Burning Ring

Back on top again


And all is right in the Midatlantic.

Congrats to qualifiers Ring, Truck Stop, Oakland, Southpaw.

This weekend I played with Ellis Kim's Seatless Bicycle. Or, 9 no 14 no 13 no 7 no 8 /27ths of our roster. That is to say, At sectionals we had about 13 guys. Which was good. At Regionals which was on October First and Se, no Oct. Eighth andbutsoitmightbe October First still in Kennett Squa... no, definitely October Eighth and Ninth in Poolesville as was originally planned as a backup. No, we're going to Kennett Square probably this weekend.

Point is, we went from about 27 guys on the roster (at least 4 of whom we never saw all year) to expecting 24 for Regionals. Then we were expecting 14 maybe 18 for Regionals when it was rescheduled. Then we gained or lost depending on where it was that weekend and how late we found out as the weekend approached.

We had 14. I think. A guy from Fishtown in my car forgot his cleats. But he remembered his Roots and to lock the front door. Beam to North Philly for the never-materializing-for-club-ultimate-"Dundee", fly to west Philly for Cuatro and Smellis and then back to the beginning of this sentence. Back to Fishtown.

95 to 322 to 1 to the game just started over there versus Cash Crop.

We have possessions on O and D that end in drops. Some in the endzone. Some just bizarre. Finkbot is overheating. Some multiple-drop points on our side. Too many points are being played. We lose 15-8.

Next round versus Medicine Men. We have more drops. We are down at half. Then we go on a mini-run to start the second half. How many drops? Too many, money. It was unreal. Surreal. Hyperreal.

No, just really actually normal real. For a team with no pracices and too much rain everywhere to play anything against other teams... it was expected. Irene knocked over the goddamn Bike.

Med Men win 15-8.

Cash Crop plays like they know they're good.
Med Men play like they have to prove to you and each other they're good.

They're both not bad.

Through two games, we found one consistent way to fail.

We play competent defense and messy though competent offense.

Then we get a sectionals rematch vs Hypnotoad who is clearly more excited to play us this time around than they were at sectionals. And we are clearly less excited to be playing them at this point in the day. We get out to a couple of leads, and then have more drops and they put it up with enough success that that convert some of their break opportunities on the key notion that most of us have already played far more points per hour than this contract called for. Some guy had to farm. Another guy is working in Illinois. Some gotta do grants and shit. Some have wife-passes that turn into pumpkins and some's wife-passes contain no-raincheck clauses. And then there are guys who can't spell their own first names.

Oh, and it definitely didn't help us that our biggest cutter and most reliable deep threat, Nick Scheiner, seemed to have definitively hurt his knee going up faaaar too early for a disc and getting undercut by a defender. Yikes.

Then a Sectionals Rematch vs the three seed from another pool: Bearproof. This is like the adult version of Hypnotoad. This does not end well for EKSB since we have lost our will to actually run deep on defense and attempt to substitute "stand rather deep and hope they don't throw it" which doesn't work against a team that it used to winning or losing by throwing it anyway and our deep defenders are like 5'10". Loss for us, with fewer drops, 9-15.

And now we're eliminated from the series. Series results:

7-15 L Southpaw
11-15 L Bearproof
15-8 W Gavel
13-2 W Princeton
13-5 W Hypnotoad
13-5 W Lehigh Alums

8-15 L Cash Crop
8-15 L Medicine Men
15-13 W Hypnotoad
9-15 L Bearproof

5-5, played against 2 teams outside our section. Tomorrow we play in the kiddie pool!

---

Most of our team declard themselves out for the next day. We talked some of them back into it... but... One of them had to get to a hospital the next day... Anyway, a crazy trip to the beer-excellent Pinocchio's Pizza was undertaken.

The next morning had us pitted against Queen City Thunder who were unsure if we would show. I too was unsure. We got 7 on by about 9:15. On o the guys who didn't get on was from Rutgers and was there before the rest of us. Not Smellis.

They were up pretty big. I think still up big at half. Maybe 2-8 or 3-8? Then we were up 9-8.

Then we traded and went on mini runs or something until it was 11-12 and they were pulling to us. I got it and overthrew a 55yd blade to Venose. Which is hard to do. They scored to make it 11-13, game to 14. Some cap something was involved in there, not sure when, but this was the correct result.

We scored, they scored, game over.

Yay, we finish 13th?

---

Wait, we finished sectionals and regionals without playing a single team from western PA? No ugly-since-1995 game against Pittsburgh? Weird.

Southpaw and Oakland are real.

The difference btw Southpaw and Oakland is vast but little.

