Recap of Club Regionals

This past weekend, we traveled 560 miles to play in a tournament where we were clearly a notch below the top teams in the region. Having some impact players not be able to make the trip was a big loss and disappointment. However the team still played extremely well at times and shockingly bad at others.

(A quick aside, this post will only cover the games against Madison, Sub-Zero and Van Buren Boys. The other games were against bad/average teams that we should have beaten and did, i.e. Hustle, Rawhide and Dingwop, or a game where we were completely rocked, Machine 11-1.)

The first game of the weekend was against Sub-Zero. The offense played extremely well in the first half making sure the game stayed on serve until close to halftime. Pat, J-man and Phenom pretty much scored all of the points in the 1st half on hucks, usually from Joel. The d-line played some hard defense and forced Sub-Zero to work hard some points but was not able to convert any of the turnovers into breaks. The second half, Sub-Zero's d-line comes out fired up and raises the intensity which we could not match. The 6-6 score quickly turns to 11-6 when the play of the weekend occurs, Cozza somehow gets open deep and Joels throws a huck which floats for a while. Cozza's defender quickly makes up ground and gets into great position to d the huck. Cozza notices this and boxes his defender out, forcing him to jump a second early and allow the huck to go right to Cozza who doesn't even jump to catch it. After a couple of short passes, the offense scores. There was a miscommunication during the game as both teams thought the game was supposed to go to 13 but in reality it was to 11, so after that point, Sub-Zero scores again to make it 12-7 but finds out the game was only supposed to go to 11. So the final score ends up being 11-7 which is the closest any team was to beating Sub-Zero all weekend.


Having Sub-Zero as the first game of the day and then having three games against mediocre teams cause us to come out flat in all three games making those scores a lot closer than they should have been.

(Pat flipping with Van Buren Boys)

The last game of the day on Saturday was against Van Buren Boys who are a mix of guys from Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota. They are a fairly good team and Pat fires the team up going into the game saying that winning this game will feel really good afterwards. The team takes those words to heart and comes out on fire. The d-line gets 2 breaks in the first half and probably should have had more. The offense scored mainly on hucks to a variety of guys culminating in a layout score by Bettsy. We take half 6-3. However, the 2nd half is a complete 180 from the first half. The offense can't even get the disc past half field as swings are dropped, stall counts get high and no one can manage to get open. Van Buren gets 7 straight points before the offense is able to stop the bleeding, by that point it was too late as Van Buren scores quickly to end the game 11-7.

(Huddle after the Van Buren Boys game)

The best game of the weekend came against Madison. The offense gets broken a couple of times in the first half and the defense only manages to get one break. Madison has trouble keeping up with the speed of J-man and Phenom allowing them to catch many hucks in the endzone. It even gets to the point where they start backing them and they still get open deep which causes some frustration on the Madison sidelines. At half the score is 8-6 and things are starting to get a little grim. But the defense switches to allowing the wide side handler to get the disc and then tightening up. Madison has trouble recognizing what is going on and have a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers which the d-line converts. The score is now 10-10 but at that point the Madison offense gets their act together and scores and then the offense gets broken making the score 12-10. After that a couple points get traded and the final score ends up being 15-12.

Final Record 3-4

Top 3 Ballers of the Weekend

1. Pat-definitely stepped up when needed against Madison, Sub and Van Buren Boys, got open whenever he had to and gave the throwers an option. Also scored a bunch of goals on hucks which was good to see. Looks like he is finally back to his old pre-injury self.


2. Joel-was all over the field getting d's and making things happen on offense as usual. Had some bad turnovers throwing into poaches but besides that was his usual stellar self.


3.J-man/Phenom Got some d's and made a ton of plays on offense usually on hucks. Made a huge difference in the Madison game as they were able to get open deep whenever they wanted. Only downside was J-man's bad stall call.


Worst play of the weekend-Against Dingwop, the offense is receiving the disc and the pull is in the air. It is a good pull into the wind and Joel our fearless captain is waiting there to catch it. However at the last second, he changes his mind and decides to let it hit the ground. Except he didn't move fast enough and the pull hits him on the leg, giving Dingwop an easy break.



Worst call of the weeked-Against Frontline, J-man calls a pretty egregious stall prompting one of the Frontline players to say "Theres no way it was a stall, you were at four, one second ago." This fires J-man up and after he scores that point he promptly spikes it causing Pavan and Walden to go out there and calm him down.

Questionable call of the weekend-Against Van Buren Boys after the d-line gets a tough upwind break, Joel, our fearless captain decides to call a time out. The logic was to get all the d-line players rested up for the easy downwind break. Needless to say, the logic didn't pan out as the Van Buren Boys score the upwinder. Was it the right call? Who knows, but it was certainly a questionable one.


Poor Spirit Award-Goes to J-man for his intense spike after the disputed stall call.

edit-added pictures and a little more analysis (Thanks go to Walden for the pictures)