Monday, May 14, 2007

2007 Easterns seedings announced...

Pool A
Pennsbury
Princeton
Madison West
Northfield Mt Hermon

Pool B
North Hills
Needham
Memorial
Fieldstone

Pool C
Amherst
Colombia
LC Bird
Sycamore

Pool D
HB Woodlawn
Univ School of Nashville
Lexington Catholic
Middletown

And the girls...
Amherst
University School of Nashville
Memorial
Columbia

Andover
Amherst JV
Stuyvesant
HB Woodlawn
c/o UPA Score Reporter - Open, UPA Score Reporter - Womens | Official Tournament Site

Whats interesting to me is how much the upper seeds have played each other. Seems like a high level of travel is becoming to norm, or at least expected if you want to become an elite high school team.

Also interesting that many of the top programs in the country have both open and girls teams. Perhaps it can be inferred that the reason these teams remain at an elite level is because of their commitment to developing a fundamentally sound program for ultimate - including jv teams, open and girls teams etc.

58 comments:

Anonymous said...

HB Woodlawn (Yorktown) getting 4th seed... wow.

Anonymous said...

How is Needham so low? I know that Columbia beat them but shouldn't they be in the top four with a 2-2 record against Amherst? The rankings should be 1 Pennsbury 2 Northills 3 Amherst 4 Needham 5 HB woodlawn 6 University School of Nashvill 7) Columbia

It only makes sense....

Anonymous said...

i mean, if you go by the rri needham is 7th. The rri seems to be the best way since there are so many teams headed to easterns that are yet to play each other. Its going to be a real fun weekend

andrew
Needham Ultimate

Anonymous said...

This s funny becuase its for second place in the east...Paideia of course being arguably the best team in the united states.

I'm on Chuf, I'm really dissapointed we can't be there.

Anonymous said...

What's the deal with Paideia never being at Easterns? Is it a graduation conflict?

Kyle Weisbrod said...

Yep. Nationals/Easterns has conflicted with Paideia's graduation since 2004 (Corvallis).

-Kyle

Anonymous said...

NWS would slaughter Paidea.... they are not argueably the best team in the nation

TomBassett said...

it'd be a ridiculously close game. but i think paideia would pull out on top.

Anonymous said...

can we shut the hell up about nws and paideia already? neither of the two are going to easterns, so lets worry about the teams who are

Anonymous said...

no. Northwest would just have to shutdown Grant, George, and Ollie. I realize that shutting these players down would be incredibly hard, but NWS has the depth to do it. Mylo and Casey would alternate on Grant while Sam K.S. would shut down stubbs. Jeremy would take care of Ollie and NWS has Ben Vigus. Perhaps the most underated player in the nation. NWS has about 10 more incredible players.
NWS would beat Paidea no question

Kyle Weisbrod said...

Hey, instead of talking about this, let's make it happen. The Atlanta mixed team for YCC is going to be mostly Paideia players and will include Grant, George and Ollie as well as a few ok Paideia guys by the names of Charlie Herrig, Jon and Michael Terry, Chris Kocher, Jack Barrow, and Allen Jarvis that have been known to toss the 'bee from time to time.

Let's get all of Seattle's finest in to the mixed division and, while it won't be a true measure of how Paideia and Northwest would match-up it would be a great game and would sure beat talking about it.

-Kyle

Anonymous said...

philly is gonna defend themselves in the mixed division and they have alot of their talent from last years open team, so dont think the only competition will be b/t seattle and atlanta...philly is out to show their skill

Unknown said...

I think we call can agree the two best games, as far as pool play will go, will be North Hills vs. Needham and Amherst vs. CHS. im so mad i wont be able to play/see it but i can only imagine how ridiulous those games are gonna be. I think they will be on par with the Pennsbury vs. CHS quarter final game that UPA stated was probably the best game of the entire tourney

Kyle Weisbrod said...

That's what I'm talking about! Mixed is going to be the top division this year! Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis and New England, if you want to test your best against the best, put them in the mixed division!

Anonymous said...

How about we get back on the original thread of Easterns. No one is disputing the fact that Paideia and NWS are amazing teams, so we don't need every thread turning into who would win a game between two teams no one has ever seen play each other(which kinda sucks).

Anonymous said...

needham sucks

needham #13

Anonymous said...

unfortunatley, the Seattle YCC mixed team will not consist of NWS players. I'm pretty sure that the NWS players (Jeremy, Casey, Sam, Ben, Milo) are playing open to avenge their 3rd place finish last year. I'm not completely sure but thats what it's lookin like. Nathan Hales elite and NWS elite will being playing open i believe.

