What a weekend! Though I'm way too tired to give a full acount of all that took place, I was so proud to be part of what took place at this year's 2007 Westerns.
Congrats to Northwest and South Eugene (1st & 2nd Open Division) as well as Churchill and Northwest (1st & 2nd Girls Division)!
For those of you with comments, write-ups, ramblings, props to other players, photo-links, etc... let this be the post to have them live.
Monday, May 14, 2007
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66 comments:
Northwest is without questiont the best team in the west. For all those people saying that Churchill would beat them (or give them a good game) are clearly just wrong. NW beat south 15-4 and South beat churchill 15-11.
oh yeah nws is the best in teh west but i still do believe that churchill would have givin them a game. losing to south wont help that argument though. we beat south twice at state they played a great game and we werent ready for it...also it was 14-11.
dylan freechild
chs
that is very true. Also, South's game is not as well fitted for playing NWS. They rely more on star players and when they got tired out (when the game was tied 4-4) NWS just took over (11-0 run). Churchill is deeper than South and would've fought hard. Northwest is obviously the dominant team at westerns though.
-Trevor Smith
-CHS Ultimate
Nathan Hale was probably the second best team at Westerns. Up until the semi-finals they coasted and they were pushing Northwest in the semi-finals. And then Nathan Hale lost one of their key fast players (Alan L?) to a knee injury after he made a sick D in the endzone. Hale continued playng a "very spirited" game but the depth, athleticism and teamwork of Northwest finally wore Hale down.
At the end of a two day tourney it is really clear how important it is to have enough depth to confidently go 12-13 players down in your roster. Much has been said about Northwest's stars. Northwest also had by far, the deepest roster.
Posts from 'weekend thread' about westerns.
At 5/14/2007 1:40 AM, Anonymous said...
Great play at Westerns this weekend. Northwest is in a class by themselves. On offense they score at will because they always seem to have 2-3 mismatches in their favor. Their defense is like a pack of sharks, ready to pounce on the slightest mistake.
However, Northwest loses a lot of seniors. Look to South Eugene to break the Northwest lock at Westerns next year.
At 5/14/2007 2:24 AM, Anonymous said...
Yeah, even though the final wasn't close at all we got to see some cool match ups people were trashing about before: Casey Ikeda on Jacob Janin and John Bloch on Sam K-S. It was cool that both teams let these guys mark each other for a bunch of points. It was the most interesting thing in the game.
Although, I have to say, South was looking dead after their huge semi, which was their biggest game.
Jacob got pretty tooled by Casey. One huck got put up that turned into a half-field sprint off between these guys. I dunno if Casey got a quicker read than Janin but he definately out ran him, catching up from behind and grabbing the disc. Janin's leg cramp? might have been a factor, but it was pretty much the best showdown you can ask for to settle the who's faster debate.
Sam K-S vs. Johnny Bloch was closer. Skies and stuff went back and forth. In the last point, as far as I could see, Johnny straight up skied him, but then K-S got a huge handblock on him, getting the disc back and scoring.
But again, the South guys had a lot more play time probably, since their performance was huge for their team, who doesn't have as many mega players as NWS. Their last game (the final) wasn't the best time to judge, but whatev, it was really fun to watch.
Any other perspectives or cool match ups at Westerns this year?
-Alex from ICS
At 5/14/2007 12:04 PM, Anonymous said...
johnny did not sky k.s. John was in front and just went to the disc while k.s. just waited for it. I would have to say K.S. won this match up. Casey easily won the Jacob Jannin match up. But Jacob Jannin is ridiculously good.
At 5/14/2007 12:20 PM, Anonymous said...
Casey and Jacob was a sick match up, both are amazingly quick players with sick layouts. The play mentioned above where Casey ran past Jacob, Jacob did cramp up. As for Sam and Johnny, they were great to watch, both skied each other, but only on defense. and in the final point sam got the first d of the point by just running by johnny, then john got it back with a sick sky (I think jhon just read it better and got in front of sam, but it looked dope), and then sam got another d on johnny with a first throw hand block..leading to a quick nws score. Intense and fairly fun game to watch, good match ups and players on both sides.
-a fan
Props to Durham Hall for putting up the most points against northwest all tournament.
photos anyone?
NWS, CHS, NH, and SEHS lose a great deal of seniors next year. Rockhurst did not live up to their hype at all. They lost to the 10th seed Seattle Academy. TWICE. Do either of these teams lose anybody? What about Cathedral adn Cretim-Derham
when do eastern seedings come out
they are out. Seeding is as follows:
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
For the question of whether Seattle Academy loses anyone next year the answer is pretty much no. We only have one senior on the team and he isnt a starter with many other teams losing seniors Seattle Academy will be putting up a hell of a fight for first next year.
