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Last chance to NCUSD 2009 - Sign up now!

The list will be saved tomorrow morning then published at 5pm tomorrow night, if you still want to get on the list you had better submit your info quick.

Sign up for the facebook event and come out tomorrow to see what schools are picking up the top recruits in the country.

See you tomorrow.



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National College Ultimate Signing Day 2009 - You want to be on this list.

Only a few hours left...

The 2009 National championships just wrapped up, with Carleton taking the prize 15-11 over Colorado on the open side and UCSB winning over University of Washington on the ladies end.

Now you can start looking forward to next season!!

A brief preview of the list: the following nationals qualifying schools have players signing on Wednesday...

• Carleton
• Pittsburgh
• Colorado
• Virginia
• Illinois
• Stanford
• Tufts
  

... to name a few. If you haven't signed up yet, DO IT RIGHT NOW, and forward the message to your friends and other leagues you might know.

Remember to tune in, and tell your friends to tune in on Wednesday at 5pm to see the list released.



Some Background:

For the past three years (2008, 2007, 2006) PlayUltimate has compiled a list of high school seniors and their college choices. It has grown into the National College Ultimate 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, May 27th, at 5 p.m. so the deadline to submit college choices will be May 26th. The form is a little bit more detailed and in depth, but it will provide a very interesting picture of the coming college season.

Please forward the link to friends, fellow teammates, your league message boards etc. Post it on facebook (link below every post) or MySpace or whatever you use.

I know many (most, if not all) have not finished applying for school at this point, let alone heard back or picked one. But we want to get an early start this year and have a very comprehensive list.

So, without further ado, you can start submitting information here.

If you have any suggestions on other information we should gather leave it in the comments.

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Throwback Post: Role models for young players?

Originally posted a tad over 3 years ago, wonder if anything's changed?

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Role Models for "Young" Players

So this issue has bugged me for a little bit, and since it is the "off-season" for most high school ultimate players, i figured i would bring it up.

first off a little exercise...

1. name five nba players
2. name five nfl players
3. name your top 5 sports role models from any sport

not too hard eh? ok now try this -

name five upa club players
name your top five ultimate role models

for most high school players, this is where the difficulty comes in. as a sport, we dont have, at least as far as i can see, those players that are universal. everyone that plays basketball has heard of michael jordan. everyone that plays soccer has heard of pele, for cycling - lance, etc.

as a sport i think this is something perhaps we are lacking. we have the local role models, the coaches, the alumni of your teams, perhaps local college players you've seen play, etc. but what we lack is the nearly idolized distant role model. the one you watch from afar, perhaps send for an autograph.

so - to the point of this long rambling post. if you disagree with me, who are the universal role models for ultimate? (name names) and if not, have you seen any players (lets keep it in club, which is undeniably the closest thing to pro for ultimate right now) who are worthy of such acolades?

i wanna hear names here. and if you cant answer either of the above questions, how about this one - do you think ultimate needs or wants a michael jordan?

Maybe even more interesting from that post was the discussion it engendered in the comments. - Check it out for yourself.


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2009 National Ultimate Signing Day: Only 8 DAYS LEFT!!!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

If you are reading this please forward the message to your entire team and league. We are on pace to break the record of 119 students from 45 high schools announcing their intent. Please help us get the word out! We have only 8 days left!

For the past three years (2008, 2007, 2006) PlayUltimate has compiled a list of high school seniors and their college choices. It has grown into the National College Ultimate 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, May 27th, at 5 p.m. so the deadline to submit college choices will be May 26th. The form is a little bit more detailed and in depth, but it will provide a very interesting picture of the coming college season.

Please forward the link to friends, fellow teammates, your league message boards etc. Post it on facebook (link below every post) or MySpace or whatever you use.

I know many (most, if not all) have not finished applying for school at this point, let alone heard back or picked one. But we want to get an early start this year and have a very comprehensive list.

So, without further ado, you can start submitting information here.

If you have any suggestions on other information we should gather leave it in the comments.

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Open Thread: Westerns and State Champs

Thoughts on this weekend's state championship tournaments? Westerns? Easterns?

A rundown of the state championship winners...

