Miami University Ultimate

Highlights and Such

2009-07-28T18:53:00.010-03:00

Yo!

I just wanted to take a minute to put up some videos I think are worth watching. There is a lot to learn from watching upper level teams, or watching yourself on film to see what you can do better and what you need to improve on. You also get to see some pretty sick plays while your at it.

Rhino Labor Day 2008 –watch how close they stick to their men. They are always making layout attempts on under cuts. (1:33 and 2:20 are exactly what im talking about)

http://www.vimeo.com/1766906

Rhino Disco Calientes 2008 – 1 or 2 good fakes is all you need, dont stand and flail your arms around with the disc (3:24 this would make the And1 ultimate mixtape, nice job Mastro on turning your man around) (4:29 8:09 8:44 awesome breaks) (4:51 and 5:06 leave your feet for discs your not sure you can get, youll be surprised at what you can get)

http://www.vimeo.com/1702377

some more videos worth watching…

Rhino Summer Solstace 2009 "The Mastro Reel" - http://www.vimeo.com/5778959

MagnUM 2008 Nationals - http://www.vimeo.com/1232412

EGO Centex 2008 - http://www.vimeo.com/1855944

Sockeye 2007 Highlights - http://www.seattlesockeye.org/media/movies/highlightReel2007.html

Mamabird Video Archive - http://www.mamabird.com/videos/

Miami Videos

Spring 2008 Highlights - http://www.vimeo.com/1168217

Mardi Gras 2008 Highlights - http://www.vimeo.com/5812163

Michigan Indoor - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3375464035733571986

David Baldwin 2007 Highlights - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3032500435552205159

Mardi Gras 2007 Highlights - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8046946992279938890

Best of 2006-2007 - http://www.vimeo.com/5813183/settings

Happy Watching,

Dubs

Boogie 2009-2010

2009-06-28T21:53:00.004-03:00

What’s goin on boogie!?! I hope everyone’s summer is going well. I wanted to take some time to let everyone as a whole know what we are looking for when we get back together this fall in Oxford.

Before my freshman year the captain, Mastro, put a list up on here of things that needed worked on for that coming season. I printed the list out and still carry it in my bag as a reminder of what I can do to better myself as a player. When I would go play pickup with friends, or play in summer league, I would look at that list and focus on two or three things to work on that day during the games. When I look at the list now I see that some of those things are still what we need to focus on for this coming season.

The fundamentals of ultimate, throwing and catching. Looking back at the tournaments we played in this year, I was happiest with how we played at Music City and Boogie Nights. When I tried to figure out why those tournaments stuck in my head as the times we executed the best, this is what I came up with. We played good smart ultimate. We weren’t giving the disc away on dropped in-cuts, and we kept the number of throw-aways to a minimum even in the wonderful weather we had for Boogie Nights. Take it upon yourself to say hey, I’m not going to be the guy who turns the disc over; value every possession. Count how many times you turn the disc over in a game or a tournament and look to improve on that number every time you play. Make 100% throws and don’t force anything that doesn’t need to be.

When sectionals and regionals rolled around this past spring it was apparent that man defense was something we didn’t put enough time into. Whether it was conditioning or laziness, the moment we stopped playing lower tier teams and started playing the MSU’s and Dayton’s, we looked sluggish. We would get beat to the open side and wouldn’t even be in a close enough proximity to have a play on the disc. This reminds me of something my soccer coach told my team back in highs school. When the time the first game comes around its ok if we don’t know our exact formation or set plays or your teammates abilities because that will just come with time and practice, but the one thing you as a player have complete control over is your fitness level. We better not get outrun or outworked during any game of the season, not even the first game of the first tournament. Everyone needs to be able to keep up with their man on defense and be able to do it for a few points in a row. Take this summer especially when you might night be able to get even a 5 on 5 game going to go out on your own and do something for your fitness whether its running or plyos, do something. The other part of this I feel like was our tempo at practice. It was extremely apparent that we didn’t practice how we played. We need to practice, and warm up, with the same intensity we have when we play in tournaments. I think this is something that will greatly improve our readiness come game time and get rid of our now well apparent first game of the day, coming out slow, going down 4 points, calling a time out, regrouping, fighting back, and taking half routine we have gotten into. We need to be ready from the first pull.

More specifically, I’d like to see everyone come back this fall and be able to throw the disc 40-50 yards both backhand and forehand. The deep look is such a huge threat and if we can have everyone on the team have that threat we can create some havoc for every defense we see all year. Also, we focused a lot this spring on getting everyone to throw breaks. We need to have more than just the handles be able to break their mark. It’s a great weapon to have in your arsenal of throws and can rip a defense to shreds. All it takes is a good, realistic fake, and you have any throw you want. Also, work one moving off the throw. If you’re a handle and dump the disc, you should be the first person open for a cut. Don’t just pivot and throw but use that pivot as a first step. You are already going to be in front of your man because he didn’t block your throw. Use that pivot to gain separation and after a quick first few steps you should have enough room to be able to get the disc right back.

For the cutters. Field vision is huge. Notice where your other cutters are and use the space they create to your advantage. Another thing the cutters would do would be on deep cuts they would run away and if they didn’t get the disc they would jog back in. being that far away from the play should show you exactly where the space is you should run to. You need to cut back in as hard as you went out. We also need to work on gaining separation to make the handles job easier of putting the disc to the open space. One step fakes aren’t going to do much. You need to take to or 3 steps in the direction your making your fake in to sell it and then go the other direction, you can even throw in a stutter step to keep your mark guessing. When you make your real cut, do it in a straight line towards the handles shoulder this puts your body directly between your man and the disc leaving little to no room for him to D you. It’s simple geometry.

On the other side of the disc, we can’t get broken for the same reason I stated above. Have faith in your teammates that they are in good enough shape that they won’t get beat to the open side and above all don’t get broken. While hand blocks are nice, don’t give a long reach to get one and open yourself up to get broken. The other thing I think defensively we need to work on is getting everyone to layout. It was great at the end of the year seeing some of the freshmen starting to leave their feet. We know you want that glory of chasing down that huck and laying out for it in the endzone, but I want to see it on defense. Bid through your man, and bid at discs you’re not sure if you can get. You’ll be surprised at how much more area you cover and what discs you can get to when you layout. Also, by sticking with our man on defense you will open up more opportunities to layout and get the big d’s we need in close games. Get comfortable with it because it’s just part of the game.

Those of you who know me know I watch a lot of highlight reels. I encourage all of you to do the same. Look at the way the upper echelon cuts, throws, fakes, and bids. Watch how the offense cycles and where the cutters go to fill gaps. You can learn a lot from the upper level club teams as well as from the nationals level college teams, and while you’re at it you can see some pretty sick plays.

I hope you guys start checking back to the blog for more updates cuz I'm going to try to keep up with it. If you want to read Mastro’s full list that I keep in my bag, it’s in the archives and can be found here…
http://miamiultimate.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

Also, any incoming freshmen that come across this post please drop the captains an email at MiamiUltimate@gmail.com and tell us about yourself.

More to come,

Dubs

Boogie Nights 2009

2009-01-17T20:05:00.003-03:00

Preparations for Boogie Nights is underway. It will be one of the last tournaments in the area before the College Series, and we are excited to host a Spring tournament again after last year's weather-induced hiatus. Up to date info can be found on UPA's Score Reporter database: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=127&id=5831

2008-08-20T10:05:00.003-03:00

School is starting and we are about to start a new season of Ultimate. I am really excited for this years team. We are returning some really good players and have some great experience to build on. We will be starting pickup at Cook Field this coming Monday, 08.25.08, and be running it for two weeks. We'll play from 4-6pm. If you linked here from our Facebook Ad we would love to have you come out and play with us. This will be a good chance for players new to our team or the sport to get used to the college level of play and see if they are interested. Bring a light and a dark shirt, a disc (if you have one), and some water and we'll see you there. If you have any questions email us at MiamiUltimate@gmail.com or check us out on Facebook.

Four years of Miami Ultimate

2008-05-05T03:36:00.001-03:00

I’m sitting here at one in the morning and thinking about what I want to say to sum up this season and my four years at this program. It’s hard to quite know what to say. I do know that I will never think of college without thinking of ultimate. It has become such a part of me, who I am, and what college was about for me. The practices, tournaments, road trips, friendships, ups, downs, and everything in between; it’s been unbelievable. It’s defined so much of who I am and what my college experience was.

This season was the pinnacle of the four years I spent here and most likely the pinnacle of our program thus far. We went from regularly traveling to crappy tournaments and placing at the middle or bottom of the pack at Sectionals to making long road trips to the best tournaments in the country, becoming a force at Sectionals, and mattering at Regionals. The transformation has been quite extraordinary.

My personal transformation is an interesting evolution in its own right. I came in as a freshman who couldn’t throw a backhand and was incredibly unskilled. Then I was a sophomore with a major knee injury and someone who was placed in a surrogate captain role for the majority of the year (one which I was wildly unprepared for). Then I was elected captain my junior year and started to come into my own as a player and a leader. My senior year was the genesis of my college career, where I finally put a lot of the pieces together and felt comfortable in myself as a player and comfortable with where I was leading this team.

In a lot of ways, it wasn’t the end result that drove me, it was the struggle. It was to be a part of something bigger than myself; to dedicate myself to a team and work relentlessly hard to be great. I’m going to remember that time you woke up with me on a Saturday morning to do sprints when we could have been sleeping in. I’m going to remember that time you sacrificed your weekend to make yourself and our team better. I’m going to remember when you e-mailed me and asked what you could do better. I’m going to remember that time that I stood beside you on a line and we played with everything we had.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard as I did this year. I wanted to make sure that I paid my dues off the field, so when I was on it, I knew I was better and more prepared than the guy marking up on me. These last eight months have seen us give so much as a team. Two hour practices 4 days a week, conditioning on off weekends, plyometrics, water practices, indoor practicing, track workouts, monsters, drills, scrimmaging, and more drills. That’s what put us on the field on Sunday in Detroit. That’s why teams no longer look past Miami University.

There are few things in my life that I’ve ever been so passionate about and I feel fortunate to be able to play a four year college career. I have had opportunities that only few people do. I travelled the country playing the sport I love. Not only that, the school paid for most of my expenses. How fortunate I’ve been is truly humbling. I sometimes have difficulty reconciling how privileged of a life I lead and my experience with ultimate is a big part of that life. I’m healthy enough and financially capable of pursuing the life I want; I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’ve taken advantage of my privileged position and invested so much of myself into this team and this sport.

The culmination of my college career in Detroit was an unbelievable personal experience. It tied so many things together for me. I felt like we truly put together a weekend to be proud of and we played our best when it mattered. I went into this weekend thinking it could be my last (but always fighting for a shot to play in Boulder) and soaked in every moment on that weekend in Michigan. It felt so good to captain a group of guys to College Regionals that wanted to be there, that paid their dues, and were so deserving to be there. Sharing that experience with all of you will stick with me for a lifetime. I even got to share this weekend with my brother. His support, enthusiasm, and genuine love for what I do is tremendously moving. It means everything to me.

One of my absolute favorite parts of this experience is stepping back and looking at what we did. We took this program on our backs and made it something. It felt so gratifying to stand in a circle with some guys after Regionals and talk about how much we’ve made out of this team. We came in and decided to define an era of Miami Ultimate. Together, day by day, year by year, we built a legacy. Conditioning practices when we were freshman were maybe a mile around the track; could you imagine that today? We’re used to grueling 90 minute workouts of plyometrics, intervals, sprints, and miles upon miles of running. That’s what we did, we changed this team. If nothing else, always remember that. Always feel proud and accomplished of what you did.

I think we built something. I hope this program goes on to eclipse all of the accomplishments of last year. There’s nothing I’d love more than to buy a plane ticket to watch Miami University at College Nationals.

Soon I will be an alumnus of Miami and follow this team from a distance. It’s sad to leave, but I’m excited to see this team under new leadership and see new players come into the system.

It really has been a hell of a journey and in the moments I look back I can only feel gratitude for all of the memories.

It’s hard to read Toes’ comment on “Regionals – Day1” and not get tears in my eyes. It’s hard to talk about the past four years, hug a teammate, or think of leaving all this behind and not get tears in my eyes. A part of me will always be on those van rides, the team dinners, the sprints off the pull, the pre-game jog, the post game celebration, and all the moments I’ve shared with this team. I can honestly say I put everything I had into this program and will leave this school and this team with a piece myself still in Oxford.

Matt Mastrantuono
Miami University ’05-‘08

Regionals - Day 2

2008-04-28T18:21:00.000-03:00

So here we are, Day 2 of Regionals. Only 6 teams left. Michigan, Illinois, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Miami, and Northwestern. We were slated to play Notre Dame at 9 am Sunday morning. As was said before, Notre Dame ended our season last year after a devastating collapse from Miami and tenacious run by the boys from South Bend. It’s a different year and we were determined to make it a different story.

We arrived at the fields before 8 am and began to prepare for a battle. Notre Dame, much like us, returned almost their entire team. They had a very impressive spring season and were the third seed overall at this tournament. They suffered a loss against Illinois in the semis and we knew they wanted nothing but their shot at nationals. Unlike last year, we were a different team, a more prepared team, and a more talented team.

9 am. Gametime. Miami vs. Notre Dame, win or go home.

Miami started the game on offense and were ready to work the disc through another formidable cross wind. The offense marched down the field, refusing to give up the disc, and found themselves 10 yards out of the end zone. An isolation on the goal line and a tough catch in tight coverage put Miami on the board first. Fired up and ready to shock the teams and spectators in Detroit, we sprinted down the field off the ensuing pull, fiercely seeking a break. A stingy defense forced the turn and a composed offense put the disc securely in the end zone for the first break of the game. Miami 2 Notre Dame 0.

From the start this weekend felt different and we had already put together a College Series for the Miami history books, but this team was not content with one game on Sunday. A couple of quick points affirmed our energy and intensity and set the tone for the rest of the game.

Notre Dame is not the type of team that folds under pressure and we expected them to regroup. They found their break several points later and put the game back on serve. The rest of the half consisted of both teams trading O points. The first half was a mixture of zone and man D and some grueling ultimate. Both teams were playing for the rights to another game and it showed. A layout here, a big sky there, it was an excellent showcase of talent. The score at half was Miami 8 Notre Dame 7.

It was at halftime that we realized we were really doing this; we were really contending for a spot at Nationals. This wasn’t just playing to see how far we got, we weren’t just happy to be there. We were beating a team consistently ranked in the top 25 in the nation and paving a legacy for this program.

Notre Dame is always a different team when they come out of a huddle. They have the tendency to regroup very well and change the dynamic of the game. That’s exactly what happened here. They came out of halftime and punched in their O point. Then in the blink of an eye they broke our O twice. Their surge brought the game to a 10-8 score in favor of Notre Dame. We stopped their momentum for a brief moment and converted our O point. Another ND goal followed and the score was 11-9. Miami then found itself giving up another break and being down 12-9.

We were in the same spot as Michigan State, down 12-9 in a “do or die” situation. We called a timeout and got together as a team. We huddled up and chose to leave everything on this field. Miami’s offense walked back to the line determined to change the tide of the game. A solid offense point led to a Miami score. Notre Dame 12 Miami 10. Was it happening again? Could we really pull off another late game comeback?

We pulled the disc to ND and they converted on O, so our backs were against the walls; Notre Dame 13 Miami 10. I looked over at my co-captain and we decided to construct the same set play that helped change the momentum in the Michigan State game. We received the pull and the pass came to me in the middle of the field. I look at Snaps , he faked in, and then took off deep. I set my sights on the end zone and launched a forehand huck. Snaps had steps on his defender and was poised to get the score. The wind pushing down on the disc, forced the huck lower than I had wanted. Snaps turned on the jets and was about to make his attempt. His defender was not in position to make a play so it was just Snaps and the disc. As the disc started to pass his defender, Snaps prepares himself for one last lunge. He throws his body out in front and extends his arms to make a play on the disc. Despite a great bid, the throw had been sent too far for his outstretched fingers.

This turned out to be the final opportunity for Miami to claw its way back in the game. ND took the disc back and scored to push the game to its final point. Another ND break would signal the end to the game and an end to Miami’s season.

Notre Dame scored 3 straight points to close out the game. It was a heartbreaking finish and Notre Dame found a way to end our season for the second straight year. The final score was Notre Dame 15 Miami 10.

That was it. An end to a season and an end to many college ultimate careers. It was hard to know what to say or what to feel. A lot had happened this season and it all culminated on the polo fields in Detroit on a brisk Sunday afternoon. It was a great run this year and there are way too many things to say about it in this post. I’ll put something up in the coming days about the season, this team, and Miami University Ultimate.

