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.