Sunday, October 22, 2006

Cold Fusion - October 28th, 29th

Eugene, OR - 5 days from now, 15 ultimate teams from up and down the West Coast will converge upon Eugene to open up their seasons with the long-running Cold Fusion juniors tournament. Though this tournament comes long before most High School teams even begin their competitive season, Cold Fusion promises to matchup some of the best programs from the 2006 Western National Championships in a mixed 4-3 format. This is now to say however, that the entire tournament will be dominated by agressive powerhouses, on the contrary, many teams are splitting into X and Y, or A and B (even C!) teams to provide good competition at every level. For the first time Cold Fusion boasts a Middle School Division, where three young (but amazingly talented) teams will show the world that they're the Future of Ultimate. It promises to be a weekend of exciting High School Ultimate, and the first showing from some of the best teams from the West Coast.


Below are the pools and seedings as published (subject to change). Let the hype begin.


A Pool
(1) CHS A
(6) Lakeside
(7) HOTI
(12) Raw Meat

Pool B
(2) Dark Meat
(5) South X
(8) CHS B
(11) Windchill

Pool C
(3) MoHo
(4) Tribe
(9) South Y
(10) CHS C

Pool M
Junior Meat
Kennedy
Roosevelt

53 comments:

thomas said...

Churchhill & Alameda
It has been called a rivalry, and it's the probable matchup for the Final. Churchhill has Force and others, Alameda their most athletic senior class ever. The decider will be the girls.

MoHo
Pulling from Washington, MoHo could easily have the best team at the tournament. It all depends on who makes the trip.

Tribe
I was under the impression that they graduated their big Senior lineup from last year and I've never seen their girls play... I would have seeded South above them.

South
I've heard stores of Bloch and Janin from the Club Season, I'm excited to see how they split up X/Y and who they got to fill up two teams.

Lakeside
Did they lose those two guys (you know who I'm talking about) last year? They had a great showing at Westerns and could be a threat if they held onto enough players.

HOTI
I've heard rumor of some impressive girls, but haven't seen anything since last year's Slopfest. Anyone help me out?

Windchill
Where are they from?

thomas said...

and let's hear some middle school talk...

Anonymous said...

Churchill hasn't graduated anyone(except Ethan from last year)

Tribe graduated a lot of key players. The only one of their main 5 left is Alex I think. It will be interesting to see them this year.

Both south teams, although split are still strong.

Lakeside did lose those two guys. Drew and Grey. I think a few more graduated.

Sheldon isn't too good this year. Thad isn't playing with them. Our JV beat them pretty easily.

And I have no idea who Windchill is

I am interested to see if the MOHO team will be good. If they bring the right players, they could be hard to beat.

Both Roosevelt and Kennedy are looking good this year. Roosevelt has some sick players and Kennedy has all around solid players. What about Junior Meat?

Kevin said...

Along with Gray and Drew Lakeside graduate Zach Montes, a pretty good player in his own right. Their 9th grade class was damn good this year. They will fall back a bit this year, but watch out for them next year and the year after.

How come Thad isn't playing with Sheldon?

Anonymous said...

Junior Meat's not looking as strong as they did last year. Most of their key players are on Raw Meat now, though they do have a few solid players returning from last year, most of the players are still grasping the concepts of the game.

Anonymous said...

Thad is homeschooled. So he can play at any school he wants. He was going to go with South to Westerns but got real sick the day before. I don't know what he is up to this season. I haven't seen him during our games with Sheldon. I assume he is just playing city league or something.

Lukester said...

