I almost deleted this blog....

But I couldnt do it. I deleted some of the irrelevant posts at the end of its life, but this little blog has too much in it for me to let it go. The final two years of my college ultimate career, the first two seasons of Pitt's nationals appearances, and some really boring stuff in between. I do think there is a lot in here, and looking back through some of those posts, I wish I had the same zeal, lust and autonomy that I had in those days. Life-changing experience. Couldnt let it go. Hopefully some young Sabah-man, oozing with hate and similarly full-hearty with his 'impossible dreams' will stumble upon this minute piece of history and find support in the words of soul-mate from the early days. For now, I take the determination, dedication and faith in hard work that Pitt Ultimate gave me and turn the new focus--education. En Sabah daba daba....

College Nationals 2007

Took a day off of school and headed out to College Nationals to support The Program a couple of weekends ago (I have taken four days off this year--two club nats, one college, one Poultry Days). It was a lovely journey out accompanied by Whitey, Mike Lo and one Noah "I made out with Courtney Bitch Thomas on the beer pong table" Eden and then later by Andrew, Sober and Jay. We arrived to the fields with Pitt trailing Wisconsin by a couple of points. Let's suffice to say that Wisconsin was a step faster and a degree sharper than Pitt across the board. Their defense was pressuring Pitt's O into making mistakes and punishing them with relentless work on the turn...and each time they broke, they became more energized. The game was soon out of hand and I became very concerned about what this would do to the team's confidence going into the rest of the day.

Given the auspicious start, Coach made a smart move in sending the team, family and fans into the shade to shoot the shit and forget about the preceding loss for a while. I took the opportunity to check out whatever game was closest and low and behold Delaware is up 11-10 on "UFUCT b/c we make shitty calls." I suspect that Delaware will simply put too much energy into a game that Florida's veteran leadership will not allow them to lose, but wander over in any case. I am surprised to watch Florida repeatedly allow Delaware the underneath and let them patiently work it up the field and then take an opportunistic deep look when it is there. The teams are trading until Del is up 14-13 pulling to Florida who is going upwind. Working it out of the endzone, Florida gets to about the goal line. Double in-cuts come to the force side. Guy to the inside has a cushion on his man and the throw goes up, he slows down to glide into it when Brandon Redding of TSGH fame goes blazing off of the other in-cut to make the layout D. A dump-swing later, 15-13 Sideshow knocks of Florida. Jubilation. The Metro East has a marquee win in pool play. No way Del lets this go to waste!!! Right...

Back to Pittsburgh. Next round matchup is UNC. Boy is it annoying to play teams from Carolina. This is a very even matchup despite another auspicious start giving up an upwind Callahan. This game is marred by a lot of calls and chippy play both ways, but it like two heavyweight fighters giving one another body blows into the late rounds. After having the lead for much of the second half, Pittsburgh gives up a couple of late-game breaks on mental and execution errors and Darkside pulls out a 16-14 win.

Kansas had just finished having their asses handed to them by Wisco (like every other team they played) and had arrived in time to make annoying bitchy comments are the end of the Pitt-UNC battle. Even in time for one porker to get into it with me on the sidelines. Me! Unbelievable. In any case I had my revenge by calling "superman" to whoever he was covering for the rest of the game, or identifying his defender as the one to get the D and then watching that member of the Sabah army destroy his world. In short, Hate was had. Pitt was simply the better team in this game with more skilled players and a deeper team resulting in a comfortable 15-11 win.

