Captain's Log: 62606

Captain's Log: 62606

Men's and women's teams travelled down to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the annual Solstice tournament hosted each year in some of the hottest temperatures around. The first thing that most people think of when they think about Solstice is...it's hot.

Men's teams that I've travelled with down to Solstice have not performed particularly well. I can't even remember how many years I've travelled down there, but I think this was my fifth. The first year we were savage and lost in quarters, I think, it was too hot to remember. The year after that I think I picked up with the KU guys and we might have made semis, but played a team that just rocked us, I think I actually passed out for a couple of points in the semis, but it was too hot to remember exactly. The third year, we had a decent roster of people until all of them backed out and then we had 10 players, I think. I'm pretty sure we lost in quarters and I injured my feet and ankles. Last year, due to pretournament festivities, I was unable to attend most of Saturday's games. Our team was knocked out of the A division on Saturday, but came back to win the B-division the next day.

This year was different than most. We had a full roster of able bodied gentlemen ready to bring home some black trophy discs. I can't tell if the competition was as hard as it has been in the past, I think it is comparable to most years, but can't say for sure. It seemed rather clear that only four or five teams had a shot at winning the tournament, those being KU, Oklahoma alumni, Illinois alumni, Texas alumni, and Small Packages.

We came out a little flat in our first game, but managed to win 13-8. Our next two games went 13-3 and 13-3. We were repooled into brackets that should have given us tougher games. The opponents we played were better, but the scores don't really show that, as we won our next three pool play games 13-3, 13-1, and 13-4. With the best point differential, we were given the #1 seed for bracket play. Our quarters game was against a Dallas team that won the tournament last year, I believe. They were not the same team as last year, though, and although they were decent at hucking, they couldn't really move the disc short. We took the game 13-3. Semis were against Oklahoma alumni, a tough team with good role players. We were able to shut down each player's role fairly well, though, and we cruised to a 13-4 victory.

Finals were against the KU/Arkansas team, almost all Kansas and then Karl and Ajax. This team probably should have won the tournament last year and wanted to win this year. We traded points to start the game, and like almost all of our games in the tournament, we turned a 2-2 tie into a 7-2 halftime lead. We can't convert after half and it's 7-3. Then 8-4, 8-5, 9-5, and 10-5. We've built a huge lead, get a D, and then can't score on a huck. They rattle off 5 points in a row to tie it at 10s. Confidence and momentum is in their favor. We get a full field huck to make it 11-10. They turn it over again and we make it 12-10. They score for 12-11. We move it down the field and after a pick call, I have a little upline shot to Dave for the game. The pass was very similar to the one I threw to Luke Voytas in the 2004 finals game against Shazam. Again, I sail the disc past the player, and Dave gets a hand on it, but drops it at contact. I felt instantly sick like the game was over and it was my fault. I can't remember what happened, but we get the disc back, throw a couple of passes and Dave throws me a cross field 40 yarder for the win.

I can't say that Solstice was a tournament that I've really wanted to win, but it felt great to be victorious and was one of the more satisfying tournament wins that I've experienced. It kind of made the last four years experiences forgettable and now when I hear Solstice mentioned, instead of thinking, it's hot, I'll think, yeah, we've won that one before. Sweet.

Notes:
-I felt the best I ever have this season at Solstice. I tried to get about a quarter to a half mile of running in before each game coupled with other warmups and stretching. Instead of downing a botttle of Gatorade after each game like usual, I tried to sip on water all day. I think it payed off. While I wasn't getting a lot of D's, I felt like I was at least denying a lot of passes from being thrown to my player. On offense, I probably had my usual number of cuts and catches. I tried to be more focused on constant offensive movement at this tournament and getting the disc short more as well as long. I was displeased with my confidence in my throwing ability. I threw a lot of dumps, which doesn't bother me, but what did was my sometimes refusal to throw upline when marked. I like to be able to catch, turn, and throw, in one motion, before the mark is on, but the follow-up cuts just aren't usually there. At Solstice, marks were really getting to me for some reason and I just usually dumped it at that point. I think I need to start attempting riskier throws in practice to see if I can make them and see if my lack of confidence is justified or not.

-The team defense we played was great over the weekend. Our marks aren't the best, but KU was really the only team that took advantage of that. Our "middle defense" of guarding the incuts from the longs and middles was our strong point, I'd say. Both OU and KU in the semis and finals had trouble getting throws upfield and we scored some sweet layout D's from guys like Jacob, BJ, Joe, and an amazing one from Ben in the finals. The zone defense we played in the quarters and semis was also very effective. There wasn't a whole lot of wind, but other teams' offenses rarely moved it more than twenty yards out of their endzone.

-It was good to play with Brian again. Brian and I seem to be on the same page most of the time and he puts up throws to me that most others don't. Brian just seems to know when I'll make a move, and I know where Brian's going to put it. Even though the defender may be right there, he just doesn't really have a shot at getting the D because Brian throws into space and I box my guy out.

-If I had to give a grade on the handling I'd give it either an A- or B+. It was good. It was comforting to have Mike, Jon, and Brian out there at the same time, they work well together. Dave and Misra were good at cutting and participating in give-and-goes. BJ really stood out as a cutter and it was great to see him finally starting to be a factor on offense. Jake and Ben played well as vertical mid cutters while mixing in some deep cuts.

-Do we try to go to Motown Throwdown now? I wasn't too eager to before this tournament, but now I'd like to see how we'd do when all of the games are at that semis-finals level and harder.

-The women played well all weekend too, and I don't think they were challenged except by Truman State in pool play. Hopefully, we'll combine the success of both teams into domination at the MUDI, formerly the Aquatennial.