I recently made the 1hr or so drive from Madison to watch the Reaper boys at No Wisconsequences. Upon arriving I didn’t realize it would be 20mph winds with strong gusts and quite cold. Either way this meant I would be watching plenty of zone and lots of sloppy low-percentage offense. The second and third games on the day seemed to be newer teams and Reaper didn’t have a problem. Unfortunately I missed the first game vs. a split UNI team that was a relatively close game so sorry about the holes in this write-up ha.
It was great to see the whole team playing, lines were not that tight when I first arrived and everyone seemed to be contributing. We still tended to force the disc a bit too much; working the disc all the way up the field with some solid handler breaks and dump swings only to throw a same-third laser into the wind requiring a layout or other really tough grab happened a lot when I was watching early on. We need to chill out and trust our red zone offense a little more by… 1) using it more and 2) transitioning faster and 3) making the right decision.
I ended up picking up with Depaul’s team against Michigan Tech and got to experience how fun it was to play in the heavy wind first hand so I missed the game that ended with us beating a bunch of bare-foot guys in jeans to go 3-0 in our pool. Game 4 however was against a semi-familiar opponent, St. Olaf. We played these guys last year at Southerns day 2. They were a tall, loud, and intimidating team (since we only had 11 guys) that we ended up coming from behind to beat them by 3-4. The captains did a great job making it clear to the team that this was our game and would be a whole different animal then the teams we just played.
We came out fired up, loud on the sidelines, and aggressive on D and in the air. Everything went our way in the first half. Handlers struggled getting it off the trap-side which lead to low percentage looks that we seemed to EAT UP! Nate/OC/Mike showed off how far they could put it and it seemed to take St.Olaf by surprise because downfield our cutters owned the air. Brian had one of the best 2 handed skies I have ever seen him pull off early in the first half and Hinze seemed borderline unmarkable on deep cut after deep cut. Schwenk showed off just how versatile a player he has become with solid handles and monster deep looks to streaking cutters. Our offense was not pretty but it worked. In the spring better teams won’t be as easy to take down if we can’t dump/swing FASTER and move the disc more off the trap side. Handlers need to be more comfortable with some breakmark looks to center and also dump for a few yards loss to a swing to regain yards and move it to the non-trap side of the field. Our defense is what won us this game by such a wide margin. We took half 7-1 because we forced early turns real close to St.Olafs end zone consistently and when they did score it was off bailout hucks that most of the game we did a solid job of contesting and stopping. Sideline also did a great job this game, lines were certainly a bit tighter but for the first half we were loud, talking, and on the field after each point which was huge and absolutely awesome to see! St.Olaf didn’t come back and we continued to take care of business in the second half but sideline needs to remain loud throughout the whole game. I feel like we got complacent after taking half by such a large margin. We have had issues with teams very similar to St. Olaf coming back from behind in the past. Awesome way to end day 1. Other random notable things I remember from this game… St.Olaf sideline calling Mike a douche for spiking, Alex making a disgusting layout catch (late in the game I think?) and maintaining his record of getting injured basically every game, Kyle getting 2-3 pointblocks, and myself hitting an injured Rolando with the disc while trying to throw it back to field.
Day 2 opened with a team we have never faced but have seen at many tournaments, Winona State. The weather was actually quite beautiful for this game which allowed for some much cleaner ultimate. I believe we broke them first only to give up a few breaks in a row and go down by 1 or 2 at half. I really liked how our team was running very loosely structured O and D lines with OC anchoring the handles for the O line and HR/Mike/Nate basically play as much as they could but seemingly not exhausting themselves (yet). Both teams played a very similar game. Winona took a lot of deep shots to mis-matches and consistently found success working it up the break side early in the first half. However late in the game we were able to pull out a solid streak of 3-4 breaks to secure the win. I thought Rolando and Zach did a fantastic job taking whatever winona was giving them offensively. Early on we didn’t value the disc enough and settled for deep shots to easily, as the game progressed though we found a rhythm and out-worked them on D grinding out the win. Great opening game.
Game 2 was against Iowa X or Y… I feel like we opened with a strong 3 or 4 point run before IHUC scored. This game the wind had returned to a 10-15 mph crosswind. Iowa had a few strong handlers that seemed to run their offense but downfield our man D was limiting options all game long. Offensively we worked the under a little better this game and were patient with our deep shots. After we took half both teams seemed to go on 2-3 point runs. Old problems seemed to arise with handlers not moving the disc and depending too much on cutters making huge plays downfield. HR was one of the only guys consistently getting the disc moving off the line. Regardless of that though downfield our cutters WERE making huge plays. I think Lovie had the most ridiculous sky of this game with a left-handed snag after going up big in the endzone from a MJ Schwenk BOMB. Nate, OC, and HR did a great job leading the handles with awesome support from Alex, Traver, and Mike. Once hard cap sealed the deal IHUC ended the game with a Callahan, I finished my bottle of champaign, and Reaper moved to the quarterfinals to play Carleton College, the defending college champions.
Game 3 was… rather interesting. We have never played a team of Carleton’s caliber and didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think anyone could have foreseen how this game ended up being played. From what I remember the wind at this point was very strong 20+ with strong gusts blowing to the home sideline (crosswind favoring the far endzone). We ended up scoring our first O point in the semi-upwind-endzone to take the lead 1-0. Now I believe either 1 or 2 more points occurred but eventually with the score being around 2-1 Carleton’s lead they hucked a floaty backhand upwind that hung for enough time for Michael Schwenk to do what he does best and get absurdly high in the air and bring the disc down. Going up Mike didn’t touch anyone from my perspective, coming down there was both Reaper and Carleton players in a crowd that fell and apparently one of the smaller Carleton players, who I also believe was a captain got hit in the head and called injury. Mike had also happened to call foul because after he caught the disc and stopped rotation it ended up getting knocked lose when he came down. Carleton’s coach (or whoever the 6’4 guy was in jeans and a stat sheet) FLIPPED after this sky. He ran from the sideline onto the field and bumped mike all the while screaming at him about how that was such an insanely dangerous play. Mike did an amazing job keeping his composure while this ridiculous man was screaming, yelling, and honestly making a giant fool of himself and his team. Schwenk went up big for a disc that very well could have been caught otherwise for a break, it was a highlight reel defensive play yes, but it was far from overly dangerous. The fact that the Carleton guy got hit in the head and called injury (and was fine a few points later) was unfortunate and obviously an accident. Ultimate is not a contact sport in the same sense that football is but clearly there is a good amount of contact between players ESPECIALLY at higher level games. No team or coach would expect Mike to not go up and get that D and frankly the manner in which the Carleton coach reacted was one of the most unspirited acts I have ever seen in ANY sports situation especially coming from someone who is suppose to be leading his team. Anyway, back to the action. Both teams score a few more points. Then one of our rookies Nick I believe makes a semi-late bid that causes a Carleton player to fall and call foul. The bid WAS semi-late and it looked more awkward than dangerous. It was a late decision to lay out from a newer player who has a lot of potential and made the right choice, just appeared to hesitate a bit. Good teams expect their young guys to be hitting the ground and if not for the previous play I think this would have been a simple “foul” -> “no contest” situation; But because of the previous altercation with Mike both lines ended up rushing the field after Carleton’s NexGen player decides to chest up and basically shove Nick after the play. HR, myself, Mike and I am sure some of our other guys end up talking to various players on the team trying to avoid a brawl and actually get the game going. I am really proud of how well Mike and Nick acted after both of these plays, our guys kept cool heads regardless of how much a few of the Carleton players but mostly the Carleton Coach taunted and yelled. After those crazy events the game really started to heat up. We were mostly down two breaks the majority of the game with the wind really picking up towards the end. Carleton did a great job moving the disc off the line and we did a great job jamming it up the line. Defensively both teams looked solid, we did an excellent job with switches and when we were tight on the unders we had a lot of success. It has to be noted that Mike went off this game… I hyped up how good a few of the guys on Carleton were but honestly seeing Motherbird and the NexGen player on Carleton matchup was awesome to watch because frankly… Schwenk dominated. Mike set the tone early in the matchup with a massive layout D from behind on a downwind huck, had a filthy layout catch D from behind when the Carleton handler had 1 or 2 steps on him on a strike cut that had mike flying out of bounds with the disc in his hand and myself and whole sideline on the field next to us looking dumb with our jaws dropped. Both players seemed to run each team’s respective offense. With Reaper down 7-8, Nate caught the disc a little more than halfway up the field and launched a GORGEOUS 30-40 yard invert flick to a streaking cutter (I think it was Rolando) to send the game to universe point. I remember we forced at least 1 turn and had a huck to the endzone that didn’t pan out before Carleton did what they are known for, methodically working it up the breakside to the endzone via strong under cuts. They earned the win and advanced to the semi’s. This game was one of the most entertaining, ridiculous, funny, and awesome games I have ever watched.
5th/7th place game… we were up, then we were down, I got skied a lot. Our defense sucked and they burned us force side… over and over. 7-9 loss I think. Bummer.
It was awesome to get to watch you guys play so well. Honestly the team had many moments where I thought you guys looked better than we did last year in the fall. I think EVERY single player that wasn’t necessarily a starter last year showed a great deal of improvement and are really doing an awesome job keeping the team strong. At the same team look at the weaknesses in our team game, we have always liked to huck the disc but right now we seem to live or die on those deep shots which can be very dangerous come spring, our handles need to move the disc faster and our cutters need to work on flow and clearing out. You should know when and where to clear and when and where to cut, the less time you are standing still as a cutter the better. The fall is over now though and the spring is what counts. Everyone needs to understand and be on the same page with what the goals of the team are and what you are going to do to help the team fulfill that goal. Recognize what we were bad at and what we were good at and work on BOTH. Make individual goals to become a better player for yourself and your teammates. Think of what you need to work on this winter. Can you throw a continuation upwind? Do you get broken a lot? Do you need to move the disc faster, or look swing sooner if the disc is on the line? ETC ETC, be proud of how well you guys are playing and of the team you are on, it’s awesome seeing you guys continue the success we have had the last few years. Take conditioning seriously now because the harder you work and the harder you push yourself now shows come spring time. I don’t want to see us lose like we did at Regionals to Northwestern because our legs failed us. This team can be better than that team if you guys are willing to put in the effort now! Fear the Reaper.
