Sectionals Part II - the Minnesota years.

2001 - sectionals in Milwaukee, I skip Sat to work. Drive down w/ Ryder + TO (Ryder, shouldn't we stop for gas. Christ, you're worse then my wife.) Wake up Sunday, crappy weather, very cold and rainy. Our semi-final team is not at the fields, a hungover Madison has to play Swank while we stay warm and dry. We play Madison in the finals, win by like 5. Nothing too memorable besides Masulis calling a foul and Kubalanza yelling "It is conceivable for you to get d'd". Or Dusty repeatedly lining up on Lonsdorf.

2002 - sectionals in Blaine. This was right in the middle of our turmoil, but we were just too talented at this tournament to lose. Madison was solid, just too young. I do not remember much besides the obscene # of Callahans we got that weekend. Eric, Winey, DK, and Seth G. Fun stuff.

2003 - sectionals in Blaine, the reloading begins. Nothing spectacular, we have a pretty decent lead on Madison 3-4 goals w/ significant portion of our team either injured or gone. Kaiser breaks his wrist diving for a disc, we collapse (incidentally, Kaiser 2003 was pretty unstoppable and was the biggest loss for us. The O never recovered). Their z had some success, I remember cutting underneath as Reed floats a deep huck out there for me to get. Ummmmm, not much else, probably blocked out of my memory. Oh yeah, the old Zero vets chuckling at us for not winning.

2004 - sectionals in St. Cloud. Only 7 teams b/c stolaf decides to have their exit 68 tourney that weekend. We play Madison the last game on Saturday. We get up 8-4 on some nice grabs by jakob + boardman. Of course, we start to collapse. Up 10-7, they tie it 10-10, Naz hucks it to someone for the 11-10 W. Then the rematch on Sunday, almost the same thing. Maybe only like 8-5 or 6. They storm back, at some point Charlie (ex-Madison) yells "Cheat to win Madison, cheat to win." Again, tied at gamepoint. Heijman gets a huge d in the endzone on me. They turn it again. I throw a high stall blade in TO's direction that is d, they eventually score and win sectionals. Ugh. We play Winnipeg in the game to go to regionals (We officially only had 2 bids). Anyway, game is ugly and some bickering between teams that escalates when Shane bumps into one of their guys. The guy is whining, I tell him to shut up, they turn it over, then they start heckling me "Throw the hammer again Tim" or "You are so clutch Tim, throw your hammer". Anyway, I get the disc again, hammer opens up, I throw, we score, I respond w/ "There's your f****n hammer" Later, someone comes and apologizes to me and says "Sorry, I am an asshole", I respond with "I know". We win.

2005 - already discussed, thoughts on the Madison game on Sunday. Well, showing up late for me did not help. Thought I forced a d laying out by Gigo, but foul was called on me. Not sure if any contact, more disappointed that the d got erased. I do not go "horizontal" on "defense" very often. Goldstein + RC were huge on D, their attitude rules. Big d's in the finals against the woppers.

There you go, 10 years of sectionals, 7 out of 10 sectional championships baby!!!! Incidentally, I believe my tourney victory total is 40.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, coming soon, 10 years of regionals.

Hi, this is to celebrate my 10th year of frisbee. A recount of fall sectionals past.

1996 - soph year, been playing ~2 months. I am on the 11 man roster including karl, geoff, jon, blane, terry, wu, daves (miller, moran, hunter, murphy). My memories include running into Karl the nite before and developing the we play better hungover theory (karl later perfects the theory), almost taking half against truck causing a lot of yelling, meeting ricky for the first time, playing ~30 points in a 17-16 win against east lansing in the game to go (incidentaaly, 95% of my passes were to either dave moran or brian lane in the dump position, 95% of theose 95% were backhands).

1997 - first year w/ truck. We play butter (aa club + college guys) and the game is televised on local cable, I still have the tape in Niles somewhere. Sunday was the first day I ever played with TBPITG's brother, Matt. Karl point blocks blane and they get a close-up of it (although the commentator has no idea what his name is, I say this b/c my name gets mentioned and his never does. Me 1 Karl 0).

1998 - w/ truck, I remember nothing from this tourney besides eating breakfast w/Graham in the morning. I do remember we won.