Regionals - Day 1

2008-04-28T03:03:00.000-03:00

It all came down to this. Detroit, Michigan played host to the 2008 Great Lakes Regional. The top 16 teams from Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky took the field to determine which two teams would represent the region at Nationals.

We had taken the 2^nd seed in the East Plains Section and were now seeded 8^th going into the tournament. The Great Lakes Regional was set up in a double elimination bracket format. Two losses, you’re out. No time to get it back Sunday, no other tournament to rebound; your season is over.

A 40 minute drive ahead of us, we left the hotel at 7 am sharp (good work on that one guys). We arrived at the polo fields with copious amounts of warm up time, so we took advantage of it and got ready to play. Cleated up, we started our warm up about an hour before our game. Some dynamics, drills, sprints, scrimmages, story time with headwear, and a hell of a lot of excitement highlighted the hour of anticipation until we stepped on the field. It was game time.

Miami was pitted against University of Chicago (9^th seed) in our first round game. We came out strong and refused to let them in it from the start. The wind was gusting and we threw a smothering zone to take their offense out of it. Miami takes the first 3 or 4 points and forces Chicago to take a timeout and regroup. There was electricity in the air; after every score we ran on the field letting the entire complex know Miami was here to play. Our defense refused to let them move the disc, pushing them back, and trapping them on the sideline. We took a convincing halftime lead and decided there was no letting up. A hiccup for a few points was fleeting, but instead, Miami’s patient offense and hard defense steamrolled through the rest of the game. Big plays on both sides of the disc and good execution led to only 6 scores from the Chicago side and gave Miami the 15 points it needed to get a quarterfinal matchup with #1 seeded Michigan.

We like to make a point of refusing to let the “big boys” intimidate us and prepare and play like it’s any other team. Once we get it in our heads that we can run with the top teams, we loosen up and play some solid ultimate. We came out of the gates with a clear apprehension to execute the way we know how. The exceptional season that Michigan was having and their extremely talented roster put us on the defensive from the start. We surrendered O points like it was nothing and could not make use of turns on D. A lackluster first half found us down about 8-1 or 8-2. It was a brutal game on our end and the final score reflected it. Score reporter has it at 15-6, but I happen to think it was 15-4. Michigan’s elite group of players and our inability to find any semblance of an offense were the nails in the coffin. Not looking to dwell on the loss, Miami took a long, deep breath on prepared for our next game.

In between games we’d run around and catch all the awesome action unfolding on all of the different fields. We learned that our next game would be against Kalamazoo (repeat from last year) after their win over Indiana. In the Michigan game we abandoned our zone D but decided to put the pressure on the Kalamazoo handlers. This game started much like the Chicago game. We were fired up and ready to come back from a blowout loss. Kalamazoo couldn’t run an effective zone offense and our defense forced turn after turn after turn. Besides flirting with some sloppy points, we had the game under control from the get go. Regaining the fire we lost in the Michigan game, Miami put up another 15-6 victory.

Here we were again. Win/Loss/Win. A fourth game on Saturday to determine who gets the right to play on Sunday. We were in the same game last year and put up a 6-2 run to start the game on Notre Dame. A timeout from Notre Dame and a complete meltdown later, we lost 15-8. A disaster of a last game. We huddled up and committed to a different outcome this year. Only half the teams in the Great Lakes were left standing, still with a shot at Nationals. Michigan State stood in our way to a ticket for a second day of play.

We learned quickly that State was another team that zone was not going to work against. We abandoned the defense that had bolstered victories earlier that day, dug our spikes in, and played some hard man D. A close first half was highlighted by inordinate amounts of turns. The wind was gusty and strong all weekend, making it hard for cutters to safely and easily catch the disc. We took the half 8-7 and punched in another to go up two breaks. That’s when it started to fall apart. They scored their O point and then we got broken. Tie game, 9-9. Our offense gives the disc up, they break, 10-9 State. Another break, 11-9 State. To make it 5 straight points, State scores another and widens the gap to 12-9.

Miami is a team that can go on runs; a team that can get emotional and take over a game. We can get momentum and do some special things. This ending was special.

We scored our next O point after the horn had sounded for soft cap. 12-10 State in the lead, with the cap on, game was to 14. Miami buckles down and breaks MSU to bring it within one. Feeling the momentum swinging, feeling that electricity running throughout our day, we were mounting the comeback. We forced another break to tie the game at 12s. Nothing’s stopping us now. The entire game had a question looming “Would this be the last time 8 seniors would ever play in a College Ultimate game?” The answer was in the balance and Miami capped a spectacular 4 point run to push MSU to the brink. At 13-12 (Miami leading), Michigan State took their offense down the field and put in a goal that forced the 13-13 tie.

Double game point, universe point, the last point to decide who’s going home and who still has a shot at Nationals. One more point would decide the fates of many and the evening air was palpable with nerves and excitement. The culmination of a season, of many seasons, came down to this one point. A line of stalwart veterans received the disc and went to work. An incut here, a swing pass there, Miami was patiently working the offense up the field with wind gusting across the field. Out cuts were difficult to pay off because of the intense wind but Snaps was deep. He was deep and he was open. This game was all or nothing and Jack decided to make it all or nothing on this throw. He puts up a flick huck from mid-field, with a considerable head/cross wind, and time just stopped. Our hearts stopped and no one inhaled or exhaled for those 6 seconds. The flick was forced OI and it started to travel the length of the field. It started to carry left and Snaps backtracked, inching closer and closer to the out of bounds line. He peddled backwards some more and it looked like the wind might carry the throw a few feet too far. An entire season on the line and it was going to be decided in mere moments. The throw starts coming down hard, Snaps stops a couple feet from the line, and puts his hands up. Behind his defender, two arms extended, Snaps catches the most decisive huck in Miami history. The disc firmly in his hands and feet in the endzone, we erupt. Time went from completely stopping to a complete blur. Someone hit the fast forward button because in an instant a scattered mass of white jerseys stormed the field and mobbed Snaps with sheer elation.

With a sideline of cheering onlookers, we jumped around the end zone in pure chaos. A sea of bodies celebrating what we had accomplished as one. We completed an unbelievable late game comeback by scoring 5 of the last 6 points. It was an unprecedented feat for this program, a thrilling game, and we were still alive to play another day. Out of over 500 teams in the nation, (at this point in the respective Regional tournaments), we had outlasted all but 35 of them. A chance to play on Sunday and take our shot at the 2^nd spot to Nationals; it was beyond exciting. All of the conditioning, drills, and countless hours preparing ourselves through the years was paying off.

We somehow composed ourselves enough to survive a car ride back to the hotel. We showered up and made our way over to the Olive Garden conveniently situated next door to our hotel. Salad, breadsticks, and excessive amounts of pasta/lasagna/chicken/etc. sat triumphantly in our stomachs ready to turn into energy for Sunday. We retired to our rooms and slept soundly with dreams of upsets on a road to Boulder…

Great Lakes Regionals 2008

2008-04-21T01:15:00.003-03:00

Here are the teams that we be on the Detroit Polo Fields next weekend:

Michigan Section:
1) Michigan
2) Michigan State
3) Kalamazoo

Central Plains Section:
1) Illinois
2) Notre Dame
3) North Park
4) Northwestern
5) Chicago
6) Indiana

East Plains Section:
1) Ohio State
2) Miami
3) Dayton
4) Ohio
5) Ohio Northern
6) Oberlin
7) Bowling Green

A lot of excitement coming out the various Sectional tournaments. Preliminary seedings are swirling on RSD. It should be a slugfest in Detroit.

Thoughts on Regionals? Will Miami break seed and play on Sunday? Any alumni thinking of making the trip? Bueller?

Regionals

2008-04-19T20:36:00.002-03:00

One more week to go until Regionals. We find out our competition tomorrow evening. It all comes down to this...

Sectionals - The Write Up

2008-04-07T00:02:00.003-03:00

So I usually never update this thing the night of, but since this website seem to get a lot of hits on Mondays, I'll make it worth it to check here the day after a tournament.

We rolled into Pete's house on Friday evening, without Pete, but with the Sperry parents and some sloppy joes to greet us. That was awesome. We dominated some sloppy joes, played some Wii that night, and got ready for the Saturday that awaited us.

We woke up Saturday morning, got to our fields, and realized that we were finally playing in good weather. It was an exceptional feeling to get weather above 50 degrees and sunny. We were number two seed overall and a number one seed in our pool, so we wanted to come out and prove that we deserved it.

Our first opponent was Case Western Reserve. The game started out with some trading and I called a timeout to tell our guys we needed to step it up or this was going to be a disappointing weekend. Soon after (likely not because of the pep talk), we went on a roll. We put the foot on the gas and stormed through the rest of the game. The final was 15-6.

Oberlin-B and Ohio State-B were our next two opponents. These games ended with a 15-1 and 15-2 final, respectively.

Our final game was against Ohio Northern, the two seed in our pool. This was our biggest test of the day and we did okay. Not the type of performance that we'd hope for, but enough to get the job done and wrap up the pool. A 15-10 final secured us a spot in the semi-finals and a trip to Detroit for Regionals.

Some of us stayed to watch the game to decide our Sunday afternoon opponent in the semis. The Dayton/Bowling Green game came down to the wire and Dayton pulled out a double game point victory. The rest of our team rushed off to communal showers at the Denison recreation facility. Needless to say, a public shower, full of naked dudes is the place to be. Eventually everyone got showered up and went back to the Sperry's house to feast on a gorgeous chicken and mashed potato dinner (with delicious gravy!). After some college basketball and some more Wii, Lola (Pete's awesome dog) tucked us to into to bed as we dreamed of a run at the Sectional crown.

We still had another pool play game on Sunday morning. We had wrapped up the pool but still had to face Wright State. Miami took care of business and won the game 15-3. Then all attention turned to the semi final match up we'd been waiting for. Miami vs. Dayton.

Both teams were fired up to play each other; both emerging programs in the East Plains section chomping at the bit to play for their shot at the Sectional title. We still had a bitter taste in our mouth from a semi finals lost year and we wanted to see what life was like in the sectional final.
The game started with some tight, fired up, trading of points. Lots of energy and two sides ready to battle. Miami got a few breaks to take a noticeable lead. It led into an 8-5 halftime lead. After half we got another two scores off the bat and extended it to 10-5. Just as we thought we might be running away with it, Dayton starts roaring back. A few scores in a row of their own and it made it 10-7 or 8 (I forget). Nevertheless, they got some momentum and were closing the gap. This was not the tournament for let downs though and we were not prepared to let them back in. We stepped it up and decided we were ready for an appearance in the finals. Miami finished out the game on a nice run and won 15-9.

We were set to meet Sectional juggernaut Ohio State in the finals. A long series of consecutive appearances, we didn't expect our opponent to be anyone else. We played them in the semi finals last year and felt that we could go toe to toe with them this year. Everyone was especially pumped. Our biggest game of the year. For a lot of the Seniors, we could have never dreamed we'd get to this point. It was quite the journey. On the first point we're standing on the line ready to receive and Beffel turns to me and says with a smile "I'm so nervous." What a fun feeling to be in that game. A crowd forming on the sideline to watch our game; really cool stuff.

We came out holding nothing back and threw our best at Leadbelly. Some fierce trading of points until they got a big break to make the score 6-5, OSU. We played solid ultimate and proved we had the right to be there. Then we traded out the half, for an OSU lead of 8-7. In previous match ups we didn't stay this close with Lead for 15 points and this time we put up an overall good first half. It was an exciting first half of play, with some big catches, great Ds, and some fun ultimate. It was neck and neck.

Then in the second half Leadbelly distanced themselves. They took four straight out of half to set a tone and we couldn't fight our way back in. We answered back and made it 12-8, but couldn't quite get our momentum back. We blew some chances (many chances) on the goal line, and things just got off track in that second half. Ohio State took charge and won 15-9.

Knowing full well the perils of a backdoor final, we talked about keeping the focus for one more game to secure 2nd place. We meandered over to the Dayton/Ohio game that decided our opponent for the backdoor final game. It was a tight game and treated us to another double game point ending. It was 10-10 with Dayton receiving the disc. Dayton turns the disc over and Ohio works it up to the red zone. A big swing about 10 yards out of the end zone gets caught, and then a throw is immediately put up to a horizontally streaking cutter in the end zone. Turfed. Dayton gets the disc back and works it full field for the win. We head back to the field and prepare for another game against Dayton.

It's always difficult to play a team twice. Especially in a backdoor final where we were coming off a loss and they were coming off a win. We got set to rumble with Dayton again. There wasn't anything to hold back on this last game of the weekend.

Dayton decided to cash in their chips and leave most of their starters on the bench. They felt they didn't quite have the gas to play and opened up their lines. Miami was ready to lock up the the game and rolled to a 15-4 victory.

Out of 25 teams in our section, we beat out 23 to claim the 2nd spot in the East Plains Section.

This was an overall exceptional weekend for Miami Ultimate. (To my knowledge) It was the first Sectional Finals appearance in the history of our program. We played a hell of an 8 games of ultimate. We had fun. We played hard. We played with pride. We got the job done. It's a weekend we can all be proud of.

Next stop: Detroit, Michigan. The Great Lakes Regional awaits.

Here is the 2008 Miami University Boogiemen:

Sectionals - Day 1

2008-04-05T21:47:00.002-03:00

Not sure if the results are up on Score Reporter yet or if people have been checking here for results. So here's what happened:

Miami 15 Case Western 6
Miami 15 Oberlin B 1
Miami 15 OSU B 2
Miami 15 Ohio Northern 9

Miami took the pool. We have to play Wright State in our last pool play game tomorrow morning, but then we face Dayton in the Semi Finals. Stay tuned...

Wooster Winter Warmup, etc.

2008-04-02T01:15:00.004-03:00

First off, the Mardi Gras video is done. Far too large to upload or even get on to DVD because my computer is a piece of garbage. Maybe one day it'll get online or on to DVD. Regardless, it's completed and I'm really proud of it. I hope anyone who wants to see it can get a chance to view it in some capacity.

To preface the Wooster Winter Warmup I'll divulge a little about how we ended up in Ohio this weekend. Originally we were slated to be in Wilmington, North Carolina for College Easterns, but had to drop the tournament. When we planned our spring schedule we figured that Sectionals was going to be on the second weekend of April (like it's been every year since I've been here). However when we found out it was the weekend after Easterns, Snaps and I got worried. Easterns was clearly going to be a grueling tournament, we worried about injuries, and it's over a 12 hour drive each way. Having a tournament like Easterns right before Sectionals didn't seem like the right call. So we decided to let the insane Ohio weather beat us around for another weekend.

We stayed at Nate's house while we were there and it was sweet. Every video game system you could imagine was there. We had bumper pool, 800 TVs, a gorgeous, finished basement, and family hospitality. Awesome.

A bye first round led a luxurious wake up. We get to the fields and immediately realize why North Carolina always trumps Ohio. The ground was soaked, muddy, and it suctioned your cleat on every step. I had not anticipated the fields were going to be as bad as two years ago, but they were terrible and remarkably similar to those conditions. In warm ups we got our cleats drenched and Chuck constantly reminded us of why Wilmington would be so much nicer.

Regardless, we wanted to come out and make a statement in our section. We did. First day our scores were as follows, 13-1, 13-0, 13-6, and 13-0. We took on a much more jovial attitude because coming in we expected we'd do quite well. So we were having a lot of fun doing endless call and responses and ridiculous cheers. Just having a good time in shitty Ohio conditions.

Sunday was a mess. We get there in the morning and I was completely unnerved at the playing conditions. I had never seen such terribly fields. The muddy mess from Saturday had frozen over night and it was a hard, bumpy, and an altogether unsafe catastrophe of a playing field. We talked to the TD and he moved us to a somewhat better field. We talked it over and despite our apprehensions over fields begging for injury before Sectionals, we wanted to finish what we started. With caution, we took the field and played Ohio Wesleyan in the quarters. They had 8 guys and we had 16 guys who were hungry for a tournament win. We took the game 15-2.

Our semi final game was against the #2 seed overall. It was an unconventional set up, the 1 and 2 seeds meeting in the semis, but we didn't care too much. You have to be ready to beat the best teams if you want the tournament win, so we didn't complain about the matchup. The semis was against "Wooster Alumni." It was really a combination of Madcow, LouEvil, and Wooster Alumni. It was a decent mix of experienced club players, so we knew we'd get a challenging game. There was some trading, a few swings in momentum, and then a late game surge by Miami. We pulled away at the end to close out the semi finals 15-11. This turned out to be the only close game of the tournament. It was a hard fought game and we stepped it up for a solid win.

The finals was against Bowling Green. We had played them on Saturday and beat them 13-0, so it was interesting to see them in the finals. We wanted to make a statement in the finals and did. We won the game 15-3.