#2
Eastern Illinois Ultimate Frisbee Club - Team Reaper
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Glory Days
Day 1
The week building up to glory days offered some terrible practice conditions. Wednesday was possibly the worst day of the year; 50 degrees, 30 mph winds, and freezing rain. Thursday was only slightly better, 55 degrees and 20 mph winds. Even though the weather was less than ideal we still had pretty decent numbers and looked to improve on what I believe was our best tournament showing ever, No Wisco. A few vets and myself spent a lot of time discussing some of our weaknesses from the previous weekend and we wanted to work on these for Glory Days. These weaknesses included getting the disc off the line with dump swings, cutter motion from the line, and improving defense. With Zach running practice on Wednesday and Mike on Thursday we believed we were set for another strong tournament.
Pool Play- We entered Saturday as the top seed in our pool of four. Our first game was against Xavier University, a team we had never played before or so I believe. In the beginning of the game we came out flat. Fortunately for us we had better depth and high end talent to quickly build a small lead and maintain it throughout to win 13-9. Our next opponent was Southern Indiana, a team we had seen and played tough at our home tournament only a year before. It became quickly obvious that we were a better team. We emphasized tight man defense while spreading around the disc and eventually winning 13-6. The last pool play game came against Hope College, another team we had played tough in previous games. With only 9 guys on their roster Hope looked exhausted early and we took full advantage of this going up and early. We continued the run and gun style offense and took the game 13-4 to win the pool. One more test, a crossover game, stood before us before reaching the championship bracket. In the crossover against Ohio Wesleyan we wanted to win and win big. We had talked about playing down to our opponent’s level in many different instances and wanted to execute our game plan for the full game. Taking half 7-1 and eventually winning 13-2 showed that we are capable of winning large while getting contributions from a ton of players.
While we went undefeated on day 1 everyone was well aware that we saw very little competition. Our scores showed almost complete domination but from an internal stand point our play was far from flawless. Cutters had double and sometimes even triple cuts. Cuts were set up weakly or not even set up at all. Handlers were content with the disc on the line and hucking on stall 7 or 8. On defense many in-cuts were uncontested. Marks were loose and constantly broken. While it is impossible to have perfection, against the competition we faced, near perfection could have been demonstrated. Games like these are when we can work on areas of the game which need work. We all know that we can huck the disc consistently and score against lower caliber teams. Instead, work on swinging the disc from sideline to sideline, setting up hard in cuts with good deep fakes, and being in an athletic stance on the mark. If we want to be a top tier team, games against lower level teams need to be times to sharpen up weaknesses in our game.
Day 2
After our day 1 success we were awarded a day 2 first round bye, our first ever. We were matched up against a very talented Indiana team. Reaper came out with some fire and went up 3-1. Unforunately this is where the flame seemed to die down. Our sidelines started lacking, as well as our fundamentals such as holding a force and denying unders. Indiana went on a 7-2 run that thoroughly demoralized our team and was quite a reality check. It was gut check time. We fought hard the rest of the game with our sidelines being active, most of the time. The difference of points was too much to overcome though and Indiana beat us 13-10 as hard cap came on. Following a tough defeat that eliminated us from a chance at 1st place we knew it was still no time to check out and be lackadaisical: 5th place sounded better than 8th. The game ahead of us was against Purdue X, who we knew should be a solid team from past experiences. We came out with some fire, presumably from our loss to Indiana and jumped out to a 5-0 lead and continued to annihilate them 15-6. The 5th place game was against St. Louis University. They had wanted to play a shortened game because of their upcoming travel home and so a game to 9 was agreed upon. We had very loose lines and everyone had plenty of playing time. This was a good game to see what our younger guys were capable of and allow them to build: and build they did. Josh Kluessendorf, a 2nd year player, threw a flick for a touchdown and showed his defensive ferocity with his mark. Nick Allen, a rookie, also showed some good work by catching two scores and hustling everywhere on the field.
All in all, Reaper Ultimate went 6-1 and took 5th place out of 48. We had some flashes of brilliance and of folly. Fundamentals such as holding a force and shutting down unders definitely need improvement. Handler motion is another thing that showed improvement from weeks past but can always get better. Most importantly, playing within ourselves as well as never letting down on fundamentals will make us a force to be reckoned with not just by teams equal to us, but teams that are more highly touted. We have the talent to be a team who can play deep into day 2 of tournaments and make some noise. It all will come down to the work we put into this winter. We have a long winter ahead of us. It will be up to us what kind of team we want to be. What are you good at? What can you improve upon? How are you going to be able to contribute to our spring season? Put your game underneath a microscope, don’t be content.
Mike & Steve
The week building up to glory days offered some terrible practice conditions. Wednesday was possibly the worst day of the year; 50 degrees, 30 mph winds, and freezing rain. Thursday was only slightly better, 55 degrees and 20 mph winds. Even though the weather was less than ideal we still had pretty decent numbers and looked to improve on what I believe was our best tournament showing ever, No Wisco. A few vets and myself spent a lot of time discussing some of our weaknesses from the previous weekend and we wanted to work on these for Glory Days. These weaknesses included getting the disc off the line with dump swings, cutter motion from the line, and improving defense. With Zach running practice on Wednesday and Mike on Thursday we believed we were set for another strong tournament.
Pool Play- We entered Saturday as the top seed in our pool of four. Our first game was against Xavier University, a team we had never played before or so I believe. In the beginning of the game we came out flat. Fortunately for us we had better depth and high end talent to quickly build a small lead and maintain it throughout to win 13-9. Our next opponent was Southern Indiana, a team we had seen and played tough at our home tournament only a year before. It became quickly obvious that we were a better team. We emphasized tight man defense while spreading around the disc and eventually winning 13-6. The last pool play game came against Hope College, another team we had played tough in previous games. With only 9 guys on their roster Hope looked exhausted early and we took full advantage of this going up and early. We continued the run and gun style offense and took the game 13-4 to win the pool. One more test, a crossover game, stood before us before reaching the championship bracket. In the crossover against Ohio Wesleyan we wanted to win and win big. We had talked about playing down to our opponent’s level in many different instances and wanted to execute our game plan for the full game. Taking half 7-1 and eventually winning 13-2 showed that we are capable of winning large while getting contributions from a ton of players.
While we went undefeated on day 1 everyone was well aware that we saw very little competition. Our scores showed almost complete domination but from an internal stand point our play was far from flawless. Cutters had double and sometimes even triple cuts. Cuts were set up weakly or not even set up at all. Handlers were content with the disc on the line and hucking on stall 7 or 8. On defense many in-cuts were uncontested. Marks were loose and constantly broken. While it is impossible to have perfection, against the competition we faced, near perfection could have been demonstrated. Games like these are when we can work on areas of the game which need work. We all know that we can huck the disc consistently and score against lower caliber teams. Instead, work on swinging the disc from sideline to sideline, setting up hard in cuts with good deep fakes, and being in an athletic stance on the mark. If we want to be a top tier team, games against lower level teams need to be times to sharpen up weaknesses in our game.
Day 2
After our day 1 success we were awarded a day 2 first round bye, our first ever. We were matched up against a very talented Indiana team. Reaper came out with some fire and went up 3-1. Unforunately this is where the flame seemed to die down. Our sidelines started lacking, as well as our fundamentals such as holding a force and denying unders. Indiana went on a 7-2 run that thoroughly demoralized our team and was quite a reality check. It was gut check time. We fought hard the rest of the game with our sidelines being active, most of the time. The difference of points was too much to overcome though and Indiana beat us 13-10 as hard cap came on. Following a tough defeat that eliminated us from a chance at 1st place we knew it was still no time to check out and be lackadaisical: 5th place sounded better than 8th. The game ahead of us was against Purdue X, who we knew should be a solid team from past experiences. We came out with some fire, presumably from our loss to Indiana and jumped out to a 5-0 lead and continued to annihilate them 15-6. The 5th place game was against St. Louis University. They had wanted to play a shortened game because of their upcoming travel home and so a game to 9 was agreed upon. We had very loose lines and everyone had plenty of playing time. This was a good game to see what our younger guys were capable of and allow them to build: and build they did. Josh Kluessendorf, a 2nd year player, threw a flick for a touchdown and showed his defensive ferocity with his mark. Nick Allen, a rookie, also showed some good work by catching two scores and hustling everywhere on the field.
All in all, Reaper Ultimate went 6-1 and took 5th place out of 48. We had some flashes of brilliance and of folly. Fundamentals such as holding a force and shutting down unders definitely need improvement. Handler motion is another thing that showed improvement from weeks past but can always get better. Most importantly, playing within ourselves as well as never letting down on fundamentals will make us a force to be reckoned with not just by teams equal to us, but teams that are more highly touted. We have the talent to be a team who can play deep into day 2 of tournaments and make some noise. It all will come down to the work we put into this winter. We have a long winter ahead of us. It will be up to us what kind of team we want to be. What are you good at? What can you improve upon? How are you going to be able to contribute to our spring season? Put your game underneath a microscope, don’t be content.
