Colonial sectionals ME write up (long)
fsull...@comcast.net
Ah, where to start..
Big changes in the pecking order by Sunday afternoon of the
tournament. A couple of the usual big dogs were put to the test by
teams that either have never been to regionals at all or those who
haven't been in some years.
The most successful program this weekend was once again University
of Maryland who kept the Colonial Cup for yet another year. There have
been consecutive Open and Women sweeps in the section before, but
Maryland took it one further by sweeping the Open and Women's bracket
as well as the Chumpionship bracket on the open side with Maryland B
winning out 13th place bracket.
March Madness may be your cup of tea, but mine takes place
throughout the land on green and other color fields in April/May. Yes,
the elements of weather add yet another piece of the excitement
missing in your other various indoor venues. More variables equals
more interesting.
It all started Saturday in pool play when the cracks in the tower
of precedence began to show signs of erosion. The seeding didn't
change coming out of any of the pools, but Towson stood up well
against long time dominator Delaware losing by 2 in what showed Towson
their potential in upcoming games on Sunday. Maryland B didn't change
seed coming out of the pools, but they did play their hearts out to
beat Johns Hopkins on universe point. Point differential in a three
way tie kept them from changing seed coming out of pool play.
MD B (Tenacious B) - 17 players lead by #6 came to sectionals hungry
to play. They are a determined bunch. Very good defense, some good
cutting also. Another year on the disc and many of these guys will be
welcome additions to the Space Bastards.
The weather was challenging for most players on Saturday, not the
temperature and not any rain, just a stiff breeze that challenged some
of the as yet developed throwers. 15 to 20 knots I would estimate with
occasional gusts and some lulls as well. The disc hanging over a crowd
was not an uncommon sight to see with errant discs catching the swells
and the highest level readers catching the disc. No complaints were
heard however because the sun was beaming big time like it hasn't in
weeks around these parts.
The previous two years of sectionals found us in Salisbury where
Ryan "Jake" Bell was the main TD last year and Jason "Jaymo" Mokar the
year before that. It looked to be held in Salisbury yet again this
year until a new voice was heard from St. Mary's College in southern
Maryland. And by new I mean new as in young. Brooke Austin is but a
sophomore on the college progress ruler but beyond her years in many
other ways. She stepped up to Jakes side and together they jacked a
home run by all accounts. Co-TD's from different schools was the
formula this year. Brooke and the SMUT (St. Mary's Ultimate Team) crew
(Susan Beadoin, Adam Wolinski, etc.) did all prelim work getting the
fields, trainer, food, photographers, etc. and then Jake put together
the schedule along with new Colonial Women's Coordinator, the awesome,
Ryan Freas. Jake and Ryan kept up with the scores allowing Brooke to
play in the tournament. They both did a fantastic job with this. Any
questions called in from the field sites were handled with speed and
accuracy.
The campus is beautiful. Student population, I'll take a guess of
around 7000. A small campus on the water with no traffic or even two
lane roads nearby. buildings designed to look like the originals from
St. Mary's city in say 1690 or so. This place has some serious
history. Oldest city in some way or another. A real get away. A great
weekend. A likely location of Colonial sectionals 2010.
One element that has worked very well the last few years in
organizing this event is the rolling captains meeting for a few hours
on Friday night. Saturday morning is much smoother when all teams have
maps, times, schedules, cap rules and generally know what's up the
night before they play. With 5 different field sites this is
especially true. No wandering around the campus looking for the
captains meeting then searching for your field, then finding out that
now you only have 15 minutes to get ready for your game and then games
starting late. Friday night captains meeting = smooth Saturday.
Brooke had a top trainer, Maribeth Ganzell. (her husband Sandy
coaches the St. Mary's Women's team) at the fields to tape players
before the games and she looked after players all weekend as well. A
trainer for the varsity players at the school, she was a former
Ultimate player in Houston and Cali. She really knew her stuff.
