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