Windy times in the windy city

This is matsi reporting on the Gobies performance at the Chicago Invite. We came in ranked 8th (I think) and finish tied for 11th.

Playing conditions: Wind and more wind. Oh yeah, it was also "balls" cold the whole weekend. Many backhands were thrown, many flicks turned over into the ground. Owen put it best in one of our games Sunday: "That might've been the second flick I've thrown all weekend".

Saturday, pool play:
We came in as the #2 seed in our pool and started off against a lower seeded team, Truman State. We say it all the time, but this is "one of those teams" that we have trouble with. As in they throw stuff up we don't expect and come down with it. We unfortunately lost the match 13-7 (or something). The truth of the matter is that they dropped less discs than us and made stronger throws than us. I forget who we played our second game, but we won 13-7. Cool. Our last pool play game was against the 1 seed in our pool, Michigan State. This was a tough loss for the Gobies (13-5 I believe), but we can definitely learn a lot from this team and how they run their zone offense. They relied on quick handler movement and even quicker throws through our zone. We had a lot of trouble slowing down their attack.

Cross over game:
This was debately the biggest game of the tournament for us as it was against a rival sectionals team, Miami. We also had a heated game against them last year at Chicago where we lost pretty handily. Needless to say, we played well. Our D line really took it to them and we wore them out with stellar defense, forcing long points with their O line on the field. We beat them. Every tough sectionals team we beat brings confidence to the team. We have the potential to do something truly special this year. We just have to bring it on the field.

Sunday, bracket play:
In the championship bracket, our first bracket play game was the quaterfinals against Eastern Illinois. Once again, we weren't used to their style of play of throwing up discs when we least expect it. We went down early due to their surprise throws and spectacular catches. The O line struggled with a few short runs of getting broken. We traded points out of half until it was around 10-6. Soft cap went off, and we had to get our shit together. We rattled off four solid breaks, including two upwind. Hard cap went off as it was 9-9: universe point. The point was long, and we stopped them twice on the goal line. Unfortunately, we couldn't punch it in one last time upwind, and Eastern Illinois was victorious.
Apparently someone overheard an Eastern Illinois player state: "We didn't deserve to win that game". Maybe so, but we need to learn to bring our game from the first point in the first game. We can't expect to win a game if we have to do it with five breaks in a row at the end.

We went 1-1 in the next two games. The main thing of note here was that we beat Minnesota-Deleuth, a team that made it apparent that they thought they could walk all over us. Needless to say, not a word was spoken on the field or sidelines on universe point when our O line confidently and efficiently walked the disc down the field for the winning score.

What we learned/need to work on: Q
uick handler and disc movement is essential to breaking a tight zone.
It's hard to score upwind.
Fundamentals: most of our issues stemmed from simple catches and throws.

Big performances:
Owen: once again asserting his dominance over any zone that teams throw at us with his excellent popping and perfect backhands through holes in the zone. And sweet layouts.
Bharath: overall solid play on D-line. He knew how to get a D and then take over on offense to provide D-line with some excellent chances for upwind breaks.
The rookies: Erik playing great handler defense as well as minimizing mistakes, which is vital in these weather conditions. Bayunt almost having another callahan (might we say the new Jason Williams?). Eli playing great D, especially on in-cuts, and unleashing his forehand huck a few times.

Highlight of the tournament:
I would say beating Miami, but that's a lie. It was having Bro KP cheering us on and bro-ing out all weekend. Way to be a bro, bro.


- matsi

High Tide Writeup Coming soon

Hopefully before Chicago.

I'll get back into the swing of actually writing real ones of these soon, I bromise.

CWRUL Writeup

We beat a bunch of pretty good teams and lost to WVU in pool play.


Then we beat Toledo.

It was pretty sweet. Then we beat Bowling Green in the finals. That was pretty sweet too. 2 for 2? 2 for 2. B-team picked up a win too.

Also, first tournament with new jerseys. We were stylin' pretty hard.

NorthCoast Writeup

We beat a bunch of chumps and everyone played real well. Ed threw a whole bunch of scores to Mac. It snowed, and then it didn't.
B team picked up a win as well.

Winter Broage

So. We've been away from class for a while, which for most of us means away from case and away from our fellow brobies for nearly a month. We're reconnecting with our old friends from back home and, if you're anything like I am, putting up the wall between all things school-related and all things home-related. We don't do it to be hurtful, its just the way things usually work out. Usually.

Today I'm going to tell you about the biggest damn bro that ever walked the earth, Mr. Michael "Saylor Moon" Saylor, and what he did to keep the Goby blood flowing over the holidays.

Picture this: I've spent another late night riding my exercise bike while playin' me some Halo (before you know it you've been riding for like two hours and those headshots keep comin!). It gets to be about 3am or so and I feel like hitting some upper body because it just doesn't hurt enough, y'know? Sooos I do some more and the adrenaline rush or whatever hits me and keeps me awake until about 6:30 in the morning.

My phone, which I keep under my pillow as an alarm to make sure I wake up by at least noon or 1, goes off at 9 in the freaking morning. For the uneducated that's about 2.5 hours of sleep, and it sucks. I look at the phone- "Mike Saylor (Slide to Answer)". Well... shit. I can't just rightly ignore him. "Hello?" "Brady we are going to Fallingwater and you should come with us." "No thanks, I got... uh... family." Hung up. Put my head down on my pillow.