---

Update of Southpaw's record, into tiers:

to make:
0-1 v Chain, Furious, Revolver (-22 pf diff, -7.33 per game)
1-3 v Ironside (-18 pt diff, -4.5 per game)

2-4 v PoNY (-11 pt diff, -1.83 per game)
0-1 v Voodoo, GB, Ring (-5 pt diff, -1.67

2-1 v Cash Crop (-1, -.25)
3-0 v Oakland, NexGen (+6 pt diff, +2 per game)

2-1 v MedMen (+9 pt diff, +3 per game)
1-0 v Truck Stop (+4)
1-0 v Dire Wolf, Hypnotoad, VA Squires (+16, +5.33)
1-0 v Bear Proof, EKSB (+15, +7.5)
2-0 v Philly Gavel, QCT, Swell(+34, +11.33)

Looking at that, knowing that they're going to Nationals, what might you wonder? How did they do against Truck stop at Regionals? Never Happened.

How about now that Cash Crop isn't there? Cash Crop v Truck Stop never happened. At all. All season. How about Cash Crop v Ring? Never happened at Regionals.

In the Sunday 1pm round, 4 teams all played nationals-level games. They all proved theselves worthy. Ring and Truck played a great final. 15-14. Oakland and Cash Crop played a great 14-13 game next door. All of those teams are Nationals-level.

Southpaw is Nationals-level too. But Medicine Men were not up to the level of play that equals that round in the bracket. If you're playing, you're playing either "Finals" or "Game to go" or "Game to Go Home". There are 4 teams alive for 2 spots. After this round, There will be 2 alive for 1 spot. Losing 15-10... puts you in the place you were before regionals. Just like you were the round before, losing 15-10 to the Haiders. Even EKSB playing savage only lost by 2 that round! I mean, if you're gonna upset the pool, do something with it.

Cash vs Southpaw in the game-to-go was predictable. Cash needed to take Oakland's path to advance. They didn't have the depth to stay with Southpaw in the 8th round of the weekend. Speaking of which, how cool would it have been to be the 8 or 9 seed in this format?? Basically play a 17pt exhibition game against the 1 seed, get a bye, and play one game that has no consequence w/r/t elimination? Sweet, right? Well, the Squires got rewarded with Pool D + W v Bear Proof (L to Oakland, Southpaw) to get Eliminated. Dire Wolf beat Swell and Capitol Punishment to lose to Med Men.

Or how about the notion that 6/7 Founders Teams, if seeds held, would have rematches on the first day. One for an elimination game. c3vb3. one for the last game of the only two eliminated teams on day 1: c4vb4. Someone in there could have been switched somewhere, right? Some matchup up or down one?

Anyway.

Southpaw might still be your 2011 "litmus test" AKA "TMITIU".

Read More......

Is Southpaw

The most important team

in ultimate?

So, this past weekend I played at club Sectionals for the first time where I wasn't the one seed. Different vantage point.

For example, the schedule is much more complicated. I get why teams obsess over this now. It was a series event and I had no idea what my team had to do in order to advance because I couldn't correctly parse the Format Manual for a 9-team 7-advance format. Also, we didn't know it was a 7-advance format until Wed or Thurs. Maybe Tues?

In fact, we still don't know. The number of teams advancing to Regionals still depends on the number of teams who actually play at sectionals. To some degree. Or something. Point is, if we finished top 2 in our 4 team pool, we'd play a bracket for top-4 on day 2. If we finished bottom 2, we'd carryover 1 game from day 1 and play in the kiddie pool for seeding from 5-9. In our pool were Southpaw (Quarters of Nationals), Bear Proof (Harrisburg-area team that is athletic and trying hard to improve) and Philly Gavel (Philly Northclaw?).

We'd never played any of them. I mean, we played Philly Open once in Delaware, but that definitely didn't count. Completely different teams. For everyone.

Our game against Southpaw started at noon:40. We played alright for a team that had no practices. Timid. Not trusting. But not terrible. A 15-8 loss was assured by the 4 or 5 short fields we gave them and the 1 ricochallahan that bounced off of a Gaulton before being caught by some bystander in yellow. The atlas warmup was good.

The game against Bearproof was a different show. We had many drops and many random throws. We had two culprits (who shall for now remain nameless) and a lot of accomplices. The beer garden, which had been pregamed in the first game, was now in full swing, however. We lost to a team that made more plays than us. They won the unforced error battle and won the 50/50 discs. This is not a recipe for success for EKSB. Bearproof victory 15-11.

Through two games, we found many ways to fail.

In the last game, we dialed in on some basics (subbing strategy, wizard-equivalence, jp and art's roles) and played exceedingly competent offense. Which was a good choice. We win this one 15-8.

