please excuse that last post, it was accidentally posted here as opposed to one of my other sites. apologies, feel free to use this as an open thread to talk about the tournaments coming up this weekend...
Born to Dive - tournament site - PlayUltimate preview
Missouri State Championships - tournament site - PlayUltimate preview
Northern California State Championships - tournament site
Tennessee State Championship? - tournament site - maybe? no updates on this as far as i know
Washingon State Champs - tournament site
Friday, April 28, 2006
weekend open thread
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17 comments:
Im pretty impressed to see N. Cali with 16 committed teams. Even Seattle, the hot bed of Ultimate as some may say, have only got 12. (ps that tourney site link is misleading because division two has 8 teams and divison one has 4. Which in itself is just really strange anyways.)
What other states have girls divisions? Washington will have 6 teams I believe but I have no idea who else.
Indeed, we only have four Division 1 boys teams at state, but all four are going to Westerns.
We added a D2 for open/boys because there is a disparity in strength of teams between D1 and D2. We felt we could draw more of the 14 current coed teams who haven't tried single gender if we offered a chance to win more games and the tournament. We only got three of those teams but it is a start.
Seattle is a hotbed of youth ultimate, but there are plenty of others. No one with any sense out here is claiming to be THE hotbed of youth ultimate.
A better link to the WA tournament can be found at www.discnw.org
6 girls teams is awesome. That's 60+ girls playing ultimate. And some people in Seattle said that coed was a better opportunity for girls ultimate players.
One last thing. We are having showcase finals for the girls and the boys D1 on Monday night at a stadium field just south of Seattle. It's the first time we have tried this showcase final.
-Mike Mullen, Northwest School Varsity Boys Coach
Seattle
Did Seattle youth Ultimate start out like most youth Ultimate around the nation, namely open with a smattering of girls on some teams? That is essentially the way it started and partially still is out here in California, which is why I think our State Championships is so big. Teams are used to playing open against coed and things like that because we just don't have the infrastucture to create seperate divisions.
Did Seattle evolve from what I described above to being very coed based, with only the top teams being open/girls? I mean, I don't really see why a team, if they have 12 boys or 12 girls, wouldn't participate in the State Championship? I mean, I think of Washington as ahead of California in every concievable way; in talent, in number of players participating, in support from school/parents/the community, yet how come Seattle can get ginormous numbers at Spring Reign yet only field 3 more teams for the State Championships than California?
Kevin,
Seattle youth started as middle school coed then high school coed was added and three years ago a couple of top teams decided to go to single gender. Boy did I take a lot of heat from the community, including my own school, for pushing single gender - but I knew I was right.
The reason my school went to high school single gender was because neither our boys or girls were being served well enough by coed. We still play in Spring Reign for HS just to support the community. Also keep in mind that the 58 teams in Spring Reign included middle school teams and that a bunch of teams came from BC and Eugene.
Also keep in mind that we are talking the greater Seattle area versus all of California in possible number of teams. Obviously, California should be huge and I'm glad to see it going that way. Frankly California should be dominating the youth ultimate scene, the questions is why isn't it? Where are the organizers? Where are all the people who claim they love ultimate like no other sport? (For the record ultimate is just another sport to me) I don't get it.
Castro Valley has always been great even though no one outside of the west knows that and Alameda will be contending for the Westerns crown, but where is everyone else?
Glad to see Cali HS ultimate is starting to explode.
-Mike
California is just just starting to get those people that will be needed to turn it into a great Ultimate market. 5 years ago Castro Valley High School (before my time) organized and won the first California State Championships, and then it went dormant for a few years. Two years ago, with the help of Gwen Ambler and Joe Seidler BAYU was started and it ran a few tournaments, although right now it is mainly just a yahoo group and a way to get information out there, sometime in the near future I see it as a major force that can hold tournaments and hopefully, eventually, a league. Last year I started up the process of holding another state championships, and with the help of SFUL, Joe Seidler and a few Stanford folks we got the State Championships started again, and this year Mike D and the Alameda crew has taken over running it. California Ultimate is slowly growing. Slopfest was started 5 years ago and Grass Burn 4 years ago. This year for the first time Vacaville held their own tournament and so did Alameda. Castro Valley went to Nationals 5 years ago and Alameda has gone to Westerns for the past 3 (and will be their for the forseeable future), and this year California got its first 2 (and hopefully of many) players on the junior national team.
