Welcome
Aaron Nathan
First off, well said Dalton, Shane, and Mark. I think we all know how good we can be and the drive necessary to get there. I add to that a story. Last year as coach of the B team I organized the B team plus Jimmy Gavin and Riley for Joint Summit (Clemson's home tournament that is an A team tournament). There were 12 players playing a full two day tournament in downpours and 2 inches of mud. We took a top 10 in the nation UGA team to hard cap. We played South Carolina and had a similar result. Our last game of the tournament was against your "superiors" in the Clemson A team. We took them to universe point at 8-8, and lost on a technicality, (we called a timeout 5 yards from the goal line during hard cap which was a turnover). And the B team we had last year is not nearly as talented or as deep as we are.
As people who were cut from the A team, the first thing on our mind is competition. That is what will drive us to practice, work out, and get better. In my third year here I've never seen a B team in tact for split practices past March 1st. This WILL be that year. B Team nationals has taken place in Virginia each of the past 2 years. There is no technical qualification necessary and there are usually about 10 teams. We need 3 things to get a bid: have a B team in tact, have some contacts in the tournament (which I have from last year), and have a record that we have been competing in tournaments. Our goal should be that tournament. We can and should WIN B-team nationals. It isn't as big of a deal as A team nationals, but we can still walk away with a national title. The A team can fight for their title, and I wish them the best of luck because they need it. We are the only obstacle in our way of the B-Team national championship.
It would be doing a disservice to my favorite Clemson B team Alumni and Joint Chiefs all time cheer champion Kenny Beardface O'Connor to leave out one little detail: this is the fun team. Our goal is to get better and we cannot lose sight of that. But we have the opportunity to experience the spirit of the game of Ultimate better than the A team guys. The top 3 most fun tournaments I have been to (and I have been to about 15 tournaments here including 4 A-team ones), were all B-Team tournaments. If you are staying with the this team and dedicate yourself to playing ultimate all year regardless of whether the A team has spots in the spring, you are here because of your love of the game. And the people that play ultimate for the love of the game are the most fun, genuine, and energetic people I know.
A final, less inspiring but much needed note. I know too many people on too many teams that say their A team and B team are divided. The B team has their own house, their own parties and their own group that isn't affiliated with their A team. We are the Joint Chiefs. We can and should do autonomous team building stuff to be the best team we can be. We can have our own meetings regarding ultimate, but when the Joint Chiefs throw a party its not an A team party or a B team party. We are the Joint Chiefs. All 50ish of us. I recommend you join the "Clemson Men's Ultimate: Joint Chiefs of Waft" facebook page as well as the "JCOW and Tigerlillies Social Events" page (the Tigerlillies is the girls ultimate (gultimate) team) and come out to social events. John Lipsy, Nick Jewel and Alex Waters live in a sweet house with one other guy that great ultimate parties are thrown at and we should all go. Maybe even groups of us do themed hairdos and outfits depending on what the party theme is. But lets not let this technicality of A and B divide the program.
So lets kill it. Lets be the best ultimate players we can be. And lets enjoy it like its our last chance (the world is going to end in December right?).
Aaron