All in all the playing conditions were miserable, but the weekend was a blast. Some examples of our call and responses: "Cattle...Prod" "Blue...Pants" "Texas, Texas...Yee-Haw" "Whirly...Ball" and "Call...Response." They were goofy and overall just to provide a fun atmosphere for us over the weekend.

Some other highlights... Coming back and making amazing ice cream shakes on Saturday night. That was killer. Some sick beats from DJ Scratch and Sniff. Nate's family. Nate's basement.

The lowlight...Snaps ruining any chance of playing with Nate's dog. Screw you Snaps. You ruined everything.

If there's enough enthusiasm, I might make a Queen City/Wooster highlight reel. Combine the footage and get a highlight reel out of it. I'll also try to get the Mardi Gras highlight reel up on Google Video. I'm making no promises though.

The College Series starts this upcoming weekend. I've been waiting 4 years for this...

Terminus

2008-03-24T20:05:00.002-03:00

Recently I've been giving Southwest Ohio a really hard time when it comes to weather, but Georgia sure was ready to take some of that burden. We get down to Georgia and anxiously go to sleep, worried that our games might get canceled. Thunderstorms were in the forecast and it didn't look good.

I'm always the first one up and usually help myself to the continental breakfast nice and early. I get down to breakfast and there's a TV with the news on it. A tornado touched down in Atlanta and ripped holes in the Georgia Dome. Great. A tornado rips through downtown Atlanta the one weekend out of the year we're down there. (That's a much more selfish complaint; clearly the victims of the storm have a much bigger reason to be upset).

Surprisingly the weather outside looks "okay." We got no word that the tournament was off so we went to the fields. We get there and it's an ominous overcast with a "too good to be true" feel. There wasn't any wind and it was comfortable temperature. So we warmup and greet our first opponent, Cornell. There's not much to report on this game. We turned it over with reckless disregard for an efficient offense. The combination of Cornell being a talented team and us not showing up did not bode well. It was a bad start to Terminus and we got spanked. 15-5 was the final.

The next game we started to play some ultimate. We took on Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It was back and forth all game. Trading, trading, break here and there. Finally it's 10-10 and we have the disc on the goal line. Future throws a break to my up-line cut. It looked out of reach but I layed out and snagged the disc for the score. We go nuts because we broke them to go up one. However, a few of their guys claimed that I was out and the argument was resolved by sending it back. We started to work the disc and turned it over, missing a huge opportunity. We got a turnover and held the disc about 50 yards away. As my man is about to start stalling me we see a flash of light. To our dismay, lightning reared its ugly head and we made our way to the tent.

The storm lasted for a good 2 or 3 hours and we didn't return to the fields until much later that afternoon. In the meantime we went to a parking lot to sleep and start Whirly Ball chants. And I shouldn't forget to mention when we were sitting in cars it started to hail. At least a 1/2 inch of hail. Gorgeous weather I tell you.

We come back and finally get our games going. The polo fields are under water. And I don't mean soaked, I mean literally you were in a half inch to inch standing water on almost the entire field. It was absurd. We marked the spot of the disc and resumed at that spot. In ridiculous conditions we managed to run a patient and mistake free offense. We punched it in for the score. Since the rounds were getting all messed up, tied games were to play one more point and then that was the final. We win. An 11-10 victory over UW-M.

We found out we had a bye. A bye after 3 hours of waiting. Sweet. (This is not fault of the TD, it was just a shitty situation). So we sit on some bleachers and watch this girl from Michigan (#23) just dominate everyone. She was throwing flick hucks, off hand high releases, and just ripping people apart. In the midst of oogling over this girl and yelling at Central Florida, the heavens open up. I'm not sure I've ever seen it rain so hard. We ran under the tent and a party broke out. Music started blasting and a dance party erupted. A bunch of dudes from Oklahoma just started going nuts. (Naturally upon seeing a group full of guys dancing we all moved away from Max for fear of getting poke with his giant erection.)

We wait another hour or so and things start to sort of clear up. The field is under even more water and we're told we can play. Really? Sweet. We get out to our fields and start warming up to take on Virginia. We flip for possession and then a captains meeting is called. I run over to find out that the owners of the polo fields have canceled the tournament for the rest of the weekend. That was one of those pits in your stomach feelings. We went all the way to Georgia to get a tournament canceled. Heartbreaking.

I reported the news to the team and they were equally disappointed.

The attention then turned to Whirly Ball. If you don't know what it is Youtube that and you'll see. It's awesome. A few proud members of Miami went to represent us at the party. It was fantastic. Clops turned 21 and Snaps pressured him into one too many shots; he ran outside to puke out his manhood.

I can't forget the dance party around and on my car during Semi-Charmed life with those random people in the parking lot. I think Max got a hummer behind my car during it. Joefish can you confirm or deny that?

Next stop: Wooster Winter Warm Up.

White Out

2008-03-08T16:28:00.003-03:00

Oxford is COVERED in snow. It has been snowing nonstop for over 24 hours now. I parked my car at 7 pm and came back at 10:30 pm, it was barely visible when I came back. Towns in Southwest Ohio don't really understand what a real snowstorm is like though. Oxford is painfully unprepared to handle a storm and doesn't believe in vigilante plowing of the streets.

I think that there is anywhere from 8-10 inches. Ridiculous.

Maybe we should have changed the format of the tournament? Have a massive snowball fight; winner takes home the $750? Here is a quick stab at the seedings:

1) Dayton - they have the sheer numbers. A Ghetto army of sorts. When you bring over 30 guys to a snowball fight, watch out. They'd be ready to ball...hard.

2) Miami - home field advantage. We'd be able to get a lay of the land and prepare extensively before the fight. Underground tunnels, freeze some snowballs, and some secret bases.

3) Northwestern/Chicago - Intelligence is very underrated for a snowball fight. These guys have those snowball smarts.

5) Purdue - Pat Metz. Enough said.

6) Miami Alumni - these guys may be old, drunk, and (sort of) professionals, but they've been around the block. They didn't have Goretex or North Face when they were building forts as kids. They have the experience and the toughness to be a formidable opponent.

7) The rest of the field - It's a toss up from there. There is a lot of parity in this field of snowball fighters. Any team could take out one of the top 6 seeds.

Who do you think would win in Boogie Nights: Snowball Challenge '08?

Boogie Nights is Canceled

2008-03-07T17:04:00.002-03:00

We regret to inform everyone that Boogie Nights 2008 is canceled. We spent many hours deliberating over what the right call was, and decided it was best for everyone's safety to call it off. The weather here is a mess. The weather forecast says we could get up to 12 inches of snow by tomorrow evening.

We were concerned for team's driving in tonight and everyone driving to the fields tomorrow. This storm saw no signs of yielding before tomorrow evening and the roads are in really bad shape as it is. Not to mention, with the wind chill, it wasn't supposed to get warmer than the teens. A Saturday morning of 15 degrees, 6 inches of snow, and sleet frozen over top wasn't exactly safe for players either.

We waited as long as we could and hoped for the best, but Ohio weather screwed up everything as usual. We were really excited to host 19 other teams in Oxford and now we get to watch snow fall in March. Great.

At least we all get to escape Ohio for spring break, right?

Inside the storm

2008-03-07T13:20:00.003-03:00

We're looking at the forecast, the radar, and out our windows. The storm is here, but nothing is certain. The (possibly) worst snowstorm of the year picked a brilliant time to rear its head.

Snaps and I are going to make the call later this afternoon when things start to develop a little more. We'll probably drop a line to the teams in the coming hours to give them a heads up.

Maybe it'll just stop at noon and never be heard from again?

Winter Weather Advisory

2008-03-07T01:44:00.002-03:00

Boogie Nights 2008 has a lot at stake. $750. Enough said there. Fierce Sectional matchups that could determine College Series seedings. Miami doing better then their alumni. Etc, etc.

One thing, however, that is totally up in the air, is the weather. We're possibly staring down the storm of the season or (with fingers crossed) we might get spared the winter theatrics. Either way, we expect to be at Joyce Park to see what this weather has in store for us.

If the weather's got you down, go and enjoy some our highlight reels. Click on the links to the right. Enjoy and stay warm.

Boogie Nights headaches

2008-03-06T01:04:00.002-03:00

The weather is unreal here. Backup fields upon backup fields have been scrapped because they are under water. We finally scrambled and think we have Joyce Park reserved. Pending some insurance issues, we think we're going to have a tournament.

It's going to be freezing cold and possibly some snow on the ground.

Fuck Ohio weather...

Check back later for the final word on the tournament.

The Status of Miami Ultimate

2008-02-27T22:20:00.002-03:00

Sorry for lack of updates. I've been trying to plan for my future and other insignificant things like that. I appreciate all the people that are still stopping by to see what the team is up to. Here's what we've been doing...

Lots of indoor practice. We get gym space on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-7 pm. We hit the drills hard and get excited to actually throw a disc in the confined space of Withrow Gym.

Then the rest is conditioning. We go to the Rec Center on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays hour and a half to two hour work outs. A normal workout will include a rigorous set of plyometrics, a track workout, and stairs. The track stuff varies between 200s, 400s, 800s, 1600s, and intervals. We've moved passed our 3-4 mile jogs to build a base and are focused on more sprint oriented exercises. The plyometrics are various jumping exercises, lunges, calf raises, etc. We do stairs one legged all the way up and two legged hops jumping as high as you can.

A solid five days of working out takes it toll, but the results are what count. We've started to break up the land workouts and have jumped into the pool. We started to do plyometrics in the pool, which is tougher than on land. Then we have guys running against currents in the lazy river (for lack of a better word), which is a great cardio and muscular workout. Not to mention to we hit the lanes and do some legitimate laps in the pool. Swimming is tough and a good workout. Breaks up the monotony of the winter. Can we play outside yet?

We're gearing up for our home tournament and we hope to improve on last year's disappointing finish. We've got a good field of 20 teams coming to Oxford on the 8th and 9th. Should be a blast.

After that we've got Terminus and Easterns. We're excited to be involved with two more very competitive tournaments. These two tournaments that should battle test us for what counts: The College Series. We've gone to the most competitive tournaments in our team's history and have come out with more Ls than we're used to, but it's been a cool experience. You won't be able to markedly improve unless you start rubbing elbows with the best. Playing Pitt, UNC, Ohio State, etc. have given us that experience.

Highlight reels of Mardi Gras and Queen City are coming sometime. I don't know when. I mean let's be honest, if you check this site, you're hoping for another highlight reel along with my idle banter about our workouts (but not just that banter...you want some video). I'll try to deliver soon, but like I said it's been busy with trying to have to figure out where I can get employment.

That's about where we're at. Leave some comments and make things interesting. Make fun of Chuck, chant Joefish, admit you're an alum checking up on your team, admit your from the East Plains Section and you check this from time to time, or talk about how pissed you are that Doug isn't graduating.

Michigan Indoor - for real this time

2008-02-22T03:50:00.001-03:00

So with the help of Nate, the full 7 minutes of the highlight reel is up and running.

Check it out here.

Michigan Indoor Highlights (sort of...)

2008-02-15T00:27:00.003-03:00

I have been desperately trying to upload this damn highlight reel. The first time it didn't work. The second time it only uploaded 3 minutes. This time it uploaded 6 minutes. The total highlight reel is 7 minutes, but I'm not going to give it another shot (at least at this time).

You miss a few good highlights in the the last minute, included me getting my head stepped on, but the six minutes is good enough.

Check it out here. (Remember, download the file. Streaming quality is terrible.)

I don't think I'm going to do a write up. We went there with a short squad, lots of people were sick, and we didn't do so hot. There's really not all too much to say. Just enjoy the highlights.

I'm going to get to work on Mardi Gras and Queen City stuff sooner or later. Stay tuned.

Boogie Nights 2008

2008-02-06T23:57:00.001-03:00

We are proud to announce the 20 teams that have been accepted to the 2008 Boogie Nights. In no particular order:

West Virginia
Miami Alumni
Xavier
Miami
Northwestern
Michigan B
Ohio
SUNY Oneonta
Oberlin
Dayton
Wheaton
North Park
Pitt B
Truman State
Purdue
Bowling Green
Earlham
Loyola
Chicago
Ohio Northern

This is the most competitive field in my 4 years here at Miami. With $750 on the line, it should be even more exciting.

March 8th and 9th. Tell all your friends.

Lack of updates...

2008-02-06T23:45:00.000-03:00

Sorry I haven't gotten anything up about Michigan Indoor or Mardi Gras yet. I've been trying to upload the Michigan Indoor video for a while, but my efforts have failed. It's aggravating. I've been sick and unable to take much time for write ups. I'll try to get that done in the coming weeks.

Miami is headed to Charlotte for Queen City Tune Up this weekend. Our pool is Pittsburgh, UNC-Wilmington, and Virginia.

Check back later and hopefully I'll have some stuff up.

Best of...

2008-01-28T17:37:00.000-03:00

I finally posted the Best of 2006-2007 highlights. Go here to check it out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=523068563240385818

For best quality download the video. It's much better, so I highly recommend it.

I'll have the Michigan Indoor recap and the highlight reel up soon. Stay tuned...

Update...

2008-01-17T21:39:00.000-03:00

We just got accepted to Queen City Tune Up and College Terminus.

Our third tournament of the year, Queen City Tune Up's competition looks like this:
-Delaware
-Edinboro
-Elon
-Georgia
-Georgia Tech
-Maryland
-Miami (OH)
-Michigan
-North Carolina
-North Carolina State
-North Carolina Wilmington
-Ohio State
-Pennsylvania
-Pittsburgh
-Virginia
-William and Mary

In alphabetical order here are the teams accepted to Terminus:
Cornell
Dartmouth
Davidson
Edinboro
GaTech
GWU
Illinois
Iowa State
Maryland
Miami OH
Minnesota
NCState
Oklahoma
Tufts
UCF
UGA
UMass
UNC
UW-Milwaukee
Virginia
W&M
Whitewater
Williams
WUStL

Starting the 26th we begin a three week road trip. We'll be in Ann Arbor, Baton Rouge, and Charlotte.

This season Miami will most likely be taping all of their tournaments. So despite my shortcomings over not posting the "Best Of" yet, there will be a heavy dose of highlight reels in the following months.

Besides bios of our players (far too time consuming), let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see posted here.

More updates to come...

2nd semester

2008-01-13T23:06:00.001-03:00

It's here. Get ready.

Tentative list of the tournament Miami will be attending this spring:

January 26-27 - Michigan Indoor (accepted)
February 2-3 - Mardi Gras (accepted)
February 9-10 - Queen City Tune Up (accepted)
March 8-9 - Boogie Nights (home tournament)
March 15-16 - College Terminus (status pending)
March 29-30 - College Easterns (status pending)
College Series

More on the season, team, etc. to come...

Teaser

2007-12-21T00:13:00.000-03:00

I decided that my winter break needed a project or two, so I decided to sit down in my make shift editing lab (my dad's house). I went through every single miniDV tape I own and looked at all the game footage. My goal: find the best plays from the past year and make a single, sick highlight reel. I went through the footage, checked it twice, and picked out only the best and most exciting plays since David Baldwin 2006.

I went into the depths of my video archive and found never before seen footage. So not only do you get the best plays from all the highlight reels of the past year, but there are excellent shots from stuff no one has seen.

My external hard drive is dead and I'm not sure if I can connect to my dad's modem...so that makes it hard to post it on the internet. As of now, I don't know if I'll get it online before mid January, but I wanted to whet everyone's appetite for a new highlight reel. So, get excited. This'll get you pumped for the spring season.

For now though, you'll have to patiently wait...

Classic City Classic - The Write Up

2007-12-03T23:45:00.000-03:00

For the first time in Miami's program, we got to run with the big boys. We weren't just at the same tournament as the elite college teams, and they were off in their power pools; we were thrown in the fray and battled it out with some of the best college ultimate has to offer.

The ride down to Chattanooga was not bad and we made it in before midnight. Usually the tournament is in Athens, Georgia so we escaped an extra two hours at the end of the trip. We settled into the luxurious Super 8 Motel and called it a night.

We depart from the hotel at 7:45 that next morning and get to the fields a little before 8. It was funny and somewhat vindicating for me to see so many teams there when we arrived. I remember at David Baldwin, we got to the fields at 7:50, and NO ONE was there. The tournament staff had barely shown up. No team got there until at least 8:15 or 8:20. I heard the complaints about it being cold and being the only team there. That was David Baldwin, this is Classic City Classic. Some of the best teams in the country come together for this and it showed in the parking lot. There were tons of cars and players already populating the complex.

As we're warming up we see Illinois jog by and they rolling with at least 25 guys. Our warm ups were considerably less cluttered with Miami only sporting 13 players for a grueling 5 games on Day 1.