Tomorrow we play in the kiddie pool!

---

So I read this bit by ChucKlosterman on the moving pieces of college football. A good read. Some relevant points include the talent-gap in college football compared to the pros, the different resultant strategies and raises the question of which is more important, the strategy or the execution or the athlete or the what?

---

The next day, we played 3 teams that basically had no interest in playing us. As far as I could tell. We were missing some people in the first game due to an ill-advised casino run in Philly. There was also a giant birthday party somewhere near Girard and Frankford. But we went with the delicious Sketch Burger. Someone was going shot for shot with Sandra Oh for a while there. Same guy who convinced someone not to throw the birthday cake out the 3rd story.

Yay, we finish 5th?

The bracket turned out as predicted. Southpaw over Oakland over Dire Wolf over Bear Proof.

Wait, we finished sectionals without playing a single team from western PA? No ugly-since-1995 game against Pittsburgh? Weird.

Southpaw and Oakland are real. Bear Proof is not. Dire Wolf... I don't know about. Not to say Bear Proof is bad... but...

The difference btw Southpaw and Oakland is vast but little.

---

Klosterman's bit also lead to this piece which closes on a bit re: Navy in college football:

“I think the hardest thing for people is that you don’t see it week in and week out,” coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “Defensive coordinators know how to stop it. They know how to play against it. But you’re not seeing it every week. It takes away your instincts as a defender.

“It’s like the old Princeton [basketball] offense — four corners, backdooring everybody," Jasper said. "That’s how they slowed the game down and made other teams one-dimensional.”

Southpaw makes you one-dimensional. They run the same play(s). They adjust the same ways. But they do it very effectively, with a consistently low number of unforced errors. The adjustments they do have are made quickly. The options that take are taken in order.

If you have more talent, you can beat them. But they don't let you beat them on athleticism, work ethic, number of clipboards, awkwardyellowness of jerseys... You can beat them using strategy, but you can't use one strategy. You can't beat them by adjusting to them. They're trying to make you one-dimensional. If you adjust to them, your prime dimension is "not-them".

Essentially, if you meet the criteria of Nationals-caliber team, (Talent, Multiple Strategies, Not Out of Ultimate Shape, Have a Team Identity) you will likely beat them. Not that you always will, but that you will. If you're lacking a little in one of those areas, they'll have the advantage over you, but if you compensate in other areas with big advantages, you could still win more than you lose. If you're missing a component or two of those criteria? Well... you're gonna get lucky or lose or get lucky and lose.

Look at their record:

18-16

2-4 v PoNY (-11 pt diff, -2 per game)
1-1 v MedMen (+4 pt diff, +2 per game)
1-3 v Ironside (-18 pt diff, -4.25 per game)
0-1 v Chain, Voodoo, Great Britain, Cash Crop, Furious, Revolver (-24 pt diff, -4 per game)

Now, the GB and Voodoo games seem out of place there. They could be lumped in with either the MedMen or PoNY games without much of a difference. Then the last line becomes:

0-1 v Chain, Cash Crop, Furious, Revolver (-26 pf diff, -5.25 per game)

Which is more in line with Ironside's line.

Looks like tiers to me.

add in:
1-0 v Oakland, NexGen (+2 pt diff, +1 per game)
1-0 v Truck Stop (+4)
1-0 v Dire Wolf, Hypnotoad (+10, +5)
1-0 v Bear Proof, EKSB (+15, +7.5)
1-0 v Philly Gavel (+11)

to make:
0-1 v Chain, Cash Crop, Furious, Revolver (-26 pf diff, -6.25 per game)
1-3 v Ironside (-18 pt diff, -4.5 per game)
2-4 v PoNY (-11 pt diff, -1.83 per game)
0-1 v Voodoo, GB (-3 pt diff, -1.5
1-0 v Oakland, NexGen (+2 pt diff, +1 per game)
1-1 v MedMen (+4 pt diff, +2 per game)
1-0 v Truck Stop (+4)
1-0 v Dire Wolf, Hypnotoad (+10, +5)
1-0 v Bear Proof, EKSB (+15, +7.5)
1-0 v Philly Gavel (+11)

I suspect that Cash Crop won't stay in that spot, but they could. I susepct Truck was waylaid with some injuries at Boston... MA Regionals will be a MFShow.

I think Hypnotoad is overranked there and Gavel got overwhelmed.

Southpaw might be your 2011 "litmus test" AKA "TMITIU".

Read More......

Windsock-o-meter

Would it be too much to ask

to have a graphic (or even just a windsock in the field of view) for future ultimate telecasts/videos?