Brooke also lined up photographers (one each day) who will be
putting the pictures they shot on the tournament website (hopefully in
the next few days) for your viewing enjoyment. After that Matthew
Bourland at UPA central assured me they can be archived at the UPA for
long time access.
Brooke and crew organized a nice BBQ dinner at one field location
after the last round Saturday which allowed all players from the
different sites to congregate for a couple of hours after the last
round Saturday. As customary, some of the players who have been
hosting tournaments in the section over the last year were honored
with engraved Sheffield pewter glass bottomed tankards for their
giving of Ultimate playing opportunities. Adam Wolinski for St. Mary's
Cupid's Revenge tournament; Ashley Snyder for heading up Delaware's
Pigglyfest tournament; Dave Branick for his unending determination in
running Huck of the Irish; Katie "Charlie" Mercer for stepping in and
salvaging a part of Huck of the Irish (which was rained out) by
hosting Muck of the Irish; and to Ryan "Jake" Bell for hosting
Colonial Sectionals 2008. Thank you all for those huge efforts in
running some great events.
Sectionals is almost like two different tournaments. Saturday
games for the high seeds are generally a warm up. For the middle teams
a first test of how things might go on the weekend and for the lower
seeds a steep learning curve. And for everyone a chance to be away
from the grind and get acclimated into the weekend.
Sunday is a whole other animal. The acclimatization and party are
over and now it's time to see what's what.
The wind has let up considerably from Saturday, still an
occasional stiff swirl or two but not the factor it was the day
before. The nine am rounds came and went with no major upsets or
surprises in the brackets. Then came round 2. American shows they came
to play by taking apart Salisbury in a lopsided win. This might the
first time American has ever won this matchup and the day is far from
over.
At another site, Catholic and George Mason are in an epic struggle
where Catholic barely gets by George Mason 16-15 at the cap. Nearby,
UMBC (MD-Baltimore County) is taking on cross-town opponent Johns
Hopkins for yet another barn burner where Meech and UMBC fight to
overcome Hopkins 15-14!
The intensity level going into the third round in the games to go
is now defcon 3 threatening to move to 2 at any time. Four great games
are about to all start.
Semi's; Georgetown vs. George Washington on field 2 while Maryland
takes on Delaware on field 1.
The sound of Maryland vs. Delaware has a familiar ring to it
because this is always a game of the teams at the top of the section
fighting for the highest seed possible heading into regionals. A few
points seen here involve Sean Keagan of Delaware putting up long
strikes that are so accurate and on time that the Maryland players
seem to have just factored those points into the game as inevitable. #
5 and # 8 on Maryland are moving the disc quickly and with seeming
ease on offense. The game is moving along at a strong pace both teams
finding the endzone.
George Washington on the next field over has also been a perennial
competitor at the top of the section for the last many years. Their
opponent, Georgetown, on the other hand has never made it out of the
section. This year was to be a high water mark for Georgetown. They
came out fired up from the first point and fought hard at every turn.
Interestingly George Washington who normally enjoys legions of fans on
the sidelines to help break down their opponents was now dwarfed
compared to the sizable and loud Georgetown fans on hand.
This game intensity and the level of play are high level. Georgetown's
# 6 is moving the disc well in a handler spot. #21 solid O all around,
#17 great layout D and big ups D as well. In general, Georgetown is a
taller team than GW. GW is using a lot of zone. One of George
Washington's captains, Garrett, with a lot of touches is hitting some
big strike scores, GW player in the yellow hat, a main handler, very
consistent with the disc.
Time to move on over to the American vs. Salisbury , Towson vs.
St. Mary's games side by side a few fields away. American is now up
on Salisbury by 6 points nearing half time. American has caught some
teams by surprise this year after years of relative obscurity in the
middle of the pack. They made a big jump this year and now look to be
a team legitimately in the hunt to play at regionals. This game vs.