(1) Churchill A (varsity):
We did graduate only 1 player from our Westerns 2006 roster (ethan smith-gillespie), gained new recruits in almost each class, and added 17 incoming freshman (many of who began playing back with Kennedy MS 2 years ago). 61 players currently on our roster and we are bringing 3 teams to Cold Fusion this year (could have brought 4 actually). The varsity squad is led by seniors: #12 Daniel Force, #3 Collin Smith, #21 Andrew Sheridan, #24 Aubri Bishop, and #7 Autumn Toochi. There are 19 seniors this year, 13 of which will are on the varsity squad: Jay Choi, Ashley Elliot, Kasey Lindsday, Greg Meshnik, Tony Ngo, Peter QB, David Schrieber, and Peter St. George. Other juniors returning to this team are: Kimber Coles and Emily Neyman, along with sophomore Lily Burge, and freshman Claire Neyman.
Our varsity is solid and had a fairly good performance at this years' Club Mixed Sectionals, especially considering we only had 2 weeks of practice before the tourney. We ended up going 2-4 and returned to eugene hungry to work out our offensive flow and intense d.
We'll see if Cold Fusion can be ours this year, but it means first taking our pool. HOTI and Raw Meat should be fun games that go our way, but our recent history with Lakeside has not been a pleasant one...

(2) Dark Meat
Not sure where these guys will be this coming year. Thomas has already said a little about them. None of their females from their Westerns team were seniors (but 6 players weren't listed with a year next to their name). As for their boys, Alameda lost seniors: Kyle Wilkinson, Shane Harris, Connor Murphy Levesque, and James Clark. Seven juniors return as the new senior class along with 7 sophomors now juniors. This will be a great team and is very worthy of their second seed overall. Alameda is a highly talented squad with very focused offense and intense defense. Coached by the talented and wise Michael DeSousa, this team keeps things very competitive and close.
They should win their games against Windchill and more than likely against Churchill B (though see the note on the CHS B team). Their game against South X should stay close because its' south and the last time these two teams met it was at Slopfest V in the semi-finals and Alameda stole the game in a last minute double-game point. I wouldn't be suprised if south keeps things as close as before despite their split.

(3) MoHo
I'm not sure who this will be... If previous years indicate the level of talent on this squad then a third seed overall seems a bit low, but we'll see. The C pool will be one that is up in the air and is the closest to having a three-way tie potential.

(4) Tribe
Crescent Valley did loss the talented and tall Tim Stiener and Marty Freeman. They also lost Jorday May and Isaac Otto who round out the Tribe top 4. Other seniors lost are Josh Guo and Adam Shields. Alex Renn and Dash Gordon return as the lone seniors to lead the team. Coach Jones Oliver just had a new addition to his family this summer and thus has not been able to coach as much as in the past. Tribe is in a rebuilding year and it will be interesting to see who returns. If junior Chelsea Thaw is back then Tribe is an even greater threat.

(5&9) South X/Y
Not sure who is who, but one of these teams is led by junior Jacob Janin who played for the NW regional open team Hippo. An outstanding player with great leadership skills, Jacob will elevate the play of the newest and youngest south player. Senior John Bloch lead the other team and is just as inspiring (especially when he is skying player after player). Seniors Jimmy Utterback, Trevor Whitmore, Sam Barber, and maybe Braden Larson return. Unfortunately, an injury has sidelined senior Ivan Becker-Wayman who will be sorely missed in the handling role he so dominates. South lost only two of their guys, Nick Floyd and Chris Bronson, who though missed, have been replaced with new and just as fast talent.
College Callahan contender Dusty Becker, has a little brother who now plays for South and has been known to fly through the air nearly as well as the older... New talents and maybe even 8th grade super-stars Aaron Honn and Zina Stavitsky (from RMS) will be stolen from the MS division and play up with one of the HS teams. South will be hurting most in their female department with the talents of Chris Norton and Julia Sherwood graduated. New seniors Arial Stavitsky and Claire Powers lead the rest of the girls. Mara Chang-Northway and Margaret Wilson-Moses add some serious physical play to the game. Adie Bovee, the lone freshman who played in this last years' Westerns is back and playing better than ever. She is joined with new freshman Grace Whitmore who is one of the many new freshman brought up through the Roosevelt MS team.
Depending on how the split takes place, South X could break seed against Dark Meat and South Y could easily break with Tribe and MoHo. Again, the C Pool will be the interesting one to watch.

