Video: GLUM vs. Figjam, CUC 2010

I’m still too tired to do a full post, but suffice to say our semi-final game was one for the ages, and one we can be proud of despite the finish. Some serious resolve shown in the 3/4 game, as well, dispatching Real Huck with authority. In absence of any real commentary on the weekend, here are some links:

ESPN piece on the tournament

Day 3 Recap – Masters Division

Masters Division scoreboard

Video:

The story of the semi-final vs. Boneyard

Day 2, Round 2 highlights (GLUM vs. Ball & Chain starts at 34s mark)

Day 2, Round 1 highlights (GLUM vs. Le Tigre starts at 1:20 mark)

Day 1, Round 3 highlights (GLUM vs. Surly starts at 54s mark)

Day 1, Round 1 highlights (GLUM vs. Chesapeaked starts at 1:30 mark)

Pool A: Surly (1), GLUM (3), Figjam (6), Ball & Chain (7), Chesapeaked (10), Le Tigre (12)
Pool B: Beyondors (2), Boneyard (4), DoG (5), Real Huck (8), Rumble (9), Slow Country Boil (11)

Thoughts:

• We start off on Thursday morning against Chesapeaked (Washington DC). It’s in GLUM’s nature to start tournaments slow, and we can’t let that happen in Florida. The last time I saw Chesapeaked was at Montreal Jazzfest in 2009, and we thumped them pretty good back then. They weren’t in Florida last year. Of course, a lot changes in a short time for Masters rosters, so sleep on any team at your own risk.
• We get a rematch of the CUC 2010 championship game immediately after that against Figjam (Calgary AB). As happy as we are to see another Canadian team in the field, we’ll be even happier if we can put them to rest on Day 1 of UPAs. They’ve reportedly added some depth since CUC… but so have we.
• Our last game of the first day is our biggest: Surly, a perennial semis team and the overall #1 seed. It will be a difficult decision for the captains in terms of managing the roster for this one. If we’ve already won our 1st two games, there may thought given to resting certain guys. The weather should also be a factor, since we definitely overplayed a few key guys last year when we may have been better-served keeping them out of the severe heat and ready for more meaningful games.  At the same time, it will be tempting to go all-out to win and set the tone/ send a message to the rest of the field. I’m glad I won’t be making those decisions, as they could very well determine how we fare late in the tournament.
• Day 2 brings us Le Tigre (Arizona) and Ball & Chain (Atlanta). I don’t know anything about Le Tigre, the #2 seed out of the SW and a new team this year. Ball & Chain have been around the block. We topped them in pool play last year, 15-11. We should be able to take care of business heading into the quarter-finals if we’re smart on Day 1 and do our job on Day 2 (that is, punishing and finishing on D, which will allow us to roll lines and get rest).
• Assuming we hold seed, we’ll likely see DoG, Real Huck, or Boneyard in 1/4s, and if successful there, Beyondors in the semi. That would be a rematch of last year’s quarter-final match, which we trailed most of the way before tying it at 11s. Then Simon got cranked and concussed, and we couldn’t finish the comeback, losing 15-12.
• This GLUM team is a far different beast from the 2009 model. We’ve added significant horses — Shaggy and Dan Fassina (Mephisto) Brett Taylor (GOAT), Dan Turcotte, Sean Harkins, Ewan Reid and Marc Pepin (Phoenix) — who will all play pivotal roles in how we finish. We bring back almost everyone else from last year’s 5th place team. We are stronger and have more talent at key positions, without a doubt. We’re also in better condition, thanks to both Taylor’s slave-driving noon-hour workouts and individual effort. Showing up to practice in less-than top shape or unfocused can be a humiliating experience.
• For some of us, this is just the beginning — with GLUM and in the Masters division. For others, it’s a last shot at glory. But across the board, there’s a sense of purpose and confidence. It’s been a pleasure to play with a bunch of guys who are very good at frisbee, know it, and aren’t afraid to work through the tough stuff to get to the gold.
• I was re-reading my post from last year’s UPAs, and it’s depressingly similar to my current status. Slightly better off this year, but still not physically close to where I need or want to be. As PK would say, “my structure is not 100%”. I knew coming in to this fall that I would be fighting for PT, being one of the oldest guys on the team, and having spent a career playing a position (D-line cutter) that relies on athleticism and fitness to play well. I was comfortable with that. What I’m not comfortable with is the litany of injuries that has dogged me all summer again this year. Last year, I blamed lack of fitness for getting hurt too easily. This year, it was a layout-into-the-ankles that made for a long summer of limping and swelling (thanks to a 20-year basketball career, I have no ligaments left to speak of, and it’s finally taken its toll according to my AT), followed by a hamstring strain at basketball 3 days before Regionals. After rehab for a week+ after Regionals, I went full-out at practice for the first time last night and felt pretty terrible. Cardio sucked, made a couple of egregiously bad throws, and generally over-thought my work on the field rather than reading-and-reacting as I usually do — never a good thing for a D player. I’ll spend the next week trying to sort myself out, mostly mentally, in preparation for what is likely to be spot duty in Florida. Given the environment and competition down there, it’s critical that those of us providing “relief” to the top end are always ready and always in the game. All 29 of us will be needed if we’re going to win this thing, and I want to be a part of it.