Not that I would have thought of it before checking in on the CUT v Hodags (KINSEY! I SEE YOU THROWING TRASHY GOALS! You're the reason I have such a goofy picture in th header for this waste of blogospace. Those los dudes almost killed me.) on cstv.com, but the fact remains that something like a directional arrow w/ windspeed in a corner of the screen or something as simple as a windsock would make this a better viewing experience.

Speaking of easy ways to improve nationals:

- Open to men.
Whatever.
- Teams wear school colors?
Sure, I guess. More on this in a moment.
- Team names on uniforms.
Yes. No argument at all.
- Teams use school name.
No. Not unless every backw(oo/ar)ds club sport office will agree to letting a "fringe sport" (altsport?) like ultimate fully represent their school. For example, at NYU, we were told that we were not allowed to be the Violets. We were not allowed to go to tournaments unless we went in a club sports van or bus. We were not allowed to travel without a coach. Seriously? We just wanted to play. If you place a barrier like "Must be an NCAA-approved sport" in front of ultimate players who just want to play... well... The issue here is legitimacy vs participation w/r/t the growth curve of the sport. Right now, this is a requirement that would, over the matter of "Words, words, words" eliminate participation for a large percentage of schools/players whose schools will not allow them to use the official mascot. Yes, NYU is an oddity unto itself, but it is not the only school with restrictions on what a frisbee team is allowed to call itself. Hell, we would repeatedly show video and explain to the club sports department what we were doing exactly, and every year, the club sports dept would ask us what ultimate was. Oh, if you're named something that implies a color, and your school won't let you use their name, it wouldn't make sense to be their colors, no would it? Like, say Green Eggs and Ham should probably be allowed to wear green if they want.
- Hats.
1. Yes on color.
2. Maybe on "team/university/relevant" hats.
3. Shut up about which direction hat to buy. Next I won't be allowed to wear baggy shorts. Or short shorts. Or maybe, since I would have been shelling out my own money for all of these items, and most of the travel, you should just shut the hell up. Seriously. Let me wear whichever type of shorts I want to buy and be seen in public, let me tilt, turn and crease my hat anyway I want. Let me not wash my hat for a whole season so that you can see the sweat stains and places where my grubby little fingers grabbed onto it over and over again like they do in MLB (anyone have a ready link for a dude who did this? There are many examples and I can't remember any of their names or find them via google.). Wait, is there a rule that says players can't wear backwards hats? After some years of a backwards hat, I saw the light (is it a pun if I pretend I didn't call attention to it?) and realized that a forwards had would help me not get blinded when I looked up. This does not make me think that people who want to be blinded should not be allowed to wear backwards hats. Direction of hat does not affect anything. I'm feeling dumber by the letter I type here.
- Birdman.
If Southpaw actually lets Venose try out for them (He was the fastest player on the field when he was there at NJ HS States. BARFIGHT!), they might well be the most tatted-up team in the nation, based solely on Venose and Purifico.

11-whatever? Really? For a final? Maybe I was wrong and ultimate does deserve to be an indoor sport. I love the wind, but that doesn't make it good for the sport.

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Southpaw

The question I get asked most often

is "So, what's the deal with Pike folding?"

Rarely do folks mean "Tell me about the offseason that lead from Pike to Southpaw". Usually, what they mean is to ask about an ex-Pike, or to know who is AMP now, or who is on Southpaw, or who the coach of Southpaw is, exactly, or whatever.

Well, I'm not exactly going to answer any of that. I'm going to messily tackle 2 topics:

1) Pike is not Southpaw and that Southpaw is not Pike. To make either assertion is to do a disservice to Southpaw, Pike, Philly Ultimate and any number of other groups, players, coaches, individuals, groups, &c.

2) Pike did not "fold", "disband", "fall apart" or whatever other pejorative you'd like to apply.

---

The second first: Pike, as a team, chose to unite the open ultimate talent in the greater Philadelphia area by having fully open, inclusive tryouts. The issue of team name was tabled until the team was chosen, so that the chosen players could chose the name and no one would say "I will not tryout for 'Pike'".

Key stated goals of the "merger" were:

-- Create an elite-level team that is wholly invested in and supported by the area ultimate communities rather than a separate entity.
-- Stop the continual creation/recreation of teams competing for the top talent in the Philly area by creating a sustainable team as *the* destination for all area players wishing to compete at the highest level.
-- Create a team environment that allows&encourages the duality of fun and dedication to excellence.
-- Represent Philadelphia's heart, soul and grit on the ultimate field.

I was cut from the team, so, I'm not the person to address progress toward the above goals. I was part of the group that came together in the offseason to make Southpaw happen, so, I am the person to tell you what the goals were.

---

The first second: Southpaw is not Pike. There are any number of things to cite on this topic, but the clearest of them is to ask the opponents of Southpaw if they are Pike. I know the answer, but that is too... nebulous&hearay-ey to tackle here.

To go a little further, let's look at the roster. Baselevel info is that there are 13(/27 + 1 Injured Reserve) ex-pikes on Southpaw:

Name: Years as Pike
Trey: 02-07
Ian: 03-07, 09
Wooten: 04-05
Brandon: 06-07
Schmucker: 06-07
Pribicko: 06-07
Tim: 06-09
Fink: 06-09
Eddie: 07
Art: 07-09
Leon: 08-09
Ross: 08-09
Jake: 08-09

A look at the full roster:

Player, Most Recent Team*
Art Shull, Pike
Leon Chou, Pike
Ross Littauer, Pike
Jake Rainwater, Pike
Tim Johnson, Pike
Jon Fink, Pike
Ian McClellan, Pike

Dan Furfari, AMP
David Brandolph, AMP
Matt Glazer, AMP
Sean Murray, AMP
Tim Gaulton, AMP
Eddie Peters, AMP

Nick Hirannet, Hooray!
Thomas Pribicko, Hooray!
Nick Purifico, Hooray!
Mike Panna, Hooray! (Injured Reserve)

Adrian Chow, Carleton
Brandon Silverman, Team Tent U
Alex Kadesch, Philly Love
Joel Wooten, Chain Lightning
Greg Owens, TCNJ
Matt Schmucker, ????
David Stoddard, Roots of Rhythm
George Katzenbach, Ironside
Frederick Brasz, Princeton
Carl Deffenbaugh, Machine
Billy Maroon, O.l.d. S.a.g.

*- To the best of my knowledge

To break that down differently:

Type of team: # of players
Nationals Open: 10
Nationals Coed: 7
Nationals Masters: 1
Nationals College: 1 (3 if you include Kadesch&Shull)
Non-Nationals Open: 3
Non-Nationals Coed: 3
Non-Nationals College: 2
????: 1

Or, another way:

Experience: # of players
Nationals Open: 16
Nationals Coed: 10
Nationals Masters: 1
Nationals College: 12

(Some of the college list is off, I'm pretty sure. I can't entirely reliably recall who was in college when or even for which school any longer.)

Finally, I feel that Southpaw is defined by their coach (Jeff Snader) rather than by their players. This was not true of Pike even if you replaced "coach" with "captains". I do not mean to judge this definition, I mean to make the statement, you can judge the rest for yourself.

---

An Addendum:

Swagger U beat Pike at sectionals in 2009. Now they're Pike-killers who can't finish sectionals. No one from Pike can change it or deny it, or ever get revenge.

Pike beat Los in the game-to-go in 2007 and 2009. No one on Los can change it or deny it, or ever get revenge.

Point is, there is nothing historic at stake if/when Los plays Southpaw at Regionals. Southpaw isn't Pike. I hear rumours that Los isn't Los either, but I don't know anything other than 3rd hand accounts (at best) regarding that.

---

Now, will everyone ask me about PoNY instead?
Please?

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"...3[0] Years Old..."

What was it that happened here?

And how does it all dream away?

I signed my 7 year contract in 2003 when I was 22. A developmental project at the time, Pike would have to invest in me to pay off on the field. The team just came off their first nationals trip, and a large portion of the Pittsburgh players determined that the commute was worth making the show, but only for a limited engagement. There was a need for youth. Or there was no choice. I don't know. I wasn't on Pike at the time. Enter the first Pike rookie recruiting class:

Bailey Russel, Ryan Todd, Harrison Treegoob, Ian McClellan, Ben Kleaveland, Me, Chris Klitgord, Ken Taga and Matt Dufort.

Also new to the team that season were NY refugees Jude, J and Dave.

In 2002 when I graduated from college, I was convinced that I would never play ultimate again. I'm short, not that fast, don't jump that high and managed to get out of college ultimate without knowing anything about club ultimate. I had never considered it aside from late night fever dreams. I had two surgically repaired knees by the time I got to Pike. Why would they need a guy like that?

My fears were confirmed at the very first tryout. In Buccleuch Park in early March, I played my first scrimmage/tryout/practice with Pike. On approximately the first point I played, I was feeling pretty good. I felt like I was open, but timing poorly. Then I get the cut, a good 30 yard gainer. The pass comes. Nice. As I get ready to catch it, I realize that the disc is not the item with the most velocity in my vicinity. It is instead some nutfucker laying out over my shoulder at the disc. Of course, he got the block by about 2 feet. Feet, coincidentally, are the only parts of his body that I could have grabbed if I so chose during that point. He landed in a huge ice-covered pool of muddy water with the disc caught-blocked in one hand, already scrambling to his feet to throw a 5 yard pass to someone so that he could sprint to the endzone and catch the goal.