• Maryland Mixed: Magruder 13-10 over Paint Branch
• Maryland Open: Urbana 15-2 over Mt. Hebron
• Ohio Open: Holy Family Catholic 14-10 over St. Xavier
• Virginia Open: LC Bird 14-12 over HB Woodlawn
• Virginia Girls': Woodlawn 12-6 over LC Bird

Other tournies this weekend:

• PHUEL Girls' Championship: Lower Merion 13-6 over Haverford (PlayUltimate writeup)
• St. Johnsbury Invite - Girls: Longmeadow 15-7 over SJA
• St. J Invite - NEPSUL: Hotchkiss 13-12 over Philips
• St. J Invite - Open: Watchung Hills 15-8 over Amherst JV
• Thrillito: Apple Valley High School 8-7 over Como Park

Anything on your mind? Have a recap? A link to some video or pictures?

Throw it in the comments, let's get some discussion burnin.




Psst - only 9 days left until 2009 National Ultimate College Signing Day


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Westerns: We have winners: Nathan Hale (Girls) and Hopkins (Boys)

Hopkins took the open crown 15-9 over South Eugene

Nathan Hale over Northwest 12-11 on the girls side.

Congrats to all, if you were there let's hear some color commentary in the comments...



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Westerns: finals happening now

On the open side its a pool B final with South Eugene facing off against Hopkins - Hopkins is up 11-8 right now.

For the girls' : the top seeds are battling now with Nathan Hale up 7-3 on The Northwest School.


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PHUEL Girls Championship Writeup

Girls high school ultimate is still growing in the Philadelphia area, but this year they had a city championship of their own, with all four teams playing at Edgely Field this Saturday, opening straight into the semifinals.

Top seeded Lower Merion met Radnor on one field. Radnor is in their first year of existence, and I can attest that over the course of this year, they have significantly improved. They've gone from bagels to fighting for every point, and hopefully Lindi Sabloff can continue their rise. However, they were no match for LM's Lady Babaganouj today, with a callahan on the first point by LM's Hannah Garfield starting the scoring -- a couple early points went long and were hard fought, but LM came up with them and never let up.

On the other field, defending champion Cardinal O'Hara had their hands full with Haverford High. Both schools had their proms last night, and multiple members of both teams were either missing or not at 100%. Despite this, the action was intense, but HUDA seemed to come up with every swilly throw from either team, and managed to cut way down on the turnovers, and took at 7-5 halftime lead. O'Hara fought back to tie it up at 9-9 and force a universe point, but HUDA fought through and scored a large upset over O'Hara to earn their spot in the finals.

The finals would then pit two Central League foes, LM and Haverford, in their fourth matchup of the season, with at least one more to follow under the lights at a nice little event hosted by Haverford this Thursday (featuring both school's JV, boys, and girls teams), and certainly allowing for the possibility of tangling once more at states next weekend.

But no other games, past or future, mattered today. Both teams came out fired up, and Haverford's energy from their previous win certainly poured onto the field. Impressive cuts by Natalie Nunez and impressive catches all around kept the teams close early, but a mid-game run by Lower Merion was able to put Haverford away, highlighted near the end by a beautiful 70-yard huck from Emily Eisner, followed up by a deep cut of her own to seal the game winning point, giving Lower Merion's Lady Babaganouj their first ever PHUEL City Championship, and putting them in a strong position to make a run for the state title next week.

Full results here:
http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=33&id=6462

Westerns: Upsets in pools play

The action has just gotten started in Blaine, but already there has been an upset Minneapolis South over Lakeside 10-9 in the second round of play. There is a point by point recap of that game on Twitter c/o NextLevelUltimate

As mentioned in a previous post you can watch for live updates from the field from these three links...

• http://twitter.com/NextLevelUlti
  
• http://twitter.com/hotlou
• http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23upawesterns

On the girls' side pool B has been a little crazy - Cathedral pulled an upset over Seattle Academy and Alameda, but Alameda upset Cretin-Derham.

In pool A Hopkins upset South HS 8-7, Lakeside upsets Lakewood, and Lakewood upset Hopkins. Oi vey, so so far only the Northwest School has kept their seed in pool A.

If you have score updates or more info, post it here. Or if you see something particularly interesting from the Twitter accounts.

Side note: no scores in yet from any of the state championships this weekend, we'll update when we have something.