First on the bill is Georgia at 9 am. Nothing like a perennial quarter finalist to greet you in the morning. We came out flat and made too many mistakes. Maybe we put them on a pedestal? Maybe it was just us starting out slow like we always do? Regardless, it was a brutal game and they made us pay for every turnover we made. They didn't give the disc back and made quick work of us. Georgia wins 13-3.

Our next game came in the form of Richmond. They're a solid team out of the AC region and proved what we already knew: no one at this tournament could be taken lightly. Even at a 6 seed, we came into this game knowing it would be a fight. We cleaned up our play from our Georgia debacle and started to look like an ultimate team. We went back and forth with Richmond. Lots of trading and exchanging breaks on D. Finally the game is 11-11 and the cap is on. Game to 12. A throw goes up to the force side and I'm tracking it in. It's going to go out of bounds if I catch it, but I see Beffel coming across underneath me ready to snag it before it leaves the field. He plants his foot within millimeters of the sideline and catches the disc. I'm within 5 feet of him, looking right at the line, and made the call. Without a doubt the closest and toughest in call I've ever had to make. Miami wins 12-11.

With a win under our belt we are set to face off against Minnesota. One of the stronger teams out of the Central Region, which seemingly gets better at each tournament they are represented. We slightly regressed to mix of the Georgia and Richmond game. It wasn't solid, but not totally sloppy. Minnesota took the game 13-6.

The next game was the highlight of the weekend. One of the high points of my college ultimate career and possibly this programs biggest accomplishments. We faced off against Texas in the fourth game of the day. We all agreed before the game to not go in thinking they were out of our league and just play our game. Our game saw a combination of hitting our stride, playing a stingy zone D, and having nothing to lose. We came out and ran with them for a few points but then out of nowhere we found ourselves down 7-4 at half. Instead of mailing this one in, we fought back. Our 13 man squad threw zone, point after point, and forced some Texas mistakes. We got ourselves back into the game and realized we had a shot. Slowly but surely we were breaking them and before we knew it, it was 11-11, double game point. We were pulling to them for the game. Towards the end of the game Texas was hucking it off the first throw (instead of dealing with our zone D) and putting their best receivers down field to get the jump ball. This time the Texas player lasered the throw right to Jack and we had the disc in hand, poised to march it down the field for the win. A throw to Nate on the goal-line and a heartattack of an 8 seconds later, the disc was thrown to Snaps for the win. We secured a victory against a team who finished in the top 8 in the country last year.

Whether they had all their guys or they were playing some newer guys is unclear (many of the top teams don't bring it full strength) but it didn't/doesn't matter. We were elated. We had beaten an extremely good ultimate team and it was an extraordinary feeling.

An excited but battered Miami squad took to the 5th against the boys from Wilmington. We stormed out of the gates and took a 3-0 lead but then relinquished our breaks. Wilmington took half and we played from behind for the rest of the game. At the end of the game, Wilmington was up 10-9 with the game to 11. We couldn't make another comeback and UNC-W took the game 11-9.

We went back to the hotels, still with a smile from the Texas win, and showered up. The ups and downs of the day were something to internalize and fix for tomorrow, but the Texas win was ours to keep. After everyone cleaned up, we meandered over to Applebees. Beyond starving, we devoured all the food and water our money could buy us. My entire table ordered steaks and we ate like kings for a night (eating like kings for a college kid). The UNC-W guys got seated before us, but we made sure to have our orders ready as the waitress came by for the first time. She got in our order to the cook before them and bam, we got our food before them. They may have won on the ultimate field, but we won the war at Applebees.

We played our way into the B bracket (out of the A, B, C). Our win versus Texas bumped them down to the C bracket because we won the head to head. The first game of the day was against Davidson. One of the better teams hailing from the AC Region, we were in for a tough game. They finished 3-2 and were a completely different team from David Baldwin. Following tradition, we came out slow, beyond slow. We didn't really play at all. We dug a hole and were down 8-2 at half. It wasn't even at halftime when we decided to start playing, Davidson went up 12-4 in our game to 15. Then, point by point, we clawed our way back in with some big plays and better O. We took them out of the game and gained ALL the momentum. We went on a 7-2 run and brought the game to 14-11. Tons of chances were presented but Miami took none of them. Our run ended there and Davidson won 15-11.

The last game of the fall season was against Dartmouth. We took 3 early breaks and were up 6-3. For some reason inconsistency plagues us and we couldn't hold that lead. Dartmouth took half 8-7 and and we could only get 11 or 12 out of this game. Dartmouth stole the last game of our season and we ended with the loss.

It was a tournament with lots of ups and lots of downs. Hard to find a coherent understanding of who this Miami was at CCC, but the flashes of excellence leave a lot to be excited about. Being at the best college tournament of the fall was an awesome and humbling time. Ultimate in December, against top notch competition, with a determined group of guys is a great experience for this team. I look forward to what the winter and spring has in store. Get ready.

Lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Boogie Nights

2007-11-16T12:23:00.000-03:00

Miami University is proud to announce Boogie Nights 2008. Miami's annual tournament will be hosted on March 8th-9th.

This year we are offering a huge cash prize of $750 to the winner of the tournament. All teams will battle it out on gorgeous, flat, and LINED fields. Corporate sponsorship is in the works (VC Ultimate contacted us within days after posting the tournament to offer sponsorship). Also, each team will get the normal amenities (food, water, EMT on site, etc.).

Over 25 teams submitted bid requests last year and we only expect it to grow. This is slated to be a highly competitive early spring tournament. We posted this tournament a couple days ago and have already seen an influx of e-mails requesting a bid. We are looking to host the best teams in the Great Lakes and surrounding regions in Oxford, OH when March rolls around.

A massive cash prize, lined fields, and corporate sponsorship and still only a $200 tournament fee.

The bid deadline is 2/20/08, so make sure you contact MiamiUltimate@gmail.com in time.

Please feel free to contact us at the above e-mail address with any questions you may have.

Classic City Classic

2007-11-11T16:24:00.001-03:00

Miami is proud to announce that we have been accepted to Classic City Classic. This is the definitely the biggest and best college tournament that Miami has ever been accepted to. Half of the 2007 Nationals field will be in attendance: Wisconsin, Colorado, Florida, Texas, Georgia, UNC, Delaware, and Indiana.

Other notable teams there are NC State (disqualified from the Series because of roster problem...was strong contender for Nationals), James Madison (were in two games to go to nationals in the formidable AC Region.), Michigan (were in the Regional final and back door finals. Have reloaded and look strong.), Minnesota (top tier team with an impressive day 1 at MLC), Texas State (Nationals contender in the South Region and are only getting better), and Wisconsin-Whitewater (top tier team out of the CN).

We are excited to be a part of this field of teams and are looking to make a statement on a national stage. We're highly anticipating our trip to Chattanooga. Stay tuned for updates on this tournament.

Highlight Reel

2007-11-08T21:55:00.001-03:00

Here is the link to the highlight reel from David Baldwin:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3032500435552205159

Sorry about the bad quality I get from uploading it. Download the file and play it from there, it is much better quality. (Thanks Beffel)

Enjoy.

David Baldwin Memorial Tournament

2007-11-07T23:16:00.001-03:00

DBMT has been a destination for the Boogiemen for the past three years. Each year we have attended we have done better on that lush Tennessee grass. We went into the tournament seeded 5th overall and had our eyes on the $500 prize for 1st place.

The van ride down was luxurious. We had 2, 12 passenger vans for 15 people. We safely arrive at the Sleep Inn hotel and settle in for the night.

We arrive at the fields at 7:50 and are the first team on the scene. We get cleated up and start our warm up routine. We prepare for our first game, which is against Valdosta State University.

This tournament started out like many of the other tournaments this fall. Slow and sloppy. We killed ourselves with turns and made points much longer than they needed to be. We grinded the game out and won 13-10 but not without frustration. This frustration spilled over into my post-game talk and I think we finally realized we can't do this to ourselves every tournament. We had a bye to reflect on our short comings and the start of our next game was a turning point for our fall season.

From our second game on day 1 to about the end of the tournament, we played like a talented team who have played together for the last 2.5 months. This is what I had been waiting for all fall and I'm glad we put it together for the duration of the tournament.

The second game was against Wofford B. There's not much to report. We beat them 13-0.

The third game, against University of Tennessee, was where you could see the passion, the fundamentals, and our team finally come together. Since UT was hosting, there were a bunch of family and friends lining the fields. It's always fun to play in front of a bunch of people, not to mention a crowd not friendly to you. We played man defense for a few points and traded for 4 points. Then we felt a breeze starting to kick up and we never looked back. We clamped done with an unforgiving zone defense and went on an 11-2 run to close out the game. Miami takes the game in front of the hometown crowd, 13-4.

Our last game was against Vanderbilt. We lost to them with a short squad at Itchfest and it was nice to get to play them again. We put the exclamation mark on our last game of the day and took the game in convincing fashion, 13-3.

We took a cool down lap, stretched, and discussed eating plans. It was clear, Ruby Tuesdays would be a great team meal and some fine American dining. We went back to the hotel, showered up, watched Charlie Weis make an enormous coaching blunder, and headed over to Ruby Tuesdays. The highlight from our dinner was the post meal scavenging. There are always straw fries and leftovers on plates around the table and I was cleaning up some of this. Chuck and I seem to battle over these and at a place like Ruby Tuesdays, it's on. The best part was when I was being handed some fries by Shake and instead of even trying to steal the fries, Chuck goes straight for all the ketchup on my vicinity. He proceeds to spit in every viable container of ketchup for my fries and say to me, "Enjoy your dry fries!"

The best part of the night was not the delicious steak I ate for dinner, but in the Day 2 schedule. We got a one seed going into the championship bracket and had our first game scheduled for 10:45. Sick. Not only is that an unbelievably great start time, but we fell behind an hour for daylight savings time. Some of our guys got so much sleep, they were able to wake up at 6 am and do homework.

Our quarter final match up was against Davidson. A very solid team hailing from the AC Region, they were missing a few key players and we pounced. Before the game we talked about how important it was to come out with excitement and never stop. We did just that. We threw a suffocating zone and were yelling and high fiving after every point. Not only were we excited, we didn't turn the disc over in the first half. We ended up taking the game 13-0. Only two points in the entire game saw the Boogiemen turn the disc over (there was one other strip I didn't call...but we won't count that).

The semi finals brought us Ohio University. A sectional foe and defending David Baldwin champs. We got a good look at them because our previous game ended so early. We "re-warmed up" and got ready to battle. We stormed out of the gates and went up 4-1, before they called a timeout. We were not relenting and took half 7-3. OU had resilience and made a case for a comeback, but we were not interested in a meltdown. We finished out a hard fought game and took it 13-9. (Nice side note, Chuck got a large "boob" on his knee that swelled up and it looked like he had another knee. Hilarious.)

We did it. We set ourselves up to make 500 bucks and win another tournament this fall. We wanted this, we wanted it real bad. The finals brought us Michigan State. We traded with them for a while (and there might have been a break on both sides) and the game saw itself at 6s. Michigan State took half 7-6 and everything was on serve. We weren't playing with quite the same passion and efficiency as before but we were by no means out of this game. We tried to get excited for the second half but things sputtered once we got out there. They broke us three straight times and took the lead, 10-6. Each break worried me, and I tried to tell everyone to not let it get in our heads, but we just couldn't quite finish out this last game. At 10-6 it started to feel like it was slipping away, but we fought until the end. We traded out the rest of the game and lost 13-9.

Towards the end of the game, after a pull to us, I jogged off the line and farted. A small one, but apparently Beffel noticed and gave a hardy laugh. We both had a good laugh in the midst of the late game tensions and ended up scoring the O point.

We came up just short of our goal but the weekend still went real well. We finally put together a solid tournament that we could be proud of. We were unrelenting and fundamentally sound. It felt good to see this team finally put the pieces together and run on all cylinders.

We taped the entire tournament and the video will be posted tomorrow. Check back then and you'll have the link.

Fall Brawl

2007-10-24T00:04:00.000-03:00

Not all weekends can go well, right? Whether that's true or not, we had a rough weekend. Our team needs a kick in the ass every once in a while to put things in perspective and this tournament was it.

We had fall break this weekend so we had a leisurely Friday afternoon in Columbus. It was a good night for Redhawks' Hockey and about 10 us of let every Buckeye fan in the Schottenstein hear about it. We sat perched above the student section in a suite and droned out all of their fans. Before I digress too much into my other passion at Miami, I'll suffice it to say that Miami beat OSU 5-1.

We retired to respective quarters around the Columbus area and prepared for Saturday's ultimate.

We were greeted by a Pitt split squad for our first game of the morning. Our fields were filled with bumps and holes; much like our play that day. There was a significant wind and we threw zone for the better part of the game. Pittsburgh has some impressive players, as one would expect, and they had a good mix of new/veteran players. Our turnover struggles from the previous weekend weren't shaken out and we missed opportunity after opportunity. We battled hard but not smart and Pitt got the better of us and won 12-8.

Our next game was against Carnegie Mellon. Drew Wood was pumped to see us in their pool because when I was a freshman we had a very unpleasant experience with their team (mainly just one enormous asshole). Those days are over for CM, so there wasn't the spark he was hoping for. It's too bad for us because we turn the switch on and off and play terribly inconsistent. We took the first half easily and ran up a 7-2 score. We let them fight their way back to a 10-7 contest and were seeing the signs of a bad omen to come. Miami stopped the bleeding and took three straight to win.

The Dayton game was epic for many reasons. First off, they marched to the fields with over 30 players. An unreal sight. An army of Ghetto Force players lined the fields after they had defeated Pitt 11-6. Another reason is because we are two teams coming into their prime and we play each other hard. The last reason it was epic will be starkly apparent in the coming details...

We came out for the game fired up because playing a sectional opponent is always an added bonus for motivation. And by fired up I mean taking the first half 7-0. We could barely do anything wrong and Dayton couldn't do anything right. They called a timeout after the first two or three points and were very frustrated. We ran another three up on them and they called another to try and regroup. To no avail and Miami put another on the board and took half with a bagel on the other side.

Not only is a 7 point lead large and very difficult to overcome, but we had all the momentum and they could not seem to get anything going. At halftime we discussed about keeping our composure and not letting up. Miami did not heed the advice. Dayton's halftime speech must have been akin to a Spartan warrior cry because they came to play in that second half. Combining Dayton's fire and Miami's complete meltdown, it was a gut wrenching second half for us. Dayton scored 1, then 2, I think we squeaked in one, then they scored a bunch in a row. We could not stop the absolute collapse that was happening. It doesn't seem bad at first and then you realize they are scoring and you are not answering, point after point after point.

The game reached 8s and then got to 11-10, game to 12. Miami scored one to tie it up. Universe point. Dayton's remarkable second half and Miami's utter destruction came to fruition as Dayton scored the winning goal.

It was one of those losses that take the wind out of your sails. You have to hand it to Dayton for a hell of a second half, they overcame a terrible start, that most teams would crumble from, and put a beat down on us. We didn't help ourselves at all and threw turn after turn after turn. We could not capitalize on any opportunity and just did not show up the second half.

It was difficult to just forget but we packed our bags our headed off to the Hamilton's for a feast. Chicken, chili, and pasta couldn't get the bitter taste out, but later that night things were put behind us and we relaxed.

We looked to use Day 2 to get ourselves back on track, but our weekend was in a rut we couldn't get out of. We lost to Buffalo in another ugly performance on our part. Excessive turnovers, lack of inspiration, and sheer lack of execution on both sides of the disc gave us another brutal loss. I think it was 12-10 or so.

Our last game was a slight redemption against a Michigan State team. They were very inexperienced and we saw slight improvement. We took a 13-1 victory and got a slight lift from a dismal weekend. No one was all too satisfied because the damage had been done.

Fall Brawl was a weekend to move past but not forget. We should look to remember our focus, execution, heart, intelligence and discipline on every point in every game. This weekend we didn't have that and we paid for it. Winning a tournament or doing well doesn't mean shit if you can't bring out the same team each weekend a put up a consistent performance. We're still learning this and are looking to improve on it.

Glory Days

2007-10-17T01:39:00.000-03:00

We came into Glory Days as the #5 seed out of 35 teams. There have been few tournaments in my career where Miami has actually gotten respect in a large tournament. We had some expectations to fill.

Our first game was against Kentucky. In my 3+ years in the East Plains Section (which includes Kentucky) I have never seen a UK team at any tournament or entered in the College Series. We came out sloppy and ended up winning the game 13-8. It was a slow start, filled with an excruciating amount of turns.

The second game pitted us against SLU (Saint Louis University). The same story applied from the first game. We did not look too great but started to put some things together. The second half we started to look like solid ultimate players and closed it out 13-7.

Third round was a bye. I hate byes.

