Captain's Log: 72307

Captain's Log: 72307

The Van Buren Boys played last weekend at the Minneapolis Ultimate Disc Inviational or something, called MUDI. We had already travelled to Boston, but only with 11/26 VBBs, so this would more appropriately be called our "first" tournament as The Van Buren Boys.

Things could not have started off better. In fact, they were perfect. We played a high school team in our first game and won 13-0, never turning the disc over and even grabbing a Callahan goal. Was this a trend that would continue?

No. First point next game TBA moves it down the field and scores. 13 point scoreless streak broken. Then, with us on offense, we turn on the next possession. 14 point turnover-free streak broken. 0-1 was the last time we trail in this game, but we only lead 5-4 before making an 8-3 run to finish the game, winning 13-7. The offensive squad only turned it over two or three times in this game, I believe, and did not get scored on.

Third game, against Nocturnal, we win 13-1. Some really fast guy gets scored on for the other team's only goal. Also, few, if any offensive turnovers. Thus far, offensive squad scored on zero times, with fewer than 5 turns in three games.

In the fourth game we played Dingwop, coming off of a long game against TBA that they had lost. They played a decent game, we won 13-9, but I wonder if things could have gotten a little more sticky had they come off of an easier game or a victory. We took a quick 6-2 lead, but they chipped away at the lead, closest was 9-7, then we won 13-9.

A pretty good day overall. The zero turnover game was impressive, no matter who you are playing. Except for a short first half lapse in the TBA game and a short second half lapse in the Dingwop game, we played great ultimate. Defensive offense movement isn't looking great at times, especially in the TBA game. Offensive team was great today, only getting scored on twice, both in second half of the Dingwop game.

Saturday night had us hanging out at Ross's house. Played some hearts and spades with the Kansas guys, Lou and Brian, plus some poker. Can't be afraid to play rags. Well, it helped that I built a big chip stack early and then could pay to see every non-raised or small-raised flop. And the 6-9 deserves an all-in call every time. Took $40 home, though.

Sunday we didn't have to play until 11AM. First game against GooseEgg. This game didn't go so hot. We trail 2-5 and 3-6 before the defensive squad shows some grit to bring it back to 6-7 at halftime. Offense scores 7-7. D squad can't, 7-8. Offense scores 8-8. D squad can't, 8-9. This trend continues to 11-11. We're getting turns on every point, but it just isn't happening on offense. Leave the O squad in to play defense at 11-11 and maybe get the upwinder. A two or three turnover point ensues, but we get the score and make it 12-11. Send in a D team, poach heavily, a poor upwind huck is thrown, which is knocked down by Rob or Brian. Rob picks up but a pick is called. Rob, Brian and I are all somewhat near each other 50 yards from the endzone. I had a lot of real estate in front of me. Without saying a word to each other disc comes in and I put my head down and run. Rob throws to Brian, Brian puts up the forehand huck, I look up see the disc above me and reel it in for the win. That was a close one.

On another field Madison is playing a close game against Climax that goes well past the time cap. They come over and though we are supposed to start, we give them a few more minutes. They were probably tired, but just didn't look to effective on offense, or maybe our defense was too tight. We cruise out to a 10-2 lead and win 13-6. To this point the offense has only been scored on three times today, five times all tournament.

In the finals we have the Subzero matchup we came to the tournament for. There is a sizable crowd, with spectators lining the entire field except for the endzone furthest from tournament central. A lot came to see what The Van Buren Boys had to offer and gave a lot of positive support to us. We start by playing downwind defense, get a big block from Jimmy and proceed to move it all the way up the field to score. They respond with an upwinder, forcing our offense to go upwind. We can't and it is 1-2. Offense responds with a downwind score. 2-2. Defense comes out and gets the break back, making it 3-2. Then, we get the subsequent downwinder to make it 4-2. Game gets tied at 4-4. Somewhere in there is a heartbreaker where we should have scored our fifth point to a wide open guy, who misreads a disc and it goes over his head. Reading the disc is one our team's poorest skills. It's not exactly something that is easy to teach, though. Defense gets it done again and it is 6-4. They score for 6-5. Offense makes it 7-5. They make it 7-6. We have a chance to score downwind, and receive on offense going downwind to start the second half. We were staring 9-6 in the face. It wasn't to be. Our offense drops two to trail at half 7-8. Up to the point in the game where it was 7-6, our offense had been scored on 7 times all tournament. After that point, offense got scored on five more times. Defense can't get back on the field but two or three times in the time-shortened second half. When they are, there were a couple of golden scoring opportunities that just didn't work out.

So, which team was the real Van Buren Boys team? The one that took a 7-5 lead, basically outplaying Subzero in a lot of respects? Or the team that finished the game 2-8, fighting hard, but just not getting the job done. No question we're the first team, but we'll need to find ways to keep us at that level throughout the game. I realized my line calling was not the best in the second half. I got stuck into the pattern of believing the offense was going to score the next point and we could send on the defense, so I was reluctant to put D guys in on offense. But I learned my mistake. In addition, at later tournaments this year we'll have a few more players, a couple of whom are slated to be offense-only guys.

Notes:

-Brian and Ben wanted me to comment on each player, but that would really take a long time, plus Rob already beat me to it.