Michael Revelas #8
Seattle Academy
you and lakeside.
It was a good weekend erbody, and though I didnt do well, we had fun. Thanks to all the seniors you guys were sick, specially 15 on Rockhurst, you were particullary nasty. Peace yall,
Chris Pigott 15 Lakeside
Churchill photographs are coming online this evening:
Westerns 2007 Photographs:
Highlights - www.chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07hl
Girls - www.chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07girls
Open - www.chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07open
South - www.chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07south
Cretin-Derham Hall loses 8 seniors, the majority being major contributors to the team. Not sure how we'll do next year, but we have a pretty solid group of returning
Juniors, sophmores and freshmen, Lead by Matt "Jawsome" Kortz (he's going to be awesome). We were disappointed in our 7th place finish, but we're looking forward to State in June.
Firstly, Northwest is an amazing team. I think the Northwest Paideia argument is ridiculous. Northwest would beat them down. Northwest should just fly over to Georgia and prove it, they've got the $$$.
In the finals we just ran out of gas. Northwest has speed, height, throws, and defense, not to mention depth.
I agree that Churchill would have faired better against Northwest in the finals because they are a deeper team than us, but there is no doubt in my mind that if there was a South Churchill rematch, the result would be the same as the semis. When we lost by two to them at state we were missing three of our starting seven.
Also, I didn't sky Sam KS on the last point. I had better position, and it was absolutely pointless at that point anyways since we were down 14-4. Casey vs Jacob while Jacob is fresh is a completely different story, and a more even matchup.
I would like to congratulate Northwest on their win. They are the most amazing high school team I have ever seen. Thanks for the great schooling.
Johnny Bloch
#8
Axe Ultimate
NWS would own Paidea. Paidea drops off after only 3 players. NWS has 10 amazing players that would kill Paideas top 10.
Congrats to Northwest for winning again, its good that their seniors got to end it like that. I think it kind of lowers the hype on some of the other seniors this weekend. From who I played, Axl on Rockhurst it was sick playing against you even though you skied everyone on our team. Johnny and Ivan on South you guys were sick and made our game one of the best of the weekend. Also all the Hale seniors thanks for all the good games.
Anyway, is anyone planning on putting out videos from Westerns? Is Churchill making another Westerns Story?
Simon Montague
Seattle Academy #9
Who is the best player in the west now that all the seniors are gone? Jacob? what about seattle kids, nws sorta got all the hype from seattle.
you can't really answer that question. Jacob is an absolutely amazing cutter and defender, but it really depends on what your looking for. What is the deal with the seattle teams though? is Seattle Academy gonna be strong next year? is #2 (name?) gone? Lakeside? whats the word? is south gonna take it easily?
#2 on SAAS, Jimmy Hooper, will be a senior next year. he's pretty money. SAAS will be hot next year.
Paideia does drop off after the top 3, but so does NWS. Just because you haven't heard of Allen, Charlie, the Terry brothers, Rob, and the other kids from Paideia doesn't mean that they're not at least as good as some chumps from Seattle.
You cant seriously be calling anyone on the NWS team "chumps from Seattle" without being able to back it up. NWS definiently doesn't drop off after the top 3, there is lots of hype about Jeremy, Casey, KS, etc... but even without these 3 they have plenty of people who can play. Milo is an amazing player with great speed, Chris scores like its nothing. I don't really think i need to name and go into detail about everyone on their team, but the bottom line is that NWS is a great team and everyone on the team can play.
Im not saying they would destroy Paideia. But honestly bro you can't say that their team is made up of a bunch of chumps unless you want to try and back it up... and good luck with that.
Like Johnny i would also like to say congrats to Northwest and their threepeat of winning Westerns.
Michael Revelas #8
Seattle Academy
lets be quite clear, NWS may "drop off" beyond the top tier players, but it certainly isn't after three. milo, casey, ben, sam, and jeremy. five of the best players in the game.
The nws 5 guys have always been milo, sam, jeremy, ben, and casey, and they are some of the best in the game, with ridiculous speed and talent. However that nws team is very deep. As already mentioned, with people trying to mark ben and sam it leaves chris wide open to score at will. They also have logan, another 6 foot something tall guy, along with nick and austin who are not only young (sophomores>) but also sick on both d, and o.
