Dear James,
lol
love,
Chris
Eastern Illinois Ultimate Frisbee Club - Team Reaper
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
09 Fall Season Recap
Well I told myself I would find time to write on this blog, but it just didnt seem to happen really during the season. If any Reaper player is interested in writing about basically anything team-related on this blog, let me know and we can make it happen. I really respect some other teams who take the time to put up tournament recaps/general personal ultimate information etc. I have a feeling this is going to be a long read. Please bare with my poor grammar, I am clearly not an English major :)
I have to be honest guys and gals, I was really happy with the results this season. We were lucky to get some serious talent from new players and our awesome indiana transfer STEVE KARLSON. Having both teams go 4-0 day 1 at Stanley Cup was quite AWESOME! I saw players on my team step up and do some serious work! Furthermore our work ethic at practice has been pretty solid, and certainly got off to a good start. Scrimmages actually had some decent competition to them! Hard work at practice certainly paid off when we went to Western with only 11 or so guys. Our only losses were sadly 2 games to Northwestern, ending up with a 2nd place finish. Northwestern has consistantly put up very challenging and very fun games we went 0-3 vs their split squads in the fall, but we lost all 3 games by a TOTAL of 6 points... AGGRAVATING but I think most of us agree they were quite a respectable team and certainly played with class.
Our final tournament of the season was Glory Days. We brought an 18 man open team and a split womans squad with Bradley Univ. I was very impressed by both teams! I don't think a single girl from the eastern side of beastly has ever played a womans tournament before and you guys still smashed your seed! Whenever I made it over and got to see how Beastly was playing I was really impressed by many players, and the energy of that team in general. I certainly hope that Beastly can make a come back this spring! The fellas... holding our seed, 14th out of approx 40 teams, is no small feat. We really broke our habit of losing game 1 at tournaments last year. We opened vs Western Michigan AND Illinois State with intensity and it paid off with solid wins. Game 3 vs Purdue should have given everyone something to aim for. If we are going to go to sectionals this spring, we have to be confident we can take a team like that down. According to a friend on that team they were gunning for us from the start and had some info on us after our 2nd place finish at Western. It didn't help that my knee was pretty shot for that game so I had confine myself to going crazy on the sideline (as usual) but it did give me a good perspective on this game. You have to give them credit vs our zone, they worked it up the field very well and certainly had the most solid handler motion of any team we have faced so far... we forced them to throw easily around 50-80 throws in MULTIPLE points, and they consistantly made some pretty impressive break-mark throws vs our traps. Switching it up to clam earlier would have been a good move but oh well. Our intensity started off strong but once they took a 2-3 point lead I felt like a lot of us gave up. This can't happen in the future, especially against a team that we have to be confident we can beat if we are to aim for sectionals/regionals come spring. I am not just saying this either, WE CAN BEAT A TEAM LIKE THAT! After our game vs Purdue we played U of I Y to end the day. This was probably my favorite game of the fall and I didn't even play in it (knee injury vs ISU). I saw just about every player that took the field make a play this game. Dan N in particular played like an absolute beast basically the entire game even though he was pretty ill this whole tournament. Our zone and our man D both played like they were starving for D's, we forced turns in dangerous places on the field and our O did a fantastic job of moving the disc and making high percentage looks. I was extremely proud of everyone after this game, saw tons of great stuff from basically everyone that took the field W 15-5 great game. Oh yea... and Scott did throw between a kids legs to Brandon who made a sweet layout to come up with the disc, I feel that has to be mentioned as well haha. Day 1 ended with the Rookie-Allstar game. For finishing 2nd in our pool we got to send a guy (Joe V) and thanks to North Park we also got to send a lady from Beastly (Maggie P). Was an awesome/hilarious game to watch (especially with a meal provided). Joe V in particular was hilarious and said something along the lines of, "I actually like ultimate now" afterwards haha.
