Tuesday, April 29, 2008

College Ultimate National Signing Day - SUBMISSION EXTENSION

** Deadline extended for ONE (1) week from today - May 6th**

For the past two years (2007, 2006) PlayUltimate has compiled a list of high school seniors and their college choices. It has grown into the College Ultimate National Signing Day. Now everyone will be able to see which colleges have the best recruiting classes and maybe even begin to look into the crystal ball a bit.

This year we will announce the list on Wednesday, April 30th May 7th, so the deadline to submit college choice information will be Sunday, April 27th Tuesday, May 6th.

There are two ways to submit your information - you can post a comment on the site (to one of the posts regarding college choices - there will be roughly 1 every 1-2 weeks) with the following information...
College
Last Name, First Name
High School
Height
Right Handed / Left Handed
HS State
HS League
Worlds Tryout?
Worlds Team?
or you can send an e-mail to PlayUltimateBlog@gmail.com with the same information. Any information sent to the e-mail address before the deadline will be kept secret until the signing day.

We look forward to seeing all the college choices!

Please forward to your friends, teammates, leagues etc. ONE WEEK LEFT TO SUBMIT!!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Weekend Open Thread - 4/26-27 - State champs edition

There is a TON of ultimate going on this weekend. Mostly in the form of state championships, though it doesn't seem like any of the state championships have the standard 16 teams - California has the most with 14.

Regular tournaments


State Championships
Feel free to leave your thoughts and prognostications in the comments... (And post your college choices here!!!)

College Ultimate National Signing Day - 2 days left to announce!!!!!

For the past two years (2007, 2006) PlayUltimate has compiled a list of high school seniors and their college choices. It has grown into the College Ultimate National Signing Day. Now everyone will be able to see which colleges have the best recruiting classes and maybe even begin to look into the crystal ball a bit.

This year we will announce the list on Wednesday, April 30th, so the deadline to submit college choice information will be Sunday, April 27th.

There are two ways to submit your information - you can post a comment on the site (to one of the posts regarding college choices - there will be roughly 1 every 1-2 weeks) with the following information...

College
Last Name, First Name
High School
Height
Right Handed / Left Handed
HS State
HS League
Worlds Tryout?
Worlds Team?
or you can send an e-mail to PlayUltimateBlog@gmail.com with the same information. Any information sent to the e-mail address before the deadline will be kept secret until the signing day.

We look forward to seeing all the college choices!

Please forward to your friends, teammates, leagues etc.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

MO HS State Championship Preview


Welcome to what is truly becoming the St. Louis Classic. This year, St. Louis Ultimate Juniors has experienced more parity and enjoys a talent-pool bigger than ever, so expect the competition to be even wilder this year than last—-any of the top 5 teams have a legitimate shot of taking home the hardware, in my opinion. What follows is my biased purview of what to expect from each team on May 3rd & 4th at the Missouri High School State Championship. I’ll hold back any commentary or attempt to rank the out of town teams, as doing so wound up as a bit of a disaster last year. For these eleven teams, though, I’ll be as fair-minded and open as I can; still, the seedings below are my PREDICTIONS, and not the actual seeding for the tournament. Click below to read the preview.

1) Priory: Priory has edged out both Desmet and Francis Howell Central to lead SLUJ’s (St. Louis Ultimate Juniors) North division with an undefeated record. This completely reinvented team barely resembles last year’s group of high-flying gorillas, but Brother Alban has found a way to help them coalesce and develop the skills necessary to move the disc on their own terms. On offense, they favor short give-and-go cuts amongst the handlers, always looking to establish a power-position and let one go downfield. An interesting note about the game versus FHC (my team): They came out flat but improved throughout the game. They’ll need to get the engines running early on Saturday if they want to fend off the pack of hungry teams hoping for a chance to knock them off.

2) Rockhurst: To quote Chris Martens, regional coordinator, “Apparently, having the same name each year is boring,” so this year, it’s Synergy. It’s tough to predict what the test from the west will bring this year. They’ve only posted 4 scores from 1 tournament in the score-o-matic, amounting to a record of 2-2. But it’s Rockhurst, come on! For the past 3 years, they’ve contended for one of the top three spots. They lucked out last year, though, as a brutal semifinal game vs. Desmet left Priory with empty tanks in the finals, and what was then Alacran strolled through the game after having easily bested a young SLUH in their semifinal match. This year, SLUJ teams are better-conditioned and bring more teams than ever to challenge the Kansas City dynasty. Side note: Why is there only one juniors team out there? Someone start a league, for God’s sake!

3) Marquette: SLUJ’s only other undefeated team, Marquette, has the South division under it’s thumb like some kind of brutal dictator. SLUH got 9 from them; Kirkwood got 10 . . . but those are pretty big deficits considering the windy weather we’ve had through most of this spring. They run a very effective cup that they establish quickly in transition, and their key handler (his name I know not) is a monster who controls the game at will. Look for the neon yellow cleats, and you’ll see one of SLUJ’s most promising young players in action: great breakmark throws, fearless defensive bids, all the necessary tools. These kids, as a team, can do it all: quick in-cuts, give-and-go’s, deep shots, and tough zone and man-to-man defense; however, a weaker division may signify an inflated record. They face Priory this weekend, in SLUJ’s final week. Could this be a preview of the State Championship Finals?

4) Francis Howell Central: I couldn’t be more proud and hopeful about my team’s chances this year. The effects of our 3 year-old JV program are really starting to show this year, as a glut of strong throwers help us to move the disc well. Strategically, I won’t tip my hand too much; those teams who have faced us can judge for themselves what kind of sets we’ll bring to the tournament. The addition of two big, fast seniors this year, both rookies to the sport, has pumped some lifeblood in to the team. I’ve seen more layouts this year, on both sides of the disc and from ALL of my players, than I’ve probably seen in the previous two years totaled. We dropped our only game this season to Priory, a 15-16 battle in which the Jeromans never held a lead until they won the game. Other than that, we’ve crushed pretty hard, and my kids can’t WAIT to get another crack at Priory at the tournament.

5) Desmet: I haven’t seen Desmet play yet, and so there’s not much I can say, specifically, about their strengths and weaknesses. Priory downed them 13-9 on a fairly windy day, and Clayton hung 10 on them, so it would appear there is finally a chink in the Spartans’ armor. They’ll be contending, I’m sure, but based solely on the scores they’ve posted, it would seem that Priory and Marquette will have the edge going into the tournament. Again, my opinion is based solely on the scores.

6) SLUH: I haven’t seen SLUH play, either; however, my JV coaches faced them, and although SLUH won that game 15-1, my JV coaches reported a lazy approach to the game. Well, it’s tough to get jazzed when you’ve got such a huge lead, so I’m not sure what to make of that report. Truly, SLUH’s schedule has been cake. They’ve faced a first-year team and two JV’s. They beat Kirkwood but allowed 11 that day, and they lost to Marquette 15-9. This is just wild conjecture, but they may be a team untested, unproven. Still, for a storied program like SLUH’s, it’s tough to count them out completely.

7) Clayton: Another year, another huge sideline for Clayton. I don’t know what Dana’s putting in the Kool-Aid over there, but it seems to be working. This program grabs more kids than Michael Jackson (rim shot)! But seriously folks, Clayton scored 11 on FHC and 10 on Priory, so it would appear that they are on the cusp of breaking through. Last year, they came ALIVE in the tournament, knocking down opponents who defeated them in the regular season with total ease and confidence. Will Clayton hulk-up in 2008? We shall see.

8) Kirkwood: I know nothing at all about this team, but I’d say their record places them about 8th

9) CBC: This is a team chock full of overgrown freshman that, I predict, will be very strong in years to come. Right now, however, they’re pretty raw, still learning the game and its finer points. Still, I haven’t seen them since the first week of the season, so they may have improved. Come to think of it, coach Matt Reardon is always able to help them do so. There’s no reason to suspect this year will be any different. Middle-of-the-pack teams: Don’t sleep on CBC! This could be a very cool, quiet story about a low-level team setting reasonable goals and climbing their way in to the fight, but upper echelon teams shouldn’t have much to worry about.

10) Vashon: Coach Chris Martens tells me that there’s some possibility they may withdraw from the tournament due to uncertain commitments from the players. Apparently, like many other teams, there is a conflict with prom. It’d be a shame, though. Vashon is always fun to play; however, sketchy attendance throughout the season has kept them from progressing much beyond their raw athleticism (which is considerable).