Mike & Steve
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Ohh Ahh
Hey Reaper,
I wanted to brush the dust off the blog and get a post up before summer is over. I really hope someone takes over the blog and updates it with new info/tournament recaps/funny banter etc. Being that I am now officially an alum I know I will be itching to hear about how Reaper is doing on and off the field.
This post is aimed at the team next year. A lot of great players are now gone and Reaper will need to figure out an identity for this upcoming season. You guys still have a ton of talent and potential, expectations should be high. Recruiting is going to be HUGE boys. Tim and HR did a fantastic job last year, but realize that I won't be there to put up flyers, Tim isn't going to be around campus chasing people down and telling them to come to practice. If you are a returner you need to do your part to help get word out about the team and recruit! Having 40-50 guys at the first couple practices last year was amazing.
Don't hesitate to try new things next year. Build an identity, I can't stress this enough. Think about what worked last year and what didn't. Build around what we have. Understand the fall is focused on rookies and making them better. The winter is about getting in shape and building off what we did in the fall, the spring is about the series and achieving whatever goals the team is aiming for.
The team can't depend entirely on just the captains to run practice and recruit. Returners who want to step into larger roles this year need to step up come pantherpalooza and practice. Zach, Josh, HR, Alex, Kyle, Brian and OC just to name a few... you guys are going to be key to getting the team started, to helping at practice, to stepping up if we are going to be a great team next year. I don't know what mike plans to do captain-wise but that's for you guys to figure out as a team when you get back. Other guys like Joe, Brock, Hinze and Chris etc.. who had a lot of work schedule conflicts last year I know have the potential to take on larger roles with the team if they can find the time.
The core of the team /// the returners that want it... set the tone for next year early! Come to practice on time, work hard, help the captains, help not only get the new guys there but take initiative in helping them grasp the game. Think about what helped you get better when you were first starting out and apply that.
I helped coach at a summer camp for ultimate this summer and it was really rewarding seeing younger High School players learn the game and improve so much over a short 2 week span. The first few weeks of practice are going to be huge in setting the tone for the year and for teaching the fundamentals to new guys.
We are a competitive team but never forget why we play this game... to have fun! Winning is a bonus of working hard at practice and striving to get better. Looking back at college and the amount of time and effort I put into the team I have no regrets, I only wish I could have done more. I look at the friends I made, the people I met, the hours of practice and drilling, the weekend tournaments, and the potential of this team and I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of this team.
Oh and everyone heckle HR to put up some more sweet HL videos.
-James
I wanted to brush the dust off the blog and get a post up before summer is over. I really hope someone takes over the blog and updates it with new info/tournament recaps/funny banter etc. Being that I am now officially an alum I know I will be itching to hear about how Reaper is doing on and off the field.
This post is aimed at the team next year. A lot of great players are now gone and Reaper will need to figure out an identity for this upcoming season. You guys still have a ton of talent and potential, expectations should be high. Recruiting is going to be HUGE boys. Tim and HR did a fantastic job last year, but realize that I won't be there to put up flyers, Tim isn't going to be around campus chasing people down and telling them to come to practice. If you are a returner you need to do your part to help get word out about the team and recruit! Having 40-50 guys at the first couple practices last year was amazing.
Don't hesitate to try new things next year. Build an identity, I can't stress this enough. Think about what worked last year and what didn't. Build around what we have. Understand the fall is focused on rookies and making them better. The winter is about getting in shape and building off what we did in the fall, the spring is about the series and achieving whatever goals the team is aiming for.
The team can't depend entirely on just the captains to run practice and recruit. Returners who want to step into larger roles this year need to step up come pantherpalooza and practice. Zach, Josh, HR, Alex, Kyle, Brian and OC just to name a few... you guys are going to be key to getting the team started, to helping at practice, to stepping up if we are going to be a great team next year. I don't know what mike plans to do captain-wise but that's for you guys to figure out as a team when you get back. Other guys like Joe, Brock, Hinze and Chris etc.. who had a lot of work schedule conflicts last year I know have the potential to take on larger roles with the team if they can find the time.
The core of the team /// the returners that want it... set the tone for next year early! Come to practice on time, work hard, help the captains, help not only get the new guys there but take initiative in helping them grasp the game. Think about what helped you get better when you were first starting out and apply that.
I helped coach at a summer camp for ultimate this summer and it was really rewarding seeing younger High School players learn the game and improve so much over a short 2 week span. The first few weeks of practice are going to be huge in setting the tone for the year and for teaching the fundamentals to new guys.
We are a competitive team but never forget why we play this game... to have fun! Winning is a bonus of working hard at practice and striving to get better. Looking back at college and the amount of time and effort I put into the team I have no regrets, I only wish I could have done more. I look at the friends I made, the people I met, the hours of practice and drilling, the weekend tournaments, and the potential of this team and I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of this team.
Oh and everyone heckle HR to put up some more sweet HL videos.
-James
Monday, April 18, 2011
Illinois Conference - Made the finals, 3rd place finish!
Well I am going to give my persepective of the weekend. Reaper went into this tournament with only having attended sectionals (conference) once in our history last year. We felt we were underrated and came in with a defensive underdog mentality.
Game 1 was against a semi-familar foe, western illinois. Unlike tournaments past reaper answered the call and showed why were able to take down last call. Our zone made everything hard on western and really caught them off guard in the 1st half. 7-2 half result in Reapers favor was huge. Unfortunately we came out flat in the 2nd half and western capatilzed making the game semi-close. Rookies improved the zone and let the starters rest a bit closing the game something around 13-9.
Bye Round (Best bye round I've ever had ;) )
Game 2 coming off a bye Reaper faced University of Illinois - Chicago. They were the bottom seed in our pool and at the tournament. With only 9-10 guys or so on their team they couldn't handle our zone and didnt have the throws to work it well in the wind. Rookies get a lot of pt, handlers do work, Reaper wins something like 13-4
Game 3 was against Northwestern. The weather worsenend... freezing cold rain and heavy 30-40 mph crosswind with heavy gusts made this the windiest game I have ever played! Northwestern won the toss and pressed that advantage early. Both teams struggled a lot with the wind and working it through zones. This game involved both sides punting the disc quite often. After a close first half reaper stepped it up the 2nd half. We weren't able to convert multiple upwind chances and made northwestern fight for every downwinder each time. Eventually we were able to punch 1 through upwind and we never looked back, winning something like 11-9.
Game 4 was post poned until day 2 where we faced a familar opponent and semi-rival in Loyola. See last years sectional write-up to learn the details of why we were looking forward to this game. We came out fired up and ready to roll. We elected to pull and start things off with our zone. Loyola right off the bat showed that our zone was going to be effective. We jumped to a 3-0 lead with multiple handblocks, layout D's, and dropped throws. Huge skies by michael schwenk, and a great cup consisting of tim, mike, zach, and nate caused chaos for darkwing. OC and the wings cleaned up any attempts to get it past the reaper zone with reaper taking half 7-2. Our chilly O limited it to smart deep shots, being able to work the under and have cutters passing to cutters really let us move the disc well and limit our turns against loyola. Highlights of the game include motherbird cleaning up everything in the air and generally being "unmarkable," Timmy losing his mind on every loyola call big or small, and myself actually laying out to score, Zach also did a great job on the mark coming up with multiple handblocks and forced errors. We rolled to a 13-4 victory beating the 1 seed in our pool. And going 4-0 in pool play.
Championship bracket game 1 was against Chicago. We lost at southerns to chicago with a much smaller squad but we still were in an underdog mindset going into this game. The effectiveness of our zone seemed to catch chicago off-guard just like the loyola game. I believe we went up 4-0 to start before Chicago got serious and answered back. Both teams went on 1-3 spree's every now and then which is to be expected from closely-matched teams. We would not be denied this heated game and were able to hold them off the whole game for the win. Eastern over Chicago in the semi's.
The finals put us against the highly favored Univeristy of Illinois. I remember it got to around 2-4 when things fell apart. We opened with our zone which had handled loyola and gave chicago plenty of problems... Illinos however shredded it. There simply wasn't enough wind to make the Illini handlers question any break throws or support our cup. We switched to man and Illinois's flow continued to roll to an 8-2 half in their favor. After talking to mike, steve, and some of the other guys we decided we were not going to let up. This was a game we needed to learn from, especially the starters on the team. After a solid half-time talk the theme of which was, "Earn your playing time, step up the intensity or someone else is going to take your place!" Starters answered the call and we came out fired up scoring 4 straight in the second half. This half had an entirely different feel to it, Illinois still scored most of their O points but we forced more turns, more throws, and made them fight to win. While at the same time we were moving the disc better, and making better decisions. We ended up going 7-7 with IL in the second half, resulting in a 15-9 loss in the finals.
We had to play a backdoor game now aqainst Chicago. We were coming out of an exhausting were most of our starters subbed 1-3 points the entire game. Chicago came off a strong win aganst Northwestern, something like 15-6. We went with our O and D lines and the game started with both teams trading points until about 4-4, then from what I remember Chicago started to pull away. Lines unintentionally got a bit tighter and Chicago still maintained a 3-4 point lead. A lot of non-starters played very well this game. It was great to see our depth in action and see some guys really step up. Overall we made a run at the end and a huge handblock by chicago at 12-13 with us around 20 yards out of the endzone sealed the deal. They closed it out after some rather miraculous plays but the game was characterized by them simply having less tired legs and more depth. Chicago over Reaper. We finish rd.