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UPA Westerns on Twitter

Catch the latest UPA Westerns tweets:

• http://twitter.com/NextLevelUlti
  
• http://twitter.com/hotlou
• http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23upawesterns

Please also note that these updates are not a UPA endeavor. If you would like for the UPA to make live score reporting at championship events a priority, please let them know it is important to you by calling 800-872-4384 and asking to speak with Will Deaver or emailing will@hq.upa.org. You can also contact the entire board of directors: upa_board@upa.org

The UPA Score Reporter for Westerns

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Open Thread: we're not dead yet!

Sorry for the lack of updates here. I (Matt) was in my last semester of college (at Pitt) taking 25 credits, playing for Pitt B, internships etc yada yada.

But! I should have a little bit more time now to post here. Granted some of the action might be over - congrats to the Easterns winners - but Westerns are coming up this weekend as well as a slew of state championships.

A reminder though - if you are looking for more ultimate content - PlayUltimate.us (http://playultimate.us) ALWAYS has the latest content from everywhere on the web - blogs, newspaper articles, RSD posts - whatever. It's all there, and if it isn't there you can add it. So check that out if you get bored here. (Also there are anonymous comments, which as i remember were quite popular at one point.

So stay tuned here for more updates, tell your friends about the site and play ultimate.

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HS Easterns: Congrats to Pennsbury

On the open side, Pennsbury upset Amherst 15-11 in the final. But, the upset of the tournament was North Hills (seeded 10) who ended up tied for 3rd. On the girls side, Paideia (seeded 1) followed through and took the tournament over Amherst 13-7. 

OPEN FINAL: Their tournament play gave Amherst the edge, but they were surprised early with two scores from Pennsbury. Pennsbury’s early success with the huck pulled Amherst out of their usual, controlled game and into a long-throw contest they couldn’t win. Senior Misha Herscu was Amherst’s MVP with a series of standout plays in all parts of the field, while teammate Spencer Diamond ran a game-long clinic on how to read a disc. Several Pennsbury players earned mentions for extra effort—#69, Mike Auld, picked a high disc out of the sky and got the assist (two, if you count the do-over) to #2, Zach Kauffman, for a score. Dennison Bechis chased down a long huck to score at 13-10 and Isaac Saul tipped an Amherst dump to get a D on the goal line. High spirits from both teams made for a nail-biting final.

GIRLS FINAL: Amherst’s Hannah Yee set the game rolling with a strong layout D against Paideia. The game was fast and energetic and each team gave its all. Players were laying out and jumping all over the field. Amherst pulled an unexpected zone on Paideia to force a turn over and a score, but Paideia came right back ready to work the cup slowly up the field. Amherst’s Keri Lambert was a strong member of the cup who did not easily give up. Her efforts where met by her teammate Claudia Tajima who made several D’s and played aggressively on offense. Paideia worked the cup and moved effortlessly up the field, including several connections between Sophie Darch and Lane Seidor. Although both teams played hard, in the end Sophie Darch was able to connect with Rachel Kessler in the end zone for a final of 13-7.

PHOTOS HERE.

An announcement from the Director of Next Level Ultimate:

We are excited to announce that Next Level Ultimate will be putting on
its first annual summer camp in Madison, WI, from July 25-30. During
this 5 day overnight session, High School players from across the
country will have the chance to advance their skills, refine their
game, and get tips for success from some of the most accomplished
ultimate players in the country.

The instructors at Next Level Ultimate Camp are dedicated to
developing camper's athletic ability, confidence, skill base, and team
concept through the same drills and focused scrimmages used by top
university and club level players. Emphasis will be placed on
instilling in each camper the balance of team work and self-reliance,
fun and competition found in the most successful ultimate players and
teams.

Our Counselors*:

Ron Kubalanza : Seattle Sockeye
Hector Valdivia : Minnesota SubZero
Sam Harkness : Seattle Sockeye
Dan Miller : Minnesota SubZero

*More to be announced soon!

For more information on the camp check out our website at:
http://www.nextlevelultimate.com

Please feel free to email us with any questions. We look forward to
seeing you in July!

