Tuesday, November 13, 2007

where da blogs

Where is everyone? I was hoping to see recaps from AJ, Idris, Hh, and have had to make do instead with summaries from the lesser divisions (Timmy, the 15/16 game). C'mon, men, sack up and let us know what happened. Are there other blogs out there from people who were at Nationals, even as spectators? Feel free to post links in the comments.

And where is that Masters video on ultitv? The other divisions had the misfortune of having their finals on a windier day and so didn't appear as aesthetically pleasing as they could have. Even allowing for that, though, the games didn't seem that crisp on video (I had a morning flight and so didn't go to the fields on Sunday). Lots of athletic plays from the men.

Teams today seem to rely more on the athleticism of the receiver as a catcher, while we used to rely on their athleticism as cutters. Sure, use it as a cushion, but it shouldn't be the deciding factor.

For spending all that time at the fields at Nationals, there seems precious little time to see folks. There are always several people I see only in passing one day and never again, even people in my division. Thank heavens for the beer tent or I might not see anyone.

The immediate post-season is always difficult, even in a year like this one where we won and we didn't have the all-consuming schedule. It takes several days for my body to get back to normal, and there are still some lingering sore spots.

I would really have liked to have played one more game with our team against one of the Open teams at Nationals, just to see. Maybe we'll be able to get a full squad out next spring in preparation for Worlds. We had pretty spotty attendance this year other than at Regionals and Nationals.

That's about it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

blog from a player on goat...
http://cultimate.blogspot.com/index.html
another one from a player on pike...
http://ultimatejournal.blogspot.com/
both fun to read.
popes

Anonymous said...

did the summary of the video from
the open final not do it for you, jim?

Chucktown said...

I'm sorry. Did you say the men's division? http://www.casualultimate.com/category/west-coast/

AJ said...

I'll probably post at some point...haven't quite gotten over the way we played on saturday...

congrats on the win...i think you should challenge the mixed champ for the title of "B Division Champs"

aj

mixed players: i'm kidding...don't send me emails.

Luke said...

shit. i guess i should post my fakey nationals post. here's the generic version...

the UPA paid me to go serve as a reporter... (blah, blah)

i flew in early and played 18 at (blah, blah)

i stayed in sweet accomodations at a great place on the keys (blah, blah)

i partied with a lower level team with no expectations of success (blah blah)

i squeezed in a game of (hot blah, 'scoops, goalty, mini, blah, blah) and i dominated again (blah blah)

i hung (hanged) out at the beer tent, since renamed the luke smith will not be allowed to card people beer tent (blah blah)

and i almost made it through the game.

Josh Mullen said...

Jim,

I saw that Old Sag lost to Pike by 2 or so points at Founder's sectionals. Both teams would have been really fresh (well, Old Sag won a barn burner against 'burgh just before).

And you guys played a very close game against old sag, so who knows? Maybe you would have pulled a game out on one of the last seeds, maybe you wouldn't have.

If you guys really want to know, I guess you should play as an open team next year after Worlds. You have nothing to lose, and you have 3 spots to go.

The weeks after nationals always depress me, and I have no idea why. I also wanted to read more write-ups about nationals, but alas, no one is blogging. And rsd sucks so much now, it has almost caused me to be a contributing member to the engineering world, almost....... so that isn't an option.

speaking of rsd, i did think the idea of a semi-pro league was neat, but then it just got lost rsd-regulars and will get crushed under the weight of their crap they collectively spew trying to make every post a sounding board for their own agenda.

I wanted to hear your thoughts, and some of the other bloggers thoughts on this concept (traveling league that towns own).

I think you have some insight because you have played in Erik Sebesta's showcase games, which is like a very small version of what I am picturing what people are talking about.

There is one thing missing from those games (through no fault of Erik...) which is no one really f'n tries to the point of risking injury in those games (like, when i would get to the games after work, I would let my body warm-up instead of trying to play all out D on the field).

your thoughts?

-josh

dusty.rhodes said...

Does this mean I have to finish the writeup now? Shoot.

Y'all are always trying to keep the lazy man down.

ellsworthless said...

I didn't muster the effort to post about losing every game (VBB), but someone else has!

http://joesbrother.blogspot.com/2007/11/van-buren-boys-win-upa-club.html

I have to say I have been disappointed as well in the amount of recaps posted.

parinella said...

I wonder how far a top Mixed team would advance if playing in the Open division. I'll guess that if the guys were good enough, they'd finish in the 8-10 range at Regionals.

If we weren't going to go to Nationals, we would probably want to try to play at Open Regionals just for fun. At Boston Invite and at Sectionals this year, we were pretty solidly away from that #3 spot (played pretty evenly with the teams that finished 4-5-6). And while I think at our best we're probably competitive with the lowest finishers, I would not want to go through a couple full days of games as a #16 seed.

Post-Nationals is depressing because Nationals can be so exciting and consuming. You focus all that energy, you figure out a little better how to play as both an individual and a teammate, and you forget about the rest of the world. Then it's over.

For semi-pro, I think that the players would jump if there was some guarantee that it was going to work and a guarantee that other top teams are going to commit. Even if it were at the expense of the UPA Series, I feel that top teams would do it if they felt that it was going to be better and more competitive.

I felt the same way about the warmup other than the finals, which I really wanted to win. For the other games, I felt like I was playing to the crowd a little more (in the first one, I slid/laid out for one that I didn't really have to in order to please the fans).

Travel expenses could doom a league.

I feel that players want to play, and while they'd be willing to sacrifice a little, it's not worth it to them to pay additional money and time for just a slightly better product. The current model you'd have to beat is the series of elite-only tournaments, not the regular WMO/Boston Invite scene.