Turns out i will be going to Fredericksburg, Virginia this weekend to cover club regionals for the Mid-Atlantic region. expect some very extensive coverage. So what games do you want to hear about? The pools havent been announced yet, but heres what the tournament looks like - Ring of Fire, Pike, Potomac, Philly Street, LCN, Medicine Men, Truck Stop Glory Hole, HOV, baNC, Burgh, Warriors, El Camino / Floodwall, Los, Punch, William and Mary, and James Madison, seeded in that order 1-16.
predictions below the fold...
heres my predictions, based on nothing but knowing very very little about club ultimate, and seeing a few sporadic games. Pike will take first, then Ring of Fire second. Third place will be the battle, (the mid atlantic region has three bids this year to nationals) - a dogfight between Potomac, Street, and Truck Stop Glory Hole. Thats right i said it.
but i guess ill see how much i know come sunday when the dust clears. post comments with what games specifically you want me to cover, if any. i may even take notes - [crowd ooohs] - so come on back to the site on sunday for some good coverage.
until then - play ultimate.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Club Mid-Atlantic Regionals
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
High School Hype from Philly...
From the tid bits ive heard so far, from PHUEL - Lower Merion High School is making a stir, ending their season last year shutting out DVFS, limiting Souderton to 1 point, and opening their season this year by beating St. Joe's Prep 15-10.
Definitely a team to watch, from what ive seen of them they bring alot of height and athleticism to the table, and only teams who have strongly developed fundamentals of cutting, simple offenses, etc, or who have athletes of equal caliber are going to be able to stand up to them.
Other rumors - it seems that Pensbury, a perpetual contender in PHUEL may be having some internal problems, and may have split their squad into two seperate teams, not based on A/B skill level but rather because of a social divide of sorts. Whole story is still coming out really.
CB East opened their season this fall with a 15-4 win over Neshaminy, CB East is another team with alot of potential for the spring given that its marquee players are rising seniors this year, namely Eddie Peters, a deep threat, roughly 6', who also has throws. Under the coaching ability of Rob Olson he will surely continue to develop his talent and maintain his status as a threat throughout the league.
Do you have a scoop for some high school ultimate? Contact me and we will talk, we are still looking for reporters from all over the country, just drop me a line.
slow things in the ultimate world...
as expected everything ive heard from different sectionals is that pretty much everyone kept seed, no real surprises. except perhaps in the northwest where there was a little bit of oh la hooplah.
in the finals kaos beat jam 13-11, but in reality this doesnt affect things much because both will advance to regionals, and both will be strong contenders for the bids to nationals.
other than that everybody is just warming up for the medium size show that is regionals. i may be attending the mid atlantic regionals, but that is yet to be decided. ill update you as things become availiable.
high school and college fall seasons are getting warmed up around the country. if you have a scoop on a particular area or leage contact me in some way and we'll talk about this.
a post will come a little later on the buzz ive been hearing so far...
Thursday, September 15, 2005
I almost have to scratch that last post...
While the OSU tournament is going to be some amazing competition, i was looking at the classic city classic field of competitors - Cal, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Tennessee, Texas, UNC-Wilmington, and Virginia.
holy crap. hell im excited and it isnt until November 19th. Anyone know the strength of these teams compared to last year, who lost players, etc. I know Colorado lost Ackley and a few others, and i heard rumors of Beau not playing? can anyone confirm or deny? Aside from that, the only team that i know lost literal no one from the previous year was Pittsburgh. Im almost positive that everyone else lost at least a few. Can anyone comment to help me out here - whats the buzz...
College Coverage this Year...
While i said that we would have postings and updates on the High School ultimate scene, we will in no way neglect the college action as well.
Biggest tournament of the fall season for colleges? Not necessarily size wise, but competition, location, strength etc. My money is going towards the Ohio State University Fall championship.
We look at the competition after the fold...
the lineup this far (copied and pasted from here - http://www1.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=18&id=1828)...
2361 2461 2290 1860 2364 2184 2481 2468 1938 1921 2000 2323 2042 2061 2106 2121 1994 2344 2209 2000 2081 2062 1725 2392 2313 2613 2000
From my perspective the big players at the tourney are going to be at follows - Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio, Ohio State, Indiana, Pittsburgh and possibly Towson.
