Reaper Nation,
Life gets busy sometimes but I always intended to write some kind of season ending recap/ramble and I have finally found some motivation to do it. First and foremost last season was a new experience for me (coaching) and while of course there are many things I am unsatisfied with or wish that I could go back and do differently - at the end of the day it was an honor to coach the 2013 team and so rewarding getting to see you guys ball and crush on and off the field.
Conference + Regionals Thoughts
I was really proud of how you guys played at Conference. I feel like every single person on the team made plays and contributed which is a great sign for next year. The only team in our conference that has consistently beaten us in the past 3 years has been Illinois, which is not something to be happy about but it doesn't hurt that they also have like 30,000 more people to draw talent from. We broke seed in the pool beating Chicago, SIU, and DePaul with some solid zone(s) play and contributions from everyone, our depth was huge in those games with many first year players leading the charge. ISU was playing the best ultimate I have seen from the Gnomes that weekend and they crushed us twice on the weekend along with a loss in the semi's to U of I. We won a really fun 3rd place game by I believe 1 point (a nasty layout catch by Nate P. on an errant throw) against Loyola a team that had upset us the weekend before at Last Call V, our home pre-conference tune up tournament.
Regionals however was a very different story from my perspective. First off I couldn't believe that a few guys, some of whom were newer or non-starters, but none-the-less guys that really impressed me at previous tournaments did NOT even attend. We weren't the only team with finals starting the next week - that was the norm and shouldn't be an excuse for anyone who has put in the work all season in hopes of kicking ass at this final tournament! Secondly, a lot of people gave me the impression that once we were out of contention for nationals they did not care anymore about the weekend and notably "checked out" mentally. It's fun to joke around about qualifying for Nationals and you should always aim high when setting goals but if you feel upset or lose focus/interest when you do not meet such an unrealistic goal you are setting both yourself and your team up for disappointment. It seemed like the team lost sight of the fact that our goal to start the season was to qualify for REGIONALS. We achieved that goal on the Saturday of conference after a great showing in pool play and after that bittersweet achievement we never seemed to really buy into the "let's finish in the top 8 at regionals" new goal as a team. I put that failure on myself and leaders of this team. I hope next years leadership learns from this and sets the tone all season long - not only making it clear about what we want to accomplish but leading by example and most importantly action!
The way I see it is - If you happen to be a starter and one of the better players on the team and we happen to lose some important games that we wanted to win on day 1, but we still have the opportunity to play some strong teams day 2. Regardless of how exhausted and tired you might be...You are still part of this team. Playing time was tight day 1 in most games, and at the very least you owe it to your friends/teammates who didn't play as much as you; but are most certainly going to be contributing now to support them as they supported you...because next year those guys that aren't graduating are going to help shape the team and contribute even more.
Moving on - Regionals still had plenty of great moments and a stellar revenge game against the Gnomes after a really weak opening game against Eastern Michigan. I believe Reaper took half 7-2 or something really close to that against ISU. Tons of people made some huge plays but more importantly as a team I remember us playing very well running some smooth smart offense and smothering/aggressive defense. Our different zones which ISU shredded at conference finally managed to disrupt flow and generate some great turns but what really shined this game was hard nosed simple man to man defense and owning the fundamentals. The next game was against a deceptively strong Illinois B who certainly gave us some fits all the way until the end but in the end it was the boys in black over the younger Illini. UChicago then beat us in the game to qualify for quarters with a very effective vert stack utilizing the break side really well against us. With almost no wind - our zones that had been very effective at conference were rendered much less potent and our legs couldn't keep up with UChicago. They would beat us by a solid margin and move on while we where knocked down to the 9th place bracket for Sunday. Then after some of our guys left we proceeded to lose all of our games on Sunday but it seemed like we at least had SOME fun and it was great to see everyone who made the trip getting some touches. I believe I only was able to stay for our first game against Wheaton - who had 1 tall guy that they kept throwing swill to that somehow kept getting caught, especially in high stall red-zone situations.. it was a tough loss but a decent game considering how "checked out" a lot of our players seemed.
The past is behind you guys. A new season means a clean slate and a chance to learn and build on last season. Ask yourselves, what worked last year and what didn't? What did you like most about practice and what did you think was least effective? - especially at the start of the year. The fall is here and that means the #1 focus has to be RECRUITING and having FUN. Losing games is worth it if it makes us a better team in the Spring. Put yourself in a prospective players shoes, most new guys have never played ultimate before or have only played unorganized pick up. If I am that new prospective player I don't want to sit around and have someone explain the rules and throw a bunch of new terms like, "stack/force/forehand/travel" etc in my face. I want to get out on the field and PLAY as much as possible with guys who are fun to play ultimate with and drink a few beers with after. If you are a returner, now more than ever is a great time to show up early and support the captains in making the first few practices run smoothly. There is a lot of new leadership this year and while I am sure they are going to do a kick-ass job and make this team even stronger - they won't be able to do it without strong returner support. Help them avoid having too much downtime during pick-up and the first few practices the more organized and fun these events are the more likely you'll get guys wanting to come back.
Obviously it's easy to sky rookies and work the rust off your huck-game but more importantly, get the new guys involved, challenge yourself to pass to new players who are open! This is why we have generally played a ton of 5v5 to start the past 2 years. 5v5 has a lot more opportunities for everyone on the team to touch the disc more often. Be encouraging and positive when new players mess up and make awful drops because it's going to happen. I highly suggest taking this time to work on your throws and handling especially if you were primarily a cutter last year. If you are a returner and you have the most turn overs on your team you better have some really really good rookies otherwise that is super embarrassing - food for thought.
A friend of mine brought up a great point that college teams tend to over-value new guys that can already throw decent flick/backhands when in reality the most valuable new guys are of course - athletes! Think about the Ben Fogle's of the world, these are the players that are going to dominate in the spring if they have fun and get hooked in the fall. Learning to throw will come with time, practice, and effort.
I hope you guys are excited to get back to school and all the shenanigans that entails. Get your calendars organized for tournaments, practice schedules and ragin! Maybe we will end up being able to organize some type of alum event in the fall so we can show you kids how it's done.
You guys have a ton of talent coming back and if this year's recruiting class is remotely close to last years this team will have an absurd amount of potential. Per usual now it is all about striving to meet that potential.
Fear the Reaper.
~James #2 alum
P.S - MY OPINION is still that you guys should be using email as your primary form of communication... I have said it before and will say it again we are the only team I have ever seen that uses Facebook to communicate almost everything... some people don't check or even use Facebook - far more people HAVE to check email. Consider making a google group or check out this program called TeamSnap!?!?
Also if only we had the lights to practice under... stupid 4pm class conflicts.
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