Following the win the current team made a nice little presentation to me, presenting me with the plaque seen in the picture at the beginning of this entry. It is a wooden disc with an inscribed plate beneath that reads:

Sean McComb- Pitt Ultimate
2001-2006
"From the Cathedral Lawn to Columbus,
he led every step of the way"

For those not in the know, the Cathedral Lawn reference a patch of dirt behind this beacon of learning on Pitt's campus where we practiced until my senior year. It was there that we had practices with three people at times, just doing marking drills, box cutting drill with an open cone, some running and throwing when that was all the team could get out on some days my freshman and sophomore years. And of course Columbus was the sight of our second consecutive college nationals appearance and first wins at the tournament, just 3 years later. I think the team did a commendable job with that plaque because my career, really, was all about that process. I was so focused on not just beating teams that had beaten me (although you had better believe for the love of god I enjoyed the shit out of that) but it was about taking this seedling that Brody had planted...this infinitesimal spec on the radar of college ultimate, and changing the face of the sport. I didnt know how the hell to do it, although I had read a bit about Opie at Wisco, and I certainly had never done anything like it previously, and that may have been a blessing.

I had always been a dreamer. I remember sitting in my dorm room freshman year, all 250+ pounds of me at the time and saying to myself, and believing, "I am going to win the callahan my senior year." Of course I did not, and was only nominated for a few brief hours by Rob before I had it removed. But thats not the point. It was that kind of sheer stupidity and obsession that was needed. The kind of person who demanded the team shovel off the 8 inches of snow on our practice field in January so we could practice (they refused, thank god). I didnt know what it was going to take, and so...because of that, I knew that I simply had to (to borrow from Honest Abe) do the very most I could, the very best I knew how, and to keep doing it until I ran out of eligibility. And thats what I did, and it has made all the difference. I have received back from Pitt Ultimate ten-fold what I have put into it. I have learned how to lead. I have learned how to believe in the ability to accomplish the impossible and the virtue to stick to the work when it seems things are at a loss. I have now learned to apply that fortitude and work ethic to my teaching and my school, where once again people are telling me that they dont understand how I can get the kids to do what they do in my class and how I can dedicate myself so much to the "impossible" task of getting the kids I teach to a better place in life. So as much as I may have led Pitt Ultimate in changing the face of College Ultimate, Pitt Ultimate has changed the face of my life ten-fold.

And so, after 5 years of that, of sacrificing grades, girls, money, copious amounts of time, bones, blood and everything else to the program, I was able, on that first day in my return trip to Columbus, have Pitt Ultimate change my life one more time.

As rewarding as it was to be a part of the team, to battle with my best friends, to dedicate oneself so fully to the cause...to go back to Ohio and watch it all happening again--and better--and without anything from me, was truly special. There were times when I literally watched in awe of what I was seeing. I was talking with Josh's dad and he pointed out to me that he looks at many of the players as his own sons- me especially. And I looked out on the field and saw my little brothers playing completely outside of themselves...each having come so far from when I had met them. If they could have just seen themselves as freshmen and could see how far they had come. It was simply incredible to see the personal progress that someone can make when they set their mind to a task.

I looked out on that field as Pitt won its first pool play game at Nationals and booked itself a place in the Pre-Quarters and I knew that I had truly been successful at Pitt. I didnt help to make a temporary spot on the radar...but helped to create The Program, which will hold to the same virtues of dedication, work ethic and excellency for years to come. Josh and Stu did an incredible job maintaining and improving this year...and these few steps from Pre-Quarters to the top...they are the big ones. I had the easy job. And now, what I cannot wait for is to see who the young man is who will step up and develop audacious beliefs about what he and a group of his best friends can accomplish...to see a man who will so fully give of himself to that goal that others around him simply will not be able to understand how he does it, but will follow him because his effort demands their respect...to see the man who will take Pitt Ultimate to the mountain top. And, from what little I have seen during my ascent, every effort made in the climb is rewarded, handsomely.

---------------------------------------

In short, because I got quite off topic there...Pitt lost a heart-breaker to UGA as Dylan Tunnell made top-five-player-in-the-country type plays at the end of the game to seal the deal for the Dawgs. Pitt won out in the lower bracket over Udel and Brown to finish in 9th place.

HS States + Pike Invite

PA High School State Championships

Dissapointed that I wasnt able to leave my track team's County Championships early enough to make it up for Pike Invite on saturday, I settled for catching up with some Pitt guys as they coached at HS States. I got there just in time for them to start their sprint workout without me...and then enjoy the semi-finals.