1999 - the year Michigan Sectoinals mattered. There was a split, partially caused by me (someday I will write about this). Anyway, Papa Juice (my team) v. Cloverdale Invaders (we'll call it Ricky's team). Rainy day on Sunday during finals. We win the game by 1 or 2. I had almost as many turns as the rest of my team combined (11 turns, thank you very much). Here is the real reason to discuss this game, the fight. At some point in the game, Jimmy (my team) catches an under, I believe guarded by Dan Z. He appeared to be in (Dan never said anything) and Jimmy threw to me. Well, "Lobo" on ricky's team, from the sideline, starts arguing that he was out. Well, "CC" on my team, from the sideline, starts arguing no way. Then, both guys end up on the field arguing where his cleat mark was. Some more yelling and testosterone filled comments ended with CC pushing Lobo and Lobo responding with a left cross to the face. Down goes CC. Cooler heads step in (finally). Remember, neither guy is in this point. So we decide get the teams back to the sideline and then calm down. We score the point, me, matt, ricky, and eric (captains from both sides) discuss and kick both guys out of the game. Ugly, oh yeah, my mom was there too. Good times. And most importantly, we won!

2000 - truck reforms, as frau, I believe. Same old time sectionals. Nothing major, we get drunk at Graham's cabins. I try to do a turnover type game, similiar to one of the many ideas discussed on aj's blog. Well, did not work so well. Anyway, we won. Don't remember too much.

Well, I just finished lunch and now I have to work. Part II tomorrow, the move to the Northwest Plains Section!

My prediction: the 16th place team at natties in the open division will not be from the Central Region. Bold, I know. We only get 2 bids this year. Most people say thank you. We have not been deserving that bid since like 1997. But we still go it. Finally, our size does not matter, nor our growth.

The irony is the South now has it. And most would say that is the only other region besides the central that is not so deep. We have us, truck, and machine [13th, 9th, 16th, respectively at natties last year]. Then there is Madison (although less experienced then in years past), Intelligent Design (when is the last time a KC team was playing SUnday at regionals?), Jawbone (5th the last couple years, lost to madcow at sectionals), and Madcow (COlumbus). The South has Chain + D-wide [12th, 10th respectively]. But then who else? Vicious Cycle was competitive at natties a couple of years ago, do not know much about them now. Bulge + Dallas seem to be coming up. Is there still Bootyquake? Who knows.

The Southwest now has 3 bids. Obviously, JB + Condors will be there. The 3rd team will be either PBR or Sack Lunch, I am assuming. Competitive teams, but more competitive then the #3 from our region?

I will say that the Northwest might deserve 3 bids. Kaos was #4 last year and still finished 11th (ahead of us). Rhino seems better this year. So at least 5 solid squads there.

Mid Atlantic has 3 bids and most likely the usual 3 of Ring, Pike and E. Potomac will take it. LCN is an ok team, but can they overtake anyone here? Anyone else?

Northeast has that one Boston team. THen Goat and metal seem to be the next favorites. But watch out for Cooter + Alex riding that Pony... The 2-4 are all similar to our 1-3.

My point being, there is only 1 region that can really say they have teams that could most likely be #3 in our region (Northwest). The #3's from Mid-Atlantic + Northeast would have to play well, but they would definitely be in the hunt. Same goes for the South + Southwest solid teams, but nothing head and shoulders above our #3 (whoever it turns out to be).

The thing that *kills* the central region is the lack of at least one quarterfinal team. We made it in 2002, but have not been back since. No one has even been to the pre-quarters since 2002. We lost by p.d. in 2003 to either hog or chaing. And last year Truck lost on double game point to d-wide.

So in a way, I am trying to stick up for the central, even though we do not deserve it most of the time. I think giving other regions a chance with this 3rd bid is great. But I just do not think there are not many regions with spectacular 3rd place teams that they can rip on our 3rd place team. Now, if you want to rip on our 1st or 2nd place team, feel free...

quick workout summary-
wed was off. Worked too late. Thurs 7 stairs set with 6 min up and down. Felt ok, although legs sluggish due to off day, I believe. Fri was only 15 min. Had a small work party before I went home. Had a brew, did not feel like running long. Sat/Sun 3 hr+ practices, felt good, a little cool, fields were nice b/c of monsoon season here in minneapolis. Tonite, probably 25-30 minutes, its late, but I gots so steam to blow off.

When is the proper time to use timeouts?

I am sure this has been discussed before, but should they be used as momentum stoppers or strategic discussions? Or both? I prefer to use timeouts only for strategic discussions, for example near the endzone, before a d point to set up a d, or near the end(hopefully) of a 12 turnover point.

