WUCC--Final Review

Well, I remember reading a quote by a scientist once whose name I can't remember, otherwise I would have listed "John Q. Scientist" above instead of just writing "a scientist", where John Q. Scientist would have been the actual scientists name and then

Okay, new beginning.

New beginnings is an interesting topic because WUCC2006 may have been CLX's final tournament, at least barring special "reunion" tournaments such as Poultry Days, GRUB, or anything we might take a one-time team to. Of course, there could also be a CLX2007, but while I would like to do it more than playing on a men's team, my gut feeling is that it will not happen.

Back on track, some scientist once said, around the time of nuclear expansion that "mankind began with a bang, but would end with a whimper." Something to that effect. In some ways, if that was CLX's last tournament, I feel it pertains in some way to the lifetime of CLX. We made early noise in 2003, blossomed into a beautiful but dangerous flower in 2004, reached maturity in 2005, then bowed out gracefully in 2006.

Our worlds performance was somewhat disappointing, and when I say somewhat disappointing, I mean it was disappointing. Don't think for a minute that it wasn't fun or worth it or exciting, I'm just saying our finish was not what anybody on the team probably expected. The other side of the coin though, is that we can honestly say we are one of the top-10 teams in the world, granted, we are 10th.

Overall, we didn't show the CLX toughness that we've had in the past, giving up two leads late in the game to lose 17-16. The CLX magic never came through either, stalling two of our comebacks into losses. In addition, we took on our most humiliating defeat in history, losing 17-7 to Whoreshack during power pool play.

Let me give some game by game thoughts. Man this is going to take awhile.

v. Gert Johnny's Band (Italy)
Some jitters to start the game, but everybody is playing very hard. We know it's worlds and are responding accordingly. A little too much excitement as the play is bumpy and there are many cuts coming from many directions. The game goes to 4-4 before we win the game 17-5. To tell the truth, it never felt like 17-5, it felt like we were only up two or three the whole game. Must have been early tournament nerves.

v. Bombing Madd Fatties (Canada)
Wierd team. They did not seem good at all but were able to beat reigning US champ Mischief in prequarters and eventually finish 7th or 8th. We came out we incredible poise and they made mistakes, we led 7-2. Then, that part of our tournament was over, that is, the part were we dominate. Enter part two. We start playing undisciplined, hurry-up ultimate. We start trying to score in one pass every time instead of taking the sure two or three pass route to score. We start missing D's and misreading throws on both sides of the disc. BMF comes back to 8-9 at half. With the lead and the disc we take it to 10-8. Then 11-9, 12-10, 13-11, 14-12, and 15-13. Our lead continues as we trade points, but I am even mentioning to people on the field that the game could go to anybody at this point. They go on a 3-1 run and it's tied at 16-16, game to 18. We manage to score the next two to win 18-16, but the general demeanor is not of mad excitement, but joyful confusion. Why was this game so close? What happened?

v. Thundering Herd (UK)
Sorry Herd, but they weren't very good and I was somewhat disappointed that teams of this calibre were at worlds. They were fun to play and all that, but I wish worlds had the best 45 teams in the world, not some of teams that were present. Of courese, then it might have been a lot of US, Canada, Japan, Aussie, and European teams. And we might not have finished top 10...
We win 17-3 or 4, they don't score until 12-1, I think.

New Power Pool Play.

v. Whoreshack (USA)
What to say here? We just didn't play well. Mike seemed to show the first cracks in his confidence in this game and never really seemed to regain it. That isn't to say he played poorly, but I can say that Mike was not the usual Mike from this point on in the tournament. Ever-important part of the offense? Yes. Deadly? No. Enough about that, the team sucked here. I can't remember if anybody threw in a great performance, sorry if I forgot, but this, as a team, was CLX's worst game ever. 7-17 loss.

v. Osaka Natto (Japan)
We were ready for this to be our bounceback game. Two hours after our defeat, we were ready to go. Game started out like most of the rest of our games do, trading points to 3s or 4s, and then the other team takes a lead. I think they take a 4-3 lead and take half 8-5. They are getting a little lucky, we underestimated their deep abilities, and they just don't turn it over. They stretch out to a 13-7 lead in the second half and things look bleak. Then, it starts. I don't remember what started it, but it happened and that CLX electricity was in the air. We score. And score again. Another big D leads to another big score. We storm back to 14-13 Osaka. Somewhere in there, Dave throws a 70-yard huck against the cup to me for a score when it looked like we were trapped. How does he do that? Time and time again throughout the years it must have looked like we were against the ropes, pinned near the opponent's endzone, when Dave rips one all the way downfield for a score. Good times were had and the sidelines were jumping. Then, just like that, the CLX magic stops. They put up a big huck that was D'able, but we just don't get it. They lead 15-13. We get it back to 15-15, but of course we have to get the D and score every point. They get a fairly big yardage gainer that maybe should have been D'ed, then move it to within 10 yards of the endzone. Their bigtime handler puts up a pass intended for a cutter who breaks off early. A very clean throw that was just a matter of miscommunication. I intercept and throw a quick one to Dave. The only thing in front of us is endzone. Most of the now-defenders are in the endzone. I thought it was ballgame. Then, the foul call. Before I wrote that I wasn't bothered by the call. After thinking about it since the tournament, I'm a little more upset. I know that throw was clean, I saw it the whole time. Mike said he didn't touch the guy and all of our sideline people were crazy after the call claiming there was no foul. Well, it stood and three passes later they win. Couldn't complain about the game, we fought hard to come back and it showed us that we had what it took to play worlds. We now also knew that the next morning we had to win or we were out of the tournament.

v. JoyRide (Canada)
A must-win game. Well, we won. 17-10? 11? 12? Never really close. Everybody was playing well and we were able to use every player on the team to do it. I think nearly everybody "statted in" for the game. Tournament officials kept stats on who caught and threw scores. If you include Ds, I'm pretty sure everybody on the team contributed to the victory. It felt great and team morale was at a high.

v. Mischief (USA)
We knew this game meant nothing to us now. It was solely "for pride". Mischief recently won US nationals and had been tearing through the tournament. CLX wanted to know if they had what it took to defeat the champs. The game started with a bang, with plentiful arguments during the first 8 points or so, ranging from travel calls to foul calls to timing calls. One player in particular for Mischief was just an idiot, but I digress. The intensity settled down and both teams settled into a groove. The play was tight and very fun to be a part of. Even though the game meant nothing to either team, niether team wanted to lose. It had the feel of a quarters or semis game at US Nationals. We take a lead in the second half and manage to hold on until 15-14. Game is capped at 17. They tie it at 16s, but we receive the disc. Not sure what happens, but our offense shuts down and the game ends with a whimper, with us dropping a disc ten yards out of our endzone and they score with ease. All that fight to end like that. Definitely a heartbreaker.

As it was, we could have won the Osaka and Mischief game and still finished third in our pool, which we did, because of a three way tie for last at 1-3 in our pool with CLX having the best point differential.

v. Red Lights (Netherlands)

