of experience directly translates to the club tryout experience. (Side note, I can now add Chicago Spring League Championship to my list of accomplishments. Taste it Cozza, Denis and Bill Finn.)

I went to the tryouts for the Chicago Club teams: Machine, Haymaker and Beachfront Property. At the tryouts, we ran a set of drills that many of you would find familiar, e.g. break side cut to, Randy Moss, Triangle of Death. Then we were put in 3 v 3 games and 7 v 7 games. Here’s where playing with a group of people you barely know comes in handy. The teams are random, and you have to work with your teammates as well as stand out in order for the tryout to be a success.

Yes, Illinois Ultimate attracts a diverse group of athletes, but our ultimate schooling is virtually identical. Playing with others who learned the game under different schools of instruction only enhances your ability as an ultimate player and your ability to deal with different/bad calls or situations during a game. Not to mention that it broadens your exposure to a variety of offenses and defenses and effective strategies for defeating said offenses and defenses.

I didn’t make Machine, which was a bit of blow considering that I bribed Joel, but I found a home playing with most of the Beachfront guys. So I continued the tryout process with them.

to be continued…

3-Week Report Card

2011-02-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

BAM- Were already three weeks into our spring season. We have three weeks till our first tournament, and less than three months until conferences. The realization of just how long a college ultimate season is should be setting in right now. The wear and tear can be pretty tough to deal with, and taking time off now is better than hurting yourself and taking time off later. Keeping your mental focus can also be a daunting challenge. We put in a lot of time during practice and out of practice and the demand on your schedule may get frustrating. It is important to remember that your teammates are going to be there for you, so you should be there for them.

I've talked to several people about where we are now in relation to past years and how we are developing as a team. I thought that I would put together an Illinois Ultimate 3-week report card, in an attempt to self analyze and reset my own focus.

Throwing: It doesn't seem like people are pushing themselves to improve during the throwing drills. Right now the isolated wrist snap drills are helping us improve the most because of a lack of learning from the break mark drills. We can all experiment a lot more to see how the mark reacts to certain things and try to make the defender make mistakes that you can capitalize on. I think that everyones throws can improve. If you don't think you have something about your throwing that you can improve on, I bet you $20 that Walden can find something your really bad at.

Marking: Throwing and marking go hand in hand. I feel like people are comfortable with their level of marking, and don't make a conscience effort to work on them. We aren't very physical and a lot of us lean and bend over all over the place. Austin and Kennedy are our two best markers and they never move their upper body with moving their legs. We talk about striking on inverts and arounds, but striking does not mean sticking your arm out and trying to hit the disc, it means shuffling around so that your hand will be in a good spot and you won't have to extend awkwardly and lose your balance.

Offense: There is no point in ringing the alarm bells yet. However Friday night a five stall scrimmage pointed out a ridiculous amount of deficiencies. We need to be better at making contested throws and contested catches. There is no team that we will play at regionals that won't be all over us. We aren't going to be wide open all the time, so being able to run our offense despite pressure is what matters. We aren't timing or meshing our cuts together very well and it seems like we get tunnel vision sometimes. I'm not particularly worried about these things though because I believe that the timing just takes work and the tunnel vision will be fixed once people become very comfortable with the offense and know where to expect there teammates are going to be.

Defense: Not physical enough. I'm not going to pretend like I'm good at defense, but we talked about how we have had very few foul calls during practice. That needs to change. When we play good teams they are going to be tight, and they will use contact as a way to stay close to you. Its not that we need to "try harder" we just need to grow a pair and start getting in each others space. Related to defense is our transition from offense to defense. Its pretty terrible right now and I don't have anything nice to say about it.

Overall I believe we are on the right track. Each of my concerns can be fixed by people taking pride in what we do at practice and trying to improve themselves everyday.

Throwing Deep Thought #2

2011-01-31T15:59:00.000-08:00

This is something I wanted to add about throwing deep. A lot of problems I see people having with throwing deep and their throws in general stem from an unnecessary throwing motion. With throwing motion I mean the path your disc takes from when you start moving the disc up until release. This motion involves the disc movement horizontally with your pivot as well as the actual release motion from whatever body position you pivoted to. These two motions are linked and continuous when you pivot directly into a throw which is mostly the case. The best throwing motion is a quick, simple, and efficient one. A lot of people incorporate loopy vertical movements in their throwing motion which make achieving a tight fast spin more difficult. Ultimately the goal of throwing is to produce as much spin as possible with every throw. Any unnecessary loopy movement makes a clean release harder to come by. So, minimize unnecessary movement. This simple release also allows for a quick release, which makes throws easier to get off and harder to defend.

sid

Throwing Deep

2011-01-31T15:42:00.001-08:00

Although I don't particularly like a lot of the article on the-huddle.org, I do like this one. It is at least a good overview of the necessary components. He harps on stepping to the side to generate as much wrist flick and body torque as you can. The only thing he doesn't really talk about is wind. Wind and throwing are one and the same, and adjusting for the wind in your throws is part of being a good thrower. Before all games I think about the wind and what shape I need to put on both my hucks and in both directions. Also just throw a bit of grass in the air before points to check the direction and consciously remind yourself that there is wind that you need to take into account.

Well this sounds formulaic and time-consuming to always have to make mental adjustments...ultimately you need to understand that wind has to be factored in and throw your throws on feel. The way to get comfortable with this is just a ton of throwing. After throwing through in a lot of different wind conditions/scenarios and getting a lot of reps, these adjustments will become more fluid and second-nature.

So read the article. Also, if you don't know about the huddle, there is a ton of other information on there about everything ultimate. It is a good place to hear a bunch of different viewpoints from successful players on different topics. Don't just accept what they say though as correct, think about it yourself and try to understand and incorporate it into your playing. Empirical data is always best.

http://www.the-huddle.org/issues/10/starting-body-mechanics-early/

sid

Second Semester

2011-01-25T18:47:00.000-08:00

Final cuts for Illinois were made January 16th. The cuts followed the annual "Week Back" for the top 33 players in the program. Nine practices in five days gave the captains a solid grasp on who was prepared for the a long spring season with the A-team. This was the latest that Illinois had ever made cuts before, and that was directly due to how competitive cuts were and the depth of our top 35 players.

The nine practices over the week back included about half strategy and half conditioning. Beyond just ultimate the week back is great in terms of team bonding. A pasta party, Super Smash Bros tournament, trip to Buffalo Wild Wings and a game of Jeopardy about ourselves brought us together and laid the foundation for what should be a very tight group.

A week later school started and we began to hit the armory and Irwin with a fervor. January 22nd was the official start to Illinois Boomland's season. Rob Dreier and Joe "Conair" Conerty were elected captains. Rob and Joe were both cut before the week back but both attended and made every practice during the week. They have showed the initiative and desire to lead the B team and I feel very confident that this years Boomland is in great hands.

On the 24th we held a program wide meeting to discuss an issue that is very prevalent to the program this year. We have like $0 right now, and we discussed different ways to get short term and long term money. A lot of good ideas were thrown around including a hat tournament that will be open to the public after spring break.

Know Your Teammates Champion

2011-01-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Austin Lien for winning the "Know Your Teammates" Tournament!

Austin had an average of 78.333% going into the final Jeopardy round against Adam Wright with an average of 81% and Joe Sidrys with an average of 75.66%.

Before Final Jeopardy the scores were:

Adam Wright: 1600

Austin Lien: 1200

Joe Sidrys: -300

After a Final Jeopardy question that no one got correct the scores were:

Austin Lien: 1100

Adam Wright: 699

Joe Sidrys: -601

...I guess thats just another reason he is our captain.

Know Your D Mac

2011-01-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

THE RESULTS ARE IN!!!!

The third and final round of individual quizzes in the "Know Your Teammates" Tournament was all about that mysterious guy from GOP, Dan McDonald.

Dan McDonald:

1. How old is D Mac?

28 (also acceptable: 493)

2. Where is D Mac from?

Godfrey, IL (also acceptable: Glenfinnan)

3. How many tours of service has D Mac been on?

Two: My third grade class was deployed in Desert Storm as part of special operation "Toddler Terror" and we were later redeployed in 2004 in the second Iraq war as part of special operation "Twentysomething Terror."

4. According to D Mac who is the best band of all time and why?

Styx, because Styx rox.

5. What's the name of D Mac's favorite off brand Goldfish?

Whales

6. How many teeth is D Mac missing?

Two

7. What is D Mac's favorite math theorem?

The Hairy Ball Theorem: for even n, an n-sphere contains no nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field

8. According to D Mac, what is the one thing Illinois Ultimate does too much of?

Stretching (also acceptable: giving 100% effort)

9. If you were D Mac and you were going to miss practice, give an example of what you would email the captains.
I was eating at the Rainbow Garden on Neil the other day and I wanted to order a side of "Shallots And Rice Suey" so I said, "I'll have the SARS, preaze," and the waiter spat in my face, which at first I thought was a reaction to my pronunciation of "please" (which was really just a typo) but later realized was him misunderstanding my order to be a respiratory illness and bringing it to me as an appetizer right away. The rest of my meal was delicious but unfortunately I have once again contracted SARS so I will be missing practice until I feel better.

10. What does D Mac dream of when he sleeps?

TV's Barbara Eden

Joe Sidrys: =93

This is for Boomland

1) 23, rëäd: stïll töö ÿöüng för cö-ëd. =5

2) Söüthërn Ïllïnöïs nëär thë Mïssöürï bördër, ä sïmplë wëb sëärch wïll shöw hë's fröm Gödfrëÿ, ÏL. =10

3) 2. =10

4) Stÿx! Whëthër ÿöü wänt tö lïstën tö prögröck, ärënä röck, pöwër bälläds, ör gö ön än ädvëntürë tö thë fütürë, Stÿx cän dö ït för ÿöü. =10

5) Whälës! =10

6) Frönt tëëth änd mäÿbë ä fëw wïsdöm tëëth jüst tö päd hïs stäts. Ï'll gö wïth 7. =-5

7) Dünnö, büt hë sëëms lïkë ä Ëülër's ïdëntïtÿ güÿ tö më. =0

8) Strëtch. =10

9) "I really just don’t feel like it," ëmphäsïs ön thë läck öf pröpër lëttër cäsë. =8

10) Trävëlïng süpërstrïngs tö ältërnätïvë rëälïtïës tö shït ïn thë bäthtübs öf hïs ënëmïës, thën tëllïng hïs ältërnätë sëlf ïn thät rëälïtÿ tö dö thë sämë, trïggërïng än ïnfïnïtë sëqüëncë öf tüb-shïttïngs. =10

OVERALL PLUS 25 FOR UMLAUTS

Adam Wright: =73

1. How old is D Mac?

He is 23, but has claimed to be anywhere from 25 to 30 while telling stories. =5

2. Where is D Mac from?

Alton, Illinois near St Louis =8

3. How many tours of service has D Mac been on?

He claims that he has been on 2 tours of service during the Persian Gulf War =10

4. According to D Mac who is the best band of all time and why?

Im gunna have to say that he thinks the best band of all time is Styx. =10

5. What s the name of D Mac's favorite off brand Goldfish?

Since i dont even know the names of any off brand goldfish im gunna go ahead and say "Flips" are his favorite off brand goldfish. =0

6. How many teeth is D Mac missing?

He is missing 2. His front 2 + his wisdom teeth. =10

7. What is D Mac's favorite math theorem?

His favorite math theorem is Green's Theorem because he teaches it in calc 3 and people fail because of it. =0

8. According to D Mac, what is the one thing Illinois Ultimate does too much of?

Illinois ultimate tries too much. Dan would much rather sing songs and have fun. =10

9. If you were D Mac and you were going to miss practice, give an example of what you would email the captains?

He would tell them that he got SARS from fellow grad school math students because they dared him to kiss one of the asians. He said no but if they double dared him, he would have to do it, and then they double dared him to do it, so he obliged so he had to miss practice because he has SARS. =10

10. What does D Mac dream of when he sleeps?

He dreams that hes back at Carleton playing with GOP because he had more fun there and got to wear his hawaiian shirt all the time. =10

Austin Lien: =80

1. How old is D Mac?

D Mac is at the ripe old age of 23 =5

2. Where is D Mac from?

Godfrey, IL. So basically Missouri. =10

3. How many tours of service has D Mac been on?

What? I’m pretty sure this is his fifth year of ultimate, if that’s what you mean. It’s his second year with Illinois. =0

4. According to D Mac who is the best band of all time and why?

Styx. Styx Styx Styx. He likes them because they’re named after the river D Mac was dipped in as a child. Also, Dennis DeYoung is a boss. =10

5. What’s the name of D Mac's favorite off brand Goldfish?

I really have to throw in the towel on this one. Sigh… =0

6. How many teeth is D Mac missing?

His front two for sure. If he’s missing any more, I am unaware. =10

7. What is D Mac's favorite math theorem?

Obviously the Hairy Ball Theorem. =10

8. According to D Mac, what is the one thing Illinois Ultimate does too much of?

Stretching, although I doubt that’s the only thing. =10

9. If you were D Mac and you were going to miss practice, give an example of what you would email the captains?

I find myself at a unique advantage here:
-------------------------------------------------------
some of the chinese students in the math department had some shotglasses full of
SARS mucus from their homeland and they dared me to take a shot and i knew it w
as a bad idea so i asked them if they would double dare me in the hopes that the
y were only willing to single dare me but they called my bluff and double dared
me so i had to take a shot because it's part of the math code of conduct to acce
pt double dares and now i have SARS again.

i can't believe this keeps happening to me especially since it means i won't be
at practice tonight and probably won't make it thursday either.

