OPEN FOUNDERS SECTIONALS 2002 - RESULTS
Brian P. Canniff
First: a big thanks to Gimp and the Lehigh squads for their excellent
hosting. They provided fields for 47 teams! And Gimp helped us
orchestrate movement of two divisions from youth-soccer-permitted
fields to other venues within Lehigh.
Second: thanks to the two other SCs at the event. Karen Grossberg
made sure that ALL teams had their ration of fruit. Jeff Dunbar
provided all 50 teams with bagels. Both SCs were very cooperative
with Gimp and I terms of scheduling, budget, and having more sets of
hands, eyes, and hearts involved in the running of the event.
Third: thanks to my bride Mary for letting me run Sectionals and for
helping with check-in, schedule check, etc. No Mary, no tourneys.
Fourth: my RC, the NOD, and our illustrious Championship Director,
Will Deaver, who provided a lot of support to this SC. Thanks also to
Kyle (our Juniors Staffer at HQ) for providing help and guidance as
our sectionals actually included Juniors teams for the first time this
year.
Div 1.A (Saturday pool winners round robin)
On Saturday, Pike (NJ/Pitts combo), Rage (Philly), and Team Tent
(Philly 'ringers') won their pools retaining their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
seeding. A minor upset by Scrap, supplemented with some recent PSU
grads, gave them 4th place over the recent-Rage-retiree-supplemented
O.L.D. S.A.G.
The pool winners boiled off on Sunday to 'do their own thing.' In
past years there may have been discussion about whether or not the
4th/5th teams 'got off easy' in avoiding playing one of the 'big 3'
(traditionally Rage, Black and Gold, and Havoc and more recently Pike,
Rage, and the Ringers d'Tourney (Team Tent). For sure I struggled
with the seeding, and Scrap's Ian was pretty helpful in helping me get
it right. He said something like: I don't care what pool we're in -
we're trying to win the section no matter who we have to go through.
He felt that a 5th, 6th or 7th seed (against Rage, Team Tent, or OLD
SAG) presented little problems for his team if they were to enjoy the
success they desired. They wound up seeded 5th and opened up a 6-0
lead against OLD SAG, trading points in the second half 13-7 or so.
The opening round was 1v4 Pike v. Scrap. I don't have details of the
game, but Scrap posted a very respectable 15-11 against the
tourney-favorite. On the other field, the 2v3 game was a minor upset
as the practicing-but-young 'new' Rage took on the self-described
'burned out' no-practice team Team Tent. Team Tent beat Rage 16-14.
The format, a round robin with a schedule driven the first round
results (1v4 and 2v3, then winners stay, then in 3rd round finish
round robin). So Rage left what they had hoped to be 'their' field to
meet Pike a round early. In what must have been a great game (I was
at another site at Lehigh administering the 'games to go in Div 1.B as
described below), Rage beat Pike 17-15 in a 15/17 game. The other
game saw ANOTHER minor 3v4 upset as SCRAP upset TEAM TENT 15-13.
This left an intersting situation for the 3rd round (and I was lucky
enough to be able to witness portions of these games).
Each team entered round 3 at 1-1. The Pike / Team Tent game was
rapidly brought under control by Pike and it looked like Pike was
going to finish at 2-1. But even winning was not enough to guarantee
Pike the win in the section. If Rage won against Scrap, Rage would
retain the elusive Sectional Title they had fiercely defended for the
past 9 years.
But Scrap was not letting Rage take control of the game. The game was
close. The game was hot. The game has one of the funniest things
I've seen in ultimate in a while (Andy "Smart Guy" of Rage had knocked
down one of his pals on Scrap, and when he wound up almost stradding
him like he was a horse actually paused and mugged for the crowd as he
faked a big smack on the ass on the guy he was preventing from getting
up... hey, if you've already fouled the guy, might as well have some
good clean fun :) ). Anyhow... lots of hot play including some big
grabs in the endzone by Tom Carroll, the controlled offense of Kareem
Moore, and the big throws of Will Heyman. This very good game went to
10s.
A Rage win guaranteed them the win (2-1 with a head-to-head win
against Pike also 2-1), but Rage was unable to hold on and Scrap
finally toppled Rage in a 15-13 barn-burner. Instead, Pike 2-1 won
the head-to-head with Scrap for 1 and 2. And Team Tent and Rage
finished 2-2 and 3rd and 4th respectively. Even though they lost
their coveted crown, they prevented Pike from having the clean-sweep
of the section I'm sure they coveted. Rage is young and they will be
gunning for Scrap and Pike and the Sectional Title.
Congrats to our new Sectionals Champ Pike! Congrats to
young-ringer-laden Scrap for toppling Rage for Pike! Congrats to Team
Tent for retaining their high seed. And Rage: you helped contribute
to many exciting sectionals over the years - but this was a FANTASTIC
finish to a fine weekend of play.