Wait a minute.

Called him back. "What the dick is Fallingwater? When are you going?" "It's a really famous house by Frank Lloyd Wright and we are getting a tour and we are going for a tour at 12 and we will come pick you up!" "Oh. Ok I'll go."

Damned if this guy doesn't drive a whole hour across Pittsburgh to pick my ass up from my house with no less than three incredibly attractive females, each with their own sorta aura of chill.And apparently two of them play ultimate.

Long story short, I got to go on this bomb-ass road trip to go run around this pimp-ass house with this thug-ass bro and his hot-ass hoochies. Pretty much a perfect day and the Penguins haven't even beaten the Islanders yet-(although Winter Classic 24/7 is on HBO at like the same time, decisions decisions!)

The moral is- even when you are killing yourself doing your workouts and training this winter break, remember that you aren't just doing it for "The Team". You're doing it for your brothers. So take some time out and keep those spiritual bonds you've been forming these last couple months (or years, or decades-Knab) alive. Check up on your teammates and see how they're gettin by. Maybe even do a little sumthin-sumthin with them if you can make some time. You can bring all your muscle, all your speed, and all your cardio back from break, but it will go to waste if you can't bring your heart back to your team.

Side note- I'd post some pictures but blogspot still basically tells me to eat shit every time I pick a picture to upload.

The Metagame

I know this entry isn't titled "NorthCoast Wrapup", because it's not about that. I'm not sure I can do proper justice to how much we wrecked shit up. It might happen over winter break, it might not.

What I did want to write about as I sit digesting a fantastic thanksgiving dinner is the metagame of ultimate. Q touched on this a bit with his Smash article, but I really wanted to elaborate on it and bring the metaphor to today's youth. If you aren't familiar with the term, it means "a descriptor for set interaction that governs subset interaction in certain cases". If you're into Street Fighter and worship at the Church of Low Strong, you'd call it "yomi", the art of reading an opponent's mind. Smashers and Halo (particularly Reach) players cultivate this skill to predict and counter everything an opponent might try before they even try it.

Now, the handler stack is probably the metagame hub of ultimate. The handles are confined to a very limited effective playspace and have the least amount of time and space to set up cuts or correct errors in defense. In a lot of ways, it's like Smash or any other 2D fighter. I'll probably borrow a couple fighting game terms in this article so bear with me.

So, let's say you're on offense, just threw to a cutter, and are now the break-side handle and the first look once upfield is out. Your Goby turns and presents to you. Now, probably most people's instinct is to cut strike, and that's a solid move. If you're fast, it should probably work... the first time. The next time, your defender is probably going to be wise to your shenanigans and position himself against your strike more carefully. If you keep doing it, your defender is going to settle into a more upfield defense. He's countering the strike. But by doing so, he leaves himself open to the guy with the disc getting an around-break to you. If you strike often enough and hard enough, he's going to be so far off you that your bro with the disc can hit you all day with around-breaks.

In short: Let's say you have a powerful move. Maybe it's your deep cut if you're a monster, maybe it's your undercut if you're a speedster. It might be your strike, it might be your IO flick.

Unfortunately, to everything in ultimate there is a counter. Deep cuts can be defended by defenders giving you the in, in-cuts can be defended with brackets, poaching, or a baited layout (Mr. Saylor!). So then, you have to develop your counter to their counter. In Mac terms, this can be "taking what they give you". So they take away your deep cut. Cut in! If they're sitting on the IO, slap them with an around. Now they have to worry about your powermove, as well as your counter-counter, which is dangerous in its own right. Basically you force them into a guessing game at best and if they pick wrong, they get beat. If they pick right, well, then, you're shut down a bit. But, just like in Smash or Reach, if they pop a shield you don't have to be done! Keep taking what they give you, all day long.

Let's say you fake a deep cut, they hang with you, but they know you're going to turn it into an in-cut because they know where the disc is and pre-empt your change of direction and hang under you. Normally this sucks. However, now you have the ability to bring the metagame to the next level, and force them to react purely by instinct. They're sprinting flat out to cover your force-side in-cut. Suddenly, you turn your hard force-side cut into a break-side cut. Being two levels deep, you force them to react by instinct. They scramble to cover your renewed threat and you can take the break if the handle sends it or even come back to the force side in a sort of mini-strike that will give you power if your defender overcommits.

Of course, you should always know when you are truly shut-down and need to clear out to make room for other cutters- but even then, don't just "clear out". Clear out with a deep cut. Why not?

This applies to cutters, to handlers, when you're on the block, when you're throwing to score... everything. When you're on defense, know that's what the offense wants, and stay in their heads. An offender who isn't thinking is an offender who isn't effective.

The lesson is:

To always have a Plan A

To realize that for every Plan A, your defender (or offender) can imagine a way to defend it (or exploit it)

To realize that for every counter there is a counter-counter

To realize that even the best defenders have to give you something at some point, at which point you can rip them up. Or, to realize that even the best offenders can be neutralized by knowing what your offender wants to do, and taking it away until the point is over.