-------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately you will not have the privilege of playing with me this weekend. My family is coming up to Champaign this weekend, and since we've been drifting apart these past few years I think it's important I stay in town. My parents have been fighting more frequently recently and I need to be there to keep the peace so they don't start arguing in front of my little brother. This will also be the first time any of us has seen my older brother in several years, and it might be my last chance to convince him to go to rehab for his painkiller addiction. I would really like go with you guys up to Michigan this weekend, but if I do that and my family self destructs beyond repair I don't think I could ever forgive myself.

Just kidding, my family loves each other more than life itself.

-------------------------------------------------------

unfortunately i will probably not be able to attend practice this whole week. i
was mauled by a panda bear that gave me SARS.

-------------------------------------------------------

i will be respectfully blowing off practice today to grade some shit
-------------------------------------------------------

hey gentiles
believe it or not i'm a joo so i will be missing the second part of practice tod
ay to attend rosh hashonah services.
i will also be missing the first part of practice as usual.

------------------------------------------------------- =15

10. What does D Mac dream of when he sleeps?

Dan dreams of the day when I don’t yell at him for making spin move cuts. This is also the day that Illinois adopts Hawaiian shirts as uniforms and we discontinue stretching. =10

Andy Kilinskis: =70

I really want to stay in this, here goes.

1. How old is D Mac?

I've heard rumors all the way up to 29, but in reality he is the ripe, young age of 23. =5

2. Where is D Mac from?

D Mac hails from Godfrey, IL. Which is right outside Alton, IL. Which is outside of St. Louis, MO. =10

3. How many tours of service has D Mac been on?

Two. Back in the Persian Gulf War. He isn't allowed to disclose his involvement (or lack thereof) with Operation Desert Storm. =10 -5(he has disclosed his involvement)

4. According to D Mac who is the best band of all time and why?

One would think it would be a band with non-fünctional umlauts, such as Mötorhead or Blue Öyster Cult. However, "the best band of all time" is Styx. STYX ROX! =10

5. What is the name of D Mac's favorite off brand Goldfish?
Chickadees. They're shaped like baby chicks! Seen here: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3517014352_23e5abf90a.jpg =0

6. How many teeth is D Mac missing?

Two. His two front top teeth. =10

7. What is D Mac's favorite math theorem?

The Hairy Ball Theorem. The classic "you can't comb a hairy ball flat without creating a cowlick." =10

8. According to D Mac, what is the one thing Illinois Ultimate does too much of?

Stretching. =10

9. If you were D Mac and you were going to miss practice, give an example of what you would email the captains?

Here is an example of D Mac's excuse for missing a tournament. One would imagine it is right along these lines.

"Unfortunately you will not have the privilege of playing with me this weekend. My family is coming up to Champaign this weekend, and since we've been drifting apart these past few years I think it's important I stay in town. My parents have been fighting more frequently recently and I need to be there to keep the peace so they don't start arguing in front of my little brother. This will also be the first time any of us has seen my older brother in several years, and it might be my last chance to convince him to go to rehab for his painkiller addiction. I would really like go with you guys up to Michigan this weekend, but if I do that and my family self destructs beyond repair I don't think I could ever forgive myself.

Just kidding, my family loves each other more than life itself.

Dan" = 10 -5(for copying and pasting)

10. What does D Mac dream of when he sleeps?

Something involving Dream Theater. This is due to his undying love for prog-rock. =5

Final Standings:

Joe Sidrys: 93

Austin Lien: 80

Adam Wright: 73

Eliminated:

Andy Kilinskis: 70 (K TRAIN RUNS OUT OF STEAM)

Winter Break

2010-12-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

At this point you may be wondering...What now?

We took the entire Fall to develop as a program, to work as individuals and to lay a foundation that the Spring can build upon. After dedicating 2-5 days a week to Illinois Ultimate for the past three months, we now find ourselves in the strange position of being home. Playing time is limited, and probably not anywhere close to a level that could promote improvement, our teammates are no longer with us to push us further and harder, yet the expectation that we improve or at least maintain what we have earned during the fall stands. For most people this is a daunting task. Trying to improve alone is the most difficult and essential part of being an ultimate player.
This time comes twice a year, during winter and summer break. Personally I like to use these breaks as a measuring device. Make a count of the positives and negatives from the past semester and use those as things to either develop or fix for the next semester. Making changes begins now. Now we have the free time to reflect and get excited for the future and an opportunity to mentally prepare ourselves to make even greater strides than we even imagined possible.

Fall 2010 Reflections

The Good:

1. We still have 33 people competing for spots on the ~27 man A team roster.
2. Winning Whitesmoke, maintaining seed at Rivalry reheat and breaking seed (I think) at MLC.
3. The number of people ready to step up and help is larger than in any recent years.

The Bad:

1. An unhealthy number of injuries in the fall, usually a precursor to an injury happy spring.
2. Last place at Glory Days
3. Poor attendance due to poor weather. Mother Nature hates Ultimate...GET USED TO IT!
4. We never brought a full team to an A team tournament. Due to individual conflicts.

The Ugly:

1. ATTENDANCE. Days where we play 5v5 because only 12 people show up is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD. There was a couple week stretch there where I was ready to call it quits on this program...Why you ask? Because you can't win anything with 10 people.
2. Adam Wright's ACL
3.We have yet to play a tournament with all three of our captains active.

Know Your Papa Bear

2010-12-08T20:09:00.001-08:00

How well do you know your Papa Bear? As Illinois begins to flesh out its identity for the 2011 Spring I thought it was a perfect time to get to know some of the “special” characters on the team. I selected 4 people from each class to participate in a tournament style competition to see who knows their teammates the best. The top 8 from this round of 16 will move on. Round one is a quiz about our beloved Papa Bear. You may think you know him…but do you really?

1. How many teams has Papa Bear captained? (Bonus points for naming the teams)

Ryan Kurnik: 2. The C-team freshman year (X Crash) and then the B-team sophomore year (Boomland)

Jake Petit: C-team freshman year and B-team sophomore year =10

Ryan Christensen: 2 The C-team and the B-team =10

Sean Hill: 2. C-Team freshman year and B-Team sophomore year =10

Brian Rathunde: 2. The C-team freshman year and then the B-team sophomore year =10

Preston Goulson: Two: Boomland, and his team back home that I can't remember the name of. I know he has a t-shirt with one of the letters on the back falling off from it... =10+2.5

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: Boomland last year. Dunno the other =10+2.5

Nate Gibbons: 1- C team crazies =5

Brian Pierce: 1 (Boomland [Spring 2010]) =5+2.5

Andy Kilinski: I can only say Papa Bear has captained 2 teams with certainty (those being X-Crash in the spring of 2009 and Boomland in the spring of 2010). He also assist-captained his TBUHT III team this past Thanksgiving Break. He was the captain of hangovers this past summer for Untouchables. I wouldn’t put it past him to have captained various teams, most notably drinking teams and/or Heroes of Newerth teams. He has that natural leader instinct. =10+7

Adam Wright: 2, 2009-Illinois C “Criss Cross Crash”

2010-Illinois B “boomland” =10+4

Jack Rabuck: 2, i was on them both =10

Austin Lien: Illinois C
Illinois B
Rec Soccer: Law 10 (Just a guess, even though Connor Waldoch is listed as captain)
Probably a summer league team, Untouchables?
+1 for lack of knowledge
=
Papa Bear has captained 5 teams =10+1

Joe Sidrys: 2 – Boomland and CrissCrossCrash aka the C-eattle C-hawks =14

Jon Hatcher: Boomland =2.5

2. What is his number? (Bonus points for why)

Ryan Kurnik: 42. It is the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Jake Petit: 42. It’s the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) =10+5

Ryan Christensen: 42 =10

Sean Hill: 42 =10

Brian Rathunde: 42. it’s the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything =10+5

Preston Goulson: 42: 6x7? =10

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: 42, because it’s the answer to the Ultimate question about life in Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. =10+5

Nate Gibbons: 42- There are 42 ways he knows how to kill you =10+2

Brian Pierce: 42 (It is the answer to life, the universe, and everything [although no one knows what the

question is] – ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’) =15

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear’s number is 42. Is it because he once drank 42 beers in one sitting? I hope to God not. That would kill a man. However, he is a bear, so maybe. I don’t really know the answer to this question, so I’ll simply have to say he likes to feel special with the popular American football audible “Blue 42.” 10+2

Adam Wright: 42, Because it is the answer to ultimate question of life from Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. =10+5

Jack Rabuck: 42, cuz u (Bruns) let him have it =10

Austin Lien: 42 – Has to be because of Hitchhiker’s / It’s the meaning of life =10+5

Joe Sidrys: 42 – Because it’s Comedy Central in DG =10+1

Jon Hatcher: 42 =10

3. Where is Papa Bear from? (Bonus points for high school)

Ryan Kurnik: Downers Grove, and attended Downers Grove South (Otherwise known as DoGroSo)

Jake Petit: Downers Grove- Downers Grove South High School =10+5

Ryan Christensen: Downers Grove =10

Sean Hill: Downers Grove. Downers Grove South High school =10+5

Brian Rathunde: Downers Grove, Downers Grove south high school =10+5

Preston Goulson: Downers Grove: DGS =15

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: Chicago like everyone else at the U of I. =0

Nate Gibbons: Downers Grove, Downers Grove South High School =10+5

Brian Pierce: -Downers Grove (IL), Downers Grover South High School =10+5

Andy Kilinski: Is this a trick? Papa Bear is clearly a product of Grandma and Grandpa Bear. If we’re talking geographically, he hails from Downers Grove, IL and attended Downers Grove South. I, personally, live a block away from the educational border between DGS and Lemont. How special things could have been. =10+5

Adam Wright: Downers Grove, Illinois

Downers Grove South Class of 2008 =10+5

Jack Rabuck: DGS =5

Austin Lien: Downer’s Grove – Downer’s Grove South =10+5

Joe Sidrys: Downers Grove, DGS =10+5

Jon Hatcher: Downers Grove, IL

Downers Grove South HS =10+5

4. What is his Major? (Bonus points for order in which he changed his majors)

Ryan Kurnik: Progression: Came to college as a math major. Declared undecided until sophomore year when I became a Psychology major. I then picked up Communications as a second major this semester.

Jake Petit: Declared undecided until sophomore year and then Psychology =5+2

Ryan Christensen: Undecided until sophomore year and now he is in Psychology =5+2

Sean Hill: Undecided until sophomore year. Then decided to do Psychology. And now recently a double major with Communication. =10+3

Brian Rathunde: Declared undecided until sophomore year when I became a Psychology major. =5+1

Preston Goulson: Psychology and Communications: picked up a double major in Comm this semester =10+1

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: Mathematics -> Psych -> Psych/Comm =10+4

Nate Gibbons: Speech and sociology major, Two halves make a whole. =(-5)+(-5)+10

Brian Pierce: Psychology/Philosophy =5+(-5)

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear has done it all as far as his majors. He came to this university with a

Mathematics major (probably because of his history in his high school’s math team. Much like B-Smith, Papa Bear quickly realized he didn’t really like math and wanted to be a Psychology

major. However, in order to not get booted from this campus, he either had to take a math class,

or switch his major to Undecided. After choosing the latter, PBear then pulled a fast one on his

advisors and was officially deemed a Psychology major. Lately, he has picked up a

Communications major to complete the dual degree. This is because he wants to focus on

interpersonal psychology. Or because mac and cheese with hot dogs is so delicious he can’t tell

the real story. Couples counseling, awwaaaaaaaay! =10+8

Adam Wright: Psych/ Communications =10+2

Jack Rabuck: psychology =5

Austin Lien: Undeclared at one point =0+1

Joe Sidrys: Psych =5+1

Jon Hatcher: Psychology =5+1

5. What is his birthdate?

Ryan Kurnik: May 14, 1990

Jake Petit: 5/14/90 =10

Ryan Christensen: May 14, 1990 =10

Sean Hill: May 14, 1990 =10

Brian Rathunde: May 14, 1990 =10

Preston Goulson: I could cheat and look on Facebook, but I won't. And I'm terrible with birthdays. =+5

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: N/A =0

Nate Gibbons: May 14, 1990 =10

Brian Pierce: May 14 (1990) =10

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear’s birthdate is May 14, 1990. Joe Sidrys and Papa Bear share the same birthday. And I always seem to be around when they remind each other. =10+1

Adam Wright: May 14th, 1990 =10

Jack Rabuck: may 14^th =10

Austin Lien: May 14, 1990 =10

Joe Sidrys: MAY 14, exactly one year before mine. =10

Jon Hatcher: May 14, 1990 =10

6. What is Papa Bear’s FULL real name?

Ryan Kurnik: Ryan Michael Patrick Kurnik

Jake Petit: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnik =0

Ryan Christensen: Ryan Kurnick =-1 misspell

Sean Hill: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnik =0

Brian Rathunde: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnick =-1 misspell

Preston Goulson: Ryan Charles Edward Kurnik. Not really, but I don't know his real middle name(s). =0

Brad Bolliger: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnick

Colin Reid: Ryan Kurnik is what I think I have heard people mistakenly refer to him as. =3

Nate Gibbons: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnik =0

Brian Pierce: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnik =0

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear’s real full name begins with ‘Ryan’ and ends with ‘Kurnik.’ How he gets there is a mystery, but I can assure you it does not involve ‘Edward’ or ‘Charles.’ =0

Adam Wright: Ryan Patrick Kurnik =9

Jack Rabuck: Ryan papa bear Kurnik =0+5

Austin Lien: Ryan M(ichael?) Kurnik =9

Joe Sidrys: Ryan Michael(?) Kurnik (his middle name is neither Edward nor Charles) =9

Jon Hatcher: Ryan Edward Charles Kurnik =0

7. What is Papa’s favorite color?

Ryan Kurnik: Red

Jake Petit: Turquoise =0

Ryan Christensen: Blue =0

Sean Hill: Green =0

Brian Rathunde: Magenta =0+1

Preston Goulson: Honey? =5

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: Green just because. =0

Nate Gibbons: Macaroni orange =0

Brian Pierce: Green =0

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear’s favorite color is blue. Although it should probably be red, much like the blood of his enemies. =0…(so close!)