The fourth round gave us a game against University of Illinois-Chicago. Never played them, but apparently they had a guy from Machine and a few other talented players. They didn't have many players and then one got hurt, so we ran them and came out with a 13-6 victory. We had streaks of well played points and then streaks of painful ultimate. We still hadn't fused the two together.

Our final game was against Illinois Y. Illinois came with three teams to this tournament and all three finished quite well. They will be a hell of a team come spring time. Illinois Y was a tight contest. We couldn't put together an entire game and paid for it. We lost 12-10.

We ended up winning the pool on point differential. UI-C, Illinois-Y, and Miami all finished 3-1. This set us up as the 7 seed in the 16 team A bracket.

We went back to the Martins and got absolutely pampered. Much more than we deserved. Much appreciation to an amazingly accommodating family.

We woke up in the morning to be greeted by Magnum. We were not going up against a bunch of Michigan splits like at BOTM (they sent one team to this tournament), so we expected a more polished Magnum squad. It was a close contest the whole way through, with both teams succumbing to a few turnover ridden points. Aside from that, it was a good game that found Miami coming out on top 12-9.

We beat Michigan and put ourselves in the Quarters against another Illinois split. We went down 7-3 at half and tried to get fired up out of half. We got the score to 8-6 and started to put the pressure on. Miami couldn't get the breaks necessary and ended up losing 12-10. It was hard fought but in a losing effort.

We had two more games to play out for 5th place. Miami rallied after a loss and took the last two games in decisive fashion. We fought to hold seed and did it. The Boogiemen finished 5th out of a field of 35.

This tournament was another team effort. A big roster of guys all contributing to a solid 6-2 weekend. Now we're gearing up for fall break in Columbus at Fall Brawl.

All photos by Izzi Bikun.

Itchfest (better late than never)

2007-10-16T00:43:00.000-03:00

Miami went to Nashville, Tennessee for Itchfest. I was not in attendance due to my trek to Tulsa for Club Regionals. Since I wasn't there, I will only give a brief recap.

Miami only took 12 guys down to the scorching Tennessee heat. The Boogiemen took their pool, going 3-0, and then lost a close crossover game to Virginia Tech. The first round draw on Day 2 against Vanderbilt proved to be difficult and the Boogiemen put up another close losing effort.

Low numbers and a brutal heat was quite a hurdle but Miami won their pool and put up a 3-2 record on the weekend.

Here are some photos from the weekend:

All photographs are shot by Izzi Bikun.

Best of the Midwest

2007-10-02T23:08:00.000-03:00

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:

Re-post...

2007-09-24T21:30:00.000-03:00

I recently attended No Surf in Cleveland and was not surprised to run into misunderstandings of the rules or sheer lack of ever reading them. It's relevant to note that even top notch ultimate players fail to read or obtain a working knowledge of the rules. An elite level player from Boston has said on his blog he has not read the rules in close to 2 decades. I even had an extremely talented player (who threw a high release flick literally over my head...I think for a score) at No Surf tell me he hasn't read the 11th edition. I have already given my thoughts on this persistent problem in ultimate and how if all individuals decided not to know the rules it would disintegrate effective self-officiating on the field.

I want to take it a step further and outline what I take to be the Top 10 rules/violations that are either misunderstood, not correctly applied, or mostly not used.

1. "It's his call."

This has been possibly the biggest misconception since I started playing ultimate. Many players seem to think that whoever is in possession of the disc when a call is under question has the right to make the final call. I remember as a freshman being tought that concept that if there is a close "up or down" call or a close "in or out" call, that ultimately the man with the disc gets to make the decision. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. The player with the best perspective gets to make the call. Now there may be multiple players with the best perspective and they cannot agree on the call, but that's the nature of best perspective. Additionally, sometimes the man with the disc does have best perspective. However, when a close call comes up in a game, it is never "his call" to make, the player(s) with the best perspective render the final decision.

2. Delay of Game

This one is particularly relevant for Miami since we get in many arguments over this rule. If an offensive player takes an unreasonable amount of time getting to a disc or is found standing over a disc without putting it into play, a marker is allowed to announce a "delay of game" warning, wait two seconds, and then initiate the stall count. Many handlers try to give their cutters time to set up by meandering around or standing over the disc. This rule is designed to prevent that. Quick aside: They were going to eliminate an active delay of game warning from the 11th, but I felt this would be a huge mistake. So I took to the Rules Committee message board and had a discussion with some committee members (and others) about how this rule needed to stay. With the support of Doug, we fought to get this rule placed back into the 11th. We won.

3. "Check feet."

This never has been and still isn't a call. Do not stop play when someone says "check feet." It is best perspective's responsibility to determine and make the call whether you were out or not. Check feet only delays the game and stops offensive flow.

4. Traveling

Many players seem to like to call a traveling violation when their zone defense has been broken and the offense is quickly working the disc upfield. When catching the disc in the air or on the run, without changing direction or speed, a player with the disc is allowed up to three points of contact before they are required to release the disc.

5. Marking foul

When both the marker and the player with the disc are vying for unoccupied space and non-incidental contact occurs it is always a foul on the marker. It is the responsibility of the marker to ensure no contact occurs as a result of movement on a pivot. However, it is not foul if the throwers' movement is the sole reason for the contact.

6. Checking the disc

The only time a disc needs to be checked in with the defender is after a stoppage of play on a foul/violation. Walking the disc in from out of bounds, off a brick, etc. only requires an offensive player to ground check the disc.

7. Replacing a disc

A lot of times when a disc gets real bent from a catch or someone landing on it, some players think they can ask for a replacement disc. The disc has to be punctured or torn in some fashion to replace a disc in the middle of a point. Believe it or not some players actually think that a stall count can be delayed to wipe off a wet disc in the rain.

8. Starting a stall count

If a player catches a disc and their momentum carries them into the endzone or out of bounds it is not required that the stall count be delayed until they reset their pivot at the proper spot. The marker is allowed to initiate a stall count right after they catch the disc.

9. Incidental contact/Cutter and Defender vying for unoccupied space

There is a certain amount of contact that is inevitable in the game and is NOT a foul. Many cutters will try to argue that certain contact that occurs is a foul on the defender. It is not a foul if they are both going for the same unoccupied space and only incidental contact ensues.

10. Continuation

This rule has been altered in the 11th edition and is extremely critical. When a pick or a foul is called and the thrower is in the act of throwing or the disc was already in the air and the receiver/defender were not affected by the infraction, the outcome of the play stands. Also, if a thrower fails to acknowledge the pick or fail and consequently throws the disc, barring it is to any affected players, the outcome of play stands. So, a pick is called in the endzone on the break side and the thrower is in the process of throwing the disc to a guy on the open side. No one on the open side was affected by the call, the man catches the disc, a goal is awarded.

Horizontal Stack

2007-09-20T23:41:00.000-03:00

I think right now it is fundamental to understand the theory and concepts of our horizontal stack. Start to think about this offense on a theoretical level; it will give you a better sense of where you should be and what's the "right" thing to be doing in the offense.

We have three handlers and four cutters. Simple format. We are looking to spread the field (using the whole field) horizontally across about 15-20 yards away from the handlers. The ideas is that we are creating space between the handlers and the cutters and the whole field behind us. Contrast this with the space being created in a vertical stack and that will help you conceptualize this offense. The set up of the horizontal stack is to give the cutters more room to be active and use the entire field. Emphasis on ENTIRE...

Cutters should NOT be jamming themselves on the open side and taking turns trying to cut on that side. All four cutters should be evenly spread out, using all the field given to them to be effective. If a cutter gets the disc, the other three need to be aware and fill the open space upfield. They need to shift over, fill the open side lane, and work there (not leaving the break side empty though, because that can provide for useful and effective cuts too). The other cutter can throw up field or dump the disc and then he should get to the break side to occupy the vacancy created. As cutters you need to be aware of where everyone else is and be sure that you are not bunching together and clogging the open side. Work together and when one cut fails on the open side, bust to the break side and open up some space for another cutter. He can come over and fill that spot.

Use the entire field for real cuts. Do not stand around idly and then decide that you need to jog towards the handlers for an under cut. As cutters you should be bringing your man deep, then coming under. You should be using quick misdirection to get open. Use what the defender is giving you for your cut. Always be aware of what other cutters are doing and base your next cut off of that. If you know someone is going to get the disc under on the open side, already be making your cut. Go deep and then another cutter can come under. Work like that and give multiple options to the player with the disc.

Also, if you see no one cutting under and your man is playing off you, don't be afraid to come across on a horizontal cut (think the 1 cut from the drill). Make sure that you are not cutting off someone else in the process though. Be aware!

Handlers think with similar mentality. Always spread yourself across the field and don't be afraid to switch your positioning with other handlers after a throw or if you notice it is getting too clogged. This offense is never static (for either cutters or handlers). You can come around to the far side and make room for a more effective dump cut by a handler in position. Give yourself enough space so that when you cut for a dump you can work that big swing we have been going over in practice. If your dump/swing doesn't work, make sure to get out of that spot for the other handler. He needs to be ready to fill and make a dump cut as well.

Do not let the disc be stationary for long. This offense needs movement. Lots of it. Quickly.

Those are some of the basics I want everyone to focus on right now. There are many more in depth concepts that we'll get into as the semester goes on. But start to visualize the offense and make sense of it. Think about the things I said and try to put that into context of using the offense on the field. That always helps me.

Hit me up with any questions if something was unclear.

"MU!"
"Who's that?!"

First Week of Practice

2007-09-06T21:16:00.000-03:00

Here are some of the concepts that we went over the first week that you should be thinking about when you're playing:

Vertical Stack:
Offense:
- When you are cutting out of the back of the stack make a cut with a purpose. A couple things we talked about that you can do:
- Bring your man into space, put him on his heels, shift his weight back and make a hard cut.
- Make a cut that he has to commit to, plant, and then bust in the other direction.
- Give your defender a quick misdirection to leave him off balance.
- If you make a cut that doesn't work, get out of the lane and get back into the stack.
- Do not be reactionary in this offense. See cuts happening and make your move so that you can be effective when the cutter get the disc, not 5 seconds after.
- The first man in the stack should always be looking at the thrower and being ready/aware of the break throw.

Defense (downfield):
- Make your man go through you. Take away the cut he wants to make. Beat him to the spot.
- Do not leave your shoulders open and give him the easy under cut.
- Don't over commit to a cut and throw yourself off balance. Keep on the balls of your feet and weight evenly distributed.

Dump:
Throwing:
- Square your shoulders to the defender so that both of your throws are a threat to the marker.
- Throw from low to high so you can float the disc to space.

Dump cuts:
- Do not juke endlessly. Make a hard fake, plant, and go.
- Running at your man, planting, and heading back to the middle of the field is extremely hard to defend against with a good throw. This moves the disc off the sideline and gives a good breakside look.
- Give yourself space to work with. Do not position yourself to close to the handler.

Throws:
Flick:
- Pointer and middle finger together on the rim of the disc.
- Snap your wrist.
- Put inside out (IO) on the throw to compensate for it turning over.
- Follow your hand through and point it at the target.

Backhand:
- Curl all of your fingers under the rim of the disc.
- Snap your wrist.
- Put IO on the throw to compensate for it turning over.
- Utilize shoulder motion to get more power.

There are definitely many more things in these areas we could/should talk about. But those are some of the highlights that you should be thinking about and applying next week during practice. Good first week. See you on Monday.

Practice Begins

2007-09-01T20:46:00.000-03:00

It was fun, but pick up is over. Practice begins starting this Tuesday, Sept. 4th. Meet at the Shriver parking lot nearest to Patterson Ave at 3:45. If you have extenuating circumstances please contact the captains (MiamiUltimate@gmail.com or Mastro at 973-886-8398 or Nick at 614-537-4825) and let them know if you cannot be there on time. We intend to start practice on time at 4 pm.

Please feel free to check out practice and see if this is your thing. We'd love to have you out.

However after a week or two we are not interested in students wasting our time by casually showing up. You cannot just come to practice every once and a while once our season gets going. It will not be tolerated. This applies to veterans especially (you know our schedule and what is expected of you).

These practice fields will hopefully be the building block for something you will remember for years to come.

Pick up, etc.

2007-08-27T15:21:00.000-03:00

The first week of pick up concluded and we appreciate everyone coming out despite the random torrential downpours and the 100+ degree heat. After the club sports and mega fair we are hoping to expand the game and get larger numbers.

Just a quick note...I just took off the setting that enables admin. moderation of the comments. Sorry for the inconvenience. (I did delete the random comments complaining about restricted commenting and Jared's post talking about Max coming out of the closet...Jared if you want that on, feel free to re-post it. I just deleted all the pending comments after I enabled unmoderated commenting).

I hope to see you all out at Cook everyday this week...except Doug, I'm kind of pissed that he's here.

It's that time of year...

2007-08-14T09:18:00.000-03:00

School is starting and so is ultimate. This means we will be playing pick up on Cook Field at 4pm Monday-Friday for the first two weeks of school. Come one, come all. Bring your friends. It'll be fun.

If you're an incoming student and planning on coming out, bring your whole corridor too. Promise them punch and pie. They'll come. Oh, and bring cleats. And if you're really ambitious, bring a light and a dark.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For anyone interested, I have solved the case of the misrepresented comments and I rescind my previous accusations against Micah. They were hasty but warranted (he'll tell you that). It was Fudge though. Damn I hate that kid.

Thoughts from Dwight and Greased Up Deaf Guy.

2007-08-10T09:08:00.000-03:00

"Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery so I thank you...IDENTITY THEFT IS NOT A JOKE...MILLIONS OF FAMILIES SUFFER EVERY YEAR." ~ Dwight Schrute

This goes out to Micah who posted under the name "mastro" in the comments section of last post. Not cool, Micah, not cool.

Of course "it's almost the season," ass, and dropping "f" bombs is just out of line.

Everyone I talk to is amped for the season to start. Get ready.
"See ya'll next week" ~ Greased up deaf guy

Expectations

2007-08-03T09:06:00.000-03:00

It's about two weeks until school starts and I wanted to post something about fall expectations. Snaps and I have thrown around some ideas and I wanted to share with everyone what we expect of you this coming fall.

- Dedication. Scattered attendence will not be tolerated. You are expected to make every practice (that includes conditioning) and meeting when you do not have a class. Time management with your school work is important. Handling both work and practice is almost always doable and we expect that you make ultimate a high priority.

- The fall is about growth. We will be attending tournaments with a main focus on developing players. Younger/newer guys will be put into new positions, get lots of playing time, and get experience for the spring. Be prepared to see lots of the field with a new dynamic.

- Your playing time will largely depend on your attendence and hard work. Showing up when you feel like it and expecting to contribute to the team are mutually exclusive.

- You are expected to have a basic knowledge and skill level. Everyone should have clean forehands and backhands. Everyone should be able to effectively dump the disc. Everyone should know when and where to cut. Everyone should be able to make upfield throws without hesitation. Everyone needs to understand defensive positioning. Everyone should be able to do these things consistently. No excuses.

- Improve your weaknesses. If you can't break a mark by now, get that skill. If you can't throw a huck yet, work on it. If you're slower than everyone else, run harder and more often than everyone else. If you have not improved over the summer than you have sincerely wasted valuable time. If you do not use the fall to improve, you are hurting the team.

- Take care of your body. Injuries are always an issue and it's important that we have a healthy roster. Refer to my post on preparation for specifics.

- Come ready to work hard at practice. Expect harder conditioning, more instruction, and a more focused atmosphere.

- Be able to receive constructive criticism. In hopes of getting each player better you will be told about the things you are doing wrong. This is not a negative thing, it is an attempt to help you improve. No one is picking you out and being harsh; we're a team that should want to help each other get better.

- Be positive and communicate. Don't be an ass. Don't ever think you have a right to do/say something mean-spirited to a teammate. If you have a problem with someone be a big boy and talk to them about it. This is important to maintaining a cohesive team dynamic.

This team will not be here for your casual use. Snaps and I will not tolerate you coming and going when you feel like it. Our aspirations are significantly higher than last year and there will be no room for behavior detrimental to the team. We are comfortable with the dedicated personnel we have and will not hesistate to let players watch from the sidelines if they do not make the committment to this team. Snaps and I are both extremely excited and ambitious for this upcoming year, as we hope you are too. I hope we do not have to question the committment of any of the players who step on the field with us. We need that trust. We need that sense of team.

See you in a couple weeks. Get ready to tear up Cook.

Neurology of Success?

