Team Z Glory Days Recap

With Denis on Team Z, you knew we would have a good team name. Although it hardly made any sense, Team Poppins was born during the Wednesday practice before Glory Days. Having won the split-squad trophy, Poppins was ready to roll.

Poppins’ first game came against Purdue-B. They had one good handler who was making all of the plays for them. He hit some of his looks, but didn’t seem to have much of a supporting cast. Purdue-B never committed to dumping the disc and Team Z took advantage. The rookies and vets flowed very well off the turnovers and won 13-2 in a largely uneventful game.

After the first round, the tournament director informed us that Michigan St. would not be showing up. That meant that our other two games would be played to 17. With the team’s final game against the Art Institute, Poppins knew they could give an all-out effort against the University of Chicago. U. of Chicago was filled with some veteran players, so the team knew their athleticism would only carry them so far.

Junk had two relentless cutters mixed in with some veteran handlers. However, Z’s defense set the tone for the game, creating a ton of D’s. The handlers, let by one Denis Madison Agniel, moved the disc quickly thereafter and Team Z jumped out to an 8-3 lead. Junk was able to stay in it with good cutting by a guy with blonde hair. We corrected this problem by putting the airsnake on him. Pavan came up with some huge D’s and Poppins coasted to a 17-13 victory.

Team Z took on the Art Institute in its’ final game of the day. We took this opportunity to work on the zone. We ran it for most of the game and created a ton of turnovers in their end of the field. A lot of quick points later, Team Z emerged victorious 17-0.

Team Z came in to Sunday with the largest point differential out of any team in tournament. However, due to tournament scheduling that would avoid rematches and games against other Illinois teams, Team Z received the 3 seed and played Truman St. Team Z knew they were not a typical 14 seed and would need to come out on fire to take the game.

The game started out well, as Miles was left unguarded in the end zone to give Team Z an early 1-0 lead. However, Team Z’s failed to execute the fundamentals thereafter. On our next four offensive possessions, our first upfield passes were not completed due to throwaways and drops. Truman St. capitalized on our mistakes by transitioning and scoring easily to go up 5-1. We called a timeout in order to settle our nerves.

The timeout did not seem to help as Truman St.’s composure won out in the remainder of the half, going up 7-1. Team Z possibly underestimated their athleticism as they skyed us deep for scores on numerous occasions. We rallied in the second half as tall Joe skyed for a few scores. Truman St.’s consistent execution won out in the second half as they cruised to a 13-6 victory.

Team Z headed toward the 9^th place bracket. There was still a lot of ultimate to be played and the team looked forward to redeeming itself. We played Chicago Funk. (Note: I have no idea what the difference in schools is between Funk and Junk, so don’t ask me) Funk came out throwing ridiculous deep shots mixed in with a plethora of ill-advised hammers. Z capitalized on Funk’s loose play and easily worked the disc in to go up 7-1 at half. The onslaught continued in the second half as Team Z made quick work of Funk, winning 13-2. After the game, one of Funk’s players was heard saying, “Sweet, now we can watch the Bears game.” Terrific.

The semis of Ninals would pit Team Z against Michigan. Let me start with the highlight of the game. A Michigan player gets an up-line and Pavan is trailing his man by 10 yards downfield. You can hear a cry from the Michigan sideline, “Don’t do it!” Sure enough, their handler rips the huck. I proceed to yell, “Yeah right,” (Something I always do when somebody throws deep on Pavan) as Pavan snatches the D. Pretty. Lowlight of the game: Hidaka throws an up-line pass to Brad who gets trucksticked by one of Michigan’s biggest players. In no way was the play dirty, but Brad got ENVELOPED.

Anyway, on to the game. Team Z’s offense looked the best it did all weekend. Handler movement looked good and there was plenty of break side action as many of the rookies were timing their cuts well off of the handler movement. However, our marks did not look good as Michigan got off a ton of break throws, including hucks, that let them work it fairly easily. Michigan takes the game 13-7ish.

Team Z faced Iowa in the 11^th place game. The marks plagued Poppins again as Iowa had good break side action. They jumped out to an early six-point advantage. Deep shots from Brad to Pat gave Poppins a fighting chance. Brad also played some sweet D to cut the lead to 12-9 late in the game. Iowa’s composure with the disc was too much for Z, taking the game on the next point.

Overall, Team Z went 4-3 and took 12^th place. The rookies got good experience working the zone and on their marks. Some of the younger veterans got experience stepping up into newer roles.

Things we learned this weekend…

1. Joe is really tall.
2. Brad is pretty short. Yet, he can take a beating like no other.
3. Eric looks like some guy who used to play for the Phillies. You can call him Dickie now.
4. Pavan scares other teams into submission. Taste it.

That is all.