3rd in the Nation

Dat ain't bad.

Thanks

What an unreal experiences. It's pretty crazy to think back to my freshman year. And, although I wasn't the best HS ultimate player, I had experience, but was cut from the A-team. I worked my way through the ranks of the B-team and finally got to play at Nationals. The hard work paid off.

I don't really know what to say after the fact. I'm not going to recap because it would just take way too long. There's a lot of guys I could thank, so I'm going to try that:

Wes - coach last year and gave me some good words/advice before this weekend
Rob and Banyas - giving me a chance to play a high level tournament last summer (CUT), which paved the way for a big confidence boost heading into the fall
Weasel, Josh and Vatz - coaching this past year and giving me the opportunity to find my role on this team
Nick - coached me on Impulse, then got to coach with him last summer. In my opinion, he's the smartest ultimate person I know and gets a lot of respect from me.
My teammates (brothers) - for getting to play with them, learn with them, have fun with them and win with them
Brody - sticking with the team, following the team, giving advice at nationals and taking great pictures
TallE - right there after every point at nationals, handing out water on the line
Henry - helping with financial costs and giving the biggest support for Pitt ultimate I've ever seen
The other alumni
The B team

I know I'm probably missing some people. And I'll update that list if/when I think of more.

It was just a great experience and fun to earn a spot not only on the team, but - for the most part - a starter as well.

Now there's a lot for me to think about. I graduated, but I'm having a hard time finding a job. An internship I thought I would get went to the other guy because he had a master's degree and I only had a bachelor's. Times are tough and the possibility of grad school looks more appealing each day.

But for now, I just need to unwind, rest and recover. I'm pretty beat.

A list

Kaczmarek
Ravi
Bailey
Pannone
Bob
Myself

Our defining moment

A couple days after Regionals, Ari and I met up with Nick at Peter's. We start talking about the obvious. How bummed we were to lose to Cornell, again, but that we're still excited because the program is making its sixth consecutive trip to Nationals. And for Ari and myself, our first trip to Nationals. We talked a little about strategy and what makes this year such a unique team, and an exciting one at that.

But then Nick asked us what we thought our defining moment was of the season. In a flash, visions of 8's and Eastern's came to mind. I also thought that our finish at Stanford Invite was really impressive. I'm sure Ari had similar thoughts, but we couldn't pinpoint a certain moment in our season. We've had some success and we've had some lows, but nothing that defines this team, right now, here in 2010.

So, neither of us really answered the question and Nick gave us a reason for our semi-silence. It's because our greatest moment is yet to come. Anything that's happened in the past is over. Whether it's warmup tournaments or the college series, that time has passed. Now we're at the highest stage of collegiate ultimate.

That - in Madison, Wisconsin, in 7 days - is where our defining moment will be made.

Nationals schedule

UPA released the seedings and schedule for Nationals. We land a No. 10 spot. That's pretty much where I expected us to be. Had we not lost to Cornell in Regionals, I'd assume we'd be higher, but we couldn't be placed higher than whatever seed Cornell got (they ended up at No. 8).

But let this be said: I think this is the best possible pool we could've landed in. Colorado is the top team in our pool, followed by Wisconsin, then us, Michigan and then Texas State. We've beaten three of the four teams in our pool already this season. We know that we can beat these guys. It'll just come down to execution and mental focus. I also think playing Michigan and Texas State is a good way to start the competition on Thursday, before we take on Wisconsin and then Colorado on Friday.

Edit: I somehow missed that the No. 3 seed from the pool still makes the pre-quarters of the championship bracket. We don't need to finish higher, but we can and should.

Alright, that's about as much speculation as I'm going to do. There's still time to get some work done.

Pitt vs. Texas State to open Nationals.

Wow. I can't believe after four years, I'll finally be playing at Nationals. That feels good to say. It'll be even better to play.

The men's schedule is here.
The women's schedule is here. Danger lands a No. 12 seed and will be the third seed from the top bracket.