Adam Wright: Green =0

Jack Rabuck: pain =0+5

Austin Lien: Blood =8+2

Joe Sidrys: Blue =0

Jon Hatcher: Blue =0

8. How many Theatrical Plays has Papa Bear been in?

Ryan Kurnik: 2. The freshman play at DoGroSo and the Cannon Theatre Group Production sophomore year.

Jake Petit: 2. Freshman play at Downers Grove South HS and the Production sophomore year. =10

Ryan Christensen: 2 =10

Sean Hill: 2. Freshman play at DoGroSo and The Production sophomore year. =10

Brian Rathunde: 2. The freshman play at DoGroSo and the Productio sophomore year =10

Preston Goulson: Two =10

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: At least one =0

Nate Gibbons: 2 =10

Brian Pierce: 3 =0

Andy Kilinski: Papa Bear wasn’t in drama club in high school. However, he took part in one play whilst in college. More details in the next answer. =0

Adam Wright: Between 3 and 5. Even though I think they’re moronic wastes of time that he could have spent playing more ultimate. =0+2

Jack Rabuck: acted in one, worked behind the stage numerous times =0

Austin Lien: 8 =0

Joe Sidrys: 3 =0

Jon Hatcher: 3 =0

What was the name of the Play Papa Bear participated in during the spring of 2010?

Ryan Kurnik: Journey Journey

Jake Petit: Annie =0

Ryan Christensen: Hail Mary? =0

Sean Hill: The Production =0

Brian Rathunde: N/A =0

Preston Goulson: Something about zombie Shakespeare. Half credit? =2

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: Dunno, it’s the one I referred to above. =0

Nate Gibbons: Romeo and Juliet =0

Brian Pierce: He and She =0

Andy Kilinski: The aforementioned play is titled “Journey Journey” and it is the story of a metal band from Canada travelling to Norway during a zombie apocalypse AS WELL AS the making of the Cannon Theatre Group, as this was their first, and to this date, the only production they have put on. It featured a live performance of a Rammstein cover band. The singer was intense. PBear played the roles of Warren and Kyle. He wore a white I See Stars t-shirt with a robot on it, black jeans, and black high top Converse Chuck Taylors. He stole the show. =10+7

Adam Wright: Papa bear was in a fictitious parody of The twilight series called Twinklight where he played Bella. The plot of this parody is that all of the vampires and werewolfs are after bella because she is the transgender keymaster to the portal back into the nether where they are from. When they cannot trick Bella into opening the portal, they try to seduce her with their charming good looks and promises of living together until eternity. She obliges and then the vampires and werewolfs find out that she is a he and has a penis. At this time they just run with it and have a huge gay/transgender/vampire/werewolf/human orgy. Turns out that this play was more of an erotic pornographic gay orgy play. Disturbing. =0+5

Jack Rabuck: something about nuclear vikings and shit, i was there =0+5

Austin Lien: Through the Looking Glass =0

Joe Sidrys: It had a heavy metal band that played Rammstien, that's all I can remember =4

Jon Hatcher: Journey Journey =10

When Papa Bear goes to sleep at night what does he dream of?

Ryan Kurnik: Usually awkward social situations. I just took a nap and had a dream where I got shot twice and was lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance. It took me a few minutes, but I realized I was being a bitch and just walked it off instead.

Jake Petit: Growing sexy facial hair =1

Ryan Christensen: Ultimate =0

Sean Hill: When Papa Bear goes to bed at night he thinks of his cubs. He thinks of how awesome he is at being papa bear and protecting his cubs. Most of his cubs are on the Frisbee team, but he does have some other cubs that do exist…but they aren’t as important. The dreams consist of great adventures where one of Papa Bears’ cubs gets into some kind of trouble and needs help. Papa Bear ALWAYS comes to the rescue eventually and saves them in some kind of heroic manner. In the most recent dream there was an angry Mamabird that stole one of Papa Bears’ cubs. The Mamabird was going to feed the cub to the young birds. Luckily Papa Bear was much smarter and all around better than the Mamabird and took out Mamabird and all of the young birds without even trying. Basically Papa Bear is unstoppable when it comes to protecting his cubs. =6

Brian Rathunde: Ultimate =0

Preston Goulson: Protecting his cubs =4

Brad Bolliger:

Colin Reid: I feel like he must dream of all his little cubs, but that could be taken the wrong way be some people so let’s say Ultimate (of course). =2

Nate Gibbons: Pickles and Sex =1

Brian Pierce: Giant discs filled with beer and bears =5

Andy Kilinski: This is simple, yet oh so complex. His dreams consist of a utopian society where bears and humans coexist peacefully, yet there is the occasional ex-boyfriend trouble which Papa Bear then needs to go Scott Pilgrim on his ass to win the affection of one Ramona Flowers. “Lady dudes! Tell me what you know about Ramona Flowers.” =7

Adam Wright: Papa Bear dreams of his Dream Man. My "Dream Man" should, first of all be very elaborate and yummy. He should have a physique like Tom Cruise, a profile like Kanye West, and the intelligence of a/an Western Grebe. He must be polite and must always remember to shave my legs, to tip his top hat and to take my purse when crossing the street. He should move haplessly, have a/an institutional voice, and should always dress haplessly. I would also like him to be a/an lamentable dancer, and when we are alone he should whisper little nothings into my ear and hold my feet close to his face. I know a/an fruitcake is hard to find. In fact the only one I can think of is Kevin Bruns. =0+5

(this is a mad libs) im not very creative.

Jack Rabuck: protecting his cubs =3

Austin Lien: Papa Bear doesn’t sleep. He waits. =5

Joe Sidrys: Bathing in natural spring waters with Meryl Streep and sensually rubbing her down with Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. =8

Jon Hatcher: Honey =3

FINAL STANDINGS

Advancing:

Andy Kilinski-97% (K-Train woo woo!)

Adam-87%

Joe Sidrys-77%

Austin-76% (At least the captains know who you are Papa)

Preston-74.5%

Snacks-74% (Three freshman advancing to the next round?)

Jake-68%

Brian Rathunde-66%

Eliminated:

Jon Hatcher-56.5%

Ryan C.-56%

Nate Gibbons-53%

Jack Rabuck-53% (This is what we call a waste of two years)

Brian Pierce-52.5%

Colin Reid-46.5% (Someone needs to learn how to Facebook stalk)

Brad Bolliger-DQ (Too much Brolliger)

Mean: 66.93

Median:67

Mode:53

Remaining:

1. Freshman-3

2. Seniors, Juniors-2

3. Sophomores-1 (Preston is the last line of defense)

Some Holiday Gift Ideas

2010-12-05T14:26:00.001-08:00

I received my favorite email of the year recently. It was my good ole ma asking me what I want for Christmas. The one day of the year I can feel comfortable asking for all those things I’ve put off purchasing myself. As I responded I realized that everything I asked for is related to Ultimate. So for everyone out there looking for something to give their favorite Ultimate player, or for every player looking to fill out a Christmas list, I got you covered.

1. Cleats! Everyone who routinely came to practice throughout the fall surely has heard the debate between soccer and football cleats. Personally I like football cleats for the toe spike and the ankle support.

These are the cleats Papi and I bought. We both felt that the investment was way worth it. They are extremely light, and once broken in they provides tons of support.

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?cp=USNS_KW_0611081618&cp=USNS_KW_0611081618&l=shop,search,c-1+100701/pn-1/sl-Nike%20Vapor%20Shoes#l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-301899/pgid-301897

P.S. Anyone that believes soccer cleats are lighter than football cleats and that slows them down should talk to me.

2. Water Bottles! When you go to a tournament you should always have two water bottles. (Because there are two sidelines) I don’t think anyone will argue the superiority of a good Nalgene.

3. All it takes is one good pair of socks to get you through an entire day of ultimate. Ideally buy something that wicks away sweat and keeps the inside of your cleats dry as well. As Lieutenant Dan would say, “There are two standing rules in this outfit. One, take care of your feet. Two, don't go doing something stupid.”

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=nike+athletic+socks&tag=googhydr-20&index=apparel&hvadid=4367808495&ref=pd_sl_42wtoq9ax_b

4. A stress ball is a really easy way to strengthen your grip on the disc. Also it is easy to toss it around during class and improve catching reflexes.

http://www.campsaver.com/gravity-gripp-ball

5. Since Mother Nature tends to hate ultimate players it is nice to have cold gear. It can’t be rainy and cold in Vegas again can it? Well just in case.

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?cp=USNS_KW_0611081618&ref=http://store.nike.com/&l=shop,search,searchList-Sports%20Clothes#l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-158934/pgid-158930

6. There is probably nothing more annoying that being called on the line and then having to fumble around with taking off a hoodie. Simple solution, get a zip up.

http://www.eastbay.com/catalog/advancedSearch.cfm?SID=8035&inceptor=1&keyword=mens+nike+hoody+apparel&cm_mmc=SEM-_-Engine-_-Google-_-nike+zip+hoodies

7. If you want to be as good at ultimate as Kennedy, then buy one of these and ask him how to use it. http://www.target.com/Ultimate-Foam-Roller-Red/dp/B0007W2FEU/ref=br_1_1/184-1771962-3640059?ie=UTF8&id=Ultimate%20Foam%20Roller%20Red&node=1254512011&searchSize=30&searchView=grid5&searchPage=1&sr=1-1&qid=1291587531&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin,price,target_com_primary_color-bin,target_com_size-bin,target_com_brand-bin&searchRank=pmrank&frombrowse=1

8. http://www.rei.com/category/4500614 Because no one should have forgotten Muddy Gras by now.

9. Anything on this link can be beneficial. http://www.target.com/b?ie=utf8&node=1254512011 a good New Year’s resolution would be to add in a short workout every morning or night, and any of these things could help with quickness or strength.

10. http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Outdoor-Living/HotHands-2-Hand-Warmers/ID=prod6008113-product?V=G&ec=frgl_&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=sku6007247 and http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=130060&pid=CSE_Froogle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=104296. Ideally we would have hot ice, but for now it is more realistic for you to just get some heat packs and cold packs. Hot for during the day and cold for Saturday nights.

Illinois Ultimate Biathlon

2010-12-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

Day one of tryouts is in the books. The first part of tryouts included going head to head with the some of the best players in the program. After being beat around by the best, the captains turned the team lose for some Randy Moss in order to separate the men from the boys.

The day began with a physical test to make sure everyone who would be considered for the A team is in good enough condition to survive the demands of a spring in college ultimate.

Going into this "Biathlon" I believed that Sul Ahmed was the favorite to take the gold, with Brian "Papi" Pierce following.

The results of the Illinois Ultimate Biathlon:

Top 5 in the Mile Run:

1. Tyler Anderson 5:30

2. Papa Bear 5:32

3. Brandon Smith 5:35

4. Mark Hirschman 5:37

5. Brian Pierce 5:40

Top 5 Pullups:

1. Steve Haake 21

2. John Rowe 20

3. Tyler Anderson 19
4. Kyle Wanner, Sul and DMac 17

Combining overall results from both events Tyler Anderson is the Winner of the 2010-11 "BEAST" Award. Congrats Tyler!

Judgment Day

2010-11-29T22:38:00.000-08:00

One year ago, I was a returning C teamer discussing with Jack Rabuck the correlation between nerves and how close to the bubble an individual was. My own nerves were threw the roof. I had spent a year at the bottom of the barrel of Illinois Ultimate, and an entire Fall trying to find my way onto the A team. At the end of the day, the nerves did nothing to help me that day. I had put in about 5 months where everyday I played Ultimate consciously thinking. I had already developed the skills necessary. If I had the confidence to just play it would have been better. So in order for me to pass on some confidence, I've jotted down some thoughts that I wish I had been thinking about last year.

Defense is the fastest way to the A team, look at our O line players from last year. They all made the team because they could play defense at first. If you can't play defense you can't be on the field.

Effort is the easiest thing to notice; never give up on a play.

Listen to the experienced players and ask questions. If you are willing to learn it will help your development.

Don't be worried about one throw. One throw is not going to make or break anything.

TALK in every drill, our focus all fall.

Focus, don't just be talking to your friend about the rest of your week. FOCUS on ultimate for the 3 hours you're going to be there.

Stretch every night and morning or as often as you can, it will help.

Never believe that you have arrived.

KB

Hole for new Roles

2010-11-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

With the anticipation of tryouts looming, my personal excitement has reached maximal levels. While day dreaming about the tryout process and the formation of the 2011 A-team I started to think about the holes that were left by graduated players. This week I'm taking a good look at last years A-teamers who won't be at tryouts this year.

James Matthew “Kurley” Kurley III:

Kurley came in as a freshman with the 2006-07 rookie class. He used his track/cross country speed to help himself make the A-team as a sophomore. The following year he decided that school prevented him from making the full commitment to the A-team and took his talents to Boomland. He helped the 2008-09 B team become possibly the best in Illinois history. The following year, with school work under control, Kurley was ready to be a big part of the O-line. He held down the fort as the O-line 6, and became famous for utilizing the “grapes” call better than anyone. Kurley made 2 nationals appearances, and won 1 regional title.