Day 2 of Glory Days started with an all to familar opponent... Northwestern's NUT. I believe we traded until half but after the wind became a factor and they simply made less errors than we did. We spoiled at least 2 key upwind points that easily could have given us the game. Was pretty even throughout and both teams played pretty tight lines basically the entire time but once again we fell by approx 2-3 points. After losing such a close and competitive game we played one of the WORST games I have EVER seen or been apart of. One of U of I's other split squads basically had us start 5 mins after the tough loss vs Northwestern and I don't think a single person on our team (myself included) had any sort of mental toughness for this game. The wind picked up to approx 30mph with gusts in a clear upwind-downwind game. I won't go into this game but we got smoked. As a team guys we can never come into a game with that attitude again... there is simply no way we can expect any results if we can't rise above a tough loss and come into our next game strong. Looking back that U of I team was certainly beatable but we lost before we even started. Game 3 was vs Illinois-Chicago, we lost the toss I believe but actually regained some fire for this game. The down wind/up wind play lead to a hucking contest with us coming out on top. I believe we had 2 upwind breaks? Big plays by Mike and the rest of our cutters to come down with those floaty upwind hucks was certainly the difference. Come spring if you are not comfortable making a consistant 20 yard upwind pass, you need to fix that. Use the facebook group, call/text a teammmate and get throwing! Ask any captain for help/tips but you have to practice outside of scheduled practice to make that happen and become more complete as a player.
After the Illinois-Chicago game we agreed to forfeit vs Hope college because frankly the majority of us were exhausted and would rather watch some of the finals/Beastly play. After eating way to many of those pears they provided we got to see an impressive Beastly win vs North Park who I Believe qualified for Regionals last year and Beastly had lost to Day 1. Props to Kelly D for playing with a knee injury and still throwing upwind hucks! As miserable as it was day with the strong winds/cold, I thought this was a pretty great tournament. Both teams finished strong and I hope everyone had a good time!
Thats basically a wrap for the fall season, try to stay active/fit during the winter and come to practice! Wed @9 in the fieldhouse and Sat @3 in the fieldhouse, I know things have certainly started to calm down a bit, but please try to respect your teammates and come on time, I can't say it enough but this is truly our team. The school does far less for our club than well... any team I have talked to, we pay for everything ourselves and organize everything ourselves... With that being said please understand that this team/club is run by your peers, we are all students and many of us devote our time and energy to try to make this team fun while still competitive. YOU decide what level of commitment and energy your going to put into this team. The club started under 3 years ago, it's come very far from what it was! But there is still so much more we can do and make of it IF you're willing to. To those that have stepped up and put forth their time and dedication to make this team what it is today... I can't thank you enough. Thank you everyone that made an effort to come to practice and be a part of this team.
-James
I have to be honest guys and gals, I was really happy with the results this season. We were lucky to get some serious talent from new players and our awesome indiana transfer STEVE KARLSON. Having both teams go 4-0 day 1 at Stanley Cup was quite AWESOME! I saw players on my team step up and do some serious work! Furthermore our work ethic at practice has been pretty solid, and certainly got off to a good start. Scrimmages actually had some decent competition to them! Hard work at practice certainly paid off when we went to Western with only 11 or so guys. Our only losses were sadly 2 games to Northwestern, ending up with a 2nd place finish. Northwestern has consistantly put up very challenging and very fun games we went 0-3 vs their split squads in the fall, but we lost all 3 games by a TOTAL of 6 points... AGGRAVATING but I think most of us agree they were quite a respectable team and certainly played with class.
Our final tournament of the season was Glory Days. We brought an 18 man open team and a split womans squad with Bradley Univ. I was very impressed by both teams! I don't think a single girl from the eastern side of beastly has ever played a womans tournament before and you guys still smashed your seed! Whenever I made it over and got to see how Beastly was playing I was really impressed by many players, and the energy of that team in general. I certainly hope that Beastly can make a come back this spring! The fellas... holding our seed, 14th out of approx 40 teams, is no small feat. We really broke our habit of losing game 1 at tournaments last year. We opened vs Western Michigan AND Illinois State with intensity and it paid off with solid wins. Game 3 vs Purdue should have given everyone something to aim for. If we are going to go to sectionals this spring, we have to be confident we can take a team like that down. According to a friend on that team they were gunning for us from the start and had some info on us after our 2nd place finish at Western. It didn't help that my knee was pretty shot for that game so I had confine myself to going crazy on the sideline (as usual) but it did give me a good perspective on this game. You have to give them credit vs our zone, they worked it up the field very well and certainly had the most solid handler motion of any team we have faced so far... we forced them to throw easily around 50-80 throws in MULTIPLE points, and they consistantly made some pretty impressive break-mark throws vs our traps. Switching it up to clam earlier would have been a good move but oh well. Our intensity started off strong but once they took a 2-3 point lead I felt like a lot of us gave up. This can't happen in the future, especially against a team that we have to be confident we can beat if we are to aim for sectionals/regionals come spring. I am not just saying this either, WE CAN BEAT A TEAM LIKE THAT! After our game vs Purdue we played U of I Y to end the day. This was probably my favorite game of the fall and I didn't even play in it (knee injury vs ISU). I saw just about every player that took the field make a play this game. Dan N in particular played like an absolute beast basically the entire game even though he was pretty ill this whole tournament. Our zone and our man D both played like they were starving for D's, we forced turns in dangerous places on the field and our O did a fantastic job of moving the disc and making high percentage looks. I was extremely proud of everyone after this game, saw tons of great stuff from basically everyone that took the field W 15-5 great game. Oh yea... and Scott did throw between a kids legs to Brandon who made a sweet layout to come up with the disc, I feel that has to be mentioned as well haha. Day 1 ended with the Rookie-Allstar game. For finishing 2nd in our pool we got to send a guy (Joe V) and thanks to North Park we also got to send a lady from Beastly (Maggie P). Was an awesome/hilarious game to watch (especially with a meal provided). Joe V in particular was hilarious and said something along the lines of, "I actually like ultimate now" afterwards haha.