Many people believe in the momentum stopping timeout. I personally feel that ultimate already has momentum stopping: the time in between pulls. Although I do agree that the walk from one endzone line to the other after getting scored can be fun to watch (if you are on the team that just scored), if anything that should be enough time to regroup and play hard again. Unlike basketball, where the team has 5 seconds to in bound the ball, your team has 90 seconds without any d around you and to set up a play. [Incidentally, I although I hated the bulls + I hate Phil Jackson, I do like his no timeout policy during the season unless it gets brutal. I love how he allows his team to get out of these situation by themselves. But that is the only thing I like about him.]

Now, once you give up 2 points in a row on O, what do you do then? (The dreaded 3 point run). This is the usual place for the timeout. This allows everyone calm their nerves. Get the psyche back up. Then what, send the same 7 or a similiar group of guys that has just been scored on twice?!?!? Here is where I say skip the timeout and put your d team in.

We have many examples of this on Sub Zero, but last weekend at sectionals Madison starting out scoring twice in a row on our o (after I was praising them for tune up no less). Although I would not have complained if we had taken a timeout, we decided just to put the d team in, let the o regroup while the d team scores. To me, this works for a couple of reasons.

1. It gets the players who have been unsuccessful on the field off the field. They can get some water, talk to one another, etc. They do not have to focus on playing immediately, rather they can focus on correcting the problem(s).

2. It gets the d back on the field. In 2003, we had a pretty good d team. We struggled more on O. There were some long runs against the O where the D would just stand on the sideline and watch. Not good. This takes the d's mo away. Also, starts to make it seem like 2 different teams. And 1 team (the o) can lose the game, while the other team (the d) just watches. In 2004, I felt this helped us out a lot and did not allow our opponents very many long runs against us. Standing around watching the o get scored on is a way to start the blame game and cause some anger between the 2 squads.

3. Your d should be able to score on a consistent basis. I know, most d teams do not play o as well as o teams, blah. But if they are being pulled to, the players on the d team still should be solid enough to play o. Trust me, we have had some of the youngest teams at natties the past 2 years and it works.

4. This saves your timeouts for when you have the disc and you need to get organized. I personally like it when we are flowing from normal offense to the endzone. It gives everyone a drink of water and allows us to know what everyone else is doing in our o. If everyone is on the same page, it should be easier to score.

Now we get into the post season and we get 2 timeouts per half. That seems like a ton compared to tune-up and sectionals. I usually abuse this. Some people hate it, but I feel we have high success rate coming out of timeouts. Am I wrong?

Observer request. Any player interested in observing in Milwaukee on October 9th, please come on over to the Polo Fields. Should be a good time. Please contact here.

Now, I have seen observer requests the night before at a captain's meeting, but never 3 weeks before over rsd. It seems that Truck does not like the way that we and/or Machine play. Because observers are not needed for October 8th only the 9th. This assumes that they are needed for the finals with Truck + whoever wins the Machine/SZ game (again, assuming everything goes to seed).

This is funny to me for a couple of reasons. First, we are in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is not exactly a hotbed of ultimate. Although there are some pretty good players who reside in Milwaukee, none of them play in Milwaukee. Those players who could observe probably do not know that the 10th edition rules exist. That means someone will have to commute to Milwaukee just to observe. And anyone who is willing to do that will probably be there to play.

Second, there are never observers at regionals. Ok, I know this is not a good reason not to have observers this year. BUT, the reason there are never observers at regionals is everyone is playing at regionals. It is the club season. Anyone + everyone can play. So that means most qualified people are playing.

Third, this guy is willing to have anyone observe. He does not care who it is, he just want someone in an orange jersey there just in case. Now, if Tarr or Mike G. show up and they are ready to observe, great qualified observers. If your average Milwaukee player shows up (with beer in hand) and wants to observe, does he/she actually make the game better? Have they every played at this level before? Or seen it? Maybe paradise could do it.

Incidentally, can you deny observers for your game if they are not qualified? Has that ever been done before. I guess observer requests have only been done at nationals before, where they do have qualified guys. Any experience with kicking an inexperienced observer off the field? Can that be done? (Seroiusly, i want to know if it can)

Fourth, Graham used to hate observers and complain when they are used. Now, his team asks for them (I am sure he would disagree). If anything, that takes Graham out of his hack + travel game ;). I guess there are advantages...

Quickly, Beck concert = sweet. He played a lot of new stuff + old stuff mainly from Odelay. Also, played a couple songs in a medley (very prince-esque). Good stuff, love this guy.

Workouts, Monday 30 minutes. Nothing fancy.

Tuesday 15 x (60-90), start the watch at the first 60. You have a minute to finish each sprint and get back to the start line. During the 60s, that is easy. During the 90s, it gets kind of tough. In total, the workout take 29 minutes + ~13 seconds.

The taste of victory!

