2nd Annual CUA Alumni Game

It's been raining about three days in a row now, and we are expecting another week or more in DC. No matter, Catholic Ultimate will have it's second annual alumni game. Ahh, The benefits of having a turf field..

We were short on alums this year, but isn't it supposed to be the opposite? I mean, I swear we're graduating kids from this university. We had Templon, Heureux, Gatmaitan, McCafferty, Karpovich, De Martini, Dorsy, and Coach Dave to represent. Broaddus and Taylor, some very good local Ultimate players, stood in to bolster the ranks for a bit as well.

Despite the poor weather, the youth started the game strong, jumping to a 4 point lead. One of these was a turn near the sideline that I picked up. The first thing I saw when I looked downfield was Jess streaking deep with a step on Cafferty. I dipped low and floated a backhand out there for her to run down for an easy score. She's pretty much a menace in any game.

The shut out wasn't meant to last though, and the alums started to hit back with scores by Arin and Sam.

From here on, the game began to build in intensity as the alums began to claw back. Broaddus continued to perform as expected, making a nasty grab across the field and adjusting his steelers cap on the way to the ground. Damon found Templon running deep at a speed unseen by those who've played with him in the past. Cat even managed to give Arin something to chat about with a risky forehand into the endzone for another score. Now they were scoring, but they needed a way to slow the efficient habit offense. They tried a zone...

We always say that we are one of the better poor weather teans out there, but when you combine zone and good weather, we become deadly. The young habit offense kept relatively chilly against the Cultimate zone until I grabbed the disc on a sideline and ripped a crossfield hammer to Kyle for another score. Jake stepped it up on D and got himself a big footblock against throwing wizard, Damon. Habit kept the scoring up through half and took a rest at 8-4.

The second half was another story. Habit opened up its lines a bit and started subbing at will. We assumed we'd be able to close this easily, but the old guys weren't about to be put down quietly. Now that they had a full half under their belts, those old joints were starting to warm up and they started getting comfortable on the field together. Karpo and Templon kept the disc moving smoothly and found Jimmy cutting tirelessly at this point. Dorsy was breaking Habit players across the field and Arin was virtually unstoppable (mostly because I was guarding him.... oops.). Arin also picked up a few huge d's on errant throws, and decided to start a little battle with me with his spike in the endzone.

Although the gap was closing, Jake and Pete held together the handling core, while John, Stills, Jim, and Jess continued to give us open looks. Frodo worked his man for big unders as well, and Paco was torching Gatmaitan for yards as well. We rarely forced the disc deep this game, and instead favored quick hits underneath and big swings to gain our yards. As the game wore on, we got lazy with the disc near our endzone a few times and gave Cultimate some easy scores to gain ground. The game was soon 13-13 in a fight to 15.

We put our best line in, and prepared to walk the disc in. With Pete and I handling, we worked it slowly up field, taking the breaks when needed, and eventually hit Brian in the back of the endzone for a graceful sky that only he could come up with (note the sarcasm). We had high hopes of punching it on on defense too, but we couldn't manage a d, and allowed the alums to punch another score in on us. Another Arin score on me that is... Since he'd just gotten bookends, the battle still continued between us.

Another score and answer later, we were sitting at 15s in a game to 17. I finally found my answer to Arin with an up the line cut that was high and bit out of his reach, after showing him my prize I dished to Pete and found the endzone for a go ahead score. Playing D again, Habit was able to get a turn close to the endzone and close with a score from Pete to Stills. Young guns win for the last time ever 17-15. I think our graduating class this year has something for the young guys next year!

Thanks to all the alums who came out to make this possible!

A recap of the Arin v. Alan battle:
Arin scores on a swilly Cat put and spikes it on Alan.
Alan breaks Arin all day, but that doesn't count for much to Arin.
Arin d's two bad dump passes, counts that as "pwning."
Arin scores breakside, and again on the forceside.
Alan gets over Arin for the up line pass... Shows it to Arin before breaking him and scoring.
Arin gets more scores and d's, but a final score of 17-15 settles it. DHS does not pwn.

Bad Habit Ultimate

So I was thinking about Ultimate today and I thought I would mention why I've changed the blog name and maybe talk about some things I thought were interesting about the blog's picture.

The name's changed because I'm no longer a college Ultimate player. I will officially graduate May 16, but I've completed my final paper (and received a grade, a good grade) and our Ultimate season is already over...

I went with Stre7ch for three reasons:
- It was my nickname when I played baseball through high school
- It's my current gamertag (actually it's I Stre7ch I)... that's the nerdy side of me...
- It wouldn't be too bad to have the nickname back. I've actually never had a nickname through my college Ultimate career which I find weird. Everyone is always looking for something odd to call each other, and I've managed to avoid that. Part of me thinks that's good, and part of me feels left out.

This picture is kinda funny though. I'll give you some traits of people and then see if you can match the person with the trait based on what their doing in the picture.