Anonymous said...

Mixed is gonna be THE division, forget open. If Seattle doesnt send those players to mix, then they copped out, and Philly and Atlanta will make it the best Mixed division ever.

Anonymous said...

Seattle will take probably focus on open this year. Seattle might send their underclassmen that were on the open team last year Sunshine to mixed. There are only 5 people on Sunshine that were not seniors last year or this year on the team last year. none of these players are from NWS. so there are 2 lakeside players, 2 seattle academy players, and one hale player that played Sunshine last year who might come to mixed. It hasnt been decided yet.

Unknown said...

Philly doesn't have the girls to compete in mixed, Atlanta is just bitter because they didn't get an open bid, and Seattle has chances at both the Open and Girls divisions - why blow it by putting all of their eggs the Mixed basket for one potential matchup against Atlanta?

Mainly I just want the Seattle players to go open for selfish reasons - I want the open division to be the strongest because this is my one chance to play at YCC's and I want the best competition.

And if you want, you can always set up a Seattle/Atlanta grudge match Friday afternoon or Sunday after finals. I'd watch. But I want to get my chance to match up on Jeremy and Casey. A little preview of Bay Area Sectionals/NW Regionals next year, even.

Unknown said...

once again, needham #13 is NOT needham, unless specified by the real 13 erik h.

Anonymous said...

whoever is doing that, you are a douchebag, stop

Anonymous said...

How could Needham end up lower than HB, look at the teams they've played, who they have beaten, it seems like a no brainer to have Needham higher!

Anonymous said...

The Northwest Paideia argument is pretty ridiculous....I also think it's kinda ridiculous that so many people think that Northwest would own Paideia....From what I have seen Paideia looks extremely talented, deep, and well coached.....so I would suprised if Paideia were to get "owned" by Northwest

Anonymous said...

It looks like some of the pools for saturday were set up for the games on sunday. For instance if the seeds hold it looks like YHB would play Columbia, and Pennsbury would play Needham or North Hills or some other quality matchup like that.It also seems like there was fight for a #1 seed between YHB Columbia and North Hills and the question of who should be no.1 out of those teams will be settled on sunday

Anonymous said...

has yhb beat any big name teams? i dont see why they r so high up in the seeding

Anonymous said...

its really ridiculous

Anonymous said...

Why is everyone complaining about YHB's seeding? The only eastern team they have lost to is Pennsbury. They are 21-2 and I realize they haven't had the hardest schedule, but it's not necessarily and easy one. With the exception of Pennsbury, they had no trouble at any of the tournaments they have been to (YHB Invite, Born to Dive, VA states). Maybe Needham should be ranked higher, but I think YHB is a lot better than you guys are giving them credit for.

- Austin
Godwin

Anonymous said...

Ryan,

Philly doesn't have the girls to compete in Mixed? I'm sorry for being crass - but it reads like you're typing out your butt. What does "not compete" mean? Out of a pool of eight, where do you envision us finishing? Bitter or not (I vote not), Kyle knows exactly what he's writing about. Mixed is gonna be nasty this year. Our girls will accept your apology in Blaine.

-Olson

Anonymous said...

I don't know what the philosophies of other regions are, but here in Seattle, basically tryouts have been solely for the open/girls teams, and those that don't make the cut played mixed. I assume that is the mentality of most players trying out, though I'm sure SOME would prefer to play mixed... Seattle is going to have a VERY strong open team this year. I don't think a large group of players (NWS) are going to just rise to the "challenge" and play mixed for the heck of it; most of the YCC open team players play regularly on open teams, not mixed teams, and there's no valid reason to just say "everybody go mixed, let's make that THE division this year" just for the heck of it.
-Nigel, NH
-Nigel, NH

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Seattle could form a VERY strong mixed team, but there would be no point because open is what Seattle highschoolers have been playing, and there is no reason to go mixed.There is no doubt that the Seattle mixed team will be much stronger this year than last year, but to suggest that Seattle make the mixed there division is ridiculous. Seattle will take open no problem this year. Last year was a fluke because Seattle was tired after a long ass game with Minnasota.