We get to put our name on the Shirley Platter as Sectional Champs 05! Boy, we tried not to though.

Saturday was a nice day to play ultimate. 70s, a decent wind in the morning and then a lot of crosswind in the pm. 11 teams were at sectionals this year. So 2 pools, our pool had 5 and the other 6.

We start off with Surly, the TC masters team. We in 13-6, I think we were up 7-2 at half or something close. A huge hand block on Enge by John John early. Not much else to report. The O was ok, but they were broken once after a weird play. No other highlights besides the fun master's comments like "They can't run with us." And CVH *complaining* when their guys ran into our d guys... One thing that I thought was weird was the 2-3 seeds in the other pool were playing at this time. Since the top 2 advance to the semis, that made that 2-3 seed game a kind of quarterfinal game during the first round of the whole tourney. I do not think that was right.

2nd round we play Winnipeg, who used to be the 3rd best team in the section. Now, they are like the 8th. I am not sure if they lost some to co-ed or what. It is also turns out that many teams have a beef with them. Anyway, we win 12-6. No events or arguments like last year's "There's your f'in hammer". I think they finished 4th or 5th in the pool.

3rd round we play the Rejects or a mainly u of m college team. They have a bunch of new throwers. The wind really picked up and made completing a pass on the north side of the field very hard. Needless to say, they did not. 13-1.

4th round was Furious Dogs a team from Madison. They ended up finishing 3rd in the pool, but we beat them 13-1. The 1 goal was scored on me on a bomb. With the guy laughing/somewhat taunting me. Good stuff. Best part of this game was it was over at 2:30, no more games and we could go home. Luckily, T's team also had a last round bye, so it worked out perfect.

While others stayed around to watch co-ed and drink, we elected to go home and be old. Make some dinner and watch Armageddon. it was emotional.

Sunday, I wake to discover that the Madison college team was 2nd in their pool. So we play them in the semis. Obviously, there is the CUT-Madison rivalry, the Sub Zero-Madison rivalry, but now we have 6 either current or former Hodags. So that adds a little more incentive.

Well, they start out 2-0, scoring both goals on our offense. Ugh. We immediately tie it up 2-2 on a goal intended for me, but caught by RG as I got hacked. I forget how we got the turn and goal. Trade points for a while. I believe they break us once more, and we break them twice more to take half 7-6. The O was moving not so well. I did throw a big bomb to Berkseth that I liked. And a push pass to Goldstein took half. So we were on serve, no big deal. But the d oculd not going in the second half and they break the O again. So now we are trailing and the O finally solves their problem. The D, however, cannot convert. I miss Pbo on a wide open huck where I just had to throw it high and it was a goal. Also, a dump to involving myself after a turn. Ugh.... Anyway, 12-12, game to 13. No timeouts either team. We pull. We force a stall 9 huck, to. After a couple of throws a high stall huck to no one... turnover. They start moving and then, Goldstein w/ a big poach d. Knocks the wind out so we bring AB. Work it up the field. Ab to RC (2 Madison guys, incidentally) and we score. And win 13-12. Close and we did not play so well, but we win. A game, that last year, we lose. So we are making some progress. Also, credit for Madison for comingout and playing very well. They got some lucky bounces, but definitely the most aggressive team early.

It was a fun game, and even more fun since we won. Although we were missing some players in that game, we had a roster similar to chicago, so we feel we should have won by more. BUT, I guess in rivalry games you throw everything out the window. Or that is what they say at least.

So we have dingwop in the finals, a twin citesd/duluth team that won the other pool and beat the master's team in the finals. The o was kind of mad about the previous game, so I believe they were 9-9. The D started out sluggish as we took a 8-6 lead. In the 2nd half, RC gets a huge block and Brendan runs down one of their hucks. We start playing much better. And end up 15-8 or 9.

Good stuff. Sectionals Champs. We accomplished what we needed to. Now, we wait until after next weekend and see which one of the top 3 seeds we are.

Tonite, I am skipping work to go to the Beck concert. Pretty stoked about this.

Ahhh, the beginning of the season. Sectionals (or is this the post-season? or nationals the post season and all summer tourneys the preseason?). Anyway, this is huge. I say that b/c, well, we have not won sectionals since 02. Madison has won the last two years. In 03, both of us went to natties and in 04 only we did (we beat them in a rematch in the game to go and we had split at sectionals).

This year *should* be a little different. We stole a couple of their better guys. Some of the vets (aka hodag alums) are not playing with them, so it appears they will just be a Madison college team. Although it would not suprise me to find Paradise on the opposite line. With that said, we still have to beat them late on Sunday. I did not hear anything about them at tune-ups besides they went 0-3 in their first pool.