Kyle "Prez" McKinley:
Kyle joined Illinois as a sophomore in the 2007-2008 rookie class. He spent his first year with Boomland, and captained boomland his Junior year. As a captain he brought Boomland dangerously close to Regionals. It was the best b-team in recent memory. Without him many current juniors would not be where they are today. During his time as a Boomland captain he had a huge impact on making Illinois become a program. The shear number of current juniors who are ready to contribute are in partly because of him. During his senior year he made the A-team and filled a role as a D-line handler. He spent two years as team treasurer, faithfully fulfilling the duties of the position. He made 1 nationals appearance and has 1 regional championship.

Charlie "Chuck" O'Brien:
Chuck never actually liked being called Chuck. He came in as a Freshman in the 2006-07 rookie class. I believe he was the only Freshman to make the A-team that year. Charlie had really good height, and even better athleticism. The combination made him our best deep threat, and his ability to make catches in traffic helped him to become a game changer. His signature was pointing when he made his deep cuts. It is believed that this point had a sort of mind control over the handlers which made them boost it more often. Charlie made 3 nationals appearances and won 2 regional titles.

Jon “JonO” Ogrodnik:

Jon O came in as a sophomore in the 2006-07 rookie class. He spent his first year on the C-team, a place where champions are forged. After two years with Boomland his effort was rewarded and he made the 2009-10 A-team. Unfortunately Jon O got injured during a Randy Moss drill at Vegas. This prevented him from seeing much time on the field, but his sideline presence and off field support made him an important part of the Team’s identity. Jon O made one Nationals appearance and won one regional title.

Brian "Phenom" Phelan:
Phenom was part of the 2005-06 rookie class. He was one of two freshman that made the A-team that year and by the end of the season he was awarded "Freshman of the Year" honors by the region. I believe Phenom spent some time on D-line before he arrived as a 3/4 cutter on the O-line. His Junior year he and Pat Stephens carried the load. For his senior and fifth year as a grad student, he held down the 3/4 spot with Chris Hidaka. For his last two years Phenom was a captain of Illinois Ultimate, and as captain he led the team to 2 Nationals appearances. His achievements during his time at Illinois include, FOTY, 2nd team all region, 1st team all region, 3 nationals appearances, 2 regional championships and the best long on the team for his last two seasons.

Kurt "Kurtesy" Zoellick:
Kurt was our fearless spirit captain of 2010. He came to Illinois Ultimate as a grad student with 3 years of eligibility remaining. His Ultimate roots stem back to Valparaiso University, where he captained an upstart program. During his Illinois rookie season of 2008-09 he made the A-team as a reserve. After a year of really hard work he established himself as one of the best D-line handlers in the program. Throughout 2010 Kurt provided the A-team plenty of laughs, an obscene amount of layouts, plenty of scores, and above all several new pregame cheers that got the team through some long weekends. Kurt made 2 nationals appearances and won 2 regional titles.

I’ve been asked to not include Walden Nelson, because he will be coaching the A-team for 2010-11 and is still active in the program.

The write up on Chris “Halvies” Hidaka is pending/postponed.

Moving Indoor/Tryouts

2010-11-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

11-15-10

Now that MLC is done and the FAR/PAR fields are officially closed, we are forced to get our Ultimate fix indoors. The Armory is great for us because it gives us the opportunity to work really hard all winter and to keep us mentally strong. Every other team that is working with a goal of getting to nationals will also be hitting it this winter. As a rookie I remember feeling as if the time indoors was when I improved the most as an ultimate player. I found myself getting faster and more fit. The game itself also started to make more sense to me, and I slowly found myself grasping what it means and takes to be a player in this program that contributes on and off the field.

Unfortunately for us, the Armory has one huge and fundamental flaw. There is no wind. This absolutely stinks. Great teams like Florida and Texas don't have this problem because they can practice outdoors all year. For us northerners that know what snow looks like it is unrealistic for us to have practices outside. Just because we hold our practices indoors does not mean that throwing outdoors should be completely ignored. I know that many of us belief that throwing on the quad is a great way to get in some extra throwing practice, but I encourage everyone in this program to find time to go outside, CLEAT UP and really FOCUS on your throws with a partner. If there is snow on the ground, grab a shovel and clear out some room for you to throw, if it's really cold think about how being able to throw when it is cold will make you a better warm weather thrower. It's pretty obvious after MLC that we can all dramatically improve our throws. Working on stretching out your release point on both backhand and forehand is something everyone can do without wasting their time. During practice watch the teams best throwers, see their form and what kind of fakes work really well for them and then go outside and experiment or work on replicating what you saw.

When I was a freshman a wise man named Jasper Chu pointed something out to me that I still believe is very true. While watching the A team be awesome I asked him what the difference between the A and B team was. His response to me was that anyone on the A team could be the best or one of the best handlers on the B team. This does not mean that A teamers should be comfortable with their throws either. Reflect on all the teams that have abused our poor marking this season and last season, and imagine how good we would be if everyone on the team could break their mark. This ability to be a threat with a disc takes time to develop and the winter is a great time to start throwing with the intent of becoming the best thrower on the team.

TRYOUTS

I know I just gushed about how important it is to be a reliable thrower, but the reality is that being an intense and hard working defender is the easiest way to be useful to the A team. For everyone trying to make the A team throws need to be something that you work on everyday. Defense however is a mentality thing that needs to register and become a switch that you can throw on and leave on for extended periods of time. Last year Kennedy shared some knowledge about shuffling your feet and trying to not commit to a cut until the last possible moment. I encourage all of you to look again at what he wrote. I want to add and highlight just a few things:

1. Do not commit until the last possible moment, shuffle with your guy until they are busting either deep or in so hard that you have to throw your hips to defend it.

2. Stay on the balls of your feet and try really hard to be light footed, heavy steps are never good.

3. Never turn your back to your cutter nor the disk. See the disk and your guy as much as possible.

4. I'm pretty sure no one will frown upon a little physicality. If guarding a handler who wants to get upline, don't hesitate to give them a little body. Try not to use your arms like a blocker, instead just use your chest and core to hold your ground.

5. If guarding a long named Dan McDonald, he will try to spin move and go deep. Making Dan go in makes him very sad.

6. Trust your sidelines, and return the favor when you are on the sideline.

MLC Wrap Up

2010-11-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

11-14-10

Sunday morning brought sunshine and warmer weather, and along with that a much more focused Illinois team that was ready to put together a positive day.

It was almost impossible to not wake up for a round one game against Kansas. Being the last team we faced at Nationals 2010 and a program that we share a colorful history with, Kansas brought out some intensity in the returners which trickled down through the new guys. 2 early breaks put the Illini up 4-2, maintaining that momentum we turned it into 6-2 lead. Kansas is not a team that just gives up, and they showed their grit as they fought to earn 2 breaks back before Illinois took half at 7-5. The second half Illinois was determined to not lose focus. A back and forth second eventually brought the game to 11-11. The next O point was all business for the Illini, and then the D line came out with a very solid break to put end the game 13-11

Round 2 began the tour of regional rivals. The Wisconsin Hodags and Illinois matched up in the quarterfinals. After being a terribly focused team on Saturday, we saw this as a great opportunity to test ourselves against one of the best mentally conditioned teams in the country. A strong start put Illinois up 4-1, but in classic Wisconsin style they came storming back to take the lead 5-4. Wisco would take half 7-5, but despite being down no one on the Illini side doubted that they could still take this game. Fighting with Wisconsin every single point found the Illini losing 10-8 and running out of time before cap went on. A couple monster hucks from each side brought it to 11-9. The Illini hung in this game the whole time but in the end lost 13-10 to our new regional rival.

MagnUM round 3, was the 3rd round game. For the third time in one month Illinois and Michigan would clash. Unfortunately Michigan came into this game frustrated and had struggled the weekend to get to their normal high intensity. Illinois took care of business against this downtrodden Michigan, going up big taking half 7-1. Michigan would try to fight back and got as close as the final score 11-6. I believe everyone on the Illinois side recognizes that the next time we face Michigan they will not roll over as easily.

Final round of 2010 was against Wisconsin Whitewater. The Captains of each team had agreed to play wide open lines and really give the younger guys opportunities. Illinois got out to 4-2, when a marathon point ensued. Thanks to our fearless captain Kennedy for about 6 turnovers on this point as well as a few ridiculous D's by both teams, the point lasted around 20 minutes. I don't believe Illinois won this point but we bounced back to take half at 7-3. From here the game really seemed to crawl until it was 10-4. I kindly informed the K-Train that I was very cold and wanted this game to be put out of its misery. Conveniently getting an early D on the point, Andy "K-Train" Kilinski boosted it for a quick score and quick point. The last 3 points of the game moved at a much better pace and Illinois hit up Wendy's after a 13-5 win.

Fifth place at MLC...acceptable, but not good.

Mid MLC thoughts

2010-11-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

11-13-10

Illinois Ultimate took a strong team to MLC this weekend. Saturday morning we opened up with a good win against Iowa. After losing to Iowa at Nationals it was nice to be able to give them something to worry about early in their season. The final score was 11-5.

Round 2 we gave D-mac a chance to take down his old team for the second time this fall. After getting off to an extremely strong start to the game, which included a Kennedy callahan created by lock down D on the longs, Illinois closed the first half 6-1. However, a scenario which is becoming far too familiar to Illinois Ultimate ensued. GoP went on a run to close the gap to 9-8 Illinois. Soft cap was on making it a game to 10. Fortunately Illinois pulled this one out, but the fact that we needed to pull it out should not be ignored.

Round three against Colorado brought the first beating of Illinois' young season. Going down 7-1 and eventually losing 11-3. This smack down showed us what it will take if we want to get to the highest level that we can. Emotionally out gunned and a serious lack of focus separated Illinois from the perenial power.

The final game of the day against Minnesota brought a similar scenario. Going down 6-3 at half and losing 11-6. Maybe Illinois wasn't able to bounce back from the tough Colorado game, maybe we Minnesota was just better than us, or maybe we just need to work harder in practice.

Tomorrow morning Illinois will play Kansas, the last team Illinois played at Nationals and the game that got us off the schnide.

Halloween Weekend/Number Ceremony

2010-10-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

October 29th was our Halloween costume party and contest

Before I announce the winner of the costume contest I want to give a quick recap of some of the highlights:

There seemed to be a theme of dressing up as your favorite Ultimate player.

Kennedy dressed as his idol Denis Agniel

Mark raided Austin's closet and pulled it off perfectly

Ryan Christensen attempted to pull off the Adam Wright. Unfortunately Ryan was unaware that Adam injured his right knee and never played for mustache moonshine

D-mac whipped out the flux capacitor brilliantly

Joe Sidrys was probably the sexiest cop I saw all night

Joe might have been the cutest person at the party if not for Wego dressing up as an adorable little bumblebee

Gibby and Yakoff had a fashion nightmare as they both showed up as the Green Man, Sean Hill dodged a bullet dressing as the Orange Man (If he didn't have snacks I would have lumped him in with Gibby and Yakoff)

Brian Rathunde played off his new nickname showing up as a blue crayon

Sid showed up as himself...

AND THE AWARD FOR 2010 BEST COSTUME GOES TOO!!!!!!

Ryan Christensen for dressing up as Adam. I guess to win this award you just have to flatter the judges.

The 2010 Rookies underwent the sacred number ceremony on October 30th. Now that I feel like I can acknowledge them as human beings I'm please to introduce the newcomers.

Sean "snack man" Hill: 3

Year: Freshman

May be suffering from handleritis already. Hopefully he doesn't turn into another perennially injured character.

John "JR" Rowe: 10

Year: Junior

JR brings tons of speed to our squad.

Eric Hansen: 11

Year: Junior

Eric was MVR at Whitesmoke for team X, and is a defensive force.

Brian "Crayon" Rathunde: 22

Year: Freshman

Brian claims he can dunk, yet to be proved. Struggles with putting on the right mark, hence his nickname.

Chris Ohara: 34

Year: Junior

Chris transferred from Marquette last year, he took a year to get grounded and is ready for some action.

Ryan Christensen: 37

Year: Freshman

MVR at Whitesmoke for team Y, has ridiculous layout form and very good timing on jump balls.

Nate "Gibby" Gibbons: 44

Year: Sophomore

Was too intimidated to play for us last year, but now holds his own as good defensive handler

Brad: 73

Year: Junior

After spending his first two years studying engineering Brad decided he wanted more. He joins us looking to flex nuts everywhere in order to get out some pent up physical energy.

Jake Petit: 80

Year: Freshman

Petit deserves credit for the recruitment of Brian Rathunde and Ryan Christensen, and apparently 3 more mystery recruits. Right now is a very cerebral long. After a winter in the armory he will be a very good long for Illinois.

Bringing it up to speed

2010-10-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

Let’s bring this blog up to speed:

After winning the back to back titles in the Great Lakes Region, Illinois Ultimate turned its sights towards Natties in Madison, WI. The weekend of Nationals Illinois went 1-5. The number doesn’t look good, but the effort and heart Illinois showed did not go unnoticed. Chris Hidaka summed up his feelings very nicely, “This is a nationals I want to remember, I don’t want to remember 2009.” I guess that is improvement, but by no means were the younger boys of Illinois content with a 17^th place finish.

2010 UPA College Open Championships
May 28	8-15	Harvard
May 28	12-14	North Carolina-Wilmington
May 29	14-16	Iowa
May 29	12-15	Carleton College
May 30	10-15	Wisconsin
May 30	14-13	Kansas

The team went home and spent the summer and returned in the spring locked cocked and ready to rock. A bunch of awesome rookies introduced themselves to the program, and those that have stayed have shown a lot of promise for the future. This class of rookies played a large role in a Whitesmoke XV! championship as well as 10^th and 12^th place finishes at No Wisco. In my opinion the future of Illinois Ultimate is in very good and capable hands. It is not inconceivable to believe that every 2010 rookie will play large roles for this program in the next couple years.