Things to take away were that... tournaments this year for whatever reason had a lot of wind and rain. Players that will be around next year, learn from this and be aware of what skills you need to have to play in these conditions. If you can't throw an upfield throw because it's a 20mph headwind you need to practice. On the flip side, if you have the ability to throw far enough in the wind that will force teams to still respect a deep shot (even if it's 20-30 yards) you are doing something right. The best thing I can think to say from this tournament is don't be satisfied, always be seeking to improve, always be open to critque, put your team first and contribute. That mentality is what brought us success this weekend. This was our second appearance EVER at the college series and we made it to the finals in the FIRST ever Illinois Conference (usua restructuring). There was so much to be proud of this weekend and I hope that regardless of losing our last two games, we played very well and achieved multiple goals (Winning our pool, making the finals). Thank you so much to those that have supported us all season long, we had a lot of spectators this tournament and that was awesome. Between them and our rowdy sideline we were a voice to be heard this weekend.
Hopefully someone else will be willing to do a write-up for regionals. It's been a pleasure writing tournament recaps (even if only like 3 people have told me they actually READ this blog haha). I have at leat 1 blog post left that I hopefully will write soon.
Thanks again for reading.
~James Roush, #2
Game 1 was against a semi-familar foe, western illinois. Unlike tournaments past reaper answered the call and showed why were able to take down last call. Our zone made everything hard on western and really caught them off guard in the 1st half. 7-2 half result in Reapers favor was huge. Unfortunately we came out flat in the 2nd half and western capatilzed making the game semi-close. Rookies improved the zone and let the starters rest a bit closing the game something around 13-9.
Bye Round (Best bye round I've ever had ;) )
Game 2 coming off a bye Reaper faced University of Illinois - Chicago. They were the bottom seed in our pool and at the tournament. With only 9-10 guys or so on their team they couldn't handle our zone and didnt have the throws to work it well in the wind. Rookies get a lot of pt, handlers do work, Reaper wins something like 13-4
Game 3 was against Northwestern. The weather worsenend... freezing cold rain and heavy 30-40 mph crosswind with heavy gusts made this the windiest game I have ever played! Northwestern won the toss and pressed that advantage early. Both teams struggled a lot with the wind and working it through zones. This game involved both sides punting the disc quite often. After a close first half reaper stepped it up the 2nd half. We weren't able to convert multiple upwind chances and made northwestern fight for every downwinder each time. Eventually we were able to punch 1 through upwind and we never looked back, winning something like 11-9.
Game 4 was post poned until day 2 where we faced a familar opponent and semi-rival in Loyola. See last years sectional write-up to learn the details of why we were looking forward to this game. We came out fired up and ready to roll. We elected to pull and start things off with our zone. Loyola right off the bat showed that our zone was going to be effective. We jumped to a 3-0 lead with multiple handblocks, layout D's, and dropped throws. Huge skies by michael schwenk, and a great cup consisting of tim, mike, zach, and nate caused chaos for darkwing. OC and the wings cleaned up any attempts to get it past the reaper zone with reaper taking half 7-2. Our chilly O limited it to smart deep shots, being able to work the under and have cutters passing to cutters really let us move the disc well and limit our turns against loyola. Highlights of the game include motherbird cleaning up everything in the air and generally being "unmarkable," Timmy losing his mind on every loyola call big or small, and myself actually laying out to score, Zach also did a great job on the mark coming up with multiple handblocks and forced errors. We rolled to a 13-4 victory beating the 1 seed in our pool. And going 4-0 in pool play.
Championship bracket game 1 was against Chicago. We lost at southerns to chicago with a much smaller squad but we still were in an underdog mindset going into this game. The effectiveness of our zone seemed to catch chicago off-guard just like the loyola game. I believe we went up 4-0 to start before Chicago got serious and answered back. Both teams went on 1-3 spree's every now and then which is to be expected from closely-matched teams. We would not be denied this heated game and were able to hold them off the whole game for the win. Eastern over Chicago in the semi's.
The finals put us against the highly favored Univeristy of Illinois. I remember it got to around 2-4 when things fell apart. We opened with our zone which had handled loyola and gave chicago plenty of problems... Illinos however shredded it. There simply wasn't enough wind to make the Illini handlers question any break throws or support our cup. We switched to man and Illinois's flow continued to roll to an 8-2 half in their favor. After talking to mike, steve, and some of the other guys we decided we were not going to let up. This was a game we needed to learn from, especially the starters on the team. After a solid half-time talk the theme of which was, "Earn your playing time, step up the intensity or someone else is going to take your place!" Starters answered the call and we came out fired up scoring 4 straight in the second half. This half had an entirely different feel to it, Illinois still scored most of their O points but we forced more turns, more throws, and made them fight to win. While at the same time we were moving the disc better, and making better decisions. We ended up going 7-7 with IL in the second half, resulting in a 15-9 loss in the finals.
We had to play a backdoor game now aqainst Chicago. We were coming out of an exhausting were most of our starters subbed 1-3 points the entire game. Chicago came off a strong win aganst Northwestern, something like 15-6. We went with our O and D lines and the game started with both teams trading points until about 4-4, then from what I remember Chicago started to pull away. Lines unintentionally got a bit tighter and Chicago still maintained a 3-4 point lead. A lot of non-starters played very well this game. It was great to see our depth in action and see some guys really step up. Overall we made a run at the end and a huge handblock by chicago at 12-13 with us around 20 yards out of the endzone sealed the deal. They closed it out after some rather miraculous plays but the game was characterized by them simply having less tired legs and more depth. Chicago over Reaper. We finish rd.
Things to take away were that... tournaments this year for whatever reason had a lot of wind and rain. Players that will be around next year, learn from this and be aware of what skills you need to have to play in these conditions. If you can't throw an upfield throw because it's a 20mph headwind you need to practice. On the flip side, if you have the ability to throw far enough in the wind that will force teams to still respect a deep shot (even if it's 20-30 yards) you are doing something right. The best thing I can think to say from this tournament is don't be satisfied, always be seeking to improve, always be open to critque, put your team first and contribute. That mentality is what brought us success this weekend. This was our second appearance EVER at the college series and we made it to the finals in the FIRST ever Illinois Conference (usua restructuring). There was so much to be proud of this weekend and I hope that regardless of losing our last two games, we played very well and achieved multiple goals (Winning our pool, making the finals). Thank you so much to those that have supported us all season long, we had a lot of spectators this tournament and that was awesome. Between them and our rowdy sideline we were a voice to be heard this weekend.
Hopefully someone else will be willing to do a write-up for regionals. It's been a pleasure writing tournament recaps (even if only like 3 people have told me they actually READ this blog haha). I have at leat 1 blog post left that I hopefully will write soon.
Thanks again for reading.
~James Roush, #2
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Chicago Invite + Last Call + Conference Preview
1st Up - Chicago Invite
At least it didn't blizzard this time... That was the main highlight day 1, we started the day with a tight game against Missouri State. We beat them last year game 1 at Chicago Invite and upset them in our pool again this year. From what I remember we jumped out to a small league then let them creep back to within 1-2 points but we were able to hold them off until hardcap to get the win and start the day off right 1-0.
Next up we faced the top seed in our pool, Minnesota Duluth. We beat them soundly in the fall at No Wisco but this is the spring and they caught us off guard with an effective vert stack and a zone our handlers just couldn't figure out at all. Poppers did a fine job window shopping but we couldn't get continuations off our short passes and ended up turning it over far to many times on our half of the field. This game was never close. I think this was a wakeup call similar to the washington game at midwest throwdown. We have to be able to take a deep breath and work it through zones effectively, I think having a guy like nate there is key but I feel this game helped us work on this weakness and apply what we learned day 2, especially in the rose-hulman game were we did find success against a strong zone.
Our 2nd to last game of the day was against North Park. Last year at our first sectionals we pulled off a huge upset and beat the much higher seeded Lost Boys. This time would be different. Losing tim and missing some key starters really highlighted our rookies need to improve throws and be more confident in the wind. Starters also seemed to be forcing everything and depending way to much on the deep game. I know that personally I was a turn-over machine with my eyes on the endzone instead of looking for the open cut. North Park's poachy man D and effective use of switches to harass the in-cuts and mark the deep ball really hurt us. Handlers needed to take a deep breath and find the open throw. Cutters needed to organize double in cuts and double out cuts to counter the defenders switches. If you don't know what I am talking about here please talk to a captain and ask them about how to beat bookends.
Our cross-over was against St.Johns. We've never played them before but similar to the Duluth game we were never quite in this game. Rookies saw a lot more playing time this game from what I remember but overall as a team our intensity was down after a tough series of losses in our previous games. This has got to change, we have to be able to rise up a a team and get ourselves mentally in the game regardless of who we are playing, or how much we are down. I can't stress enough how important it is to have a sideline who is INVOLVED IN THE GAME, talk to your teammates, be encouraging, be positive, and BE LOUD!
After going 1-3 on the day we got lucky and made the championship bracket because of that win vs Missouri State. But with how we played saturday we new we had to pick it up Sunday if we hoped to save any face after saturday's dissapointing results.
