Wilmington 8s Recap: Day 2

I know I'm behind on this, but about a week ago I posted recaps from the first day at Wilmington 8s.

Today, you get the second day's action. Not that I didn't play well on the first day, but the second day was one of my best appearances at a tournament. I threw a few scores, including the championship winning one, and played my best defense to date. It's something that felt good and has me motivated to get even better.

Day two started out with a few people, including my room, oversleeping our 7:30 a.m. leave time to the fields so that meant bad news from the coaches whenever we showed up, late, to the fields.

Drej pretty much has the whole weekend summed up at his site, so here's what he had to say about the second day, including the finals matchup against Cornell:

Maryland 15-7
After running fourteen sprints for being fourteen minutes late, we were both pissed and tired. The culmination left Maryland scoring the most points on our team ever. They scored a remarkable seven points, i think half was something like 8-5 and then they scored 2 points when we scored 7. Eh, first game. We'll do better next time.

NC State 15-9
The game was once again nervy in the first half, but our dominance in the second. We played hand in hand with them for the first half and down a break at sevens we needed to get control of the game. The game in the first half was a story of D line missed opportunities as we got the disc quickly, but lost them quicker. At sevens to take half the D line finally punched it in for a huge momentum grab and a confidence booster. The game turned on its heels after and we managed to break them five more times, or more, for the decisive 15-9 win.

UNC 15-8
The UNC games had been notoriously known for their chippiness and their intense nature. Yet this was a brand new team, they lost most of their cutters and were left with a Saul brother and a large cutter doing most of their work. They couldn't stay in the game with our depth and team as we cruised to a pretty easy win.

FINALS
Cornell
With the Octogon now in sight Pittsburgh wanted the win. And the game started as usual with O line's holding. Cornell got a break at three, but we held serve and broke back at 6-5. We continued exerting pressure as we scored another break for 7 - 5. The halftime score 8-6. The game was like the other one before with Cornell playing as anticipated and our O line holding strong and our D line punishing mistakes. The second half started on a positive as we broke two more times and pushed our lead to a resounding 10-7. At this point, the confidence on the team sideline was high and in the reaches of hubris. And boy did we pay. Huck after huck were missed and small, sloppy mistakes punished as Cornell beat us down with our own medicine. Five breaks Cornell had turned the game and our loss looked inevitable. Yet this is where our new spirit shines. Down 12-10, the O line punched in their goal after Alex Thorne had a gnarly lay out D to save a break. The D line took the field with a mentality of must break; they did as the score moved to twelves, and thirteen twelve with another huge break. With Cornell scoring on O and our O scoring as well it was now 14-13. Mega D line, the ensuing point had multiple Ds and multiple turns, but the one that mattered came down to Jay Huerbin getting in between two confused Cornell players and getting a huge D. The D line turned that D into a break and a tournament win as Pittsburgh went undefeated on the weekend.

What more can you say about Pitt Ultimate? To win a tournament with essentially the best competition in the East? It was a great feeling and nice to send Cornell back to New York after going 0-2 against us.

Wilmington 8s recap: Day 1

The first van, the one I was in, left around noon on Friday and strolled into our Super 8 around 10:30 or so later that day. And thanks to Ari's mustache, we didn't end up with any tickets on the way down there. Almost everybody was asleep within a half hour.

First games for the UOA Wilmington 8s Tournament started at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. That means we leave hotel by 7:15 and get to the fields one hour before game time. Saturday was by far the toughest day out of any of the teams schedule-wise, as we played some great competition all four games.

Pitt vs. Tennessee (W 15-10)
This was a good wake up call for us, as Tennessee went on to beat Florida in the third place game. I don't remember too much from this game, but I'm pretty sure we were in control of the game the whole time. It was a hard game, but all of them that weekend were, but I think we all felt confident during this game and came away with a nice victory and a 1-0 start to the weekend.

Pitt vs. Florida (W 17-15)
I don't even know where to begin with this game. Although the 5th seed at this tournament, they played anything like it. Remember, this is a team that only 2 years ago was a few points away from a UPA College Championship (they lost to Wisconsin 15-9 in finals). Florida is tall. Like everybody is tall. And they're all pretty athletic. And all have good throws and play a physical game, especially on defense.