Salisbury was giving them some real confidence for what would lie
ahead. Salisbury captain and air beast AJ Jacoski was injured during
this game in a collision that dealt the Buzz a serious wound. The disc
was thrown wide to the sideline. AJ in front moving to the disc. His
opponent from behind attempts to make an adjustment to AJ's quick
footwork and loses control heading fast into AJs from behind. He tries
to cushion his uncontrolled momentum, putting up his hands in an
attempt to lesson the inevitable collision. Both players crash to the
ground and AJ comes up with what looks to be an injured shoulder.
Next field over it's St. Mary's vs. Towson in a focused and high
level match. Two evenly matched teams in talent. St. Mary's has the
smooth and reliable senior Ryan Kirtland, the unstoppable junior Nate
Venditta, senior Adam Wisnoski and the talented Shelby, a young
player for SMUT with some big up catches in the endzone. The game is
neck and neck, trading points throughout with I believe St. Mary's
taking half 7-6. A very clean game here inside of the spectacular
plays. Both teams with great respect for each other and the game.
These guys show with their actions their moral fortitude and fully
understand that hacking and cheating to win especially in the confines
of our current self officiating rules system is but a hollow victory.
Cheating shows weakness not strength and it does not go unnoticed,
whether a blatant cheater is called on it or not. Great to see an
intense and clean game.
Right when it's really getting interesting, the phone rings with
the inevitable tournament curve ball. Park and Rec has double booked
one of our fields at one or the other field locations. In the car and
off to there with permits in hand. An hour later, field issue
resolved. I return to the play in games and semi's and 3 out of the 4
games are over. American shows they are for real with a convincing win
over Salisbury in one of the quarters match ups and Towson and St.
Mary's have an epic match trading points from 6's through late in the
game before Towson wins at the buzzer in the other quarters game. A
few fields away, Maryland has finished off Delaware by at least 5
points in one of the semis.
The only game still in progress now is semi final GW vs.
Georgetown. The score is 10-10 the soft cap is on and Georgetown
scores to go up one. GW comes down strong and then a midfield strike
is a bit too strong and fly's deep just a bit out the back of the
endzone. Georgetown knows what an opportunity they have here and they
don't disappoint themselves or their three deep legion of fans on the
sidelines. # 17 to Alex Wilson and the guard has changed. Georgetown
is off to the finals with Maryland and GW has a hard roe to hoe
starting with Towson in their next game.
The finals will be pitting the as yet fully tested Maryland Space
Bastards vs. a strong and adrenaline coursing, newly confirmed and
confident Georgetown. Was Maryland really untested in the games they
played so far? Has Georgetown left everything on the last field in the
previous round getting by GW or were they not yet done? These
questions were about to be answered on field 1. At the same time,
Delaware was about to match up with underdog American several fields
away while GW faced Towson.
I missed all but the last point of the American/ Delaware game. A
would be write up of that game from an American fan never came so no
details of this one. The only point I managed to catch was when the
score was 12-12, universe point, American is pulling to Delaware. A
Delaware player drops the disc 30 yards out of their endzone and
Delaware quickly responds with a smothering blanket of man defense.
American centers the disc before calling a time out to muster a plan.
Disc in and several passes later and American has just make some noise
in the section (literally and lots of it).
Delaware and Towson are locking horns point for point. These two
teams almost matched evenly in height, Delaware with maybe one or two
taller players and a deeper bench. Scrappy is an accurate term best
used to describe the likes of both of these teams.
This was a difficult game for George Washington's Hungry Hungry
Hippos who had just lost a very difficult and emotional game to
Georgetown, a team who had never taken them in this situation in the
past. GW did all they possibly could to keep Georgetown down and came
up just short. The effort took a toll that seemed similar to that of
Towson's energy loss in getting past St. Mary's in their game prior to
this one. A big difference of course was that Towson won their game
and GW didn't. It's very hard emotionally to get over a loss like
theirs for GW and anyone who's ever been in this situation in any of
the series steps knows this. Fighting your way into the back door game
requires putting the previous game loss behind you immediately and
focusing on the task at hand. GW seemed to be accomplishing just that
with strong play throughout. The game close most of the first half
with GW up by 2 at times early. # 52, # 53, # 33 moved the disc with
great flow like only a tight knit crew of players knows how.