2007-07-26T10:46:00.000-03:00

I just read an article that detailed some of the complex brain functions that might help explain success and ability in athletics. It explained that something called "myelin" wraps around nerve fibers in the brain. Myelin grows and becomes more dense with repetition of a skill. As the myelin increases around the nerve fibers, it creates more insulation. This insulation stops the "leaks" in nerve fibers when neurons are reacting. Imagine a hose as the nerve fiber and the water as the neurons firing. Someone has poked a bunch of holes throughout the hose and you lose a certain amout of water before it gets to the end. The amount of water at the end of the hose is the information received as a result of the neuron stimulation and dictates the level of raw skill that can be produced. Myelin acts like duct tape for the hose. It seals up any leaks that might prevent someone completely benefitting from the neuron stimulation. The more repetition, the greater amount myelin wrapping around a nerve fiber.

It went on to detail a woman in Russia who runs a tennis academy that produces a disproportionate amount of the best tennis players in the world. The facility is barely comprable to a sub-par health and fitness center, yet these players are some of the best. Why? She focuses almost all of her teaching on technique. Constantly pushing her students to improve their technique through constant feedback and repetition. She's cultivating their myelin. She facilitates a culture of hardwork and very focused attention to detail in their swings.

"Every talent, according to Ericsson [scientiest who studies this], is the result of a single process: deliberate practice, which he defines as 'individuals engaging in a practice activity (typically designed by teachers) with full concentration on improving some aspect of their performance.'...Deliberate practice means working on technique, seeking constant critical feedback and focusing ruthlessly on improving weaknesses. "

How is this relevant to ultimate?

It reinforces the urgency to make beneficial use of pre-practice tossing. When I try to stress the importance of taking those 10-15 minutes seriously, it now makes scientific sense. If you come to practice everyday and work on certain throwing skills, that repetition will pay off. (Of course that time is not enough to develop exceptional skills, it merely reinforces the work you should be doing outside of practice/during drills and scrimmage as well.)

It shows that your brain responds to consistent hardwork and attention to detail. You will slowly accumulate a wealth of myelin that will increase the efficiency of your neuron reactions in the brain. Throws, cuts, laying out, etc. if properly cultivated will become more better through practice.

Is this something you didn't know though? Practice gets you better? Of course, that's obvious.

What it does reveal are few interesting implications:
1. There is neurological science that corroborates the popular notion that "practice (almost) makes perfect."
2. "Natural talent" only gets someone so far. There is definitely something else to skill and myelin cannot just magically wrap around nerve fibers. There has to be an internal motivation to desire the cultivation of these neurological benefits.

I think it is clear that a biological explanation for athletic skill MUST be accompanied by the intangibles (motivation, passion, focus). As much as this article taught me about the scientific explanations for improving skills, it equally taught me that there is a internal force that has a symbiotic relationship with those neurons. One could not survive without the other. You must have the desire to get better and put in that honest effort. Putting together a bike isn't necessarily fun, but the finished product is. You have take each piece, properly assemble it, and create the end the product; it does not just magically appear. Once you have finished it though, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and ride the bike.

Those are some of the things that you need to think about in your off season training. Repetition, attention to detail, and constantly looking to improve.

Preparation

2007-07-23T14:58:00.000-03:00

Being able to maximize your muscle capability on Day 1 and 2 of a tournament is quite important to personal performance. I thought I'd post on some of the things that I do to physically prepare myself for both Day 1 and 2. Then I'll also add some links to the suggestions of other people.

It's the Monday before a tournament. In terms of conditioning the week looks like this:
- Monday --> Wednesday are normal workout days and should stay on normal schedule.
- Wednesday is the last day of hard conditioning workouts and Thursday is time to start giving the muscles a break on the anaerobic stuff.
- Thursday is good to get some throws in, some dynamics, a light jog, and stretching.
- Friday is a day of rest. Let the muscles totally recover and be ready to go on Saturday.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable on the nutrition but here are the bare essentials that even I've picked up on:
- Carbo loading and staying hydrated on Friday.
- Build up some energy reserves on Friday so your muscles can feed off of that on Saturday.
- Keep a good stream of water running through your system so your muscles can effectively
transport nutrients, keep proper blood flow, etc.

The week has past and now it's Saturday morning. The morning starts early for me. I like to get up at least 2 hours before gametime to get a good breakfast in. I'll usually sneak off to the hotel lounge for a good ol' continental breakfast, including, bagels, toast, fruit, cereal, etc. I generally don't like to eat to close to activity, so this two hour window gives me enough space. It is important that you "break your fast" and give your body some adequate nutritional support before game time.

The team has made its way the fields and it's time to warm up. Everyone on the team knows our normal warm up routine but seeing as how this blog has become an international phenomenon, I'll briefly outline it:
- Light (emphasis on light) jog
- Dynamic warm ups (high knees, butt kicks, cariocas, frankensteins, backward/forward "run")
- Static stretching
When doing static I think it's important to focus on the areas that trouble you the most (while not neglecting others). I know that sometimes my calves are prone to cramping and soreness, so I make sure that those are my target areas pre/post game.

Games are done for Saturday and you've won the pool, how are you going to get yourself ready for the Quarters?
- Stretch! Do at least 7-10 minutes of static stretching.
- Hydrate.
- Both stretching and hydrating help keep the blood/lactic acid from pooling up in your muscles. The malignancies of lactic acid are still up for debate, but for now let's say it's not helpful to your muscles after it has been used for energy.
- Eat something that's a good source of protein. Do it quickly after the games, as it serves to help your muscles recover faster and with less soreness and needs to be addressed promptly after conditioning. I like to bring a Protein Plus Power Bar with me for right after. A sandwich or some sort of other supplement works as well.
- An old Miami favorite to help with cramping has been potassium. So if your muscles easily cramp, try some potassium pills, a banana, etc.

Day 2; repeat Day 1, but with soreness and anger at your muscles.

In terms of physical readiness, that is a sketch of my tournament routine. Here are some good resources from people much more qualified than me:

Ben Wiggins wrote about his week long dietary preparation for a tournament here - http://groups.google.com./group/rec.sport.disc/msg/0e11f785419c6a42

Luke Smith wrote this about a more balanced overall diet for athletes -
http://mlsmith.blogspot.com/2007/01/ultimate-related-post.html

Top 10

2007-07-19T11:31:00.001-03:00

[Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views held by Miami Ultimate Inc. and have a great probability of being false.]

Top 10 Reasons No One Should Want to be on This Team:

1. Beffel's squosh
2. MOABs
3. Uncomfortable sexual advances by teammates
4. No more of Teets' backhair
5. You learn the meaning of "irreverent"
6. If your parents come to a tournament they leave with less respect for you (seeing the people you've surrounded yourself by)
7. Doug
8. Two teammates have scissored
9. Waking up in the morning next to a guy
10. Leaving the team a worse person than you were before

Top 10 Reasons You Should Want to be on This Team:
1. Beffel's squosh
2. It gets you tons of girls
3. You expand your vocabulary (i.e. snoodling, bulldog, the canadian houdini)
4. Gator's graduated
5. Soupdick
6. You learn creative ways to make fun of your friends
7. Scholarships from Miami
8. We're all fans of Texas football...Hook 'Em!
9. You get to walk around with a false sense of arrogance
10. We play a sport where you throw dogs little frisbees

Oh! Kentucky

2007-07-16T09:04:00.000-03:00

I played in a tournament called Mason Dixon this weekend, in none other than Berea, Kentucky. We took 1st place. There were a total of 8 teams there and only one that was a competitive club team. So what can be taken from a tournament where 5 of your 6 games are a breeze? Here's what I out of the weekend...

First off, sometimes it's fun to dominate (to an extent). It is nice to have a game or two where you can just laugh at your teammates, take seat on the sidelines, and feel relaxed during the game. These are the games that show you why you are a more experienced, dedicated, and harder working ultimate player/team than the other and that can feel good. Every once in a while it is fun to just play ultimate solely for the very reason you started playing, it is a damn good time.

Easy games can be beneficial too. Our first tournament (No Surf) was a rough weekend for us. We had a squad of 9-10 guys playing in the elite power pools and we were only able to escape the weekend with 1 win. It was productive in certain levels, but as a team, you want put more marks in the W column. So this weekend we went undefeated and that can help a team psyche. Now no one is naive enough to think that our first five games were "quality" wins that are going to push us the next level, but it is more a matter of a winning mindset. They can also be beneficial for working on things as an individual and as a team. You can try out new skills you are working on. The team can work on a more fluid offense or switching on D. It is a nice setting to improve on the aspects of your personal game that you don't want to try out in a bigger game and it's good to be able to hone aspects of the team's offense or defense.

Turn it on, turn it off. We didn't play with much intensity in our pool play and semi finals games. We just didn't need to. We won all of our games up to that point by at least 9. So once we got to the finals we told ourselves that we had to step it up and flick the switch. Come out with some fire and play with some passion. We did just that and had a great finals against Ashville. Being able to focus yourself after easy wins and prepare for the harder fought games is crucial. "We haven't needed to play hard all weekend, so now we just can't adjust" is not a valid excuse for doing poorly. You should be able to get yourself in the mindset you need for that game. Coming out hard on point one of a competitive game, in the midst of easy ones, is a must.

A quick recap of some of the more ridiculous aspects of the weekend. The food provided was candy. We got twizzlers, yogurt covered somethings, cheez-its, etc. No bagels. No fruit. No carbs. No substance. There was no bottled water of any sort, just a spigot on the premises (it's not like you pay a tournament fee to have certain amenities provided...). BUT we did get a case of Full Throttle, because we obviously don't need to hydrate, just get really wired before our games. Here's the funny thing about all of the food and water provided, it was ALL expired. None of it could have been sold at a grocery store. Wow. Just wow. Not only we were provided bad and expired food for the tournament, as a number 1 seed overall we had to move fields on many occasions. Now that may seem like I'm just unnecessarily whining, but I'm not sure I've ever played in a tournament where you make the top seed trek across the park to play their games (on multiple occasions)...we picked up our sideline to go play on a vastly inferior field no less. It's curious that one of those games was against the tournament director's team...

This is all without mentioning that we showed up Day 2 at 8:25 to play our quarterfinals game annnnnd what do you know, our team dropped. So of course the other teams start their games late (because we're on ultimate time, right?) and we sit around for 2.5 hours until our first game. 1.5 of those hours I could have been asleep. Asleep at the luxurious Oh! Kentucky Campground.

All in all though, Cincinnati's Hustle are Mason Dixon champs. We have a trophy to prove it.

Cognitive Ultimate III

2007-07-09T09:01:00.000-03:00

Everyone talks about the mental game in athletics. What can it really do for you and what can be considered part of that mental game?

Originally my post was going to be about the importance of a mental game to winning. Then I started to realize that the mental game was much bigger than I had originally thought. I will discuss my original notions of what the mental game consists of and can do, and then will delve into further notions of cognitive ultimate.

Decision making can define a game. Your star players are only going to sky the other guy so many times until you start to pay for that poor decision. You will only get so many chances to make up for your bad dump pass that led to a break. The ability to stay focused and consistently make the right decision will usually weigh heavily on the outcome of a game. You need to prepare yourself to make the smart choice on each throw, focus on every mark, and instinctually evaluate each situation (what stall count am I on? what are my options? where is my defender in relation to the disc? how can I position myself to get the disc?).

I've always thought that the concept of the physical vs. mental was very interesting. More specifically, that when two teams of equal skill level and athletic ability face off, the smarter and more focused team will win. In many games skills are a wash and both teams are set to even in their physical abilities. Also, in many games the difference in physical ability is small enough to be overcome. If you have a team that makes the smarter decisions, plays with more field awareness, and is more mentally prepared going into a game, then they have a great intangible advantage. This intangible advantage can consistently win them games against equally matched teams or can make up the difference against a more physically skilled team. The defense can't just be content to say that they got the D, because if there was an errant huck that lost possession of the disc then it makes no difference. The team that holds possession after their D, makes the smart throw at the right time, and gets the break, will be the ones with the important mental advantage.

As I was thinking about the mental aspects of athletics as they relate to ultimate, I started to realize that the mental game was bigger than just on the field stuff (awareness, decision making, etc.). To truly develop a comprehensive mental game, I think there are many other things a player must do. Here's a short list of some of those things:

- Work out and work hard when no one's watching. It takes determination to get off the couch and condition. However, it's not good enough to just work out, you need to work out hard. It is easy to finish a work out early when you're by yourself. You need to be going harder, faster, and longer than your opponents. Doing this alone takes strength, focus, and internal motivation; not everyone has this and it shows on the field. It separates players.

- Taking the right care of your body. Treating your injuries properly (whether that's resting yourself or playing through them). Stretching properly before and after training. Eating right before and after competition. Properly hydrating and replenshing to maximize performance. A mistreated injury, poor nutrition around gametime, or dehydration can lead to many mental errors and poor decisions on the field.

- Being responsible to the team. Attending practice and tournaments consistently. Being punctual. Working hard. How you practice, how you play, and how you train shows everyone else how hard you want them working. Do you go through the motions or do you make your time practicing/playing constructive? Are each drill, each point you play, and each throw important to you? Do you make them matter when you're doing them? Being dedicated, improving, and working hard fosters a mental cohesiveness that can bond teams together. Everyone working on the same page, towards the same goal is a huge boost.

I think the mental game extends to areas such as these, and beyond. It encompasses so many aspects of preparation and in game skills. Thoughts on other things that can/should be included on this list?

Taping of Miami Ultimate's Top 10 has begun. Rumor has it something in poor taste is said...

Scattered thoughts from this weekend

2007-07-02T09:52:00.000-03:00

Cohesiveness, fresh legs, O and D lines, and disc efficiency on a D point.

I played on a pick up team of sorts this weekend at SCINNY in Cincinnati. There were a handful of Hustle guys, some Dayton guys, and a few other pick ups from the area. We blew through our first day games and it seemed rather clear we were the most talented group at the tournament. However we ended up losing in the semi finals. Besides the fact that we were there to have fun and it was not a tournament that we were extremely intense for, I was musing over reasons for our loss. There were a few reasons I could discern and then these thoughts led me to think about some related ideas.

When you plug in players from all different colleges, clubs, etc. you are going to experience differing styles. No matter how skilled a group of guys are, a cohesive strategy and experience together makes a world of difference. This is why the importance of practicing together cannot be overstated and why Miami saw late season struggles after people stopped showing up to practice.

There was a degree of exhaustion towards the end because we played with only a 2-4 subs the whole weekend. I think this was a minor factor in our loss, but it is something important to look at. Being able to have enough players that can consistently rotate into a team's offense and defense is indispensible. Once you are tired you make poorer decisions, do not cut efficiently, get beat easily, and try to take risky shortcuts that only harm the team. Having enough skilled players will be essential for Miami in the upcoming season. There was a very tight rotation at Regionals this past year because there were not enough guys able to contribute at the level we needed them to. The group of players that saw the field the most in Rantoul were obviously much more exhausted than they should have been. It is not as if we didn't want to put everyone in to effectively use players; it was simply not having enough players with the skill sets that we needed for this tournament. It is this example that should make everyone want to work that much harder. If you do acquire the skills needed, the team can work more efficiently and you can see the field in big games.

O and D lines are always an interesting topic but I want to focus my thoughts on a specific area. (By the way, as an extention of the previous paragraph, we do not have the depth right now to be able to effectively run this type of system...but if everyone improves to a certain level, then we could start to entertain the notion). Some guys who haven't played in the system seem to think that they wouldn't be able to find a rhythm. They are used to playing 3 or 4 points in a row and only playing one, possibly two points in a row, wouldn't allow them to play at their best. I think the cool thing about O/D lines is the focus. You can focus on one area of the game and get prepared to do a specific job on the field. Rather than worrying about if you have the right personnel, what will happen on a turn, positions, etc. you have that mostly mapped out before you get on the field. Going into the tournament you know what type of role you should be preparing for, so when you step out there on a D point you can focus on making the D and getting the break.

Following from that, breaks on defense are crucial. When you are busting you ass all point to force that turnover, it is important that you don't squander the opportunity when you get it. We are used to playing teams where you can expect them to turn it over multiple times in a point, so it is doesn't seem as relevant. But it is even more relevant for Miami. When the disc gets turned over, being tired from defending is no excuse to get sloppy on offense. Taking care of the disc after a D is essential to winning games of all types. Turnovers are the one of the biggest problems in Miami's game, and once that problem gets reduced, the defensive break will become one of the most important concepts.

I was also thinking about risk/reward stuff, but I've already dumped enough stuff into this post.

Nothing I said here was groundbreaking or new. However, I'm not sure that most guys on this team think about things like this when approaching ultimate or the team. So hopefully you can look at what has been said and start to process these ideas into a vision for yourself as player and for the team.

Funny aside from the weekend...Me, Future, Snaps, and Gator nicknamed all of the players on the Cincinnati youth ultimate team. Names included: WILSON, Spork, Condo, Chugie (cross between Chuck and Doogie), Hil-dog, and Pants (named after the greatest player at college nationals this year).