(6) Lakeside
Lakeside has lost 10 females and 7 males including the leadership and star players Gray Hoffman and Andrew Rowny. Daniel Ross, Zach Montes, and Nick Welch will also be hugely missed. I simply don't know the females well enough to know whether any of the 10 graduated females played a huge role on their girls or mixed teams, but Lakeside has always been physical and aggresive and that shouldn't change. It will be interesting to see who emerges as the new face and leadership for the team.
Lakeside is in the A pool and should keep seed with an opportunity to break if Churchill's varsity squad stumbles.

(7) HOTI (Sheldon):
Thad Arnold (would be a senior, but as said in other posts is homeschooled) has seemed to give up ultimate this year due to a couple of reasons which I am sure he could answer better than any of us. He now spends a lot of his time rock climbing last I heard.
Sheldon, though missing Thad, still remains a fun and very spirited team who is now player run and led with the retirement of jeremy washburn after 7 years of coaching. Kevin McKinney and Makaya Fine now run the team along with help from former player Hunter A. They were beat by our JV teams, but they also didn't play their best lines until our JV1 team, who though are labeled a JV team, are our top sophomores and freshman. Sheldon should not be counted out and with some solid female players and an extremely frustrating defensive cup (when it is working) can keep games much closer than previous Sheldon teams. Their stand out would be Kevin M. He seems nearly 7 feet tall, and though not as dominate as others his height, as the deep-deep he can hold his own.
If the wind comes out in the game against Lakeside, I see this game much closer. Against CHS I think our depth is too much and we'll be able to run around their cup no matter how hard the wind blows. The game to watch will be the one against Raw Meat.

(8) Churchill JV1:
This team will be led by sophomores: #15 Jordan Banks (who usually plays on the varsity squad), #73 Andrew Henry, and #23 Louis Henry. And junior #62 Lisa Neyman brings the leadership on the female side. Other Juniors returning to this team are: Brandi Coker and Alejandro Esperanza. Other sophomores returning to this team are: Kyle Glidden, Drew Larson, David Cole, first year player Jacob Crown, Christine Wilson, CJ, Emily Skeen, and Kati Dahn. Most interesting to this team are the freshman talents: Ian Campbell, Dylan Freechild, Nathan Bofto, Trevor Smith (the little brother of Collin on the varsity team), and Yeon Choi.
These guys are talented and when clicking are a real force to be reckoned with. I wouldn't be suprised if these guys break their 3rd position in their pool and end up giving both South X and Dark Meat really good games. They could end their day 3-0 and the top seed in the B pool if they play well and united.

(10) Churchill JV2:
This team will be led by senior Ryan Brown and junior Mason Caldwell who have been playing for the last two years. 3 seniors, 2 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 9 freshman round out this team. Though not as talented as our our JV squad, these students love playing and always have fun doing it. Look for some stand out players like freshman 6'2" Tim Bosshart get big and Amar Chowdhurry fly horizontal with grace.
Churchill JV2 should keep the bottom seed but hopefully score a few points to keep spirits up.

(11) Windchill
The last time I saw these guys was at Turkeybowl 2 years ago. A fun and highly spirited team, these guys should be a fun team to play.

(12) Raw Meat
Alameda has a great program and continues to expand and grow each year. With 3 teams entered this year including their Junior High team Juniors Meats, Alameda continues to prove that a small school can compete with those much larger. This team should be a great team to watch and again their game against HOTI will be the best to watch in the A pool.

Lukester said...

It should be noted that the actual format for Sunday has not yet been made available. Even the schedule on Saturday indicates there will be an 8th place game to determine who remains in what can only be assumed will be a Sunday 8 team elimination bracket. How that 8th place game will be determined between the A3, B3, and C3 teams is unknown (only two can play for it). Maybe it will be based on pt differential overall in the day or something else, but at this point, if teams hold seed it means that two of the following: HOTI, CHS JV1, and South Y will all be fighting for the last spot for Sunday.

I am not sure how things will end up after pool play Saturday and it is anyone's guess who will make it to the Championship Bracket.

Anonymous said...

Lakeside will be led by two huge sophs, Chris Pigott, a tall thin and incredibly fast athlete with a 30 inch vert and can dunk two handed, and Micah Larus stone, one of the quickest players on the field who's football training will lead him on to be the number one receiver in the tournament, we are looking at a 13-11 upset in the Lakeside Churchill pool play

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't go as far to say an upset over Churchill, it should be interesting I guess we could say. We will see what happens this weekend I guess.