It would be an epic game against paidea but nws is deep and from what i saw in the finals, almost flawless.
-a fan
anyone know who this is from churchill -
http://chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07hl/IMG_0146
because that is an amazing picture and layout.
and again here - http://chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07hl/IMG_4989
and again here -
http://chsultimate.com/Gallery/westerns07hl/IMG_5302
luke, im not sure how involved you are with the women's team at CHS (from what i can gather you are very involved, but i dont want to step on toes if someone else coaches), but let me tell you the pictures are impressive, but even more impressive is how well your teams appear to lay out.
anyone who has tried to get someone else to layout before knows how difficult it is to explain and convince someone to throw their body onto the ground. to see it done so fundamentally sound (and captured on film) is just awesome.
Nick (on NWS) is a freshy
laying out is extremely over rated, it is just a sign that a) your teams throws are sub-par, and b) your just plain slow.
or its a sign that you are capable of playing motivated defense an extra 5-6 feet in every direction? or that you are able to have a competitive edge when someone of a comparable athleticism level guards you?
consider the highlights from some of the top club level players in the world - http://www.ultivillage.com/images/stories/videos/Disc1_trailer.mov
certainly they are neither slow nor have sub-par throws.
Word to Johnny B, NWS is ridiculous. They have amazing individuals and are the deepest team I’ve seen in high school ultimate. You can stick with them for the first few points (we lasted 4) but in the end they just wear you out. One thing that’s not talked about enough is their endurance. A good team has to be able to win more than one tough game on Sunday. Regardless of the individual match-ups in quickness and skying ability, they were able to last longer, and we were exhausted from our game against CHS. This is not an excuse, it’s just one of the many reasons why they are so unbeatable. Why didn’t they just play the college series?
As for next year my pick is Seattle Academy. As far as I know all the teams in the semis loose a lot of talent. Is this true? What does Hale look like next year?
Jacob Janin
Axe Ultimate
Hale has Jake Coate (Jr) and Casey Bateman (Fr) from the varsity team returning, and surrounding them will be a lot of freshmen and sophomores. We had a lot of new players this year, and some of them are drastically improving and should be able to step up and fill the void somewhat; i don't think anyone can get a clear picture of what Hale will look like until midway through the season next year. They'll be raw, no doubt.
I'm about ready to predict a SAAS-Lakeside final, considering each team is losing 1 player.
-Nigel, NH
NWS won because they have talent AND depth. In Westerns, depth is an important factor. They carried 23 players to the tournament. On Saturday and Sunday morning, all 23 players saw action. There is no doubt the “fab five” are incredible players, but NWS goes much deeper. Chris H., Logan S., Riley M. along with a number of soph/fresh are very talented players. Remember, NWS game with Hale ended on the time cap as did Churchill/South. It was the fact that key NWS players didn’t have to play as much on Saturday and Sunday morning that also made a difference.
I think everyone agrees that NWS is ridiculously good and is by far the best highschool team in the west. Besides the five all-stars, they have atleast 15 more solid players. They will be strong next year no doubt. Paidea is also very strong, but i would have to say NWS would win by no less than 5. I have played with and against Allen Jarvis and another varsity paidea player (Kale?) at NUTC and they are very talented and great players, but NWS has about 10 players that are just as good, if not better. I have played against Ollie and he is an amazing player and definatley one of the best in the nation (as is Stubbs and Grant), but Milo, Ben, and K.S. are just as good. It would be a close game for most of the game, but NWS is just too deep. It wouldnt be Jeremy and Casey who would win it for NWS by themselves, it would be the depth of NWS that would push through for them in the end. Paidea is an amazing team (the best in the east), but NWS would win.
Jimmy Hooper
#2 seattle academy
so there has been a ton of talk about the boys side of things, but what about the girls? how did churchill come from seemingly nowhere to win it all? looking at the scores it looked like hopkins and hale nearly took them out on saturday. what happened sunday to make them so dominate?
They were missing a worlds player for the hopkins and hale game on saturday.
That 9-8 win on saturday against hale was huge for churchill. That made sure NWS have to play hale in their semi, when churchill played Lakeside (who had just come out of a long quarter battling south 10-9). I'm not trying to stab at chs's dominance cause they obviously own, but the seeding (which was accurate) and bracket definately helped, as they played some tired teams on sunday.
It seemed like the same situation as the boys side where the losing team just ran out of gas after a hard semis game. Churchill cruised through the semis as did the Northwest boys.
