My Opening Thoughts

To follow my fellow contributing Gobies, I will put out a few opening words regarding this blog, it's purpose, where we have been, and where we are trying to go.

Perhaps the questions are best answered in reverse. The Gobies are trying to get to the Great Lakes Regional tournament. I am a firm believer in having set goals. Our primary goal is to get to Regionals, and furthermore, in my eyes, I would like to be playing for something on the Sunday at Regionals. Of course, I would love to make UPA Nationals, but no team is going to go from not making Regionals one year to making Nationals another year. We need to do this one step at a time. As a veteran on the CWRU team, I will not likely see the day the Gobies make Nationals, but my purpose is to advance the team as much as possible towards reaching the Ultimate goal - participating and winning College Nationals. The first step then, is making regionals. Then comes being competitive at regionals. That is where we are today.

So where have we been? There has been a 4 or 5 year drought now for the Case team making Regionals (and alumni tell stories of playing in "games to go to nationals"). In other words, for the last few years, the official end to our season has come in early April at our Sectionals tournament. Needless to say, none of our current players have ever tasted Regionals. Regionals used to almost be an afterthought for this team. I think the competition locally was not as developed as it is now. Today, there are more teams, with more players with HS experience, and a solid foundation of the fundamentals of the game. This gives them a jump on the learning curve of the sport. Also, some of the top players in the HS level at least partially consider the strength of the Ultimate program at the schools they are applying to - thus further separating the top teams from the smaller, less competitive schools. The struggle then becomes to recruit and develop as much talent in a year before the college series.

And thats where we are today. We do not know what talent is coming in. Whether the next HS superstar will walk on the practice field, or people who have never thrown a disc before - we cannot control that. What we can do, is better ourselves as much as possible - especially on an individual level during the off season. The off season is the perfect time to work on everything. Strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. The physical aspects, the mental aspects, the emotional aspects. It's a great opportunity to leave your comfort zone, and try things that you didnt have the opportunity to explore fully. It's the time when you can maximize your individual contribution to the team, so that when the season does start, it's a matter of putting all the pieces together.

I urge myself first, and the rest of the team second - to do a self-evaluation of their skillset, and determine what you are going to work on this summer. Set personal goals. Then reach and supass them.

And that's what this blog is about. It's a means to communicate what your fellow teammates are doing to contribute to next year's team. To motivate, inspire, and communicate. In the next few days I'll post my personal goals for the summer. I also call dibs on writing Kevin's profile.

-Q (The Question)