Lukester said...

To lakeside: do you feel the seeding is fair? do you deserve the number 6 seed? should you be higher or lower?

Lukester said...

to the other 9 teams: do you feel your seed is fair?

The TD (jeremy washburn) sent the seeding to all the captains and coaches a week ago and the only changes were slight and due to keeping teams from the same area in differnt pools...

Did anyone voice a concern or frustration over their seed?

Anonymous said...

1) it's going to take more than two hyped-up Lakeside sophmores to beat Churchill A

2) no matter how united, Churchill B couldn't hope to beat Alameda (or South for that matter, save a bad split)

Anonymous said...

Soem of our better sheldon girls can't make it out this weekend but we're still looking to try and make it through to the top bracket on sunday. We feel that we can put up a decent game against Churchill B.
-Kevin

Lukester said...

Kevin: You guys are skilled players and though our JV1 (CHS B) did beat you on Oct. 11th 13-6, you were not playing your best players, nor had you been practicing as long as we had at that point.
Unfortunatly, the pool you're in is with our Varsity squad which will be considerably more difficult to capture a win over than our JV squads... Lakeside on the other hand could be all hype (that is what this is all about, isn't it?) and HOTI could break seed. Regardless, it seems that all you need to do is remain in the top 3 and not fall to the last in ones pool to get a chance to play in the Championship Bracket on Sunday.

Anonymous said...

It is a stretch for Churchill JV to beat one of the South teams. But, they did beat one of them when we scrimmaged with south x/y. So, it is definately something that might happen again. They are pretty talented. But, South is of course.

Anonymous said...

and it's a bit of a stretch to say that Churchill JV could beat a full-strength Alameda squad.

Anonymous said...

Its definitley a hype about the sophmores from lakeside, those two guys are good, but neither of them can jump 30 inches, however, they have a deep squad with four seniors who are returning from westerns last year, and they are led by two strong seniors, however i still do not think they have the strength to defeat Churchill A, and Chris Piggott and Micah Stone need to really play up to there "dominance on the field" if they hope to win the tournament

Anonymous said...

I think that the seeding is fine,because we havent played at all this year. Micah and I may be a little overrated, but its tru that we think that we can pull out a victory over Churchill, it should be a really great game, and hopefully both of our spirits will be better than at westerns because both teams lost a lot of spirit in that game. It should be fun

Chris Pigott

Anonymous said...

I saw chris piggeot get skyed twice thats two times in one game. By none other than a seventh grade girl. Now mind you this was two years ago, and chris was akward, growing into his body, and couldn't read at all. And the girl was one hell of an athlete. But yea thats my story just thought i should share. Hope everyone has a great time this weekend.

Anonymous said...

"and it's a bit of a stretch to say that Churchill JV could beat a full-strength Alameda squad."

Yeah it probably is. I would agree. There is too much hype going around everywhere. Regardless I am looking forward to the weekend. And Lakeside, our game should be sweet. I am looking forward to playing you guy's. I know both teams will keep it nice and clean. Peace.

Mike Mullen said...

I was coaching that game vs Lakeside MS when our girl got to the disc against the aforementioned Lakeside kid twice. It could be called a sky but it could also be called getting to the spot first and jumping first too. And the Lakeside kid was in control enough to not jump through his opponent to try to get the disc. But yes that girl can play and should be making a big impact as a 9th grader this year.

The biggest obstacle that Lakeside ultimate will face is not their opponents but their own admin. I don't think the great coaches and kids will get the support they deserve. It is a darn shame that Paul Allen or Bill Gates didn't play some ultimate back in the day.

Anonymous said...

Lakeside is much better than the sixth seed would indicate. They had a strong showing at westerns last year, and have only improved since them, with their highly touted freshman class from last year maturing.

Anonymous said...

so who's going to win?

Anonymous said...

I think the answer to that is quite obvious if you knew the ringers that Windchilll was coming with, but I will keep that information to myself.

Anonymous said...