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2007-06-27T17:06:00.000-03:00

It is 85 degrees and I'm wearing tights. It's okay though because the knee pads make up for it and I look really sweet.

Half of Beffel's playing time was due to weekly reach arounds he gave to Toes. This one is borderline Rusty Trombone.

Chuck: "Fuck it...I have the best mark on the team."

Hmm...broken?!...by a guy wearing knee pads. Lame.

Sweet layout Shake. Does he still have mono or what?

In a stunning turn of events, Chuck has the disc and is not pointlessly falling or hurting his defender. He's standing upright.

YAY JASON IS THROWING A LOW RELEASE FOREHAND. Don't be fooled, he's not thinking about ultimate right now, he's wondering if he'll have enough time between games to watch some anime.

I'm concerned at how comfortable Jack looks in this position.

This is the same dive that Toes did into the river when he was illegally coming across the border. Unfortunately he made it and we've had to deal with him ever since.

The script for Miami's special edition of Top 10 Plays is in the works. Stay tuned...

Quote of the Summer

2007-06-22T10:56:00.001-03:00

I know I just posted, but I stumbled across this shortly after. This is an exceptional quote by Bobby Knight:

"Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win."

Honestly reflect on whether you have the will to prepare to win.

Comfort Zone

2007-06-22T10:27:00.000-03:00

The summer is an opportunity to reflect. Look back on your season and figure out what skills you need to improve on. Saturday afternoons, summer league, tournaments, and club are all great venues to eliminate some weaknesses from your game. Despite all of the opportunities, I would venture to say though that many people get caught in a process that isn't improving.

Sometimes new throwing form, new skills, and new concepts don't feel right. When adjustment comes, a lot of guys are frustrated by the change. They can't throw as well, they aren't good at it yet, and there isn't that instant gratification. So, instead of looking to evolve as a player, they will continue their old habits. Players will try out something new, but when they realize that it's not initially as good as the old way, they retreat back.

Developing new skills takes time. It is essential that you work outside your comfort zone. I remember I used to throw all my backhands with a finger placed on the outside rim of the disc. When I learned that there was a better way to throw a backhand, my throws were not nearly as crisp with this new "power grip." But each day at practice I would use this grip in warm ups until I got confident enough to use it in the scrimmage. Then once I had mastered the skill in a game like setting, I was able to use it at tournaments. It was aggravating to regress in skill level, but it was necessary. I took one step back to take two forward.

Don't just improve on old, bad habits. Don't feel content with just tossing for 30 minutes and not looking to better your throws. Just because it is easier not to change your form, improve your skillset, or incorporate new concepts doesn't mean it's the best way. Easier is not better. Getting acclimated to new throws can be a frustrating process. It is essential to consistently work outside your comfort zone.

Learn. Apply. Improve. Repeat.

Top 10

2007-06-18T11:53:00.000-03:00

Cognitive Ultimate II

2007-06-15T11:40:00.000-03:00

During a game on Wednesday night I was matched up against a teammate of mine from Hustle. I was primarily cutting out of the vertical stack and getting the disc on the open side. After the point he asked me if I had any advice regarding in cuts. He noticed that I kept making quick first steps and misdirection or after taking him out, I would consistently get open by coming back under. I initially only responded by saying that it was extremely hard to guard against a cut that takes you out and then gets stopped on a dime to come under. Albiet true, it is an effective cut for a receiver, I think it is slightly more complicated and the defender has more recourse than it just being a tough cut to guard against.

After having some time to think about it on my way to Columbus later that night, I had a chance to come up with some meaningful advice. Here's the e-mail I sent him with only a slight addition (I'm specifically referencing quick fakes after a misdirection and under cuts that come after a hard out cut.):

- Use position to give yourself the most advantage you can. Regardless, offense ALWAYS has the advantage, but you can use your body to close that gap. Keep your weight over your feet; don't let your body weight completely shift to one side and get off balance. Stay on your toes and move your torso with him rather than throwing your weight to one side to compensate for a fake. Square your shoulders to the defender, playing him tight on the hip. When he comes to cut under, put yourself in his path so he has to go through you to come under. Beat him to the open space that he wants to get to and seal off his cut. You can turn your hips and sprint in the lane once you've established that position and he's picked up steam. Also, when he starts his cut, if he decides to go deep, your body is still squared up so that you can sprint upfield. Be smart with body position and don't give the offense player what he wants or let him go to the open space (without a fight at least).

- Always expect a cut. When your guy is in the stack don't take a few seconds and relax. A lot of time in the stack people take a little time off, and that's when someone can beat them easy on an under cut. Stay in their pocket at all times and be ready. When someone takes you deep and then cuts under, it is extremely difficult to guard, but being in their pocket and ready for that gives you the best shot at guarding it.

- Lay out. If you have to give them a step under to seal off the deep cut, make them think twice about throwing it to your man with a lay out. Even if you don't get the D, making them recognize that you're going to lay out for the disc always makes the thrower hesitant. Getting horizontal is a big equalizer if you are behind a step or two. It is very effective physically and psychologically.

These are a few of the things you should be focused on when your man is cutting. There are many more components to man defense like position after a huck, marking, etc. but taking it piece by piece is beneficial for learning and/or improving a broader skill.

I'll post about the other side of this topic later on and discuss some finer points to cutting as a cognitive ultimate skill.

Spirit of the Game

2007-06-11T14:49:00.000-03:00

As a captain last year, I never formally introduced the new players to the concept in ultimate we call "Spirit of the Game." This was not a point of focus that was officially introduced during practice time. Guys on the team would candidly mention the term, but only in passing, never giving serious attention to it. I have been wondering lately why I have not actively integrated "spirit" into the ultimate vocabulary of my team. I came to a couple of conclusions on the matter.

Spirit of the Game means different things to different players. Although it is defined in the rules, spirit has taken on differing meanings throughout the landscape of ultimate. For some players it is being jovial and cheering for the other team after the game. For others it is playing hard, playing fair. I wouldn't say there is an exclusive dichotomy with respect to Spirit of the Game, but there is a divergence among players. It's for this reason that I feel it's important to teach certain principles of the game in their own right, rather than confining them to an awkward definition of Spirit of the Game. I would rather teach sportsmanship and how to carry yourself on a field, than vaguely tell players to "always play with spirit." Furthermore, spirit is a loaded word, and I don't want guys getting caught up in the semantics of it all. Telling someone they have "bad spirit" or "good spirit" is quite a subjective assertion.

Maybe it could be that I have an aversion to the "let's all cheer for each other; don't take things seriously; everyone's a winner" definition of Spirit. It is this definition that is prevalent among the teams I have played for most of my career. I guess this has caused me to approach the concept with great caution and hesitance in using it. The biggest malignancy with this approach is (what I take to be) a huge misunderstanding on their part.

First and foremost, it is the responsibility of all players to know and understand the rules. We play a self-officiated game that can only exist if all players are in command of the rules we play by. I think that this gets lost among many players and they think that rules are secondary to a good attitude. They are not. (I have said this a bunch of times but...) Not knowing the rules is one of the most unspirited thing an ultimate player can bring onto the field. The "misunderstanding" I mentioned is exactly this concept, that a smile and goodwill supersedes a knowledge of the rules.

The way the UPA defines Spirit of the Game is relatively satisfactory and gets a lot of the core concepts right. We play a game that depends on people being honest and fair. However I think the term has been somewhat hijacked by a portion of the community to serve themselves. Many will call a team unspirited if they argue about calls on the field, but the team calling the fouls/violations may have very little understanding of the actual rules. This would seem to indicate that the other team is in fact unspirited. This is not a convoluted way of trying to defend our own team for engaging in arguments on the field (Which, by the way, arguments about calls are not inherently bad. Many times they promote better understanding of the situation that occured and facilitate the use of the most appropriate rule.) This is to show, what I find to be, a common misperception and detriment in ultimate.

I personally like to stay away from the word because it has too much baggage associated with it. Regardless of how you chose (or chose not) to define Spirit of the Game, I think there are valuable principles to be learned from the concept, but you should ultimately recognize that you shouldn't be constrained to someone's subjective determination about it. I like to play hard. Play fair. Play smart. Play honest. Play with passion. Play with respect. Play with pride. All of these make playing fun for me. These are the things that I look to teach new ultimate players. These are the things that I hope this team looks to bring to the field each time we play.

And the winner is...

2007-06-11T13:48:00.001-03:00

The Banana Condom runs away with the contest. 44% of the vote went to the exploding banana mess on Phil Nelson.

Other notable finishers were Snaps getting antiqued, Beffel sneaking up on Phil, and suprisingly, Big Syl. (See the poll itself for full results).

Past and present collided this weekend at Poultry Days. Teets and I had the chance to play with the Miami Alumni team in Versailles. We had some fun, played tons of ultimate, and got to see past generations of Miami players. Speaking of an alum, Steve Raines has asked for a picture of the Boogiemen logo. Ask and ye shall receive Steve...

I think I have a post of some beneficial substance coming soon. So stay tuned for that.

Funniest Moment of the Year

2007-06-07T10:23:00.000-03:00

What is the funniest moment of the year? It's hard to recall all of the crazy things that happened in those 8.5 months at school, but I've come up with a list of nominees. I'll briefly describe each event to jog your memory and then you should vote on it at the bottom of this post.

Teets getting drilled in the nose at Regionals.
We're playing a hot zone D and we get Kalamazoo trapped on the line. Their player decides to punt it with a big huck. Teets has other plans for the disc and jumps right in front of it. He successfully stops the huck with his nose. Teet's nose is not nearly as strong as his desire to stop a huck, so it promptly gushes blood as he grimaces in pain. And as we all know, pain is hilarious.

Snaps getting antiqued.
This moment was extra special for those of us not in Snap's van because this was right after a MOAB domination. Snaps thought he'd take the liberty of pouring piss all over our van (handles, window, doors, everything...). After he triumphantly walks away thinking he's the man, Pete blindsides him with a handful of flour. Snaps get ruined and his face/sweatshirt are covered in flour. All he can think to say is "Hi my name is Snaps and I just got fucking powder all over my face."

The Banana Condom.
This incident has become some instant Mardi Gras folklore. Some members of the team decided to fill a condom full of squashed up banana. Disgusting in its own right, the condom was used to make a fellow teammate nervous. As Gator dangles the mess over Phil, it happens. The condom bursts open. Phil is covered with a horrific mess of banana. Phil is pushed over the edge and goes postal. I heard accounts that this single event was the funniest thing they had ever seen and that the moment was the best part of Mardi Gras.

Lake of Fire (Hour long song game).
Who would have ever imagined surviving one song for an entire hour in a car trip? Staring down one song for an entire hour for 13 hours is a ominous threat. When one van coming back from Mardi Gras decides to make this their goal, a new dynamic is born. Misery reigns, singing is required, and laughing is non-stop.

Anything Snaps said on the way down to Mardi Gras.
If you are thinking about the ride down to Mardi Gras and what happened, you are remembering something Snaps did. With too much alcohol in him and enough energy drinks for an elephant to go nuts, Snaps was a one man show. So this one is any moment that you experience via Snaps on the way down. It was truly a spectacle.

Beffel steathly tickling Phil's ear at Huck Finn.
This was unbelievable. Phil was sitting on the sideline of another game during our bye. Most of the team was on the bleachers behind the game. With Phil's eyes on the game, Jason gets on the ground, does the army crawl towards Phil. He takes a piece of grass and starts to tickle his ear. With no one else in the vicinity, everyone thinks Beffel will get busted within seconds but Phil brushes the first few off as bugs. Beffel gets more daring and for the next 5-10 minutes Beffel pokes Phil with a blade of grass. The entire team is laughing while he is laying flat on the ground behind Phil without him suspecting a thing.

Phil getting barricaded in the port-o-pot.
The morning before games on day 2 of Mardi Gras, Max, Doug, Future, and Phil went to the bathroom. It was a few hundred yards from our field so they took the van. After Phil went into one of them, the three others took the van and backed up right next to the door. With the bumper touching the door, Phil tries to exit. He's greeting with about an inch of light and nowhere to go. Nothing like getting trapped in a confined space with human excrement.

Fudge and Snaps scissoring.
After the South Park episode where Mrs. Garrison thinks that the only way two women can make love is to scissor, we had our own scissoring escapades. Snaps was extremely drunk for his birthday and (I'm hoping) Fudge was drunk as well. I told Fudge that he should scissor Snaps as a birthday present. He agreed. The entire room was in on it and we told Snaps that we wanted to sing him happy birthday. So he came in thinking he was going to get a birthday homage, but instead he gets greeted with Fudge's skinny legs wrapped around his for a ridiculous scissor.

Teets laying out 3 seconds after a disc is caught by a receiver.
There are many of these incidents. Each time they get funnier. I could never control laughter in practice when I would hear the clap of a caught disc turn around and see Teets about to lay out. A good three counts in the stall could have been completed, but instead Teets decides he's going to lay out just to save face for getting beat under. There is a picture from Sectionals of the disc on the ground with Teets at least 2 feet up, totally horizontal bidding for it. He proceeded to get injured and take himself out, ruining our line against OU.

Dax hitting the back of Teet's head at a gas station.
This is a dark horse. I put this on there because it got the biggest laugh during the Mardi Gras video. Dax comes up to me at a gas station and says "hey, do you want me to start hitting people on the head?" Of course I'm not going to turn down this cinematic gold, so he proceeds to find some people to hit. Dax was obviously jealous that Teets was blessed with incredible intelligence and all he got was ADD, so he ran over and smacked him over the head.

The "shake" incident at Steak and Shake where Max got his nickname.
Not too many people were there for this, but I loved this moment. A chocolate shake was spilled on our table and I was immediately troubled to see this waste of a shake. Everyone starts to get drink some of the spilled shake off of the various things it spilled on. It was a frenzy. After someone took a huge lick off a napkin, I yelled at Max to to lick some of the shake. Without thinking he takes it and with enormous swipe of his tongue, owns that napkin after another guy had slobbered all over it.

Big Syl.
It can be actually walking out of the restaurant with a huge cardboard cut out of a 6'6 women's basketball player. It can be her presence in the port-o-pot and startling that Texas guy. It can be her gorgeous eyes and beautiful smile (well that's not funny, just true). A lot of funny things happened in and around Big Syl during Mardi Gras and after, until everyone verbally defiled her and Chuck made inappropriate advances...

So those are the nominations for funniest moment of the year. I imagine there are some I missed, but that's a good bunch right there. Take a minute, think hard, and then vote for your favorite.

Cognitive Ultimate

2007-06-04T10:24:00.000-03:00

Analyzing the sport an athlete plays is an essential for those who play at high levels. College and professional athletes study plays, concepts, and tape for hours. They need this mental strength to be able to compete. So many players have the size, speed, and the physical strength, but the mental aspects to an athletes' game is what can separate them. So why should ultimate be any different?

Granted, these guys are either doing this for a living or getting a free college education, so the time they put in is required to be much greater. On a smaller scale though, mastering the nuiances of ultimate can show a wide disparity between players. Many people play ultimate on a very surface level and run around on the field with little thought to what they are doing. However, the complexities of ultimate are significant and an important tool for each player.

I'll post some concepts that develop a players' "ultimate intelligence." The first of which will be the mental processes involved in completing a pass:

Throwing the disc to a teammate is not simply aiming for their chest and releasing. You have to evaluate the type of cut, positioning of defender, speed of the receiver, etc. There are many factors involved in a throw, but no one is going to have time to sit there and evaluate the best course of action. It is helpful to think of these things now, so it becomes a quick, natural response for you on the field.

If someone is making an in cut to the open side throwing the disc right at them is not the right decision. Never look at a cutter and think of him in his present state, think of how the play will develop as a result of your throw. Where will he be? What angle is he cutting at? How fast is he going? You should throw the disc to space, where the receiver will be and can position himself so his defender does not have a play. Noticing if the defender is baiting or has a play on the disc is crucial, because one or two steps can be made up when someone is horizontal getting the D. However, there are many instances when a defender is two steps behind the receiver but you can properly place the disc so the defender does not have a play on the disc. It's all about placement and giving your receiver the advantage. Make it difficult for the defender to get the disc; give your receiver the best body position.

If you see a receiver making an out cut, you should not just launch the disc in his general direction. Recognize where his defender is and what advantage your receiver has. If he has 15 feet on him, put the disc right out in front of him and have him run onto it. If they are closer together but there is a wide open break side, put an IO throw to space on the break side. The defender will be out of position and the disc will curve toward your receiver. If you see a cutter beating his man to the open side, throw a hard OI huck to him so that it doesn't float and the disc curves towards him.