All of the above teams participated in (their respective) regionals last year, with Michigan, Michigan State, and Pittsburgh all moving on to Nationals.
Personally i think this is going to be a very exciting tournament to watch, how many other fall tournaments do you get to watch this number of quality teams going at it? its gonna be sweet.
more in depth analysis to come when i know more things... anyone else have a viewpoint on this tourney, other fall tourneys? post a comment.
ps - still looking for a few writers...
Sunday, September 11, 2005
The Legend Grows...
And thus the legend of the Play Ultimate blog grows. We have acquired the notable talents of Pittsburgh player and Ultimate journalist Nick Kaczmarek, who will be posting from here on in. Focusing mainly on the Pittsburgh high school forum, Nick is gonna let you guys know whats up with PHUL. Feel free to comment welcoming him etc.
We are still looking for writers from a few key areas in the USA, so if you think you can help out click on the keep reading link...
We still need someone to report in the following areas...
So come on people, space is limited, so let me know what you can do, send me a sample and lets get this blog rolling.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Recruiting Pseudo-Journalists
Hello all, thanks to those of you who have been reading thus far. Its been alot of fun for me to spew my thoughts on the game, as well as publicize a few links in the process etc. But now that the seasons are starting to get underway. Im looking to expand a little.
You're thinking, season - he means club season right? Nope, this blog is gonna focus a bit more on the future of ultimate. The college and high school level of the game. So heres the deal : im operating on zero budget, as in literal none. But i want to expand to a decent level of coverage right? right. So im obviously going to need some help. So if any of you have any contact with the major high school leagues in the country id like to see some of your writing and possibly start talking to you about covering a few high school games and/or tournaments.
The main leagues we want to cover extensively - Massachussettes area - Amherst et al, Pittsburgh league (PHUL), the Philadelphia league (PHUEL), the Seattle league, and the Georgia league. Really if you can commit to covering any area i would love to have you on board. But those are the main areas with thriving leagues that i have had contact with, and who have yielded some amazing college and club players. Keep reading for more details...
So if you are at all interested, or think you are possibly interested, post a comment with some sort of contact information, and then just send me one sample of writing - preferably a season outlook as of right now for the league you are covering, or a team profile and if its good, ill post it and consider you an author for the site. And then you will be given permissions so you can post yourself.
Hopefully ill get some sort of response to this. Even if you dont want to write for the site, maybe just subscribe to the rss feed, and pass this message on to someone you think might be interested.
Thanks to all,
-superman
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Club Sectionals
I dont know enough things to comment on club. So would someone else out there help me. Comments are welcome. Luke's blog has a good rundown of the ordeal. Anyone else know any other good pre tourney outlooks? post a link. gracias.
play ultimate.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Just ordered...
so i just ordered Ultimate Techniques and Tactics, should be a good time. I think i bought another book with it as well, kinda an impulse buy. Just got finished watching I Bleed Black for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Ultimate Injuries Actually Help the Sport?
Tell me im crazy, i can handle it. Conventional wisdom - injuries remove players from viable rosters, deplete the ranks of current players, hurt the performance of amazing athletes, and perhaps dissuade people from playing. So how would injuries help the spread of Ultimate? Its simple really...
What legitimizes a sport more than a solid broken bone? You go to the doctor to get your x-rays and MRIs and he asks you, what did you do? You now have the chance to explain to him not only how you laid out for a disc and consequently broke your wrist, but also the entire rules of the game of ultimate. You increase the name recognition of the sport itself by merely answering his question the first time as "i was playing ultimate".
What is his question? If hes not already in the know, "what is ultimate?" He's taken the bait. He's yours now, run with him. Explain to him there are more than 400 college teams, and more than 500 high school teams around the country. As well as tons of club teams etc.
Even if hes not that interested, after he sees his first few sprained ankles and broken arms from Ultimate players, he has to take some sort of notice to the sport as a whole. He then may discuss it with another doctor to compare treatment options etc. Now two people have learned about the sport from one injury. Also the nurses who seat you in the room, etc usually ask what happened as well. They may go back and talk to the other nurses about the injury, and of course what always comes up with injury? How did it happen.
Ok, so now you have a decent number of medical professionals who at least recognize the name Ultimate now. Thats not really doing that much for the spread of ultimate. But it doesnt exactly hurt it now doesnt it.
So now you have your xrays and lets say for the sake of argument a cast on your arm. Now anyone you are remotely friendly with asks you what? "What happened?"
Depending on how many people you know, or how many people feel bold enough to come up and ask you this also can up the name recognition of the sport. If its a particularly bad break, or something out of the ordinary or just something worth talking about in general then you may get a few more degrees of publicity for it. The guy who randomly just walked up to you and asked what happened, could possibly go back to a friend of his and tell him about this crazy injury a guy got from playing ultimate.
Relatively simple to see how it spreads right? Sure.
This is not to say i encourage people getting hurt. By all means, stay healthy and play ultimate. This line of reasoning though was just something i was thinking about recently, as someone who had to go through all the damn pain in the ass of xrays and MRIs and mds and orthopedic docs for them to tell me i bruised a bone in my wrist and tore my TFCC tendon/ligament cluster. Sounds cool doesnt it? Meh, i can still play just gotta wear a brace.
But having the brace on i cant tell you how many times people have come up to me at parties or just standing in line somewhere and asked, "What happened?"
and then a fun and enlightening conversation ensues.
well im enjoying it at least.
play ultimate.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
More Ultimate Media?
So of course im browsing the web looking for more ultimate media, right? right. we've got discussion and general flaming at rsd, there are kick ass vids at UltiVillage, the back issues of Chasing Plastic to browse, and the scattered content of a couple hundred individual team websites. These along with a [sparse] peppering of ultimate centered blogs make up the entirety of what can be learned remotely about the ultimate culture in general or specific. What am i getting at? what are the sites im missing, the ones that are updated relatively often, that provide quality content, whether it be tournament rundowns, game footage, highlight reels etc.
So this is a bit of an outreach post, do you know of any sites that im missing? Any blogs, etc. Or perhaps not a site that provides its own original content but rather one that collects others of the net, either or any would be fine. Im just looking for some new sources for material.
a post will follow this dealing with the ECC tourney. definitely looking for some reader input there, because i dont know nearly enough about the teams and people involved. and perhaps another post on how injuries actually help the spread of ultimate? revolutionary thought? perhaps, but hear me out.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Daily Rundown
I figure i need an ever so often recurring feature for the blog. And what better than to survey the action at RSD, and other major forums and centers of ultimate debate - wade through all the crap that is slung around, and get to the issues actually being discussed. . Some cynics wonder if ESPN has given short shrift to the National Hockey . Poker fans don't like to see results of taped competition on crawls prior . Soccer fans are still cranky over lack of Gold Cup coverage. . The Ultimate Frisbee lobby is cranky over everything. . The lacrosse lobby is cranky over the Ultimate Frisbee lobby.
So the first of a hopefully relatively daily segment, [drumroll] the Daily Rundown [gonnng]
Continued below the fold....
The top 5 issues in the ultimate world this fine wednesday afternoon?
#1./ ESPN Ombudsmen has released an update on his audit of the ESPN programming and quality of production yada yada etc. And lo and behold Ultimate is mentioned...E-mail gripes
and thus the debate looms large on RSD, is this good or bad for the ultimate community. ultimate as a sport etc. im of the persuasion that any publicity is good publicity and i believe his use of "cranky" is merely in jest, and perhaps alludes to the fact that he may have mentioned something on the subject to the people who control ESPN. the point is, we have a foot in the door. and it is a testament to the swaying power of RSD and other groups to mass contact for results.
League since it currently has no working relationship with the league. "That
doesn't factor into how we cover the news," Williamson said. "We've been
very aggressive in our coverage since the new agreement -- and in covering
the news leading up to its signing." Still, the perception exists among some
viewers that if ESPN does not have broadcast rights to a league, that league
won't get its due. At least, ESPN knows this perception exists and
understands its responsibility.
to the showing of the event.
#2./ people are still slowly speaking up as to which masters teams will be competing this fall, thus far the list includes, HOSS, OLD SAG, Boneyard, Old and in the Way, among others.
#3./ a bit of a debate is warming up about the future of high school ultimate stars, where they will be playing etc. follow it at RSD
#4./ there is discussion on the nature of the double team, if two offenders are within three meters, and thus two defenders also, and both defenders face the same offender at the same time, is that a double team? weigh in here.