NH vs. Lebo was an interesting game. NH has a much more balanced team and is much deeper. They are positioned well for a deep run at Easterns (especially with a killa coach). Lebo is controlled by the play of Julian Hausman with help from Pete Imler. Julian has matured well since last year and become more fluid in his mechanics and movement on the field, which was great to see. I am very happy he'll be coming to Pitt to do battle with ESN next year. As for the recruiting motherload that is set to hit Oakland in two years...well, it could mean some very big things for ESN in a few years. I was impressed with Colin's confidence and particularly his intensity this year. I hope that he chooses to play Burgh again this summer, as his development is probably stunted to some degree during most of PHUL and Summer League. Alex's skills were impressive again. I hope that there is an open league in Pittsburgh this summer and that he gets the chance to play. He will have to learn to turn his quickness to his advantage to get around longer marks at the college level. NH wins 15-8/9ish

The Roots, I mean Pennsbury, looked very solid. Very athletic from top to bottom. I was used to seeing these guys make more errors from Mercer Open League, but with less physical play and pressure on the marks their athleticism allowed them to dominate a younger and smaller Hampton squad. Regarding the PHUEL pipeline to Pitt, we have apparently missed the jackpot (Noah) who will be perfecting his cheating abilities (which need a lot of work) at UNC. That said, I was impressed with the growth that Scotty has had since Easterns. His disc skills look like those of an experienced college thrower already. If he does spend a year at a sattelite and then transfer into The Program ala Jake Christian and enter in the North Hills recruiting class...Pitt 09 may be something to get very excited about. I heard another Pbury guy or two applied but didnt get in. If they catch wind of this little blog let me tell you this---go to a branch campus for a year, transfer in, 3 years with Pitt Ultimate will easily be worth 4 at almost any other school in the ME or NE or (for my money) anywhere. Come to The Program, best decision of your life.

Pennsbury was playing Hampton and incoming Pitt frosh Lukas Truckenbordborg4-2-9er or whatever. We'll call him Trucker. Boy has this kid made strides since Easterns last year! He still throws fakes that are 'fakin' a fake, not fakin' a throw" as Mike G would say, but when he really does throw the disc- its awful purdy. He also worked hard with his legs all game as he matched up on Noah and really made him work hard, with a bunch of nice bids on D, and commanding the offense on O (which was particularly difficult as his downfield guys were outmatched athletically). This was a great improvement over last year where he was really doing more dancing than cutting in the backfield. Trucker will have the opportunity to hone his skills under the tutelage of some excellent players because he has made the decision to join The Program. Pennsbury wins 15-10.

Notable absentee's: Bill Kieffer.

Pike Invite (Day 2)

I think this may be the first time that I came midway through a tournament...boy did I not like that shit. I never really felt in a groove on Sunday and never played like I was either. In the PONY game I made a spring 05 quality stupid decision (pikcup and huck to a covered guy running directly away from me upwind) and then played some weak D. In the Pike game I just made two throws that I never should have made. I know exactly why I made them and where the error in judgement came, but they were super-duper dumb. At least its May.

We werent (and I am not) very concerned with outcomes at this tournament in any case. We were subbing very liberally, and very effectively for our objective for the tournament- which was to get as good a look as possible at as many players as we needed to. I think that it was effective because our roster needed some serious trimming and the selection commitee nows feels comfortable making a sizeable cut. When we did put lines with 7 locks on the field, it was a lot of fun to watch- on both sides of the disc. But I was also reminded that as with any new team there will be a lot of growing pains to endure and a lot of chemistry to build. But that will add to the story...we are just beginning to ramp up.

Notable absentee's: Bill Kieffer.

Looking forward:

Two weekend- College Nats
Three weekends- CUT
Four weekends- Poultry Days
Six weekends- Boston
then...China and Atlanta for a while.

Investment

For the full Pitt perspective please go to TallE's blog (link on the right) where TallE has provided an extensive and insightful write-up on Regionals. The following are some observations and thoughts that I had on the weekend.

