Turkeybowl II Preview - Eugene, OR - 11.19

Debuting last year, Turkeybowl was simply a single-day tournament to allow a couple newer and younger HS teams a chance to play each other. Four teams showed up (Churchill, Sheldon, Winchill, and Philomath) with CHS taking top honors after a brief and extremely fun round-robin. This year, the number of teams attending has nearly quintupled (is that a word?), with just under 20 teams planning on meeting in beautiful Eugene, OR at Churchill High School on November 19th. Fueled again with the main desire to give newer and younger teams a chance to play other newer and younger teams, Turkeybowl II currently has 3 teams registered in the A Division, 11 teams in the B, and 5 in the C or MS Division. Check out: chsultimate.com/Turkeybowl.html for the most current listing of teams...
Most exciting is the advent of the new schools, whom this will be their tournament and first games ever! In the MS Division, both teams from Eugene (Kennedy and Roosevelt) are in their first fall seasons, while Arbor K8 School of Science/Arts from Portland, OR has never played anyone. Alameda MS, coming all the way from the Bay Area (nearly 8 hours) will be joining us with their highly developed team that regularly plays with their HS team. In the HS Divisions, West Salem HS (aka "THE SOUP") just began this fall and will have their first games on our fields. Tigard HS, who has been missing in action for more than 2 years, is back up and running and plans on making an appearance.
All in all, this tournament looks to foster great opportunity for new teams to experience the game, while doing so in a highly-spirited and competitive single-day format. Since most of the readers of this blog are from the Eastcoast (safe assumption?), I will be giving a pre-tournament write up of the teams coming.

Complete Kit Kat Scores

Here are all of the scores from the Kit Kat in the Hat tournament, c/o Mark Rosser (Director of PHUEL), normally i would just link you to the results, but i dont believe they are online anywhere, which means we can say - we are your exclusive source for complete scores from kit kat.

anywho, its long, so click the "continue reading" link to see the whole deal -

2005 Kat in the Hat Results

at CB East High School , 10-23-05

Division I

Pool A
Pennsbury (PA) 13 JP Stevens (NJ) 1
JP Stevens 12 Yorktown (VA) 10
Pennsbury d Yorktown


Pool B
Columbia 11 (NJ) Pterodactyls 8
Columbia 10 Lower Merion 5
Lower Merion (PA) 12 Pterodactyls (PA) 10

Pool C
Wissahickon (PA) 10 Scarsdale (NY) 4
CB East (PA)10 Scarsdale 8
Wissahickon d CB East

Pool D
Princeton (NJ) 9 Hampton (PA) 6
Hampton 10 St Joes Prep (PA) 7
Princeton 11 St Joes 4

Consolation Games:
JP Stevens 11 Hampton 10
Lower Merion 13 CB East 8
JP Stevens and Lower Merion tie for 5th place
Scarsdale 10 Pterodactyls 6

Semis
Columbia 9 Wissahickon 7
Pennsbury 13 Princeton 9

CHAMPIONSHIP
Pennsbury 13 Columbia 10

SPIRIT AWARD- To be announced



Div II

Pool E
Cheltenham (PA) 11 Perkiomen Valley (PA) 10
Dublington (PA) 13 Cheltenham 11
Dublington d Perkiomen Valley


Pool F
Neshaminy (PA) 13 Penn Charter (PA) 3
Stuyvessant 13 Neshaminy (PA) 9
Stuyvessant (NY) 13 Penn Charter (PA) 5


Semis
Dublington (PA) 13 Neshaminy 5
Stuyvessant 13 Cheltenham 8


Championship
Dublington 10 Stuyvessant 4


SPIRIT AWARD- To be announced


Division III

Pool G
Lower Merion B 12 Cardinal O’Hara (PA) 10
Yorktown B 12 Cardinal O’Hara 10
Lower Merion B d Yorktown B

Pool H
Council Rock South (PA) 13 W. Windsor Plainsboro South (NJ) 7
WWPS 9 Pennsbury B 8
Council Rock South d Pennsbury B

Semis
Council Rock d Yorktown B

Championship-
Council Rock South d Lower Merion B

SPIRIT AWARD- to be announced

PlayUltimate recieves 1,000th Visitor

Ok, so im a little late with the announcement, but the site has received its 1,000 original visitor since the site went online in August. We now have 5 authors reporting from four different states on four leagues from around the country.

So thank you for your continued support as we expand our operation. We are looking still to add reporters for the new england and seattle areas. So if you are interested, please contact someone who writes for the site and they can refer you to me, or just leave a comment and we'll get back to you.

Want to know how you can help the site grow? Link to us. its that simple, throw a link in your profile, away message, team website, blog, facebook, myspace, xanga, whatever. Every link helps. And whats more we will link back to you, so more people will visit your site in return. All in all, everyone wins.