Regionals recaps

So this past weekend I got to do something I've never done before. I've been playing ultimate since my junior year of high school. I've played college ultimate for the past three years, but this past weekend was something special. After three years on the B-team, and captaining last year, I finally made my way to the A-team and got to play at Regionals.

I don't this often say things like this — well, OK, sometimes — but I played pretty damn well. I'm not sure how to describe it, but for me, there is something that clicks in my head whenever the competition picks up. I turn my game, my focus and my play way up. I love the bigger (note: not biggest) stage. I can't help that I love the attention that not only I'm getting, but that the team gets. It gets me super fired up and ready to win.

And after this weekend, I now get my shot at the biggest stage in college ultimate: Nationals. Damn, I'm so ready for this.

I'm going to post a lot more this final month, mostly because it'll keep me motivated and focused.

For now, Regionals recaps. It's the best that I can remember because like I said after Stanford or some tournament, it's hard to recap whenever you play a lot. The points and games at times can seem jumbled together. But here goes:

Saturday

PREQUARTERFINALS: NYU (Pitt wins 15-5): ESPN was all over this game, as it marked the first time Clay and his former team would do battle this season. But in all seriousness, it was never a really close game and we pretty much took over from the start. I played a good game, here, skying some dude for a goal line catch. I also had — the team will tell you at least — probably my first layout grab, for a score at that, all spring. Not sure why it happened but there's a little joke that goes something like "Jay? Yeah. He can't layout." Whatever. Pitt wins pre-quarters or whatever you want to call it. Next.

QUARTERFINALS: Carleton University (Pitt wins 15-5): Much of the same as the first game. Carleton was fresh off a really long universe point game against Georgetown, so they were tired. They have some 7 foot guy on their team but they didn't utilize him very well and we were able to shut him down. Game was easy and the biggest threat came whenever we were up 14-4 or something like that and that 7 foot dude starts something with Isaac and/or Plunkett. Next thing I know Bob goes running over and by the time I turn around (the fight happened on the sideline and I was walking to the line to start the point) Bob's in a headlock. Honestly, I don't know all the details and it seems pretty stupid after the fact, but it was kinda crazy at the time. Things settle down and we trade points and Pitt wins quarterfinals. Next.

SEMIFINALS: Penn (Pitt wins 15-5): As was the case with NYU and Carleton, nothing special going on this game. Penn just finished a long universe point game against Delaware and didn't get any rest in between games. We controlled the game and Penn was never a threat. I eventually rolled my ankle pretty bad late in the game. It swelled up and I was done for the day. Fortunately for me, this was our last game. Finals in the AM. Pitt takes semifinals. Next.

Sunday

FINALS: Cornell (Pitt loses 15-11): So here it was. The game everybody on the team wanted. Call it a rematch. Call it another game. Call it a revenge game. Whatever you want to call it, there we were matched up against Cornell in the finals. For the first time in Pitt's history, a lot of guys felt we were the group to finally get over that hump and take down Cornell, and in the process, take the Metro East Region. Everybody was geared up for this game. It might have had something do with watching ESPN's 30 for 30 The U the night before. As for me, ankle was good to go. I was feeling good and the team was pumped. Regardless, the game started out poorly for us. The O wasn't clicking and D couldn't get enough breaks to turn the game around. That was tough. I think we went down 3-0 and never really got and closer in the first half as we headed to the break trailing 8-5. The second half we were able to claw our way back, getting really close at 11-9 or 11-10, but failing to capitalize after getting the turnovers. Cornell eventually hits the gas and we fall 15-11. Cornell takes finals and the Region. Damn.

The hardest part about this loss is how close we were multiple times to getting over the hump and winning that game. There were so many times when we we would force some crap throw/huck/dump at stall 9/10 and the wind would take the disc flying into the air and some taller Cornell guy would come down with it. We didn't get any breaks and that was so frustrating for me, personally. I had a hard time believing that we played such good D for 10 seconds, only to have crap like that get caught and hurt us.

Personally, I played pretty well. I shutdown my guy most of the game and rarely got beat. Nothing flashy, but that's not my game. I was just more concerned that our team couldn't pull out the win. The W is more important than anything I do.