11) Desmet JV: Coach Pete Lenzini must have a serious overload of interested players, as this year he is keeping his JV unit together for the tournament. Pretty ingenious, if you can manage it. More tournament experience + more touches for developing players = further developed skills for next year. Lucky jerk.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Weekend Open Thread 4/19: Born to Dive/Madison Mudbath/Spring Reign

Day one of Born to Dive saw Columbia go 3-0 to take their pool. Spring Reign and Madison Mudbath are underway right now as well. Report scores, give recaps, etc. This thread is all about the comments.

Born to Dive: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4643
Spring Reign: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4410
Madison Mudbath Open: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4404
Madison Mudbath Girls: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4405

Thursday, April 17, 2008

More on Paideia Cup, boys

Saturday morning, it rained and there were a couple of lightning delays that set the schedule back by about an hour. The temperature grew warmer throughout the day as the fields dried and the sun escaped from behind the clouds.

Greg Arenson of Hopkins, as you may have heard, was brought to the hospital after colliding with an Amherst handler in the first game of the tournament. The Amherst handler had made an up line cut into the endzone and Greg made a bid to defense the disc. He remains in the hospital in Atlanta today with hopes of returning to his home near the Twin Cities as early as Sunday. Thank you to everyone for the kind words, thoughts, and efforts -- especially the Paideia community, who have been tremendously generous and accommodating. Greg, his family, and the Hopkins community are so very thankful.




Saturday games were a bit sloppy early with the rain and likely early-tournament jitters.

Seattle and Amherst both made statements, comfortably defeating Paideia and Hopkins, respectively. Amherst was very methodical and deliberate on offense. Hopkins seemed to shutdown cut after cut and get multiple D's on almost every point, but were obviously struggling on offense being outdoors for the first time, committing numerous throwing and catching errors. Paired with the Amherst defense, Hopkins wasn't able to reach the endzone often, while the Canes, behind the big throws of their sophomore standout Jonah Herscu, fought hard against some tough defense with poise for each score.

After watching North Hills defeat Seattle, it's obvious they are the most fun high school team to watch. Collin Connor and Ben Funk are so creative and active on the field, you never want to take your eyes off the field for fear you might miss some crazy blade or a squirrelly cut through the cup followed by a gorgeous huck.

Anthony Nunez is doing a superb job with the Columbia team. Every handler on that team seems to have a poster-perfect forehand that they can release faster than they can blink. It often looked like they were unaware that there was a mark on them, with some ice cold, but casual breaks and hucks. And on D, they lay out as much as any team in the country on any level -- and somehow seem to be back on their feet and on the mark before they even finish sliding. Early on, it looked like Columbia was on the easy path to the finals.

Hopkins pulled it together a little bit in the third round, keeping up with Columbia until late in the game. You could see that they had made some adjustments to playing outdoors, but still, Columbia's offense and defense looked pretty unstoppable.

North Hills then secured the 1 seed from the pool in a 2-point victory/battle with Paideia. These two teams match up very well and it's a very fun comparison watching them play, as one team is aggressive and a little crazy at times, while the other is relatively conservative and by the book. While North Hills probably has the more talented and deeper team, Paideia's identity, size, and style makes it a little bit harder for NH to play their game.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many details about the Columbia-Amherst game, but obviously a 16-15 win to take the 1 seed was probably the game of the tournament. Seeing Columbia after the win, they didn't seem too overwhelmed by it. I assume their coach gave them the "we have a whole day left, this victory is nice, but tomorrow's what counts" talk.

Heritage put up a good fight against Hopkins. Hopkins had led by several points most of the way (7-3 @ half), while Heritage slowly fought their way back to the game to tie it at 13-13. Though Heritage was on the losing end, the fight back into the game probably helped them win the next universe opportunity they had against Grassburn the next day.

The next morning, Hopkins quickly took care of Nashville and their aggressive hucking game, with an exciting game winning point that included a 60 yard huck and layout catch for the score by their 4'10" junior high kid. The Paideia-Heritage game was a little bit slower, going all the way to the time cap, with Paideia on top.