But so does Pitt. We weren't as tall as Florida, but we made up for it our athleticism. Our team has a lot raw athleticism this year and a lot of players have stepped up and become very skillful with the disc. This all makes for a great team.

That said, Florida jumped out to a nice little lead in the game. I don't remember the exact scores, but I know they took half and probably had a two or three point lead at various times throughout the game. I think they were up something like 12-10 or maybe 13-11 (I know, I should have posted right after the tournament) when our defense turned it up. Guys were bidding and our athleticism just took over the game. We were in better shape and were able to shut down Florida - point after point. The game is eventually tied at 14s and we head to overtime. At 15s, the game was capped to 17. Our offense gets us a point to take at 16-15 lead. Our d-line, which improved so much during this game and over the course of the weekend, got the disc back and put it in for the score.

Pitt wins, 17-15. What a great feeling, but it was only team number 2 on our way to a championship.

Pitt vs. Cornell (W 15-13)
Florida is a great team and it made for a great game and even better win. Cornell is a very strong team as well and it showed in our (first) matchup against them in this tournament. Just to look back, in MetroEast Regionals last year, Cornel defeated Pitt pretty handily. But in quarterfinals of the 2009 UPA College Championships, Pitt came back and upset Cornell, 15-13. Needless to say, this is one hell of a rivalry and anything goes when these two teams play each other.

In this game, I don't think either team had more than a 2 point lead at any point and breaks were few and far between. I wish I could remember, but I think Pitt took half 8-7 off a break and was getting the disc out of half. I think we took a 9-7 lead and then points were traded until Pitt came out with a 15-13 win. I don't remember how each point happened and what the leads were, but I do remember it being a great game and celebrating pretty well after we beat them. There's nothing like watching Cornell lose, while we improve to 3-0 on the day.

Pitt vs. Virginia (W 15-11)
This should have been a much close game considering Virginia won the Atlantic Coast Regionals last season, but they had lost an earlier game to North Carolina and looked somewhat depleted on the sidelines. Because of this, Pitt, like our game against Tennessee, controlled the game from the beginning. Our theme throughout the day, and what looks like is becoming our theme for the season, is to finish teams. Whenever we got a nice lead against Virginia, the mindset is to finish them off. Don't let them come back and give them hope. Don't let them score easy points on us. Ramp up the defense, bring the intensity and take them out. That's what happened in this game and we finished day number one with a great 4-0 record.

After the Virginia win, we headed out to Salt Works, where we ate some great food and had a good time, taking a breather from day two's games. After getting back to the hotel after eating, showers and a quick candy run, everybody was pretty much passed out by 9:30 or 10:00.

Day 2 recaps will come soon.

Champions

Pitt Ultimate won Wilmington 8s this past weekend.

It was a great feeling.

Better recap to come later this week.

Two weeks till Wilmington, if you're healthy

I made the A-team. That's good news.

That said, there are about 25 guys on the roster. Two of the guys aren't here this semester. But for some reason, we still only have 14 able guys to practice and scrimmage. It's been like this for almost three weeks now and I'm sure it's starting to irritate some players.

We're two weeks from one of the best tournaments of the fall, Wilmington 8s, and we have 8 or 9 guys standing around on the sidelines while the rest of us practice and improve our game. The problem I have with this isn't injuries. If you are seriously injured, then you go see an orthopedic doctor, get a diagnosis and heal it. That's how injuries work. And there are guys on the team that are in that situation and doing everything they can to get back out on the field.

The problem is with guys who self-diagnose or just go to Student Health and get some half-assed response and don't do anything from there.

The captains and coaches have brought up this point multiple times, especially recently, and it's a shame that it is happening. There is a difference between playing through pain and playing with an injury. In the latter, you get it checked out and do rehab and whatnot. Play through pain? Come on. The best players do that all of the time. I'm sore every once in a while and am always bruising myself or straining a muscle during practices and games. It happens. You get over it and play through it.

I'm not calling anybody out - because for all I know nobody is actually being lazy about their problem - but there is definitely a small divide happening on the team right now and some people would like to have at least one sub during our scrimmages.

I'm sure it will get better though. After all, if you don't practice, you don't play. Simple as that. If you have a serious injury, it must be a miracle for you to get healthy for a tournament if you couldn't practice the week before. You don't get better in two days.