Predictions for open next year:
Teams:
1. Northwest
2. Seattle Academy
3. Lakeside
4. Hopkins
Players:
1. Jacob Janin (senior, S. Eugene)
2. Jimmy Hooper (senior, SAAS)
3-7. A bunch of heretofore unknown NWS players
Collin Smith
Churchill #3
Churchill women were clearly in the more difficult of the two pools and they fought two very hard games on saturday, both ending on universe point. This set them up to have an easy road to finals sunday.
reply to anonymous 2:32
would you really rather watch a game of ultimate where every single throw is perfect, and every player is a bullet and can catch every pass. with no lay outs, no skies, nothing?? or would you like to watch a game w/ sick lay out D's, bid scores and sick skys?? the second option sounds WAY more appealing to me.
Christine Wilson #19
(the girl in the second pic mccabe mentioned. )
CHS ultimate
Reply to mccabe:
Ya, luke is awesome and motivating! we would be no where as improved as we are today w/ out him.
and the girl in the other pics is claire neyman #6, freshman.
Western's was a lot of fun if, perhaps, not as succesful as our team had hoped.
On a less positive note: Did any other team get food poisoning (vomiting, diarhea, etc.)at Nationals? Atleast six of our players had some of those symptoms... just wondering
that last comment was from
Carl Peaslee #00
Hopkins
Northwest's problem next year will be size. They will probably have the most skilled team at westerns next year but as far as I know they dont have a single kid over 6 feet tall for next year. They will struggle for a 4peat? is that how its said? Saas will be very good next year as will Lakeside, our games are always extremely contested, but what about from Eugene? how will the Eugene teams be next year after the CHS seniors are gone and South loses John Bloch
Chris Pigott 15 Lakeside
Chris you are an excellent young man and a very big threat going deep. The Lakeside Hopkins games were full of good spirit and were fun. I would say that nationals next year will be interesting. NWS might be as goood next year, but they are loosing some great players, well hope to see you next year.
Please, please stop the Paideia/NWS madness. This topic has become a train wreck. Tragically lost in this wreck is many people's sound judgement and credibility.
No one knows how the game would play out, nobody (except for Hopkins) has attended a tournament with both teams this season (this is not an invitation for Hopkins players to post on their prediction of the two teams), and both teams established that they were dominant against the teams that they played.
Anyone claiming that Paideia would win or Northwest would win are risking their ability to ever be taken seriously when it comes to talking about Ultimate again - I would hesitate to vote for the Callahan nominee that you hype.
Paideia 2007 is a great team. Northwest 2007 is a great team. There have been other great teams at other times like Amherst 2003-2006 and maybe North Hills 2008 and, of course, Paideia 1996 (you don't even know ;).
Now let's get back to talking about the UPA poisoning players at Westerns. Is it a conspiracy? Should the players at Easterns pack their own lunches? You can never be to careful with those black-hearted UPA administrators and their nefarious plans.
BTW, all of the youth players and coaches in Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Boston should go to the UPA Strategic Planning summit and have your voice heard on the future of Ultimate: http://www.upa.org/upa/strategicplanning. It'll be awesome and you'll get free food and a disc.
-Kyle
I'd like to say that, as a Paideia senior, I'd love to play NWS, and it'd would be a really fun game. We love Ultimate, competition, and we're game for anything involving a disc.
On a less positive note, I'd like to mention that Paideia doesn't condone calling other teams' players chumps, especially teams we haven't played. I've asked many of my teammates, and none of them claim to have put that post up (most had not even heard of this website). I do not mean to denounce the person who wrote that comment, but it looks (from various amazingly correct spellings) that it could be a Paideia player, and I do not want irreverent talk about other teams and players to be associated with Paidiea Ultimate. I'd like to also apologize for my team if it in fact was a Paideia player that wrote that.
A lot of Paideia's players are going to YCC (mixed - Georgia doesn't get a bid to open this year), and we'd love to have a really intense game with some of these Seattle players. I hope that maybe NWS can start coming to the Paideia Cup next year and help us create an even better tournament and bring back a bicoastal, national-like tournament to youth Ultimate.
Yeah, the Hopkins games were sick, i actually had a lot of fun in those, and it was kinda tight that we split even, Alter was just a sick matchup with me he had some just nasty hucks. Too bad hes a senior cuz that was just fun, Next year is gonna be tight too and I hope we can get some redemption at Hopkins... again.. since two years in a row you guys have knocked us out.