I foolishly predicted Columbia would run Seattle into the ground, but that's because I had never seen Matt Rehder play before. On the very first point, a beautiful huck with a bit of draw by Columbia looked to be floating easily into the hands of a receiver racing to the endzone when Rehder kicked it into another gear, made a 5 foot high horizontal dive, and got just enough of the disc to send it off course and out the back of the endzone. Jaws dropped and he was just getting started. By the end of the first half, he would have two more layout D's, one being a catch-D underneath on a receiver he wasn't guarding. Later, he caught a high floaty huck that looked like it could have been 13 feet off the ground, while everyone stood around waiting for it to come low enough to start thinking about jumping for it. Seattle was far from the all-day-all-Rehder show, however, as they scored the three points during which Rehder was on the bench. Still he scored about 7 times in the game and was everywhere on D. Columbia in this game, for the first time in the tournament, looked rattled. Throws began missing targets and easy catches weren't made. I think they felt overmatched and lost a bit of focus. Seattle wisely smelled fear and poured it on.

On the neighboring field, North Hills was putting together their own highlight reel, with handlers cutting deep, blades jumping over and past the wings, and threading low releases under the arms of the cup.

The finals was much less exciting than the semis. Whether it was fatigue, or that the wind had picked up, both teams seemed content to let their offense control their destiny -- well, with the exception of Rehder, who once again was a one-man highlight reel. Again, he scored close to half the points and got a couple big layout Ds. And of course, Seattle took home the cup. They did a great job making it out to Atlanta and the tournament was better because of it.


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Seattle over North Hills in the Paideia Cup Finals

Not a second after I posted the last entry - Seattle Academy over North Hills in the finals - 15-11.

Both finals teams coming from pool A, and beating their semis opponents by 5 or more points. And Paideia took home 5th place, going through Heritage and Hopkins to do so. I have a feeling next year's Paideia Cup will have a crossover game for bracket seeding.

North Hills had beaten Seattle Academy yesterday - 15-9, adjustments were made i guess? Anyone who saw the game in person - what was the difference between Saturday and Sunday?

Sounds like a hell of a tournament on the whole, exciting ultimate all around, and another year continuing the tradition in which the debate rages who is best... east vs. west.

I stand by my last statement in the previous post though. I think this was a coming out party for North Hills, despite the finals loss, and easterns is going to be a dogfight between the perennial powers and the new kids on the block.

Comments on the tourney as a whole? Early thoughts on Easterns and Westerns? Its going to be a spectacular year for high school ultimate...

Paideia Cup - North Hills, Columbia 3-0 in pool play / North Hills and Seattle Academy in Finals

Open Scores: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4937
Girls Scores: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=17&id=4938

Some of the pool play story from Henry Thorne... (emphasis mine, some parts were removed - [...] - click on the link for the full rundown)

[...]

[first round]

Meanwhile huge upset develops across the field with Paideia actually losing to the 3rd seed in the pool. Now realize, Paideia is one of the best programs in Juniors Ultimate, 15 years old, a religion at the school. So they don't lose at their home tournament ever practically, but, sure enough, Seattle takes it to them 12-8 and that's the ball game. What this means is, North Hills is in a ridiculously stacked pool with perhaps the best two teams in it. And them. And guess what, they get to face Seattle right now...

Seattle gets the pull, 11 passes later, none threatened, goal, 1 zip, NH down for the first time. Hills receives, a few passes later ben jacks one, seatlle d, bummer. Luckily somehow Nh gets a D and jackola again, this time successful. That pumps em up some and they come out with defensive pressure three times and jack in 3 more "how do they frickin' throw so well" scores for 4-1 and they're starting to realize they're the real deal. They go up 10-3, 12-4. We're talking' Max and Pat again. They take the game 15-9 but it was really a good bit more than that.

Paideia now has to beat NH by 6 to make the championship bracket. Parents line the field, great parents wonderful community. And let me say that paideia has two twin brothers that shouldn't ever lose an ultimate game. They are huge. By soft hands and can throw anything. And everyone on the team has ridiculous fundamentals. Never a drop, never a bad throw, never even a poor decision. Olio gets the big assignment, covers whichever brother is on and manages to make them pay dearly for every touch. By the end of the game they're both cramping and struggling. They took something out of jeff too though with 4 bombs away and two drops but NH is only down by one at the half.