Sunday game 1 was against Case Western Reserve. We crushed case with a small squad in the fall at Whitesmoke. This game started off with Reaper looking nothing like we did Saturday. Our defenders harassed everything and played with intensity, our handlers did a much better job against a 3-man cup. Losing Steve day 2 because of his sore hamstring was a bummer but at the same time I think it forced a few players to step up. Also I believe having Nate Kinsinger show up was definatly a huge help in the handles, he brought a chilly mindset to help anchor the handles and work the C.W.R cup with OC and myself. Mike did what mike does best and absolutely tore up the cup with very effective popping. The big difference sunday was that when our middle poppers caught the disc we actually were able to move the disc up through the middle after getting it past the cup. This was huge, as the outside wings finally figured out how to time their cuts to really gain yards on those break-aways. I know we had a decent lead at half and then something happened... we got complacent. Our defense started to slack, our intensity dropped after we got a decent league and Case punished us for it. They broke us upwind MULTIPLE times. Our looser D lines weren't able to stick to the basics, letting them work it up the break side, and get uncontested under cuts. Rookies and D line players got to be able to own up to this... you got to be in the mindset of hustling 100% when you do get in. After a well-placed timeout and a universe line getting the disc downwind we were able to close the game out after like 6 turnovers and multiple failed red-zone conversions. Scary game... but we pulled it out and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Next up was Rose-Hulman. Rose was seeded like 32nd or something ridiculously low, they beat duluth who crushed us the day before and were undefeated going into our game. We had plans to change that though, Rose through a very tricky clam-ish zone both downwind and up-wind (it had been upwind/downwind all day with winds being around 15-20mph upwind all day). I believe we scored first with some type of big huck from either myself or OC to mike who caught it outside the endzone and was able to convert to a streaking wing player. After that Rose answered multiple times and we went down 1-3 or 4. I don't know what happened at this point, maybe we called a time out, or maybe something just clicked with our starters but the handles and cutters simply figured out the zone and rose never made any type of switch. Cutters like mike, zach, and drew really figured out how to pop effectively and work it between each other to gain yards, the handlers in OC, James, and Nate were chilly and played less selfish with multiple dump swings and we took control of the game. Our defense and sideline seemed to wakeup. Mike and OC were definatly the MVP's of this game with OC throwing some incredible upwind hammers and strong flicks, Mike also was able to throw some great continuations from the middle and bring down some swilly backhands from #2 who couldn't help but try to throw some backhand hucks threw the rose zone. Hardcap blew directly after yours truly tossed a pull directly out of bounds securing the Reaper win and ending Hulmans cinderella story run.
Semi-finals vs Ball State was awesome for a few key reasons. First off, we started the game with DEFENSIVE INTENSITY. Our O was shaky but HUGE plays from OC and KYLE fired up us. Mike showed Ball State that the deep game was not going to work for them and they would have to figure out a different way to beat us. Zach punished them further with an easy callahan. We proved that we had the legs to contest them and that we could generate the D's but our offense was shaky at best, the huck was working early for us but once they adjusted our short game just wasnt strong enough. We have to able to punish teams on the under. Cutters you need to be confident making an upfield throw. Mistakes like drops and slowing down resulted in simply to many turns and opportunities for ball state. They exploited the errors we made and were able to pull away. This wasn't a bad game especially considering we were missing a few key starters. Kyle S in particular had a very notable game with a few huge skies and explosive lay-out D's, it was really great to see Kyle step up! At the same time I think this was a wakeup call to Kyle and few other guys like Hinze that getting those short step-out backhands and flicks upwind are going to be the key for them to even further improve! This was our last game at Chi Invite and honestly I think it showed that we can hang with any1. We beat ourselves with errors far more than Ball State forced turns.
2nd Up - Last Call
First off, I would love if a girl on the womens team would be willing to write a re-cap of how the girls did on the blog, you ladies did a great job this weekend vs high-caliber competition and broke seed! Please contact me if you are interested in doing a recap!!!
Waking up saturday morning I was quite worried. It was storming extremely hard, tons of thunder and lightning with heavy rain. Fortunatly I think our team did a really good job of organizing a later start time, and getting information out to the other teams about the post-poned tournament. It was hilarious and awesome to have Ball State B, Valpo Ladies,ISU Ladies, some of Chi Assorted, and some various Reaper guys and girls at the Reaper house in the morning waiting for the weather to let up. After around a 2hr or so delay we were able to get the games started and something miraculous happened... IT WAS BEAUTIFUL OUT!
Now sadly I was at tournament central for many of the games at our tournament, mostly sitting near all the stuff watching my watch, blowing the horn, filling in scores, and watching the games around me. I kept my eye on Reaper whenever I could and saw Chi Assorted crush everyone faster than some teams took half. From what I saw of Reaper though it looked like a lot of rookies were getting some playing time and really showing progress compared to Chi Invite. I think it helped not having the weather be such a factor day. Josh K, Joey, Kyle, Lovie, and Nick all had some solid scores and teamwork in some of our bigger wins which was awesome to see from the pavillion. It was also great to hear some of our veterans talk a lot more on the sidelines and show the rookies how important it is to be that voice and help those on the field. I think Mike, High Release, Classic Steve, Drew Traver and Josh Hardie in particular really stood out to me as making a serious effort to talk to guys on the field and be that support.
I came in to play for the Chicago Assorted game which I think both teams were very excited for and was going to be the first real test of the day for both our teams. From what I remember O line started off with a few turns, some forced, some not but converted giving us the 1-0 lead. D line then just couldn't get the job done the rest of the game. The experienced players on Chicago Assorted were able to find a solid rythm and connect on a lot of deep shots and break throws. Chicago Assorted worked mismatches and ran us into the ground, D line needs to be able to step up our game and not get caught letting our guy get away with a free deep cut. Also fundamental things like stopping the strike cut, and being more active on the mark (moving our feet, keeping hands low, adjusting for handler swings etc) simply wasn't happening. We got out-hustled to the force side and our offense off turns was a joke. Mike Hinze, Alex Castillo, and Myself really weren't able to generate anything effective. I know personally I threw some dumb swilly hucks when I should have been more trusting in my other handlers and thrown some more swings. Dan Rolando had some great plays and really stood out this game, O line still needed to improve on working vs zone and poppers working it to wings vs zone D. Chicago Assorted over Reaper by a wide margin. On a different note it was great to see some alums playing. Evan M and Dan N both played really well this game and repped the growing alum group well. Gerlerlerler anoter cherished alum also was there and playing with a different team, I am sure he scored a point or two on the weekend :) haha.
Our final game of the day was against another pick up team called Mixed Reaction. In all of our games saturday the goal was to spread playing time out especially to a lot of those D line guys who have been coming to practice and working hard. I don't know if it was the loss to Chi Ass or what but D line continued our dry spell into this game as well. Mixed Reaction jumped to an early lead showing us that they loved to huck it early and often to a bunch of athletic and fast cutters. O line let up a few breaks and D line's drought and inability to score any breaks was incredibly frustrating. We were down around 3 points at half and after a short meeting with Mike and Steve the captains made the decision that if they got to 10 points in the second half and D line wasn't looking any better we would throw our universe line in and try to make a run. Well that's exactly what happened, we were down 3 or 4 when they reached 10 points in a game to 13 and we had 10 minutes until hardcap. I remember yelling, "Starters, now is the time to show why you've earned a spot on the universe line!" Every guy on that line not only comes to practice often but works there butt off when they do! Mixed Reaction was caught off guard as they no longer had any mismatches to huck to and when they were forced to look to swing the disc they found resets being contested and cuts they had relied on earlier in the day disappearing. Hucks were contested and D'd, marks stepped it up and we were able to convert quickly on turnovers. After scoring 2 quick ones in a row our sideline seemed to wake up and get involved which only fueled the fire. Mixed Reaction stepped it up but it wouldn't be enough, our hustle and smothering D overhelmed them and we would pull off a very impressive 4-5 point comeback in 10 mins to win on universe point. Highlights include Zach scoring around 3 points in the comeback and coming up with a few awesome D's. Mike also had an incredible sliding footblock D to stop a huck(which I think was on universe point!). Reaper steals the game and goes 3-1 day 1. Things to take away from this game and Chi Ass as well are that as a team we need to be able to rise up and play our potential. If we are losing or something bad happens pick each other up, get loud, get positive. Those that were not on the universe line need to think about why we had that success and how we made that comeback. Once we picked up our fundamental on defense, stopped the strike cuts, had good marks, and didn't give them any free in-cuts or deep-shots. Even if they caught they disc whoever was on D either lay-ed out and came up short or was 1 step behind and immediatly pressured the guy that caught it. Working our ass off on D lead to easy points, they turned it over at least 2-3 times within 20 yards of the endzone. Learn something from this game.
Day 2 of Last Call proved to be excellent practice for what sectionals may turn out to be... WINDY with lots of ZONE practice. From what I saw on the stat sheet we handled game 1 without a problem and everyone got some playing time and put in work. Guys that aren't consistant starters, you need to be in the mindset of working hard and improving everytime you step on the field. Show what you've learned at practce and make the points you do get in count. Your time will come and I know sometimes its frustrating not playing as much as you want because we have a 20+ person team but honestly that depth to our roster is SO IMPORTANT. Ask any of the vets who played 2-3 years ago what it was like to go to tournaments with 8-12 guys... it's exhausting and we can't/couldn't have the success we are aiming to have/have had so far this year without you guys. Your time will come, cherish your seniors while you have them as the year is almost up try to learn something from us before we are gone... I will go into this more later so I'll get back to the action now :).
Game 2 was against Northern IL and I was actually part of this game thanks to Karlson "tagging me in" from my lonely spot in HQ where I spent game 1 chasing down all the stuff that was blowing away at HQ. It was great to hear from Steve that we were in the driver seat this game with around a 6-2 lead. In particular Captain Karlson mentioned that Andrew Peterson was having a very solid game with some assists and scores. I must note that Chris D also brought 1 case of stolen Rockstar energy drink from his roommate, since the tournament was technically "sponsored" by Roskstar who his roommate has connections to but ended up bailing on us :(.