Fall is here

So we're more than a month into the fall season and my senior year and it's great. It's so much fun playing with some of the guys who I started out playing with my freshman year. I'm glad to be on the A-team (for now) and I feel that I'm definitely playing my best Ultimate right now.

Practices have been tough and our scrimmages have been even harder. There's a lot of emotions riding in these practices because people know that despite having 30 or so good players on the team, some will get cut.


Up next for us is the tournament at OSU this weekend. I had hoped to be playing there, and was really looking forward to it, but I might not be able to due to unexpected family issue. I really won't know if I can make it to the tournament until almost the day of. That's how things work out sometimes, though. It'll be OK.

We still had a split-squad scrimmage on Sunday with our teams going to OSU. The game got really heated after the other team took a 5-1 and 6-2 advantage. But we bounced back and played some really good defense. We were still down at half, 8-7, and traded points until we began to break away when we needed to. We ended up winning 17-15 or 17-16. I can't remember the score, but it was still a great comeback for our team and a devastating loss for the others. That's how competitive Pitt Ultimate has been so far this summer. This is going to be a great year.

But if I can't make the OSU tournament, I'm 100&% ready to play in the Wilmington 8, which is from November 7-8. Now that will be a great tournament to play in with a lot of good competition. Take a look at the list of teams and the structure. This is going to be quite the tournament and I'll be pumped to be playing in it.

Looks like that's all for now. I couldn't make practice today because of this pretty bad cold that I'm going through, but I hope to be back on the field on Thursday.

Swaggtionals

I almost forgot...

Swaggtionals from Swagger U on Vimeo.

Mid-Atlantic Regionals

Looks like the seeds and schedule are posted on the UPA score reporter.

First up for Swagger U? The No. 6 seeded team, LOS. It will be a tough game, but so was Pike - and The U took them down. That's basically the only opponent that we're guarenteed to play as the rest of the bracket is dependent on how other teams finish. I'm not even going to look at who else we could play whether or not we win.

Not sure of how many guys Swagger is taking this year but that's not important. Winning is. And we'll do that.

Step 1

First A/B splits took place.

31 guys will be gunning for a spot on the A-team this season. I'd estimate that around 10 get cut between now and the end of this term, but I could be wrong.

There are 14 returning A-team players, 3 B-team players (Bob, DZ and myself) and 14 "rookies" - I put that in quotes because a lot of them have played before and are good players. I'm unsure of how many true rookies there are, but you know the team is looking to take at least one of them this year.

That's pretty much it on the Pitt Ultimate scene right now. Tryout practices will last the next couple months with cuts here and there - typically after tournaments - and so we'll go from there.

I've worked hard this summer and into this fall, so that's all I can say about that. Now I just have to prove it on the field.

Club Update

I got word about a week ago that I wasn't going to be put on the final Forge roster. And while it sucks that I didn't make the cut, it isn't unexpected. I missed three tournaments this summer. It's a shame that the three weekends I would have conflicts would be the three weekends that Forge had tournaments. That's how it goes, though, and I'll be alright.

I'm still invited to come practice with them, which is always a good thing. It will help me to keep on practicing for this fall when I make my push for the A-team.

Speaking of this upcoming fall, I've been working really hard this summer to get myself into the best shape possible. I go to the gym as often as possible (I try for at least 5 times per week) and have been throwing and learning a lot more strategy. I'm in the process of completing Air Alert III. I'm currently on week 11, so only a few more weeks to go. It'll be perfect timing for the fall season.

Because I'm not on the Forge roster now, I'm left with two options for club ultimate this year. My first option is to keep practicing with Forge and see if they take me on their team for the club series. The second option is to keep practicing with Forge and play with SwaggerU for the club series. Either way, it looks like I'll be playing with Forge whenever I can during the rest of the summer.

Looks like that's all for now on the personal level. I got back from Minnesota on Monday night after coaching Pittsburgh Impulse to a 3rd place finish at the Youth Club Championships. I know I said I'd make some posts about me coaching, but that never happened this summer. Maybe I'll get around to getting a post up recapping my summer as a coach.

That's all for now.

Gotta keep on working hard.