Hi again. First, if you are ever down by 10 points or so in the 4th quarter against the University of Michigan football team and Llyod Carr is coaching, you are probably going to win that game. Sheesh. I really don't advocate coaches getting fired that often, but this guy is still living off of Charles Woodson's coattails. Charles Woodson can't do that anymore. It takes a lot of talent to blow 4th quarter leads consistently.

So time to talk about another team who couldn't hold 4th quarter leads (no, not sub zero, I am done with them until at least 2006). I am talking about magnUM. Where I last left you was the summer before the '98 year. We had 2 captains, me + Jon (elder grad student, uber-organized). I stayed in AA that summer and played a ton of frisbee, Karl + I made Big Ass Truck which at the time seemed like an accomplishment.

During the summer, there were 5 of us who came up with a plan (me, Jon, Karl, Brian Lane-last year's captain/possible coach, + Terry-older brother of best woman's player). Basically that plan was 1. Recruit, 2. Learn how to Throw, 3. Play as many tourneys as possible, 4. Find a name that would stick. I think that was an excellent plan.

Our plan for recruiting was 3-fold. First, put as many ads in as many places as possible like dorms, freshman booklets, the daily, etc. Second, throw on the diag (or mall or quad) as often as possible. I think we may have even had schedules for the beginning of the year. Third, "clinics" trying to get as many guys + girls to play as possible. The clinics started to work. We were able to get some very "athletic" freshmen out as well as just more people knowing and playing frisbee (some of us may have found girls that day too, but that is for a different blog). And during the spring season, Michigan would have its first ever b team.

Anyway, the year started out well, not only were the freshman good, we found some grad students. And by found, I mean they came here and they already knew how to play. And they were pretty good. All in all, we would get 7 newbies that season, all of which could play from the start. And by the end of the season, 4 of them were solid handlers (at least for us). We had at least 10 returners from the previous season.

Before, we started to travel to any tourneys, we wanted a new name. TUKA was not going to do it that year. We wanted something with UM in the word. Maybe not creative, but it was our goal.

It came down to magnUM or tUMult. I have NO idea how tumult ended up there, but we decided to play a game to 3 to decide the name. You played on whatever team you wanted the name to be. Well, tumult was up 2-0. The magnum team had our best players on it, but there were still a lot of tryouts there. After the early lead, the magnUM team sent in our best 7 and we won the game. Exciting, I know. Sadly enough, I used to remember the 7 guys that played those 3 points, but those brain cells are long gone.

And magnUM was born....... (Oh, if you think this is boring, just wait until you get my winter league updates starting next week! Nothing beats indoor ultimate in Minneapolis)

A quick review of Disc 4. Got it on Friday and have watched it completely twice and skipped around multiple times. Anyway, I thought it was well done. The music takes me back to the nintendo days, but a lot of quality highlights. Here are some of my thoughts questions-

- No matter how many times I watch our quarters game, we still do not win it.
- Seigs, really, a kick spike against PBR Streetgang? 15-3 win?
- Al Nichols + Al Nord are the 2 best players. They don't do anything wrong.
- Twisted beats Condors in their first ever nationals. And a couple of there guys are way too casual. You can't tell me they knew they were going to win.
- How big would Jason Simpson fro be if he did not have corn rows?
- Jim, that had to be one of the top 5 worst ever point blocks against you.
- Alex, what were you and Lou talking about?
- The best thing about the Kevin Cissna greatest was while everyone was watching what Kevin was about to do. Ron was the only person starting to set up another cut. He made an amazing play to get the disc, but he was the only one moving before the throw.
- The video makes me like Lugisdin more, but I do not think he should have been allowed to take an injury sub in the finals. He may have been injured, but he was not injured on that play. That was pretty sketchy.
- And if Oscar argues a call, there is a good chance he is wrong.
- Enough Furious hating, they played well.
- I would make fun of the condors here, but I have never beaten them.
- Hales, at least you are not the only person to throw a callahan on the dvd.
- Also, if you want to make a case against observers, watch this dvd. I really think that if observers are going to be used, they need to be on the field. Too many bad calls by them when they are on the sideline.
- Oh yeah, the furious call on Safdie in the finals of the NW, doesn't look too good for Furious either
- The dvd made it seem like we were actually in the game against Jam.
- Does AJ from Potomac ever see the poach?
- For the finals, they should constantly remind you how windy it was. Like a wind gauge in the corner or something.
- Seriously, how does Al always get open? He is like a 3 point shooter in bball that you can never take your eye off.
- Geoff, it is nice to see you are still willing to mix it up a little bit.