Back to the action though! I was very proud when I joined the team at the Northern game. I saw what Steve was talking about and saw many rookies playing great regardless of the steady 20mph up-wind vs down-wind play. Honestly my favorite part of tournaments is seeing our team have fun, seeing our rookies show off what they have learned, and seeing our TEAMWORK leading us to have success on the field. I am so proud to see guys like Barbarian, Andrew, Dele, Lovie, Hinze, Josh K, Brian etc make some great plays out there against a solid team like the 5th seeded Northern team. Mike Hinze also had his moments but inconsistancy in his decision making and execution continues to haunt him, it's crunch time this week and I am confident mike is going to step it up at practice and not only be a solid presence at conference and regionals this year but play a major role in the success of Reaper next year. Vets like Braydon, Hardie, Brock, Chris D, Nick, BEARMAN and Alex really took charge and stepped up, ESPECIALLY when we were going upwind. Yes we anchored those lines a lot with solid handlers like OC, Nate, Mike but we didn't really stack any of those lines and at no point did we have anything close to our universe line out there yet you vets were able to show Northern that we weren't going to let them in this game. Braydon, Brian, and Kyle especially stood out to me on defense, I recall some really great defensive bids by Chris D and Braydon. Nick and Alex moved the disc well all weekend from what I remember, they didn't stand out with flashy risky throws they often settled for the safer and smart stuff instead! Brock also impressed me this game, when he got the disc as a cutter he was always quick to hit the contuation and FOLLOW his throw, often beating his defender and catching the disc with momentum. Great game Reaper, our depth handled these first two games.
In the semi-finals we got to face Rose-Hulman, who we edged out at Chicago Invite. We knew that this game was going to be on a different level than our first two games of the day. After a turn-over heavy first point from our O-line that still ended with us converting our D line with the support of Nate/OC/Karlson/Timmy switching off on handles upwind we were able to really get some great movement upwind and convert. I think we jumped out to a bit of a lead early, like 3-1 and were able to avoid wearing our top guys out. Some guys that don't get a ton of points really stepped up and AS A TEAM, our zone D looked great, downwind we played man and zone on and off depending on the line and had success. Poppers upwind played with confident and minimized errors which was huge, guys like Traver, Zach and the Mike - Timmy combo absolutely SHREDDED the Rose Hulman zone. Chris aka "OC" aka "THOR" came up with multiple poster-worthy skies, and as the day progessed Chris's play did nothing but become smarter, as he is finally starting to get away from old habits, and is showing that he is catching on to the importantance of swings and trusting his fellow teammates and handlers. Chris's upwind throws were huge weapons for the Reaper offense. Our handlers in general in OC, Nate, Karlson really got a fantastic flow going. Downwind we opened up the lines a bit more and Rose responded with a few breaks but it was to late, Reaper advances to the finals.
The finals were against Chicago Assorted who beat us soundly the day before. It should be noted that quite a few guys on Chicago Assorted smugly reminded me at the tournament party about how they upset us on Saturday so this was a great chance to show off that sunday is a different day and that we weren't going to let someone beat us again on our home turf so easily. I don't know if we broke them or scored an O point first but whatever happened we scored and didn't look back. Chi Ass's handlers had all kinds of problems with our zone and wings/monster did an excellent job limiting them when they did get it through the cup and containing them or forcing poor throws. Our sideline did a great job early but got a little quite when when we started to pull away. Josh Hardie, Drew Traver, Motherbird, and Myself were consistantly talking on the sideline and really being that 8th man on the field, ESPECIALLY when we are playing zone up and down the field like we were this game we need the sideline on both sides of the field MOVING UP AND DOWN TALKING to the wings... to the monster... to the cup etc! I'd say basially everyone that got in this game contributed made a huge play at 1 point or another. I think we layed-out more in this game then we did in all of our previous games of the day combined. Tim, Will B, Mike, High Release, and OC all had sweet layouts and hit the dirt at some point with athletic bids/layouts. Shortly after cap blew signaling our victory Mike caught a great Callahan thrown right to him after our zone forced a high-count pass.
Last Call Recap and Thoughts Going into Conference
I think it was great to win Last Call, it was awesome seeing guys step up and results from practice show on the field. I was very proud to be able to say that I play for Eastern Illinois and get to wear our jersey. I know some guys wish they played more and if we had 10 more guys we would be able to have a B team but the fact is that we don't. Attending to practice and working hard, especially on defense is what we as captains try to go off when we call lines. Showing intensity on the sidelines and not sulking or daydreaming is also going to show us that you care about the team and make us notice you while at the same time helping your teammates on the field. This weekend I want everyone to make an effort to step it up on the sideline and keep our energy up. When we score, especially if it's impressive (haha) I want the sideline to MAKE SOME NOISE! Get on the field and give your teammates a pat on the back, slap hands, chest bump... ANYTHING! Think about NBA games... when a player is shooting free throws after the shot they almost always slap hands with there teammates, regardless if they make or miss the shot! Be in that mindset, I hope to have 20+ guys again at Conference and Regionals (mark your calenders if you haven't already... April 30th-May 1st in Rockford for Regionals). I can't stress it enough that even if you play 1-3 points a game you've got to give it your all when you step onto that field, some of you that feel you deserve more playing time consider your role on the team in a bigger picture. What will you be playing next year? Considering that we are graduating Tim Leung, Steve Karlson, Will Bearman, Nate Kinsinger, Dan Rolando, and this poor Captain. Who is going to step up next year and fill our shoes on O line and D line? You might not playing 6-10 points at conference this year but what about next year? What are the weaknesses in your game that are preventing you from being a starter this year? Think about these things and realize that our goal this weekend in Rantoul and at regionals in Rockford is to have success on the field similar to when we were up by 3+ on Rose-Hulman, or as in control as we were against Northern.
Sectionals Link - http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/8551
Our first game this weekend is against Illinois... starters... veterans... reaper. This game and how we handle it will set the tone for the rest of the day. The series is upon us, and I ask you all to have an underdog mentality for EVERY SINGLE GAME THIS WEEKEEND! I am telling you now we are going to get down against some teams, we are going to have silly turnovers, teams are going to get a great D on us, but when we are down in the dirt; when we are down as a team and when we mess up on the field is the moment that is going to DEFINE us this weekend. Those moments are our opportunity to RISE UP and not get down on ourselves! We've trained to long and to hard to let a teams reputation beat us. I am going to make my mark fight for every damn throw, I am going to try to stay smart on offense and keep my eyes on the best cut... NOT THE ENDZONE! On defense I am going to put 100% effort into contesting every cut I can and never hold back on bidding if I think I have a shot at the disc! I'm going to pick up my teammates up when they make errors and remind them to stick to the basics without putting them down. I'm going to say it again, our goal this weekend is to win every game we play and to have fun doing it. With that in mind I will leave you with a question, "What are you going to contribute this weekend to our success?"
-James Roush #2
Monday, March 28, 2011
Georgia Southerns
Georgia Southerns was a very interesting tournament to say the least. Nate was able to get us a bid on Wednesday before the tournament, and we were barely able to pull together a team. With the help of a few last second pick ups, we somehow got 13 players to cancel their spring break plans and represent Reaper in the tournament. We left from Eastern on Friday afternoon and drove 14 straight hours to Statesboro, Georgia. It was 90 degrees and sunny all day, and the fields were the best fields I've ever played on. We got there just in time play our first game of the day against the #1 seed of the entire tournament.
Our first game was against Central Florida. We came in flat and quickly realized our place as Central Florida bent us over and made us their bitch. They had a very soild team and worked us up and down the field very effectively. We could blame our poor play on the lack of sleep, or the the lack of subs, but what it came down to was Central Florida came to play and we didn't. The game ended with Central Florida dominating us 13 to 5. I believe if we got another chance, we could compete with this team. Decision making was our biggest downfall as we chose to throw the disk up for grabs instead of working the unders. Against a good team like Central Florida, we cannot afford stupid turnovers, and we must captilize on our opportunities.
Our next game was against Emory. I don't remember anything about this game... Emory was a boring team... Apparently we tested out our zone on this team and it didn't work too well. James says Emory had an Asian handler that worked us pretty good but apparently not good enough. We ended up winning the game 12 to 8.
Next up was Chicago. Chicago is a conference rival and this was a game we needed to be ready for. Unfortunately, we didn't take Chicago seriously, and we came out flat against them. They were able to build an early lead and held us off for the rest of the game. This is a game we should have won. Again, decision making was a problem for us as we continued to throw the deep 50/50 instead of taking the safe unders. Decision making would continue to be our biggest problem throughout the tournament, and it is something we NEED to fix before playoffs arrive. Chicago wins 13 to 9.
The last game of the day was against George Mason. These guys were loud, obnoxious, and just flat out sucked at life. This team got beat 13-0 earlier in the day so we expected them to suck. And although they did suck, we allowed them to hang around through half time. At half time some guy from their team announced that they were gonna win this game... So we decided to start trying in the second half and finished the game on a 7 to 2 run. Final score was 13 to 8. Suck it George Mason!
Sunday, our first game was against New York. These guys were very beatable and honestly I still don't understand how we lost to them. Again, poor decision making hurt us throughout the game, and we gave up opportunity after opportunity. If we plan on having success later this season, we must have a bigger emphasis on valuing the disk. Turning over the disk is unacceptable! In the end, we ran out of time and the final score was 10 to 9.
Our second game on Sunday was against St. Olaf. These guys were super tall and overly athletic but in the end our good looks were too much for them. Our cup pretty much shut down their offense, and we were able to cruise to the finish line. Reaper wins 12-8.
The last game of the tournament, we played Wake Forest. James had trouble with some trees on the sideline. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but apparently he thought that if he threw the disk hard enough, the disk would just fly through the trees... James was wrong. For those of you keeping score, Trees beat James 3-0. Other than that, our cup was very effective again, and we cruised to a 10 to 7 victory.
Overall, this tournament was a very important learning opportunity for our team. I would say that, with the exception of MAYBE Central Florida, nobody beat us this tournament... We beat ourselves. We have a very talented team this season, but we lack the discipline to play as a team.