A favorable draw for us if... The day was very windy and it was clear that upwinders would be worth the price of gold, which is fairly abundant in Western Australia. We warmup well, can't say it wasn't a lack of preparation, but I think nerves just kill us out of the gate. We throw many undisciplined passes to start the game and our upwind attempts are absolutely fruitless. I'm not sure, but it took a while to even make it past half-field, while the Red Lights were occassionaly knocking on the door, but not scoring. They get an upwinder at 3-3 and get the next downwinder to lead 5-3. Then 6-4. Then 7-5. I have a shot at scoring that just haunts me now. Well upfield, I have an open forehand, a 20-yarder to Dave for a score. He is guarded, but by a female player who has her back turned to me and wouldn't even know the disc was up. The wind is extremely intense at this point though and for three or four counts I agonize with myself about whether I should take this very risky shot or not. Then, realizing I'm on stall eight, I wing a breakmark forehand to Jon that is off target. He must have thought it was to someone else, I don't blame him, it was high and fast, but he doesn't attempt to catch it and they get a D. We trail at half 9-7. There is some disappointment at half, but seeds of belief. We seem to know we've screwed up, but that we can do it. The second half starts with them scoring downwind to make it 10-7. We have to break them twice to win. We get our downwinder, then trade again to make it 11-8. We work the disc well over many upwind attempts and finally break through, scoring to make it 11-9. We get a relatively easy next score to make it 11-10. We come out in a funky zone again used on the previous point. We are playing 1-1-3-1-1. The two upfront man up against their two guy handlers. The three mids play short. The next person is the short deep taking away the floaters over the mids and the long deep defends the desparation hucks, which they weren't afraid to do. We get the disc back again and Dave gets a long pass to Jon. I get it from Jon, back to Jon or Dave, back to me, and from my knees I lead Jon out into the endzone for another upwinder. 11-11! The next downwinder is hard on the nerves as they almost score a couple of times. Our offense is not looking good, people seem afraid to cut. I get the disc around midfield and call time-out. The play? Look for Saienga short or Solarz dump, I believe. I tell Drew to be ready for a desparation huck. Lining up, I see that Drew's guy is lined up in front of him. I signal him to the endzone, he breaks right away, and we connect on a huck. 12-10. A very hard fought point. They score 12-11. We score 13-11. They score 13-12. We have a heck of a time scoring downwind again. They are working it well upwind. A RedLights player calls timeout on the sideline, but they don't have any. For some reason, they keep the disc. They work it all the way upfield but turn, Saienga dislocating his shoulder in the process. Saienga takes an injury. Not sure if Dave or Mike enters the game. At this point, our ONLY objective is to put the disc downfield. Pick that thing up and huck it all the way downfield, receiver or no receiver. We might score, we'll probably have to play defense, but the disc will be out of that danger zone. Instead, we turf a swing pass and gift wrap an upwinder for them. We never come close to scoring upwind again and lose the game. CLX goes out with a whimper. Possibly the last elimination game in CLX's history and on our last offensive series, work the disc back twenty yards into our opponent's endzone and drop it, giving them a free game winning score. Ball breaking. To have been in the position to win, to have put ourselves in the position we wanted to be in only to give it away again was frustrating.

v. LeedsLeedsLeeds (UK)
Hmm... They didn't take it seriously at first. We go out to a 7-2 lead. Been here, right? They comeback, we play a close game and win maybe 17-14?

v. Sublime (Australia)
Hmm... They say they weren't playing hard at first. We got out to a 7-2 lead. Sound familiar? They comeback. They have two players in particular playing phenomenal ultimate. Game is eventually tied at 16-16. Been here, right? We give the disc up. Get it back and score. It was nice to win this one but kind of a day late, huh?

v. Bootius Maximus (Australia)
This may have been a great game if played in an elimination round. As it was, they hucked and hucked and hucked some more and CLX, while being a hucking team themselves, does not particularly play good long defense. They score a lot of easy ones. One of my favorite parts of the tournament happened though. Trent Troyer was about to receive a swing pass that went over his head, but he chased it down, layed out, grabbed it, and toed the line to stay in. The CLX sideline erupted. I'm not sure Trent had ever had a full extension layout in a CLX jersey before. I asked him who was president the last time he layed out like that. He said "Carter." Anyway, an incredible catch . We lose the game 17-13?

Review.

I guess the review sounds fairly negative, but I don't want it to be that way. Certainly CLX could have done better, but all those games were great fun until the end. The results were not desired, but we played a number of games at a worlds tournament that are they kind you dream of playing. Double-game-point games, or universe-point games against some of the best competition the world has to offer.

I felt like as a team we just didn't have the mental focus needed to be victorious in those games. The physical abilities were there and a number of players were in good shape, but the toughness just wasn't tough enough.

Dave was in great shape, probably the best I've seen him in and was playing well. Jon was, as usual, a rock on offense and even fighting through a groin bruise or pull or something managed to play balls off (hah!) all tournament. In fact, we wouldn't have scored those upwinders against RedLights if Jon hadn't been on the field. Lana played well and was scoring with more regularity than usual. Jake played a pretty good tournament, in my opinion, the best he's had since Fool's Fest last April (he went pretty crazy there). I was wondering how Jason would play after being up in Delaware for a month or two before the tournament and not practicing, but he didn't try to do too much and ended up being a very solid contributor. For him, the best tournament I've seen him have in awhile, too. Solarz played great defense on the first couple days of the tournament, unlike I've ever seen her play, certainly complimenting her throwing abilities. RShel played her typical tournament and Abby had some great plays. I don't remember any in particular now, but I do remember saying "nice play" as she came off the field a lot. Drew was a great addition to the team. I think he was a little jet-lagged early, but came on strong as the tournament progressed. I like playing with Drew. Jon Staron is still probably my favorite person to play ultimate with, but Drew is probably second. Gibbs and Rubenstein both played well when they were in.