Towson meanwhile never gives up and they just won't go away. They
are methodical and not shaken by the swings of a game. Over time, they
dismantle defenses one pass at a time. Very difficult to stop because
they play as a team like very few others. Never a harsh word at
themselves, never a harsh word toward other teams, just constant never
ending team wide passes, like hundreds of paper cuts until you bleed
out. They kill you with their kindness too. It's really pointless to
blame them when they beat you. They did not play dirty and they did
not cheat. They beat you as a well playing team. And they do it with
only 10 well conditioned players. Towson takes half 7-4. GW fights
back hard. Towson creates even more separation and it's 12-8. GW
fights back again with some intense defense and it's now 12-10 and GW
feels some momentum going their way. Towson finishes the game with a
long strike to the endzone momentarily hanging over 4 or 5 players
before a GW hand hits the disc away right into the waiting breadbasket
of a Towson player for the win.
Maryland is now over on field 1 wondering if their test of the
weekend is about to begin. The early part of the game the teams are
trading points as Maryland sees for themselves why Georgetown has made
it to their doorstep. There are some beasts on team Catholic Justice
(not to be confused with Catholic University?) with great abilities.
#17, # 34, # 50 all dangerous in any situation. Along with the huge
prescience of these guys are a big team of contributors in many ways.
It's more of a challenge when a big team plays well together but these
guys pull it off. Never the blame game here, when mistakes are made
they take responsibility and march on. This is one of their strengths.
They also make adjustments in tactics when needed. They have coach
Dave to turn to for advice as well as coach Andrew Chera.
Maryland was tested for the first half of this game, but by the
second half the few mistakes that Georgetown has made in dropped
passes combined with one of Georgetown's main guns, Tim Heather (sp?),
injured in a frightening three player collision combined with their
ever dwindling energy reserves add up to Maryland pulling away in the
second half of this final. The stellar defense of the Space Bastards'
Bluto, Freddy Tsai and big #23, Hollywood kept Georgetown from getting
a foothold back into this game. Unforced errors is one thing, but good
teams play good defense. Good defense means actually taking the disc
from the other team and Maryland did their share of this. All the
while the Maryland offense was relentless at putting points on the
board. Maryland is deep with talent and they use their deep bench
well. Key movers Sam "Rico" Burnim, Ruebin Saul, #23, #24, #8, Mellow
with some wide open cuts to the endzone and the many players who can
hit that cut. The talent list goes long. Many players who are good on
D and on O. Few errors and a good mix of control and big plays. Listen
for the noise at regionals. A strong cast of characters with a team
thinking approach makes some well played Ultimate. Maryland has a new
coach this year, Patrick "Colby" Gilman who seems to have these guys
all going in the same forward direction. This team has been working
hard and there is no denying their payoffs to come. While there have
been some teams in the section rebuilding and holding steady, Maryland
is one of the few who has grown stronger and this very much looks like
their year to advance to nationals.
Three teams are slated to come out of the section and onto
regionals in Princeton N.J. The winner of the next and final game will
determine who that is. Would it be American, a huge team with 20 some
players or would it be team Towson, super gel, 10 deep. The
prognosticators are prognosticating. Game time and they are off. Both
teams have just come off of upset wins and now find themselves in a
position of confidence.
American is fired up with much energy and hordes of fans on the
sideline. Towson now has a heavy fan base also as most other games are
now over. The game starts off with both teams in complete control of
the disc scoring with each drive. The breeze has an occasional burst
of interest, but for the most part the weather is sunny, warm and
comfortable. American has a decidedly taller team than Towson in
addition to their larger player numbers. # 81 is tall, has good D and
can catch it above the rim. #42 with the yellow hat also tall and in
the thick of most plays. Donnie is very solid with the disc, apex in
their zone O. American is playing man D, looking to wear down the
small rotation of the Towson squad. They are effective to some degree,
taking the disc a few times and scoring. They go on a bit of a run and
take half up by a couple. Towson is playing some man defense mixed
with some zone in the first half. In the second half their ratio is
heavier on the zone side causing American some discomfort, combined
with some layout poaching D's and some endzone sky D's by the blond
Towson player (sorry, few shirts have numbers), Jose Maldo and Wheaties
(?), gets them some breaks back with their stellar D to tie up the
game late. Much speculation as to when the low number of players on
the Towson team would start cramping subsided by the end of the first
half when the only one to succumb to leg cramps was an American
player.