Soon we will have buttons for you to link to us with, but that is in the future.

So thank you again for your support, and look forward to realtime updates on the high school action in the country as they happen.

Coming soon to the site -
-A comprehensive, complete rundown of Kit Kat
-the PHUL Take II tournament is this weekend
-then we will report on a few head to head games from the assorted leagues
-Turkey Bowl II is happening in Oregon on November 19th, possibly the biggest west coast high school tournament of the fall with 20 teams
-and then whatever else becomes relevant in the high school ultimate world

so keep coming back, subscribe to the RSS feeds, and link to us, and above all -

Play Ultimate.

2006 World Junior Ultimate - Team USA

There has been some banter back and forth about the juniors team going to worlds in 2006, to be held in Devens, Mass.

Albeit a little bit slanted of course, because people at this point only hype people they personally know, or have seen play. And with the lack of media coverage for youth ultimate - (save this site) - not many people can comment on the play of other high school teams without that firthand experience.

However, at PlayUltimate we like to think we have a little bit more information on the situation given our goal to cover high school ultimate nationwide, and that our audience is primarily high school players from around the country.

So comments encouraged - from your experience who are the most fundamentally sound, athletic ultimate players you have played against/heard of etc.

ill see if your suggestions match the ones im holding...

pennsbury wins kit kat

from what i can gather - pennsbury beat columbia in the finals 13-10. also beating princeton, jp stevens, and yorktown.

after beating prep, hampton lost their next game against princeton 11-9, they also lost to jp stevens 9-10.

if you want more individual scores, check out the upa's score reporter. this is only what i can gather from what teams have submitted. the tournament itself was not submitted to the site as a tournament, so of course i could be missing things. but from the looks of it, pennsbury went undefeated on the day, with their closest competition being columbia scoring 10 against them.

more kit kat updates

another update from my guys at St. Joe's they lost the Hampton game 9-11. Prep was up 3-0 in the beginning, but eventually lost intensity and fell to Hampton.

still waiting to hear who won the whole deal etc

if you have updates, call email, or im me

updates from kit kat

Princeton 11 - Prep 4

Prep is playing their second game right now against Hampton, Hampton took half 7-5

Wind is apparently ferocious at the fields, the Prep/Hampton game has turned into a bit of a hucking contest, from the reports i am hearing.

The winner of this game will face Pennsbury.

Thats all the news i have as of right now. As you may have guessed, the updates i am getting are from guys on the Prep team, but as soon as other scores become availiable i will let you know.

The 2005 Kit Kat in the Hat Tournament is Underway

as of right now the teams have already gathered at the CB East fields in Doylestown, PA to begin the 2005 Kit Kat in the Hat tournament. i have a few people calling me from the fields with updates, and i will pass them on to you as soon as humanly possible.

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are you going to be at a youth tournament? would you like to give updates to a PlayUltimate blogger? comment or email the author who corresponds with your area of the country, and your tips will be posted as soon as they are relevant!

PHUL v. PHUEL

So I saw this brought up in the last comment on this blog: PHUEL v. PHUL as far as which league is better. Right now, PHUEL has the better teams, but PHUL has had some top players come out of it (including Worlds team player Tommy Hendrickson, ME freshman of the year for nationals team David Vatz, Darren Shultz, among many other good players). First, what top players have come out of PHUEL. Second, my perspective right now has PHUEL having better teams overall, but PHUL having better top level players. I really want to hear from PHUEL guys, because I have no clue what goes on there.


In my opinion, I think this happens because the top players in PHUL (with the exception of Vatz and Lebo) don't produce great teams because they are more involved in club than with their high school programs. Central Catholic has been a great example of this - with two of the league's better players playing there throughout history (Hendrickson and Brenenborg), but neither producing a successful team. On the other hand, many of the high school teams that have tight knit, deep programs don't have the experience to get their teams to the next level. Such I believe was the case with Bethel Park in 04 and 05 and even moreso with Hampton of last year (they are looking good this year, likely thanks to gained experience through rec leagues and clinics). The next big thing from PHUL will likely be North Hills (probably not a big thing until 2006) as they are as tight knit as a gets, all are basically the same age (10th grade), and have tons of experience and lots of access to more experience players. Perhaps it's a difference between what can be picked up in Pittsburgh versus Philly rec. leagues or maybe a difference in coaching or access to experience, helpful players. Regardless, I think PHUL is finally moving in a direction that will let it produce more really good teams and not just good players. The work of David Vatz and Darren Shultz has really given lots of PHUL teams more outlets to play (and therefore more experience) and both have gone to give clinics and such to PHUL teams (extending access to good players). More and more teams have coaches - Hampton, Lebo, Bethel, North Hills (more access to tons of exp. players here than a coach), Shady Side, Fox Chapel (not sure about them though) - and probably a few more I don't know of. This is compared to I think 2 teams having coaches a year ago. Impulse, the Pittsburgh Youth Club team, is also having and will continue to have a HUGE effect on PHUL and it should expand its effecr next year. PHUL is becoming more competitive, more experience, and this will only produce better teams.