Matt "Skip" Sewell
Next Level Director
info@nextlevelultimate.com

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2009 St. Louis Ultimate Juniors Midseason Update

Ultimate fans, I apologize. I missed the season preview this year. Something about having a 1 year-old that tends to shuffle the priorities, I guess, but with a giant stack of essays to grade laughing at me from the corner of my desk, I finally found the motivation to do a league write-up. So here it is, folks, and let me not begin without my usual disclaimer: The following information about St. Louis Ultimate Juniors and the people involved is a bunch of hogwash, not fit for washing the lowest hog in need of the most washing. All opinions expressed are just that, opinions, and I welcome dissent, because I once earned a little silver medal in debate at a summer camp for nerds, so I will probably pwn if we argue. League records in parenthases.



Blue Division

Desmet (3-0): Anchored by a pair of very talented handlers and with coach Pete Lenzini at the helm, this year’s Spartans may be the best high school team to come out of St. Louis—ever. They play tough shutdown D, using layouts judiciously but needing them only rarely. They use give-and-go cuts from the handlers and can jack it deep just as easily as they can cut under and take the 25-yard gainer. They can get it off the line effectively. They even have good fashion-sense (see Adidas uniforms). In short, they’re hell to coach against. When we play them, I always start to feel like the playing field has somehow gotten wider, and I think that’s a testament to the ease and creativity of Desmet’s attack. This year, I haven’t seen them play as a unit yet, and in fact, their league games keep getting rained out and forfeited; however, their JV team last year knocked off several varsity teams in the league, and I predict total dominance at the state championship this year. Since Desmet has not yet faced the other top teams in this division, though, much remains to be seen.

Francis Howell Central (3-0): My team. Best handlers I’ve ever had, each of whom can throw downfield effectively and has a quick first step to help move the disc around and get new angles of attack. Our success this year will again depend largely on how a few key recruits are able to contribute. If they go big, so will we. Good signs early, though, when, on a relatively calm day, we bested a very athletic Marquette 15-7, and although we lost the scrimmage 13-15, watching us outscore SLUH in the second half 12-7 also seems a good omen . . . but perhaps I’m partial.

Marquette (3-1): As I said, this is a very athletic team built around two senior handlers, one named Chase and one named “That other quick kid with the yellow cleats”. In the past, everyone on the team could break marks effectively; however, when I saw them two weeks ago, our zone defense was able to effectively cause many turns amongst the handlers. Still, they have some exceptional players on that squad, and let us never underestimate the potential impact of an angry stud.

Kirkwood (2-2): Coach Buck Schneider has told me that they are much-improved, but I didn’t really see much of them last year aside from the broken-down yet high-Spirited bunch we faced at the state championships, so I don’t have much else to tell about them this year. At that time, they barely had seven rumpled bodies to put on the line, but this year, they’ve already knocked off CBC & Clayton, while losing to Desmet & Marquette. This would seem to place them in the middle of the pack, but it’s an improvement from last year.

CBC (1-4): Veteran coaches Matt Reardon and Billy Downs bring a wealth of ultimate wisdom to this team, and I’ve never seen them fail to improve greatly over the course of the season, so it was no surprise to me when they posted a win over Clayton last week. As a result of this improvement, I am hesitant to say anything about their style of play, but when we saw them in week 2, people seemed to be jogging around a lot, not really 100% there, if you know what I mean. Look for them to surprise a team late in the season or at the state tournament who doesn’t take them seriously, though.

Clayton (0-5): Again, I only saw Clayton when we played them on March 8th in gale-force winds that were blowing from end to end of the field, so I didn’t learn much about how they play the game. I would have picked them as an early candidate for the spirit award (we had an awesome experience with them) were it not for the fact that they’ve had to forfeit a game. Even so, I will not make the same mistake as I did last year. I had written them off after watching FHC drown them 15-0 or 15-1 early in the season, only to watch that bunch of shirtless goofballs drag us up and down the field at states. Captain Julian Katz will always be a threat when he cocks back that monstrous forehand, so don’t sleep on Clayton, folks.