GLUM descended upon Devens this past weekend in its annual run to the UPA Championships, and didn’t miss a beat from 2009′s dominant performance. This year’s team is about 30% different from last, but the changes have been positive and the gelling has happened fast. There’s no doubt this team is deep, and it showed at the UPA Northeast Regional tournament. Pete Knowles was a late scratch on Thursday due to a minor (we hope) back issue, and 2010 addition from Mephisto, Mark “Shaggy” Zimmerl, is also nursing an injury, so we were running a still-crazy 27 strong on Saturday. Brett Taylor cleated up for his first GLUM tournament since last year’s No Borders, but spent the first half-hour babysitting before the cold wind sent he and the kids back to the hotel, so he didn’t play Saturday either. And was careful not to remove the tags from his jerseys. BT is never one to commit easily…

Despite missing 2 of our top O weapons and our D-line motivator, Saturday’s pool play came and went without much excitement. We opened with a 13-3 win against our compatriots from Quebec, Quantum, who were making their first foray into Fall Series. I think this is the same score we played to in Lennoxville at Nationals, although both teams had markedly different rosters in August. They’re quick and energetic, but lacked the handling skill and — this was a recurring theme — depth to stay with us. We started on D, and rolled 3 different D-lines at them to start, breaking each time. We played Mt. Crushmore next, and dispatched them by the same score. Our final game of the day was against our sometime rivals from NYNY, once Above & Beyond, now WSL All-Stars. Sort of expected this one to be tighter, but with a new team (Rumble) from the NE reportedly taking some talent from both DoG and NYC, they aren’t what they used to be. They gave us a run for a short time, but we pulled away without a lot of fuss to a 13-6 win.

Seton did some math at the end of the day based on Shaggy’s points spreadsheet, and figured the average number of points available to each of the 27 of us who had played was something like 4.2/game. I think I played about 10-12 points over the course of the 3 games, and I’m certainly in the bottom 25% of this year’s roster, so I was right on par, and never felt I was being slighted or should have got more PT. Instead of it being tougher to manage a roster of 29-deep, as it’s generally assumed, maybe it will be easier with this team. As long as everyone is playing their role to the best of their ability, we will win games AND everyone should play. Very exciting, and definitely makes for some good internal competition for field time. We also seem to have a really relaxed yet confident headspace on this year’s squad, from the captains all the way down to the ‘Black Aces’ end of the lineup. There will be a need for an increased sense of urgency at some points in Florida, and hopefully that will be there when needed, but the calmness under pressure is a positive thing.

Sunday morning for us meant semis — win and we go to Florida; lose and we have a tougher road. We faced the new team, Rumble, who definitely provided the closest match for us athletically and skillwise that we’d seen so far. The game was back-and-forth to start, and even at half, was closer than we felt it should be. The second half showed again how valuable our depth will be this fall; our level of play went up a little, and theirs started to drop. At some point, they may have decided to shut it down in anticipation of their 2nd-chance game-to-go (the region got 3 bids to Nationals this year instead of 2), but whatever the case, we dropped them 15-10-ish. And with that, we were back to Sarasota. No overt celebration, no sense of accomplishment. After beating DoG 3 straight times in 2009, we weren’t here to take the #2 seed to Florida.

We had been scheduled to play the 1-2 seeding game at 3:15. Nonsense. A 10-hour drive for most of us starting at 5:30pm is crazy talk. Cooler heads prevailed, and we agreed to start ASAP vs. DoG. They look mostly the same as last year, just one year older. Jim Parinella is back after offseason neck surgery, and Alex DeFrondeville is still chucking hammers. They definitely gave us more than wanted to start the game. I think they may have been up 2 breaks at one point. But our O line was steady and we managed to take half 8-6 despite having a lot of trouble finishing on defense. Tons of turns generated, but just couldn’t seem to keep a lid on the crap long enough to get to the endzone. The second half was much better for our D, but DoG continued to stay close until the closing points, when you could see their defensive energy draining while ours stayed level as we continued to roll guys through. Final score 13-10 (first game we played that got capped). #1 seed headed to Florida. We should have a solid seeding — top-3, I would expect, behind Beyondors and Surly.

With 2.5 weeks to go until the start of the tournament, my structure needs a little work. Leading up to this week, I had just started to get over an incredibly painful left heel injury that has dogged me all summer — or it got to a point where I could run through it without wincing, more accurately — and I was beginning to enjoy the fitness work rather than dreading it. Then I got stupid. Last Tuesday, 3 days before Devens, I played pickup basketball because I’d been sick for a few days and wanted a good sweat, and I pulled something in my hamstring on a full-court breakaway. Didn’t feel too bad, so I just quit immediately, skipped Wednesday’s practice, and hoped for the best. All day Saturday was no problem; never felt it, never thought about it. First strike of our first huck drill on Sunday morning, however — it popped again. Same thing as before — not a whole lot of pain, but enough that I knew I couldn’t generate a full sprint and therefore was of no value to the team on the field. It sucks to have not played at all in the semi and final, but I’d rather play in Florida than risk it in Devens. So now, it’s 2.5 weeks of yoga and the Ottawa High Performance Centre for physio. Hopefully Jay can figure out what it is and fix it pronto. If this is to be the end of my touring career, it would really suck to spend it in flip-flops on the sideline.