Pensbury Defeats Prep - 15-2, CB East 15-6

Fall PHUEL action continues this week with Pensbury rolling on towards an undefeated regular season. They captured two pivotal wins - blowing out St. Joe's Prep - 15-2, and defeating Central Buck's East 15-6.

The win against Prep is big for a few reasons. Coming into the season many expected the Prep to be in the top 5 of the league, possibly competing with perennial powerhouses Pensbury, Wissahickon, and Cheltenham. And they may well be at that point come the end of the spring season. However the fact remains now that the Prep is a very young team, having almost no current seniors, and a team primarily made up of last years sophomores. The Pennsbury win is also big because Prep handled Pennsbury in their final meeting last year during pool play of the PA state championships. Prep was seeded 8th or 9th overall i believe, and Pennsbury was seeded 3rd. But Prep pulled out the upset winning 15-7.

This fall the meeting went a little bit different. Prep scored the first two points, and then Pennsbury went on a 15 point unanswered scoring drive. Pennsbury then wisely threw a cup zone at the young Prep team and essentially shut them down. Junior handlers for the Prep Jim Ionata and Joe Kruse were able to work the cup effectively enough to move it up field, but without experienced subs and few veteran poppers, their handling skills were rendered virtually useless. With there starters worn down from attempting to deal with Peyote's stifling zone, including 5th year senior, and essential veteran defender Kevin Venose, the Prep moved into using their bench which included a good deal of fresh rookies who had at that point only played one previous game against Lower Merion.

In the end the Peyote walked away with what seemed to be a easily had win. My prediction for later meetings between the two teams - while the Prep will definitely improve, and their rookies will get much better under the leadership and practices of captain Joe Kruse - Pennsbury will not get worse. Look for the Peyote to dominate the league this year, if not Easterns. Their only real competition will likely only come at the hands of Columbia and Amherst caliber teams. They may however be weakened by the loss of Venose who will be graduating between the fall and spring semesters.

Pennsbury also defeated CB East today 15-6, i dont know anything other than the score of the game. But from what i know about CB East i imagine they put up a good fight under the coaching of Rob Olson.

As of right now I would put the top five of Phuel at

1. Pennsbury
2. Wissahickon
3. CB East
4. Prep
5. Lower Merion

the true test however will be this weekend at Kit Kat in the Hat, where all the established PHUEL teams will face off with a few teams from outside the Philly area. Whoever comes out on top here will likely be the biggest competition for Amherst at Easterns this year.

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was something from your league not covered in this post? do you want to cover stories on high school ultimate for the PlayUltimate Blog? then leave a comment or email the site!

Fall Brawl Tourney

The east coast tri-state area high school ultimate scene heated up with the Fall Brawl Tourney on October 1st. This tournament seems to be the strongest indicator as to PHUEL and PA team potential for the spring, save possibly Kit Kat in the Hat tournament - scheduled for October 22nd.

Teams in competition at the Brawl were - Columbia, Scarsdale, Pensbury, Wissahickon, Beacon and Princeton in the A-division pool, while JP Stevens, Lower Merion, Watchung Hills, Neshaminy, West Windsor PLainsboro and Columbia's B Team rounded out the second division.

Coming into the tournament Columbia was the obvious favorite. A dominant program, one of the most established in the country next to Amherst and Paideia. They finished second at Easterns last year losing only to dynasty Amherst High School.

However, the Brawl Wouldnt go down like that.

Noah Saul, Frank Harris, and Kevin Venose of Pennsbury's Peyote had different plans. During the first round of pool play first seed Columbia was upset by 2005 Pennsylvania State champion team (and 4th seed in the tournament) Wissahickon - 12-14. In the second round of pool play Columbia held seed, beating the third ranked Peyote 13-12. For the rest of the pool play and tournament the games went relatively as seeded with the exception of 2nd seed Scarsdale going 0-5 on the day. Also of note, Pensbury also went on to beat Wissahickon 15-11. Full game scores can be found here.

It came down to the finals. Peyote vs Columbia.

Both had sailed through quarters and semis with their closest opponent only scoring six.

From there - Pensbury conquered. Led by junior Noah Saul, Peyote crushed Columbia 15-6. Putting an exclamation on the biggest tournament win of the fall thus far. Also making contributions were freshman Isaac Saul, and super senior Kevin Venose.