This is Chris, I was kidding when i was hyping us up, I didnt mean to make anyone mad or to talk a lot of trash, but apparently my joke seemed to have been taken poorly by some, *cough* Lakeside Team captains* cough so im sending out an apology to anyone that got frustrated by my trash talk

Chris Pigott

Anonymous said...

chs b is goin all the way

Anonymous said...

chs b is churchill highschool!

Anonymous said...

And so CHS A is columbia high school then, right? Just making things clear.

Anonymous said...

Ummm... yeah...sure...

Anonymous said...

Churchill High School. Is that what you mean?

Anonymous said...

Ummm... yeah... sure...

Anonymous said...

Churchill High School in Eugene, OR may not be the first "CHS Ultimate", but it might be the best...

Lukester said...

This is by no means official, as the format for Sunday's brackets have not been posted, but taking what has been posted about the formating and cross-over games, I have come up with the following conjecture on what the tourney will look like for those of you whom enjoy the UPA Score Reporter Tournament Listing:

Check it out here:
http://www4.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=65&id=3091

Lukester said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lukester said...

The anonymous comment two above this was by no means created by Luke Johnson of Churchill High School in Eugene, OR... the similarity in 'time-stamp' has no association... it must have been another person up at 3am...

Anonymous said...

Churchill won their pool today.
chs-15 sheldon-1
chs-15 raw meat-1
chs-15 lakeside-6
chs-10 moho-6 (we stopped early)

Anonymous said...

"and it's a bit of a stretch to say that Churchill JV could beat a full-strength Alameda squad."

"no matter how united, Churchill B couldn't hope to beat Alameda (or South for that matter, save a bad split)"

well the upset happened and c hill jv came out on top 10-8 to dark meat, though losing to one of the south teams again c hill jv played hard still at the end of the game and beat south number 2 at universe point.

dont be surprised if churchill bounces back, is hyped, gets a little luck and beats TRIBE tomorrow! u never know

Lukester said...

scores have been updated... as to what i know at least.
http://www3.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=23&id=3091

Anonymous said...

Churchill A won the tournament.
15-10 (I think) over MOHO.

Anonymous said...

Way to go Churchill! You guys rock!
Kellie

Lukester said...

The tournament is now over and as soon as I have some more time I'd like to get a complete write-up online, but for the time being...

FINALS:
The final game put our Churchill Varsity squad against a talent and nearly savage (at least in the girls department) MOHO. Led by Casey Ikea (you spell that with a C or K?), MOHO came out early on Churchill and took a 2-0 lead. Churchill answered back with a 2 point run of their own. The crowds on the main sideline were dominated by the now finished Churchill JV1 team (who had just lost to Lakeside on universe point 11-10), the Churchill JV2 team remnants, a couple sheldon players, and I think the entire Tribe squad.
Points were traded and then Churchill opened up some nice looking flow and deep game to both our guys and girls. Churchill took half 8-5. A quick half and moments later Churchill broke again and was up 9-5 before MOHO was able to score. Points were traded with some incredibly fast flow from MOHO that seemed to get all the way to the goal line before self-destructing with either a foolish throw or heads up D by Churchill. It almost seemed as though Churchill's D would gain double to triple strength if MOHO marched it down the field rather than their much more sucessful deep game.
Churchill had a slight hick-up around 10-6 and let MOHO get a break after CHS dropped the disc in the endzone and let MOHO make two passes for the score. Though they'd get another break, MOHO simply didn't have the steam to run with CHS. CHS also, being a nearly entire senior class (with the exception of 3 females and one male who played down this weekend), had the height to over power MOHO's younger and shorter players.
At 13-9, the game got a bit more interesting as the side-line began to heckle. In particular there were comments made of Daniel Force and his lack of bidding. Seconds later he nearly gets one of the biggest lay-outs I've seen at Cold Fusion on one of the most talented females i've seen play. I don't remember her name, but both of the two females playing for MOHO this year were incredible. Shiny silver shorts was by far their star and with close to double-digit layouts... When I get my photos up and online, I hope that I got a few...
MOHO would get one more point before Churchill would take the game 15-10. The game would be a great one and though maybe not as exciting as last years that pitted Tribe against South in an all Oregon match-up, this would end up being the first time Churchill would win this tournament in 5 years of attending.