After the game, a lot of the guys just walked around or laid down. Headbands and hats over their eyes and faces. It was a really tough, emotional loss. We all thought we would win this game. Expectations were very high and we didn't deliver. But if you don't think will get us motivated for nationals, you're crazy. This team has rebounded from losses throughout the season. We'll be ready.

BACKDOOR FINALS: George Washington (Pitt wins 15-11): Pissed after our loss to Cornell, we're fired up to just take a nice little dump on GW and head to Nationals for the sixth consecutive year. And we did come out hard and the game was never in danger, but it was closer because we were still bummed and thinking about the last game. Don't get me wrong, GW was a good team. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there. But we were still thinking back to finals. We might not admit that, but that's the fact. We won this game because we were the better team, but we really should've beat GW by a lot more. Whatever. We're going to Nationals. Nice.

History: Take 2

For the first time in 4 years of playing college ultimate, I'll be PLAYING at Nationals.

History

For the first time in 4 years of playing college ultimate, I'll be PLAYING at Regionals. Pretty excited. More on sectionals later.

College Easterns: Recaps

It was a busy March for Pitt ultimate. We played in 3 tournaments in 4 weekends, with a lot of unexpected conditions. Last weekend it was time for our final regular season tournament: Easterns. There were 18 teams and some good competition from some up-and-coming teams. And the weather? Pretty good. 70s and a little wind on Saturday. Nearing 80 and a more steady, but manageable wind on Sunday. Eddie's got some stuff as well.

Here's my pretty long post:

Saturday

Duke (Pitt wins 15-6): Nothing much to talk about this game. We could've easily won this game by more. We won because we were the better team, not because we did anything spectacular. It was a good warmup game.

San Diego State University (Pitt wins 15-8): Similar to the Duke game, this was a tougher warmup game. We won, yet again, because we were the better team. SDSU is better than Duke, but just as our competition improved so did our playing. Thing is, we started out somewhat flat and SDSU broke us a couple times and held a lead early. But then we went on a 13-1 run and ran them into the gorund. Guys started to adapt to the weather conditions and wake up.

Kansas (Pitt wins 15-1): I don't even know how to describe this game. Somehow, somewhere people started talking highly of Kansas. How they were a very aggressive team and it could be the toughest game of the day. We were told to get observers for the game because it was going to be chippy. Kansas was hyped - big time. Then we went up 13-0 and it actually felt like some kind of joke. Up 13-0, we sent the O-line out to play D and they gave up the score that broke the shutout. Kansas rushed the field and the sidelines jokingly poked fun at the O-line. In all, there isn't much you can say bad about a 15-1 win.

SHOWCASE: Ohio State (Pitt wins 15-8): I don't think there was any other team at Easterns that we wanted to beat than OSU. We traded points early, but they never gave us the competition that we saw at QCTU. Our intensity is what gave us a 2 or 3 point lead at half before we sprinted out the second half for the win.

The only thing sweeter than beating Ohio State was getting free* jerseys. And the only thing sweeter than getting free* jerseys was winning our pool. And sweeter than that? An 11 a.m. start time on Sunday.

Sunday

QUARTERFINALS: Georgia (Pitt wins 15-5): Fresh off a universe point win over UNCW in prequarters, Georgia was tired. The game was fairly close in the beginning but I don't think any of expected that to last long. We got the crucial updwind/downwind break (winds picked up on Sunday) towards the end of the first half and Georgia never threatened again. Easy but solid win to start out the day.

SEMIFINALS: Virginia (Pitt wins 13-9): With wind much more of a factor, but nothing like it was in Centex, upwind/downwind breaks were necessary to win. If we got the upwind break, we needed to get the downwind one to go with it. Unfortunately, anytime we did, Virginia would come score the upwind offensive one and then maybe get the downwind break. A few breaks early in the first half by both teams, but the game was on serve heading into halftime as we trailed 8-7. Starting out the second half on offensive with the wind meant we'd have to score an upwind break to win the game. Right after our offense scored to make it 8-8. Our D-line got the upwind break - 9-8. And finally converted the downwind break - 10-8. Virginia answered but we got the upwind/downwind break again. Virginia is a pretty solid team and they upset Cornell in quarterfinals. They have a good handler (don't know his name) but he could rip the disk upwind or downwind. Unfortunately, their offense revolved around him and he couldn't do it all. Still a good team.