On October 23^rd The Illinois sent a team to Rivalry Reheat in Ann Arbor and Glory Days in Lowell Indiana.

GLORY DAYS

Apparently the weather was atrocious. Returners on this team compared in to a warmer 2009 Chicago Invite. It was raining sideways on Saturday and the games were dramatically upwind downwind all weekend. The team put up a fight all weekend but was never able to put out a W. I didn’t attend this tournament and really don’t know too much more about it. However I did hear someone mention that this tournament should be good motivation to work harder and become a better team, and to that I say cheers!

Highlight: Rob Dreier’s pep talks “Let’s get a point guys.”

Lowlight: Jacob Nelson hammer pulled and it went backwards.

RIVALRY REHEAT

Ann Arbor is a whore, just kidding, but seriously. This tournament was a great idea by MagnUM. They invited 5 teams to join them and their B team for a weekend of hard hitting ultimate.

Illinois didn’t start until 12:10 on Saturday (Thank you Ollie). So the team woke up at 9:30 and had a nice little team meeting where we all just shared our feelings.

First we played Grand Valley State. They were a very spirited team to play and all in all I believe it was a good experience getting our feet wet as a team and starting to identify our identity. Unfortunately Adam Wright suffered a weekend ending injury to his right knee. I was playing at the moment and had my back turned to the play. I turned and automatically thought that the Iron Horse would just get back up, but after seeing him dragged off the field I felt a small piece of me die. The team put this tragedy behind us and took care of GVSU.

Ohio University was Illinois’ second test. Ohio had an impressive ability to catch pretty much anything. However the depth of Illinois’ roster was the driving force behind our victory of Ohio.

A rematch of the 2010 Regionals Championship game highlighted the next round. Michigan State took the field against Illinois. Both teams were very focused and kept the intensity high the whole game. This time Illinois came out on top and attempted to ride this into the next round.

Basically the reason we came to this tournament was to play MSU and UM. With MSU down, we set our sights on MagnUM late on Saturday. This game was not very good. MagnUM brought their usual intensity and I believe they overwhelmed the inexperienced depth of Illinois. They took us out of our game, capitalized on our mistakes, fast broke us, and pretty much threw whatever they wanted. There were several points where they might have only thrown breaks all the way down the field for the score. The captains kindly informed us that this was not okay.

We went to dinner at Chili’s that night, (Sean Hill aka the Snackman decided he was too cool to come with).

Papi, Kennedy, Wego, Adam and myself all tried to GChat Walden with the phrase “Sul say’s hi” (Sul did actually say hi), we were excited to see who he would respond to first. This was our silly way of testing his love for us. As it turns out Walden’s Sith powers are stronger than ever, he simply never responded to Sul and left us all hanging. Out smarted again!

SUNDAY

We woke up and played two uneventful games against Eastern Michigan and Michigan B. Illinois took care of business and killed some larva, as they amped it up for a second dance with MagnUM.

ROUND 2 V MAGNUM

We brought the intensity, we kept it hot for the whole game but we just didn’t pull it out. This was a much improved game, like night and day. We had observers for this game which turned out to be interesting to say the least. Kennedy decided to “some guy” once, but Michigan recovered it before it hit the ground. So “some guy” went upline and Kennedy laid it (I like to think because I told him to). Anyway Michigan people thought “some guy” got stripped, Illinois people were jacked up about the D, and the observers thought that their view from about 20 yds away was good enough to make a decision on a very close call (screw ref’s ultimate needs slow motion replays). A little jacked up Kennedy tells us to throw our hats on the field and says “I guess I’ll just have to get another D” and hand blocks “some guy”, three D’s on the same guy, on the same point the perfect hat trick…and he called it, WOW! Kennedy then finished the point by being an offensive force and scoring it. The whole team went crazy we were pumped and ready to take on whatever MagnUM threw at us. The intensity we drew from Kennedy never died, but a few mental mistakes and continued struggling on the marks separated us from Michigan this weekend. They played well and continue to look like one of the premier teams in college ultimate, but that does not mean it’s okay to lose to them. Hopefully the next time our paths collide we will put tons more pressure on them.

Highlight: Kennedy’s hat trick

Lowlight: Adam Wright’s knee

Rookie number ceremony is this weekend. The big question on everyone’s mind is who will take number 31(Reggie Miller is the greatest basketball player of all time)? Also who comes out with #8, the Suleymonster of yours truly?

MLC in 3 weeks.

So Here's The Deal

2010-05-10T22:38:00.001-07:00

It's been brought to my attention that there's some pretty big talk in that last post. As Rip stated a million times before me, what I say here isn't meant to represent the entire team.

Shit talk is shit talk, and nothing more. Michigan, if for some reason there's anybody reading this - I respect your talent as a team, and your program in general. However, I don't like you, and you don't like us. It's going to come through in what I write no matter how much I sugar coat it.

Austin

That Time Michigan Didn't Win

2010-05-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Not to be confused with GL Regionals '09. Boy I love saying that. Illinois brought their A game this weekend and came away with another regional title. Maybe we just like making nationals really hard to seed, who knows. Anyway, as I'm sure most of you know, regionals came in a lovely 9 day long package this year. As such, I'll split the writeup into two parts:

Regionals Part A

A week of forecasts predicting nothing but thunderstorms for the weekend apparently does not phase the tournament crew, and Illinois meets up with 15 other teams in Bloomington, IN for the weekend. The first round (prequarters) pits us against Dayton. From what one of their players seemed to be hinting at the end of the game, I gathered that none of their seniors were in attendance. Anyway, Illinois comes out of the gates at a reasonable pace, rattling off a few breaks to start the game. Dayton looks pretty flat, dropping some easy passes then getting beat on the fast break. On the second point, Smith fakes upline and cuts for the swing, but jukes his defender so bad that he runs hip-first into Smith's leg. No more Kennedy. As he's getting checked out by the trainer, the D line has a really ugly point right before half with something like 8 turnovers spread evenly throughout the players. I believe we still scored, but the pace of the game changed at this point. After half (something like 8-2), their O-line remembers how to boost some forehands into the back corner of the endzone and ends up scoring four more. Final score: 15-6 Illinois over Dayton.

As predicted, Purdue wins their game and meets us in quarters. We are so incredibly sick of playing Purdue. Relations have actually gotten better since our first two games, but playing the same team four times in three consecutive tournaments is too much. They come out really really flat and let us walk all over them in the first half. The O-line pulls its usual tricks involving Phenom sending Halvsies deep over and over for one or two pass goals. The D-line reminds Purdue how much they love giant gingers by throwing up some sky balls for Charlie to come down with. This game had an observing crew, but they ended up really not doing anything since Purdue seemed so disheartened. I believe the O-line got broken once this game, but I don't remember how. Probably something stupid I did. Oh well. Final score: 15-8 Illinois over Purdue.

At this point, we were informed that we had a one-round bye so that the fields could drain. I'm not sure what exactly they expected to happen, but after one round the field owners decided they didn't want us around anymore. I tweeted some disparaging things about how the tournament was run, showered at the hotel, and we drove home.

Fast forward one week to:
Regionals Chapter 2

Ok so now we're magically in South Bend, IN, and it's 3pm on Saturday. The dreaded moment arrives. Semis vs. Michigan. We all put on our arguing hats, and get on the line to receive the pull going downwind. The wind is coming in around 20mph from the northwest, with gusts not coming anywhere near the predicted 45mph. There are no observers for this game, and it's made painfully obvious right away. After we turn it over for whatever reason, Michigan throws the disc as far as possible upwind for an easy (clean) D by Phelan. Called back on a contested receiving foul. Same play, easy D for Halvsies, called back on a contested receiving foul. So goes the game. They break upwind to start the game off on a bad foot. Thankfully, our D-line, bolstered at points by some O-line hotness, cashes in three in a row to put Magnum in their place. I can't remember very many specifics, because my memory is blocked by a generally constant level of anger. I do remember that in one of those three breaks, I blocked a huck on the upwind goal line that Walden tossed to Pappy for a goal. Basically when we were going downwind, we ended up punting a lot. This turned out to be pretty easy, since they only really shut off the high throws. They threw a zone a few times, which was moderately effective. They played their usual game consisting of tons of break arounds and big hucks. We trade breaks while maintaing the lead up until 6-6, when they break to make it 7-6. From there, we break twice to take half 8-7. At this point soft cap is about to go on, and we take about 5 min for half. Their O-line scores right away out of half making it 8-8 with still some time to spare before hard cap. The next point ended up being the last, with tons of turnovers at both endzones. Finally, Smith has the disc on the downwind endzone with Pappy on iso. After a little some fakes, Smith stretches for the tough invert and is fouled hard. During the resulting argument, hard cap goes on to make it game point. The foul is contested and we call an immediate time out with the stall coming in at 7. Because Smith looked for the invert last, Pappy's defense has jumped to the break side and we have an open look. Out of the timeout, Smith pivots once and tosses it to the force side for the easy goal to Pappy. Somehow, in this amount of time, the mark has called a stall. Smith casually ground taps it in, and repeats his maneuver. Michigan, ever the stickler on rules, calls it back for the missing hand tap-in. Smith tries the same thing, but Pappy's vision is blocked by the laid out defender and it hits him in the head for the turnover. Michigan works it a little ways upwind then bombs it deep for a turnover. Smith gets a good look downfield at Charlie with a backhand huck which he drops during his patented flying somersault. Michigan works it a little upwind, then gets off a break backhand huck which is completed. They call a timeout on their endzone. When play resumes, one of their handlers drops an easy upline pass. We work it down half the length of the field before Walden hits Charlie with a forehand fade for the win. Walden really shines this game, containing Ollie in the handler position and forcing him to work for easy possessions. Oh yeah, he also played 16 points. Pappy and Charlie also step up, playing a big number of points and holding things together. Smith and Kurt combine for an absurd amount of deep throws and a couple of layout D's each. Final score: 9-8 Illinois over Michigan, with three heart attacks for Austin.

The weather on Sunday is a whole lot better. Wind stays at a comfortable 10mph, and the fields warm up to the high 50s as a result. After warmups, we get our first look at Michigan State before finals. Based entirely on RSD chatter, we know that they look for Ryan Heffernan (#5) for a lot of in-cuts. Neal picks up this assignment, and does a great job putting pressure on him the whole game. The game starts, and we come out more fired up than we have been all year. We start on D, and cash in the break going upwind after they miss a deep shot. They end up scoring the next one, and the O-line gets in the game going upwind. We work it all the way down the field just for me to throw a hilariously bad forehand into the stratosphere for a turnover. Luckily they also throw it deep down the sideline past the guy I'm defending for a turnover of their own. We work it back upwind for a much safer goal. The D-line comes close to another break, but MSU shows poise and makes it 2-2. Their D-line is pulling downwind, and disaster strikes. First they pull before the observer hand signal, and get an offsides call. Clearly rattled, the puller jacks a big backhand 20 yards out of bounds very near their own goal line. Illinois offense puts it in to make the game 3-2. (If you're wondering, I'm trying to piece the game together from Wego's cryptic tweets.) "Boom headshot. Break by Illinois 4-2" MSU offense scores, then D-line gets a break after I throw into a poach on our own goal line to make it 4-4. Illinois offense starts going upwind, and I put up a break backhand huck to Sul's glove. Sul's glove throws it to Charlie, who tiptoes backwards and lays out for the one-handed catch which is technically in the endzone. D line gets the downwind break to make it 6-4 Illinois. Summary of points from 6-4 to 14-9: Walden gets the disc every other pass, and jumps for extra yards every single goddamn time - sometimes for comedic value. Sul's glove catches a bunch of passes, except for one really easy one. Michigan State starts backing us, making the game a whole lot easier. Anyway, 14-9, Fun Line goes in!
Someone: "What, you don't want to score the last point of regionals?"
Walden: "I gotta let the rug-rats get out there"

-----
Walden: "What, you don't want to win?"
A few pretty entertaining turnovers and chances to win the game later, Fun Line goes out. 14-10 Illinois, with the O-line going downwind. We work it down the field making Walden lay out and fall down a lot until it's Walden with the disc in the center and Phenom in the iota. Easy play - Walden breaks the crap out of his mark for the invert goal to Phenom. Celebration ensues. Hugs all around. 15-10 Illinois over Michigan State.

Unfortunately, our parade was rained on when Michigan beat Michigan State in the back door. I guess you can't get everything you want. After Michigan's post-game celebration, one of their players yells, "Now we just gotta go get Illinois!" Game on.

Austin

SECTIONS

2010-04-27T17:51:00.001-07:00

Hey this is incredibly late but I don't care what you guys think so here it is. I was thinking about spoiling the ending for everyone but everyone already knows. BUT I'M STILL NOT GOING TO SPOIL IT. This writeup is from the perspective of me on the sidelines since Huck Finn is cursed and i've gotten injured two years in a row there. Boycott Huck Finn 2011!

SATURDAY (we weren't in the park we were at the polo fields)

First game against Kurtesy's alma mater Valpo. The score was 11-1 pretty much a beatdown. Kurt got heckled for the whole game and kept mentioning that we should start punching him in the nuts more often. I guess I could mention some good plays but Im not going to since we won 11-1 and good plays just aren't as good when you are playing a team that is substantially worse than you.

After the early morning beatdown we came up against Purdue. Story of this sad game was the d-line not being able to convert. We kept getting it on the wide side and Purdue's third handler poached an incredible amount. This apparently led to mass chaos and many turnovers. I wanted to hurt all d-line handlers during this game a lot alot. But I also don't want to talk about this game because of later tournament happenings WHICH I'M NOT GOING TO SPOIL. Final score 11-8 in favor of Purdue. Wego had a sick D in this game. Here's the facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/kmckinl2?v=photos#!/photo.php?pid=56164639&id=1950727&fbid=10100127162547050

Next we bageled two B-teams (Notre Dame and then Indiana).