The second half was a testament to the solid conditioning of
Towson. Methodical team offense, breaking down the hopes of American
one pass at a time. All players touching the disc, no three person
offense here. A key play late in the second half as American is
fighting hard to get a break, solid Towson disc mover Chris Neitz
breaks on an away cut as the disc is put high and deep enough that he
has to leave is feet reaching up and away for it when two American
players appear on the scene setting up a vicious three way pretzel
twister type collision. The crowd quiets as Chris is helped to the
sideline. This could be a devastating loss if Towson loses Chris for
the home stretch with American right on Towson's heals. Towson Captain
Matt "Skunk" Radhe motions Jose onto the field and Towson works it the
rest of the way and bangs home another point. Towson's even keel and
unselfish team work finish off a hard fighting American 14-11 and
Towson is going to regionals for the first time in 4 or 5
years.
The big story of this sectionals was the rise of some teams who have
languished in the middle tiers bringing more parody to the top of an
already interesting section. Congratulations to Georgetown, Towson and
American for your underdog successes.
THE COACHES:
Surprisingly few teams with coaches this year. I recommend a coach if
you can find a good one. If for no other reason a coach can provide
the perfect scapegoat for players to unite against when things aren't
going well (yes, a joke)...and they might even teach you a few things.
Maryland - Coach Patrick "Colby" Gilman - was wearing a Dumpsterfire
shirt so I suspect is either a fan or a likely past and/or current
player on that team.
Georgetown- Dave - Don't know his last name. Someone told me he played
for George Mason a few years ago..
He's been with Georgetown for at least two years, so I'd bet he has
had some impact on the strides these guys have been making. Andrew
Chera also helping Georgetown. No info on him.
Johns Hopkins - John Blatz - Hopkins has been on a rebuilding project
since last year. John stepped in this year and has already got these
guys playing better. John was the captain at Princeton three or four
years back before attending Hopkins for advanced degree work. He also
played for Medicine Men last year.
Thanks to Jake, Ryan, Brooke for running a great Colonial Sectionals
and thanks for the silver framed picture of the team captains.
Good luck at regionals:
1st place- Colonial Cup winners- Maryland Space Bastards
2nd place- Georgetown - Catholic Justice
3rd place- Towson- Pandamonium
Farrell Sullivan, Jr.
Colonial CSC ME
Alan J
with Mad Cow out in Ohio and with Mizzou back in the day...
Also, the game against George Mason was not so epic until the 2nd
half, where Catholic came out down 7-3.... We brought it back to 12s
before trading points and finally getting a big score for the win.
Congrats to Georgetown and Towson for their bids to Regionals! I
don't think anyone thought Georgetown or Towson were underdogs after
their performances earlier this Spring, but they are still big wins
nonetheless. American and Towson really had some battles this
Spring...
AJ was the difference-maker for most of the Salisbury wins I saw...
His size is just tough to beat in those winds. Not to mention that
team is always fired up. We had some fairly-spirited, intense games
with those guys this weekend.
Alan
#40 Catholic U
P.S. We're changing our name to "Justice" next year... That way
there's Georgetown "Catholic Justice" and Catholic "Justice"... Tired
of those guys stealing our thunder... we're obviously waaaaaayyyyyy
more Catholic than them... Maybe we should call ourselves "Georgetown
Justice"????
bill b
Congrats to Towson on making it to regionals. They are a classy bunch
who play really solid ultimate and know how to have a good time while
playing.
-Bill B
#7 American
P.S. I like the name change Alan. You guys are cooler anyway.