This year, however, has left me the most encouraged as I ever have been about Cali HS Ultimate. There are a bunch of teams that, while they aren't going to challenge a Seattle team any time soon, have 16 players and the same coach at every single tournament. Programs are getting started where when the senior leadership goes, the program will still survive.
Expect to see a lot out of California starting in about 3 or so years. Remember who called it here first. :)
Born to Dive
Varsity:
Pennsbury over Lower Merion 15 - 5
Junior Varsity:
Pennsbury B-Unit over??
Both Pennsbury teams win their divisions at the home tournament.
Pool A
(3-1) A1: Rockhurst High School
(4-0) A2: Marquette
(0-4) A3: Francis Howell Central
(1-3) A4: Lindbergh
(2-2) A5: CBC
Pool B
(3-0) B1: Parkway North High School
(2-1) B2: De Smet
(1-2) B3: Priory
(0-3) B4: St. Louis University High
Incredible heart and desire was shown by a great group of kids playing ultimate in VERY challenging weather. Wind and rain pounded the fields all day long.
Marquette did defeat Rockhurst in the final round of pool play, 8-11, so now, in my opinion, the question becomes, "Will tournament-rookies Marquette can keep it together in elimination-play, or will Rockurst's much deeper tournament exprience carry them through Sunday's more tense moments? Also, let's not forget about the #2 seed, Parkway North, who swept their pool yesterday with little resistance.
Should be an exciting Sunday. I'll report on the results as soon as possible--stay tuned!
MO HS State Champions--Parkway North
2nd place--Desmet
3rd place--Rockhurst
Spirit Award--Priory's Jeromans
After a short delay for T-storms, the weekend's pervasive winds gasped their last, and the final games were played under still blue skies.
Desmet beat Marquette in the second round of play to earn a spot in the finals, and Parkway North cruised through bracket play, punctuating their efforts with a win over Rockhurst. Parkway North then did away with Desmet 15-6 (I think), and a new champion was crowned.
Side notes:
The third-place game, which would have featured a rematch between Rockhurst and Marquette, never happened. Bad blood was generated during yesterday's match, and Marquette refused to play unless Rockhurst sidelined a particular player. Rockhurst would not abide, and so Marquette withdrew from the tournament. A disappointing finish.
CBC also withdrew on Sunday, for reasons unknown to me.
Despite these disappointments, it was an incredible weekend. Thanks to all teams, coaches, SLUA, and especially TD Chris Martens.
California State Championships won by Alameda 15-8 over Castro Valley.
Full scores and writeup coming soon...
In the first half of the girls final....
Northwest 6
Nathan Hale 4
...I'll be updting scores on the UPA site...
http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=121&id=2562
Northwest takes half 8-6 after Nathan closes to within one. Anna Snyder has thrown 7 of the first half goals for NWS.
Sorry... this is the Washington State Championship game... Northwest versus Nathan Hale.
Northwest wins the WA Girls Final 11-9 at the cap!
The WA State Championship continues with the Boys final...
Both teams trade goals then Northwest gets the first break to make it 3-1.
Northwest takes half 8-3. The wind is picking up. Lakeside is playing well, but they just can't convert the opportunities.
Northwest Boys ended up winning 15-8. I'll write up something soon.
It was a sweet showcase game format for both championships. The stadium made for excellent crowd noise (all cheering - no heckling).
The scoreboard with team names and scores was great.
William Bartram did an excellent job on the microphone from the pressbox.
Thanks to William Bartram (executive director, DiscNW) and to Meredith Tosta and Shaykat Chaudhuri who shared the TD duties. All did an excellent job and are valuable assets to our ultimate community.
-Mike Mullen, Northwest School Boys Ultimate Coach
Amherst Regional Middle School won the 3rd Annual Darrow Shaker's Cup in New Lebanon, New York. That's upstate NY (and ten miles west of Massachusetts border), for you out-of-towners.
So while ARHS is beating colleges, ARMS is beating high schools. Nice work, kids.
Full results:
http://www2.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=2577
Thanks to Scott Challeners and the Darrow School for hosting. For new, inexperienced or up-and-coming B/JV teams, the Shaker's Cup is the place to be.
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