Red Division

SLUH (5-0): What can I say? Coach Eric Weiss has had these boys play 16 games to the rest of the league’s 4 or 5, and as you might imagine, it’s paid off! His team isn’t particularly tall, or fast, or have especially flashy handlers, either. No, where SLUH will get you is on the turn. Watch for the disc to shoot from the general cluster-smudge as if hurled from a medieval trebuchet, and watch for a single scout to already be booking it down the sideline. That said, the experience these kids have gained this year has them clicking as a unit, as well. I thought our cup zone was pretty tough, but SLUH shredded it, methodically swinging the disc, flooding our wings, and working the fast-break. But . . . .

Priory (4-0): . . . despite their lesser experience and slightly worse win-loss record, I pick Priory to win the Red Division over SLUH. They play SLUH this weekend, and it should be a killer matchup. As usual, the Jeromans’ attack features a slew of high-flying, balls-to-the-wall madmen who also happen to be some of the nicest, most articulate kids in the league when you see them on the sideline. It’s an impressive culture of competitive sportsmanship that Brother Alban, Brother Maximillian, and Matt Heiter have fostered over there, and I expect big things from the Priory squad. They looked a little rough when I saw them face FHC’s JV team—a lot of unforced errors—but if they’ve been improving, look out. Just one thing: Does anyone know what the heck they say when they break the huddle? Is that Latin? My team always thinks it sounds like a decimal: “0.151 . . . Jeromans!” Also, they make sweet highlight videos—see Youtube.

Desmet JV (2-2): Well, here we are again. What’s supposed to be a JV team is beating up on varsity squads. Howie, Pete! Leave ‘em with a little pride, please! Bested by Priory early in the season and defeated roundly by SLUH last week, though, it doesn’t look like they’ll challenge for the division. I haven’t seen them play yet, myself, but my fear of losing to a JV squad has me hoping they go 3rd or worse in this division!

Vashon (2-3): It’s tough to write about Vashon anymore. I’m weary of using the tired vocabulary we use to talk about teams with unlimited potential and minimal results. Raw athleticism . . . tall, fast . . . dangerous . . . dark horse . . . they all work, and you’ve heard it before. Coaches Ben Taylor of former Big River and OTP fame and league-organizer Chris Martens are undoubtedly working hard to help them improve, but they haven’t yet seemed to cross the divide between prospect and contender. For all that, though, the fact does remain . . . raw athleticism . . . tall, fast . . . dangerous . . . dark horse . . . stop me if you’ve heard this one . . .

Parkway North (2-3): Coach Chris Scribner and his slithering offspring anchor this swarm of really . . . really excited kids. They LOVE ultimate! After offing FHC’s JV team, nearly the entire squad hung around for over an hour to play pickup! And it was fun! When I watched them play, though, decisions seemed rushed and many bad choices led to turnovers all over the place. If they can bottle some of that unbridled energy, use the dump a bit more, work the disc a bit more, they have great potential to improve. Heck, that sideline of 20 kids shouldn’t hurt.

Chaminade (1-3): Truly, I’m at a loss to explain Chaminade’s 1-3 record. I watched them swamp FHC’s JV team 15-0 when they played half the game with ONLY SIX PLAYERS . . . and when they didn’t have six, they had ONLY FIVE PLAYERS! Connor Noyes of the Noyes dynasty in St. Louis juniors ultimate is the heart and soul of this group, from what I can tell. When you see him walking, you might not guess that this broad-shouldered young man can kiss the sky like Hendrix and has any throw he wants--he looks more like a defensive tackle to me. I get the feeling, though, that sketchy attendance is holding this team back and keeping them from gelling. When will they get it together and break out? Stay tuned, sports fans.

FHC JV (0-4): Not gonna lie, our JV team has had a tough go of it this year. They took 5 from Vashon and 4 from Parkway North, but that’s the best they’ve done. Plagued by problems with clogging cutters and drops, the kind of things that just take all the wind out of a team’s sails, the one bright spot has been our cup zone, which caused Priory fits and gave Vashon a tough time, too. Undoubtedly, they’re looking forward to the end-of-season crossover games so that they can be sure to see some competitive play.

So there you have it. As the State Championships draw near and the crossover games start happening, the competition will keep heating up. In case you didn’t know, the league’s been around for 5 years now, and we’re really starting to feed the local college programs and produce some high-quality players. Feel free to drop by the Yahoogroup (you must join first) to see the game schedule and come out to support the next generation of St. Louis ultimate talent.

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