At least, that's how I see things. Feel free to comment or add your opinions.

Overture Season 2011

Hey Gobies- It's been a long, long time since there's been a Road to Regionals update and I couldn't be prouder to write my very first article on Fall Brawl 2010. What. A. Weekend.

Gobies A Roster- Ed, Owen, Mac, Andy, Mark, K-Vick, Jason, Saylor, Brady, Terence, Rookies: Bayunt, Max, McGoogan.

Pool Play-

Round 1- Carnegie Mellon University X- Mr. Yuk

Mood of the Game: Friendly Rivalry turned Coldblooded Competition

For those who don't know, I have quite a bit of history with this team and couldn't have been more stoked to find out we were playing Yuk in the very first round of the tournament. Having rolled two summers long with the likes of Adam, Jesse, Kaner, DK (the other Donkey Kwass), and Scott, I was admittably a bit nervous about the prospect of playing against them. They threw zone against us and with great patience, O line scored pretty much entirely without turns the entire first half. Yuk held their own with some quick, powerful hucks but eventually dropping down a break. After the half, Yuk changed their defense to man+travel calls, though, and things got serious. Clutch layouts by both teams kept things neck and neck until hardcap went off, and after coming to 13-13, Case earned a break to go up 14-13, then held on Universe to win 15-14. It was an incredibly tense second half that would be a sign of things to come throughout the weekend.

Final Score: 15-14 CASE WESTERNNNNNNNNN

Round 2: Bye

Went over to watch our B team and friends throw down against Toledo. It looked like a valiant struggle with MC, BT, Weston, Danny, DK, and Eric taking charge on offense and some very tight defense by our B squad rookies. Apparently Case B lost but from our time observing it, it was anyone's game.

Round 3: OSU B

Mood of the Game: Pedal to the Metal

This game was practically a blur. OSU B struggled mightily to contain the likes of Pwnen' Owen and Mac Attack but their Man wasn't nearly manly enough and their zone folded like a lawn chair against that age-old patient handling of Ed, Andy, and Jason. Our D line earned multiple breaks and ultimately spelled the advent of the age of "Bayunt, take Short-Deep". We did a fantastic job of not letting up on OSU at all even when the game was clearly decided, something our team has historically struggled with in the past. Our well-earned victory provided us with a solid 45 minutes or so to check out our Ladies team throwing down some pretenders on the other field.

Final Score:13-4 CASE WESTERNNNNNN

Round 4: Kenyon

Mood of the Game: Sectionals more like Wrecktionals

We'd all heard of Kenyon's solid performance at Sectionals last spring and knew that we were going to have to offer them tight competition or it would be a very long Road to Regionals indeed.

I was a little confused why all of them were wearing Owen's high-school PUF jerseys, particularly when none of them played half as hard as our dashing new captain. We came out firing both halves and overwhelmed their offense with tight shutdown-D on their in-cuts and dumps with a side of Ed skying fools in the backfield. Kenyon's offense got a little back on their feet to offer a tougher second half but their defense still was at odds to contain Owen, Mark, and Mac's blistering cuts and some truly incredible captain-captain deep shots. With another quick victory came another extended rest that we put to maximum use against Pitt.

Final Score:13-6 CASE WESTERNNNNNNN

Round 5: Pittsburgh X

Mood of the Game: Not Impressed

Sure. Yup. 3rd in the Nation and all that. Cool. These guys admittably were solid, solid players with phenomenal cutting ability and athleticism. That being said, they put up a lot of garbage hucks and their defense was only about average. Mac, K-Vick, Ed, and Jason made them respect us deep on both sides of the disc. Pitt's legendary spirit made an appearance this game, say no more. Overall I think we were all satisfied with the way we played today and putting up a whole bunch against a Nationals-caliber team was a decent end to pool play.

Final Score: 7-13 Pitt X

__________________

Dinner: Hounddogs

Mood of the Game: SO GOOD

IT WAS SO GOOD. IT WAS SO GOOD. IT WAS SO GOOD. And then Libby Iced me and Mike @_@

Final Score: $45.22, Hounddogs

__________________

Day 2, PreQuarters: Kent State

Mood of the Game: Too much Hounddogs... Too much tournament party...

We opened up Day 2 playing our good friends from Kent State. First games on Sunday have not traditionally been our strongest moments and that was sort of true here again. There was definitely some waking-up done mid-game with regards to weaker deep cuts and less-than-100% throws. Fortunately, we only got complacent in after taking half 8-1, so it was only a matter of getting on our horse and closing out the game. We essentially traded throughout the second half, but it was more of the break-break variety than the hold-hold kind. Not the prettiest win, but a win nonetheless.

Final Score 15-8 CASE WESTERNNNNNNN

Quarterfinals: Pittsburgh Y

Mood of the Game: Oh, sorry, did we wake you up?

We sort of knew how things were going to play out coming into this, but that being said we played our hearts out and absolutely thrashed the newly-arrived Pitt Y team, taking 3 breaks in a row to start the game. Nothing was more satisfying than going up three breaks before they had to throw an entire line of sublimated jerseys out just to do something about us. Fortunately this squad had considerably more spirit than their other team, but all we concerned ourselves with was playing as hard as we could to get ourselves in gear to hold seed in the game beyond.