#5./ decide for yourself, opine - go out and light the world on fire.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Clip of the day from UltiVillage
UltiVillage - TFPoo vs Joyride
gotta love what ultivillage is doing for ultimate media. every day more stuff, an ever expanding reference and asset for the ultimate community.
this clip - thats a pretty sweet pass. reminiscent of pistol pete for basketball, any fans?
New Features/Changes on the Site
You may have noticed a bunch of new things on the site, or you may not have, either way, i figured id give you the run down of what has been improved etc.
Details below the fold...
List of whats been goin down...
idk what else ive done recently, but ive added a bunch of stuff, so enjoy and hopefully ill have something ultimate related to talk about soon. feel free to comment on my last post, i deemed it an 7 out of 10 on the insightful scale
Thursday, August 04, 2005
The Future of College Ultimate Recruitment
The near future of college ultimate recruiting is in private schools.
Think about it. Most schools as of right now just dont have the money to put towards athletic scholarships for ultimate athletes. Not only that, but the vast majority of the schools barely recognize it as a sport. However, for many many players at the college level, their university teams are life.
Recruitment is becoming more and more common as the high school leagues around the nation increase in size. There are more than 390 high school teams that reported scores to the UPA last year alone. Figure an average of 20 kids per team, (that is a low ball number, as my experience shows that many teams have more than 25 on their roster), thats 7,800 prospective athletes for the College Ultimate forum.
Up until recently almost all college teams had to introduce and recruit new athletes who were disgruntled with their sports, and teach them from the ground up the basics of the sport, the competition the rules, the throws etc. There is now approaching, a time when that will no longer be the case - with major high school ultimate camps popping up all around the country (Philadelphia, Massachussettes, etc) and for that matter becoming much more popular as of late, intertwined with the ever exponentially increasing numbers of high school teams and size of high school programs.
As of right now there are 430 college teams that report scores to the UPA (I'm using that as my standard of an active team, i.e. one who plays games), within the next five years, certainly within the next 10, high school ultimate programs will out number college programs.
What does this mean though?
If you love ultimate, or even remotely enjoy watching the sport expand, this means amazing things for the future of the sport. College teams, now have a larger base to draw from, they arent going to have to explain what ultimate is on the first day of practice, but instead perhaps start explaining their specific offensive and defensive strategy.
Simply put, there will be a large enough base that colleges will be able to actively recruit.
But where will they recruit? Good question.
As stated before the schools dont have the money for scholarships set aside, and i dont see that happening until they realize that a strong ultimate program is a deciding factor for some students, and yet one more way to put their school's name on the map. So until that time, recruitment is based almost purely on will to play.
That is, you cant offer dollar incentives, but rather an appealing environment for them to play in. A team that is on the rise, or rebuilding or on their way to a national championship.
But again, money is the issue. No matter how much a high school star wants to play at a major institution like Brown, if they dont have the grades or the money, its just not possible.
So where should colleges look to recruit students? It was my first sentence. The private schools. The up and coming high school teams, that are starting to make an impact on the high school scene. The players who play for these schools additionally, (albeit a probably unfair standard) will have the ins with the college administrations. Sad though it is, ___ Private School, or the like are taken more seriously, or rather have more sway with college admissions. And in addition, if in fact the private school is worthy of the academic name it has, the student atheletes from said school are more likely to have the grades to get into whatever school you are attempting to recruit for.
Who am i talking about?
Northfield Mount Hermon, one of the few teams that can come close to sticking with Amherst.
The Northwest School, you may remember them from such acts as - winning the UPA Juniors Westerns championships. a no brainer contact for college recruitment.
The University School of Nashville - did fairly well at easterns, taking fifth. Which mind you is nothing to sneeze at. Anyone who qualifies for easterns definitely has something worth looking at.
St. Joe's Prep - in Philadelphia a more recent addition to the high school ultimate forum, however one hell of an up and coming team. College recruiters, remember these names - Joe Kruse, Greg Owens, Matt Paparone, Jim Ionata, Tom McCabe - all rising juniors. Look for SJP to be PA State champions for the next two years at least.
By no means am i insinuating that all high school talent comes from private schools. (on the contrary, look at the undeniable top 3 teams in the country - Amherst, Columbia, Paideia - all public) Im merely pointing out that for the time being, those looking to recruit at the college level might be best served to survey the private schools for ease of admission to their top prospects.
Only time will tell though, i personally am very excited though for the prospective future college players, and the recruitment possibilities they embody.
