The van Buren Boys (Part II)

The Small Packa-whats played at the Minneapolis Indoor open tournament last weekend. Those present were Dave, Jon, Brian, Jake, Rachel D, Rachel S, Lana, Brendan, Scotty, Shawn, Shawn's two roomates, and myself.

I wrote out a tournament recap, but wasn't happy with it. Quick summary, we play well at times and poor at times. Played the Subzero team in the finals. Had the lead most of the game, but couldn't hold on. Rotation down to six by the end of the game. Even with few players, we played well enough to win, but made some mistakes and were unlucky at times (see Jon tripping himself in the endzone, after 55 jukes to get open). Lost 9-7.

Six more players have committed to the van Buren Boys, bringing our roster to 13. (Should it be The Van Buren Boys, or The van Buren Boys? I think I like the capitalized "V", but keep writing it with the lowercase). We have a very healthy group of huckers, some very solid handlers, a great group of cutters, and some dangerous deeps. I think the current recruiting focus will be on defense. I like the amount of height we have on the team, and have the potential to have. We could potential have four to six players over 6'2''.

We still have invitations out there for a number of players. If everybody said yes, or stayed in the area, we would have a roster of 28 players. I doubt everybody will say "yes", but most everybody has shown some level of interest in the team. In my last post, I was worried about having to have tryouts and when they would be. It is looking more and more likely that tryouts won't be necessary.

I feel like we'll have a roster that can compete with every team in the central region. We aren't really lacking in any department right now, so every player we add will just add depth to certain positions and skills. I no longer feel worried about building the roster, now I'm just excited to see how it will fill out.