For us, this will probably mean the 2 seed at regionals if we win. Although we have finished higher then Truck at both tourneys we have seen them at (we won Motown, including 1-1 against truck and won Chicago, but lost to Truck). Plus, Truck is the 2-time defending Central Region champion, an honor all teams wished they had. Incidentally, I am betting that whoever wins the central region will be the lowest #1 regional team at nationals. Not that is an out on a limb prediction

Chicago (I do not think) will not have a beef to get the 2 seed. They did beat us in Chicago, but we beat them in Colorado and finished higher then them in both tourneys. Plus, we had a higher regional/national finish last year.

BUT if we lose at sectionals, I am not sure where our seed falls. Madison probably 3. But maybe not as KC + Jawbone have had some success against Madison. Ugh, I keep telling myself this year will be different.

Sectionals is becoming a little more interesting b/c of the colleges getting better. I wish Zero could take more credit, but really it is the high school league + growth in college. Not only does Zero have Hodags + alums. We have St. Olaf, St. Clouders, Winona, u of m, and of course Carleton guys. It is great to have so many small school that are not huge programs nationally, but still good enough to produce a couple of key guys. There are a couple of "2nd tier" teams that have shown some success so far Dingwop, mainly from Duluth, but some other guys, and Liquid Assets, a team of recent college grads/current collegians. Very good for Twin Cities ultimate and I hope it keeps the growth of quality ultimate in the cities. Hopefully, we will get close to 00 where there was 2 regionally competitive twin city teams.

Plus, there is a u of m type team, CUT, Winnipeg will be back, and Surly, the Masters team.

The cupboard seemed bare after the mass exodus of 02. But actually, it was just being restocked. Tryouts have been more competitive and it great to see more good ultimate. Hopefully, not too good, so we can still be champions.

workouts: Wed - 3/4 mile up + down. 2 x 1 mile, start at 3:20 800 then 2:45 800 (tried to hit 2:40 tougher then I thought). Thu - stairs, 2 sets + some tune up talk with RG, good time. Today - probably 20/25 minute run home after work. Keep the legs loose for the big weekend.

Good luck at your sectionals

When is a stall really a stall?

Rarely ever. I think this is easily the most contested call in ultimate. We had quite the arguement on our hands this weekend in Chicago in the finals. The situation, similar to most, was the old "I said 10 before you threw it" "no you didn't". Except the marker wouldn't drop it for 5 minutes. A very long discussion. Discussion is not the correct word, one guy was screaming while the other was sarcastic as hell (funny, but I was on his team). A lot of names called. And yes the marker did say "Can I get some $%!*in spirit".

Like most stall counts, it was fast. I have no idea how he got to 10. I was close to Shane when he caught it, moved in, faked dump, went up line. 10. At the very least, Shane could contest it on that grounds. I do not think this was his argument. Shane's argument was he released the disc before 10. Kyle was open downfield maybe for a score.

And then it was the classic "stall910" right after the check. Shane makes the same throw and Kyle again catches it. There is absolutely no way that it took 2 seconds. The marker was again furious, but not as furious.

Third time, same exact situation except no completion finally a turnover.

Not only is this the most contested stall, but it is also the most "I can't believe you are contesting it" call. I think, most all stall counts, are fast. Not many people say stall or stalling in between numbers, so usually they will speed up. And also 8,9,10. The excitement is there. I am going to stall this chump...

Anyway, I can only think of 2 lay downs/no discussions of stalls in games. My personal favorite was in 99 natties when Studarus stalls Greff (condors-dog) in finals on the goalline. Greff puts down the disc and takes off as Studarus busts deep. Once James gets to the goalline, he then walks, slowly, all the way back to the other goalline to pick up the disc. Good stuff.


Workouts -Monday - day off breaking my cardinal rule of never take a day off after a tourney. Tuesday- 3 1/2 sets of 4 x (50-100). 2 minutes between each set. 1 minute between each mini set of 50/100 and 15 seconds between 50 and 100. Good stuff. A little slower b/c legs were still sore. But overall pretty good. I also ran home after work to help the kinks out.

Ahhh, Tune-up. We go 6-2 and win the tournament. Very fun. Biggest tourney win since Easterns 03?

Anyway, my weekend started early Sat. morning. We decided to fly into Chicago on Saturday, it *was* going to be easier for us. We wake at 4, at the airport by 5. In the plane and the flight is going well. We get to OHare, take a lap in the air, and then learn that there is no one landing at OHare. So we have to go Milwaukee, refuel, and then take the 10 minute flight back to Ohare. Needless to say, I was late for the first game.