Anyway, the DVD was excellent and fun to watch. Rob did an excellent job

At the end of our first college season, we held elections for our college team. Incidentally, i think I beat out Jaeger for the second captain position! It was the first time I was elected captain of a frisbee team. Including that time, I have now been captain for 10 UPA series. 4 in college, 6 in club (2 in Michigan + 4 here). In total, I have played in 5 college series + 9 club series. It is humorous to me that I have been captain so much, maybe not so humorous to those that spend a lot of time with me.

Anyway, the most important thing that I have learned while being captain is there has to be some sort of committee/brain trust/elder council or something. This may seem clear to you. It was not always so clear to me.

Take my first season as captain of magnUM. We were all relatively new to the game. We tried to get Brian to coach us, but he was not around enough. Damn med school. I was probably not the best guy on the team after our first year, but then I played a ton of summer league + played on Big Ass Truck. So heading into the fall, I was probably the most driven. I had a small taste of winning and I wanted to win more. Most importantly, I had a team that seemed to be heading in the same direction. We all wanted to win more.

That year was somewhat successful. It ended up with us losing to Iowa and Wisconsin on the 2nd day of regionals in AA. That day deserves another blogging-day.

I learned a ton that year, not only as a player, but as a leader. There are 5 lessons that I really learned after that first year (and I forgot when I arrived in Minneapolis and became captain again).

These lessons-

1. Experience + Outside Observers (ie coach) are huge and you need to use these resources as much as possible. Although our strategy was a little more complex then the horse + buggy, we were unable to adapt during games. Not only did it take a more experienced guy to help us out on that 2nd day of regionals, he was also not involved in the game. This was huge and something that benefits the team (Assuming the coach is not a tard).

2. Critical thinking about what happened. Take what you did the previous practice/tourney/scrimmage and try to improve. Now, not a practice or tourney goes by without me without evaluating the team + the structure of frisbee related event. My first year it seemed I often wanted to forgot or just remember the positive things. But to improve, you have to focus on what you believe was negative + help you or the team correct it.

3. Have a group who are comfortable talking to you (maybe this should be more like 1a). This is more for a 1 or 2 captain team. You have to have others who can talk to you and critique what is done. And you have to be willing to listen. ON Zero, we have 4 captains w/ a range of experience/ideas, but we still solicit input from others. If people feel like they can't approach you, you are asking for a revolt.

4. Be the teammate/player that you want others to be. You must lead by example on and off the field. If you do not allow others to have excuses for practice, you can't have them yourself. Captaining w/ Jaeger in 99 was great b/c he was always working to get better. The people who I have captained on Zero the past 3 years have always been those working the hardest at practice, at workouts, and at tourneys. If you are lazily warming up, not participating in drills, or getting beat on d, well.... It makes it harder for your teammates to follow.

5. Say something positive once in awhile. This is the hardest thing for me and it is probably why I keep Charlie around. He is greating at telling people that are playing well. For me, the John Wooden quote of "Always thank the guy who gave you the assist" (or something like that) is huge. It does not always have to be immediately after the play, but we have a break in between scores so it should be soon. I have a rule to myself that I try to talk to 2 or 3 people after each game and tell them how well they played. And try to give 1 or 2 specific examples from that game. I am such a nit-picker during the game, that I hope this is enough.

In the end, how much does strategy really matter? Seriously. Or is it the longer a team has been together?

Furious has won 3 of the last 4 titles. The core of those guys started together in what 97? 98? They knocked on the door for a couple of year (even creeping through the door here in Minnesota).

Before that, Condors had 2 titles. Does anyone know if they went to college together? They won some titles together in college and then came up through the ranks in club. Again, winning some and losing some big games along the way.

Dog had a couple titles in a row. And they played together for a while. And lost for a while.... Etc. Etc.

Obviously, strategery has something to do this. If that had no plan of action, all of these teams would not be as successful. But did they win b/c they had the best strategy? Or did they have the people playing their's team philosophy the best? Or is it that they knew exactly what to expect out of each other under pressure?

Against Furious in the quarters, their offense had some newer guys to the team. But it was still Jeff, Andrew, Kirk, and Al. The others looked to them at difficult times. And they looked at each other. And they knew what to do. On their d team, even though that had MG on there, they struggled with the disc. And maybe this is why that had trouble pulling away from us. Or the fact that on our offense, we had only 3 or 4 guys that were there last year for us.