We were 3-1 going into our fifth and final pool play game. Games were to 11 on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. Game 5 brought JUNK from university of chicago and also Zubair Abdulla. Some of you may know him from playing on Illinois for the past four years. Zubs plays O on Chicago so Ryan got the honor to guard and play against him. I think Walden got in there a little bit too. I video recorded this game with the instructions to just follow zubair. Ryan roasted zubs upline a few times and we ended up getting the best of Chicago with a 11-5 win. I also got a really good shot of zubair throwing a forehand out of bounds in case anyone was wondering. We ended saturday 2nd in our pool. Notre Dame realized that they were going to play us first round on Sunday and they benched all their good players for their fifth game on saturday. They lost 2-11 to Loyola. We let up 17 points altogether on Saturday, 2 points away from letting up 15 which Walden claimed was "inconceivable".

he didn't fall? inconceivable. basically

SUNDAY

Game 1 vs. Notre Dame

Everyone was really jacked up for this game which was awesome. We beat notre dame at Mardis Gras and we knew that Notre Dame was going to be thirsty. We started the game with a break to really get people going and set the tone for the game. Gloves and the dude #33 on Notre Dame were pretty much doing everything for them. We broke twice in a row before half to bring the score to 8-5 at half. The o-line then completed the break after half followed by two more d breaks to bring the score to 11-5. I think we played the best we had all year on Sunday at Sectionals and it all started with the Notre Dame game. Everyone on the team was making plays and we were showing that everyone on Illinois can make big plays and do big things. The D-Line was crazy efficient in the first half of this game and only had 1 turnover. 5 breaks in one half with only 1 turnover is pretty sick if you ask me. After going up 11-5, Notre Dame finally made the run we knew they were waiting to make. They broke twice in a row and then got two more shortly thereafter to bring the score from 11-5 to 13-11. Neal had a couple of really big d's on Notre Dame hucks, but Notre Dame's defense picked up a ton in the second half as well. The main reason for Notre Dame's comeback was a zone that they threw in the second half which was working really well against us. Notre Dame tied the game at 13s which brought DGP with us starting on offense. Notre Dame threw their zone and we were having some major trouble moving upfield when Ryan threw a series of RIDICULOUS forehand cross field breaks through the cup finally break the zone. Ryan did work and the offense was not about to let this game slip away. Finally Walden threw the game winning goal to phenom for the 14-13 win. Walden only played 18 out of the 27 points in the game.

Next we had semis vs Ball State. At Huck Finn we lost to the Wash U alumni in quarters, but Wash U had a bunch of broken players so decided to forfeit the game which would have put us against Ball State in semis. A lot of nonsense happened after that regarding Wash U's "forfeit" and Ball State refused to play us since we didn't actually win the game. People were pissed about this and everyone was looking forward to playing Ball State at sections. We got our wish and made Ball State pay. This game was way closer than it should have been. Ball State ran the patented circle cut from the force side back to the force side and our defense couldn't handle it. Balls Taint scored about a million times on blady throws down the sideline to ridiculous sideline fade cuts. We trailed at half by 1 but we finally got our shit together in the second half to eventually take the game 15-13. Some nub on ball state showed Pappy the disc after catching a pretty much uncontested goal. Ryan also almost fought some kid who didn't play a point the whole game after a confrontation in the handshake line. Walden again played 18 points and Charlie had a huge game with a bunch of d's and goals. This game was also highlighted by Sul just annihilating his defenders all across the field.

Finals against Purdue was revenge for the bad loss we had on Saturday against them. This game was pretty much a highlight reel for Illinois. Charlie was just demoralizing Purdue defenders by catching several hospital disks over a minimum of 2 Undue players each time. Pappy had a big sky and everything was going our way. Purdue failed to complete any of the ridiculous hucks they had been converting on Saturday and we blew them out. Charlie had another monstrous game with 5 d's, 4 assists, and 3 goals. Pappy took home the coveted sky patrol hat with koopa troopa on the front. A couple of other hats got handed out, I think Neal took the "I drink your milkshake" one.

We have had a lot of problems throughout the season with putting away teams after going up big, but we didn't falter here. This purdue game was a big confidence booster going into Regionals as we went ahead and stayed ahead to eventually win 15-5 and take home the Central Plains Open Sectionals championship. Congratulations to everyone on a great Sunday and a great tournament finish. Thanks to all the fans and parents who came out to support us in Naperville. We had a packed sideline the whole weekend and that was really awesome.

Charlie's friend's Dad was taping on Sunday and put up two videos on vimeo that everyone should scope. Here is the link: hi

At this time of posting we have one more practice until Regionals and the biggest tournament of the year. This is what everything comes down to. Hopefully we will see some Illinois supporters in Bloomington, everyone should come if they have the time.

REGIONS!

Huck Finn Wrapup

2010-04-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

How about that UPA huh? I had another blog post halfway written over spring break about how much the current strength bid system sucks. I should have some motivation to finish it now that it's victimized the Great Lakes region. Looks like we'll just have to win the region I guess.

One thing we learned about the current UPA system from Huck Finn, is how little concern anyone has for unsanctioned tournaments. Rather than taking the regular season more seriously as a whole, I find that we just care less about certain games. We encountered this situation both on Saturday and Sunday.

Our first game was against Purdue. As we should have expected from a team in our section, they came out gunning for us. As we have many times this season, we came out really flat. They collected a couple breaks on us right away in the game, putting undue pressure on the D-line. (Ha! Get it?) After what seemed like an eternity, we collected ourselves and stuck it out for an all-too-close win. The wind, though calm in the morning, picked up as this game dragged on. Had we known this would happen, we probably would not have chosen to let them start on offense going downwind. Lookin' at you, Walden! Illinois over Purdue 12-10.

Next up was St. Olaf. I know a couple of guys on the team who are summer league ballers, so I was expecting a closer game. Apparently they exhausted their ballitude winning the first round over over Texas State. Our D-line tore them to shreds for a 13-6 win. Highlight: I throw a push pass to a stationary Hidaka for the goal, at which point he is tackled at full speed by an overzealous defender. Hilarious.

This is the part where things start to get crazy. Both St. Olaf and Purdue took down Texas State, prematurely giving us the 1 seed out pf the pool. Enough of us realize this to seriously affect our competitive fire, and Texas State beats us without much of a fight. I really don't remember much about this game, simply because I didn't care about the outcome. I referred to this earlier, but it seems like having some regular season games count really highlights the fact that the others don't. On one of the last points of the game, Sid's guy goes deep on a turn, and Sid collapses on the field halfway to the goal line. Minus one O-line handler. Texas State wins shortly after. I can't really talk, since they beat us, but these guys have the one seed going into South regionals. That region is in for some trouble at natties. Texas State over Illinois 11-8.

Our pool win gives us a bizarre bracket play / crossover game against Michigan for the rights to the top half of the bracket. The loser switches to the bottom half, and effectively plays prequarters again. I would complain about this crazy ass format, but it ended up giving us our only game against a high-level team of the weekend. Our lack of intensity from the Texas State loss carried over into the beginning of the Michigan game. This was contrasted with Michigan's absolute fury over losing to us in semis of regionals last year. The first half of the game was their revenge. Our O-line couldn't connect on routine passes, while theirs was. They ran set plays to the breakside, uncontested by our marks. They came up with all the 50/50 discs, though not by following the rules. Before anyone really knew what was happening, they had taken half 7-2. During the break we reiterated what our goals for that game were, and we came out looking a lot better. Just looking better wasn't enough. Illinois 7 - Michigan 13.

Day 2
Prequarters take two pitted us against St. John's, another Central region team. These guys came out hot, getting a couple breaks against our O-line to start things off. Our D-line was looking even better - getting our breaks back plus more. The score went back and forth a bit throughout the game, but there was never really any doubt who was in charge of things. The wind, though calm in the morning, switched back to its regular blustery and parallel to the fields persuasion. After joking with Kurt in the morning about I'd never thrown a thumber in a game, I decided to bust one out in this game. On game point, St. John's came at us with zone going downwind. They were quickly informed of their mistake by a cross-field thumber to a very ready Kevin Bruns. After a few more passes, the game was over. The real highlight of this game was when Walden decided he didn't want to lose, and kicked things into overdrive. That's one more defender who's going to have Big Nasty nightmares. Illinois over St. John's 13-10.

The Wash U Alumni came into this next game looking to slap us around a little bit. While we haven't played Wash U in the last couple of years, the guys on this team showed the remnants of what used to be a pretty good rivalry. Unfortunately, nobody on our team feels the same way, and subsequently we were not nearly as motivated to win as they were. Many of their players were perfectly comfortable jacking the disc straight into the increasingly formidable wind, while we could barely keep our grip on short throws. We were plagued by drops and silly turnovers throughout the game, and unable to capitalize when they messed things up. The Contra Alum went up early and held on to their lead for a 13-10 victory. As soon as it was over, they cracked some beers and took their cleats off. Their mission of beating Illinois was accomplished, and they were no longer interested in the tournament. They informed us that they would tell the TD that we had won the game so we could advance in the bracket. Ball State (our potential next opponent) wanted none of this, and demanded that we not advance. After a short vote, we decide not to play in the 5th place bracket, and instead stay to heckle Ball State while they beat down on an unenthusiastic Wash U Alum team.

I'm still (several weeks later) not sure what to make of the loss to the Wash U Alum. I'd love to rationalize it, but there's really no excuse. We should have seen it coming and focused right from the start. It's a lesson we've had to experience over and over and over this year. Sectionals proved the same thing.

Speaking of which: Illinois wins CP Sectionals after a year's absence from the top. I said I'd have this writeup out tonight, but it looks like Sid is planning on doing it. I'm off the hook! I hope this blog post makes sense. I've been busy, so I wrote it in like 4 different sittings and am not willing to proof read. Boom Wego.

Austin

Don't Bug Me Just Yet

2010-04-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

I know there's some sort of unwritten rule against posting to say that you'll post later, but I feel like I have to. I'm halfway through the Huck Finn writeup that I started in class on Friday, and halfway through another post about how much the rankings suck that I started weeks ago. They're both on another computer, and I'm out of town.

Something to look forward to: The real reason our results are not ranked!

Sectionals is coming up, and Zubair is itching for an upset in the Illinois - Chicago game. Prepare to be forced backhand, sir. This should be the tournament where we really assert ourselves. I don't think I can handle things playing out like they did last year. I much prefer that our team clicks sometime before 2 games into regionals.

An even more important event is also on the horizon - the first ever (probably) Illinois vs. Illinois Alum game. While I typically dread playing against old people (i.e. the time I almost killed a guy at my first CHC), beating up on some former Illinois players should be a whole lot of fun. Maybe Sul will finally get his chance to sky Stupca. The Red Baron vs. Candyman matchup will be one for the ages.

I'm trying not to get carried away - I have homework to do.

EDIT: I should probably throw this in
http://scores.upa.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/6568
The water jugs and bathrooms are marked on the map! HOW COOL IS THAT!

Austin

The Other Games

2010-03-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

For Sunday of Centex, we were lucky enough to be re-relocated to the original fields. As expected, these were much nicer than the ones in San Antonio, and were not oriented straight upwind-downwind.

As a reward for winning our pool on Saturday, we were treated to a first round (prequarters) matchup against Colorado. Lucky us. In reality, playing Colorado is never a bad thing in my book, especially after a game against Florida. They're competitive and fiery, but rarely to a fault. We always learn a lot playing them, even if we haven't recorded a W in the last couple years. The crosswind in this game came out strong but steady. It didn't do much except scare us away from attempting breaks upwind. Colorado was similarly intimidated. All through the game they threw wide, floaty, around breaks that receivers could run on to. As much as we talked about it, our marks really never adjusted. Colorado capitalized, winning 9-6 in soft cap.

This unlucky draw dropped us immediately to the 9th place bracket, where Western Washington was waiting. After a good-natured game with Colorado, Nate Castine and crew caught us off guard. Every stoppage of play initiated some sort of one-sided yelling match by any of the key players on Dirt. One particular argument involved a rule which I believed was relatively well-known. I decided to bring up the particular infraction to their captain, which sparked an immediate and furious response. Apparently I've never played ultimate before, and I should go talk to an observer about how stupid I am. Anyway, here's the rule that I believed any self-respecting ultimate player (especially one on Sockeye) would know:

XIV.B.2 Double-team: If a defensive player other than the marker is within three meters of any pivot of the thrower without also being within three meters of and guarding (II.G) another offensive player, it is a double team.
II.G Guarding: A defender is guarding an offensive player when they are within three meters of that offensive player and are reacting to that offensive player.

Not all was lost when I stopped trying to argue this point - they stopped trying to crush the thrower whenever we crashed the cup. The story of this game was their throwers. They were clearly ready for the conditions, and really showed us that our marks were relying too much on the wind. Their cup was also one of the best we saw that weekend. Final score: Western Washington over Illinois 11-7.

We had been unsure of the possibility of consolation games extending past our loss to Colorado in the morning, so we met with the NC State captains and agreed on a game to 9. The field that this was played on happened to be mostly shielded from the wind by a large building. This proved to make the game a lot more fun, and probably skew the odds in our favor. NC State played some zone and some man - neither of which having much effect. Our longs finally got the chance to stretch their legs in this game. Everyone looked pretty fresh, and we were able to open up the lines after a couple breaks in the first half. NC State seemed to be stuck in the "punt it down the field" mentality necessary on some of the other fields. Our O-line was much more content with hitting longs on in cuts and tossing the disc over their cup. Final score: Illinois over NC State 9-7.