FINALS: WISCONSIN (Pitt loses 14-11): For the second time in three tournament were in finals at good tournament. And for the second time, we lose. Sucks and pretty heartbreaking. We also put up our 15 jerseys for winning the showcase game on the line in a winner-takes-all contest. Anyways, like has been the case all season, we came out pretty flat in a game and it showed. When we bring intensity and never let up, I really think we're the best team in the country (I feel like we've shown that at times throughout this season). But when we're flat and lazy, we struggle (And again...I feel like we've shown that at times). As for the game, they hucked it deep to their tall guys and we never had extra deep help. It also didn't help that some of their tall guys made some nice catches. Our O-line got broken early in the game. I think we started out down 5-0 before it was 8-3 at half. Hell, we took the second half 8-6 after showing some intensity and getting some updwind/downwind breaks.

I felt like this game could be summed up in this one point I played in the second half. We were trailing 11-9 out of half and with the cap looming, we needed a double break. We got the upwind break the point before. I'm covering one of their main handlers as Wisco heads upwind. I've got their guy near the one sideline we're forcing about 40 yards from the endzone. I kill the dump and he lets off some stall 9 bending huck upwind. We get a couple under and they do, too. Wisco comes down with the disk and a quick pass or two later, they score the goal. It was like we did everything we could on the point, shut them down and were about to really close in on them...and then we couldn't come down with the disk when we needed. We needed a play to be made and we didn't get it.

But that's Easterns. Series starts this weekend. Sectionals in Penn State.

The Stanford Invite: Followup

I've always enjoyed playing defense. I like it because it's like getting to play two points in one. Your main objective is to essentially destroy an offense and the rub it their face by scoring on them. It's a great feeling to know that you're (the defense) the reason why a team is losing, why they can't win and why they won't come back. You control the game and the tempo. It's how we're running things on the team right now and it's so important.

The team thrives on the defense. This isn't to say anything against our offense because they're the 7 most skilled and best ultimate players on the our team, but our defense is what fuels Pitt ultimate. We want nothing more than to start a game on D and absolutely crush any hope our opponent has by getting the first break. It gets the D pumped up and the O as well so they can come on the field and score if need be. If we get a few breaks early, it takes the pressure off our O (and our D, really). Defense is such a huge momentum shift, a game changer.

This was shown in our games at Stanford. When we won, especially against teams like CUT and Wisco, our defense was energized and fired up. And our losses, like Cal, our defense wasn't.

For me, I played pretty much every D point last weekend, save one here and there because we wanted some height on the field for a zone. It was exhausting, but I thought I was playing well. But then I started looking back on the tournament and I realized that I had like one layout D. That got to me because, and Henry Thorne has told me since I was in high school, I thought I was more of a playmaker on D. But I didn't do any of that last weekend. I was no Eddie, who had just some unreal layout Ds, or Colin, who had some great skies.

But I started thinking some more and I realized that, despite playing nearly every D point, I didn't have any showtime Ds because that's not my style anymore. I don't know when it happened, but I can remember starting to change my approach on D during Wilmington 8s. I started guarding more handlers. I started learning more of how a handler works, the thrown and run, and began working on stopping that. This tournament was the first one that really felt like my workouts and strength and conditioning paid off (I'm working out about 5 days a week, including practice). I think that helped me on D, guarding handlers and going step for step with them. I also really worked on my marking and felt like I was very prepared at knowing when to kill a dump throw or force a turnover.

I got beat up line only once or twice, including for a goal against Colorado in semifinals that really pissed me off, but I played fairly strong and consistent throughout the tournament. I might not make the highlight reel, but if I can shut down my handler, cause a turnover or a bad huck, I'll take that any day.

Centex in 7.

The Stanford Invite: Recaps

What a weekend. Lot of stuff to talk about, so I'm glad it's spring break so I can try to do that. Overall, I felt I played really well. I played just about every D-line point with a couple O-line points scattered across the two days. Needless to say, I was pretty sore yesterday and just getting back into things. I'll talk more about my play and other team thoughts later, but for now: the results.

Pitt took home 2nd place with a 5-2 overall record. It was a great weekend, especially considering our initial 8th seed and our poor performance at Queen City Tune Up. It was good, it was fun, it was awesome to upset some teams. I didn't play on A last year, but I was at Nationals watching them. In what was dubbed Revenge Tour 2010, we beat the three teams that beat us at Nationals last year. That was sweet.

These are fairly short recaps, as I realized I don't really remember score-by-score or play-by-play from these games. I played too many points and they all just jumbled together at some point.

Saturday

Texas (Pitt wins 13-6): Easy win as Texas never really gave us a problem. We started out on D and jumped to a lead with a break. I poached a lane early and snagged a toss. A few plays later and we were up. The D-line kept the intensity rolling all game and our O-line fed off that anytime we didn't get a break. We took a comfortable lead at half and kept doing more of the same in the second half. The game was highlighted by an nasty catch from Al. After getting a turn on D, we were working it up the field when a throw to Al was very tight between him and his defender in front of him about 10 yards from the endzone. Texas had positioning and should've gotten the D. Both guys laid out and everybody thought Texas got the D - I thought so, too, after watching the Texas sideline erupt after the catch. Needless to say, Al somehow gets his hand in front of the Texas guy, gets up quickly and throws a goal before anybody realizes what just happened. Pitt storms the field.

California (Pitt loses 13-9): As is the case with us sometimes, we win big against a team only to come out flat the next game. Case in point: Pitt vs. Cal. We kept it close at times, but we were never able to adjust to get the breaks when we needed them. Our D-line lost energy and our O-line couldn't fix anything. Cal runs away with it at the end and we fall to 1-1. Losing our second game wasn't good and it meant we'd pretty much have to win out to make the Championship Bracket (there were no pre-quarters/play-ins or quarterfinals at the Invite, just a semis and championship game).

Carleton (Pitt wins 13-7): What a great game to play in. We come out fired early in the game on D and get multiple breaks to take a huge lead at half, 7-3. Even then, it felt like we were just dominating - and we were. CUT never got close and our D-line shut them down significantly. This was the first time that I realized all of the hard work (not just me, but the team) was paying off. We were really well conditioned and just running around the CUT players on offense and staying with them step for step on defense. It was complete shutdown, dominating performance. After beating CUT, the No. 1 seed, it looked like the race for the top two spots in Pool A were wide open. Having never played CUT before, but watching the Pitt guys at Nationals last year, I hated them. After playing them, even though it wasn't a chippy game, I can see why Pitt doesn't like CUT: they're cocky and don't show respect (not that don't show sportsmanship).

Wisconsin (Pitt wins 13-10): After beating CUT, the team is fired up for another Nationals rematch - this time against Wisco. Word comes in from Josh that the Wisco and CUT coaches were talking and the CUT guys say they lost the game because they beat themselves and that we didn't really outmatch or outplay them. The Wisco guys agree and don't think their game against us will be a tough one. Throughout the game, they continuously talk down to us, even when they were getting beat pretty handily. I guess some times just have a hard time adjusting to a different Pitt team. As for the game, it was back-and-forth early before we got a couple breaks and took half on an absolutely unreal goal catch from Ty. Beat to the disc by the Wisco guy, Ty makes up ground with good closing speed and literally robs the guy from the disc right in front of his face - snags the disc with a pseudo-layout/sky with his hand reaching over in front of the Wisco guy. I think we took half 8-5 or 8-6 with the goal. We trade points out of half and get a break. Up 12-8, we had a chance to close the game out on D. But we get beat and the O-line gets broken. A two point game late wasn't what we wanted but our O-line puts in the final goal and we win. It was another great win and it meant we control our own destiny when it comes to the Championship Bracket with one more pool play game Sunday morning.

