Tournaments All Over

This weekend is a HUGe tournament weekend, with teams in action all over the place!


Open Tournaments: Madison MudBath, Georgia HS Championships, Middletown Invitational, St. Johnsbury, St. Cloud Faceoff.

The Madison Mudbath looks to be the big Open tournament of the weekend, with Paideia heading up to face off against top local seed, Hopkins.  Other big teams to look out for up there are DeSmet, Neuqua Valley, Memorial, and Denver.  Both Memorial and Denver have a chance to mix up the pools and seeding, but look for Paideia to take down Hopkins in, what should be, a very good Championship Game

The Georgia HS Championships won't have Paideia's varsity squad, but their JV kids are ready to put on a show.  This one will come down to Collins Hill and Lakeside, with Collins Hill avoiding the upset bid.  I can see Grady and Woodward giving really good games to the finalists in the semis, but it seems the match-ups favor CH and Lakeside.

Middletown features a number of northern teams, several of which are preparing for a run at Eastern's.  This one is just a one day tournament, lots of games for each teams, but expect to see Amity and Hotchkiss in the top crossover, with pretty good games all day long.

St. Johnsbury has a ton of teams and should be pretty wide open.  Top seeded John Jay hasn't played in a while, while Longmeadow has only 3 games on its resume.  Stuyvesant has played much more, but have not faired so well.  Should be a even, fun tournament, and anyone's to win.

Girls Tournaments: Madison MudBath, St. Johnsbury, O'Hara Invite

The MudBath has 8 teams, about half of which have yet to play a game.  Look for Armstrong to pull this one out, over Southwest in the final.

St. Johnsbury features Amherst JVA and Columbia, as well as host team St. Johnsbury.  Amherst JVA is a force to reckon with, but Columbia should be up for the challenge.  I see them falling short, but neither team should have much problems reaching the finals.  A win for Amherst is in the cards

Finally, the O'Hara Invite.  Having worked hard to get this tournament together, I am happy it is finally here.  Amherst and Paideia roll into Philly and plan to square up in the championship game.  In their way stand YHB and Watchung Hills.  Paideia beat YHB a few weeks back at Paideia Cup, and Watchung hasn't played a game since early April.  The local teams, Haverford, Lower Merion, O'Hara and the other Virigina team, WT Woodson, look for a chance to upset some of the best girls teams around.  I don't much see that happening, but with all the talent around, it should be a good weekend in Philly.  Look for Paideia to continue their recent streak of wins against Amherst in the final.

Check out youthultimate.com for an edition of On The Line with me about the O'Hara Invite.




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