Final Score 8-15 Pitt Y

7th Place Game: Dayton

Mood of the Game: Ahhgazimba, zimba, zimba, Ahgazima zimba-ze...

HOLD THEM DOWN...

0-4,

YOU GOBY WARRIORS!

3-8,

HOLD THEM DOWN...

10-5 run to tie it up 13-13

YOU GOBY CHIEFS, CHIEFS CHIEFS!!!

3 breaks in a row, after cap.

Final Score 16-13 CASE WESTERNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

5th Place Game: Ohio University

Mood of the Game: I'M THE JUGGERNAUT BITCH!

In all seriousness, after beating Dayton there was pretty much no chance those chuckleheads from Ohio were going to keep us down. The fastest growing program in our conference was at a loss to halt this particular swarm of invasive Great Lakes bottom dwellers. Go ahead, throw an entire line of green paw prints at us. It don't bother us none. While every point was hotly contested, strong, patient offense put point after point on the scoreboard for us while the D-line earned breaks left and right with D's earned across the spectrum. Bayunt basically wrecked up the joint as a short-deep, Ed and K-Vick were up to their usual tricks, Mike did his thing where he supermans everywhere, Terence got a faceblock, and even I managed to snatch a pink lace out of the affair. Jason almost stole the show with a Callahan to win the game but was gracious enough to let Max close out the weekend with a sexy strike-cut.

Final Score: 15-6 CASE WESTERNNNNN

Enough couldn't be said about individual performances- we were just a strong all-around team and to say that one person did something particularly well would be to imply that not all of us were. Untrue. Everyone on the roster fulfilled their roles or bailed out when they needed to and played within themselves. It was the highest level we'd played at in recent memory and it brought us a 5th-place result over a controversial 7th "overseed".

Bonus Round: Chipotle+Cold Stone

Mood of the Game: Ed has to eat 3 burritos

Didn't happen, but we're all waiting.

Final Score: Gobies 1 Haters None

Minority Report: Ladies team takes 3rd, Case B beats SUNY-Buffalo and CMU-B to earn a double-IHOP trip, plus a forfeit from some weak men who had homework to do or something.

Welcome to Goby Ultimate, Ohio.

The final stop on the road to regionals

We have come this far. It has been a long journey. Take a moment to reflect on your personal voyage along the road to regionals. Think about all of the time you have spent making those small steps to regionals, one at a time. We only have one thing left in our way. We know what needs to be done. We know how to do it. It will be done.

Mid Season Retrospective: Part 2

After a chilly weekend in columbus, the gobies were ready for what would turn out to be the biggest tournament of the season. Case's home tournament, NorthCoast saw the gobies split into A and B teams. This is Case A's story (much love to my b-team brethern though, I was with you last year)

North Coast

Case Western:15 Cincinnati: 7Though this wasn't quite the Cincinnati team that case would see later in the season, the Gobies came out strong against Cinci, and rolled off several breaks in a row before ceding a point. The gobies took care of business early.

Case Western: 12 Calvin 10
The wind decided to pick up against an athletic team from Calvin College. After pulling ahead initially, Case trailed for most of the game, and Calvin took half 8-7. Zone defense was the name of the game. Calvin threw a tight zone against Case, took issue to quite a few of our travel calls. When the goby zone made its debut against Calvin, double teams were called once again. There were even a few heated disputes over the intricacies of the rule book. Kevin Pochatila was seen in a rare moment of hot headedness, and was overheard to say "i can react to whatever the fuck i want to" after some of the finer points of cup-collapsing were discussed. Both sides cooled off, and case eventually pulled away for the win. The highlight of the game, and possibly the tournament was Jason Williams' layout Callahan to break Calvin, and essentially put the game away

Case Western: 12 Bowling Green: 9
Case Was still riding high off of the excitement of the Calvin Game, the gobies failed to bring the intensity against BG. The penguins brought a collection of alumni, and luckily case was able to hold off the wily veterans long enough to secure the victor

Case Western A: 15 Case Western B: 3
Several members of Case B played well. Old man lehman led the charge and helped case B score 3 points. Strong efforts by colin morlock and justin michel were seen as well

Day 2

Case Western A: 13 Shawnee State: 11

Shawnee was a first year team with a "few" pickups from the cleveland club scene. Understandably, they were more than a challenge for the gobies. However, Case was beyond pumped for this game. Not a single goby was ready to surrender their undefeated Northcoast record to shawnee, and it showed. Several early breaks, along with solid deep D's by jason williams and jared VanLandingham set the tone for the Case, and the gobies rushed the field after nearly every point

Case Western A: 13 Kent State: 10

This would be the "game of the tournament". Unfortunately, Case Went down big to a tough Kent zone run. I believe kent took half 8-3 However, the gobies got their stuff in order, and won the second half by a margin of 10-2. Solid play by mike macdonald, and former captain alex hunt (the cupbreaker), along with clutch d's all around helped stir the comeback. The best sight of the weekend were the crowds of gobies at the line itching to play and get a D.

Case Western A: 9 Ohio University:15

The only loss of the weekend came in the finals. OU certainly looked like one of the best teams in the section with their split team performance at NorthCoast. However, Kevin Vick was a bright spot, with approximately 4 skying scores which typically featured him beasting over a crowed of OU players. Almost all the scores took place right in front of his girlfriend. I think it goes without saying that case's big man also scored some major points with the ladies with his high altitude showing

Overall Northcoast was a great tournament, and showed some encouraging results. As always, much could be improved, but it was one of Case's best Northcoast showings in recent years

-Kevin

Mid-Season Retrospective Part 1

I know what you're thinking

"damn Kevin its been a long time since we got to read your blog stylings"

well everyone needs a break, and I figured I should focus on my in-season thrashing instead of in-season blogging.

but heres a little look back for everyone, tournament-by-tournament


Ohio State Fall Brawl
ooooh man, Case Western on the big stage in columbus ohio. Many gobies found lodging the night before with alumnus Matt "Wendy" Lehman, where they watched the fast and the furious 3 (tokyo drift), and gleaned wisdom such as "the nail that sticks out gets hammered" which would surely help them on the field the next day.
With fresh new hoodies helping them sport a fresh look, the gobies took the field flush with expectation and excitement.

certainly there were highs and lows. Armed with a mixed squad of rookies and veterans, many young gobies got to see what stiff competition is really like. throw in even stiffer wind, and near freezing temperatures... well youve got a recipe for a hard day (thats what she said). However solid effort and gutsy play prevented any such disasters

Day 1:
Michigan Magnum Reserve-Win
Despite a lot of early mistakes, and admittedly bad offside infractions, the gobies overcame an early deficit to beat a spirited Michigan team. Gabe, "rapidash" Dash comes up with one of the more memorable scores of the year

Manchester-Win
Manchester was a team that liked to play physical. Sometimes that means not ceding cutting lanes. other times that diving headfirst into a cutter 5 seconds after he caught the disc. Ok, the dudes from manchester were generally pretty spirited, but there were a few times we feared for our lives. Nonetheless we overcame another early deficit, and quite a few mental mistakes to take the win

Kent State-Win
Kent Stat brought some good competition to Columbus, and played a hard-fought game. Thanks to some critical defense by duncan davis (footblocks and foul recognition), jason williams (layouts), and kevin vick (pwning noobs with his height), case pulled out the victory

Va Tech-Loss
Virginia tech is a very good team. The gobies did not play like a very good team against them. Enough Said

Tennessee-Loss
This was a slightly more positive loss to a high-caliber opponent. Case preformed quite well against a very tight zone, and was able to put up a decent number of points on the scoreboard. Even in a loss, its always satisfying to see a high-level opponent get frustrated when you move the disc on them

Day 2:

Miami-Loss
We scored an upwind break for the first point of the game, but showed little signs of life thereafter. Troubled by turnovers near our own end zone against the miami zone, Case lost this game big. I think Kevin threw a massive full field huck to ed for a score. but whatever. dunno if anybody saw that. well maybe the crowd of case ladies who came over to watch, but yeah, no big deal

Toledo-Loss
This loss hurt. Toledo has been bringing their A-game all season, and despite some effective disc movement, we were plagued by drop after drop. Also the wind sucked, and certainly never helped us. Even the massively intimidating 3/4 field huck off the pull from Ed to Kevin on the first play of the game failed to establish a rhythm


Ohio Northern-Loss
File this one under "moral victory". After giving up a sizeable early lead, Case put the clamps on defense with a new zone scheme, and nearly pulled off an epic comeback due in part to the brief return of their captain, mike macdonald to the field. Mac made a brilliant layout to tie the game and bring it to universe, but the gobies came up just short on the final point. Still, Cases ability to activate shut down defense and close a multiple-point deficit was certainly something good to take from the game

Overall, a fun tournament. Lots of hard play, but also too many mistakes, and a lot of places to make improvements

-Kevin

Winter Workouts

Just emailed out the winter workouts and I gotta say I'm pretty excited. Last year around this time I was approximately 12 weeks into Air Alert and was getting some pretty ripped legs along with my bros. This year I'm going to try and tackle this workout schedule and go above and beyond. I remember as a freshman I struggled to make myself keep up with it and ultimately didn't do enough. I came back and wanted to puke at every practice after break. Too much dessert and sitting around I guess. This year I want to push myself to be in the best shape I can be in as we start our spring season. It is real important that we all do the same if want this as an added advantage as we begin our big push towards regionals. Shortly after we return we host CWRUL and after being part of the 2nd place team last year I want to win it SOOOOO BADLY this year. If we're in great shape and maintain our fundamentals we should be the favorites. Recently some of the bros and I have been trying to work on our abs after practices. Mark has made a great suggestion to do these workouts everyday as soon as we wake up. I started it last week and when I wake up and work out I feel great all day. I've even already started to notice results (see above) so I recommend that if you are trying to go above and beyond this winter try doing those core exercises as you wake each morning. I hope all of you on the team do your best to hold to these exercises and those of you outside of the team continue root us on in our quest for regionals. Hope to see you all running around too without your shirts on in the Cleveland cold.

-Eddie Money

More self thizzin'

10,000 views!

Club Sectionals Recap: Oh My User!

Last weekend, at the Eastern Plains Club sectionals, the goby-heavy team of "Oh, my user!" competed for a shot at the Division II sectionals title. Led by goby greats Mark Richardson and Andy Coleman, Oh my user brought some much needed swagger to Versailles OH. This is their story.

Day 1:
Oh, my User! 13: ON-YON 6
Giddy with anxious excitement (especially after having found out they woke up an hour and a half early due to scheduling errors) the team, whom we'll refer to as the gobies for convenience's sake took the field with nearly four full lines. Many of the gobies were rookies who had never played a point of competitive ultimate in their lives. That being said, they certainly didn't disappoint. Veteran Nayyir Qutubuddin started things off with a clutch layout D that set the tone for the game. Many rookies stepped up to the plate and made an impact in lines with very few veterans. Joe Koors gets a layout D.

Oh, my User!: 9: RAMJAM: 11
The next game proved far more difficult than the first. Wooster brought an experienced team that was ready to ball (disc?). The Gobies kept it close, but failed to put the disc in the endzone when they needed to. We tried a bit of zone defense, and the rookies stepped up to the challenge once again. Reports of Mike Saylor getting sick D's are most likely true. Kevin Pochatila did his best Dikembe Mutumbo impression and wagged his finger "no no no" as he defended three Wooster hucks from the deep-deep position to help the gobies win a thrilling break

Oh, my User! 14: GUINS:13
Veteran Gobies went into this game with nightmares of last years college sectionals still ripe in their minds. Bowling Green laid a thrashing on the gobies in a critical game on saturday of sectionals in Granville. We let the rookies know how much the game meant to us, and yet again, they proved ready to thrash. Mental mistakes and throwaways, along with poor execution on the goal line led to the GUINS taking half at 7-3. Points were traded back and forth, and the score stood at 12-8, game point bowling green. That was when Oh, my User! decided to wake up. A few hucks to rookie Jared VanLandingham (with his defender left in his vapor trail), along with spirited play, and probably another Joe Koors layout, and the gobies had all of the sudden evened the score at 12-12. The sideline was bristling with excitement. This was the kind of Goby Ultimate that we've been thrashing all summer for. This was the kind of comeback we hadn't seen in years. Feeding off of Keith Lupton's overwhelming sideline energy, Mark Richardson called out an all veteran "U-Point" Line which soon scored its 5th break in a row after a clutch D by Owen Mayer. After letting up a point to bowling green, and narrowly escaping defeat with the help of an Evan Frasz D, Oh, my User! marched down the field and scored on an admitedley unorthodox ricochet to complete one of the most epic comebacks in recent memory

Oh, My User! :15 Denison: 7
Still riding high off of the BG game, Oh my user had some strong preformances, especially by the rookies, who got to see some more PT for the final game of the day. Colin Warlock toed the line while pulling down a huck, along with some gratuitous layouts by Keith lupton (on O), and another layout D by Joe Koors.

Day 2:
Oh, My User! 5: Savage: 15.
Toledo showed up with a team that was ready to play, while Oh my User! did not. Plagued by early turnovers and failure to knock down goal line swill, the gobies were handed a tough loss. Bright spots included a layour score on offense by Andy Coleman. While chasing down a disc that was trailing away, Andy sacrificed his body and made the kind of play that reminded everyone why hes a captain: because he's a stud.

Oh, My User! 10: OU 15
Another game where the rookies got to see extended playing time. The mood was notably lighter, as evidenced by The return of Steve Knab and his much loved hammers. Still once again the rookies amped it up, and managed to take 2 breaks in a row against a more experienced OU team. Every once in a while the gobies threw in a stacked vet line and marched down the field just to keep the defense honest. Joe Koors gets yet another layout d. This time almost a Callahan.

Denison decided not to stick around, and Oh my user! called it a tournament.

Highlights of the Weekend:
-New cheer: The Clint Mansell "Party" cheer: videos to come
-Trent taunting Brady down the field while running down a pull
-The "Jason and Q" handler show against OU
-Chip Dean unintentionally leveling a Dension player
-Dan Kwass & co. scamming Culver's into 5+ free frozen custards using the same 5" fry.
-Intense game of "contact" in which Luke correctly guessed "Drank" with the guess "is it purple"



Everyone is currently on pump up alert for fall brawl. More intensity at practice until then

-Kevin

Mind games

"Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate through daily practice, can achieve miracles." ~ Robin Sharma

As we progress through week after week of Ultimate practice, we have all learned the importance of training and strengthening our bodies for the upcoming season. Our hope is that through enough physical conditioning we will be able to out-maneuver and outlast our opponents on the frisbee field. Even though this physical sculpting is of utmost importance, we must not forget to strengthen our minds and sharpen our wit.

As quoted above, "Weak minds lead to weak actions." What good is it to have a body like the Gods without the discipline to control it? What good would it be to have great hucks but not restraint to know when to hold back? And, what good would is it to be as nimble rabbit but not have the understanding of when and where to cut? Thus, the man who only concentrates on strengthening his body is no greater than the brute.

For this reason, it is my suggestion that in addition to our scheduled practice regimen, we take time to focus solely on the building of the mind. How might we do this? Board games.

Most board games focus on quick thinking, strategic planning, and outsmarting the opposition. Sound familiar? It should, because these are the traits every great Ultimate player must possess in order to achieve success on the field. There are many traits that can be learned from common board games and applied to frisbee. For example, chess focuses on making good decisions, spacing, and patience. Backgammon relies on taking risks, playing aggressive offense, and setting up a strong defense. The variant of mancala known as Kalah practices planning ahead, predicting your opponents moves, and minimizing their effectiveness. These are all traits that can and should be applied in a game of Ultimate.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you ever want to play some board games feel free to stop by the fortress. But beware, when we play chess it gets as ruthless as the game seen in the picture above.

-Andy "The Titan" Coleman

3 Spoons, 1 Bowl, 1 Goal

Two nights ago, Andy, Kevin, and I cooked up three boxes of Food Club Mac & Cheese (join the Club!). These little treasures can be found at Dave's Market for 59 cents each.

What's most important is that we ate this heap of food from the same bowl, huddled around it with Tahitian Treat (aka T Treat) to wash it down. We could've split up the Mac & Cheese into separate bowls and eaten it in our own rooms in comfort and solitude. But will solitude get us to Regionals? We think not. Every little step you take with the team, or just one other teammate, gets us one step closer to the paramount goal: Regionals 2010. Get to know your teammates; bro-out with them, listen to tunes (i.e. chill-tense) with them, eat with them, do homework with them, party with them, do whatever you can to get closer to your teammates. Because if we can't get along off the field, how will we unite as one team on the field when it matters?

So next time you are devouring a plate of pasta or guzzling down some gatorade to fuel your body for practice, offer a teammate a fork to join in or a sip of your drink.

We can't make it to Regionals as individuals; we can make it as a team.

- Mark

P.S. We will continue to eat massive bowls of Mac & Cheese at the Fortress, so stop by if you want to join in at any time. You are always welcome. At 59 cents a box, how can we afford NOT to eat this stuff as a team?!

First Prx

Frisbee ain't shit but hucks and flicks
Pick up my bags and head to prx
-Andy Coleman


Words to live by. This week saw the first two practice of the Case Western Reserve Fighting Gobies. We've reunited at last, and we're stronger than ever. Being able to pick up my bag and head off to prx at Frieberger was one of my most satisfying and exciting experiences in a while

Some highlights:

Return of the Bharath: We all knew it would happen eventually, seeing the man in person again was enough to make us all thizzly. Add on 7 weeks work of air alert legs, and you got yourself a budding stud

The John Carey Experience: What's John Carey plus 10lbs of additional muscle and newfound cutting skills? A new deep threat that the Eastern Plains section is going to learn to fear

The Candyman Cometh: Sure we ripped on Andy all summer for not hitting up club prx. Then again, only a player like Andy could come back from a frisbee-light summer with rock solid throws and frighteningly chiseled physique

Marky Mark's Funky Bunch:
Thats a bunch of throws that he'll use to mess you with. Playing hard all summer, Mark came back with a vengance and made his presence known against yours truly. Picture it: Forehand fake, backhand fake, lightning quick reset to the forehand and an unreal inside-out flick break. It was rapid. It was clean. It left me stunned

Edward Scissorcuts:
You've been hearing about this guy all summer, but how much he's stepped it up has become all the more evident now that he's taken his position as co-leader of the gobies. Born Leader. Born Thizzler

Mac'sWellhouse
Good to the last drop. The last drop, that is, hasn't happened since the mid 90's. Our captain remains as solid as ever. Minus a "few" injuries, the leadership and talent remains pure.

Fear of the Nayyir:
An oft-diagnosed condition seen in many of the Gobies' opponents. Its all still there. The smooth-gliding flicks. The step around breaks. The fakes. But most of all: The style. The man basically walks around with cool blue underglow on his feet. He doesen't move, he flows

Jason Thrilliams
aka Jason Williams, another returning vet who caught the fever. The man talks fris 24/7. He's got the fire. Couple that with terrifying speed, and the gobies have moved one step closer regionals.

"Brawndon" Corbett Walsh
Few people love the gobies as much as Corbett. Many more people are glad to have Corbett fighting for the Gobies this year. He's worked hard all summer; gotten faster, throws better, and
has a killer instict now backed up by killer skills.

Oh yeah, and we've got some legit freshman. Many of these bros are ready to make a difference right away.

We've got the tools in place. Time to put our heads down and push towards regionals

-Kevin

The unification of chill

In case anybody hasn't heard, this year there are five men among us Gobies living in the same apartment, the Ford Fortress. Everyone is welcome to come visit us if they want, and think they can handle the bro-love. One of the best parts of our new apartment is, in my opinion, the porch. This porch is the unification of all things chill.