That game was against LCN. I forget the score 13-7, but it seemed like it was a fairly good game for us. Shaner had a huge d right as I got to the fields. That was fun to watch.

Next game was against a Dallas team. They had one guy with a big flick. 13-4ish? I do not remember much.

Last game of the first pool against central rival, machine. We go up early ~4-1. We converted very well and we forced some poor throws from them. Then something happens. The O struggles and the d only gets one more break the rest of the game. They win 9-10. We had one touch to take the lead in the 2nd half, but failed to convert. I thought their final goal might have been out the back, but no one else thought so. Not a great way to end the pool, but it basically does not matter since we are in a new pool and we are 0-0.

Well, we play another rival Truck first in the new pool. Well, we drop a pull on the first pull of the game. Ack. Does not get better from there. The O struggles again. The d only has one minor 2 point run (to go from 7-4 to 7-6). Not a very good game. Brendan did get a Callahan goal which was nice. But other then that it was a very uninspired game. I wish I could remember more, but I have blocked it out. I think a big problem was we as captains did not get our team moving/drilling before the game. Personally, I was very disappointed how we tried to villify Truck during the game. There were some close/questionable calls, but nothing that we have never seen before. We were not motivated to play and we tried to use Truck's close calls to motivate us. I have never been involved in any sporting event where that works. There was a small tongue lashing after the game. But with a loss of 8-13, that was a not so great way to start off the new pool.

Our last game was against Potomac. We do seem a little more intense to start. After a 2-2 start, we break twice then we trade goals and then another break by the d makes it 7-3. We figured out that is we did not let AJ throw 70 yards, they had trouble scoring. The O begin an unbelieveable string of playing beautifully. Scoring at will, only 1 or 2 tos. The D played around with some other ds in the 2nd half, but in the end we were able to win 12-7. Huge win, not only for confidence and momentum, but also b/c any 3-way tie with Truck + Potomac (if it occured) we would be sitting at a 0 point differential. We all felt much better at the end of this game.

So end of the day, 3-2, with a 1-1 record in our new pool. Unfortunately, I hear the news the fighting irish beat the wolverines 17-10. I thought this game was going to be a shootout. Somehow both teams acquired defenses over the last week. Hung out with grandparents and then went to eat and saw some big ass truckers and other michigan alums.

Sunday we wake up with Sack Lunch. Let's just say, we were pretty excited to play and they were not as excited. The final was something like 12-5 or 12-6 or something. Again, the o looked awesome. Lunch had trouble beating our z. Dikeman blocked the same hammer 3 times, which was entertaining to watch. I thought it would end up as a catch and not a d. Anyway, on the other fields Truck beats Potomac by a couple. Which means Truck was 1 in our pool and we were 2. We are in the semis.

In the other power pool, it was Chicago, D-wide, Goat, and Twisted Metal. On saturday, goat was 2-0 beating d-wide + chicago. Both d-wide + t. metal were 1-1. Chicago looked bad after they beat us, I guess they were spent. D-wide was ok, but only had like 16 guys and they started to look very tired on Saturday. Sunday morning, Chicago beats d-wide. Both teams are 1-2. And metal beats goat, so both of them are 2-1. Metal wins the pool and we get them in the semis (goat v. truck in the other).

The metal game was another spectacular game for the o. We win 13-9. They did not get broken again. Which was 3 consectuive games without a break. Something like 22-22. I have never seen that before. The d was opportunistic. Will + Jeff were pretty solid with the disc for them. But early in the game, they had 2 horrible throws on their goalline. One was a throw right to me, 2 throws later a goal. And the other bad throw was a floater on the centering pass. Shane *got up* for the t-bag and then throws the goal to me. 4-2 ish. We trade the rest of the half to 7-5. I do not think we generated a d during that time. In the 2nd half, we force them to play longer points and finally start to get ds. Although we do not convert 3 times in a row. Finally, at 12-9 Pbo skies for a d. RC almost kills Charlie, end result a turn. We get another d and then finally a goal from me to Shane. We win 13-9. Again, the O played well. The d needed to play better, but it was good to make them work so much. Eventually, we made them pay.

On the other fields, Truck was busy blowing an 8-4 lead. From 8-4 to 8-10. Ouch. So Goat wins 13-10 and it is an international final.

We have played Goat before beating them at Motown earlier in the year. But also a huge battle, very physical, at Easterns in 03. Let's just say it was not alway friendly.