My point is maybe strategy is overrated. Maybe knowing what your teammate is going to do and wants to do is the most important thing. Maybe this means I agree with Luke. Uh oh...

I have no stats to prove it, but it seems in March Madness there are more upsets then in the 80s and early 90s.

The little guys beating the big guys. It seems like the little guys have 3 or 4 seniors on the team. Been there for all 4 years. Playing together vs. a team of Burger King All Americans who are stopping by a college on their way to the draft or NBDL.

Of course, there was Sockeye last year. With a # of newcomers to their team that were very important. But those newcomers were very good and big play guys. And for the most part, were not around the disc guys (except Burkhardt, who was important for them). So maybe there is a chance for the team of athletes and young-ins to get hot and take over a nationals. But >95% it takes a team of athletes and guys who are confindent with one another to make it through the 4 days in Sarasota. Recruit guys who are committed to your team and want to play with you. Hoepfully, they stay around.

Thumbing through this post of GC's made me think I am playing in the dark ages of 3 handler v. a zone. Apparently, there are never any risky throws with a 2 handler set...

[NOTICE- i have read no books on ultimate and read that article a long time ago]

Here are my arguments FOR a 3-handler set. And there may be some arguments FOR a 2 handler set too. I do not know where I am going right now.

- I personally believe a 2 handler set puts too much onus on the throwers to make harder throws. (A lot of this is from playing against 2 handler sets and not in a 2 handler set, so please bare with me.) In a 2 handler set, the handler with the disc only has 1 bail out option. Or at least one guy who expects to touch the disc a lot. If I am in the cup and the count starts to get high, there is a good chance I could take away that bail out handler. In a 3 handler set, you have 2 other guys expecting to touch the disc a lot.

- Just standing there v. cutting. One argument for was you are more likely to get the disc in a 2 handler set just standing there. I agree with that, more people up field. But just standing there waiting for the disc is just as dangerous as cutting for the disc for the offense. If you are standing there, most likely the zone knows where you are. If you are cutting, either someone has to stay with you or the zone has to adjust. Isn't that good for the o? Isn't there a more likely event that someone misses an assignment? I feel like a lot of the standing around would be in hard places to throw it. Say a blade or hammer over and in between some defenders. I am going out on a limb and say if you are on a college team you want the team your are zoning to throw that. Even at club nationals this year as a deep-deep on a team that played a good amount of zone, I would say there were only 2 guys at the whole tourney that I was really, really worried about that could throw these throws. I will take those blades + hammers all day from your average handler.

- Movement. I think you can generate more give and gos from a 3 handler set. Either the usual kind or the hook and ladder kind (hit the guy upfield and go). If the 3 guys are always standing there, 15 yards away from each other. Very predictable, requires a lot of dump + swings. But if you have 3 guys at times spaced out, but at times moving. Invading the cup. Give-and-go. Changing fields. It is a lot harder to guard. You now have cutters cutting for the disc downfield (poppers + wings) as well as upfield (handlers even or behind the disc). I think this is actually the most important part of any zone o. The more movement, the better.

- Hitting the wing. Mr. P. argues, if successful, that the 3 handler set gives an inexperienced wing the disc on the sideline, where the 2 handler set stays in the middle. So do you never throw to the wing with 2 handlers? Are the wings that much more expereinced in a 2 handler set? There is a problem if you never use the lines. Any good zone will not guard the lines if you are using them, they will stuff the middle up. I do think the advantage for the 2 handler is more options upfield after you break through the cup. I can't argue that point. But any good zone adjusts by taking away the immediate threats.

Here are my thoughts on zone,

[use whatever handler set you want, b/c I do not feel that is the most important issue (I do recommend 3 handlers, but what do I know)]

1. Movement from all positions,
2. Create 2-on-1s or give and gos,
3. Make the Zone adjust to you,
4. Overload,
5. Don't always do the same thing
6. Go into the cup

First, I would like to congratulate myself for being, I believe, the first blogger to make a COTD (Alex was on the Trailer for Disc 4, but not actually doing anything frisbee related, just yapping). That is my nice anvert huck to Berkseth. Let's just say it floated a little more than I intended.

Second, I like George's classification of my blog, "Although a bit off topic". I think that is an excellent name for this blog.