It’s pretty exciting to think about our chances this year. Last year, we thought we had the makings of a finals team, and I still believe we were very close. Tough (stifling hot) weather and maybe some strategic roster management mistakes early in the tournament cost us, though, and ending up in 5th is probably where we deserved to be. This year, especially without last year’s champion, Troubled Past, in attendance, we should be right there on Saturday, making our own destiny. I’m confident that there will not be a team as deep as GLUM down south, and we’re better built for handling the Gulf winds this year for sure. As long as we take care of our bodies, and clean up some of the minor dirt that we saw this weekend on our game, we’ll be fine and should be pushing for a finals berth. Can’t wait.

Chowder and I arrived in lovely Lennoxville on Tuesday, two days prior to the start of tournament play, with the goal of reliving some old college glory from his Bishop’s days. I was lucky enough to experience an evening on the town — which consists of one street light and a single bar worth mentioning (the Golden Lion Brew Pub — go there and try their Amber) — with Chowder and two of his old buddies. Many stories ensued. Most very unsafe for work or family. It was a good way to ease into the environment and chill out in anticipation of the hard work to come.

Day One

Thursday morning came fast. Our first game was at 10:30 against Scotch from Halifax. These guys are perennial attendees at CUC, but are rarely ever looking to win. They’re a great group to play, and the post-game shot of their namesake liquor can be seen as a reason to stay under the radar as much as possible when playing against them. GLUM came out hard, but a little unfocused early, as can be expected in the first game of our 2nd tournament of the year. In addition, we were trying to re-incorporate some players who weren’t able to attend No Borders in July, so it was fortunate for us to get one of the weaker teams in the division first. We eventually worked out the kinks and took a 15-6 win into game 2.

Next up was Quantum, a team we were anticipating since hearing about their admirable performances against DoG at the spring Masters Invitational tournament in Boston (two close losses, including 15-11 in the final). All we really knew was that they were based in Quebec City and likely had some old Q players. We expected them to be small, quick, and aggressive, and we weren’t disappointed. However, with our superior size and some difficult wind in the stadium, Quantum never seemed to be able to mount much opposition. Maybe it was nerves, but we came away with a relatively painless and easy 15-3 win.

After a bye, we closed out the day against our hometown rivals, BDU. As at No Borders and countless mens’ league scrimmages, GLUM just had too much firepower for their Ottawa brothers. Final score 15-5.

Day Two

Things seemed to click almost too easily on Day One. The long game was unstoppable, our O line was on fire, and the D line was tearing it up. On Day Two, however, we had a slate of the 3 Fs — Flood, Figjam, and Fuel — expected to be the top 3 contenders for our title. If anything, the day went better than our first.

Flood (Winnipeg) had basically the same team they had last year, with a few elite athletes who were unfortunately thrust into handler roles. This took away any threat they may have posed on the deep end, and we walked away with a 15-3 win.

Figjam. Ah, Figjam. This team seems to have made it’s life mission to beat GLUM (see their 2010 website here) after two unsuccessful attempts in 2008 and 2009. With a Worlds qualifier year coming up in 2011, and an initiation into the UPA Fall Series apparently in the plans for this fall, Figjam is hoping to be Canada’s Masters representative in Brazil in 2012. It’s clear they’ve stocked up on a few younger players from the Open scene, and have re-dedicated themselves to fitness and skills development, but so has GLUM. They sat a few key players in this pool play game, and GLUM took advantage with a 15-6 win.

Fuel is Ontario’s 2nd-ranked Masters team, but is still a few players away from competing with the depth of GLUM. Led by GaLUMni Derek Sigurdson, Fuel represents an improvement on the past few years’ Toronto Masters team, Fossil. They’ve got the makings of a competitive squad, and with the ability to draw on retiring Open players from the GOAT-Grand Trunk system, they should be formidable opponents in coming years if they can keep it together and recruit well. Nonetheless, they aren’t quite there yet, as evidenced by another relatively easy 15-6 win to end our second day of pool play.

Day Three

An 8:30 start. An 8:30 start for MASTERS?!? Cruel and unusual punishment. Our last pool play game of the tournament was against NSOM from Montreal. Neither team seemed to eager to play frisbee. We didn’t need the win in any case, having solidified the #1 seed in semis. The Montreal boys graciously offered many sweeteners of the ‘young French female’ and ‘potent potables’ variety if only we would grant them a 15-6 default win that would catapult them into semis themselves, but the first option would only tire us out and get us in trouble with our wives and girlfriends, and the second, well, we already always have the second well covered on our own… so we played the game instead. And we made it very interesting, with the help of an opponent who had been growing stronger and gelling more as their tournament progressed. We traded points for much of the game before GLUM finally managed to pull away in the second half for a 15-11 win. The most points scored on us in 3 years of Nationals play, and a reminder call that we better wake the hell up before the semis…

Fuel pulled out 4th place after pool play, setting up a rematch. Things went pretty much to plan the second time around. We used our full depth and even managed to save a few key players some time before finals. We opened up our deep game, which had seen some difficulty in the earlier games. We locked down on defense, with manic pressure on the marks and bails that made it very difficult for Fuel to move the disc. A big difference from our morning go-round with NSOM. Final score was 15-6 again.