Sunday

UC-Santa Barbara (Pitt wins 13-8): Feeling good after our 3-1 Saturday performance, we're energized for the UCSB game. Unfortunately, they were also ready for this game and both teams traded points early in the game. Eventually the D-line makes adjustments to bracket the cutters (UCSB relied on their huck) and force towards their side stack. This makes an instant impact as we rattle off a few breaks and take a halftime lead. We kept with our first half adjustments in the second half and the Black Tide were never really in contention. We beat them and finish first in our pool, after being seeded 4th in it and 8th overall, and get ready for semifinals.

SEMIFINALS: Colorado (Pitt wins 15-13): Haven't been this excited for a game since 8s finals back in November. All the hard work we've put in so far this season was starting to pay off, like I said about the CUT game. For being such an important game, both teams were very aggressive with the disc early in the game. It led to some turnovers, but neither team got a break until Pitt got the deciding one to grab a 7-6 lead before half. You know what's weird? For as important of a break as it was, I can't remember what happened. I want to say it was a deep huck after a turnover, but the D-line could've very well just worked the disc up and scored from 5 yards out. Anyways, we were up 8-7 at the break. More of the same in the second half as both teams traded points. Colorado got their break back to make it 10-10 or 11, but the D-line responded back with a break of their own. Up 14-12, the D-line couldn't close the game (something we talked about after the game) but our O-line was there. We kept on rolling on our way into finals.

FINALS: Oregon (Pitt loses 15-9): If I was excited for the semifinals matchup, I don't know how to describe this game. Finals at Stanford Invite. Pitt vs. Oregon. Two teams nobody expected to be there, yet here we were. Oregon, which beat CUT in the other semifinals matchup after being down by 4 or 5 in the game, is a great team and the way they play, is one reason why I think they're now the team to beat. As for the game, it was similar to the semifinals game against Colorado with both teams hucking early and often. Both D-lines got multiple turnovers, but neither got the break. That is until Oregon a couple late in the first half and we were down 8-6 at the break. For some reason, whatever it was, we didn't have it in us for a second half comeback. We traded points right at the beginning, but then Oregon rattled off like 4 straight breaks and that made it 100x harder for our D-line to comeback. Put that on top of playing our sixth game of the weekend and we were strapped to find energy. It never came and neither did our comeback.

It was a tough way to end a weekend, but a lot of good game from it. We finished 2nd at the Stanford Invite. That's insane. We were really well conditioned, but fell apart in the second half of the final game of the weekend - there's still work to do. This is from RSD:

Ego really stepped up their defense in the second half and pretty much ran away with it, reeling off four or five straight breaks to take a lead they wouldn't give up. I suspect Pitt ran out of gas in the second half, even though Oregon had a tougher semifinal game.

All but 4 guys stayed in California this week for spring break, which is where they are now. After this week, it'll be back to the grind as we gear up for Centex in less than 2 weeks.

Not that I'm looking past Stanford...

...but this is odd: http://scores.upa.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/6691

No Pittsburgh anywhere.

CC says it'll get taken care of, though. And who doesn't believe him?

Queen City Tune Up 2010

So that happened. Tough weekend. Still trying to piece together how we could've finished 9th. 9th. Let that sink in. We were seeded 1st. We finished 9th. Jeeze.

Eddie put together a few thoughts on how we struggled:

1.) We are younger than I expected.
2.) Our roster losses have been more impactful than I expected.
3.) Our defense is soft.
4.) Our mental game is soft.
5.) Our offense is soft.

I'd agree with this, it's just unfortunate that we didn't realize this until this weekend. Even then, not until the Delaware game on Sunday.

And I think all of this comes down one central reason for our problems this weekend.

The last thing to happen to us as a team was a little thing called Wilmington 8s. It was our premier tournament of the fall season and we won it. We beat everybody there. We went 8-0. We beat Florida. We beat Cornell - twice. Whether we said so aloud or not, we thought we were the best. We were the team to beat.