So on that note, TUKA's (now known as magnUM) 1997 summary.

Michigan Indoor. 7on7 indoor on the football field. A little narrow field (2 fields on 1 football field). We went something like 4-1, beating all college teams. The only play I really remember is Geoff catching a goal and colliding with a defender from Mr. Yuk (Carnegie Mellon). The defender, calls foul and is laying face first on the turf in obvious pain. Geoff, with his back to the guy, yells something like. "Foul, that ain't no foul. This is my disc Bitch!" I know the word Bitch was in there. Oh another point I remember is dropping the disc on double gamepoint against the Ann Arbor Club team. We lost. I had the last turn. Also, Lippy + Greff had a team and they ended up winning the thing, I think. I left early to drink.

Groundhog's Day. A tourney at an indoor soccer place. 5on5, with it 4-1 coed. Also, the tourney started at 10 pm and finishes at 6:30 am. Good times. We had about 6 college guys with 2 club (dave Moran and Jimmy Young). Our girls were Amy Young and then some Oberlin girls, I believe. I remember nothing besides beating Oberlin at some point and getting to the finals. Then we got crushed.

Artic Vogue in Cincinnati. Outdoor. We go 4-0 on Saturday. Our 2 best guys are sick, so we leave after Saturday and do not stay for Sunday. This included one of our best games against Notre Dame. We score the last 5 or 6 points against them. All playing zone. The best d was Jaeger laying out for a point block, but the thrower faked it. The thrower goes to throw the same throw and Jaeger, from the ground, blocks it.

White Smoke at Notre Dame. We do ok. I can't remember much besides getting beat by ND pretty handily on their home turf. I left after Saturday b/c I had to work. I think that was the only game we lost on Saturday.

Clemson. This was a tourney when I really fell in love with ultimate. Drove down Friday afternoon and got there late. Woke up, played against the best teams we ever played against. San Diego? Clemson? I remember nothing except our team only had like 4 discs there. Partied very hard Sat. Woke up, won a game on Sunday, then took off. The whole trip was awesome.

Sectionals. We won this over K-zoo, Hope, Lansing Community College and State. I can't believe we were that much better than anyone else in our state.

Regionals in Northfield. This included the first time I ever crossed the Mississippi in my life (now I do it like 4 times a day). Leaving AA at like 6 pm b/c of finals and getting in ~4 am. We got a speeding tix and met some drunk cops when we pulled into the hotel.
-We were seeded 8th or 9th as we were in Wisconsin's pool.
-Saturday, we beat 2 teams. Including St. Olaf, probably our best game that year. -Karl had a hat trick of drops during this game. I remember this b/c I still have pictures from this game.
-The infamous "If there is one thing I know, it is not a broken collar bone" comment from Brian Lane. Well, Dan did break his collar bone.
-In the 3rd game, we played Wisconsin. They crushed us. At one point, Jammin comes onto the field (drunk) and is bragging about the fact he is going to nutmeg someone. Well, they huck it to him. He drops it. We turn it over. He gets the disc back and goes to nutmeg Wu. Wu pushes him over and yells at him "call a foul". I felt is was appropriate
-In our last game, we play Colorado St. The winner advances to Sunday. Loser goes home or more accurately gets drunk and goes home. Well, they beat us. It was close. I remember the last point fairly vividly. We were playing d, I was on Scotty Conway. Someone poaches, his guy gets the disc and bombs it to Scotty on the break force side. I can't get there. One more throw goal.

As you can tell, not much strategy from that year. The horse and buggy does not allow for much experimentation. We just kept bombing it and playing d. The next year we tried a little more strategy. But the best a Michigan team had done since the 80s. We had started something and we had almost everyone returning...

My running diary of the world games. To model after my favorite writer of all time, the Sports Guy. I decided to relax and watch the dvd of the world games final between US and Australia. I mean after all, I selected the team. Another reason I am doing this is I was intrigued by Mr. Parinella’s thoughts on the actual time of play… So you will see some time stuff along the way. I started the time for each point from the pull until the goal was scored. And tried to stop my watch for calls. Not sure how accurate everything is.