We start on d and get 2 turns, which I promptly turn over twice. A forehand up the line to Dan which would have been a goal if I did not thorw it like crap. And then I slipped when Paco threw me a dump. Great stuff. They score. But again, the O was HUGE. This game they did were broken. But only once. 10-11 on the day, and ~32-33 over 4 games. Simply amazing. Eventually, the d gets going. We have 2 tiny runs to get it to 8-3. There was not a ton of huge ds, but a lot of pressures that resulted in bad throws. The highlight or lowlight was a contested stall yelling match. Shane had the disc and a stalled was called on him (after he threw a completed pass downfield). And the guy was positive he said ten. Shane thought he got it off in time. I felt it was a very fast count and Shane should contest it. Well this guy takes it as his personal mission to get Shane to change the call and gets a little too emotionally involved. Shane blows a kiss to him, which probably does not help things. Anyway, stall-contest after ~5 minutes (refs anyone?). Another stall contest on a completed pass (incidentally, Shane did throw this in less then 1 second, this was a retribution call). And then finally a turn. I am sure the fans loved it.

Anyway, 8-3 at half. The O continues to role in the second half. Both teams get one break in the second half. The O point that I play was the only O point which we were broken. Another small discussion with Shane + his good Canadian friend. They had a couple sweet layout grabs for scores. I was able to get a backhand, almost, 70 yards. That was exciting for me. In the end, we win. 15-10. Pretty sweet. Could be our best non-regionals tourney win.

The two major highlights were the O the last 4 games. Only 1 break against them. Sweet. Never have I seen that before.

And the pulls of Paco + Pbo pretty much gave us half the ds we got. They were great the whole weekend.

Personally, I think I had 5 turns all weekend. 2 in the finals game on the first point. I threw an up the line pass behind Seth in the Potomac game. Another throw behind Seth in the Chicago game. I feel like at least one more. If you can remember anymore, please let me know.

In case you were wondering, the fields were as dry and hard as ever. The shower hurt, but the hurt is a little better after a victory. The plane trip not as eventful, although we had to wait for a new break pressure gauge.

First things first, I got home from work last nite at 11:30. Just in time to catch the 5th set of Blake-Agassi on CBS. I am not a huge tennis fan, but I easily got wrapped up in this. An awesome 5th set. Every 5 minutes, it seemed like the one guy was about to run away with the match. Entertaining stuff. It was so good Ashe stadium was still packed at 1 am eastern time. It is one of the first times I wish I had that tivo thingy.

No chicago pools or anything yet. It occured to me yesterday that this tourney will be my 2nd longest consecutive tourney. This will be my 9th in a row.

1997 w/ BAT - this was the first time that I saw really, really good frisbee. We had been crushed by Z at Cooler that year, but we went to Chicago and teams were just very good. I do not remember much besides losing to Sockeye at double game during the final round (the last game going on). Incidentally, I had a wide open throw to win the game earlier to a wide open Karl. Hender decided it was to him and laid out and d'd. I am not bitter. Also, I remember playing dog and Tross landing on me. In case you did not know, he is a little bigger then me. Oh yeah, I believe Graham pulled a Chris Weber on double game point against the Hounds.

1998 w/ BAT - I remember even less from this one b/c we were worse. I also remember SZ steamrolling us on Sunday

1999 w/ Papa! - The year of the "split", we lost to furious, chain, and sz. All by a combined 5 or 6 points. Then we really started to stink. We also lost to Madison and Lope crushed me twice. And then afterwards a couple Madison guys came up to me to say doesn't he play great defense. Yeah, except for when he lands on my ankles.

2000 w/ Frau (BAT) - I have no idea what happened, we were worse then in 98 though.

2001 w/ SZ - I forget pool play, besides doing fairly well. We get up on dog in the semis and a very bad rain comes down and Sammy drops a pull and we end up losing. I do not think it is sam's fault though. I dropped a disc at some point, it just was not a pull. Paco had one of the most amazing catch d's on Moses in this game. I think one of the top 10 d's I witnessed ever.

2002 w/ SZ - frustrating year b/c we had done so well at Worlds. Still made it to semis b/c of point diff and dog losing by 3 or 4 to someone in the last round. We get beat by E. Pig or Anodyne in semis.

2003 w/ SZ - this was the year when Portland had a huge comeback on us, something like 10-4 and lost 11-10. Or something. Anyway, it was very ugly. We still end up 1st or 2nd in our pool b/c someone crushes Portland later. It did not really get better. Although I believe we beat dog in pool play somehow.