The Peyote will look to continue their domination this Saturday at 1pm with a game against. St. Joe's Prep, who reached the quarterfinals of last year's state championships. This year will be a heavy rebuilding year for the Prep as they lost 9 seniors (the original members of the team). However led by junior Joe Kruse, the Hawks may be able to match up with the Peyote and possibly repeat their last meeting which ended in a 15-7 victory for prep in the Saturday pools of the PA state championship.

Tune in next week for a recap of that game.

Side note: we will be adding coverage of a few other high school leagues very soon, so keep checking the site.

Youth Club Championships DVD

So my co-author at the moment Nick was at Youth Club Nationals this past summer coaching the Pittsburgh team Impulse. He is also a film major at the University of Pittsburgh.

Combining these two aspects of life Nick filmed the tournament from the Pittsburgh perspective and is now in the process of finalizing a DVD of the tournament. Including high light reels, games, etc, and possibly coach's commentary voice over.

From what ive seen of the work so far it has been really nice stuff. And now you can see the trailer for the DVD, slated to come out in the next few months. It is hosted on Google Video, and you can view it by clicking here.

Information about buying the DVD will be posted and made availiable as soon as that information is availiable. Thank you in advance for supporting Nick's work, Pittsburgh Youth Ultimate, and the PlayUltimate Blog

PHUL Season Kicking In

With intial recruiting, first practices, and early scrimmages complete, PHUL had a one day fall tournament on Sunday, Oct. 9. Eight teams came out to Turnver Valley and although I wasn't there, early season favorites can be picked out from results. Hampton and Mt. Lebanon seem to be the teams to beat (as they both have strong, established programs and have been gearing up for this season the longest). Both teams return the majority of their top players and will both be significantly better than their 2004 editions. Hampton's Lukas Truckenbrod and Perry Martin as well as Jay Heurbin are definitely players to watch for and Lebo has a wealth of solid talent with the likes of 2005 Pittsburgh Youth Club players Julian Hausman, Pete Imler, and Zach Ehler and senior Hao Su. Hampton beat Lebo at the tournament 13-10, but Lebo has beaten Hampton in a previous game - so the teams are looking very even at this point.

My personal preseason favorite is North Hills, however, although I'm definitely a bit biased. Even though they lost to Lebo and Hampton at the tournament, they have beat Hampton in a scrimmage and have a ton of potential. Every player on the team (at this moment) is in 10th grade or lower and will likely (although maybe not this year) be the best team to ever exist in PHUL. Alex Thorne, Ben Funk, Colin Conner, and Jack Gazdik make up the team's core (and all played on the Youth Club team in 2005). Add in Ed Reith, who I hear runs a 10.8 40-40 (WITHOUT CLEATS) and you have a team that is building towards greatness. I honestly believe this could be the first year of a series of years that this team is on top, but its going to take a lot of work for them to compete with their older opposition.

Central Catholic has the league's best player (Chris Brenenborg), but has consistently finished spring seasons as only a mediocre team with the same kind of top players. They took Hampton to universe point in Semis, but couldn't close the deal.

Bethel Park has clawed its way back from a huge graduating class loss before and this year will have to be another one of those times if they hope to be in the Championship game for the 4th straight year (which would be a PHUL record). They finished 7th at the tournament, but were made up of almost all rookies. Brent Shipe is one of the league's top 5 players and is just beginning to come into his own as an ultimate player and will be important to Bethel's success.

I'll have a lot more updates this year (and better ones too as I've seen very little so far and know the Impulse (youth club) players better than the rest of the league). See ya later.

Mid-Atlantic Recap and Rundown

Heres the jist of it, a lot of good teams playing alot of other good teams, ending up in some upsets, some heartbreak, some underdog stories, some teams keeping seed, and some north carolina guys being just in general unspirited assholes.

Click continue reading for the entire story...

So the games i watched first off -

Saturday -
Burgh vs. Truck Stop Glory Hole
Truck Stop Glory Hole vs. Pike
Burgh vs. William and Mary
Burgh vs. baNC
Burgh vs. Street
Pike vs. Potomac

Sunday -
Pike vs. Medicine Men
Ring of Fire vs. Potomac
Medicine Men vs. LCN
Street vs. LCN

rather than post updates and rundowns for every game i saw, most of which you dont give a lick about, post comments with which games you want full accounts of...

Complete and total rundown from Mid-Atlantic Regionals...

coming very very soon, its in the draft process right now, because i saw alot of games, alottt of games. hoping to post it either tomorrow early or tonight.

stay tuned, and link to the site/email tell people about it. lifes more fun when you interact.

hopefully the entire rundown will be up within the next 12 hours, more than likely sooner...

-play ultimate