Day 2 of Glory Days started with an all to familar opponent... Northwestern's NUT. I believe we traded until half but after the wind became a factor and they simply made less errors than we did. We spoiled at least 2 key upwind points that easily could have given us the game. Was pretty even throughout and both teams played pretty tight lines basically the entire time but once again we fell by approx 2-3 points. After losing such a close and competitive game we played one of the WORST games I have EVER seen or been apart of. One of U of I's other split squads basically had us start 5 mins after the tough loss vs Northwestern and I don't think a single person on our team (myself included) had any sort of mental toughness for this game. The wind picked up to approx 30mph with gusts in a clear upwind-downwind game. I won't go into this game but we got smoked. As a team guys we can never come into a game with that attitude again... there is simply no way we can expect any results if we can't rise above a tough loss and come into our next game strong. Looking back that U of I team was certainly beatable but we lost before we even started. Game 3 was vs Illinois-Chicago, we lost the toss I believe but actually regained some fire for this game. The down wind/up wind play lead to a hucking contest with us coming out on top. I believe we had 2 upwind breaks? Big plays by Mike and the rest of our cutters to come down with those floaty upwind hucks was certainly the difference. Come spring if you are not comfortable making a consistant 20 yard upwind pass, you need to fix that. Use the facebook group, call/text a teammmate and get throwing! Ask any captain for help/tips but you have to practice outside of scheduled practice to make that happen and become more complete as a player.
After the Illinois-Chicago game we agreed to forfeit vs Hope college because frankly the majority of us were exhausted and would rather watch some of the finals/Beastly play. After eating way to many of those pears they provided we got to see an impressive Beastly win vs North Park who I Believe qualified for Regionals last year and Beastly had lost to Day 1. Props to Kelly D for playing with a knee injury and still throwing upwind hucks! As miserable as it was day with the strong winds/cold, I thought this was a pretty great tournament. Both teams finished strong and I hope everyone had a good time!
Thats basically a wrap for the fall season, try to stay active/fit during the winter and come to practice! Wed @9 in the fieldhouse and Sat @3 in the fieldhouse, I know things have certainly started to calm down a bit, but please try to respect your teammates and come on time, I can't say it enough but this is truly our team. The school does far less for our club than well... any team I have talked to, we pay for everything ourselves and organize everything ourselves... With that being said please understand that this team/club is run by your peers, we are all students and many of us devote our time and energy to try to make this team fun while still competitive. YOU decide what level of commitment and energy your going to put into this team. The club started under 3 years ago, it's come very far from what it was! But there is still so much more we can do and make of it IF you're willing to. To those that have stepped up and put forth their time and dedication to make this team what it is today... I can't thank you enough. Thank you everyone that made an effort to come to practice and be a part of this team.
-James
Saturday, September 5, 2009
ISU Tournament
Alright. Everyone should be pumped to go to ISU's Tournament the 19-20th. It should be a lot of fun. Just a reminder though, We will need the $25 in membership dues in order to go. You will also need spending cash for food and other items while there. Hope to see you there.
Today is a new day!!!
Hey everyone. Greg here. I have decided with the help of James and Drew. We have decided to make a blogspot for the Club team. Right now it is only in the beginning stages, however it will grow and become more awesome as the times go on. If anyone has any suggestions for the page, Either send me or James suggestions and it will be done.
Greg.
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