Which set up a 3rd straight final matchup against Figjam on the turf of Coulter Stadium. They had their shot at GLUM; now what would they do with it? Last year’s final in the muck and rain of Winnipeg had started slowly with both teams trading points in the early going. This year’s final would follow suit. We took half 8-5 in Winnipeg, and we did the same here. Last year, we followed the half with a closeout second half. I think the final score might have been 15-7. This year was different. We didn’t maintain focus out of the half very well at all. It almost seemed like we expected to cruise to the end. As a result, we quickly found ourselves in a tight game. Our O had a few uncharacteristic drops and throwaways that led to easy Figjam scores, and all of a sudden, the score was 12-12. A contested foul called by Owen as he made a bid on a floater from Seton down the line turned the crowd against GLUM (everyone loves the underdog, I guess), but the call was upheld by the observer and GLUM ended up converting the crucial point to go up 13-12. This seemed to be the backbreaker, as we went on to score the next two points and finish the game 15-12, picking up our 3rd straight CUC gold medal.

A special note to Eric Budgell, who collided head-to-head with a Figjam player early in the game and missed the rest of the final while awaiting stitches in the hospital emergency room. Ugly gash, could have been a lot worse for either player; fortunately both escaped with only their good looks damaged. Budge was in the midst of an awesome tournament after busting his ass all year with Taylor in his infamous noon-hour workouts/Bataan death marches, so it’s too bad he had to miss the big game.

It’s tough to say where this year’s team ranks among the last three champions, but I think GLUM gets stronger every year, along with the Masters division as a whole. We may not be pulling away from the pack as much any more, but we are maintaining the gap. An expected strong fall season of recruiting some major ex-Open talent should propel us further ahead going into next year’s crucial CUC season. We don’t normally concentrate on the summer season in Canada, choosing to focus on the more prestigious and more competitive UPA Fall Series, but 2011 will be different. I fully expect a battle royale for roster spots on that team, and I look forward to either playing with or watching the best GLUM squad to ever see the field.

Fall Series reports to come — if I make the team…..

ps– There should be video of our final available at some point, too. It streamed live on iamultimate.com, and Tushar promised to deliver a CD to Hillbert as soon as he’s finished editing it. If I can, I’ll post a link here.

pps– There are photos in various places, too. I’ll try to hunt them all down and do a post with all the links.

It’s been a slow start to the year for GLUM. After a disappointing 5th place finish at the 2009 Ultimate Players Association Championships in Sarasota, the roster dispersed for the cold part of the year and their various off-season regimens, some to Crossfit, others to their caves for hibernation. Rumblings began over the email wire in late winter, when our American brother, Dave Lindsay, roused the troops to gauge interest in some early-season Open tournaments stateside, but this met with less than full enthusiasm. Granted, Ottawa was still under a few feet of snow, so x-country skiing and maple syrup-making were higher priorities.

The TEAM captains finally put out the annual call-to-arms in the spring, and ultimate players started to emerge from the woodwork, cleats in hand, excited about the possibilities presented by a trip to Prague for Worlds in July and another run at the Canadian National title in August. OCUA’s mens league became the de facto practice night, and Brett Taylor’s infamous noon hour workouts saw an uptick in attendance.

But it was still with some sense of mystery that we all arrived at UPI on the Saturday morning of No Borders. A few of the regulars were still in Europe, and a few more had left the Masters division for the summer, returning to Open to stay fitter and play stronger competition before returning to GLUM for the Fall Series. We numbered 18, with a few nursing injuries. But Saturday was Masters Regionals day, with all 4 Ontario Masters teams placed in the same pool for the purpose of pre-Nationals ranking, and GLUM figured to have a softer day than had we been in one of the power pools.

Things went surprisingly well for a first day with no team prep or practice time. We dispatched Fossil (Toronto’s #2 Masters team) with little problem by a score of 13-1. Our field sported a decent crosswind all day, and it seemed to prove difficult for Fossil’s handlers, while GLUM’s experienced core had no similar trouble. Our superior athleticism also showed, with the long game hitting almost at will.

Next up were our hometown rivals, BDU. These guys go hard, and probably harder against GLUM than most other teams. But again, a lack of proven handling made things tough for them, and GLUM was getting its legs by this time. We took a 7-1 half, I believe, before winning out 13-4.

Our final Regionals match was against Toronto’s new #1 Masters team, Fuel. Led by GaLUMni Derek Sigurdson, we expected Fuel to be a force to reckon with both at No Borders and in Sherbrooke for Nationals. We may again have benefited from the wind, as it seemed Fuel was intent on winning through the long game, and a number of their hucks went awry or were defended by our fast deep defenders. Final score was 13-4. And with that, GLUM is through to Nationals as the #1 overall seed for the 3rd year in a row.

We played all 3 pool games without a break. Then received a brief 30-minute respite before our crossover game against the 3-seed from one of the power pools. This turned out to be Grand Trunk, Toronto’s #2 Open team, populated with a roster of young, fast, talented but emotional young dudes. GLUM played the experience card, and we were fortunate enough to also have enough legs and ups to mostly take away their intended deep game. Things were tight through to about the 3/4 mark, when GLUM managed to take and sustain a lead, then run away to a 13-8 final and a spot against Red Circus (Halifax touring Open team) in the quarter-finals on Sunday morning.

We played our best game of the tournament against Circus. They are young, fast, athletic, and play intense D. We managed to match that intensity on O, and worked even harder on D to generate turns and eventually, to get us back a lead after falling behind by 2 points late in the game. At 16-16 in a match to 17, GLUM received for universe point. I’m pretty sure we turned it over at least once before managing to punch in the final score and our ticket to semis.

We got our Ottawa brethren, Phoenix, in the semi-final matchup, which started almost immediately after our marathon with Red Circus. Phoenix plays a very similar game to the Halifax team, but with better disc skills and depth of talent. They were running with a short squad this weekend, suffering from the same post-Prague hangover that we were, but it was more than enough to outrun and outgun the tired legs on GLUM. We stayed close early, but their energy took its toll as the game wore on, and we were eventually outclassed by a score of 15-7.