The picture above is one that I cherish. The three men in the picture (myself, Fraggle and Mike Lo) are the only three people to be with the team all the way from our 10/12 in our section and 250something collegiate ranking in the spring of 2002 to consecutive appearances to and our first wins at College Nationals in 2005 and 2006. This picture was taken just after we defeated Brown on double-game-point to finish our college careers on a win at Nationals. There has been nothing in my life that I have felt more dedicated to or as invested in as Pitt Ultimate.

Thus, it was quite an experience to join the team as a spectator at one of the most important tournaments of the year, and to feel how invested I am still as they fought off elimination in three straight games. There are so many thoughts for my mind to come to terms with from the weekend (as if the 7 hours of driving home werent enough time) but I will attempt to make this as coherent as possible.

One of the main sources of my sense of emotional investment in the team is the sense of legacy. After regionals my sophomore year Fraggle said that he wanted us to be the players who led Pitt to Nationals (which seemed absurd at the time, having just gone 0-2 at the teams first ever regionals). Once that goal was reached, at some point down-the-line I (with influence from Brody) began to think more in terms of establishing a program at Pitt rather than being the Metro East flash-in-the-pan that seemed to be the style of things when I was an underclassman. A large part of any program is the ability to maintain a certain level of success throughout changes in leadership, which made this a crucial year for the program. So I felt myself heavily invested in the teams success because this was "my baby" (and, of course, Pitt is other people's "baby" as well).

A second source of my investment is in each of these players as individuals. I have watched TallE and Brent grow and mature as players for 5 seasons and they are brothers to me. I have had a special investment in Josh since the very first time he played pickup on Pitt's campus and we have traversed a difficult path together. I have been inspired by the work ethic of Stu and Rob; and I have seen and been lucky to be a part of the development of fine players such as Tony and Evan. And to watch Pitt be able roll out a line of 7 players of such quality on offense and intensity and athleticism on defense is a source of pride in the program. Pitt, this year more than ever, go about everything that they do as a team the right way. They train long and they train hard. They practice with intensity. They play with intensity and pride and heart. This years team is better than last, which was better than the year before, and so on. We are still on the climb.

And so, when we come to a tournament that is so meaningful on so many levels for the team, I cannot help but become invested. Stu and Josh have done a fantastic job with the team this year, and it cannot be said enough.

At points this weekend I wondered what was an appropriate level of involvement for an alumni and if I was overstepping my bounds at some points in time. This was never prompted by a comment or action or anything by anyone on the team, just my own reflection. I found myself naturally stepping back into a leadership type role with the team. Not an active captain type leader, but discussing strategy with Weasel and talking 1-on-1 with the guys I had been playing with for so long. But I also found myself storming the field with the team after the big goals. And at some point I thought/realized that others teams alumni dont do that. So I have just been thinking: what was/is acceptable for alumni. I think, obviously, that its up to the current team and that there is a natural comfortable feel there. Rarely, if ever, did I feel uncomfortable with my involvement this past weekend. I mean, I'm going to be a dick on the sidelines, so shit just ain't gonna change. But on the car ride home I was discussing with the other alumni the eventual distancing that will take place over time, and just considering how the experience will change over time as going to Regionals/Nationals will become more of a focus on a reunion with other alumni than it is a reunion with the current team.

In any case, for right now, I am just left with a great reverence for college ultimate. Talking with Jack on the sidelines this weekend, he hugely regrets not playing in his 5th year of eligibility, and I cannot imagine anyone with the opportunity to play a 5th year giving that up. Mike G says its like crumpling up a piece of paper and just tossing it away...but its so much more. Its just that there is really nothing quite like college ultimate--the family atmosphere of your teammates being not just teammates, but best friends and housemates. The unique opportunity of college life to all be involved in such a closeknit circle. The van rides, the common purpose, the team conditioning, the brotherhood. Yes, club ultimate is great and the actual gameplay is a huge stepup...but I will be very pleasantly surprised if I develop a sense of family with a club team the way that I did in college. But I just dont think that it will happen. Its so much clearer after being away how much a 5th year is missed. You hear all the time about how a vacation or trip or concert is a "once in a lifetime opportunity." Playing collegiate ultimate is THE once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The guys in the picture above all played out our 5th year, at various costs...including Fraggle just taking 6 credits of Hebrew after fulfilling all his graduation requirements a year prior in order to play his 5th. But I know that none of us regret it, and we would do it all over again. The opportunity to be a warrior with an army of your brothers comes but only so often. Cherish it.