Starting O line:
Jeremy N
Nigel
Sam K.S.
Jimmy H
Ben Vigus
Allan L
Casey Ikeda

Anonymous said...

last year was a fluke? to say a game was long and then be not as well ready for the next game, is to say that the team wasn't as good as the other. I think denver beat seattle, cause they were the better team. Denver was kinda blown out in the finals cause philly had the best endurance of all the teams, but denver was ready to take on Seattle and won that fight. It goes to show that endurance matters, which seattle didnt have...evidenced by the poster sayin they were tired and thus they lost.

Anonymous said...

Seattle would kill denver 9 out of 10 times. that was a lucky win. We'll see this year who wins it. I play for Philly and watched that game. It was indeed a fluke. Seattle vs us wouldve been an amazing game

Anonymous said...

There is no way anybody can tell how the finals would turn out if Seattle had made it. Colorado legitimately beat us, but it is true that we were all tired. This is not an excuse, just a fact. Colorado was a very good team and it is unfortunate that they did not have more energy in the finlas. That was last year so it's over. This year Seattle will continue to be strong, but nobody should make assumptions that Seattle will take open without a struggle.

Jimmy Hooper
#23 Seattle Sunshine

Anonymous said...

seriously, thats ridiculous to claim a fluke after a loss. oh and, as for reasons to play mixed, how about the outside of seattle, philly and atlanta look to be the strongest cities in the country for ultimate right now, that sounds good enough to go mixed.

Unknown said...

Except that, ew, it's mixed. There's a reason nobody watches mixed doubles in tennis.

Kyle Weisbrod said...

Here's why Seattle should play mixed:

Let's say it's the adult club division that Seattle is Furious George (lost in the finals of the previous year's club nationals in the open division).

Sockeye (Philadelphia), who won the open divison the previous year decided that they were going to play in the mixed division.

Buzz Bullets (Atlanta), who won the World Championships were allowed to and decided to play in the mixed division as well.

Now would Furious (Seattle) be proving much (if anything) about their ability by playing in the depleted open divison missing both the reigning world and national champions? Or would Furious (Seattle) rise up to the hardest challenge they could find to face Sockeye (Philladelphia) and Buzz Bullets (Atlanta) in the mixed division?

In the end the value of a title is only measured by the challenges overcome to gain that title. Yes, Atlanta and Philadelphia have failed their counterparts in some respects by not doing what it takes to get teams in all three divisions and forcing other cities to make this hard choice (I know that we'll be working to change that next year in Atlanta). But, what's done is done. It behooves all of the cities to put their best in the mixed division where at the end of the tournament we all would know who is the most deserving champion.

As a side, it would be an interesting shift for mixed to be the most anticipated/intense division at a championship event. Will it be able to hold it's own?

I believe it would be awesome.

Anonymous said...

ryan i totally can see why you get alot of girls with that "eww its mixed" attitude.

Mike Mullen said...

Kyle,

You wrote, "In the end the value of a title is only measured by the challenges overcome to gain that title."

Are you saying the YCC open title will be tainted because certain teams won't be there? That kind of argument is a slippery slope in so many ways when talking about youth ultimate championships. Are you sure that is what you meant to say. It is kind of coming off as "we won't be there so it isn't as valuable."

How does that make the people in Cincy, Pittsburg, and NJ feel since they only have open bids at YCC?

Or maybe I am just mis-understanding the argument. It is the end of the school year and I am admittedly kind of slow mentally right now.

From my point of view the teams from Pittsburg, NJ, and Cincy (as well as the other open YCC teams) are all going to be significant challenges to overcome and whichever team wins that division will have earned the right to hold that trophy high without any asterisk attached.

-Mike

Unknown said...

But the question is, would Rough Riders be willing to play second fiddle to Furious guys in the Mixed division when they (assuming they would make nationals and be at least the #2 seed) had their own shot at a championship? And a chance to avenge their Regionals (Westerns) loss to Fury (Oregon)?

And don't think of Seattle as Furious - remember, they didn't make the finals. Think of them as Chain, with a chance to get revenge against Furious (Denver), who will be looking to win a championship after losing in the finals to a team not competing. And Johnny Bravo (Pittsburgh) brings a determined team from a budding ultimate hotspot hoping to show that a semifinal appearance the year before was a sign of things to come.

So really, you can make any point you want by drawing comparisons to elite club level ultimate. But the reality is, in youth ultimate the amount of turnover is so high that nobody really knows what surprises will pop up each year - who would have picked a Denver - Philly finals last year?

And I'm a firm believer in having the best players in the sport playing in a game where they can play to their highest potential - this is in Open and Womens play. You can read the comments here about playing both Open and Mixed or Womens and Mixed and how the single-gender divisions offer much more demanding and difficult and, IMO, entertaining play.