QCTU? Where's the competition? We've got that.

And you know what? We were probably right about that. We were among the top teams. We didn't say anything on RSD, but that didn't stop people and other teams hyping us up. We might not have said anything, but we read it. We knew it was out there. We saw the Coaches and Captains 25 poll and saw the first place votes. We saw us in the top 5, the top 3.

We saw people hate on us because we were good, not because of how we play. Jealousy hit other teams and overconfidence hit the Pitt team.

In all of that, we traveled to North Carolina expecting to win it all. And not that a team should never expect to win it because you want that winning mentality. We never really took a team seriously. We were excited, we were pumped and we were ready to roll over teams. But we never thought any of them would give us a challenge.

And whenever a team did that...we didn't know what to do. We weren't mentally prepared as Eddie put it. We weren't mentally tough as Josh has said.

Look at the Michigan State game. We didn't know what was happening. We tried to make a big play every time to get us back into the game, instead of working hard, grinding and scoring the Pitt way.

It sucks that we are where we are right now, but we put ourselves in this position. We became a team over the weekend, even in losing, and we'll work as a team. We'll put this behind us and look to the future.

Eyes on the prize, one tournament at a time. Getting ready for Stanford.

Remembering why we're here

Last night, after a pretty intense practice that saw quite a few guys fail to finish the last sets of our 300-yard suicides (to the 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 and back each time) for one reason or another (I'm not getting into that), Josh brought the team together and told us one thing:

Don't forget why we're doing what we're doing.

It's important that we don't get so caught up in working hard, getting stuck in a routine, that we forgot what we decided our team goal was a few months back. It doesn't even need to be said because anybody who's anybody reading this knows what we want this season.

What happened last night set off quite a few talks from players on the team (there's a BBoard post based off what Josh said and Eddie talked a little about it as well).

Josh wants us to be the best conditioned team this year at nationals, that's a goal that's been said time over time with the A-team. And while I'm sure they've tried their hardest at accomplishing that goal, this team is different.

Josh knows it. Geoff knows it. We all know it.

Which is why we also need to be the most mentally tough team. We can't afford to take our mind off what we want because we need to be focused to get there. Whether it's practice, track workouts, scrimmages or tournaments, we all need to be mentally tough enough to handle any situation that we're given.

This is turning into a rambling, but I just wanted to say what I thought and get this out there because it's true. Gotta stay focused.

And part of that mental toughness will come with working hard at and away from practice, as evidence by Geoff's frustration and short talk with the guys who were on the sidelines of the sprints. We're working our asses off to get well-conditioned, which will pay even bigger dividends whenever we remember that. That's part of being mentally tough.

Gearing up for the spring season

Three weeks from now I want to be in a van — maybe even myself driving it — back from North Carolina with a tournament win. It would this team's second of the season and second in a row after winning Wilmington 8s back in November.

That tournament? Queen City.

And there's absolutely no reason why this won't happen. The teams, pools or schedule haven't been announced but that doesn't matter. It's just Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, etc. I think this is the mentality for the team right now. The last tournament we played, we won - and we beat some great teams to do it.

We haven't slowed down since then, either. A lot of guys, especially the younger and newer players have been putting in some ridiculous hours at the track and gym working on getting stronger for the season. It's showed, too, because a lot of these guys are starting to breakout as good players on this team.

Eddie has a good post on his blog about a few of the players. And I agree with what he's said. It's great to watch guys just come to their own on this team. Everybody is really starting to figure out there role. All of this and we've only had a few practices that've allowed us to use a full field for scrimmages.

For me, the last few weeks have been all about pushing others to work hard. I'm doing that through pushing myself to work harder. Two guys on the team came up to me after winter break and said the only thing that got them to go on runs or head to the gym was seeing what I posted on the "Hard Work" thread on our BBoard. I know that there are more people working out than are posting on that thread - and they're not posting for different reasons - but I think a post on that thread does a lot more good than harm, especially if your workouts are detailed enough that others can work off it.

Over the last few weeks, too, I've really started to find a great workout group. Ari, Eddie and I are lucky enough to be within relatively the same weight lifting group and we all have the same free time for about 3 days a week. That's a huge plus because Eddie is probably the hardest working guy on this team. And Ari's helping me and himself get right up there with him.

Eddie's great when it comes to lifting. Ari's come up with some great plyometric workouts and both Ari and I have been pacing track workouts. It's a good situation we've got going on right now - for all three of us - and I can't wait to get on the field and show it.

After we come back from QCTU with our first tournament win of the spring season, we'll head to Stanford for what's becoming known as a big revenge tournament. That's all I've got to say about that for now. I'll let Pitt's hard work and on-field performance do the talking.

I hate holiday hours

Trees gym closed at 3 p.m. today. It was the only one open on campus today. I had a work meeting that went past 2 p.m. Because of that, I won't get to lift today. Not cool. Not cool at all.

The Spring Season and Drinking

I've seen guys puke at Saturday and Sunday morning practices because they drank the night before.

I've seen guys look like they're dying at Saturday and Sunday morning practices because they drank the night before

And I've seen a fair share of out of shape people - not necessarily on our team - because they do a lot of drinking.

Since my personal goal for this season is to be in the best shape I can be, I've decided to significantly reduce my drinking. It's actually been on a decline over the past few months. I ended the fall semester with a bang, but the spring semester is going to be even more controlled. I think a lot of it will have to do because of weekend practices, but a lot will also have to do with my own self-control to stay in shape and just not really feel even slightly hungover the next morning.

Now, that's not to say I won't go out and have a drink or two at a party or at the bar, but late night and excessive drinking are really going to be limited.

I've saved three days for longer nights of heavier drinking:
1. The beer pong tournament
2. St. Patty's day
3. My birthday

Working Hard

A month later and I see that Eddie stumbled upon my blog. The good news: somebody's reading. The bad news: I'm updating very infrequently and didn't even see the comment until just recently.

So, in an effort to keep me more motivated for the upcoming spring season, I'm going to also get motivated to post more and keep people updated.

My personal goal for this season is to be the best conditioned person on the field. I want to motivate my teammates and outwork my opponents. I want to literally leave Wisconson in a few months knowing that there wasn't anything else I could've done better because I was in the best possible shape. Yes, I will work on my throws, but I've always been just a mid-range thrower. And, yes, I will work on my game and field sense.

But when everything comes together at Nationals, I want to be the best conditioned person on the field. That's my personal goal.

This past month wasn't all that bad in terms of working out. Both the week leading up to and including Finals Week wasn't nearly as busy as others, so I was able to get in at least 3 solid workouts per week. And I even have a gym membership back home, so I was able to workout up until the day after Christmas. But now I'm back in Pittsburgh and today was the first day that a gym opened on campus (Trees for now as the rest will open on Wednesday, I believe).

As senior in my last semester of school, it looks like I will have a very nice schedule for upcoming season: 2 classes on Tuesday and Thursday, 1.5 (the half is a one-hour per week, 3-credit internship class where I just meet and discuss) and an online/Saturday class. With practices on Tuesday and Thursday (and the weekend eventually) that leaves Mondays and Fridays open and enough time to workout Wednesday.

That's good. I'd like to see my day-by-day workout go something like this:

Monday: 1-2 mile run warmup, stretching, hard lower body workout, core/abs
Tuesday: 1 mile run warmup, stretching, shorter shoulder and back workout, core/abs, practice
Wednesday: Track workout
Thursday: 1 mile run warmup, stretching, shorter arms and chest workout, core/abs, practice
Friday: 1-2 mile run warmup, stretching, hard plyo workout, core/abs
Weekend: 2-3 mile runs and stretching, practice (if we have it), rest and recovery

I like the idea of having lower body and leg workouts on Monday and Friday because if we have a tournament, I won't be working out on either of those days, but I figure I'll be getting a leg workout anyways as I play in the tournament.