except 1. Took the LSAT on Saturday. Had a near brush with disaster as "police activity" shut down the freeway for 40 minutes and I showed up late, but it worked out in the end as everything was behind schedule anyway. Shooting for a 170, but we'll see come October 27th.
2. First Regionals weekend. I had to take the LSAT while my squad was battling the finest teams in the country in terrible weather in the good ol NW. Highlight: Shy handblocks Tim Gehret on one goalline and skies him on the other one all in the same point. Not bad, but not THIS: Anyway, we could only get 9 guys (plus Ollie and Joaq) up to Burlington which is a bummer, but I am excited to get my hands on the sweet jerseys finally.
3. Looking for a job. Any suggestions?
4. Apparently Beau lives in Oakland now. Not that I am excited about running into him at the store or anything.
5. Decided to give Google Reader a chance. I love clicking on the same 57 (literally) links over and over again (truthfully) but perhaps this will take away an excuse to spend so much time on the old comp.
6. Trying to beat Minesweeper with a custom grid: Expert size, 145 mines instead of 99. My best so far is 140.
7. Almost done with the Sopranos. I think I can admit that it is better than The Wire, and while I still am very fond of Dexter, Sops is right up there with it. Hm, that is a lot of violence.
My apologies in advance for a less detailed Day 2 recap than Day 1, but I guess that’s what happens when I wait a week and a half to post.
Game 5 (Semifinals): Jam (6-15).
Just like the game with Revolver, we were pretty excited for this game.It’s always fun to test yourself against the best, of course.Well, the game started out disastrously, and I’m not sure why.We got broken something crazy like 6 times to start the game.Whether we were running strings, horizontal, or zone O, we kept making uncharacteristic mistakes and Jam was capitalizing on all of them.Jam really brought the defensive intensity on the downfield cutters, making the cuts that had been easy against every other team (including Revolver) ineffective.And when we got a good deep look up, we either botched the throws or the defenders were fast enough to reel in and get D’s.The second half was a little better as we were able to get more offensive flow, but we got totally crushed (as is evidenced by the score).This either means that Jam is way better than Revolver or that we just crapped the bed against Jam, but I’m inclined toward believing the former for now.On the positive side, I had a couple more filthy skies.The first was on zone O.We got the disc over the cup and I had a step on Taylor Cascino who was playing deep deep.The throw went up toward the back of the end zone.Greg Husak came bearing down from one of the wings.I went up early and grabbed it high over Cascino and with Hollywood right on my back.A few points later we were in zone O again, and a throw went up to the deep middle of the field.Cascino was the deep again, and this time I absolutely killed it, just ripped it down over him. That play almost made the beating they administered worth it. HA.As for personnel, they were without Bart Watson (wearing flats) and Damien Scott (not there), but I believe the rest of their roster was playing.I was especially impressed with how good their roster was top to bottom.The guys I didn’t recognize actually impressed me more than the “name” players like Boo, Idris, Namkung, etc. with the exception of Gabe Saunkeah who has got to be their best player.I came away more impressed with Jam than I have ever been before, but I am still skeptical that they’ll be able to overcome the dynamism of Sockeye and Bravo at nationals.
Game 6 (Backdoor): Berkeley Y (15-5).
Uh, we won easy.If anything memorable happened, I forget what it was. Instead, enjoy the smooth moves and smooth grooves of The Chi-Lites!
Game 7 (2nd Place Play-In Game): YR (8-15).
YR proved once and for all that they are the superior team, taking the rubber match in a 3 game series of blowouts.The game came down to battle of O lines vs D lines (naturally).I think that with us, our top players play on the O line and then whoever is fresh ends up on the D line.This works out fine when our O line is scoring all our points and the D line only needs a couple breaks to win.Unfortunately for us, I think the opposite is true for YR.In my mind, their D line is superior to their O line AND to our O line (at least during this game).They kept getting breaks, so we weren’t giving our D opportunities to break for us.Our D was doing a decent job of getting turns but didn’t have the personnel necessary to punch in breaks.On the other hand, their D line was in so much better shape than our O line that once they got the disc it was off to the races for them.It was tough for me to go out with a loss to a rival like this, but the blow was softened by knowing that they definitely deserved the victory—not just because they outperformed us, but because they have all clearly invested more time, work, care into their squad than we did into ours.
Wrap-up
And so ends my 2008 club season.Though SCUC will be making the trek up to the Great Pacific Northwest to fight the good fight, I will be sitting in a cramped desk somewhere in Hayward taking the LSAT.Too bad the regionals date wasn’t announced until after I had to decide which sitting of the LSAT to take…Perhaps I am cursed as a club player.My freshman year the Brains played at sectionals, and I had a sprained ankle and couldn’t play.My sophomore year I finally had learned how to throw a flick, and we were HOSTING club sectionals.On the first or second point of the first game on Saturday, I laid out for a deep goal and jammed every one of my fingers on my right hand into the ground, tearing ligaments in my ring, middle, and index fingers.There went that sectionals, and that flick.Junior year I played! And we almost beat PBR Streetgang, a nationals team!My senior year was my first playing with a real club team, Monster.I had been fighting various injuries all summer – knee problems, Achilles problems, and a dull ache in my foot.None of it was stuff I couldn’t play through, but I went to the doctor to make sure there was nothing serious.Well, this quack told me I had a stress fracture in my foot…but refused to give me a bone scan.I dutifully stayed off it at sectionals and regionals as I had to watch Monster not play up to our potential.Soon after, I saw my uncle, a great doctor himself, at some family function.He took a look at the foot and told me it was metatarsalgia, which basically just means that one of your metatarsals hurts.The cure? Wear a little pad in my cleat under the ball of my foot.Problem solved, infuriatingly.And now this year, playing with a fun group of guys who are all ballers, I have to miss regionals in my own backyard.
The pressure to post about Sectionals has come to a head thanks to a shoutout from cultimate.blogspot.com, which means I’ll be getting vicarious Ultimate Talk hits for the first time since DLK’s blog went under.Although perhaps those readers might be more interested in the Labor Day post below than in reading about SCUC/the Scum Bags…
Game 1: Berkeley Y (13-5).What a delightful way to start a tournament.Not being too concerned with my immediate impact on this game, I took the slow cleat-up, slow warm-up that has been my modus operandi for the club season.I suppose this stems from the fact that I don’t have the same level of motivation with this team that I did with Claremont where I was a leader both on and off the field.Anyway, we lost a Bear Ninja Cowboy battle for jersey color meaning that we didn’t get to sport our new jerseys white t-shirts with ScumBagz (or was it SamBagz? SourBagz) stenciled on them by an intoxicated Yeager the night before.Incidentally, Bear Ninja Cowboy is one of my least favorite things in ultimate, right up there with 1. People fouling intentionally, 2. People not knowing the damn 11th edition rules, and 3. People on blog comments who bash others for posting anonymously even though no one knows who the hell you are just because you put some nickname or even your real name out there (looking at you here “Handy”).There are usually 1-2 people on the team that suggests BNC that are in to it, and usually 0 people on the suggestee team who are.Whoopee.Even worse, they declined Shy’s offer to play Dick or Balls!The game itself produced only two memorable moments for me.The first was Shy getting a huge layout D near the goal line on the first point of the game.The second: even though Berkeley had one the BNC in order to go white, one of their kids was wearing Cal yellow.Our team was wearing all sorts of darks since we have no real jerseys yet, so it annoyed me a little that this guy was wearing a dark.I borrowed an identical shade of yellow jersey from Gomez and ran onto the D line specifically to guard this guy.I figured I would get to show this guy who is yellow boss and shame him into changing by shutting him down.Besides, I think he was a B-teamer.We pull, they come out in vert stack, my man at the front of the stack.We are literally wearing the same color jersey, everyone on our sideline is having a good laugh, and I am feeling pretty good about how clever I am.I front the guy because I don’t want any short breaks going to him from the handlers.He immediately sprints deep.Burned.Huck actually hits him in stride, easy goal.I shamefully walk back to the sideline and take off the yellow when no one is looking.In retrospect, I guess it WAS hilarious.Just not in the way I had planned.
Game 2: J-Men (15-9).This game was ostensibly a grudge match for the blip that occurred in Chico.This time we didn’t play like idiots and release their cutters deep when their huckers had the disc.That one simple move led to an easy victory.Now, allow me to rant about a certain J-Man.I considered devoting an entire post to this guy but decided that might be excessive.I am talking about #44.My first encounter with this guy was at the Stanford Invite Qualifier in 2006 (which we won, and subsequently won 2 pool play games and made quarterfinals at the Invite… sound familiar?).The details are mostly hazy, but he managed to turn our whole team against him.First he ridiculously undercut Stout on a huck, leading to the famous exhortation “YOU need to learn some body control!”Later, he did something (I forget what) that caused the SMIN (Sweetest Man In Ultimate), Gordy, to curse at him.An incredible feat, to be sure.Flash forward to this summer… We are playing the J-Men at Chico, and this guy keeps bulldozing people.They love to put him in the cup and on swings he works up his speed and just bowls into the thrower.Everyone’s upset, and on the sideline Shy tells the story of this guy from the Qualifier.Well, the floodgates open and all sorts of people from different playing backgrounds have angry stories about this guy.Then, the Rhino highlight video from Chico comes out .There’s the one shot of him SHOVING a Rhino player (at 1:00), and another of a really dangerous attempted tripping (at 1:24).Now imagine this: game point at sectionals, somehow this guy is guarding me and I burn him deep.The throw goes up and is floating down near the back of the end zone, meaning I have to slow down to avoid running out of bounds.The disc is floating up there right in my peak jump range, with #44 bearing down on me from behind.Needless to say, I am terrified of getting my neck broken on the way down as I get rammed.Instead of jumping high and snatching it, I take a little hop, grab the disc at the last second, and brace for impact.Luckily I caught the score just in time, so #44 opts to merely run into me and bump me for a few yards instead of wrecking me in the air. Success!I was going to end this tangent by saying ‘I don’t actually know the guy, he must be alright,’ but then I re-watched the tripping in the Rhino video at 1:24.What a sack of shit.
Game 3: Revolver (9-15).This game was a LOT of fun for our team.I was worried that we might come out and crap the bed since the SC guys are so into Revolver, but we came out very strong.Our offense was doing pretty well and our D was fantastic, getting layout D’s and scoring breaks.We were as close as 7-6 before they pulled away.Highlights: Jaycuzzi getting a sick poach layout block near their goalline on one of the first points of the game; me just roofing Ian Ranahan on a huck.I’ve gotta say, it was one of my dirtier skys; getting to matchup against some of the players I look up to like Seth Wiggins, Martin Cochran, etc.Lowlights: I am always surprised when people at such a high level make the same types of bad calls that low level college ultimate players make.I threw a goal, but I had to contest a stall on Sherwood when he pulled the classic “Seven, Eight, Nineten! Stall!”Luckily the proceeding swill I threw up on the restart was sooo bad that Revolver didn’t see it coming and we scored anyway.Another example: I’m marking Seth force flick at mid-field.I’m a little too close so he calls disc space and I drop a count.He pivots into me and we make solid contact, then he pivots back to flick and calls the pivot foul after looking upfield for a whole count.Sure I fouled you earlier, but you cant go back later and call when it’s no longer affecting you.No big deal, but I was just surprised.This game made it clear that the difference between a team like SCUC and a team like Revolver has more to do with fitness and game pace then skill.I felt like we were matching them in defensive intensity and in throwing, but we weren’t proficient with the disc when guarded by such good athletes, and forced bad quick throws.To me, this means for next year working on plain old conditioning and on being comfortable with the disc with an elite mark on while cutters and dumps are all well defended.
Game 4 (Quarterfinals): Missing Little White Girls (15-12).This game was against a bunch of retired Bay Area players (or so I was told.I don’t yet have face and name recognition with Bay players as with NW and SW players).They definitely had the throws, and were good athletes if not in shape.I recognized Jason Seidler, but no one on their team was in domination mode.I don’t remember many specifics about this game, besides that it was good and clean.
TD Critique:The tournament left some things to be desired.I’m not sure who ran it, but when I attend a tournament, these are some things I expect: food (bagels/bananas), water (there was water on day 2; not sure if there was on day 1 but if so it wasn’t publicized), cones (Joaq had to put up his own cones on day 1), and an airhorn or at least some time of round notification system.It was strange that despite lacking all these amenities, there were port-a-fields for all.Let them eat cake!Still, I appreciated the 2 hour per round format which allowed for full games and breaks between each game.
This post will be split into 3 parts: Part 1, The State of the Jughead; Part 2, Discos the Bad Half; and Part 3, Discos the Good Half.
Part 1: The State of the Jughead
This section is both a bit about me and an awesome set of excuses about why I stunk up the fields at Chico.At first I didn’t want to make any excuses for my play, but in the past few days since the tournament I’ve realized that this time, it’s fair to make excuses because of the specific circumstances.
So, I returned from my trip to Central America last Friday night.The trip was a blast, etc.Our flight from Miami to SFO was delayed a couple hours, so we ended up missing the last BART and having to beg our housemate for a ride.We got back to the house around 2:30 AM, unpacked, and went to bed.I didn’t end up falling asleep until 4:30 AM.I woke up at 6:30 to get a ride up to Chico with Joaq and Shy (Joaq, my oatmeal bowl is still in your car and I need it back!).So there’s my first excuse: 2 hours of sleep following a day of traveling.
I also had a cold.Big deal, you might say.Well, this one is a doozy.All week long I have been blowing my nose constantly.The insides of my nostrils burn from all the wiping I have done.That’s my second excuse.
The final excuse is the most legitimate of them all.I seem to have acquired an intestinal parasite in Latin America.Want to know about it?It’s called Blastocystitis.I’ll save you the trouble: even Google doesn’t really know about it.A search brings up 570 results with not much information.But I’ll tell you what I know about it: it makes you crap your pants off.I was bad enough at the tournament, having to go all the time throughout the day.It’s been even worse this week.Every meal I eat only stays in for a few hours.Because I can’t absorb enough nutrients, I eat even more.Needless to say it’s a nasty cycle.
So that’s that.3 excuses for my poor play in Chico.Oh, and I had Scabies too.
Part 2: Discos the Bad Half
Game 1: Last Call.I think most of the players on our team hadn’t heard of Last Call and looked past them a little bit.We came out a little bit sloppy on offense, throwing Casper hucks to no one, and our defense wasn’t generating turnovers.It was a decent game, but Last Call just out-executed us to take a 13-9 victory.
Game 2: YR.This was one of the most pathetic games I’ve participated in in recent memory.Even worse than Darkhorse v. D’oh at Potlatch.Worse than anything from this past college season.I really was in a daze during this game.I absolutely dropped an easy huck, and was playing pathetic defense.I think the 95 degree heat combined with my dehydration from the parasite and cold came to a head here, and I shouldn’t have been playing in retrospect.After slogging through one hell point midway through the game, I didn’t have anything left in the tank.I collapsed under our tent and laid on my back for the rest of the game, breathing heavily the whole time.I felt my body temperature must have been through the roof.The rest of SCUC wasn’t as bad as I was, but the whole team was extremely sloppy and YR dispatched us without much trouble, 13-7.Two personnel notes: 808 claims to have thrown 0 hucks and 0 turnovers over the course of the whole tournament.Bob, my heart breaks for you.Also, I have been impressed by Greg Marliave these two times we have played YR.I hadn’t previously noticed him play, but I like the way I have seen him play this season.