Unknown said...

That link didn't work:

http://gcooke.blogspot.com/2007/05/hardest-thing-to-do-in-ultimate-is.html

Also, thank you Mike, I agree completely with that post.

Anonymous said...

GIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLSGIRLS!

Anonymous said...

Personally, I'm very excited by the competition that there will be in both open and mixed divisions this year at YCC. I would love to play against Atlanta in the mixed division and I would also love to play against any of the teams in open. YCC is such a great oppoortunity for kids that don't play for powerhouse programs (me) to play against the best that the country has to offer.

Ryan S.
Ballard Ultimate

NJ State Youth Coordinator said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyle Weisbrod said...

Mike, of course there is no asterisk. The teams that win the open, girls, and mixed championships will still be champions. They are the best team in the country in that division. And certainly no offense meant toward Cincy, NJ, and Pittsburgh but all of this talk about how it's a shame Paideia and Northwest didn't play each other is prompting me to suggest a solution to this problem happening again in August where we hear "Philly/Atlanta would (not) have beaten Seattle/New England/Denver/Minneapolis" had they been in the same division.

As for women playing second fiddle, I am certainly playing up the boys side because I know there are more boys here, but the Atlanta girls (all Paideia) are no pushovers either (as anyone who watched the finals of the Amherst Invite can attest) and it would once again be shame for the Seattle, Denver, and Boston girls not to get the opportunity to match-up with the Atlanta girls (I haven't seen the Philly girls play so will not comment on them). And with players like Sophie Darch, Lane Seidor, Alisha Kramer and Paula Seville, you better bet were planning to use them.

Ryan, your and others' theories on open/women vs. mixed are interesting but the fact is that there has never been an event where mixed received the top billing and the top players, mostly due to the fact that open/womens started way earlier. Open/women had the best players and so they attracted all of the players that wanted to be the best. Well, here's a new opportunity where a lot of the top players in the youth game are going to be in the mixed division. Seattle, New England, Denver, and Minneapolis have a choice. As I see it, the bigger challenge is the mixed division.

Anonymous said...

Okay, although I'd love to see a Seattle mixed team with their top players, I acknowledge that it's probably just not going to happen because the teams have probably already been picked. Oh well.
What I'd love to try to organize is a scrimmage between the NWS players at YCC and the Paideia players at some point during the weekend. It wouldn't be formal, it shouldn't be full length, but it would be a really fun way to have a fun game with some great players. Think about it. Not all of Paideia's top players will be there, but a good number of them will, and I'm sure it would be a pretty fierce game.

Anonymous said...

What about Max Rhodes and Christo Furgilicious?? those two YHB dudes are good, and sexy as shiiitte

Anonymous said...

Seattle teams haven't been picked, but a collective decision to stack the mixed team seems very unlikely at this point...

Anonymous said...

I see that AHS has a mix bid...are they thinking about stacking there mix team?

Unknown said...

AHS? What? If it's Atlanta you're talking about, then yes, since they don't have any other bids. If you're thinking Amherst, I think that the womens division will be expecting a strong Oregon (Churchill/South Eugene), Seattle (Hale/NWS), and New England (Amherst/Andover) contingent. And the men's side will be strong too with Seattle (NWS/Hale), Pittsburgh(Lebo/NH/Hampton), Denver (3 of the 4 semifinalists from last year), NJ (Columbia/Princeton), and New England (Amherst/Needham/Alex Kapinos)

Anonymous said...

pittsburgh has never gotten more than 6 on seattle. ever.

Anonymous said...

i know New England is going to be sick, but if seattle stacks the mix team...will New England stack there mix team?

Anonymous said...

can we get back to easterns discussion?

Anonymous said...

not until there is a separate YCC thread...

Anonymous said...

there is semi serious discusion about seattle going mixed this year...who knows what'll happen

Anonymous said...

Seattle going mixed would provide an epic Seattle-Atlanta matchup. Is there any way Eugene could go mixed? I think they could put together a mixed team that would be pretty sick. The Churchill girls won Westerns. And an all-star South Eugene and Churchill boys squad would be very solid.

Anonymous said...

THis is why we should still have nationals.

Anonymous said...

true, we should have nationals. Seattle is seriously considering stacking their mixed team. Nothing for sure yet, but i would say that the mixed teams should be ready for a ballin seattle team that is for sure gonna beat down some teams.