There are no viable options upfield, and now you're making a dump throw. Your dump has made a move and wants a big swing. Release low to the ground and put some float on the disc so that you can lead your receiver and he can run onto it. He now has momentum and steps on his defender that leads to a big breakside look. He makes a move and is coming right up close for a quick dump. Snap your wrist and put lots of spin on the disc. Make sure that it is a real throw that gets to your teammate; the wobbly, floaty dumps in those situations lead to Ds or unforced errors. Now your dump has decided to go strike. Don't laser a disc at him as he's coming across. Put some touch on the disc and lead him. Put him in good position to quickly look upfield and get some good open side flow.

These are a few of the things you should be thinking about when figuring out what the right throw is for different situations. For some select writings on cognitive ultimate skills from guys who know much more than I do, check some of these posts out:

http://parinella.blogspot.com/2007/06/purposeful-walking.html
http://zazman.blogspot.com/2005/08/turnover-compact.html
http://www.shelltown.com/~parinell/disc.htm (click "Marking" on the left hand side)

Top 10

2007-05-31T09:36:00.000-03:00

Top 10 Skills We Need To Work On:

1. FUNDAMENTALS
One of the biggest problems with our team was lack of execution on the easy stuff. We were plagued with drops and throw aways on easy looks. Eliminating drops and completing the pass to the open man is essential. Fundamentals also includes having solid backhands and flicks, and being versatile in their use by completing passes in various situations.

2. Man Defense
Everything that goes along with man defense, we need to work on. This was a crucial weakness for us. Staying with a man under, contesting the disc underneath, being able to run deep with him, reading the disc, getting position, going up for the disc at the right time, etc. Everyone needs to get faster, be able to jump higher, and play smarter for our man defense to work.

3. Quick Movement of the Disc
To keep the offense fluid and create open looks it is imperative that the disc does not get stagnant. Quick swings from the handlers, open side flow from the cutters, quick dumps after an in cut, etc. These are musts to run an effective offense.

4. Value the Disc
Turns were a major issue this year. Games will go quicker and smoother against mid-level teams if we do not turn the disc multiple times in a point. Not turning the disc over every point will, in itself, propel this team to a new level. By valuing the disc more after we get the turn, we can have meaningful defensive breaks and an offense that expects to score off the pull. This will win us the close game or speed up the easier ones.

5. Hucks
It is crucial in the type of horizontal/spread offense we run to have a deep threat. We cannot only have certain players with the ability to hit a receiver on an out cut. Everyone must be able to huck the disc. The offense will become more versatile and teams will have to honor the deep, exposing the defense to easier throws under.

6. Break Throws
Simply, you need to be able to break a mark.

7. Laying Out
Every person has played at least one full year of college level ultimate, and most have played at least 2 years. By now, it is a must that you are able to lay out. This is necessary for a big D or running down an overthrown disc. A lay out is not the "I tried real hard by running to the disc and did a sliding fall as I got it." Leave your feet and get parallel to the ground.

8. Marking the Disc
Too many guys get broken easily and play lazy on the mark. Don't look at marking as your time to rest. Be constantly active, move your feet, keep your weight evenly distributed over your feet, do not overcommit to fakes, etc. Be mad that your guy beat you to the disc and shut him down on the mark.

9. Cycling in a Horizontal Stack
Our offense has improved greatly, but cutters need to more effectively utilize working off each other. If you make an in cut that doesn't work, go break side and let another guy come in for the disc. Then you are in position to go deep or come back under for open side flow. Communicate and work together as you find the right open space to cut to.

10. Composure With the Disc/Fakes
When you get the disc don't start getting ancy and rotating like crazy on your pivot foot. Keep calm and assess what the right move is. Do not wildly throw fakes when you get the disc, make your fakes matter. Throw "real throw" fakes and/or move your body to create space. Do not erraticly or lazily throw meaningless fakes.

This is by no means a completely comprehensive list, but it is a good focus for summer. Focus on these skills in summer league, at pick up, etc. Make sure you come to school in the fall and have made great strides in these areas. It will immeasurably help you as an individual but more importantly improve our team.

Top 10

2007-05-29T15:15:00.001-03:00

Top 10 Concepts To Improve This Team:

1. Committment
- Practice, conditioning, and tournaments cannot be something that you do when you feel like it. Be there, period.

2. Look to improve everyday
- During pre-practice tossing don't throw all scoobers or low release thumbers. Don't slack off during drills or scrimmaging. Play intense at practice. Use each facet of every practice to better your game. Do not waste any of the 2 hours we spend down on 73.

3. No Excuses
- Everyone has social, academic, and other obligations. Don't constantly find excuses why you can't show up.

4. Time Management
- Going off #3...Everyone here is going to college. We all have schoolwork to do. Manage your time well and be responsible academically so that you can make each practice and tournament.

5. Self-Motivate
- There is only so much the leadership and team can do to get you pumped and working hard. Get yourself individually motivated to work out on your own and get excited during games.

6. Don't Be Selfish
- Don't put yourself above the team and feel that you are entitled to something. Whether it is more playing time, a certain position on the field, etc. Prove it by your attedance and performance on the field.

7. Be Responsible
- Be on time. Be prepared in the mornings of tournaments. Pay dues on time. Do all the little things that you must take care of as an individual.

8. Push Your Teammates
- When you are throwing with a teammate, give them advice on their throws. Work together to get better. Find a partner to work out with and push each other to run faster and longer. We're in this together and need to push each other forward.

9. Watch Elite Level Players
- There is a certain level of play that the pick up games or scrimmages you've played in can show you. Buy a DVD and watch the way these guys throw, cut, mark, etc. You can then take these skills and elevate your game and the team's game.

10. Recognize
- Realize that this is THE season for Miami Ultimate. We have never had this much potential and this much at stake. In your college ultimate careers you are lucky if you get the chance to do something special. We have lost 3 player in 3 years. You WON'T get a chance like this again. Make the most of it and make it a year you'll always remember.

Watching the best...trying to be the best. Nationals 2007.

2007-05-27T22:37:00.000-03:00

Nationals is always an exciting time. Watching the best players in the nation is an extremely fun and humbling experience. Last year there was no serious talk about Miami being a part of that tournament, but this year there was a different tone. Whether delivered in jest or not, many Boogiemen had the sentiment that this was a goal we needed to be aiming for. I was even approached by Mr. Hamilton, and essentially interrogated on the things I was going to do on a personal level and the things the team needed to do as a whole to get to Nationals next year. I was startled by how upfront he was about it, but it was cool to see the honest enthusiasm about the goal.

Besides having three days of carefree fun, lots of food, and a good time with friends, I think that we all must take something very serious from our weekend in Columbus. Watching these players should show us how hard we need to work to become a top team. Not only that, but the nuiances of how they play the game is something everyone must take away. Their throws, cuts, marks, intensity, and everything else. I make it a point to emulate elite players to develop my game. We are still in the transition phase of our ultimate careers and have by no means arrived, so what better than to take "advice" from the best?

Snaps and I drove home to Oxford together and had an important conversation. It was clear that we both want to take our game and the team to the next level. This was a continuing series of discussions we have been having regarding the team. We are constantly thinking of ways that we can take this team to the top and truly make 2008 the year to remember. The two of us are dedicated to leading this team on an unforgettable journey. While we are figuring how ways to get us there, it is imperative every player is working intensely to make this a reality when school starts.

362 days until Nationals 2008...it is up to each person on the Miami roster to decide whether we will be on the fields or in the stands.

Spring 2007 (recap)

2007-05-23T14:31:00.001-03:00

The fall ended on a high note and this team felt that it could be good. With nothing to hang our hats on, it was time to go to work.

The winter sessions were productive but had fluctuating attendance levels. We used to be able to reserve gym space twice a week for indoor practice, but this year we were only able to secure one evening a week. The mid-week indoor practices that were held saw a good number of players attending on a consistent basis. The conditioning practices were not nearly as frequently attended however. This provides for a disconnect for team cohesiveness but the number of players coming were definitely higher than previous years, so we dealt with what we had.

Indoor practices get frustrating because you can only do so much, but we made the best use of the space. We were able to focus on key throwing, cutting, and defensive skills in a controlled and focused environment. The level of effectiveness and subsequent success of the drills and conceptual discussions are definitely mixed and uncertain. Overall it was cool to see players becoming better and smarter players after a semester of play.

As indoor starts to wind down the dwindling of numbers is apparent. The decrease in numbers specifically came from the new crop of players. Fraternities started rushing, the rising committiment and intensity levels, and the losing of interest are all contributions that the team has to face. So we took inventory of our team and it became apparent who wanted to be a part of our climb out of mediocrity. In the end we're a stronger for it, because once it becomes clear who the team is, and who is dedicated, something special can come out of that.

The first tournament of the year started off with a bang. Almost too much of a bang. 6-1 and a 2nd place showing at Arctic Vogue got this team pumped. With this kind of start a team on the brink (of being "ok" to a good, competitive ultimate team) can get undeservedly confident and complacent. The team mentality on the whole did not shift towards a "we have arrived" attitude. However, our fiery start was not the catalyst for consistently high levels of play throughout the spring. This team was filled with players who had been waiting years to get good, but it was clear that a good fall and a solid first tournament does not make you anything in the college ultimate scene.

Mardi Gras is the trip of champions. We drive endlessly, weaving through cars with confederate flags, getting saturated with Waffle House signs, and being delighted by the sweet landscape that is Mississippi. There is far too much that happens on this trip to do it justice here. The Mardi Gras '07 movie tells the story much better than the rhetorical skills I learned in English 112 can. The tournament itself was the start of the roller coaster. A devestating loss to Ole Miss robbed us of the chance to finally make the pre-quarters of the championship bracket. Recent Miami teams have not faired well at the tournament, and a first game loss dashed our high hopes. We rallied to win the next three games and got second in our pool, but going 1-1 on day 2 did not prove to be the weekend on a national stage we had hoped for.

Huck of the Irish was a great performance by a small roster. We only had about half the team there but got a couple of key pick ups to subsidize our numbers. We made the quarters of a high caliber 32 team field and got knocked out by eventual champions, Delaware. The weekend was full of gritty play by a lineup plagued with injuries and lack of numbers.

The next three weeks were the lowest point of the Boogiemen's season. Embarassingly and infuriatingly low practice attendance plagued the seemingly skeleton of a team. It seemed like as quickly as the team ascended to brink of being a competitive team, that it dissolved into single digit numbers at practice and frustrating games of mini...over and over. You can't expect to be good when a team abandons practice and shows up when they want. The effects of this trend painfully played out at Huck Finn and Boogie Nights. Truly poor performances at both tournaments shattered the feeling that we were going to make waves in the College Series.

These harsh wake up calls to painful realities provided no boost to the ailing practices. Scant attendance at practice and a mountain of excuses did nothing to get the team back on track. The East Plains field looked daunting as a result. However the morning of April 14th something changed...
With a full team lining the fields at Versailles, the Boogiemen were fired up. There was never a doubt that this team had the potential and big time players, it was a matter of putting it all out there at once. Miami came out excited, storming the field after every point. As we ran faster and got louder, each team we played walked back to the line slower and found nothing to cheer about. We marched through pool play with hardly a scratch. Stifiling zone defense and a patient offense that executed with precision showed that Miami utilizes the rain and wind to their advantage. No team managed to score more than 4 points on us all day.

It was quite a turn of events and the feeling of this team fulfilling its potential hit us like a ton of bricks. We started to see what we could do and we were in the midst of something special.

Day 2 pitted us against Ohio State in the semi finals. This proved to be our only loss of the weekend. After this, we stormed through the rest of the field with scores of 15-2 (Dayton), 13-0 (Ohio Wesleyan), and 11-2 (Ohio University). Omitting the OSU loss, our total score differential was +77 on the weekend. Outscoring opponents 91-14. Miami secured the #2 spot in the East Plains Section and for the first time in most likely a decade or more, someone other than OSU, OU, or Oberlin took 1st and 2nd.

I remember standing looking out at the field where we won our backdoor final game and being elated. I had never felt so proud and I couldn't help but get choked up. A team building itself out of nothing, became the second best ultimate team in three states. Fighting through miserable cold in the 30s and 40s, unpredictable rain, and fields soaked with water I savored the feeling as I stood speechless in Versailles.

This team hadn't gone to Regionals in over 5 years, so needless to say it was a new experience. This was the best tournament any of the players had been to in their college careers and we knew we had quite a road ahead of us. The next two weeks were filled with excitement and anticipation of what was to come.

Rantoul, Illinois was the site of the Great Lakes Regional tournament. Miami showed up ready to play. With a controversial 6th seed in the tournament, we were seeded as one of the top teams in the region. We knew these few games would be our only chance to prove that we had arrived as a legitimate team in the Great Lakes Region. We came out strong, and with only a slight hiccup in the middle of the game, took charge of the first game against Kalamazoo (15-9).

The next game was against eventual winner, Indiana. Bloomington had the tournament of their lives and needless to say we caught them on the upswing in the second round. A 15-7 loss did not shattered our hopes though. We rebounded with a relatively comfortable 15-11 victory over a fellow East Plains team in Ohio Wesleyan. With this win we were at worst in the top half of the Region.

Our 4th game of the day pitted us against a tough and talented Notre Dame team. This was a game of "win and play day 2 or lose and you're done." Miami came out on fire and took a 4-1, then 6-2 lead. Notre Dame was shaken by the zone defense and tried to regroup. Notre Dame did not just regroup, they went on a tear. A complete dismantling of the Boogiemen ensued. We brokedown, became a shell of a team, and Notre Dame went on to win 15-8. It was an absolute melt down but throughout the course of the day we played hard. We played inspired. That's all I could have asked for. We ended the tournament as the 7/8th seed and I could hardly be more proud of our accomplishment.

After the game I was not upset at our loss, I was overwhelmed by a whole new set of feelings. I looked back at the season. I looked back on three years of playing. This team had gone from a scrappy group of unrefined ultimate players as a freshman to a group of guys who were talented and competitive in the college ultimate scene. I looked back on the rainy nights I spent alone on a track doing workouts to get myself and my team better. It was worth it. I had completely immersed myself in Miami Ultimate and looked to build a winning program. It was a surreal feeling to have accomplished what we did and again I looked out towards the field and tried to hide the tears forming in my eyes. Even long after the game, a hug from a departing senior made me feel overwhelmed. We had been through so much together. We played the College Series with pride, discipline, and a zealous excitement that brought an uncontrollable smile to my face. The 2007 College Series was a dream.

This team is only losing 2 players next year. Despite those two losses being important players, we have quite a year to look forward to. We now know we can be good and win big games. We now know we have a program with a serious year ahead of them. The Miami Boogiemen have built the foundation for a team poised to make a run towards something great.

Fall 2006 (recap)

2007-05-23T14:28:00.000-03:00

The fall was filled with anticipation. We had a pretty poor team the year before, but were only losing one player that competed in the College Series with us. So we were excited for the season to come with a roster full of seasoned veterans. The outlook for the season was littered with question marks. Mainly, what direction is this team going to go? There was the possibility to be very good, but Miami had no history of doing what it takes to become champions. The fall was a test for this team about where we were going and if we had what it took to get there. I knew I wanted to convince this team that we could become a winning program. We needed to have the mindset that we were a competitive team.

I actually wrote this following recap on 11.25.06 soon after our season and felt it's appropriate to share:
"Our overall record was 33-12, we won 2 tournaments, and placed 5^th at David Baldwin. These were the statistical accolades that put the numerical emphasis on our transformation as a team. However the intangible aspects that have grown among this team are the things that will takes us places in the spring. We’re on the road to being a good team. We’ve started to condition, practice with a purpose, work on meaningful skills, and see ourselves as a team with serious ambition. We are by no means there yet, nor are we even close to established, but it’s an evolution. The mentality the team has taken on is unprecedented for Miami University. This has never been a team that has played on a real competitive stage. There have been some good players through the years, but Miami is not a team that people dread to see in their pools at tournaments. This team has the potential to be different, but the fall means nothing in the world of real college ultimate so we have to be cautious. The fall did mean something for us though, it signified change, it signified a new path."

More detail on specific tournaments isn't necessary because the spring semester is the focus in the college game. However I think the overall positives from the fall really propelled this team into a new era of ultimate at Miami. The old guard had left and so did the philosophies. This was a new team, with new goals, and unprecedented potential.

Here is a link to a highlight reel I made for a tournament called the David Baldwin Memorial Tournament:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1728478421000816319&q=Miami+Ultimate

2007 Results and Incoming Freshman

2007-05-21T16:14:00.000-03:00

College Series Results:
Miami University placed 2nd in the East Plains Section and 7/8th in the Great Lakes Region.

If you are an incoming freshman at Miami and you came across this webpage please feel free to contact either of the captains with questions regarding the team. We are extremely excited for this upcoming season and encourage anyone viewing this to please contact us at MiamiUltimate@gmail.com.