Jared - Always pissed off about something... He might not think this is funny, but it was kinda funny when he called an "injury" at IUP because he was pissed at Pete...
John - Always telling some ridiculous story. Doesn't matter when, it could be in the middle of a point, but he's always got some crazy story to tell.
Jess - Obviously the easiest to pick out. She's one of the best women I've played with and she always seems to be waiting on us to step up our game.
Ranjo - Goofy. Most all the time. Even in the way he stands...
Frodo - Well, he's Frodo, so which one do you think he is?
Stills - Intense. Focused. He's pretty seious on the line, so we try to keep our attention towards the opposing team (like we should.....).
And me - If you're reading this, you probably know who I am. Either way, I'm a disc hog, so I've got that piece of plastic in my hand.

CUA Alumni Game 2009

The game is currently scheduled for 4:00 p.m., Sunday, May 3rd on the turf field at the Dufour Center.

I wanted to just go ahead and post a couple clips from last year's game to get people excited. Here are the first two:





Enjoy!

D-III Nationals 2009

Well, I don't think I've ever posted twice in a day, but I guess there's a first time for everything... First times like these are meant for 5-day weekends when the gf's off visiting siblings in Lake Tahoe...

Anyway, I just saw this thread on R.S.D. about D-III Nationals and I'd thought I'd paste their rankings here.. Check it out:

D-III Nationals - Top 25
1) 1443 Las Positas
2) 1421 North Park
3) 1384 Truman State
4) 1289 Missouri S&T
5) 1188 Xavier
6) 1184 Reed
7) 1180 Rice
8) 1134 Rhode Island
9) 1130 Pacific Luthern
10) 1117 Dickinson (Lost to these guys by 2)
11) 1109 Chicago
12) 1089 Vassar
13) 1082 Colgate
14) 1074 St. John’s
15) 1003 Amherst
16) 987 Air Force
17) 978 Hope College
18) 972 Stonehill
19) 930 Grinnell
20) 902 Rose-Hulman
21) 900 Ohio Northern
22) 900 Bowdoin
23) 894 Salisbury (Lost to these guys by 4 and then by 1)
24) 891 Hanover
25) 872 Catholic
26) 865 Union
27) 851 RIT
28) 832 Lewis
29) 796 Kalamazoo
30) 794 Worchester Polytech
31) 745 Ohio Wesleyan
32) 726 Denison
33) 694 Swarthmore
34) 681 North Greenville
35) 617 Calvin
36) 572 Merchant Marine Academy
37) 559 Bryant
38) 369 Wilkes
39) 350 Earlham
40) 325 Cedarville
41) 289 Roger Williams
42) 181 SUNY-Potsdam
43) 0 Milwaukee School of Enginnering
44) 0 SUNY-New Paltz

The tournament offers bids to teams in two different ways... The first is for all D-III teams who make Regionals (not us). Those guys get automatic bids to the tourney. Teams who can't get out of the Section (definitely us) have to wait and see if there are wild card spots left for the tournament. Word is that it's going to be a 32 team tourney this year in Versailles. That would mean that we're in a prime position for a wild card bid if only 7 teams below us advance to Regionals.

I guess that's good news. Only problem is that we'll be a completely different team at D-III Nationals than we were at Sectionals. We're still working out who will and who won't be able to attend, but it looks like we'd be missing at least 4 players from our Sectionals roster. To be honest, I don't think I'd like to play this tournament down that many starters (yes, they are starters...), but we'll worry about that if we get the bid.

Sectionals... I just can't forget you!

Every single time I blow my nose or wipe some sweat I remember this moment....

Workout/Rehab time

Now that Ultimate season is basically over with/slowing down, it's time to start hitting the weights a little harder and time to let my left heel and right shin repair themselves (unconfirmed, but I think the shin might be a stress fracture... it's kept me up a few nights since our last tournament).

I was a little hesitant to mention that I'm doing my second circuit workout of this week, but I heard some information yesterday that made me feel better about not being 100% over the soreness from last weekend. I would only feel guilty because I should start hitting the legs harder now that I'm not prepping for a tournament every weekend. Anyway, I was told that I played 135 of our 161 points this weekend! Now I don't feel so bad about walking around like an old man...

Anyway, I just hooked up some new weight equipment... I've been hearing about this TRX stuff for a while and I figured I could do something cheaper in my basement gym, so I went to Home Depot and bought 2 lengths of chain, a couple carabiners (to adjust the lengths), and 2 short lengths of hose for handles and created my own suspension system. I'm pretty excited because it means I can add that to the workouts for an added boost to the core.

So here's the circuit for today:
Reverse lunge from deficit (basically, reverse lunge with your front leg elevated)
Back Extension
V-Ups w/Med. Ball
Stiff Leg Deadlift w/Shrug
Close grip bench press
Bulgarian Single leg Split Squat
Inverted Row (on the chains)
Kettlebell Swing
Push Ups alternating hands on a medicine ball

I think we'll probably go for 25-30 minutes with 10 reps at each exercise... I think Jim's joining me today, so maybe I'll think of a second set to punish him with once we're done with this one.... hmmmmmmmm.....