2004 w/ SZ - went 3-0 in the first pool, beat the oaks, lcn, and dog (big comeback to win by 1). Then lose the rest of our games, including blowing an 8-4 lead against Madison, losing ugly to Machine, and then losing at universe point to doublewide and ring. The first half of the madison game was good, some pretty sweet plays. I remember the double winona t-bag.

So 8 years so far, 2 semis appearances so far. Unfortunately, no finals. 3 very memorable loses (portland 03, dog 01, sockeye 97). Some decent wins (dog 03 + 04). Although in the late 90s, early 00s, this was the tourney. Then the west coast teams start winning and no one travel here anymore. Then the east coast stop travelling here. Bummer. We need to win and make everyone come to aquatennial.

Lastly, workouts:
T- 10 x 50/100/50 (3/4 mile up + down). 30 seconds between rep and 2 minutes between set. Fun workout. I always feel like I can run the 50 fast and the 100s felt good (high 13s/low 14s). My favorite part was the random older gentleman coming up to me to tell me he was running his 100s just as fast. Not sure how I should have taken that.

W- 1.5 mile run to work. Later, 25 minutes (15 minutes ez, 1/2 mile hard ~2:50, 8 minutes ez). Both days I finished my 100/200 for the day.

Dear blog-

Not much on the frisbee front this weekend, we ended up with the weekend off due to vacations, school, and bruises. Hopeully, we will be "rested" for Chicago. Nothing out for Chicago yet. Condors over Jam (or Jam over Condors) at Labor Day. Dog and sockeye the other semis.

My workout over the weekend. Friday was an ez 22 minutes, but I do not reach my 100/200 goal for pushup/situps. Saturday, I initially meant to do hard, but after mowing the lawn, playing with the neighbors, and doing some pushups, I ran into other stuff. So it turned out to be a day off to watch the Wolverines and play poker. Luckily, the wolverines are a little better then my poker. Oh, it was the first day I got the 100/200! Sunday, I did the old Kermit workout 5-5-5. 5 minutes jog, 5 minutes hard, 5 minutes walk. I did this 3 times (45 minutes total). I got to 36th St. Not sure how far, but the hard parts felt good, except for the 2 inutesof the last one. Monday, I did ~29 minutes at a fairly ez pace. 4+ miles. Felt ok. And I nailed 100/200 on both Sun + Mon. That means I still owe 40 pushups still and 60 situps from last week.

My goal is the next 3 days hard and see what happens this weekend.

As far as non active stuff, watched some football and tennis this weekend. Also watched the movie Happy Endings. I thought it was pretty good, but I like a little different type movies. I recommend on DVD whenever it comes out. Moves slow at times, but it made me laugh.

LT went to PT today due to torticollis. Basically, a neck tilt. Her neck is pretty much better, but it is cool to have a pt say what her difficulties are. I feel like she has her own personal trainer to let her know what she needs to work on. I guess that means if anything screws up later, it is our fault.

Until later.

5550 to go...

Paco got most of us to pledge to do 100 push ups/200 sit ups per day starting today until the day before nationals. Suffice it to say, I probably have not done a total of 1000 push ups in my lifetime. Anyway, I'll try anything once.

Yesterday turned out to be an ez work out day. Got home early to go to LT's 4 month appt. Shots are fun. Got home, we were meeting someone at 6:30 to look at pulling some small trees out. Apparently, 7:15 is the new 6:30. Anyway, did not get to practice until 8ish. By then goaltimate had started, vacations, school starting and general soreness were the reason for lite participation (the problem with wed practice no matter how big the team is, to be hit upon later).

Anyway, my goaltimate team won all 3 games. I threw a 2 pointer, that was sweet. I would have had another one but missed a wide open pbo. In Winey's face. Good times. I wonder how good we are compared to professional goaltimate athletes.

Today was harder. I started my push up/sit up today. I completed half my 100/200. I am not good at pushups. Apparently, you need chest muscles. Also did stairs with rg and charlie today. 3 sets of our usual workout. 186 stairs. Every stair (51-52 s), then as fast as you can (32 s), then bunny hops (53-55 s).

Getting psyched for Chicago. And jealous of others who went to Cooler or Cheas. + are going to Labor Day. Maybe next year we will go to one of those big ones. Apparently no one like Chicago anymore. Is sprawl so wrong???

We survived LT's first fever today. Most likely a reaction to the shots. Even though her fever was high, she still was smiling. She just cracks me up. If I have a runny nose, I am usually a pain in the butt. Someone could accidentally clip her finger cutting her finger nails and she will laugh about it and not say a peep (not that it has ever happened).

enjoy