Hoping for another short game, Walden played diplomat to the CUT crew lined up for our next game. They weren't buying, and insisted on playing a full game to 13. With Phelan and several of our longs down for the count, lines were opened up in this game for a different reason. We were tired, and had mentally checked out before the game even started. I'm sure some people were already itching to jump in the car for PCB. We were out-matched and out-enthused. Carleton rolls Illinois 13-3 to end the weekend.

Lucky for me, I made plans which did not involve driving back to Champaign. Kurt, Mark, and Bruns dropped me off at my nice cozy hotel in Dallas where I slept like a baby until my flight the next morning. Like a very sore, slightly sunburnt baby with a bad knee. If you were curious, flying back from Centex is the only way to go.

Austin

Alright You Bunch of Whiners

2010-03-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

If you're all going to complain about no blog posts for the entirety of spring break, I guess I can find some time in my otherwise packed schedule to sit down for a minute. I'll have you know that you're interrupting my totally rewarding task of cleaning the gutters. Whoo spring break whoo!

I didn't write anything about Vegas for good reason. The tournament didn't happen. Maybe I jinxed it, or maybe Cultimate is completely incompetent at handling inclement weather. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

I don't have a good excuse for not writing after Mardi Gras. Synopsis: Standing water up to my shins capped by a layer of ice. We lose to Tennessee, and I consider quitting ultimate until we beat Notre Dame. Due to Saturday craziness, we end up being the strong favorite on our side of the bracket (next to Iowa State). Get blown out by jacked up Wisconsin team in finals. On to Centex!

Continuing the tradition of rain before/during Cultimate tournaments, Friday night / Saturday morning was marked by thunderstorms and heavy rain. For those of us trying to catch an hour of sleep in the car at the fields, this was less than helpful. The tournament is eventually pushed back and relocated to San Antonio for the day. This was an hour and 45 minutes from our hotel, and games did not start till 2 as a result. Upon arrival, we were greeted with 20-30 mph winds and temperatures in the low 40s. (Sidenote: I know I shouldn't complain about the weather when Chicago Invite went the way it did, but I will anyway.) The fields were oriented almost completely straight upwind - downwind, so winning the flip was vital.

First up was UCLA Smaug. We won the flip, and proceeded to score downwind until it was over. The O-line threw the disc away a lot in this game just trying to figure out how to manage the gusts. UCLA ever mount much of a successful attempt to work it upwind. They tried starting the disc off with their "backhand guy" who would fake backhand over and over until attempting to jack a backhand to the breakside. As you can imagine, there were lots of handblocks in this game. In fact, I stopped a huck with a faceblock. Final score: 7 - 6 Illinois.

Second round bye because Kansas bitched out.

Warmups before the third round had a dark cloud over them. Those of us who have been in the program for a few years know that playing Florida is not only extremely unpleasant, it is downright dangerous. Without observers, and with the active coaching of Cyle, Florida ultimate approached an all-time low. The wind had picked up at this point, and Florida had just lost to UCLA via flip. What this meant to us, is that we needed to win the flip to avoid the possibility of a 3-way tie all with zero point diff. (Everybody winning or losing their game by 1, and Kansas forfeiting all rounds.) With this outcome, I'm pretty sure that pool placement is decided by roshambo. Yikes. Anyway, Florida chose wrong, so we won the flip. Our D-line scored upwind against them early in the game, due to some Zubair-esque treatment of the cup by Smith and Kurt. This point was capped off by a McKinley assist to Kevin Bruns for the punch spike, which was promptly called back on a travel. This lead to the opportunity for an immediate McKinley - Bruns pass for the elbow spike onto a helpless (but oh-so-deserving) Florida defender. Since our O-line was also broken, the W in this game can be attributed soley to the D-line. Thanks guys. Lowlights: Cole Sullivan. Cole running by the mark and taking the disc out of Walden's hands. Cole tackling Sid from behind on an in-cut then contesting the foul. Cole hip-checking Kurt as he tries to crash the cup. Cole pushing Smith out of bounds within the first few stall counts against the cup. Cole knocking Walden to the ground during the game winning pass, then arguing that the foul was before the throw. None of the good guys were hurt during this game, but I still hope that the state of Florida disappears into the ocean. ...After our spring-breakers return. Final score: 9-8 Illinois.

First day of Centex? Check. I'll be back to write up the rest sometime before tomorrow night, and that's for real real.

Austin

Vegas Hype - Not Too Early

2010-01-21T07:53:00.001-08:00

Well, Smith has managed to draw me out of my blogging-hybernation. I feel obligated to prove that some engineers can, in fact, write something grammatically sound.

Trouble in Vegas is approaching quickly, especially for a team that waits so long for the final A/B split. Illinois is somewhat unique in the way that we don't practice anything A team specific until (just before) second semester. While many of the higher level teams are slowly building steam towards their peak performance, we're still deciding on an identity for the year. Vegas is our first chance to flex our muscles as a team, and we can not take the opportunity for granted.

Three day tournaments are a different animal than the regular weekend trip. In one such as Vegas, three days are necessary to organize the giganto-bracket that Cultimate has devised in their ultimate wisdom. Pun and irony intended. Since we were not placed in the main power pool, we have a long way to go to reach pre-pre-quarters. Awesome. If Cultimate sticks to their current format, we have a regular pool of four on Friday which we are favored to win. If we pull off top two in this pool, Saturday brings a "power pool" comprised of the top two from two different Friday pools. In all likelihood, this gives us an early game against Arizona. As many of you would guess, I'm psyched just for the possibility of a little brother beatdown. For the A team vets of Typhoon in Vegas '09, this is also a chance to redeem ourselves for the very soggy loss to Arizona last year. As a rule of thumb, we're allowed one loss out of these five games in order to advance. I'm gunning for none.

What does this mean to you? Well Mister First-Time-A-Teamer, you need to get excited. We are a long way from Regionals - now is the time to show us what you have in raw ability. Most of you will only see the field on defense, matching up against the savvy O-liners of teams from across the country. You have to stand out among players like Kennedy and Pappy, who might actually kill someone for a D. Any older players reading this will agree that rookies (I use the term vaguely) are scary. Who knows what they'll do? If you go out there with half the intensity of Walden, I promise you will see results throughout the season.

Let's use these next couple weeks to put our collective nose to the grindstone so we can enjoy some hot desert sun. It can't rain again, right?

Remember, WWWD
Austin

The start of the spring season

2010-01-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

We started our spring season a week before classes as most of the a-team and some b-team players returned early to participate in our mini-camp. 2 practices a day 8-11am and 2-4pm for the week inside at the ARC.

The first practice of the day consisted of lots of practice time just running our very complicated offense. We started off slow and added things as we went and there was a big difference in everyone's understanding from last year at this same time. Last year let’s face it we sucked until regionals. That's just the truth, but once we started to really get the flow of our offense we were kicking some ass. Now with starting off with a bunch of guys that already ran it for a year, more kids were able to pick up on the timing a lot faster. Let’s just say at times it was looking good. We also added a lot from last year straight from the start and most everyone was picking up on it.

The first few morning practices were focused more of getting our offense down, and once that was decent we started adding defense. Now practices were getting a lot better. If we have one thing here at Illinois it is a very competitive group of guys. Once we start to scrimmage and make scoring, getting d's, and fast break scores worth points it seems like everyone really steps it up.

As for the afternoon we changed our focus from learning the game to preparing for the game. Monday & Wednesday we did some kind of condition with drills and then hit the weight room. As for Tuesday & Thursday the captains first teased us with a hour of fundition then Evil Walden showed up. He tried to kill us with his own version of hell week, but condensed into 2 crossfits. Other things we learned on these days, at least this is what I was hearing, if you want a great basketball team get Neal and Kohn on your team.

During the night our great social chair the one and only Kurt had a ton of things planed for us. Tuesday we went to the movies to see Youth in Revolt. Wednesday we had a pasta party/fifa tournament where McKinley had a crushing victory over Adam. Thursday we all went out for wings. Also where we learned that Kevin can name every country in the world. Friday we didn't have an afternoon practice so the team went to IHOP for lunch. All you can eat pancakes is amazing. After the waitress grounded half the team she successfully creeped the entire team out, we left. No contest for eating the most pancakes was started, most likely a good idea after what happen last year.... 7 of us played credit card roulette and I won, 68 bucks. Friday night there was a sweet party. What a great week of social events.

Now, a look forward to our season. This week is the start of classes and our normal practices. Vegas is here in about 3 weeks, Mardi Gras is the week after that. With the change of how our regular season works, which I am still not sure of, we need to be ready and prepared for every game this year. We have a pretty young team compared to recent years, but we can't walk into our first tournament and just use it as a warm-up or a tournament just to get everyone used to this high level of play. I am really excited to see our transformation this season. We have a great blend of vets, and younger guys plus everyone is highly motivated. I feel that even early in the season we will find more success than we did last year.

Its going to be a exciting year here get ready for it guys. Know that there will be setbacks, but in the long term those aren’t a big deal. We just have to learn from them and come out better. Tell yourself now that we will not let our season end before May 31. No one will just step aside and give us this. We have to take.

Defensive Mind Set

2009-12-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

You have heard all the captains saying it, defense is the fastest way to make the A-team. Its true the offense is going to be filled up with the old guys with weak ankles and knees who can throw. Defense for all you young bucks out there is what you want. You don't want to just receive the pull and not even have to work hard to get the d first. That's just boring and lame. So tonight when you are doing some defensive drill get it in your mind that you wanted to be on defense, you want to run right past him and get the d. Basically you make him your bottom bitch. He wants to cut in nope you intimidated him so much from the last in cut he made where you just ran right past him for the d, that he went deep and you just skied him for the d. The rest of this is just some tips on how to do that.

Part I

For defending a cutter one of my old coaches used to call it the gate position. This is just how you are trying to step up on a cutter down field while they are in the stack or any other formation. This starting position is so important I can not stress that enough. Not just on the first cut, but every cut of that point. If you are not in a good position each time a cut happens you are screwed before that guy even got into the lane. It is tough to fight after every cut to get back into a good position, but this is what separates really good defenders and just mediocre ones.

Now each person will have a slightly different gate position, it all depends on your athleticism. Typically your going to be a yard or two away with your body angled is such a you are going to force them in or force them out. You will also be either slight deeper, even, or slight shorter then the cutter to also accomplish this. As the cutter starts his cut you want to stay step for step with him. If he takes a step towards you are taking a step back, if he takes a step in you take a step in etc.

(side note I have seen this a lot this fall. When defenders are trying to maintain that gap they are trying to step in the way they should be, but the cutter still beats him. I really see this happening when the defender is backpedaling. Try shuffling a little more. You will have to work hard but when the cut happens you will be better prepared to go with him instead of being on one foot and backpedaling.)

I wish it was just that easy, but it isn't. You have this space or gap between you and the cutter. Cutters are going to want to take all of that away and use it against you. You can not let this happen. You hustled back from the last cut to get that cushion, you don't want to give it to him easy. As the cutter finally makes his cut don't just blindly start sprinting that way. Cutters are going to try and fake you out. Two tips I have here are if you can shuffle/side sprint (whatever you want to call it) for those first few steps when they commit if you put yourself to start off with in a good position they aren't going to beat you with these few steps where you are shuffling. What this helps with is when a cutter makes another fake. You will be even better prepared then he will on this one and you will shut him down. This is a lot more true for when the in cut comes first. He your guy busts deep you really need to be next to him the whole time and you can't let him have a head start. The other tip I have is watch the hips. There hips never lie. Still be carefully of the double moves. If their hips are pointed a certain direction that is the way they are going for the immediate future.

Misery Loves Company

2009-11-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

*Missouri - This ended up being a pretty appropriate name for the tournament for Illinois.

The short story is that in a relatively brief period of time, our roster for MLC dropped from 36 to about 16. This was the difference between one short-handed team and two comfortably sized teams. No need to go into that aspect here, because the heat will be directed toward the team rather than the interweb.

Anyway, the crew that did show up in Jefferson City ended up being a little less than successful. Illness played a significant part in this, with Jack Krieger being completely out and Mickey and I not feeling much better. Neal Phelps, Shabby, and Papa Bear stepped up to take over as our main longs. They, along with Smith and McKinley, shouldered the majority of the load. Mickey stands alone in this category - being sick and broken, yet still playing a high number of points both as long and cutter.

In individual games, there's nothing really to summarize. We lost to Southern Illinois, then Iowa State, then Colorado B (sigh..), then Oklahoma. The biggest problem in every single game was our poor marks. Every team we played, including Colorado B, was able to slice through our marks like we weren't even standing there. Luckily, it has already been decided that marking will be one of the main focuses for the team this year. After the initial loss to Southern, and especially after the loss to Colorado B, very few managed to keep their spirits up. I know I fell victim to this, though I attribute some of it to the hacking and wheezing I was doing on the sidelines.

Luckily for us, but not for the team wallet, the second day of the tournament was cancelled due to stormy weather.

Personal favorite moment from the weekend:
Jack Rabuck reaching waaaay over the top of one of the captains of ISUC for the sky in the endzone, prompting everyone to rush the field.

Austin

Border Brawl Recap

2009-11-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

This is tournament recap numero uno for my blogging career, hopefully it's good.

Saturday started early because round 1 started at 8 am. This seems pretty silly considering even though we only played four games, the rounds were soft capped at 60 mins and hard capped at 70. Maybe because cultimate had that killer showcase game in round 6 between colorado and carleton that i think no one stayed for.