Div 1.B.
I will be posting more complete results from pool play. These 8 teams
had finished 2nd and 3rd in pool and were competing for the unknown
'game to go.'
UPenn Void and RUN competed in a grueling game to go to the game to go
with Void sporting a 10-7 lead when the +1 cap was reached. Game to
11. Run mounted a fantastic comeback with *2* discs barely reeled in
as Void players layed out for D blocks on long-armed high 'ape factor'
RUN players. Somehow RUN retained that last possession and put the
game away 11-10.
OLD SAG, meantime, came out with a vengeance against the two teams
they needed to get through to get to the game for 5th place (the best
they could do after losing their pool).
The OLD SAG / RUN game (and the rest of the B.1. games for round 3)
took place on Lehigh's upper fields at Sayer. After a brief
intermission for moving the 8 teams to the top of the hill, the games
and the rain started. Tied at 6s, OLD SAG took half 7-6. After the
half, OLD SAG sported some new defenses and some baffling offenses
that RUN might have recognized but perhaps not played against enough
(I saw a german and at least one multi-dump upfield weave that created
a lot of room for the cutters) which got OLD SAG a 10-7 lead when the
+1 cap went on. I think that the teams exchanged points for 11-8 OLD
SAG.
Meantime, PSU and UPENN VOID were playing the 6/8 game (loser takes
8th, winner gets RUN in the 6/7 game). RUN, with a 5-hour drive ahead
of them, was not eager to play after a bye and negotiated with each of
the two teams in the 6/8 game. UPENN VOID graciously offered to
forfeit since they already had a same-day loss to RUN (the format
FAILED TO MENTION any same-day-loss exceptions so Void would have been
proper to force RUN to play them had they won - congrats VOID on your
display of goodsportsmanship, common sense, and Spirit). PSU was not
willing to concede in the event that they lost, but they were willing
to flip for the 6/7 spot (with the witnessing and blessing of this
procedure by the TD, since we had some steady rain and t-storms
scheduled to be rolling through). PSU lost the flip, allowing RUN to
secure 6th place in the tourney. PSU won the game, securing their 7th
place in the Section and (probably) another return to Regionals in VA.
Princeton and Lehigh flipped for the 9/10 spot (did I mention that
many of these teams had played *5* pool play games Sat and had already
played 2 elim games on Sunday's rain (which included about 40 minutes
of downpour?) with the final score Princeton 5 Lehigh 4 hard-capped.
CMU, with a great performance in pool play this weekend, waited around
for Haverford to show up. Didn't happen. Where were ya Haverford?
Look for my email soon. CMU finished 11 and Haverford finished 12.
Believe it or not, our Section is getting so large that we had a
ANOTHER WHOLE DIVISION going on SUNDAY.
Div 1.C. was a blend of the Div II teams returning for some more games
and the 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams from pool play on Saturday.
Some very good teams wound up in this bracket, and the competition was
pretty fierce. Again, I hope to be able to post more detail on the
results of this bracket, but I'm missing some info. Essentially we
had PRE-QUARTERS (14 teams - top 2 seeds getting bye into the
quarters), a CONSOLATION GAME for each PRE-QUARTER loser, and 4
QUARTERFINALS, 2 SEMIS, and FINAL.
BABY RUN ran the tables on the competition for the big championship
game to take 13th at Sectionals. I don't really know who won the
quarters or semis because I had left that area of Lehigh to administer
the 'games to go' in Div 1.B.
DIVISION II
We had *5* amazingly good-spirited and cool teams in DIV II. PSU-B,
UPENN-B, (JUNIORS!) HIGHLAND PARK, (JUNIORS!) CHS, and (JUNIORS!) Mt.
Lebanon battled it out in pool play. More details when I get them out
of the truck, but I can't walk anymore today. I grabbed the Div.1
sheet and the rest of the stuff will have to wait until tomorrow.
**** REFLECTIONS AND RAMBLING -- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK LONG ****
I wanted to note that the quality of play and the Spirit in Div II was
really high. I was talking with Pike's Weasel and he said that there
are a lot of teams in Pittsburgh that would have LOVED coming out and
playing in Div II because for many teams Div I just isn't that fun.
As a TD, I would STRONGLY encourage recreational teams (e.g. some
casual pickup game), league teams, junior teams, college b teams, or
newer college teams to consider hitting sectionals. Div II Founders
Sectionals is a GREAT tourney. The hosts work hard to provide a nice
venue, your TD busts his hump to make sure that formats work. If you
don't want to play Sunday - no biggie - call me on Sat and let me know
so I can make Sunday's schedule work. This year, pool play for Div II
was with peers (a Jrs team faced 2 other Jrs teams and 2 college
teams) and even if some of the games were typical sectionals run-aways
ALL TEAMS could see that NEXT YEAR they'd be doing that much better in
DIV II.