All in all, a promising start to the year, but lots to build on heading to Nationals and Fall Series.

In short, looks like the boys are 2-2 through the first two days of play.

DAY ONE: GLUM vs. Gauntlet (Canada – BC)

We saw and put down B.C.’s Gauntlet 15-5 or so at Canadian Nationals last year. Closer this time. GLUM 15, Gauntlet 12 in a seesaw battle that neither team led by more than 3 at any point. No big surprise, as BC may have some new guys, and GLUM definitely had some gelling to do with half a team of new faces. Box score shows our Blackfish brethren are making their mark as expected, with Kieran McConnell and Colin Hanes both leading the scoring, with Yapper, Brooksie, and Geofford close behind.

DAY ONE: GLUM vs. OLD SAG (United States – Philly)

Another old foe, from UPA Fall Series, revisited. Another case of slow start probably due to lack of PT together. Box score shows we started out on O and got broken 5 times in a row. The gap stayed at least 3 the rest of the way. Derek Baxter, Brooksie, and Kieran led the way in scoring again.

DAY TWO: GLUM vs. Big Bombers (Japan)

Japan’s Masters team was expected to be a possible dark horse in the tournament, based on the performances of their Open teams in recent years, but their 0-4 record indicates that’s not the case. GLUM took this one, fairly easily by the look of it, 17-10. Took a 9-3 half, then basically traded out. Brooksie, Ford, Hillbert, and Bax atop the scoreboard; are we resting our younger guns from the ‘fish? In one interesting side note, it appears that Brad Rollo threw a pass for a score in this one… hmmm, that’s one long-ass huck from Hintonburg to Prague…

DAY TWO: GLUM vs. Wolpertinger (Germany)

I’d love to hear more about this one from the boys. I wouldn’t have expected such a beating by a Masters team from Germany (not really a world power on the ultimate stage), but GLUM went down 17-11, and the only team Wolpertinger has lost to so far is OLD SAG, by just 2 points. Geofford and Brian Baker with a couple of assists each, Ford and SDR each with a pair of scores.

NEXT UP:

Tomorrow’s games are against OUF (France) and Helsinki Ultimate. OUF is 1-3 after beating Japan and losing to Wolpertinger (17-11), Troubled Past (17-4) and OLD SAG (17-13). A match against Troubled Past (currently skunking the field with a plus-minus through 4 games of +45) closes out pool play on Wednesday. I don’t know how tiebreaks work at WUCC, but it seems like a tough road for GLUM to climb into the top-4 of their pool and make quarters. Hopefully the boys can take care of business against OUF, win one against Helsinki, and hope for a drop by Wolpertinger to steal that 4th spot…

If any of you are reading this in Euroland, let us know how it’s going outside of the scoreboard. Sounds like it’s hot as f*ck over there, which puts you in the same boat as us at home in Ottawa. 40+ degrees with the humidex today and not much different the rest of the week. League tonight, practice tomorrow, league on Wednesday, and mens night on Thursday. Advanced weight-dropping and cardio-building weather. Defibrillators optional.

Good luck to the crew over there, and try to come back in one piece. No Borders and Nats are on the horizon…

———-

Addendum: Here’s an email I got yesterday from X:

very very quick…

We’re 2 and 2 so far, wins over Vancouver and Japan, losses to Old Sag (Philly) and Germany. Old Sag, they started off with a 0-5 lead, we finally got it together after that but not to overtake. Germany, well, they’re strong. Solid throws, they have twins on the team who are short burly guys who seem to lead the team. No games have been runaways – we were leading the Germans 4-1 (I think) early on. Don’t remember anything specific about the Vancouver game (except that we won), Japan was mostly long bombs to short quick guys, Brooks had a stellar D in the end zone.

Our team is starting to gel pretty well – boy these Blackfish guys are good. We’re all playing well I think. Two games a day doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s draining. The first day was a scorcher, every day so far (and probably today) has been humid.

Gotta go, we play in under 2 hours…

ps. Also GLUM-related, I just picked up the Cdn Nats 2009 DVD from Hillbert. There’s a disc dedicated to photos of GLUM, and there are some really good ones in there. I’ll post them somewhere in the cloud for viewing/download soon and let everyone know via email. Also have full video of the Open, Womens, and Mixed finals, but I won’t post any of that. If someone wants a copy, let me know and I’ll burn it.

GLUM went to Florida this year hot on the heels of a relatively dominant performance at the UPA Northeast Regional tournament in Devens, Massachusetts, and I think we all had high expectations. We added both superstars and solid depth players to our roster in 2009, and we hoped that between the elite top end and the increased depth, we would be well-positioned for a title run. Sitting back 5 days after finishing in 5th place, I still believe we were capable of running with the 4 teams who placed above us. So it’s with a slight feeling of disappointment — maybe better stated as a a sense of a job left undone — that I log in and tap out this post-tournament report.

First off, a stage-setting is in order: I arrived in Florida on the 25th, the Sunday before the tournament’s Thursday start. My 40th birthday was Tueday, October 27th, and my special lady-friend and I wanted to celebrate it in style with a seafood pig-out and some beachside laziness. On the week of October 25th to November 1st in Sarasota, the sun was angry, my friends. It was hot. Damn hot. Too hot. Temperatures hovered in the 90-95 degree range all week, with little respite under almost completely clear, sunny skies.