Personally, I hadn't particularly prepared a lot for the tournament. After regionals, I didn't move much and it wasn't until three weeks before the tournament that I really began to get ready. I went to the recreation center 10 times or so in three weeks and really tried to run distance and sprints, lift some weights, and bike like crazy. I try to train for two things, which are massive endurance and very short-term sprint speed. I feel I do an adequate job at both. Just adequate. I'm not the fastest guy, but I feel I'm a fairly smart player, so that makes me faster. I don't have the best endurance out there, but I have a very strong will to win. I feel my limited physical abilities are well accentuated by my mental strengths.

As for the tournament, I'm tempted to say that I had my best tournament ever. In terms of offensive production, I can easily say that I've never done as well as this tournament. My defense isn't what it used to be, but I felt it was better than it has been lately. Reminds me of the country song "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good as I'll ever be." Especially against Osaka and Mischief I felt I was playing good defense. Thrower-wise, I threw more hucks and completed more hucks than I have since 2004. I was fairly selective in my shots, so I think I had a fairly high huck completion percentage, but I'm not sure. Most of the turnovers I threw were on short passes. I felt turnover-wise I did great. As far as I can remember, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, few turnovers on the first couple of days. More in the Red Lights game, I guess, but it was very windy and everybody had turnovers. I am usually left wishing I had played differently after a tournament, even after victories, and while there are some things I could have done differently, I was satisfied with my performance more than I have been for a long, long time.

So, where does that leave me and CLX? Word on the street is that some want to play CLX a lot, some want to play CLX a little, some want to play on a CLX-based women's team, some want to play on a CLX-based men's team, some would rather play CLX but would play mens/womens, while some want to play mens/womens but would play CLX, some may play for other teams, and some may retire completely. I give it a 33% chance of CLX returning next year. But then again, I thought CLX was done after 2005.

My preference is to play CLX again. Reasons? I really like playing for CLX. I really like how each year's slightly different teams come together in unique ways. I like the players on CLX. I like winning. I like how we don't have to practice and while it isn't perfect, we're still pretty effective. I like how the team can be very loosely run and organized. I like hanging out with CLX. I like going to Nationals. 2007 is another world's qualifying year. Nationals champ goes to 2008 worlds. I would like to be the 2007 champ and play at 2008. CLX is always a contender for the national title. What don't I like. Hmm. The fact that I can't practice during the summer, only play pick-up. The competition at coed tournaments beyond finals and the occassional semis matchup leaves something to be desired. Oh, and Chicago coed teams.

Would I play men's? Yes, but grudgingly. What do I like about men's? It's harder to win and is very satisfying to play one tough game after another and win. You have to train harder. What don't I like, or what would make it hard? There isn't a whole lot of talent in Iowa, well that's not exactly true, but probably not enough to make a nationals-bound team, for that you need about 20-25 quality guys. I'd say there's about 10-15 here. A fair amount of players who are a notch below that qualification and some that could be there in a year's time, but right now only about 10-15. If our team came from different cities, it would be hard to practice. A CLX philosophy wouldn't cut it in men's. I don't want to lose a lot of games. I don't like good men's teams. Or stupid foul calls. Or travel calls. Or all the arguing that has to go on in men's. In fact, there's a lot of things about men's that I don't like. But, I would do it. Detroit was a lot of fun. Solstice was a lot of fun. Who knows what we could do.

If there isn't CLX or a men's team? Hmm. I don't know what I'd do. Quit? Yikes, maybe. See if any nationals coed team would like a pickup? Well, it would have to be Brass Monkey or Slow White and I don't think Brass Monkey would consider it for a moment, in fact probably would say "Who are you?". SubZero? If I were able to make the team, would I really want to spend every weekend in Minnesota? Not especially. So, only time will tell what happens.

In the meantime, I may be going to New Years Fest in January with DingWop out of Duluth, Minnesota.

I'd love to win the Minneapolis indoor tournament again in February.

I'll probably end up at Fool's Fest in April.

There's always Poultry Days.

Maybe putting a team together for Boston Invite in the men's division. That would be a blast.

All right, it's 1am. Must sleep. If you've read this far, I'm impressed. Gibbs probably quit a long time ago.