Chris Pigott 15 lakeside
Saturday, as said before, Churchill womens was probably put in the harder pool, with Nathan Hale and Hopkins in it as well. The first game was more of a grudge match against Hopkins and lasted until universe point and CHS ended out on top. Then their game against Nathan Hale was even more challenging, with Churchill almost losing, but again setting it up for a universe point and a win. This forced NWS to play hale, as said before. As well as CHS girls would have a very easy ride, with SAS for their quarters and Lakeside for their Semis. NWS had to play Hopkins for their quarters, and Nathan Hale for their semis, leaving them tired after the two hard games. As well as Churchill being pumped and warmed up for the finals.
it would be sick if it was possible to have a Northwest Paideia showcase game at YCC. just putting that out there
yes that would be amazing. I dont know if it would happen though because there were only about 13 NWS players total at YCC last year. It would be such a good game though. Although i had one post about the game, I agree with kyle in that nobody can really say who would win because it is simply too close to call. It is pointless to keep talking about it.
Jimmy Hooper
#2 Seattle Academy
Jimmy for callahan
I second Allen's comments... Please come to the Paideia Cup next year, April 19-20. We know cost can often be prohibitive to fly 'cross country, but I urge west coast teams to plan now for such a trip.
Following worlds last summer there was so much earnest talk about making sure NWS could attend the second annual PiCup, making it happen since it didn't in '06, either, but then the dates just didn't work out for Jeremy and Casey and the rest of the boys to make to Atlanta.
[By the way, it would've been an honor to have played against those two and the rest of their NWS teammates. I was blown away by Jeremy and Casey at worlds; it was a pleasure and a blast to work with them on the US squad. And I can only imagine how good the rest of the team is with Sam K-S, Milo and Vigus, who all impressed at tryouts, too.]
Luke and his Churchill teams also applied to the '07 PiCup, but were unable to find affordable airfare.
But that was this season, and this season is over for many, if not most, of us. How 'bout next spring, Folks?
The PiCup will house you, feed you, and hand you a free disc to top it all off. I know the toughest part of the trip can be the travel costs, if not senior trip conflicts, but just find a way to get here the 3rd weekend in April. This goes for all west coast teams; though we only host 8 teams in the cup, we'd love to have west coast presence in '08.
Michael
Paideia
Carl, Westerns tournament staff were saddened to learn that some Hopkins players got sick at the event. We all hope that they have a speedy recovery. We did ask around on Sunday morning, but no other teams reported any problems.
Kyle, I assume that your conspiracy comment was tongue in cheek, so I won't go into lengths to defend the food service practices of the UPA. However, I will say that the UPA is always very committed to putting on safe events that are free of sabotage where all teams are treated fairly.
Thanks to everyone who came to Westerns in Burlington,
William Bartram
DiscNW
Thanks chris, it was awesome matching up against you and your team. You guys have great spirit, and it was great competing against your team. If you want revenge, how about you go to Wisconsin where I will be next year after you graduate. Good luck next year.
Zach Alter
Hopkins # 66
I just wanted to comment and wonder if other teams thought there was a real lack of field food. I know they had lunch you could buy, but we already paid for the tournament and I would expect some better field food. There weren't even basics like bagels. I just thought it could have been a lot better. Anyone else think this?
Daniel Force
Churchill
i 100 percent agree, especially after the westerns in boulder. In boulder, there was food, drinks even free massages. Up in Burlington, nada. oh and i thought the logo design was lacking as well but thats just my opinion.
That's a question that would get a better response if you send it to UPA staff directly.
seems like he is asking if other teams had similar thoughts rather than what the UPA's official position on food is.
I agree. there was you standard tournament food in the morning (bagels, bananas, and some other fruit), but it ran out before 11:00am.
I think they just didn't fully understand how much food a hungry ultimate boys( and girls) consume...
actually, the real deal was that there was supposed to be a hired food group to come in for the tournament but they flaked out at the last moment.
Oh, that would make sense if that were the case.
Daniel Force
#12
Churchill
So who is going to win next year?
Seattle Academy, Northwest, or Lakeside....
Didnt Lakeside get like 11th in Westerns? And isnt NW losing all of their players?
nws is loosing a lot of seniors 10+ but they have nasty freshmen ans sophomores, dont count them completely out next year
Hey all,
We have two short (~10 seconds) clips of the Northwest School Open team at Westerns on our school website: www.northwestschool.org
The link is the 2nd item down on the right side of the page.
The final point of Westerns was not as spectacular as last year but it was celebrated just as much. The other clip is of one of the kids face planting after catching a score.
Enjoy.
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