Bookended. By Dono.
The next time that would happen would be 6 years later at PADA Mosh when he caught a Callahan on me. At least that time I didn't have to endure the extra taunting passes.

I kept with it. Every week I was there working with the team. I needed a ride when my car stopped working. I got one. I went to the first club tourney of my career in Delaware. We won. Taga got hurt. Heckman was a cutter(!). Trey complimented me on my deep throws. Someone asked me if I liked playing O or D-- I didn't know there was a difference. I said D. I said it because I couldn't grasp the offense or run the plays. Funny. Since then I've realized that only the D team knows plays and runs an offense. The O is just the penthouse of ultimate. Make sure you're open somewhere on the field and eventually someone will throw you the disc. Then throw it to some open space on the field and one of your teammates will catch it.

Eventually the email came that I was more than welcome to a bottom-of-the-roster spot. I lept at it. I rode the pine all the way through Nationals. I mean, I played on every day of (Almost?) every tournament that season, but that's peanuts compared to what "The Fuck" gained in experience that season. On the other hand, each point was one more than I ever expected to play. Each point was a befuddling gift.

Each point in practice, however, was a torture fest. Each drill. Each skill. I never knew that people were this good at ultimate. I never knew there was so much to know. I never knew that those crazy throws I had seen were far from the craziest throws each player had. Like watching Iverson outside of a game versus inside of a game. Fortunately, I could at very least catch consistently and learn.

The the offseason. Such work to do with a Nationals jersey to wear and hate while doing it. That first jersey has all the hate in it. I wore that jersey from every workout from November to November. In the gym I could hear the spirally design mocking me. Telling me that I was nothing but an accessory to Pike, the shit-box team. I could see the skyblue arms pumping at the track.

In 2004, nothing but roster gains, really. The new players were limited to Eugene Yum, Dan Chirlin, Joel Wooten, Geoff Buhl, Nic Darling and Danny Clark. As I look at that roster now, I'm amazed that they let me practice with them, let alone be on the team. All my workouts, all my training and I actually moved *down* on the depth chart.

The only things I truly remember about 2004 are my memories from Nationals. Upset the Sock, win the single biggest point (difference btw 1st in the power pool and last in the bottom pool) on a Judeflick special, beat the Condors in quarters and then there was that whole epic semis battle with the redfish. Bailey and Danny fighting it out for the title of "Unanswerable Question". The beach and condos that night were... some of the best times of my life. Unashamed. I felt clean. The world opening up for me in some way.

The jersey from that year is all joy. That team was a blast to play with and on. We played for keeps, but were just weird. No one on that team did anything by the book, but there was a framework where all these players could express their connection of skills on the field. Right, there was CRABFED THUGS and the 12 plays that we could call from that, but the plays never worked. Except for "Fuck you" which was Zero.

2005 came. Some roster tweaks. Add Baldwin, Kieffer, EvelKeven. Another year, another trip through Midatlantic Regionals after months of just winning games and tournaments. Crazy shit always happens at MA Regionals. It just does.

Nationals was full of anticipation and disappointment. JT's catch is the most memorable thing from what will go down as the most talented team the majority of that team has ever been on. Jam killed us that year. Just killed us. And Danny Clark hurting himself trying for a Callahan in a tight game with Ring at Chesapeake. That was a spectacular freak injury.

The Pike diaspora started during the season. Our captains moved to the west coast. Some folks moved north to NYC and Boston. Mainstays retired. And so on. We knew it was over while it was happening. We were powerless to do anything to slow it.

The offseason brought all kinds of madness. A new offensive framework. An absorption of Philly Ultimate. A whole slew of new players. New captains. New... everything. Except the jerseys. They remained ugly. Evel went back south. Which was expected. I mean, he lived there. There was a need for youth. Or there was no choice...

A whole new group bound together by Pike. This time, it was the loss that bound us. That terrible loss in a 14-team format. That one turn I threw all weekend. That 2 point terrible loss. That moment against Purifico on the field. That inability to stand after the weekend. That drive back. My brother.

My first club season with a no-nationals offseason. Light that fire, burn it bright. Make your teammates see the light. That was the birth of ultimatejournal. I put everything I had into my team in 2007.

In every drill, in every workout, on every single step I took that year, I was focused on just that step. I couldn't see tomorrow because today was too important. There weren't enough hours to put into ultimate in a day. I could not get enough of thinking and doing and being about ultimate. (286 posts? Are you kidding me?)