Thursday morning dawned the same as the earlier part of the week. Stinking hot, not a cloud in the sky, and a full day’s worth of ultimate on tap. The 8:30 warmup run left my lungs feeling like they were carrying a cinder block. By the time the team had run pre-game drills, we were all soaked in sweat. Ready to run, but for how long?

Our pool seeding looked like this:

1. Surly (2008 Masters champions/2009 Central region champs; Minneapolis MN)
2. Troubled Past (2009 Northwest region champs; Arcata CA)
3. GLUM (2009 Northeast region champs; Ottawa ON)
4. DoG (2009 Northeast region runners-up; Boston MA)
5. Ball & Chain (2009 South region runners-up, Atlanta GA)
6. Boneyard (2009 Mid-Atlantic region runners-up, Cary NC)

Our first opponent was DoG. A team we had beaten twice at Regionals. A rematch was not ideal, but we played an efficient if not spectacular first game and won 15-13. Tighter than we’d have liked, but a win is a win. The Boston boys played a good game, but their superstars are now in their mid-40s, and it may be starting to show. That said — not to give anything away — they did finish higher than us in the end…

We had a short break before our next game against Troubled Past. TP is an interesting team. Their top players are good, very good. Recent Open players dot their top O and D lines, and this is a fast and athletic team. But a select few of those same top players proved to be less than ideal competitors from a spirit of the game standpoint. The game started with a number of questionable calls and long-winded arguments, a few of which negated big momentum-swinging plays by GLUM. Still, we make no excuses for what ended up being a sub-par performance on our part, and we lost 15-9 but left knowing we were not outclassed.

Last game of the day was against the 5 seed, Boneyard. These guys justifiably won the Spirit award for the Masters division, and were a great bunch of guys to play. Unfortunately for them, we were feeling a little intense following the TP loss, and went into this one ready to prove we were still looking at this tournament with serious intentions. We took the early lead and never looked back. 15-11 to end Day 1.

Friday morning we set up shop and prepared for the huge first game of the day vs. Surly. We knew we could win this one, and early on, they did, too. We were up 3-1 after starting the game on D, and were sitting with the disc on their goal line to go up 4-1. Our O inexplicably had a bad run at that point, and next thing we knew, we were on the wrong end of an 8-6 score. If you can say anything about GLUM, though, it’s that we don’t quit. We kept hacking away, but couldn’t close the gap in time to avoid the 15-11 defeat. This one hurt. We knew that Surly was a front-runner for the title, and we knew that we could run with them. We were hoping to take them out and look for a #2 pool finish and easier quarter-final matchup.    

We were still in good shape for a decent matchup, though, as we headed into our last pool play game against the #6 seed, Boneyard, needing only a win to guarantee holding our #3 position into quarters. Boneyard was a bit of  a surprise all tournament, losing a close one to DoG and beating Ball & Chain. So they came into this game confident and ready to play. GLUM came in confident, too, but perhaps not as ready to play as we should have been. The early going proved nothing different from what we expected – we held a steady 2-3 point lead most of the way, and there was no undue defensive pressure to suggest that we couldn’t just trade points to end the game. At halftime, I had overheard some of their guys talking about needing to win, and by at least 3, to secure their spot in the quarters. This turned out to be a key in the second half, as they played inspired ultimate while we just tried to eke it out. Our O started to create its own pressure, and gave up a number of consecutive breaks; all of a sudden, we were a point behind. We crawled back to a lead, but then gave it up again and ended up losing what should have been a fairly easy game 15-13. Very disappointing. Even moreso as I wandered over to check our quarter matchup and discovered that the loss had put us in a 3-way tie for 2 quarter-final spots with Boneyard and DoG. Head-to-head plus-minus worked out to be exactly the same, so they proceeded to total plus-minus. Boneyard was out. DoG and GLUM were in, but not in the order we would have liked — DoG took the 3rd seed, and a matchup with OLDSAG. GLUM took 4th, and a matchup with Beyondors. A true lesson in how important it is to remain focused and intense from point 1 to point 15 in every game. And maybe a suggestion that the tie-break formula is flawed. In a situation where the two remaining tied teams had played each other, single head-to-head should probably count for something…

In any event, we had what many thought to be the tournament favourites on tap in our quarter-final. The Beyondors are a seriously stacked squad from California, many of whom are not far removed from perennial UPA Open contenders, the Santa Barbara Condors, and the US National Open team. Names like Steets, Husak, Yarbrough, and Sanford had us feeling like underdogs for the first time all year. We came out hard, but their D was up to the challenge, and we were in an early 3-4 point hole. Half came and went, and it looked like we wouldn’t be able to close the gap before they hit 15. But pride is a strong emotion, and we weren’t ready to go down without a fight. We climbed back to 11-11 through some intense D. In the end, though, the heat and a couple of key injuries thwarted the comeback attempt and we went down 15-12.  By this time, the end of Day 2 in ridiculous temperatures, even our bench was feeling it, hiding under a shade tent for respite while the California boys were still up and down the sidelines helping their teammates on the field. You really can’t overstate the advantage that practicing in those kind of conditions gives to a team. We may have to consider putting a treadmill in a sauna next fall so we can keep running through the heat…

In the meantime, a few fields away, DoG was beating OLDSAG 15-13 in a barnburner. They proceeded to get Surly in the semis, a game Surly took 15-12. DoG followed that with a 13-9 loss to the Beyondors (who, somewhat surprisingly, lost to Troubled Past in the other semi), and a 4th place finish.