In every single game at this tournament, we dug ourselves into a hole and then attempted to climb out of it. We may have been able to recover against some teams, but against the better teams, we didn't stand a chance. I'm SICK of always having to recover from our mistakes. I'm TIRED of having to climb out of the fuckin craters we dig for ourselves. But most of all, I'm NOT SATISFIED because I know how talented we can be. Let's build on our success, and learn from our mistakes. We only got 3 more weeks til conference, its time to man up!
<3 Tim
Our first game was against Central Florida. We came in flat and quickly realized our place as Central Florida bent us over and made us their bitch. They had a very soild team and worked us up and down the field very effectively. We could blame our poor play on the lack of sleep, or the the lack of subs, but what it came down to was Central Florida came to play and we didn't. The game ended with Central Florida dominating us 13 to 5. I believe if we got another chance, we could compete with this team. Decision making was our biggest downfall as we chose to throw the disk up for grabs instead of working the unders. Against a good team like Central Florida, we cannot afford stupid turnovers, and we must captilize on our opportunities.
Our next game was against Emory. I don't remember anything about this game... Emory was a boring team... Apparently we tested out our zone on this team and it didn't work too well. James says Emory had an Asian handler that worked us pretty good but apparently not good enough. We ended up winning the game 12 to 8.
Next up was Chicago. Chicago is a conference rival and this was a game we needed to be ready for. Unfortunately, we didn't take Chicago seriously, and we came out flat against them. They were able to build an early lead and held us off for the rest of the game. This is a game we should have won. Again, decision making was a problem for us as we continued to throw the deep 50/50 instead of taking the safe unders. Decision making would continue to be our biggest problem throughout the tournament, and it is something we NEED to fix before playoffs arrive. Chicago wins 13 to 9.
The last game of the day was against George Mason. These guys were loud, obnoxious, and just flat out sucked at life. This team got beat 13-0 earlier in the day so we expected them to suck. And although they did suck, we allowed them to hang around through half time. At half time some guy from their team announced that they were gonna win this game... So we decided to start trying in the second half and finished the game on a 7 to 2 run. Final score was 13 to 8. Suck it George Mason!
Sunday, our first game was against New York. These guys were very beatable and honestly I still don't understand how we lost to them. Again, poor decision making hurt us throughout the game, and we gave up opportunity after opportunity. If we plan on having success later this season, we must have a bigger emphasis on valuing the disk. Turning over the disk is unacceptable! In the end, we ran out of time and the final score was 10 to 9.
Our second game on Sunday was against St. Olaf. These guys were super tall and overly athletic but in the end our good looks were too much for them. Our cup pretty much shut down their offense, and we were able to cruise to the finish line. Reaper wins 12-8.
The last game of the tournament, we played Wake Forest. James had trouble with some trees on the sideline. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but apparently he thought that if he threw the disk hard enough, the disk would just fly through the trees... James was wrong. For those of you keeping score, Trees beat James 3-0. Other than that, our cup was very effective again, and we cruised to a 10 to 7 victory.
Overall, this tournament was a very important learning opportunity for our team. I would say that, with the exception of MAYBE Central Florida, nobody beat us this tournament... We beat ourselves. We have a very talented team this season, but we lack the discipline to play as a team.
In every single game at this tournament, we dug ourselves into a hole and then attempted to climb out of it. We may have been able to recover against some teams, but against the better teams, we didn't stand a chance. I'm SICK of always having to recover from our mistakes. I'm TIRED of having to climb out of the fuckin craters we dig for ourselves. But most of all, I'm NOT SATISFIED because I know how talented we can be. Let's build on our success, and learn from our mistakes. We only got 3 more weeks til conference, its time to man up!
<3 Tim
Monday, March 14, 2011
Spring Break
Congrats Reaper on a good showing at Midwest Throwdown. Seeded 11th and finished 4th with a strong comeback against Purdue and a heated game vs Harding. Hopefully High Release and Dele will be able to make a sweet high light vid of the tournament soon! Losing in the Semi's to a very talented Wash U team should be an eye opener. Starters in particular, take away something from this loss and aim to improve on it. Decision making and endurance is something every single starter on this team can improve on.
Iowa State was also an eye-opener. Rookies, overall you played very well on the weekend, our success this year is going to depend on your improvement! D line in particular needs to improve their throws, fundamentals were a major problem for our young D line. Head on a swivel, watch your man but you must also be aware of where the disc is and your positioning so as to contest a pass. Offensively you MUST be comfortable making an upfield continuation pass. We have just two tournaments left before Conference so come to practice but more importantly come and WORK hard!
When we come back and get into the swing of things before Chicago Invite expect to play outside, regardless of how cold or windy it might be. Indoor practices can only help us so much, we need to get out and grind on the field. Make the two hours you set aside for each practice count, that means play like it's a tournament! Challenge your teammates to work harder and improve on the field... BE TENACIOUS ON DEFENSE, COOL MINDED ON OFFENSE!
Lastly... I just wanted to make a quick list of memorable moments/highlights from Midwest Throwdown.
-Joe almost getting a Callahan, immediately followed by Joe getting the most action of his life by a western player.
-Paul getting a D vs Missouri State B in the endzone (13-0 victory kept intact).
-The whole team not freezing to death and playing in that mudpit of a field ALL DAY.
-OC for earning another nickname "Iso... THOR!" in the Purdue game.
-Hinze for getting the best picture of the weekend, then dropping the pass haha.
-Dele for getting a huge 2-handed layout D against Purdue
-Mike destroying a Harding player with possibily the greatest D I have ever seen.
-Classic Steve and Myself for giving Washington probably the best Callahan of their season.
-Zach's breakmark scoober off an endzone play vs Iowa State
Get outside and throw. Have a safe and fun break everyone!
-#2
Some random ultimate videos to keep you interested : )
http://www.vimeo.com/7113554 - NP
http://www.vimeo.com/988257 - NP, my fav HL vid
http://www.vimeo.com/7745563 - ridic highlight vid of the club team Rhino
http://www.vimeo.com/15830371 - short tutorial on throwing
http://www.vimeo.com/14393997 - Iowa college natties 2010
Iowa State was also an eye-opener. Rookies, overall you played very well on the weekend, our success this year is going to depend on your improvement! D line in particular needs to improve their throws, fundamentals were a major problem for our young D line. Head on a swivel, watch your man but you must also be aware of where the disc is and your positioning so as to contest a pass. Offensively you MUST be comfortable making an upfield continuation pass. We have just two tournaments left before Conference so come to practice but more importantly come and WORK hard!
When we come back and get into the swing of things before Chicago Invite expect to play outside, regardless of how cold or windy it might be. Indoor practices can only help us so much, we need to get out and grind on the field. Make the two hours you set aside for each practice count, that means play like it's a tournament! Challenge your teammates to work harder and improve on the field... BE TENACIOUS ON DEFENSE, COOL MINDED ON OFFENSE!
Lastly... I just wanted to make a quick list of memorable moments/highlights from Midwest Throwdown.
-Joe almost getting a Callahan, immediately followed by Joe getting the most action of his life by a western player.
-Paul getting a D vs Missouri State B in the endzone (13-0 victory kept intact).
-The whole team not freezing to death and playing in that mudpit of a field ALL DAY.
-OC for earning another nickname "Iso... THOR!" in the Purdue game.
-Hinze for getting the best picture of the weekend, then dropping the pass haha.
-Dele for getting a huge 2-handed layout D against Purdue
-Mike destroying a Harding player with possibily the greatest D I have ever seen.
-Classic Steve and Myself for giving Washington probably the best Callahan of their season.
-Zach's breakmark scoober off an endzone play vs Iowa State
Get outside and throw. Have a safe and fun break everyone!
-#2
Some random ultimate videos to keep you interested : )
http://www.vimeo.com/7113554 - NP
http://www.vimeo.com/988257 - NP, my fav HL vid
http://www.vimeo.com/7745563 - ridic highlight vid of the club team Rhino
http://www.vimeo.com/15830371 - short tutorial on throwing
http://www.vimeo.com/14393997 - Iowa college natties 2010
Sunday, February 13, 2011
February Update
February is probably the most annoying, stressful, aggravating and yet important month of the year for Reaper. We have already had to cancel one practice that had nearly 30 people at at because of the track team. Eastern Illinois University does not let us reserve the fieldhouse. Any EIU sport has priority over us and can kick us out anytime. Clearly from a scheduling prospective this is a nightmare... but there is nothing we can do about it yet so we have to suck it up and make due with what we can control over this annoying yet extremely important month.
We start our spring tournament season the first week of march, this means that both individually and as a team february is VITAL to our success. I can't stress it enough that if we are to have any success come conference the work has to be put in right now! That means... individually we all need to get in better shape. RUNNING, LIFTING, PLYOS these need to be in your schedule. Tim, Mike, and Myself are all here to help you get in shape! It's much easier to workout with a buddy who can push you to both go and not be lazy when you do get to the gym. IF you have not gone to the rec or fieldhouse yet to lift or go to pylos then I can't stress it enough to AT THE VERY LEAST GO ONCE AND SEE WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!!! People ask me how to get better... being physically fit is vital to any sport. The next key thing is to come to practice and push yourself! I say push yourself because at this point coming is not enough. If you make a mistake and understand what you did wrong make an effort to improve. Everyone gets beat force side every now, or makes a dumb drop, or throws a stupid throw. All we can do is realize we made an error and then work extra hard to minimize it happening again. As always ask your captains if you have any questions about the game or if you have any specific questions for improvement! We are all on the same team and are here to have fun but push each other to get better!
So... please... pretty please... come to practice, grab a teammmate and go the rec or the fieldhouse or plyos! February is so so so important to our season, don't expect practice to be cancelled but in case it is have a back up plan to work out.