I remember the slalom drills. I remember taunting my teammates in practice. I remember what I was thinking when I was running in the rain. I remember typing pages of emails per day. I remember training morning and evening. I remember eating with only winning in mind. I remember individual plays and points from the season. I remember debating strategy on and off and all over the place for the O and D teams and watching the D team develop a killer instinct step by step.

I remember being on the sideline during the game-to-go more than I remember being on the field. I remember looking one by one into my teammates eyes and making them believe. It was like Los wasn't on the field after 14-9. It was like they didn't exist any longer. Pike was just running around making plays.

I remember my leg seizing up against Wilmington in Game 2. I remember getting laid out into in Game 1.

At Nationals I found out the truth. My team sucked. We were weak physically and mentally. We were scared. We were small. I gave every bit of everything I had for the first 6 games. I played well, I played hard. I threw goals and gave nothing for free on defense. I got a block or two, but that wasn't why I was there. I did get stalled against Truckstop. That was funny. Sometimes Sean just confuses me. I would wager he'd say the same, and the reverse.

My teammates needed to have life breathed into them every game. They did not appreciate the air on their own. They had already figured out that we should lose these games. I mean, The Farmer wasn't afraid and played crazy good. A couple other folks did too, but the Nationals rookies? Boo.

I remember Nationals for the time well spent with Dan "Spike" Yi, Squigglio, Baby Sapp and Lamb Juice. That was simply an epic vacation.

I did a terrible thing by not playing in my last game at Nationals that year. I made my reputation that season by being someone who would play through any and everything. At that moment I couldn't (wouldn't?). But just because it was terrible doesn't make it representative of an inaccurate feeling. I felt that they had already quit on me, so fuck them. I didn't want to put my heart on the line again for them to have it broken.

My body I agreed to break for you. Not my heart.

The season ended. Everyone left again. Or there was a need for youth. The same teammates I had given myself to all season were out the door. Some retired for real. Some got lives in other places. Some stabbed Pike in the head to play for Truckstop and Boston.

That jersey means little to me, but eventually recalls regionals. Which is a good memory. It doesn't mean much because I was embarrassed to wear it for a long time. I felt we had done terribly at The Show and that there was no cause for celebration.

New recruiting class it is: Aman, Nicuatrongpauco, Leon, Ross, Glenn, Frenchy, Jake Rainwater, Nick "Ocho" Malinowski, Bo, Tom Quane, Snuggles, Will Reed, Kyle, Ryan Thompson, Ariel, Tom Quane. The return of Ellis. We weren't a team until Furniture City. I told them they all were required to spike the disc all weekend. We were in Carolina. Dem Southern Boys got perfectly riled up. Los stomped us. Snuggles repeated all of True Lies. Gutter vomited on himself in the Sunday warmups. Our loss to Forge at Regionals was the genesis of the next season. That and keeping the roster together.

This next time around in 2009, we ran tryouts like everyone was trying out, but no one wanted to play with us. By the time the first couple of tryouts were done, there weren't really any cuts to be made. A few new players stepped up: Shaun Krieger, Grin, Kunsa, Dave Baer, CJ, Kinsey. We perfected a way of ultimate. Very basic offensive structure which allows players to... play. Increase the number of touches per player per point by a little bit (specifically those players who do not necessarily naturally dominate the disc) and the team will work more as a unit. Never look off an open teammate who can see the field better than you. Take advantage of your advantage when you have it and expect your other teammates to do the same while you all expect to fill for each other within said simple offensive framework. Work to make the fundamental options all happen within 6 seconds, and then the thrower still has 2 seconds to break the field down. (4 if the opposing team counts slowly)

The field shifts, you see. You don't always want to attack the same part of the field. Where is the space? If there is no dump, do you need one? Or do you just want to recognize that the space behind you is the major cutting lane? If their are 4 dumps, is the cue that the offense is going to break down and that one should run through? Or that one of the 2 cutters is going to get open in all that beautiful wide open space in front of the disc? And then the first two dumps should cut up line into the space as the thrower starts to not throw it to the first two cuts. Don't wait for him, kick-start the offense with motion. Unless you think waiting will give you an advantage. Or if one of those other 4 dumps is a better option to cut upline simply in order to give the defense a choice: Do you want to stop the upline on this player or do you want to stop the bomb to this player? If your players play the full field (It isn't that big, we get subs, it can be more about resting appropriately and attacking when active than enduring to fight at the end of the day.)

"Heuristic not algorithmic"

This game is a game of a balance. Shift and break. Once you've fallen over, you can get up and regain it, but you're liable to get kicked in the teeth trying.