It is important to remember that learning to be chill off the frisbee field helps one maintain chilliness on the frisbee field. This is one lesson that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

Anyways, this porch has many various factors that contribute to its overall chilliness. First we have a grill which allows us to cook up awesome food that can be shared and enjoyed by many. We are always playing chill music (see previous posts) to set the mood and maintain appropriate chilliness levels. Besides the usual bro-ing out that happens on the porch, some fun activities that can be enjoyed are PW, b'gammon, and slumber parties. PW, aka P-dub, aka people-watching, is an important part of our lives here at the Fortress. You would be suprised at the variety of folk that walk up and down the streets of Ford and Hessler. The typical reaction of a passerby who witnesses us chillin on the porch is usually a brief moment of confusion, followed by intrigue mixed with a rising wave of jealousy that crashes down on them when they realize what they are missing. If you are up for a more intelectually stimulating way to spend your time chilling on the porch you can always play a rousing game of backgammon, cribbage, and (soon to be) chess, checkers and Go. Playing these games is a great way to bond with bros and excercise the mind while resting the body and soul.

If, at the end of the night, you feel like you haven't experienced enough relaxation and rejuvination, you can always spend the night on the porch like KP and I did recently. Waking up to the sound of a garbage truck, the sun in my eye, and Kevin's shirtless body next to me reminded me of the Road to Regionals in multiple ways. The garbage truck made me think of the all the bad things that happened last year and how we, like the garbage truck, need to take out all of the trash from before. The sun in my eye reminded me of the light at the end of the road to regionals. The morning sun was like the birth of a new day for the Gobies. No matter what has happened the previous day, a new day will dawn and we can do whatever we want with it. Waking up next to Kevin reminded me that even through times darkness my teammates will be there by my side. This trust in one another is of utmost importance on the frisbee field.

Anyways, if you want to come by and chill out at the apartment or on the porch, chances are you're always welcome so just let one of us know.

-Andy

Gushers and such

A box of gushers normally has 6 packets of delicious sugary "fruit snacks". Yesterday I picked up a box, and to my suprise:

7 packets.

it was miraculous. I paid for 6, and got 7. It made me think of the gobies. I look around at our team and wonder "who is going to be the 7th packet". Could it be one of our established players who steps up? Could it be an unknown freshman seeing goby glory? Who knows. I'm excited, almost as excited as i was when I shoved another wad of gushers in my mouth

Today was also the culmination of cleveland disc association draft league. I can proudly say, that for the first time in my life, I have won a championship in something. The finals were hard fought, and it was a challenging, but exciting game. Afterwards, my captain told me that intensity on the ultimate field was truly important, and to keep it up during the college season. He said Case needs to have dirty jerseys on Sunday, and I hope that's something we can all strive to do. The more we play balls to the wall, the more it will inspire our team to work hard as a group and achieve something great.

I'm excited to see all our new players, to see old ones go crazy on the field, and to see unexpected people step up in big ways. Hopefully we're all tweaking out and screaming after every point. Not in a douchey way or anything, but just so that we can feed off of each other and really care about something so that it pushes us to achieve. Even though it's just ultimate, that kind of attitude definitely translates to every important aspect of life.

-Kevin

Goby progress

Another few weeks has gone by, and I can say that I'm fairly pleased with the improvements and progress my fellow gobies have made on the Ultimate Field. Between open practice and summer league, there's been sheer ferocity, determination, and outright skill flying around all over the place.

Most of all, I've really been seeing a passion and desire to compete that hasn't been as evident in years past. All the gobies are just brimming with intensity and energy. Everyone really seems to love to play ultimate. That of course is probably the first step towards regionals. If everybody gets excited to be out there playing and having fun, the desire to thrash the competition will follow

more to come later. once i get more inspiration that is

-Kevin

Making it Happen

You'll be hearing "Make it Happen" coming from me pretty often these days, as I've decided to make it my new catch phrase. Its pretty great when you make a sick cut (off of swim move) and toss a nice soft pass to a handler, tell him "make it happen", and he fires off a long, clean huck that's pulled down in the endzone by another fellow cutter (i.e. mark).

"make it happen" can also be a slogan for the road to regionals. We here at the blog love to talk about, and imagine all the training montages, and glorious moments along the way, but what it all comes down to is making the reality of the Gobies at regionals actually happen. It's "real talk": cutting down to whats serious. Its a phrase to live your life by. Eliminate the extraneous stuff, just think about what you want, and "make it happen" I think its pretty legit.

Summer league has been going pretty well. I've made an official monetary commitment to clique league, and have been playing with team tron and the twinsburgh people. We've gotten off to a 4-2 start, and have definitely been shocking the league.

Draft league has also been successful. Team pink sits mightily atop the standings with an undefeated record. This isn't to say we aren't just coasting through the league. We've been putting a lot of heart and spirit into our thrashings.
I've been relegated to handling a lot in summer league, which is always frustrating me, because I'm a thrasher (cutter) at heart. Against chocolate yesterday, one of my many fans/admirers personally requested a swim move demonstration. Though I was all too eager to chump the competition, I had very few opportunities, due to my handling duties. Still, stepping out of one's comfort zone to improve a weak part of their game is definitely a step on the road to regionals.
We defeated team chocolate by a decent margin, but it wasn't without a solid performance by crunkin' Duncan Davis. The fellow goby played like a game changer. I can't tell you how legit its been to see every goby stepping their game up to the next level.

Thanks for your continued readership, as Q and I are glad to have your support. I would say the same for the other bloggers as well, but I haven't heard much from them lately

-Kevin