I'm Back, In Earnest (hopefully).

Alright. With the track season working to a close--divisionals thursday, counties next saturday, regionals the saturday after--and my curriculum moving into reading some novels (less prep time--that stuff about first year teaching being hellish is no lie) I am going to hopefully be able to committ more of myself mentally, physically and analytically to ultimate. That said, there is a lot of catching up to do:

Fools Fest

I was lucky enough to be asked to play with BOMB, a combo team from Michigan, Ohio, Baltimore and other lands. So I got the opportunity to play with some great players I had never had the chance to play with like Ricky, Rook and Gelo from BAT and even some guys from the NYNY Glory Days. I had fun and felt surprisingly up to speed regarding decision making. I had a great time catching up with a lot of the TSGH guys I hadnt seen in a while, especially the great Pat Walters, and all-in-all I had a very good time. As a team we had a dissapointing finish bowing out in quarters after coming out slow for the 7th consecutive game in the tournament, but not before we got some good pizza-slapping in to punish throwing errors/drops.

Henlopen

Henlopen was...well, it was what it was. We had between 26 and 30 guys playing with us over the weekend and our goal was to use the tournament to evaluate talent. Of those guys I would say that over half of them were unknowns to me; so there was a lot of getting-to-know one another. In terms of relative strength I would ballpark that we were missing between 10-12 guys who will be on our series roster. Personally, I played one of my better tournaments on the whole moving the offense efficiently and making very few errors (one?) in the three important games. I was again pleased with my decision making as I did not force any throws that werent open and my only error was execution. I was particularly pleased to beat PoNY having only played them with short-handed teams from Pittsburgh and Pike, I was excited to get another shot and I played a very solid game on our way to a comfortable win.

Training

After Henlopen it was clear that it was time to get back to work. Unfortunately I had a lingering foot injury around the 5th metatarsil of my left foot (I dont have good luck with 5th met's- broke the right one twice) and stuck to lifting during the school week. Sunday I scrimmaged UDel with a group of savage club guys. This was a good workout, but also helped me to develop three hot-spots (future sites of blisters) on their rough practice fields. UDel kept up the tradition of making terrible foul calls on clean layout D's. It was all worth it for the Grotto's run with Caitlin, Courtney and the Franchises afterwards. Monday I went for a 25 minute ez run. Today I did 2.5 miles, 15 hill sprints, and a legs circuit with the track team. Plenty more work to go.

Regionals

This weekend I will make my first trip to ME Regionals as a spectator. The experience will prove to be gut-wrenching, but I am looking forward to flannels, Black Sabbath and seeing Brody as well as seeing the difference between the Pitt I saw at QCTU and the one I will see at Regionals. This year features the debut (to my knowledge) of the pool play format for the ME. Pitt will get a Hippo team on a mission in pool play, but if they survive that will get the winner of (a wide-open?) pool D in the semi's while the (perhaps) more exciting game will be UDel and Boro duking it out for a spot in the Regional final. Big ups to Ben Banyas for what he has done with those Boro kids in his time there. Respec. No Bill Kieffer or Joe Lott on the sidelines this year will certainly detract from the enjoyment of the game around the game, but perhaps some new forces in heckling will emerge to satiate the crowd. Maybe thats what they practice at SUNY schools instead of Ultimate.

Get Excited

I've been watching a lot of the WUCC Trailer that Rob from Ultivillage has put together and it is very well done. After watching it I reviewed the trailers for the others and this is the best by far (fm$). It takes a minute to get through the opening ceremonies stuff, but its pure money after that. Those clips are doing a lot to get me going for this season.