-The offensive team, save the second half of the Zero game, really got the job done all weekend. Ross, Wimer, and Mike, looked at ease with each other and moved the disc very well to create throwing opportunites for each other. I was very impressed with that.

-The defensive team's offense could be an X-factor in games this year. Which offense is the true defensive offense, the one the struggled most of the tournament against the likes of TBA, GooseEgg, and Dingwop, or the one that showed up bigtime in the Madison game and followed through with a number of breaks in the Subzero game? I believe the defense has a number of players who "step up" in the big games, so maybe we might struggle in the middle-tier games and play better in the upper-tier games.

-We didn't have a couple of players for this tournament that could have really helped. First, Jon would have added some big breaks and skilled handling for either the offense or the defense. Barrett would have given Dave a rest as a primary cutter in our offense. It would be even better to have both of them in there. BJ is getting stronger as the year is progressing, I wish he could have made this tournament to keep that confidence rising. Joe Nickels is a stud on either side of the disc and could have been another offensive substitution. Later in the year we'll have Austin, but it's unclear how much disc he's playing in Colorado. Also, we may be picking up Michael Arenson, but he hasn't been playing disc all year, and if he does join us, will he be able to blend in with us as quickly as necessary?

-Not a whole lot of hucking over the weekend, especially from the defense. There was some wind, but for the most part everything was underneath. In less windy conditions, we'll have to put up some hucks just to open up our offense. Defense was playing us almost exclusively underneath, making it hard to get the flow started, but somehow we got it done with some success.

-Dave was a workhorse this tournament. He and Mike Lun played highest number of points, but Mike was largely handling, while Dave was cutting every point he was in. Not only that, but he saved a number of possessions in the Subzero game. We wanted to talk about how close we were on a lot of plays after the game or how we let a couple of scores slip away, we should also mention how Dave saved our butts a number of times in that game. As I now remember, Lou made a couple of layout saves against Zero also.

-Josh, Wes, and Berkseth seemed to work well with each other. I felt they played the best in the GooseEgg game, repeatedly getting wide open hucks for scores when the game was tight. There wasn't a lot of extra drama with mulitple turnover points for the offense. They got on the field, got the job done, and gave the defense another shot at it. It seems like there needs to be one more cutter thrown in with these guys. Maybe Nickels, maybe BJ, maybe Jimmy, maybe Joe, maybe myself. Maybe that last spot could just be a floater spot, filled in by the most rested D guys as necessary. As said before, Barrett can sub in for or play alongside Dave.

-Stu I feel I need to apologize to for some reason. He kind of got thrown around a lot this weekend. Maybe thought he was going to be an O guy, but then Mike, Wimer, and Ross were stealing the show. I threw him into a lot of downwind D points, where we would then have to score upwind, and played him on upwind O points, but he never seemed to develop a rhythm, but I think I didn't give him much of a chance to develop a rhythm, putting him in with different players every time he went in. When Jon is thrown into the mix, maybe give one to the offense, and one of them to the defense? Or keep them both as both-way subs? We'll see.

-I still think Brian is the best downwind hucker on the team. He threw a couple of scores early on in the Madison game, plus the game winner in the GooseEgg game. My only concern about Brian is that he has a tendency to run upfield when you look to him as a dump. Two or three times over the weekend when a player turned to him for the dump he ran upfield right as the dump went backfield. I fell into a "wait for a downwinder" attitude with Brian too much and that wasn't too fair to him, because he can move it upwind too. I'll be better about it in the future. I always talk about liking playing with Jon, I really like playing with Brian too, I just don't get to do it as much.

-Brendan comes up big as the games get bigger. Every tournament I've played with him that happens. It's a good quality. Thanks B-Jar.

-Well, the VBBs are officially Beckified. Becky will be playing with us this year and showed why he deserves a spot all weekend. First guy down off the pull every time he was in, few turnovers on offense, and some good handler defense all weekend. I like having Becky around, maybe I give him too hard of a time (see: rent he owes Lou, also, The Footblock). Thanks for playing Becknasty.

-Jimmy also played very well, establishing himself as a go-to cutter for our defense. Also, he's always willing to take a hard matchup on defense. Played very big in the Subzero game.

-Rob is a guy that more than any non-CLX player on the team screams "CLX". While any of the guys would have fit in on CLX, Rob would have done so with flying colors. Like Becky, he frequently played good defense on handlers and showed a hustle that showed how much he loves playing. It doesn't matter the opponent, Rob is going to hustle, smile, and love it. And I love that.

-This is getting long. Joe is Joe. Hard cuts, hard D matchups, a true Baysh Brother.

-Matt, also a Baysh Brother. His huck in the Zero game on the first point saved us the drama of having to score. Once we got that first score, a lot of pressure was off.

-Ben continued some solid play from last weeks practice. Good cutting mixed with good defense. I wouldn't say Ben excels at anything, but he's damn good at it. I no what I'm going to get when Ben is on the field, and that makes it easy to put him out there. Big sky in the Zero game, although he says he could have jumped higher.

-Jakerz defied Conservation of Glory, getting a deep D, then throwing the huck.

-Shawn has red hair.

Well, that's everybody. Looking forward to this season. We won't play again until Cooler, with only one practice before Cooler. I'm going to have to do a lot of personal workouts, but after a tournament like this it's easy. Right now I'm excited, we did well, but there's something to be desired. Now to train to get what is desired.