Thus ended the hopes for a GLUM UPA Masters championship for another year. We did finish hard on Saturday, though, proving to ourselves and hopefully any observers that we were indeed in a class with the semi-finalists. We met Real Huck from Chicago first, winning 14-10 in a capped game. Followed that with a fairly complete 15-10 victory over OLDSAG to take 5th place.

Looking back at the tournament as a whole, it’s clear to me that we made our own bed. It was a recurring theme in huddles all week long — if we played our own game, we would win or put ourselves in a position to win; if we let our opponents dictate the pace and tenor of the game, we were in trouble. This was proved time and again in both our wins and our losses. This is not to take anything away from our competition — Troubled Past, Surly, and the Beyondors were all very difficult teams, with defenses that can pressure our O and offenses that are tough to stop for any D line. But we did generate turns; we just didn’t capitalize when it mattered. And we did score with ease against all of them; just not consistently. At least 75% of our turnovers by both O and D lines were not the result of defensive plays, but rather poor decisions or poor execution. These are the lessons we take into the 2010 season as we look to make a global impact at Worlds in July, threepeat at Canadian Nationals in August, and return to Florida in October.

From a personal standpoint, it was one of the toughest seasons of my career. I was already banged-up coming into the summer season — chronic shoulder/rotator cuff issues that worsened after a late-offseason injury playing pickup basketball, plus a new achilles tendon injury, both of which lingered all year and at times rendered me completely useless on the field. As a captain, I place most of my leadership capacity on setting an example with the intensity and aggressiveness with which I play, especially on defense. So not being able to play as hard as I wanted or as much as I wanted left me unsure of my value to the team, both as a leader and as a player. To add insult to injury, I was feeling maybe as healthy as I had felt all year at Regionals. I didn’t play a ton of points, but thought I played well when I did, made a couple of big plays, and felt that maybe I’d have more to offer in Florida. Stupidly, I headed back to pickup hoops the next week and re-injured the achilles. Couldn’t even jog around the field for the last practice before Nats. Dammit. Still, things seemed to be settling by the time Thursday rolled around, and despite not getting much run, I thought I was doing OK out there.

Then the heat caught up to me — or maybe the heat plus the fact that I hadn’t really had a chance to get in top cardio shape all year — and I had a case of what I think was sunstroke on Friday afternoon. I went to bed immediately after getting home from the fields at 6pm, and couldn’t stomach food until after noon on Saturday. Chills plus sweats, nausea, dizziness… pretty much had all the telltale signs. I’ve had bad sunstroke a couple of times before, and don’t know how to avoid it — I drank at least 12 litres of water on Friday, downed a ton of electrolyte pills, had a full meal at lunchtime, and only played 3-4 points (but prowled the sidelines all day)… Again — treadmill in a sauna, maybe??

When we lost the semi against the Beyondors, I started thinking seriously about retirement. The thing about GLUM, though, is just when you think you’re out, the team pulls you back in. Prague is next summer — something all of us in the “old core” have been pushing toward for the past 2 seasons — and it would be a shame not to make the short drive to Sherbrooke in search of Cdn title #3. And if I can make it that far, it’ll be hard not to take one more run at UPAs. That is, if the 2010 leadership still has room for a 41-year-old erstwhile D-stopper with waning speed and waxing physical fragility…

A Canadian National championship followed by a UPA Northeast Regional championship. An undefeated Masters season continues.  Our first-ever victory over Death or Glory. GLUM went to Devens this past weekend, and it was good.

All the time we’ve been putting in this summer and fall is paying off. I’ve been a part of this team as either a player or a captain for the past 5 years, and I’ve never seen us work as hard in practice or be as mentally strong as this current incarnation has been consistently since we started working together in June. From players 1 through 28, this team is more athletic, more skilled, more confident than it’s ever been. We’ve never been more prepared for the UPA Championships, and I’m more and more certain every day that we won’t squander the preparation once we get there.

UPA Club Championships 2009

We may well look back on our Saturday pool play game against DoG as the defining game of our 2009 season. We’ve played DoG a number of times over the past 3 years, but have never been able to solve the consistency and efficiency of their offensive game enough to defeat them. Many of them have more than 15 years of playing together at the highest levels of ultimate under their belts, and that’s a difficult thing to combat. But this year is different. After starting out trading points on Saturday, we had a lull in the late 1st half and early second, finding ourselves down 12-8 in a game to 15. Things did not look good. But rather than packing it in and concentrating on beating New York for the second bid from the region, GLUM battened down the hatches, locked on a 2-3-2 zone that had DoG’s best handler tossing errant, late-stall blades and hammers to empty space, and battled back to take a 15-14 victory. Any sense of intimidation or awe some guys may have had in the face of the perennial Open and Masters national and world champions evaporated in the process.

The confidence that comes from a win like that can’t be underestimated. Suddenly, no challenge seems too big to conquer, and getting down 2 or 3 breaks is no big thing.

