Best of the Midwest

Miami's first tournament as a full team went well. Real well. We had three rookies joining the returning players in Ann Arbor and a total roster of 16 players ready to battle against the Midwest. It was a team full of lots of veterans and some new comers ready to make an impact.

The morning started out late. We didn't have our first game until 11 am. Unheard of for the likes of an ultimate tournament. Our first game was against Michigan 1 (they were split between Michigan 1,2, and 3. The bulk of the team was divided between 1 and 2.). We came out of the gates looking like a team who was playing their first full team tournament. Both sides did. Long points, lots of turns. Ugly. However, we got it together and started to gel towards the middle of the game and rode that until the end of the game. It was a 13-9 victory for our first game of the morning.

Next we had Toledo. We played okay in the first half and were scoring our O points, but were letting them squeak out goals that we should have shut down (most faults in our Man D). The half was 7-5 in favor of the Boogiemen. We wanted to shake things up and throw a zone. We saw lots of inexperience on their team and thought this would put the brakes on anymore trading of points. It didn't just put the breaks on...they failed to score the rest of the game. 13-5, Boogiemen.

Our third game of the day was Indiana X. The second half of the Toledo game proved to be the turning point in our play and we never looked back. A cleaned up offense and smarter defense allowed us to roll to a 13-3 victory over Indiana X.

The final game of the day was Michigan State X. Our offense was playing intelligent and our defense was shut down. This, like the previous games, was a convincing victory at 13-4.

I forget the other game, but we shut out another team in the second half; showing some maturity in the team's ability to close out games.

The highlights of the day were the offenses conservation on the goal-line. Turnovers in the red zone were a huge problem for us last year, but we managed to limit them. Another highlight was a bunch of drunk Ann Arbor guys at a burrito joint asking us when we were going pro in softball. Then when they found out we played ultimate, they proceeded to make many "taking it up the butt" motions, repeatedly calling us fags and other names insinuating we were homosexual for playing ultimate. Nothing like a fat, drunk, slob wearing an unbuttoned denim vest yelling at you while in line for a burrito. I told him we were on the Appalachian State ultimate team. They were too drunk to realize what an embarrassment they were to themselves.

As the one seed going into bracket play, there was a play in game to determine our opponent. We got Indiana Y. Probably our most convincing win of the tournament, we took the game 13-1. Another shut out in the second half.

Our semi final game was against Magnum 1 again. We saw them before and were not about to let our sloppy play drag out the game again. We played solid ultimate and put up a 13-5 victory.

The finals game was against Magnum 2. We put out the relatively consistent offense we had been playing all weekend and a tough zone defense on them. Their more experienced players were throwing hammers all over the place to break the zone. We were fine with this strategy and capitalized when they made mistakes. It was another solid win for Miami in a 13-7 effort in the finals.

The best part of the weekend was that all 16 guys contributed. Everyone stepped up and filled an important role when they were asked. Everyone played a tough zone d. Everyone made plays. Cutters started to get the offense more. The endzone offense looked efficient. This was not a team that was relying on a small group to shoulder the burden and play most of the points. Every person saw a lot of playing time and proved themselves on the field. It was a new and cool feeling to not be sore after day 1 or 2. It was an impressive effort on everyone's part.

Also, we won the right way. We didn't win with sloppy play. We took the care to improve ourselves and focus on the right things when were on the field. It is not enough to put up Ws in the fall. Each point must mean something for our team and the individual. Getting better and playing sound ultimate is the goal of the fall. The wins are an added bonus and we did both this weekend. Played well and won.

It would be counterproductive to take this 7-0 weekend as the end all. To think that we got where we needed to be and that's it. This is a stepping stone. It is an important stepping stone though. The weekend does not mean we proved ourselves and fulfilled our ambitions. It does signal that we are the right track and with the continued effort we have seen so far this fall, we'll be a force in the Great Lakes Region.

Great work. We should be quite proud of the effort.

Here are some good pictures from the weekend: