Westerns: The big dance

In a few weeks Gunn High school and Alameda (something starting with a C) Learning Center, or Darkmeat, will be playing in the biggest tournament in high school ultimate: Westerns. This tournament has the best schools from across the western United States, playing to be crowned the best of the west. Featured in this tournament will be future high level men's and women's club players and most likely future Callahan winners.

The tournament is single gender, which means it's men vs men, unless one team decides to play ladies and women vs women.

Two teams from the Bay area will duke-it-out with the top guns of ultimate. Gunn is from the Palo Alto area and Dark Meat from Alameda. These two teams met in the championship game at last weeks California State Championships. Even though the final score was overwhelmingly in favor of the Darkmeat team, Gunn had a great run at the tournament and a great year.

What should you expect from each team at Westerns? Dark Meat hopes to make quarter finals. Meat player and 2010 USA U20 team player, Eli Kerns, has never made the quarters. That is his main goal. Of course winning the whole thing would be great, but I promise that the teams they play are the best around, and it's not impossible just unlikely that they would win the whole thing.

Let's not forget about Sweet Meat, the Alameda girls team. Marissa of Sweet Meat has great throws and decision making, but I believe the team is just too young to make real noise at the tournament.

The unknown team of Gunn. None of which have ever played in Westerns will most likely not win a game. They have a lot of talent, it's just too raw for a tournament like this. This shouldn't take anything away from the year they had. They have great coaches and some kids that have alot of heart, and passion for the sport.

Whatever happens, expect there to be a lot of fun and great stories coming from these kids. Updates will come as i know them.

Good luck to both teams.

Winter Youth All-Star Game

This past weekend, December 13th, featured 50 of the bay area's best players picked by their coaches. Teams were split up by four volunteer captains, picking off a roster sheet.

They came together at 2pm as the sun started to set over the waters and hills of San Francisco. The lights turned on and the expected rain did not come till later, which was only a little mist. Hucks and smiles were all around. And after a half an hour of picking, the teams were decided and placed at there fields.

Players from across the bay playing together to have fun. No sour faces could be seen other than the occasional "bad call" but even those were contested with smiles. Teams played, and players sky'd there friends but all games were played to have fun.

The winner??? Who cares. The point of this was to have fun and fun they had. Photo's should be coming soon, thanks to Eli's mom for that.

After the games were over, we all came together to talk about the upcoming events. The eventual Beach tournament and YCC's.

Now I need to get working on that beach tournament.

Can the kids play with the adult?

A group of kids came together to play against the adults over the summer and this is their story, as told by Eli Kerns, captain of ACLC Darkmeat.

On August 15th and 16th, a group of elite Bay Area High School Ultimate players came together for redemption. They had planned to go to Youth Club Championships as a mixed team in Blaine, Minnesota that weekend, but due to scheduling issues, being high school students trying to organize themselves, and not wanting to spend that much money, they settled for Discos Calientes: a "party" sort of tournament in the club scene. But for JailBait, it wasn't going to be any picnic. They were playing to win.

Starting out on Saturday, they had very little practice with each other. After two Saturdays of practice with only a few of the players in attendance, the team knew it would have to gel quickly to come out strong.

First game was against PieMo and these high school players showed their true colors, with Simon Higgins and Marisa Rafter picking up some huge D's (and Simon a handblock or two), huge hucks from Foothill's former captain (JT Deierling now playing for Dark Meat) and some great downfield skies by Foothill's newest captain, Lisa Pitcaithley. This commanding win over the Berkeley players though was not that satisfying as the Jailbait squad realized they would have to move away from high school hucking offense into a real short game. Also, the heat started to take a toll on key players and they decided that in the future, they would have to play smarter despite their physical advantages.

The following games of the day constituted a series of disappointments and Jailbait did not come out with a win for the rest of the day. Although, every game's finishing score was within two points of their opponents. The players had anticipated the heat, but were still not prepared for it as much as they had thought. James Lai, former captain of Castro Valley's Red Hand proved himself to be a huge deep threat, skying the competition after finding himself unable to throw the scores due to a rope swing finger injury Saturday morning.
Jailbait closed out the day against Girls With Low Self-Esteem, a mixed up team including members from the tournaments open champions (End Phase) and other LPC players. Still, the kids kept it close. This round was in the shade and as the sun went down, Jailbait moral went up as Patrick Lahey (captain) played his best game of the weekend, skying Adam Raty of End Phase and burning End Phase's captain Will Griffin deep for a score. Other notable plays including JT Deierling outreaching Geoff Rexroth and a few heads up D's by captain Elijah Kerns to tie up the game right before cap, Ben Hubbard of Davis made a geust appearance for all offensive points and was definitely a danger on the field. Final score of this game was 12-10 and though they had just finished their third loss of the day, Jailtbait felt pretty good and decided to go swimming.
Sunday morning, the team set out to prove that the first day had taught them a lot. Having lost one of their fastest girls (Red Hand's Sophia Fong) they knew they had to play smarter. They set out, drinking WAY more water and staying in the shade as much as possible. Communication on the field was better too and it was soon clear that the high schoolers horizontal disc movement was above the defensive capabilities of teams like Feral Cows and TNT. They came out with two quick wins over these teams with notable plays including hammers by Elijah Kerns, skies by Simon Higgins and some great D's by Mikana Camacho and Lisa Pitcaithley in the zone.
The third game of the day, Jailbait led all the way through. Dehydrated again though, some players lost steam and started to make some questionable high release decisions and rushed throws (Elijah Kerns) and Red Hots were able to come back with a slim victory. Most notable in this game was a play called exactly according to plan by captain Elijah Kerns (who had removed himself at this point from the field). Drew "Baby Face" Fetzer was throwing in the zone and made an incredible high release break over Red Hots 6-4 marker to Marisa Rafter who hit Simon Higgins (cutting from the dump) in the back of the endzone with a hammer. This was an all Dark Meat player play and should be watched out for this high school season.

After a long rest before their final game, Jailbait was ready to channel their frustrations at 3 unnessecary losses into the last game and had their second blowout of the weekend. Notable plays included Marcelo Sanchez of Red Hand's falling flick which threaded the needle to Natalie McKee of Dark Meat who made a great lefty grab for a score and Elijah Kerns ending the game with a failed greatest attempt, getting the disc back on D and then setting it all up again. This second greatest attempt would also have failed if it had not been for Marcelo's phenomenal layout to catch the blade and end the game. Eli's theme song for the weekend was you're a jerk. And it was the best weekend ever.

Thank you Eli for your write-up. This is what the rest of the world needs to watch out for. The kids from the bay area can play with the adults and will be interesting to watch this upcoming season, and who knows, maybe at YCC's.

We're blowing up

So I just got the word that I, G-off, will have my blog on a website. It's about time. I'm only the most amazing writer since David Hasselhoff. Ok well just updating the 10 readers (if that), that I will be added to the Bayareadiscassocation.org website as there go to blog about youth ultimate. High five me next time you see me. I'm excited too. I'm still looking for writers though. I should have a piece coming in from Eli Kerns of Dark Meat, about his team that he, and now Freshman at UC Davis, Patrick Lahey, put together for the club season: Jail Bait. They are an all youth team playing mixed club. Great idea! We need more kids like this. So more to come soon.

Here in the future

Here are some ideas that are in the air and will hopefully be completed this year in the bay area youth scene.

Beach tourney: So there is a possible beach tourney happening here in the bay area. It will take a lot of work and some cash to get this done, but this should be rewarding for the kids around here. Some of them have thrown at the beach but have they ever played in a competitive tournament? Probably not, and nothing is more fun than a beach tournament. This most likely will be a hat tournament and will happen in the spring. The first thought was to have it in the fall, but due to odd weather and conflicting schedules the tournament will be played in the spring. Get your layouts ready and close your mouth.

All Star Game: BADAss. will be hosting the first ever All-Star game. The structure hasn't been decided, a toss up between just having an All-Star game or having a mini All-Star tournament: four teams (semi's to finals). This will be done as an event, which means hopefully some type of sound system, maybe jersey's, or t-shirts and fans.

Granada Hat tournament: Just a youth hat tournament. Hopefully in December.

Winter League: This happened last year ran by Berkeley's Jordan Rose and will be happening again. Taking up two months. A few games on a sunday every sunday. This and the All-Star game would be great things to get our foot in the door of the YCC's. Which the bay area has never been in and strongly wants.

2009-2010 Preview

A new year is starting. The schools are starting their semesters up again, which means only one thing: Discs are starting to fly. Schools around the bay area will start there practices and recruit players. This article is a preview to the year. Obviously no tournaments have been played, no games in the near future, but due to players leaving and returning this is the bay area's pre-season Top Ten rankings and explanation.

10. San Ramon Valley- The boys and occasional girl from San Ramon Valley have a really good coach and players that are dedicated to the sport. Last year they didn't have any girls, maybe one, so if they do get any for this year they will have to train them and train them fast. The boys at this school are intense on the sport and play with a passion that is needed for this sport. The lack of players though may keep them down. Even if they recruit a large squad that is a lot of training to do to raise them to a level needed to be at the top.

9. Miramonte- A historic program that has seen multiple great college players come out of it. Jake of UC Davis attended this school two years ago and End Phase players Robert Gormley and Ernst Westphal both come around and coach the team. Too bad both of these coaches have moved or left for college. The team has a lot of potential, especially with there ladies. They have two ladies that are fast and with more experience could help the Rogue Buck's put some W's on the board.

8. Foothill High- Depletion is the word I would use for this team. Their best male player J.T. has moved for his junior year back to ACLC (sounds a little fishy to me). With out J.T. Falcon Ultimate will struggle moving the disc around. They had J.T.'s little brother coming into the program too. If he has also transfered to ACLC than this team will not have any handlers. Their best player is Lisa P. Why do I call her Lisa P.? Well have you ever tried to pronounce her name? Not the point. This senior cutter is amazing. She skies adult players like no other. It is scary to think that she has only been player for about a year. Their coach is Allan Thoe of Jam, so yes they have great coaching but is that enough? Lisa can't do everything by herself. Their team will need to get some type of intensity before the season starts and want to get better and they better do this soon. Don't be surprised when they win though. They still have talent and anyone can throw junk into the air, and because of Lisa P. she'll probably come down with it.

7. Gunn- This team is unknown, but they have a lot of fun and have some tall players. At last years State Championship they they went 2-1 in pool play. They can make you pay if you screw up. If this team was young and is still around I wouldn't be surprised if they moved into the top five teams.

6. Georgiana Bruce Kirby Prep- This team has a lot of talent. They are coached by a Fury player, which means a lot of experience is filling the heads of the young men and women of Kirby. Their players like to huck the disc and the word is that they all are juniors now seniors. So this team should break the top five. If they actually are all on their senior year than this team has the ability to show alot of opponents up.

5. Menlo-Atherton- This team has a great corp of players. Who knows who was a senior last year but they are athletic, and can throw in the wind. If you can throw in the wind you can beat anyone. This team is also rumored to practice with Stanford University. Obviously trained by the best. If this team is the same as last year than they will be really good.

4. Granada High School-You may wonder how a team, who last year finished 11th at states, could possibly rise so high. Out of seven starters three are returning and they have numerous amounts of utility players back too. This team knows each other and being familiar with your cutters and handlers can help a lot. The down side of this team is that they are a "small in numbers" team. They have talent but do they have enough depth to make a run at winning tournaments? They may be a team that has enough skill to make it to semi's but will run out of gas and never make the summit.

3. Berkeley- This team did not finish in the top five at States ut they were young then. Some of their younger kids went to the Bay Area Disc Associations Ultimate Camp. Since I was a councelor their I know where this team is headed. With another year under their belt I can't imagine what they will be like. They can throw and run, and are coached by a wiley vet Jordan Rose. This team will have depth, but now they have to prove that they can step up with the big boys.

2. Redwood High- This team is always filled with young spirited talent. They have a way of beating you and you can't figure out why. At the Granada invite they faced ACLC in the finals and at the Foothill Invite Redwood won all there games but one. This year will be no different, i'm sure. Ron Rosano will have them prepared in the beginning and have them growing the entire time.

1. Alameda (ACLC)- Why not? No one can give a reason why Alameda shouldn't be favored. During the year they play as a whole unit: A and B players together. So, when they are ready to step up and take on a challenge as they get older, they have the fear already gone. This is THE school to beat. Their boys play in college tournaments and the girls do the same. Last year was the best chance for Dark meat to be de-railed, but of course it didn't happen. Eli Kerns returns to captain this team to the top. They picked up J.T. from Foothill, which he was the captain and best player at Foothill last year. These two will be impossible to stop. It's not fair to say that every other team is playing for second place but that is exactly how it feels. Sweet Meat, the women's team, has it's starters coming back too. This is the team of the bay, actually they are the program of the bay and everyone else is just in their way.

*If you didn't notice last year's runner up, Castro Valley High, is not on the list. That is because that team was all senior. There is a good chance that they won't even have a team this year. Can't rank them if they don't exist.

Is hard play unsportsman like?

Is hard (physical) play unsportsman like? Depending on who you talk to, it may or may not be.

Last year, at California's state tournament two teams were playing in the game to go to the nineth place game. Player A was making a hard mark on every player of the other team. To the point where if the opponent was trying to break his mark he would foul him. In college and club this is excepted, but was it ok for him to do this in a youth high school game?

The bay area youth scene may think this as unneeded play. It is believed by progressives that this is just fine. If the kids are used to soft play, then they will not be prepared for college and club where the play is alot more physical. Who cares if this game isn't for the championship? Shouldn't you always play your hardest? Games are played to determine a winner and a loser. This may be a reason why Ultimate in the bay area is not progressing like it should. Players from the Northwest and East Coast are coming out of there youth programs and starting for club and college teams all across the nation. Why do we need to keep this sport down? If this was a fun spirited tournament than I would understand, but this is the last tournament of the year and the most important one. Why not leave it all out on the field?

The opposing coach came over at half time and asked if that certain player could stop his agressive mark. The coaches both agreed but the game was a little tainted after that. Why ask something like that? Both teams are playing for something: pride.

The negative side of this is that you lose the integrity that ultimate has. Fun, SOTG (Spirit of the game), and fare play are what make the sport unique. It seems that ultimate loses these things when the game becomes more competitive. This writer does believe that you can have real hard competition, but still have the SOTG concept intact. This requires great coaching and guidance. It has been observed that some coaches are all about winning and don't believe that SOTG should even be apart of the sport. But SOTG is what gives the game it's edge and keeps players from leaving. To many sports lose there players because they just don't think it's fun anymore. 

Who's right? Are the progressives that want the sport to turn competitive and leave it's hippie aspect in the dust or the ultra conservatives that believe the sport doesn't need any changing? Neither! What needs to be done is that the sport needs to carefully examine itself and realize what is best for it. Both groups are going to lobby for change or lack of, but you can have both. There is no need to abandon it. Ultimate is great because of it's SOTG aspect. That's what makes it Ultimate, but it does need to change. We need to advance our players and give the ones that want it more competitive, what they want. 

This is one players response to the article:

"I started playing Ultimate last year as a senior in high school.  I fell in love with the concept of a sport being all about the spirit of the game, it was the draw of the sport.  Now that's not to say that i don't like being competitive, I was by far one of the most competitive players on my team.  It sucks to lose, but we did it with spirit, most of the time, which made it more enjoyable.  My team was not the best out there, but we played with all our hearts, and won a few spirit trophies, even when we took dead last.  I have played many high school sports with Ultimate being the only sport in which i actually had conversations with the other teams, and made friends that i would talk to the next time we played each other in a tournament.  I believe that Ultimate should always be about the spirit of the game, but could sometimes use a little bit of a competitive edge.  As Ultimate players we should always keep in mind that the attraction of the sport is not only the cool tricks, or the amazing lay outs, but also the spirit of the game."

Megan Crask

Granada Facebreakers Fem-captain

From teen to the big stage

The progression from youth/high school ultimate to college, especially in the bay area, is from sloppy to amazing, and this is a problem for the kids and the game as a whole. Any youth player in the Bay Area high school ultimate system will have a hard time transitioning into the college game, except for the few players coming out of a certain few systems (Dark Meat/Red Hand). Seattle youth go from high school to college with ease. The boys and girls from the great north west are already playing against team USA caliber players/teams and they also have the ability to play year round in high school and league play. The Yay Area or Nor Cal youth ultimate only get to play in few tournaments which gives them maybe 6-8 tournaments for the entire year. There are some things that the coaches and organizers for the Bay Area youth community need to do to progress the kids into that next level a lot easier.

First, the Bay Area needs utilize the amazing club teams in there own backyard, National Champion Jam and Nationals Semifinalists Revolver, by hosting youth jamboree's and clinics involving those teams. Players might get inspired if someone other than there coach, which only one in the Bay Area currently plays for a national caliber team, is instructing them. I don't know if Jam and Revolver would be willing to trade field space for help at a clinic, but if Jam and Revolver want to continue there ability to pick from great players, then they would benefit in the future by helping out. Also in these clinics the college scene would benefit if they hosted clinics. UC Davis, UC Berkeley, LPC, Santa Clara, UC Santa Cruz, and Sonoma St., are the colleges that these players from around the bay have to choose from with Ultimate teams. Even though I am a current and near future LPC alum I would love to see the bay area colleges producing high caliber club players, which in turn can come back and pay back what they recieved in the past.

Another thing that the bay area elders need to do is have more tournaments and or leagues. This upcoming season all coaches should come together and decide on what they want out of the year. Not just let it be what ever it is. Berkeley has started this by having a winter league. The winter league on paper and in theory was a great idea. It fell short on what it was thought to be, but not that there is an outline, the league can be built on and become great. What if there were multiple sites for the league and it was considered and Open League with two divisions. Teams after spring tournaments would decide what division they wanted to be in and after a month of playing league play top four teams would play for the championship. Also, there are not enough tournaments. Yes there aren't that many teams so everyone plays each other 3-8 times a year, but you can only play so much against your own team until practices get boring and redundant. This is an idea, but will need to be discussed with all of the coaches and coordinators.

The last sentence leads into the third, possibly the most important, thing that needs to be done; coaches need to talk more. The coaches should get together at least four times a year to discuss how the seasons are going, what needs to be changed and what needs to be worked on. Also why can't the coaches have some say on what is going to happen with the state championships. Some people think that there should be open and women's divisions and others think youth should stay mixed. These are the types of discretion's that could be discussed face to face.

The kids in this area are thirsty for ultimate and to expand there abilities. It is pathetic that Thousand Oaks High School, who never plays ultimate other than on Friday's just for fun and don't even know the rules are winning one game against teams that practice multiple times every week. I blame that on the coaches and yes that means I'm pointing the finger at myself too. We as coaches need to get our egos out of there way and let them grow. I hope this next year gets better and is not so elementary.

A bitter sweet ending

Cal States has come and passed for the boys and girls from the great state of California. It was a great tournament. Filled with Cinderella teams, great spirit, sweet layout D's, and smiles across every kids face, except for the boys from Thousand Oaks.

Two open (no women) teams from Pasadena and Thousand Oaks made the trip up to Pleasanton for the California Youth State Championship. Both teams made it to the semifinals, coming out of know where with athleticism and height to de-rail all of the teams from the bay area. The two favorites in the tournament, Castro Valley Redhand and Alameda (ACLC) Darkmeat, showed no sign of letting anyone have hope of an upset. They both went 3-0 in pool play. Darkmeat however did barely beat the boys from Thousand Oaks: 10-8.

Foothill, Berkeley and South Pasadena all went 2-1 in the same pool. Which made a nice boring game of point differential. The worst way to figure out placing; South Pasadena got 1st in there pool.

After sunday had finished itself out. It was down to Darkmeat v. Redhand. In a game that everyone saw coming. Alameda took an early lead, 3-1, and continued. The game was not as epic as most thought it would be, but there were a lot of skilled players on the field and the college scene in the bay area is about to get a lot better. A lot of seniors coming out of the Redhand and Darkmeat team.

It looks like Redhand will be very thin next year, but Alameda like always has there crop of kids ready to go and take charge in the bay area to take another championship.

The Final Standings:
1. Alameda
2. Castro Valley
T3. South Pasadena
T3. Thousand Oaks
5. Redwood (marin)
6. Menlo-Atherton
7. Gunn
8. Foothill
9. Kirby
10. Berkeley
11. Granada (I'm proud of you guys and gals)
12. San Ramon
13. Miramonte
14. York
15. Redwood B
16. Alameda B

HIGH SCHOOLERS GOING TO GET GREAT HALF TIME SHOW

This morning, friday the 20th of March, if you checked your email and you are a coach of a bay area high school ultimate team you got a little surprise. Allen Thoe coach of Foothill HS and the Cal State Coordinator left a message for everyone saying that the 2008 UPA National Champions San Francisco Jam will be playing a team that finished 5th in that same championship San Francisco Revolver.

Coach Thoe does have the in with Jam since he does play for them, but this is a great opportunity to see some great ultimate. Jam is filled with alot of veteran players and great throwers, so the kids should have a great time watching Jam move the disc up and down the field. Hopefully they will realize that the punt and play defense theory is a really bad theory and should actually move the disc around.

Revolver is a younger, more active team. There athleticism and hucking style will give the young audience a site to see.

These two teams seem to always meet and battle no matter what spot they are playing for or the reason. Hopefully these two teams won't be lazy and not bring out there best. For some reason I have a feeling that the show is one bad call or spike away from becoming very intense.

Spiking is not allowed in youth ultimate, so, I wonder if Thoe will be telling them not to spike and show bad spirit? Also, to make it really fan friendly will the score board be running? All of these things would be amazing. I hope this happens. This is great for the kids and I'm sure when they find all of this out will be really excited.

Northern California dreams of YCC

Just a few years back the Youth Club Championships were invented to bring teams from across the nation together for one common goal: Youth, Spirit, Competition. Isn't this like Nationals? Pretty much accept this is a championship comprised of the top teams from there league. You have to apply for the YCC's and the UPA chooses you to participate in this. It is an honor to represent your area and your team in these championships since few actually get to participate in it. Teams may participate in three divisions: Open, Girls, Mixed. Last year Seattle owned both the Open and Women's division with Atlanta winning the Mixed. This year the San Francisco bay area would like to see if they have what it takes to battle with the best.

Allen Thoe of Jam, and Foothill High School's Ultimate Coach has sent in an application to participate in this year's YCC's. The team would be comprised of youth Ultimate players from around the bay area and would like to make there mark in this year's YCC's held in Blaine, Minnesota. If the team is accepted Coach Thoe will hold tryouts for the available spots on the team. What is meant of "available spots?" He has players already in mind that will automatically make the team if interested and then there will be at least one tryout for the remaining spots.

A smiling Foothill High School player known as JT has already thought of a name "I like the name Jam Jr." I believe this to be one of those players to be on Coach Thoe's "already on the team list."

Only eight Open and Mixed teams make the championships and Seattle will get more than one of those bids. So Thoe is hoping that they will be accepted as a Mixed team. According to former YCC participant Casey Ikeda (Seattle), on the Seattle teams if you tried out for the team you were asked what you would prefer and if you didn't make the single gendered teams would you be willing to play mixed. Does this mean that Mixed is easier than single-gendered? I believe that in the competitive Ultimate area's like Seattle and Boston/North East Ultimate is played like other sports (Basketball, Baseball, etc.) where the sports are all single gendered, so it's not surprising at the thought of those area's players wanting to play single-gendered. If Thoe's team wants to make a name for its self than maybe this is best for the boys and girls of the bay area.

As a coach I understand what kind of opportunity this is, but what would a player think though? "I love YCC and I had a great time in 2005 and 2007," stated Casey Ikeda when I talked to him. "You get to see and play against the best youth ultimate players in the nation. Also you get to play with the best players in your community which is ton of fun and for the players who are use to only 3-4 great ultimate players and the rest are just learning the game. To be on a team with 17 vet ultimate players, with a coach who doesn’t have to waste time going over basic, the level of play is amazing." Casey brought all of the knowledge he learned through his youth experience to Las Positas College and the club team Yeah Right.

Ikeda also brings up a great point about what could come of the competition in the bay. "The players on the YCC team will bring what they learned to there own high school team. Also if your a new team (like the bay will be) YCC is a great chance to see how other youth programs are being run." This YCC team could put the bay area teams in check. These players are not going to want to come back to there teams and then play with mediocre players. I'm sure they will want to advance there team to what they have just experienced.

Even if this team isn't chosen this year they soon will be and the bay area will never be the same. Is the bay ready for this change? Some coaches are and some aren't but it's going to happen, or your team will remain on the bottom of the league totum pole.

Good luck to the Coach Thoe on getting the bid. Here at UlternativesSports we hope that you get the bid and get these deserving kids a great experience.

Calling New Writers and All Coaches

Today, March 5, 2009, is a day that will live in infamy--well at least it may be remembered by someone. This blog has decided to take on other writers and will be handing out Male and Female, PLAYER OF THE YEAR awards.

Just a few minutes ago, coaches and players that are apart of Yahoo group: Bay Area ultimate, were told, through email, that there will be new writers added to the blog and they were going to be the new writers. I will be screening the writers, but I have a feeling no one will be turned down unless the positions become filled or writers don't do there job.

Also, This year will mark the first year that the Bay Area will have Player of the Year honors bestowed upon two individuals. Unless this happened in the past that I don't know of. The process will be:

15-25 nominated players, male and female, will be looked at and then that group will be widdled down to five boys and five girls.

The factors that will be looked at will be playing ability, importance to the team, spirit, and anything else that makes them the Player of the Year.

The winner will be picked by his and her peers and a group of coaches and Tournament Directors.

They will be announced at the Cal State tournament. And the will receive there awards there also.

I hope this brings some type of change to the bay area scene. And only if this is for the betterment of the kids and the competition.

Keep on huckin,

Slopfest Review

One of the best youth tournaments in Northern California, Slopfest, was held this weekend. It's a two day tournament usually played by mixed teams, but it was a little different this year. The TD's, after receiving interest from teams that only had men, decided to make the tournament Open and Mixed. Great Idea. Slopfest did not live up to it's name...until Sunday. We all knew it was destined to happen but the infamous Slopfest lived up to it's name on Sunday, but first Saturday.

Sabado!

Open:

On Saturday, only three rounds were allowed. Foothill (Pleasanton) and High Tech High (San Diego) came out with the surprising 2-0 records. Alameda decided to play a lot of B/middle schooler's on day one, but still came out with a 1-2 record. Also a major surprise was the fact that Berkeley went 0-3 on saturday. It was found out later that Berkeley was playing mostly freshman, and Alameda played shifts putting there good players, not on the same line, but on with there newer players. Granada went 0-2 with close games against GB Kirby and High Tech High.
The boys from Livermore, California definitely turned heads keeping all games close including early leads on High Tech High and two point lead on GB Kirby through the middle of the game.

Mixed:

No surprise that Castro Valley went 3-0. Besides the fact that it's a home tournament they are absolutely lighting up bay area ultimate this year. They are run by a really good senior, Patrick Lahey, and most of the team are seniors. Redwood also played really well but had a surprising loss to Terra Nova, which loss to Acalanes. Should we call Terra Nova a surprise? Definitely not, they have a tradition of good ultimate players coming out of their area, so why not have a good team?

* * * * *

The weather was high sixties with no rain, which is surprising if you have ever been to a Slopfest tournament. Oh but it did live up to its name the next day...

Domingo!

Open play started at 8am and Mixed at 2pm. There was a scare in the beginning of the tournament that it would be canceled if it rained, since Saturday went without a drop, Sunday looked promising and I wonder if anyone knows the last time Slopfest went without a drop of rain? The rain started to fall at 6 that morning and never stopped. Open teams still showed up and there was no word of cancellation or postponement so all things looked well.

Open: Pool play continued. Saturday teams only played 2 or 3 games and there was only pool play, so everyone had to make up the rest of pool games. Alameda continued to play middle of the road ultimate, but still showed times of excellence. It's scary how good they are going to be when Cal States comes around.

Foothill was definitely the surprise of the weekend. They put most of there players on the mixed teams except for there best four men including JT, former ACLC Dark Meat player, and a few other handlers. Then they stocked there Open team with football and soccer players. They came out scary strong. JT could not be stopped and his hucks flew like a seasoned club veteran and it's kind of scary that he's an underclassman. Their newly found receivers, which have only been playing for one week, ran down discs with ease. And found themselves in the championship against the San Diego team High Tech High.

High Tech High, from San Diego, brought 8 players, which is all the players that they have. There receivers can cut and throw and there main handler and captain has the ability to put the disc anywhere on the field. A constant heckle "College Players!" from the Granada coach Geoff "The Banana Suit" Rexroth, made some wonder if they were really all high school players, but it is believed that they all were. They had great spirit, except for the occasional odd high school call: offsides, you don't even see that in college. Besides that the team was very spirited and played really hard.

This seemed that it would be a game to remember.

The Final: Foothill vs. High Tech High.

Foothill and High Tech High traded points through the game until High Tech got one break. And that was all that was needed. Foothill's theory of huck first and ask questions later finally did not work when a team could play good defense against the athletic Foothill receivers. Final score: 8-6. The story of the game, was not the game itself. It was the fact that the tournament was moved from Castro Valley to Dublin in the middle of the game.

In the middle of the last round and finals game. The fields were shut down by the city of Castro Valley. So the last round was canceled and the finals game was shortened (due to HTH's drive back to SD). Slopfest is known for it's bad weather and it was held in the same spot it always is, so why would it be any different this year? What ever the case may be the game was intense and the Open pool was a great idea. All the teams battled and there were no teams that didn't have a chance of winning; which makes for a fun tournament.

Best Play of the Tournament: (Open Division) And the award goes to Vince Carpenter of Granada High. Trust me this is not biased at all, ask anyone that was there and they would all agree. Granada and Foothill are battling and Granada has the disc trapped five feet from Foothill's goal. Vince is marking the foothill player (the boy in the pink hat). The stall is getting higher so the Foothill handler decides to huck the disc. You can see in his eyes, besides the fact that that was there strategy all weekend.

He winds up, the look in his eyes of pure panic, and begins the throw. His arm starts it's progression, his arm in motion of starting a chain saw. "NO HUCK!" screams the Granada sideline. Trying to throw IO (Inside-Out), the player turns the disc down and continues. Vince slides over to stop the huck...

and...

hits Vince right in the Jewels. Now you may wonder how this is the Best Play of the Tournament? The reason is: he catches the disc. That's right the disc slams into his (COUGH*COUGH*) and he traps the disc with his legs and also one hand. The crowd is painfully quiet, and then laughter. Everyone knew that felt below average, but it was hard to stop from laughing. It looked like the most painful thing anyone has ever seen. Foothill's coach Allen Thoe later stated that he had never seen anyone ever get hit like that and actually catch it, with, of course, a smirk on his face. Vince then, holding the disc in his hand, walks off the sideline and hands the GHS coach the disc, sits down on a fold out tripod chair and tries to find his sanity. Asked about it later, he could not remember catching the disc and handing it over to his coach. Granada did score off of Vince's D.

Mixed:

Since the tournament changed spots and some teams decided they did not want to play (GHS, ACLC, Miramonte) the rest of the teams continued on the new fields at Emerald Glenn park. The mixed division found CV Redhand vs Redwood and Terra Nova vs Foothill in the semifinals. The CV vs Redwood match was what I thought would have come in the final, but Terra Nova's win over them on Saturday put the boys and girls from Marin (Redwood) on the same side of the bracket as Redhand. In the first half both teams swapped points, but a high wind separated the two teams, and produced which was obviously the better team Castro Valley Redhand: 13-8. In the second game of the semifinals, Terra Nova led the Foothill Falcons all the way until cap winning 9-6.

The final would yet again separate the best from mediocre. With hard rain and gusting winds Redhand outran and out threw the ladies and gentlemen from the peninsula (Terra Nova). As much heart as Nova showed, the abilities of Redhands senior squad was too much for the black and gold. CV wins 13-8.

Champions Recap:

Open-High Tech High
Mixed-Castro Valley

Spirit Awards:

Open -Granada High
Mixed-Redwood (Marin)





Keep on Huckin,

G-off

Slopfest VII: The quiet before the storm

Four days till Slopfest and things have changed a little this year. In the past Slopfest has been played with many fields (eight last year) and they have only four this year. On top of that the tournament has been split up into Mixed and Open. There are teams coming from southern California this year and this should be interesting. Will this be a preview of what is to come at Cal States? Maybe. Maybe, this is what Cal States should do; split into two different divisions: Mixed and Open--But that is a different topic all together.

Looking at the pools right now if they are not to change than there are clear favorites in both divisions.

For the Open division there is Alameda. Dark meat owns the bay area so I don't see any reason for them not to destroy the competition. Another reason is that some of the teams that would usually battle them for the championship are not playing in the open divison. Redwood is playing in the mixed division and so is Castro Valley. If anyone were to frighten the children of ACLC Darkmeat it would be both those teams but they have elected to play in Mixed so Darkmeat should roll through there competition. Now why is darkmeat playing open? There women's team is playing in the Standford Qualifier. Will Alameda ever be beaten? Probably not. Why should anyone bet against them when there girls play in college tournaments and there boys also play in college tournaments. In the Santa Barbara Qualifier both CV and ACLC both went 2-2 against some college A teams. Now granted they weren't very good college A teams but they were college all the same. It's scary to think that one team is in Open and one is in Mixed. Guess who the favorite is in the mixed division?

The obvious choice is CV Redhand in the Mixed division. Word has come out that one team would like to change divisions. I hope it's Redhand wanting to change into Open because they aren't known for there big numbers when it comes to ladies. But there males will be able to dominate any teams males enough to dominate through Pool play. Taylor Lahey's (i don't think i spelled his last name right), of YR, UC Davis Dog, and former Jr. Worlds Champion, brother Patrick Lahey is the captain of redhand and the word on the field is that this kid may become better than his brother. Supposedly he has the potential to be faster and a better thrower than Taylor. The though of that makes me quiver. I just hope he doesn't make the mistake and go to UC Davis, like his brother.

With the teams coming from southern california who knows how well they are going to be but from watching enough HS ultimate I can tell that there are some sleeper teams. Watch out for Granada in the Open division. Yes I understand that I am a little bias. But there key players will all be on the field now, now that they are playing open. They have some amazing handlers and a few great cutters. BJ cutting under is a threat from anywhere on the field. I'd like to see anyone keep up with him. Nick and David are a duo that can move the disc really well and if Davis gets the guts to actually put it. His gorgeous deep throws will make opponents cry. Do I expect them to win...No, but they will turn some heads. Another team on the path of greatness is Miramonte (mixed). You can't ever blink when the rich kids from orinda/moraga are on the field. They are patient with the disc and run for days. Sadly, they might get low numbers which means that they are going to die in the later games and on sunday. If they are with low numbers watch for them to be on the upset alert on sunday. They may be caught off guard and with dead legs.

Finals games prediciton:

In the open division it has to be Alameda vs Berkeley. Berkeley and Alameda have strong handling skills but I think they don't have the deep threat that Alameda has. The kid in pink shorts will run all over you and sadly that will probably happen. Score: 13-8.

For the most important Mixed division we have Redhand (CV) against the lovely spirited team of Redwood (marin). Redhand's men will handle Redwood to death. The only chance that Redwood has is if Redwood's women's play never lets there own men touch the disc. Yes they have really good men but I think that the women on Redwood are the best part of the team. Score: 13-9. That's right this score maybe closer than expected.

This should be a great weekend for HS ultimate and an update and results piece will be coming soon.

Keep on huckin,

G-off

A Defensive Mindset: The Mark

THE SET UP

The Pull is ripped down, five feet inside the goal, and moved up with two easy passes. The lack of wind and quick snapping wrists move the disc. Now fifteen yards further than previously pulled down the defense zone's in on the handlers and cutters. Pressure to the backhand side forces the flick.

Poaching, the left handler's (Defenses left) defender stands no more than 12 feet from the disc and in clear view of disc holder. The holder views the poach, his brain raddled with frustration, I know i can make the bender around him... get the hell out of my way! His head turns, throw it to my teammate and make them pay...move the disc...NOW!

The poached player is wide open and recieves the disc. He looks up field, and his cutters are sprinting toward him, sadly with no ability to get it though--the defense has played it well. The new mark (the poacher) is now within ten feet.

"1"

Three feet...

"2"

On mark...

"3"

Your mine!

MARK SET

"Strike!"

The dump runs up line but does not prevail as the mark stops any upline throw and returns his focus on the new dump, knowing that this may be his only lifeline.

"4"

Four and no throw up line or to his dump? So far so good. I take a glance over my shoulder to see where his new friend is and he's exactly where I left him: behind me.

"No Inside!"

I throw my left hand infront of the thrower just to show him I'm still here. You didn't think you would catch me off guard did you? I'm lucky, he did catch me off guard but my upfield defenders are holding there cutters down so I can get the count higher.

"5"

I wonder when they are going to cut? Watch his eyes... he'll tell you where he's going.

"6"

He turns his attention to his dumps. His eyes search and figure out where his dumps are going. Where are you throwing? I look back to see where his dump is and he starts running back. My body turns to be in between them. My right arm rises and extends out.

"7"

My voice becomes louder as the count becomes higher. My heart starts to pound harder. I realize a stall or bad throw may be possible. Don't foul him...step back...make sure you don't get broken.

" No dump! No dump!"

I circle the dump making sure that the throw doesn't get off.

"8"

My heart beats faster and my eyes race. My head searches as fast as possible to see if it can find anyone that he may be able to throw to. I swing my arms making sure he doesn't throw over my head or around me. Get in his head. Your almost there...you almost have the stall!

"9"

When having a stall nine who thinks about anything but: Don't foul...Don't fast count (even though you know your going to)... you almost have em.

He turns to look up the field. You have done your job and he has one last option--huck it.
His eyes don't even make contact with upfield, since he knows i have him. His arm winds up...and...

"TEN!"

"STALL!!!"

Yes, I got him. My mark worked. No dump or upline throws. I got into his head and there was nothing he could do. I did my job...








"CONTEST!"

Shit!

HS: Co-ed vs. Open/womens play

Allan Thoe, Director of Youth Development and High School States (CA), released, about two weeks ago, an official statement that the California State tournament will be changed from Co-ed to Open and Womens. For two weeks our local yahoo group became RSD with bickering and debating about the change.

I am very new to the Youth scene in the bay area so it kind of came as a shock when a majority of people were not in favor of the change. The arguements seemed to be pretty heated and I think we all are losing sight of what is most important: what is best for the kids.

As this message goes on I start to forget what For and Against are even standing for. This topic just became Prop 8. NO ON 8!!! For means Open and Women's Div. Against means Co-ed

The FOR:

Open and Women's is what is played in college. If the high schools could get together and play this they would be more prepared for college.

It is known that HS women's ultimate in the bay area is lacking, in fact, until this year there was only one official team (Alameda Sweet Meat). This year Granada HS has divised a girls team. So now the division is two women's teams strong. Understandable that this is not a division but it is a start. The fight over for or against is more for the girls than anyone else. Yet all of the voices being heard are from men coaches. The reason women's and open should be the standard is that most schools only have 2 girls and it's not fair to teams that have a lot of women (ACLC and GHS) when they have to either sit them or play them against men who, not to be sexist, are taller and most of the time faster. Also teams end up not throwing to there women. It becomes a six man domination and the two girls (O and D) are left just to run and celebrate because they are never touching the disc. Oregon and Washington are in the advanced stage of ultimate and the Bay Area should take a hard look at what they are doing. They are producing high level Ultimate players men and women at an alarming rate.

http://www.upa.org/juniors/2008nationalteam#boys

Here you can find all of those players that are gold medal winners. Not one is from the bay area. Now is that because we don't have the talent? Or is that because the bay area still wants to live in the past? If Nor Cal ultimate wants to continue to keep there children's potential down than that is wrong and us as coaches need to think what our children want and need.

Women's Ultimate needs to grow and it is our job as coaches to go find the girls and tell our boys to bring out girls. I put all of the blame of a lackluster girls division on the coaches. We can change it though and the start is by having a girls division. I think once the girls start playing with other girls they will find that it is alot more fun when they have a chance to ACTUALLY play. They get to throw and catch goals, throw up field, and not just dump to a guy.

And since this world is sexist let's get it out on the table. Some of the boys think that their girls do nothing or bring there team down. If this is the case let the boys play with the boys and girls play with the girls. The speed of ultimate is different for both sexes so let them play to what they are at.

El Againsto:

Co-ed has spirit yes we do Co-ed has spirit how bout you? That is the biggest good arguement about having ultimate being Co-ed. When you are in college spirit seems to lose itself. Yes there are those goober teams that all they have is spirit but when you get on a Stanford or Carelton you lose your spirit. Kids are taught in T-ball or Pee Wee football about spirit. When you get to your first practice everyone is encouraged and cheered and then by high school all of that has gone away. Well high school Ultimate is like T-ball in the fact that that is where ultimate starts for a lot of kids. Middle schools are picking it up slowly but usually people don't learn about ultimate until HS PE or if your school has a team, you don't get really into it until later in your hs career or college. We should have the kids learn spirit. Spirit is what makes ultimate the best sport played.

Also, the other reason is that there are no women in the bay area so you can not have more than four or five teams. If this does happen than all of those women are going to join together from four or five schools to make one. Which may not be that fun when you have no idea who the people you are playing with are.

Fin

There are no right answers to this question because all have valid points. The upa has spoke about this and they lean towards having single sex divisions. The problem really is that coaches need to find more women to play and get them out. Stop blaming other people or other reasons. It's because some of the coaches are lazy and take what they can get instead of going out and finding players.

It will be interesting to see where this actually goes and if the changes are upheald.

Keep on huckin'

Berkeley Winter Youth League: Coaches Review

Does anyone feel that two games in the span of two hours and no warm up time except for on a field that clearly states "closed" is worth being known as a league? The youth league is a great idea. If you don't know what the details are, here is a small list:

1. Two games (1 hour each)
2. Winners play winners, losers play losers
3. Teams are somewhat evenly matched
4. No space for error, because the fields are reserved before and after the two hours allowed
5. No finals, nothing to lead up to.

Sounds nice, correct? Well here is the problem driving all the way to west berkeley for only two hours worth of ultimate and then having to turn back is kind of lame. Especially you are ATC, or some other team that has to drive more than two hours to get to the fields.

I love the concept. I think that HS ultimate needs to start moving in a league format. College is hard to do because of the distance, but HS has the ability since most are within, at most, a two hour drive. What they are doing will revolutionize bay area youth ultimate. I think all of the coaches should come together and talk about starting it up as a league.

Fall should be warm up tourney's and then spring will be one day tournament style league so every game matters. But this is a whole different blog...coming soon.

I think that what Jordan is doing is great and I hope it leads to a new format of youth ultimate, but this one "league" is kind of falling short of hype and expectation.

Keep on huckin Yay Area.

Geoff

UPA Coaching Corp

This past weekend I attended the UPA Coaching Corp clinic, held at Stanford, and it was an amazing experience. The people that attended this were intimidating. When signing up, I thought there would be a bunch of Ultimate ability lacking people in a room. Wrong! (I was the only one). All the women in this room were World and National Champions (Fury) and there coach (Matt Tsang). Also there was a men’s National player, Stanford A player, and a few other club players. I didn’t think so many were so interested in becoming coaches. It seemed that everyone in the room was there for the right ideas and I got a lot of tips to bring back to my team. If only I could get some of these players out to help us.

The cost of the clinic is $75 and you get this all back with all of the products that are included. The tips and knowledge you receive are worth the $75, but on top of that I received a pair of FIVE ultimate shorts, Discraft disc, Ultimate work out DVD, Ethics and performance manuels/books, and my favorite thing FIVE ultimate Disc Bag.

The only problem I had was at the end of it we did no physical teaching or drills. I was hoping that I would be taught some drills and exercises that maybe I didn’t think know. But after spending too much time inside we went outside for about 20 minutes of instruction and by instruction I mean we were taught how to do Plyo’s. If you attend one of these seminars make sure that your instructor sticks to the time limits for each discussion, because people start to talk too much and then you lose out on the most fun and interesting things like drills.

Overall, I had a great experience, the perks were sick and the lunch (treehouse) was delicious. I think that all coaches should go through at least the first clinic of ethics and exercise. This should be a must if you are a youth coach. There are many coaches that I know that should have there certificate because they need to hear some of the things that are said. I hope the UPA works on making all coaches certified.

Granada HS Ultimate: The beginning

The beginning: Granada Ultimate actually starts with Mike DeSouza, who now coaches at ACLA "Darkmeat," he before he started Dark Meat he was a brand new teacher at Granada and started the first team there. The team only lasted a short period of time because Mike eventually left.

The Second coming: Years later a high school Junior named Mario DeSouza decided to take the Ultimate class at Las Positas College and while there met a man who, always working kids, nagged mario to start an Ultimate team. Mario got some of his friends out to just throw and goof around. After a summer of nagging again Mario finally got all of his friends and some of there friends out to a "real" practice; and yes Mario is the nephew of Mike DeSouza. Oh an that man was I, Geoff "Black tide" Rexroth.

The first Practice: The charecters that came out to the first practice were not alike at all. There were atheletes mixed with pot heads, rocker kids practicing with sweet/innocent people (girls).
We played on the side of a side field at Max Baer park in Livermore, CA. We were practicing in 40ft by 60ft piece of grass that did not fit the 30+ kids that all came out. We did not have the ability to actually play a game until the sun was falling behind the houses and we scrimmaged for about 30 minutes. I watched for the entire practice, because I wanted to know where the kids were at when it came to talent level. At the end of that practice I realized that I had a lot on my plate, but I figured that would be the case. That night I went home with a project and I was excited to start on it.