-Lots of talking, this guy sounds like Rich Eisen!
-I am going to try and time the actual play….
-US will receive. Hmmm, Aussies are tall. Hopefully, Chase is tall enough. And didn’t Zip graduate? I thought he did.
-So you can’t really see the cutting which is a bummer, but a good view of thrower and marker.
-First call – 27 seconds in. Not sure what.
-1-0 Will to Dom on a nice big throw. Some d pressure on the initial start play, but none after the US goes upfield. Total time for point 41s.
-Time in between pull - ~58 s.
-1-1 Big huck 42 to “one of the dowle twins” , total time ~22 s. One call this point as well.
-Time in between pull - ~70 s
-Lots of poaching by Australia. 2-1, Zip goes up to get Eastham’s throw. Very nice grab. Incidentally, is Zip balding? Isn’t he like 22? Rogaine is a solution. Time ~ 22s
-Time in between pull - ~ 61 s
-42 big huck and again one of the dowles gets it. 2-2. It looked like they ran the “double with cheese”. 28 s. So far Australia takes 2 or 3 throws to get it to 42 and then he sends it. Hmm, its starting to rain
-Time in between pull – 65 s
-3rd call. And 4th call. Apparently, someone Aussie girl is named Granny and no one knows why. 3-2 Will to Chase up the line. And Will maybe hurt. Uh oh… Only 2 subs and 1 guy hurt. Time of point ~ 63 s.
-Hey look its Ron!
-Time in between ~ 55s
-They are ripping on Bart’s pull. It looked a lot like one of my 62 yard pulls.
-Another high swill huck. What!?!?!?!? #42 lays out out of bounds high w/ Namkung all over hmm laying out and throws the chicken wing greates. One throw later a goal. Holy cow. I did not think athletic plays were allowed in co-ed. A great play by 42. I think he is a key guy. 3-3 Total time ~25 s.
-Timeout by someone. Time in between ~115s.
-First brick. 4-3 Zip to Deb. Ez point for the US. 25 seconds to bring disc to brick, then 28 s to score.
-People think I look like Jeff Eastham. He is a little too fat to be me.
-In between pulls ~63s. Chase pulls out of bounds (stop lifting Chase). Another brick. 40 s to get disc in play. Aussie girl gets stalled . First turn of the game. US has disc near endzone, Miranda with disc, high stall, turn. Long discussion, pick after the turn? ~40s. Aussie huck, nice grab by one of the Aussie women. 42 to girl unsure of # . 42- girl #44 for the score. Nice bid by Miranda. Time of play, 120 s. Total time of point 3:50. Lots of discussion time. Each team with their first turn. And a couple of calls. I should be counting calls and not time… 4-4
-Some dude from Australia heard they were in the finals and flys there overnite to see his women play. Love is no neat.
-Time in between pull ~70 s. Will is ok.
-Chase throws into poach. Nice layout catch d. Guy 14 – girl 20. 4-5. 34 s of play, 10 s of discussion.
-Timeout, and I can’t wait to hear Jude’s nickname. 75 s in between pull. Oh, his nickname is widowmaker b/c of one time…. I am pretty sure you do not get that nickname b/c of one time.
-Will comes backs. And throws a decent length backhand to Deb. 5-5. 44 s.
-Oh, Will “zipped that thing” even though he is not zipperstein. This announcer is just like Rich Eisen!
-Time in between pull 76s
-There has to be some slight wind, but not sure. Chase’s pull barely got to the endzone.
-Miranda d. Just beat her woman to the disc, it looked like. Zip to Namkung. 40 s total for the point. 6-5
-I think the US women are much better then the Aussie women. They seem a little more athletic and less nervous with the disc.
-Namkung is wearing some Enge-like tape on his neck.
-Time in between pulls. ~55 s.
-The aussies are actually working it up the field for the first time. Big, tall hammer. Potsy threw it. I did not know he played ultimate. Happy days are here again. Oh and 42 caught it. Over someone, I missed who. 40 s for the goal. 6-6.
-Time in between pull 70s.
-I think 42 is very important for Australia’s success
-Lefty pull, oh no, that is actually his right hand . I am making fun of Rich Eisen…
-Deb huck to Bart. Wide open. I mean wide. About 10 yards short of endzone. Timeout Bart. 18 s. It seemed no one was there to help Bart.
-So I just realized the game is to 13. So this is for half. Big point. Timeout took - ~1:45.
-Aussie comes out in z after to. A good surprise. Invert by Deb, missed by Kati. Not sure if that was a throwaway or drop. It looked catchable, but it could have been too far behind her. Namkung interception. Oh, some call. Nice frustration roll back to thrower. Potsy gets stalled. Didn’t he see the Fonz open? Watson to Namkung up line. Hammer To Will,. 7-6. Time of play 56s. About a 1:45 minute timeout. And about 25 s of discussion… Total time of point 3:05.