Game 3: J-Men.This was one of the strangest experiences I’ve had at an ultimate game.Still feeling week from the previous round, I mailed it in for this game, expecting a quick and easy victory.Both offenses came out really hot, throwing huge hucks to wide open receivers.I wasn’t paying close attention to the game, and neither were my teammates who were participating.It was clear that the SC boys who have seen the J-Men so many times had such little respect for them that they wouldn’t deign to try hard against them.Before anyone knew what was happening, hard cap was on.TomTom almost caught the game-winning score on a bid in the corner of the end zone, but the disc slipped off his fingertips as he cramped up.Despite the fact that the J-Men were hucking every possession, we left one of their biggest guys in the end zone.Huck, score, game.Besides being a travesty of an effort by SCUC, this game was further marred by our attempt to cheat the caps and extend the game when it was clearly over already.This game was a perfect way to close out “The Bad Half.”
Part 3: Discos the Good Half
Game 4: Monster.By the final round of day 1, the temperature had cooled somewhat.After such a long break, I was feeling good again, and somehow the boys were able to put the previous 3 games behind them and come out strong.The game was very reminiscent of good ol’ Claremont-UCLA games of the past.We came out fast, put a big hurting on Monster, and coasted to a blowout victory.13-4, I think.It was fun for me seeing a few of my former teammates like Peaches and Biclops, but I am frankly shocked that this team chose to call itself Monster.I believe there were 3 or 4 returners from the previous season, and the team transformed from being adult studs to college players from UCLA and Irvine, most of who I didn’t recognize at all.Highlights of the game were me throwing two really nice flick hucks to Steve Scardato, who did his part in absolutely flying to pull them out of the sky.Good way to put the Bad Half behind us and move on.
Game 5: Rhino(only day 2 game).This game was pretty awesome.Our game plan did a great job of getting them out of their comfort zone.Our offense, led by Yeager at his best, came out really hot.Incredibly, by the time the score was 5-5, there hadn’t been a single turnover by either team.We took half up one break, 7-5, as Dom Captain of Slocore fought his way upline for the score.We maintained our lead for a few coming out of half, but then Rhino came creeping back.Come the endgame, there was a score dispute.Unlike the J-Men game, this time we were right, but somehow we went with Rhino’s claimed score.So it was universe point, and we were on D.Unfortunately (in my eyes), we had been going with a very open rotation the whole last quarter of the game, which might have contributed to Rhino’s comeback.We took the line with the score at 13-13, game hard to 15, with an open line.Before the pull, both teams agreed that the score was actually 14-14 (incorrectly).When I realized that this was universe point, I asked Yeager if we could put a true universe line on, but he declined.So in the end Rhino beat us by one.More important than whether we won or lost, though, was reminding ourselves that we are members of the second tier of NW teams, behind the Sockeye’s and JAM’s, together with Rhino and YR.When we aren’t playing like assholes (v. YR at this tournament), we are a damn good team (YR scrimmage, game v. Rhino).I am very confident about our chances of doing well in the series.Assuming we ever get an official date for sectionals.
Now that I have gotten this recap out of the way, I can finally get back to my routine of watching TV, eating, and pooping.
After a decent practice at Stanford on Saturday (only 12 guys, but we got some decent work done) I decided to unwind with a little sushi dinner at Coach Sushi in Oakland. They have all-you-can-drink sake for only $3.50. Then I threw up in my bed. That makes two times I've been to Coach; last time one of my roommates threw up in her bed, this time I did. Needless to say... I can't wait to go back.
The aftermath was a pretty legendary hangover. I got a ride down to Sunnyvale on Sunday morning with Aman and Shy, with NO plans of participating in the scrimmage against YR. When we got to the parking lot, they went to the field and I maintained my semi-fetal position on the backseat, still holding a McDonald's hashbrown that Aman had given me. After about 10 minutes I shook out of that catatonic state and stumbled my way to the field, at about 9:15 (for a 10:00 scrimmage). YR was already warming up vigorously, while the SCUC [Scumbags this scrimmage, Christian Crusaders at practice Saturday, previously 9/11 Truthers and Jaeger Bombs] men were lounging about. I quickly dropped into my chair, figuring that was the most I would move for the next two or so hours.