The parents got a hell of a show as much of the action happened in the endzone right in front of them. Two blade goals. A Lippert drag across the back line at full speed. C Hite with two blocks, one almst a callahan. And Alex with his usual bevy of precision strikes. It was quite a show and NH was down almost the entire way including 12-10 the then 15-14 when the soft cap went on. But they could still play and Paideia was running on empty. C Hite gets another key block, and man to man NH keeps winning their matchup taking three in a row finishing with a crispy 60 yarder from Alex to Ben.

And photos from Michael Smith - Saturday Highlights

I'm sure Sunday shots and the complete works will be up shortly, Michael is an amazing photographer, there are some sweet shots there.


So conclusions from the results I've seen and the accounts I've heard thus far from Paideia -

-Paideia hosted a very exciting tournament.
-Everyone loves "upsets"
-Paideia, Seattle Academy, and Columbia played very well
-Easterns is going to be a hell of a show.
-It would appear that perhaps SA will be able to give Northwest a run for their money in the west?
-Westerns is going to be a hell of a show
-A lot of college programs are going to get some good players next year


But the most important conclusion... North Hills is the truth.


(Will update with finals score as it becomes available, post any comments or further observations - would love to hear more of the specifics)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Match Diesel on Junior Worlds

Match's article on mssui.com - World Class... Teenagers?

Read an excerpt:

Despite the skill level of these players, there has been some controversy associated with the selection criteria. Many tryouts felt that the physical aspect of the tryouts was too intense and that too many participants were chosen because of their ‘coach-able’ abilities. As far as the first concern goes, it is pretty obvious that the scheme of any tryout process is to push everyone to their limits and the 20 or so that hold on the longest can and should earn their spot on the team. Hopefully any of the disgruntled kids toughen up in college, especially if they head to programs that routinely go to Centex, Trouble In Vegas, or Pres Day. A timed mile after a day of competition will seem like a vacation relative to 5 pool play games or 11 games in 3 days.
Please comment below - the article begs for discussion.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

PlayUltimate - Site updates

Hey all,

Some exciting updates and reminders for you...

PlayUltimate Contests and Events

High school ultimate news in real time
  • We are working to provide live updates via text message and voicemail-to-text posting for Easterns, Westerns, World's and YCCs. We will keep you updated as details are available.
  • Want to stay connected to the high school ultimate scene at all times? You can sign up for text message updates whenever a new post is published. Click here to sign up.
Ultimate news outside the high school scene
  • We have just updated PlayUltimate.us to have an automatic stream of content from all the major ultimate blogs and news sites. You can head on over there and promote or demote content at your preference. The best ultimate news and commentary will float to the top so you are always keeping up to date with the ultimate world.
As always we welcome comments and suggestions about the future of the site, tips for story ideas as well, and we are always accepting applications for more writers and contributors to the site. Just email playultimateblog@gmail.com for more information.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

College Ultimate National Signing Day

For the past two years (2007, 2006) PlayUltimate has compiled a list of high school seniors and their college choices. It has grown into the College Ultimate National Signing Day. Now everyone will be able to see which colleges have the best recruiting classes and maybe even begin to look into the crystal ball a bit.

This year we will announce the list on Wednesday, April 30th, so the deadline to submit college choice information will be Sunday, April 27th.

There are two ways to submit your information - you can post a comment on the site (to one of the posts regarding college choices - there will be roughly 1 every 1-2 weeks) with the following information...

College
Last Name, First Name
High School
Height
Right Handed / Left Handed
HS State
HS League
Worlds Tryout?
Worlds Team?
or you can send an e-mail to PlayUltimateBlog@gmail.com with the same information. Any information sent to the e-mail address before the deadline will be kept secret until the signing day.

We look forward to seeing all the college choices!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

UPA Names Junior Worlds Teams

After a slight delay on the boys side, the UPA has finally named its teams for the WFDF World Championships in Vancouver from August 2nd to 9th. The Open team has 22 players, including 8 college players, 14 east coast players, 1 Texan, 4 Paideia, 4 Amherst, and 3 Northwest School players.

Link: United States Open Junior National Team
Link: United States Girls Junior National Team

Are there any surprises? Snubs? Thoughts on how the teams will mesh?