We played DoG again on Sunday in the regional championship game. I have no idea what adjustments, if any, they made after the Saturday game, but we played an extremely efficient game for the win and would have been tough to beat by anyone. Going in, knowing what both teams are capable of, I expected a tough, close game, and that’s just how it started. We elected to start on D, hoping to set the tone with an early break. We got it, albeit after giving them two chances to score. Then traded to 5-4, GLUM pulling. The wheels fell off at that point for the Boston boys, as we reeled off 4 more breaks to take half and then one more before they scored again to make it 9-5. We knew all too well that a 4-point margin against the current world champs can disappear quickly, but not today. With the wind of a nice lead at our backs, we cruised to the 15-7 final score.

Mission accomplished. For one day, at least. Now, it’s back to work.

We have 2 weeks until the national championships in Sarasota. Four practices. Two weeks of physio, roadwork, yoga, whatever we have to do to be ready to make our run at a UPA championship. The competition in Florida will be stiff — DoG will be there looking to avenge their losses, the Santa Barbara-based Condors are now over the hill, too, and will be making a bid, and many of the usual tough suspects are back from previous years: Surly, Mileage, Throwback, OLD SAG, etc. It won’t be easy, but we know it’s possible now.

For my own part, it was a good, not great weekend. I’m still struggling with limited fitness due to a spring and summer of nagging injuries, but for the first time since July, I feel like I just might have something to contribute out there again. I worked as hard as I could when I was on the field, made a few plays I can be proud of, and didn’t screw anything up too badly. My confidence in my body is coming back, slowly. I’m really looking forward to pushing hard over the next 15 days and heading to Sarasota with a head of steam.

I’ll be back with an update post-tournament, and will probably be twittering from the sidelines during the week. Stay tuned.

In a particularly annoying glitch of the UPA’s online rostering system, it’s impossible to get much advance knowledge about who is playing with whom this year. We’ve heard that perennial contenders Above & Beyond, from New York City, have folded up the tents and won’t be attending in their usual form in 2009. While this means a potentially easier road to one of the two bids to Nationals, it would be a mistake to look too far ahead. It’s almost assured that whatever new incarnation comes out of NYC, they won’t be pushovers. And DoG will be back, looking for a return to glory one more time after bowing out in the semis in Sarasota.

2009 for GLUM, though, has been at least half about ‘rejuvenation’ (admittedly a strange term to be using in relation to the Masters division). After competing for the past 5+ years with the same core of guys who are now approaching or passing the 40 year mark, we’ve managed to recruit an influx of fresh blood from the Open and Coed divisions who should be able to build on the GLUM legacy for years to come. This is by far the strongest roster, top to bottom, that we’ve ever had, and should present a lot of difficult matchups for other teams.

Again, it all hinges on whether we play our game, or have the tempo handed to us by our opponents. We’ll be dissatisfied with anything other than a #1 bid out of the NE region.

Victorious in Mud Bowl 09 aka Canadian Ultimate Championships

The ‘Peg was angry that week, my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli…

Southern Manitoba got hailstones the size of baseballs the week of the 2009 Canadian Ultimate Championships. So large that if they had hit the Maple Grove Rugby Grounds in Winnipeg, frisbee players would have been strewn across the fields like downed bowling pins. In addition to the icy barrage to the south, the city got roughly 50mm of rain over the first 3 days of games. The result was muddy. And wet. And as challenging as it was entertaining to play in.

Kudos to the tournament directors for cancelling all but the championship elimination games on Saturday — a very difficult call, no doubt, but the right one. I can’t imagine how long it will take for those fields to recover.

For GLUM, though, this tournament was less about the competition and more about taking an opportunity to grow stronger as a team in preparation for the UPA Championship Series that begins in September. The Canadian Masters division has been slow to grow, much slower than the same division in the United States. Our main competitors this year were the same as last year: Figjam from Calgary. The other 6 teams competing at Nationals were a step below the two top teams. GLUM had a fairly easy road again, as in 2008, with the closest pool play game a 12-6 victory over the Calgary boys.

Our 7-0 record in pool play led to a semi-final (no quarters in Masters) against Toronto’s Fossil. A great group of guys, including GaLUMnus Danny Jose, Fossil was admittedly gearing for the bronze medal game, and although they put up a good fight early, were unable to mount a sustained attack. Final score, 15-6.

The final pitted us against the usual suspect, Figjam. Amid rumours that they had benched a few of their top players against us in our pool play matchup in an effort to rest them and hopefully surprise us, the game got off to a tight start. We jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Calgary answered quickly and we proceeded to trade points to half, with GLUM leading 8-5. We started on offense in the second half with a chance to put the game away, but as had been our habit all week, we couldn’t score and were broken for an 8-6 score. Gut check time. By this time, the 11 or so guys who had been playing every point for Figjam appeared to be fatiguing. Our O scored quickly (9-6) and the D took the field again. Our ability to run 21 deep without a production dropoff was taking its toll, and we locked it down entirely for the rest of the game, breaking our opponents 6 straight times for a 15-6 final score.

Despite the relative ease with which we dispatched our competition, there was a lot of value to be gained from the tournament. All 21 players contributed to every win, we came out relatively unscathed from a health standpoint, and it was a big confidence-builder — for players 1-21 who now know how strong this team can be, as well as for the leadership, who now have a solid sense of how to use each guy — as we head into the Fall Series.

GLUM has now secured its place as the #1 Masters team in Canada and with that, an invitation to compete in the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, next July.

There’s photos of us at CUC 2009 (aka Mud Bowl Manitoba) here:

Final vs. Figjam (courtesy Corry Berghout)
Pool play vs. Fossil (courtesy Corry Berghout)
Pool play vs. Figjam (courtesy Corry Berghout)