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)

Paideia Cup 2008

This is one of the best tournaments I have ever been to -- Paideia hospitality really is unreal! :)

From Mr. Kyle B:
I am pleased to announce that applications are now available for the Paideia Cup (April 12th-13th).

This elite HS Ultimate tournament is back for a third year and once again hoping to host the 8 best high school boys and girls teams in the country. Come down to Atlanta for the highest level of HS Ultimate and some good ol' southern hospitality.

Cost: $300
Housing provided by the world famous Paideia Parents
Free Dinner on Saturday night.

Tournament info should soon be available on the UPA website.

To request an application e-mail Michael at:
baccarini.michael (at) paideiaschool.org

-Kyle
Coach, Paideia Varsity Girls