NOTE TO OTHER PLAYERS/COACHES AT COLD FUSION:
If people have scores to report, please add them to the UPA score reporter or post them here if you've not got a UPA membership.

Lukester said...

To Alameda:

I would like to thank your teams for coming this weekend to Cold Fusion. It was a great addition to our MS division to again have the Junior Meats. I'm sad that my time was torn between the Churchill JV1 and Varsity teams, but the little I saw of the Juniors meats and Raw Meat, it was great. It was really cool to see the coaching of pervious Dark Meat Kyle with the Middle schoolers. I'm excited to see the growth of your program and the continue promotion of this sport to the youngest generation. I hope that in the next year others in your area will see the development you've accomplished and attempt to start their own teams and programs.

As for your talented and well led varsity team, I was most excited to see them play. The talk and hype about who was going to take the tournament was beginning to get bigger than the tourney itself and it was nice to get games started Saturday morning. Our JV1 team was pumped to play you and was fueled by the comments online. With nothing to lose, they went all out and played a spectacular game (the best i've seen them play). I watched as your team struggled to get its' bearings that first game, but I also watched you bounce back in the second and third rounds to eventually take out South Eugene in an amazing game that pushed us into the 3rd spot in the always hated three way tie.

You were well coached, well spirited, and though there were tensions with our teams as always, I think we're both better for it. The rivalry will continue and at this point Churchill has a bit of an edge on you. We'l see what the spring holds. And tommy, keep the posts and the talk coming.

Anonymous said...

props to sheldon for hosting Cold Fusion.

Lukester said...

Photographs from my camera are now up and online here:

All shots: http://chsultimate.com/Gallery/coldfusionallphotos
Highlights only: http://chsultimate.com/Gallery/tournamentcoldfusionvHL

Anonymous said...

The only reason Alameda A lost is becuase Alameda lost alot of their players to injuries, and fouls, and the Churchill players were being really stingy with their foul calls. There were alot of bad foul calls on Churchills side, and it seemed they wanted to win more than they wanted to have fun. They really took the spirit out of our beloved game of Ultimate.

Asif said...

big ups to daniel force and johnny bloch, you guys keep it real. Lets play an open tournament before westerns, slopfest isnt going to do it for me. Congrats to churchill A, you guys outplayed everyone. Until next time

Hameed

Lukester said...

I wasn't there for the CHS Varsity vs. Alameda game on Sunday morning, but I'm curious how bad others felt the game went. The little I heard would suggest the opposite of the comment two above.

Also, I'm curious who you are "Anonymous?" please put your name down and own your comment.

Anonymous said...

I believe that both sides were calling everything fare but that we all just need to work on letting the two people involved in the play talk about what happened and not let everyone in the conversation, espiacially not someone that was on the other side of the field.

I personally saw a few things from both teams that didnt need to happen with things being taken too far or the sidelines getting in on the calls and getting pissed from the calls made by the players, its the players perspective and if they arent sure than it goes to the observer from what i understand, so sidelines just need to chill; however it was all taken care of. all in all it was a good game and i am looking forward to playing with CHS Varsity again.

Anonymous said...

Word. I agree with all that. The people on the field run the game. The sidelines were way too involved.

thomas said...

I didn't feel the game went badly at all, with the exception of a few too many pick calls and that one layout in the endzone. no spiking though, no yelling.


I co-sign on an Open matchup between us, we should schedule it.

Anonymous said...

I think the game was pretty chill. It seemed like there was great spirit comming from both teams. There was only one call that was questionable, and it could have been delt with in a better way. The people on the field should be the only ones talking, and the conflicts should be handled by the people involved in the play, and the captains. But in the end, churchill won, and it was fair and well deserved.... Of course... there WILL be a rematch.

Lukester said...

when and where? the tournaments we're looking at can be seen on our calendars online. The first of which is the Stanford Qualifier that we've been promised a bid to. That tourney is down south nearer to you than us. We hope to bring an open team down and see what is available for our ladies.