Quick tangent: anyone that has played with me knows how ambivalent I feel about warming up. I argue that everyone is different, and that I personally don't need a strenuous hour warmup to get ready for a game. In that context, I absolutely love beating teams that warmup at game speed. With the Braineaters this season we would take a jog, do some plyos, maybe one box drill, and then play. And that was only because Weston wouldn't stand for anything less. Needless to say, I always take it easy in warmups.
Anyway, when gametime approached Joaq and Yeager pressured me to put my cleats on. I humored them, still not planning to break walking pace all day. I set up the field, and my state showed in the cone placement. Both sidelines were straight; both sidelines were 120 yards; but the field I paced out was about 40 yards apart at one back line and about 60 yards apart at the other. Luckily the YR guys corrected my mistakes.
The game started with a YR break. Oh boy. We had maybe 12 guys, while they had a full compliment of 20-25 with jerseys and everything. We started rolling, and I somehow was convinced/convinced myself (It's unclear) to play a point. I went in cold, hungover, and still drunk, and cut deep with about a 3 yard lead on my defender. The throw was ahead of us and floaty. Normally I would eat a throw like that up like beef jerky. This time, I basically let my guy catch up, jump, and d it while I was jogging straight ahead. I still can't believe my teammates let me on the field, let alone encouraged me to play.
I probably played about 4-6 points over the whole game and they were pretty similar to my first. One memorable one saw me drop a backhand score thrown by shy that bounced off my hands with no defender near. Usually if something like that happens I'll curse and get really pissed off at myself. This time I was in such a mental haze that I just shrugged and then got run all over the field by a handler making upline cuts. I did at least get one nice sky, followed by a quick bitchy call-fest with the mark, followed by a thrown score. I guess no one enjoys getting pwned by a hungover sack of shit.
More game recap: we broke the hell out of them with ease to take half 8-3, and broke out of half to go up 9-3. YR seemed to be in shock. You could tell that they weren't happy to be getting blown out by a ragtag looking team like SCUC while Team Australia watched on. The second half was even as the SCUC legs got tired and YR cleaned up their game (got rid of the turfs and drops that plagued them the first half) and we won 15-10 (or 15-11... not exactly sure). Big shout out to Joaq for getting two massive D's in one point, pulling well, and generally balling, especially in the first half.
Our roster for the day, courtesy of Joaq: Aman Benji Connor Gomez Harrison Joaq Jughead (non-factor) Laurent (late arrival) Nat Nate (late arrival) Russle (late arrival) Shy TomTom Yeager
Thoughts on YR: They traditionally play small ball, but it was hard to see much of an offensive philosophy here. There was no deep game to speak of, and the small ball stuff seemed rusty compared to what I've seen from them in the past. They throw out a tiny O-line, even compared to our squad which is on the shorter side. I guess the personnel fits their game plan. Maybe there is just a dearth of strong young players in the Bay Area (judging from our two rosters). On D, they weren't generating turnovers, but did get some nice close call bids.
I still can't wait for our team to be able to field its strongest roster, which frankly might no happen until the series. With how well we've played so far (winning Solstice with a skeleton crew, smashing YR with a little bit less of a skeleton crew but nowhere near our full squad), I can see us doing some big things if our attendance ever improves.
Aman and Shy sold me out afterwards and didn't want to stay for Revolver vs Team Australia, so we rode back up to Berkeley to watch the tail-end of Fury vs Team Australia (women obviously). The game was pretty sloppy, and from what I saw the Aussies were unimpressive, but I know they were battling jetlag and the field was slippery and it was somewhat windy. For Fury, Alex Snyder was definitely the standout player. Her throws are money, and she had one especially sick long IO flick break for a goal. It looked like Fury ran their endzone Iso with the stack hugging one sideline and one cutter roaming in the end zone. Maybe that was just one called play because I didnt see too much of them, but I can't imagine an opponent would let themselves get fooled by that more than once in a game. Fury's throws were much sharper than Australia's, and I didn't see any great feats of athleticism by either team.
Conclusion: I was hungover until the next morning. I don't think I had a clear pee all day. We beat YR.