I remember thinking Heckman was weak at Sectionals in 07. In 09 I learned who he was. I'm not sure he knew then either, to be fair. We both know too much now.

Regionals was a classic Midatlantic weekend. Here's the inside scoop: Los fucked up and lost to XRATES at sectionals to pair us against each other early. Which made for a long weekend for XRATES of beating Forge in tight games and losing to Pike. And a long year of Los wondering about how they could be the only team to beat Pike at Regionals and not go to Nationals.

Well, the real inside scoop is that I knew the rule. I looked it up on Saturday. I told my team. I talked to people on other teams. When we played Los on Sunday morning, I told my team that we had to win this game or we were out. Los crushed us Sunday morning. We debated briefly losing to XRATES on purpose so that Los would have to play a game to qualify if they lost the game to Ring. Good thing we didn't. As JG said, "The Ultimate Gods would frown upon that." We watched the end of their game from near one of the endzones. When the game was over, I told my team to wait before they left the fields to find out if we had a game. Los then, as they were breaking their handshake line, said that they had one more game. I told my team to start warming up. The rest was covered ad nauseum.

Then after we built that chemistry, and bonded through near-failure and heaps of criticism and and all sorts of emotions, everyone on the team went back to college. Even the Rutgers kids were too far away to come to practice. We had under 14 at practice between regionals and nationals.

At least no fear was shown at Nationals 09. Revolver beat on us severely (our D-team outscored our O-Team in that game, and we lost by ~10), but all of the other games were reasonably strong performances by Pike. We went big and went home. But we didn't go small. Leadership (aka me) should have subbed more aggressively. Some guys tried to play too too big on offense too often.

Pike Polo Shirts are perfect attire for the Sarasota heat&beach.

The offseason started two weeks later at PADA Fall League Finals. After a great weekend at PADA Mosh, of course. Johnny Pivotfoot and the Ten Stallcounts love MOSH.

The offseason was going to be a long process non-off-season of getting everyone together to form one team in Philly. After many months of too much caring, we arrived at a decision, tryouts started the weekend after Fools Fest in April and finished with Philadelphia Southpaw coached by Jeff Snader. The second Philly Ultimate consolidation is complete. New faces. New Team. New Lessons to learn. Except they're the same old lessons we learned last time.

I want Southpaw to do well. I played a part in creating it, so I wish it well while moving on. My job was to make it happen. I'm disappointed I don't get to play in the series with those guys, but so it goes.

"Windows 3.11 vs iPad."

Those Southpaw tryouts killed me for the week. I couldn't do workouts. I couldn't lift. At some point, I cried when I knelt to tie my shoe. My muscles weren't sore. My mind was fresh. My knees and my feet...

My heart I agreed to break for you, but not my body. Not my body.

I was dull every weekend at tryouts worried about how the team was going. I was dull from not having touched a disc all week or sprinted or jumped or played or anything. I was dull from being unable to do what my body needed to compete, skill-wise, speed-wise.

It got to me. I started to believe I was terrible at the game. I had this need to prove myself. I don't play to prove myself anymore. That was 2007. I proved it. I'm better today than I was then. But I play for completely different reasons these seasons.

I got cut.

I believe it was the right decision for everyone involved. But I do not believe everyone knew that then, nor does everyone know that now. In fact, I heard a rumor on my thirtieh birthday that I quit. Or that I was trying to start a new team. Naw. I just got cut. I didn't play well in tryouts. With that came the opportunity to try out for PoNY. Which has been great. Travel is all mass-transit-possible and reasonably simple. Practices are high-level, high-intensity, high-throwing reps. All in the Shadow of The Power Broker out on Randall's Island. Complexity will come as the season develops.

I played at Cazenovia with them. Went through a couple weekends of practice/tryouts and played at Boston with them. It was all mentally a great trip. Boston was physically an... impossible trip. Over 10 hours at the fields spread out over 4 games. My knees can't keep up. My feet can't not hurt. My mind and my strength are there. The flesh is willing but the joints are weak.

Then a trip with the Younguns to Mars. I played more like 1.5-2 games per day spread over 5 hours. Every morning and every day? No pain.

My initial conclusions were correct. My body is saying no to competitive tournaments. Which is fine. Tourneys were always completely and utterly insane. Which was why I liked them so much.

I feel I still have a lot to offer on and off the field, irrespective of my participation in 3 tournaments per season. I told the PoNY Cabal/Junta/TryoutDecisionmakers/EC/Whatever. Fortunately, PoNY agreed to the tune of a 1-year non-series contract.

I'm excited to be a part of this team.

---

...with bad knees and no title."

-LeBron James, describing how he didn't want to end up.
I would have signed with the Heat too. That will be a fun team to play on.

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