Henlopen, The Kazan Perspective

Here is Henlopen from the perspective of one of my teammates, Kaza (Eric Brach). I'll update with my own soon:

This past weekend marked the Beth Coltman Memorial ultimate tournament
out at Cape Henlopen, a two-day, three-division event out by the Cape
May Ferry in Lewes, Delaware. Truck had a pretty good weekend - we
went 4-2, and got the chance to run with a lot of our tryouts. While
we were certainly aiming to take home the title (and there were, in
fact, sweet trophies for the winners), the weekend was pretty good
overall. Here's my recap.

Sat Game 1: Medicine Men

Ah, the Med Men. We came out pretty well in this one. To get a sense
of all of our players, we split the team into O and D lines for this
game, which we then reversed for the next one so that everyone would
have a chance to play both sides of the disc. This game was pretty
close the whole way, yet also never really in doubt, at least in my
mind, which is exactly the kind of game that I like.

We traded points with Med Men most of the way, then pulled away at the
end. I really liked starting off the season running O line - I scored
4 goals in this one, which is way more than I ever normally get, and I
really didn't feel like anyone on Med Men could run with me. Best
part was playing on the same line as Jordo - even though he always
owns me in any practice or drill, I feel like being out there with him
makes me a more confident and better player. We won 15-11 or so.

Sat Game 2: Good Fellas

A new name but an old team, game 2 saw us matched up against the
Philly Masters. I had three memorable matchups in this one. The
first was Clayton. He tried to take me deep once and I D'd it; he got
me on a deep one the second time in a crowd. I need to get better at
finding the disc quickly when it floats - that one hurt me. The
second was against some REALLY big dude, who just hung deep - once we
realized they were trying to run a homie, I just left him and poached
the lane in the middle of the field - we got a quick D and scored.
The third was against some joker who set up, like, 5 feet away from
the stopped disc on the force side - I called him out for the fact
that he was gonna do abso-effing-lutely nothing from where he was
standing... AJ had to pull me aside later to question the wisdom of
that little nugget. We rolled 'em, though they got off more than a
few scores on us off of deep shots, where they pulled all of their men
under the disc off of ho stack flow and were then left with 1-on-1
isos in the back. 15-8.

Sat Game 3: Pike

Ahhh, the biggie. Well, we played hard, but we lost. Not much else
to say. We started down a point; I went in at 1-0 and I was promptly
called off the O line by Seany Mac. Damn. Regardless, I felt good
about my O on the D line, and apparently, so was Pike; they switched
Trey on to me every time we got the turn when I was on the field. On
the D side, however, I got run around pretty well by Brandon
Silverman. Kid has stamina. I was in on double game point matched up
against Brandon again, and I was pretty determined to stop him - I got
a layout catch off of a Heckman pass that I was pretty psyched about,
but it was called back on a foul and we lost, 11-10. Oh yeah, and
Matt Gordon had a sick layout D about 5 minutes after showing up.

Reacp on the party and night: good times.
Pike + Truck vs. Pi at Quarters: Pike/Truck Combo
Keven vs. Jack: Jack
Keven's head vs. chair: Chair.
Kazan sleeping vs. Jack lobbing beer cans: ...... Chair.

Sun Game 1: DC Funk in Quarters
15-4, I think. Only thing of note to me was that I threw away two in
this game. Gotta dial that down, both of them were "cute" throws near
the endzone and I got too pumped for my own good. No turns on the
weekend before that. At least it came in a game that didn't matter,
and I learned my lesson and tightened it up. Also, Cuneo showed up,
as did Walsh and Deuce (not playing).

Sun Game 2: PoNY in Semis
This one was almost Good Fellas, as it was 12-11 PoNY in the quarters
game before PoNY pulled away. We started off slow in this one but
later got the win. My boys Ivan and Josh W. both played really well
against us and got some nice D's. I noticed that we really buckled
down and played well against them... except for our Zone O, which
could have been better. A real slap in the face, since that is
usually a strength, plus we had just worked on it during out down
time.