Iowa:

We warmed up and then played our first "A-team" game of the 2009-2010 season against Iowa. We traded scores for a while in the beginning before our d-line got it going with a few breaks in a row to put the game in our control. We kept that control for the rest of game and ended up winning 10-7. At this point the games were still to 15, so there were basically no points after halftime. Offense went the whole game without getting broken.

Bye Round (I think this is when cultimate decided games to 15 in 80 minute rounds were ridiculous and decreased it to games to 13.)

Carleton: After coming off the amazing second round bye we moved over to field one to play against the defending national champions. We went down big in the beginning of the game as our offense struggled against the more physical carleton defense. For a lot of people on the team this was probably the first real taste of the more intense and physical defense displayed by some top teams. After going down 0-5, we finally got it together and started playing some ultimate. We started trading scores and even broke them a few times coming out in the second half. After the initial second half burst, carleton again turned it on and scored another four times. The game ended 13-7. Even though the score was pretty ugly, we showed that we could play with a top team for stretches. Besides the 2 runs that Carleton went on, we played pretty much even ultimate with the defending champions. Carleton looks like they added some good young talent, including some more height that they did not have before. Carleton's offense worked mostly on quick backhand arounds and movement between their handlers, as well as breakmark throws to isolated cutters coming out of the vert stack.

Luther:

We came off the hard loss to carleton and immediately took it to the Luther team. After the first couple of points this was not much of a game. Our offense scored easily off of fluid handler movement and a surplus of hucks to ridiculously open cutters in the endzone. The defense played some long points and broke the Luther team on several occasions. Luther's offense pretty much relied on #7 Greg Shirbroun running around a lot. Austin did a really awesome job on him and we coasted to a 13-7 win. The offense again went the whole game without getting broken.

Wisconsin:

Our last game on saturday put us against an undefeated to this point Wisconsin team. After playing carleton, it seemed like Illinois was better prepared for what might be the most physical defense in the country. Wisconsin, no matter the skill of the players on the team, brings extremely high intensity defense and a ton of sideline energy to every game they play. Even wisconsin's new players know how to cheat on the mark and on cutters as wisconsin continues to advance its program on questionable calls and spirit. The game started with us on offense, and we immediately got broken to fall behind 0-1. We came out and scored twice and our defense got the break back to put us back on serve at 3-2. Then going into half we had a chance to take half 7-4 but I threw away a high backhand on the goal line which led to a wisco break. This put the score at 6-5. Wisco broke again to put it at 6-6 but then we finally converted to take half on serve at 7-6. The second half started pretty even until wisconsin had a late run to put the game to 11-10. Our defense then broke as hard cap was going off to put the game to 11-11 and send it to universe. We started on d for dgp and quickly got a turn. We almost turned it over but got the disc back after a a foul call that gave us back the disc after a long heated argument. But we turned the disc over again near our own endzone and wisco finally capitalized with the short field to take the game on universe 12-11.

This was I think the best game of the weekend for us even though we ended with a lost. We showed that even with the inexperienced and new team, we could hang with the best in the country. This game was easily the most intense and emotional game of the weekend, and the team showed that they could harness that intensity just as well as the hodags could. I am already looking forward to our next matchup with the hodags, I know it will be a good one.

We ended the day 2-2, and went back to Mark's house where Mark's parents had prepared a feast.

Sunday:

Kansas:

Our first game of sunday was again at 8 am against the HorrorZontals of Kansas. Kansas is similar to Wisconsin in that they play extremely physical defense and make their fair share of questionable calls. We got broke early in this game but rebounded with a break of our own and ended up taking half with the lead. There were some extremely long points in this game so we wouldn't get to play very long after half before the game was decided. We started the second half on offense and finally scored after a long point. Kansas came out and scored on a quick huck to axle. We were up 8-7. Kansas then broke us to put the game at 8-8 and yet another universe point as the hard cap had went on during the point before. We started this universe point on offense and turned the disc over on a huck to the endzone. We got the disc back, and then turned it over again. But yet again we got the disc back, and this time we wouldn't give the disc back. We worked the full length of the field and after a pretty heated "situation" between evil hidaka and myself, ended up scoring and taking the game 9-8. This was huge because two double game point losses in a row would have been hard. We showed that we could take a game on a big point against a relatively good kansas team. Also universe point experience is something hard to come by and having two different games go to universe in our first tournament was pretty exciting.

Bye Round...yay another second round bye

Minnesota:

We pretty much got killed in this one so I am going to keep the recap short. We came out and matched minnesota's play in the beginning but pretty much fell apart in the second half. We turned the disc over way too many times on basic throws and catches, and minnesota capitalized by playing their game of hucking early and often. The game ended 13-5..not so good.

Colorado:

Our last game of the weekend came against last year's runner up, the Colorado Mamabird. Colorado lost some key players including Mac Taylor, but they are Colorado and still have plenty of athletes and skill required to make plays and win games. Colorado would be the eventual winner of Border Brawl as they beat Minnesota in the championship 11-8. We opened up our lines in this game to give people playing time and awesome experience against a top team. I felt like this game lacked any real emotion or momentum from either team, and ended in a very anti-climatic 9-8 Colorado win.

So we ended the weekend 3-4 with wins against: Iowa, Luther, and Kansas and two one point losses to Wisco and Colorado. We lost one game on universe, and won another. The weather was awesome the whole weekend with temperatures in the 70s and almost no wind until sunday afternoon. The fields were full size, for a change, and the tournament was a lot of fun overall. Everyone who came made plays for the team, from returners to first years. Even though this was a fall tournament, everyone should realize that we can and will be a good team this year. We could be great but it is going to take a lot of work from everyone, both with the team and on your own.

So...start now and get after it.

-Sid

Day 2 Glory Days Team Z

2009-11-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the wait

Every Illinois team started Sunday in the championship bracket. With pride on the line what team was going to step up and be crowned the best Illinois split squad team?

Z vs North Park (8-15)
-Team Z's first game was against North Park. We were warned by Illinois Y that we would be playing against a zone. Good Z was picking apart every zone we played the whole weekend. North Park ended up throwing a zone for a few up wind points but after moving it around the zone like it was nothing they switched to man for the rest of the game. Another thing to point out was North Park was calling very tight lines. In the first half not many rooks were on the field for them. With the wind as strong as it was and playing against mostly returners North Park took a lead into half. After half North Park began to let more people play. That is when we started our come back. Now having better match ups everywhere we started to come back. Again North Park started to call tighter lines and then they finished up the game. This was a hotly contested game. At some times tons of calls were being made by both sides, but even with this it stayed a very intense game. I am definitely looking forward to playing this team with our whole squad.

Z vs Chicago round 2 (11-10 win!)
-With every Illinois team now in the 9th place bracket after losing their first games, Z was matched up against U of Chicago again. Yes we would get to play against the most spirited man in ultimate once more. Much of the same occurred in this game as in the day before, except that there were no big leads. It was back and forth the whole time. Z came out on top in the end again. Without any spirit discs to give out Zubair was shot down again by his former team.

Illinois vs Valpo
-By the end of the day Sunday x,y, and z were all playing with injured players. We worked out a deal with Valpo to combine all 3 split squads and play one game for 9th place bracket. Valpo won the game.

Overall Glory days was a really good tournament for everyone. Every one of our split squads had a good weekend owning 3 out of 4 spots in the 9th place bracket semi finals. On another note we move indoors today, and this year the university has expanded our throwing time. Who's up for the cross fits?

Glory Days

2009-10-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Team Z aka team zylaphones

Day 1 All started saturday at 9am.

Z vs Lake Forest
-The start of this game was rough, just like most first games when you have a split squad. Also I believe the increase in playing time from the last tournament was a surprise to most. After a slow start the pace started to pick up. Layouts started to happen and intensity showed up. Illinois Z came away with 10-7. Having the game come down to the last few points will be the trend of Z for the weekend. That being said we seemed to be ahead in all these close games.

Z vs Southern Illinois
-SIU had some decent players. They were able to move it down the field pretty effectively at times. With a smaller roster they were in the same boat as us, but one thing they had over us was a lot of height. Z step up and played hard after a slow start again. Z wins 11-7.

Z vs Zubair (take 1)
-Finally the game Z has been wanting all day. A Z vs Z matchup. Zubair, the most spirited player in college ultimate, vs Illinois. Not only did we want to beat Zubair, but we needed to find out if anyone really could contest a foul call made by him. Being only on the same team as him before, we had no clue what it was like to play against him. After Zubair took half 8-4ish Z stepped up big time and won 10-9. This game was sick. Everyone on Z was going crazy. This is why I play ultimate, games like this were everyone takes it to the next level.

Z vs Eastern Illinois
-After having the intensity at and all time high during the second half of the Zubair game, Z lost all of it. Everyone was slow and forcing throws. Turned out terrible and we lost 5-13

I'll get to day 2 later when I am not passing out while typing.

No Wisconsequences (Team Y)

2009-10-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

No Wisconsequences Write-Up Illinois – Y aka wYse guys

This post brought to you by Keenan:

No Wisconsequences Write-Up Illinois – Y aka wYse guys

You’ll have to forgive my forgetfulness when it comes to the breakdown of scores for some of these games, my focus was on winning not the twists and turns along the way

Round 1 – Carleton College GOP

Twas a cold morning to start the day, with what was potentially the best match up of the day for a split squad Illinois team. We came out slow in the first half and GOP took the half by a healthy margin. Second half we decided we should probably play harder and stop being intimidated by their facial hair. Besides, everyone in Minnesota has a fuzzy sweater in order to survive the winter, see Austin Lien.

Final Score – GOP 13 – 8 Illinois Y

Round 2 – Wisconsin La-Crosse

The day was began warming up and still there really wasn’t that much wind involved. La-Crosse seemed to be a relatively new team that was still learning the finer points of college level ultimate and as a result we were able to use our rookies a bit more than usual because of the experience similarities. Some highlights include Neal jumping over a cluster of dudes to come down with some discs and the beginning of the rookie remodel as I would like to refer to it. It’s when we take the boys and make them men, get dirty, lay out, and go nuts

Final Score – Illinois Y 11 – 9 Wisconsin La Crosse

Round 4 – Iowa State X

The dumb game of the day, at some point in time we decided that playing a full game was a bad idea. We came out super fired up from our BYE and smacked ISUC around, but after the half they found heart and we couldn’t maintain our edge throughout. We were able to take advantage of one of the most epic mismatches of all time with Pappy J being on the field, against anyone on their team, while Sid realized that boostability was high and started throwing some major bombs.

Final Score – Iowa State X 13 – 11 Illinois Y

Round 6 – Illinois State Y

Don’t get me wrong, I heart the guys on Illinois States team, but we have prided ourselves as having a better program then them, and I haven’t ever lost to an ISU team. That said, we came fired up out of the gate. We took half 7 – 2 and never looked back through the rest of the game. I hate to toot my own horn, but a dropped Callahan layout around a dude off the pull would have ended the game if I wasn’t such a skinny white boy upon hitting the ground. Balls. Also, got to see Tom and Splash have some wicked bids and there may or may not have been a cross field scoober for a score courtesy of Mickey

Sunday saw a frost delay to start the rounds. WTF polo fields, really? I mean, really? Now that that’s off my chest, the rest of the day went swimmingly for Illinois Y

Round 2 – Lawrence University

These were a bunch of cool dudes that like to play ultimate. Once the stretching marathon was completed, the first time, we were able to pretty much have our way with Lawrence and our offense finally began to click while the defense made got some breaks that helped boost everyone’s confidence. I can’t remember much else about this one, but if anyone from Lawrence ever reads this, I’ll trade jerseys for one of those sick buddy jerseys. Believe it

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 6 Lawrence

Round 3 – Ohio Wesleyan

In what might have been the most intimidating game that had the least actual excitement, Illinois Y was able to beat Ohio Wesleyan. We were able to beat a team that has made regionals at least once during the time that I’ve been playing ultimate. With the exception of travel call guy, the entire team was pretty cool too, which is always a bonus.

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 10(ish) Ohio Wesleyan

Round 4 – Northern Iowa

This is probably the most excited game for me the entire weekend, except my buddy who plays from high school wasn’t at the tournament to heckle. This is another team that made regionals the past year, and I felt that we were able to compete with them very well. There were a couple instances of miscues on the field, but on the whole it went well and I was pleased with the outcome.

Final Score – Illinois Y 13 – 7 Northern Iowa

I want to say great job to all the rookies who went, for both teams, and those of us who served as the surrogate captains were very impressed with the way you guys improved over the tournament.

Rookie MVP – Neal Phelps / Mark de Chadenedes. Both these guys got on the field and were able to do a great job, whether it was playing tough D or tooling fools on O, they both were able to execute throughout the weekend.

"Western Day 2"

2009-10-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

So I may have set the bar too high on posts about Western... We (Y) got fifth, and X got seventh. I'd go into detail, but I waited waaaay too long thinking I'd have time to write something significant at some point.

In other news:

Despite feeling like a sure thing, my mixed club team (Drag'n Thrust) did not advance to nationals. I'm not complaining - we lost our spot fair and square. Twice in fact. I do wish our region would have had another bid though. We would have definitely done some work at the show.

Machine, along with Walden, Stupca, Joel, and Pat, take the number 2 spot out of the region on the open side. Congrats to them. Sub Zero gets bumped off for the first time in a looong time. I have to sympathize with them, seeing as it's my home team, but they probably had a feeling this might come along with the rise of Madison Club (and Madcow).

Next on the Illinois agenda is No Wisconsequences. We're choosing to attend the tournament split squad this year. Hopefully this decision turns out to be a good one, letting the rookies see lots of playing time in a decidedly more competitive tournament than Western. The team list went out in email form, but I won't post it here until it's finalized. Hopefully I'll have some time to post at least a Saturday recap while I'm there. No promises on information about Sunday.

Till then...

Austin