The DIV II teams get experience, real experience, against peer teams.
They are out playing ultimate. The DIV I teams get the benefit of the
team-count for Regionals bids. The UPA gets the benefit of getting
younger players 'hooked' on the tournament experience early. Their
younger players who are already members get more bang for their
membership $. The TD gets to help out kids (note: making sure there
are chaperones, medical waivers signed by parents on hand in case of
medical emergency, player waivers, and rosters is a pain. If you're a
heartless son of a gun like I am, and you let the Jrs know that they
will be sent home of they don't have sufficient bona-fide chaperones
(e.g. not 18 year old recent graduates but parents, teachers, people
old enough to rent a car), guess what, they comply with the
requirements and it helps provide a great day of play. As TD of JNats
'99 and JNats '00, I had a lot of experience with Jrs. So even though
they too might have had 5 games on Sat if their pool had filled, the
Jrs games were to 11. Chaperones were required at the captains
meeting, and told that they were responsible for helping make sure
that Jrs hydrate, rest between games, and if they need to stop playing
(e.g. numbers, injuries, etc.) that the Jrs get help on that decision.
(One jackass parent let his kid play through dehydration so serious
in 1999 that they took the kid off the plane straight to the hospital.
Nausea and puking and clear signs of dehydration means you bench the
kid as a responsible parent, IMHO) So you do your best to provide a
safe venue and you have at it.
And what do you get? Well on Sunday, we took the Div II teams and
blended them into the 14-team 4-round single elim (with single
guaranteed consolation game). So you got to see, for example, NJ
Masters playing against CHS. A *13-year old 8th grader* got a very
nice score on some sweet flow that broke out of the loose zone NJ
Masters had thrown on them. CHS escaped the dreaded 'bagel' and
scored a few more in a Spirited and wonderful game. As I told one of
the kids on the sideline: "Without Columbia High School, I wouldn't
have been playing ultimate. Without that guy, Mike Pfeiffer [playing
for NJ Masters], I don't know that I would have had 3 or 4 good years
playing club on his team."
I flash to thinking of the 'ultimate giants' and volunteers who helped
me over the years and the wave of gratitude that swept through me
(Joey Gray - general empowerment, coed; Raflo - spotting me $50 when
he barely knew me so I could feed Rage some pizza at Turkey Swamp;
Scott Sayer running Turkey Swamp over and over and over and over
again; Matt W's tireless tourney running; Mike Adlis and Wildwood).
It was awesome seeing these two teams play. Then I had to haul butt
from that game to move the 1.B division before the soccer kids came.
ULTIMATE TOURNEY MOMENT. Second round underway... three more rounds
to go... The heavy downpour. Sweatshirt soaked. A cold in the
making. The big Potlatch umbrella Mary and I got in '99 - in the
truck 300 yards away. CRAP. The hooded black raincoat - in the truck
300 yards away. CRAP. A vision in blue. My bride, on a bye. Under
the umbrella, holding my raincoat, 5 yards from me. Despite the
downpour, my own personal rainbow.
:)
The drive home. Talking about 2003. Mary taking notes for the
braindump for the 2003 Sectionals file. More envelopes. Trashbags
given out at each check-in. How to get more kids teams involved in a
safe, sane manner. How big can our Div II get? Budget that lightning
detector. Discount Div II?
Quick stop for coffee and hot chocolate. M&Ms crunch in mouth, barely
brush my hands. The drive goes quick. The dogs are wildly enthused
to see us. Can we still do this if we have kids? Shrugs and a smile
from my bride. LOL She's always one step ahead of me, and I think she
is betting on 'yes.'
Last many paragraphs for Chas. See you in FL buddy.
Peace all, more details and stuff tomorrow...
Brian
Brian P. Canniff
2. SCRAP
3. TEAM TENT
4. RAGE
5. OLD SAG
6. RUN
7. PSU
8. VOID (UPENN)
9. PRINCETON
10. LEHIGH
11. CMU
12. HAVERFORD
13. BABY RUN
14. H'BURG MASTERS ?
I need:
Div 1.C. SEMIS results
Div II scores
Charles N. Yood
But is it really a "minor" upset if Scrap beat Old Sag (and beat them twice
at sectionals last year) and then went on to beat both Team Tent and Rage?
I love hearing that Scrap is "ringer laden." Truth be known though, we're
just homegrown talent from central PA. I put this team together for our
first sectionals last year and finished 5th (and didn't have a shot at 3rd
or 4th). Second place in just our second sectionals is a testament to the
quality of players in the overlooked central region.
Thanks to both Rage and Team Tent. Our games were two of the cleanest and
most enjoyable games in which I have participated.
Pike owes us a case of beer for their #1 seed.
Charlie Yood, Captain
Scrap