Lastly, ultimate is meant to be fun! Pushing each other in practice is because as a team we are competitive and have a goal... success in the college series. We will get our brand new uniforms soon and I am extremely excited to get to represent this team come tournament play. Work hard... have fun... and let's dominate come March!
~James
We start our spring tournament season the first week of march, this means that both individually and as a team february is VITAL to our success. I can't stress it enough that if we are to have any success come conference the work has to be put in right now! That means... individually we all need to get in better shape. RUNNING, LIFTING, PLYOS these need to be in your schedule. Tim, Mike, and Myself are all here to help you get in shape! It's much easier to workout with a buddy who can push you to both go and not be lazy when you do get to the gym. IF you have not gone to the rec or fieldhouse yet to lift or go to pylos then I can't stress it enough to AT THE VERY LEAST GO ONCE AND SEE WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!!! People ask me how to get better... being physically fit is vital to any sport. The next key thing is to come to practice and push yourself! I say push yourself because at this point coming is not enough. If you make a mistake and understand what you did wrong make an effort to improve. Everyone gets beat force side every now, or makes a dumb drop, or throws a stupid throw. All we can do is realize we made an error and then work extra hard to minimize it happening again. As always ask your captains if you have any questions about the game or if you have any specific questions for improvement! We are all on the same team and are here to have fun but push each other to get better!
So... please... pretty please... come to practice, grab a teammmate and go the rec or the fieldhouse or plyos! February is so so so important to our season, don't expect practice to be cancelled but in case it is have a back up plan to work out.
Lastly, ultimate is meant to be fun! Pushing each other in practice is because as a team we are competitive and have a goal... success in the college series. We will get our brand new uniforms soon and I am extremely excited to get to represent this team come tournament play. Work hard... have fun... and let's dominate come March!
~James
Thursday, February 3, 2011
We got Swagg
As I look at the program that James, Nate, Evan and a few others started, I am very proud to be part of it. We have to look at the program that has been created and realize just how well off we are. I've only been here for about a month but from what I can tell, the Eastern Illinois Ultimate Frisbee Club is the most successful sport club that we have at this school.
If you compare our team to other club sports here such as Rugby or Lacrosse, it is very evident that our sport is more developed than the others. We sometimes see these others sports practicing in the fieldhouse and from what I've seen, they don't got shit on us. We must take pride and know that our program is superior to the other club teams at our school. We are the top dogs of all the clubs and we need to have a sort of swagger about it.
When I was at Pantherpalooza last week, I tried recruiting some meathead who looked athletic. I told him that he should come out and play frisbee with us but as he was walking away he said that frisbee wasn't a sport and that only contact sports like rugby were real sports. It's fine that that particular guy felt that way, but its also fine that we rock the rugby team in terms of participants and talent. It's fine that we are much more organized and contain the necessary leadership to actually matter come playoff time. It's fine that rugby is a dying sport and we live in America where football trumps rugby 10 out of 10 times. Who the hell plays rugby anyways?? Only brain dead rejects of some high school football team I would imagine.
Lacrosse don't got shit on us either. I see them practicing and they only got 10 guys and 5 girls at every practice. We have double their amounts of guys and girls! When lacrosse practices in the fieldhouse, they only use up half the courts. When we come to practice, every move out cuz we takin up the whole dam building!
Haha but seriously we are still growing as a team every day. There are new players showing up each practice as well as the savy veterans that are the backbone to the team. Each year the team grows bigger and stronger. As some of the older guys leave, we need the new guys to step up and continue the tradition. Ultimate frisbee is the fastest growing sport in the nation and the sport alone will recruit the necessary players to fill a roster. I say we all work on our swag walk so that next time we enter the fieldhouse as a team, the other sports will know their place!
Love, Tim
If you compare our team to other club sports here such as Rugby or Lacrosse, it is very evident that our sport is more developed than the others. We sometimes see these others sports practicing in the fieldhouse and from what I've seen, they don't got shit on us. We must take pride and know that our program is superior to the other club teams at our school. We are the top dogs of all the clubs and we need to have a sort of swagger about it.
When I was at Pantherpalooza last week, I tried recruiting some meathead who looked athletic. I told him that he should come out and play frisbee with us but as he was walking away he said that frisbee wasn't a sport and that only contact sports like rugby were real sports. It's fine that that particular guy felt that way, but its also fine that we rock the rugby team in terms of participants and talent. It's fine that we are much more organized and contain the necessary leadership to actually matter come playoff time. It's fine that rugby is a dying sport and we live in America where football trumps rugby 10 out of 10 times. Who the hell plays rugby anyways?? Only brain dead rejects of some high school football team I would imagine.
Lacrosse don't got shit on us either. I see them practicing and they only got 10 guys and 5 girls at every practice. We have double their amounts of guys and girls! When lacrosse practices in the fieldhouse, they only use up half the courts. When we come to practice, every move out cuz we takin up the whole dam building!
Haha but seriously we are still growing as a team every day. There are new players showing up each practice as well as the savy veterans that are the backbone to the team. Each year the team grows bigger and stronger. As some of the older guys leave, we need the new guys to step up and continue the tradition. Ultimate frisbee is the fastest growing sport in the nation and the sport alone will recruit the necessary players to fill a roster. I say we all work on our swag walk so that next time we enter the fieldhouse as a team, the other sports will know their place!
Love, Tim
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Playing Time Must Be Earned
So me and James are working out on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday nights if anybody wants to join us. We will be lifting weights and getting jacked as hell. By the end of the season we'll have James lookin like Arnold Schwartzeneger. But we would love to have many of you other guys joining us. We will also be practicing our throws afterwards so come regionals we will have perfect throws.
March 5th we have our first tournament in Missouri. As tournament time draws near, we need to know who will be ready to step in and contribute. We need players who can come in, make the upfield pass/make the dump, make good decisions, and never turn the disk over. We need players that will come out, shut their guy down, stop the upfield strike and not get broken. If you are able to do these things consistently you will get playing time.
As we get closer and closer to playoffs, we will be calling tighter lines. Players must earn their playing time by busting their ass at practice. You must prove that you are worthy to step on the field and represent Reaper at tournaments. Who will step up and show that they derserve to play? I know at least three front runners right now.
After James and I worked out today, we go into the fieldhouse to do some throwing. To our surprise we see Manderson, Lovie, and Andrew throwin around and doing some extra conditioning. Everyone on the team should look at these three guys and take notes. It pumps me up SOOO much to see some of our rookies putting in the extra work to improve their game. Keep up the good work boys. I love you.
Love, Tim
March 5th we have our first tournament in Missouri. As tournament time draws near, we need to know who will be ready to step in and contribute. We need players who can come in, make the upfield pass/make the dump, make good decisions, and never turn the disk over. We need players that will come out, shut their guy down, stop the upfield strike and not get broken. If you are able to do these things consistently you will get playing time.
As we get closer and closer to playoffs, we will be calling tighter lines. Players must earn their playing time by busting their ass at practice. You must prove that you are worthy to step on the field and represent Reaper at tournaments. Who will step up and show that they derserve to play? I know at least three front runners right now.
After James and I worked out today, we go into the fieldhouse to do some throwing. To our surprise we see Manderson, Lovie, and Andrew throwin around and doing some extra conditioning. Everyone on the team should look at these three guys and take notes. It pumps me up SOOO much to see some of our rookies putting in the extra work to improve their game. Keep up the good work boys. I love you.
Love, Tim
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Natties Bitches!!!
Last practice we had like 28 people and I was very encouaged about that. Some of us were getting a little bit worried about the lack of commitment that we had on the team. I was talking to High Release Steve about our ambitions of making it nationals this year and he brought up some really good points. He told me that while we do have an awesome team, we don't deserve to make it to nationals. We have what it takes but some of the guys on our team don't want it enough. While teams like Florida or Iowa are able to get numbers everytime they have practice, we have to rely on the girls team to in order to get a scrimmage going. If this continues to be the case, we can kiss our nationals hopes goodbye. We'll settle for mediocrity and never know what could have been.
Hopefully people will start to realize that we have something special in the making and we need everyone at practice in order to make some progress. Every practice from now on will be a learning opportunity. There is so much that we still have to cover and very little time to do it. As of right now we are still having to go over the basics such as not getting beat force side, or not getting broken. And until the whole team understands this concept, we cannot move forward. Our team still has so much to go over such as our handler motion, defensive strategies, offensive strategies, and our sick nasty cup that we will be using. Every practice you miss from now on will not only set you back but also set the whole team back because we have to take time and reexplain everything.
Nationals is definitely not a given! It will take a full team effort to even contend at regionals and that is why it is so important that we work hard now so that four months from now, we will be in a position to achieve our goal. The top players on our team are some of the best players in the region and we need to realize our potential. Please make it out to practice!!!!!
<3 Tim Leung
Hopefully people will start to realize that we have something special in the making and we need everyone at practice in order to make some progress. Every practice from now on will be a learning opportunity. There is so much that we still have to cover and very little time to do it. As of right now we are still having to go over the basics such as not getting beat force side, or not getting broken. And until the whole team understands this concept, we cannot move forward. Our team still has so much to go over such as our handler motion, defensive strategies, offensive strategies, and our sick nasty cup that we will be using. Every practice you miss from now on will not only set you back but also set the whole team back because we have to take time and reexplain everything.
Nationals is definitely not a given! It will take a full team effort to even contend at regionals and that is why it is so important that we work hard now so that four months from now, we will be in a position to achieve our goal. The top players on our team are some of the best players in the region and we need to realize our potential. Please make it out to practice!!!!!
<3 Tim Leung
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