Ok, so I know the US wins. Here are my predictions:

- The US d has to have Chase covering the guy going deep or else one of the other guys has to step up to get a deep d.
- I think the US will exploit the match up of the women. More d’s from the women. And maybe more goals.
- Straight up on 42?
- The only way the Aussies have gotten d’s are on zone or poach. If I were an Aussie, I would play more zone in the 2nd half. It seems the Aussies can’t hang with the US person on person.

So first half summary:
7 – 6 US over Australia.
US 3 turns –
Will has 1 g 3 a, zip has 1 g 2 a, Deb has 2 g, Mike has 1 g 1 a, Dom + CSB have a goal, Jeff has 1 a.

Australia 3 turns – 42 has 1 g 4 a. The Dowle Twins have at least 2 g.

Actual time of play – 563 s. Or 9 minutes 23 seconds for 13 points. This is the actual disc in play time. Does not count pulls, discussion of calls, or timeouts.

Total time in between pulls including 2 commercial breaks – 833 s or 13 minutes 53 seconds..

One timeout in point of 1 minute 45 seconds.

I wish I could have kept the discussion time for calls. I would say that this added an average of ~ 20s per point, maybe less. That is an additional 4 minutes or so to the half.

2nd half later, LT is up.

Back to the winter of '97, we (being TUKA, which eventually morphs into magnUM) assemble at the astroturf of Oosterban Fieldhouse to learn our first offense.

First, the set-up of our team that year.

Throwers: Jon (big throws, cautious with the disc) + Brian (big backhand, not cautious with the disc)

Kind of Throwers: Wu + Jaegs

Receivers: Me, Kevin, Phil, Alex, Jamie, Geoff (but really wanted to be one), Dave Hunter, Skow, J, Karl (should have been), Dan, Tuve!, Wags, Russ, anyone else here?

Really, what kind of offense can you have when you have only 2 guys competent enough to complete 20 yard throws on a consistent basis? Well, the horse + buggy.

Very, very complex. I will try to simplify. 2 handlers. Always a dump present. Cuts from the back of the stack. Only from the back of the stack. Whenever we get the disc, get in a line and the guy in the back start cutting. When we received, I do not even think we called a first cutter. Just 2 handlers. And usually it was very obvious who was handling. Nowadays, it is like a book on tape before the pull.

We either hucked it or dumped it. That is about it. No starting plays. No other cuts. No break mark options (besides the dump).

Pros of this offense: it kept the disc in the hands of our throwers. It kept the disc out of the hands of our non-throwers. Really, the only offense we could have run. If we tried to swing the disc in a sort of 3 handler set, we would have probably had just as many turns as our force it down one sideline and occassionally get a swing off strategy.

As been pointed out by another blogger, you have to figure out what you can and can't do when you are trying to close the gaps with the elite. And try to maximize what you can do. And minimize what you can't do.

We could run and play defense with pretty much anyone. A lot of teams could not run with the top teams. We only played a couple of those teams that year and they never beat us on being better athletes. Most of our "kind of" throwers and "receivers" were ex-athletes of some kind. And about 6'.

We could not spend a lot of time trying to move the disc from side to side. Again, lack of break mark throws, but lack of skills at that position. Had we tried to do a Stanford type offense with a lot of emphasis on going from side to side, we would have turned it over near our endzone much more. [Note: we did work on breaking the mark and improving throws a ton, but we were starting from a very low point.] This killed on the endzone. We definitely scored more on fast breaks and hucks then in any endzone offense. Of course, our endzone o was our regular o.

We could throw it deep, or at least some of us could. Brian, Jon, and even Jaegs backhand could go a good distance. Anytime an open deep shot came, we took it. We had to. If this taught me anything, it taught me to go deep whenever given the option.

It worked about as well as expected. We were ok, we could hang for ~8 points with teams. Then our lack of skills came into play. How'd we do? Well, you'll get the '97 summary sometime soon.

Sidenote: Did anyone else see the video of the high school football coach in LA moving the chains on 4th down when the refs weren't looking? Good stuff. Apparently, the coach regrets that cheating incident. What was the guy holding the chains thinking? "Oh, this is ok." Seigs or J-co, try to rationalize this!
Goto: http://www.dailybreeze.com/hottopics/articles/2018037.html