Jody and Masulis covered me in this one, which again, was cool.
Doubly so since I still didn't have too much trouble getting open on
them. It's nice to have reached a point where the other team is
putting their studs on you to try to stop you from getting the disc -
I'm really looking forward to using my speed as a weapon this year now
that I am out of the handler spot.

Sun Game 3: Pike in Finals
Rematch city! We went down 2 breaks early and never really came back;
we lost 15-12. The thing is, we had a TON of chances. I think our D
line earned a turn on 75% of our points - we just kept turning it
though. I would like to chalk it up to inexperience playing together
- three big things stood out that our D line O needs to work on. 1:
The top of the stack needs to be cutting for the swing cut on EVERY
DUMP. That wasn't happening, and we kept getting trapped on the line.
2: The middles need to stop turning it over. When a middle makes a
throwaway... they need to realize that they should have dumped it.
Handlers make hard throws. Middles make easy throws. Either you
throw in flow, or you let it reset. And for the love of all things
holy, LOOK UPFIELD and KEEP THINGS MOVING. If you are not looking
upfield and it is stall 2, well, pull your head out of your ass. And
if you are still holding it at stall 5 and haven't already tried to
dump it, you suck. In our offense, middles should not even be holding
the disc by stall 6. We keep it moving. Finally, 3: CONDITIONING.
We had some late turns we made on our own goal line... and then our D
line offense looked terrible. Lazy cuts, horizontal cuts, no fakes
before cutting, clogging / no hard clearing out... yes it's the last
game of the weekend and yes you will be a little gassed... but you
gotta play smart and hard when you are out there, boys. That's what I
came away with.

All in all, a lot to work on, a lot to build on. A lot of great on
and off the field leadership, a lot of potential.... season is looking
good.

TSGH 3.0

The ball toward the club season finally got officially rolling (for me) this weekend as last year's members of Truck Stop Glory Hole gathered to discuss the upcoming season. At the meeting we decided to turn down offers from both Potomac and Pike to merge teams and instead to hold open tryouts for Truck Stop. Any members of those teams (or others) with hopes to play for us are welcome to come and try out. These tryouts will not only be for players from outside teams, but no returner is guaranteed a spot on next years team. While no Pike players may make the tryout (part of their merger proposal involved moving practices to Newark), it is expected that almost all of Potomacs will in addition to some All-Region level recent college graduates who have moved to the area. It should be quite a tryout.

There will be a five person selection committee to determine who will be on next years team. Ryan Morgan of Potomac will be given one of the positions to ensure that we have adequate knowledge of their talent trying out. I have accepted a nomination for the committee and feel pretty good about the likelihood that I will be elected. We will attend a few early season tournaments to get a look at the talent in some on-field situations. The plan is to attend Club Terminus, Henleopen and NJ Invite and then to have the roster set for Boston Invite at the end of June.

Personally, I have to be sure to make two of those three, which could get pretty hairy given other committments (Pitt SuperFan, Younguns). Here is my potential spring line-up:

Queen City Tune-Up (This weekend)
Club Terminus (March 17-18)
Fools Fest [invited to play w/ Jaeger and defending champs BOMB] (March 30-April 1)
Henlopen (April 21-22)
Metro East Regionals (April 28-29)
NJ Invite (Early-Mid May, hopefully)
Bell Crack Coed Classic (May 20-21)
College Nationals (May 26-28)
Poultry Days (June 9-10)

9 tournaments, 6 playing (maybe), 2 coed, 1 fun, 3 club...looks like a good time. Not sure if I'll be making Club Terminus, but with my trip to Asia looking less certain, I'll have to crunch the numbers and see how things look in another week or so.

In any case, I am excited again, thank god. This 'offseason' was to long and allowed me to obsess with school and become a workaholic. Starting March 1 I will be running with the spring track team 3x per week and lifting on the other days. Moldenhaur said we are at the crest of a talent wave in the DC area, and I plan to make the most of it.

Oh, we also resolved to have a much improved jersey this year. The one above is a possibility.