Lemony Fresh Spring Writeup

March 22/23 2008

Being Easter Weekend, we were hurting for numbers a bit on Saturday, and lot on Sunday (we played almost savage with only two subs). Nevertheless, The Bullets managed to take home second place honors out of a field of 11 teams, losing 10-13 to Brandeis in the final on Sunday.

Saturday:

Game 1- Wheaton

This was a warmup game against what is the men of a traditionally mixed team. Not much to say, after letting them tie it at ones, we scored twelve straight to end it.

Game 2- Brandeis

This was the polar opposite of the last game against a very good Brandeis team. They proved this by coming out firing on all cylinders and going up 4-0 on us in the blink of an eye after an endzone drop on the first point by Scheid. Our zone was useless; they have one of the best fastbreaking zone offenses I have played against. Another thing that was frustrating is that they like to throw a clammy zone for a few throws on the pull to disrupt any plays we could call off the pull. We called a timeout to reset our heads and our D (man from here on out), and promptly scored two straight to start crawling back into it. After that Brandeis takes half 7-4, and increases their lead to 9-4 before we go on a 5-1 run to close the gap. Yeah D-line! In the end, Brandeis took the game 13-10, but I was impressed with the never-say-die spirit of the Bullets, something that has been present time and again this year.

Random Highlights: I remember yelling at Owen for not attacking a disc on an easily defensible underthrown huck. He hangs his head, but a few points later gets a redemption layout D. Another time, Vacarro throws a wide IO break flick to Scheid who layout macks it into the endzone where Marchand cleans up the swill with some heads up play.

Kevin also had a ridiculous Beau-esque sky going up in between two tall Tron players.

Game 3- Sandwich High School

Similar to Wheaton, we worked on our standard zone a bunch. Rick got burned by little boys. Final score: 13-2

Game 4- Bryant/Cape Cod Combo

This team had some ringers, and we seemed to lose focus after going up 10-4 on them. This was a mistake as they fought back tooth and nail to make it 12 good guys, 11 bad guys. Finally, after a marathon point with plenty of drops and throwaways on both sides, we punched it in for the win. One thing I was very impressed with in this game was the headsup play by Ravi at offensive wing. Way to make excellent bailout cuts and keep that disc moving! Kevin also played excellent at deep in our zone O throughout the tourney.

Sunday:

Game 1 (Quarters)- Bates

I believe we bageled them first half, and had a rather comically identical first couple of points: Tim Ds it, centers to Kid, throws to an incut from Scheid, throws to Wells for the score. Kind of eerie. Anyway, our zone worked well against them (actually, it was mostly Tim who worked well against them), and we would have won 13-2 if Mace or Fermi or anyone was paying attention, but ended up playing to fifteen and winning 15-4.

Game 2 (semis)- Northeastern

This is a pretty good team who never let up on us. We played very well first half, taking it to 6-4 with mostly Man defense. During a timeout at this point, I told the D-line that this would be a huge turning point in the game if they could get a break, since we would be receiving to start the second half. Sure enough, they punched it in, and we scored after half to take it to 8-4. It was around this time that the lack of subs started to catch up to us, and we began playing more tired. Northeastern started to keep up with us, and even got a break back on us before we put it away 13-10.

Random Highlights: I thought the funniest part of this game was when I was standing in the stack, and I directed Vacarro to cut for the breakside hammer (his man was poaching the lane) and then told PC to throw it. Easy score! I think I deserve an assist for that one...

Another highlight was PC's defensive dominance of the Bizarro-PC they had on their team (who plays for Gunslingers no less). The dump defense in this game was the best I've seen it this year from the Bullets; they were routinely throwing at stall 7-9, forcing poor decisions, poor form, and punts galore. Good work Bullets.

Game 3 (FINALS)- Brandeis

No surprise here, as Brandeis easily put away Wentworth in quarters and beat Clark 13-7 in semis. Holy crap, we were exhausted in this game, and only had ten minutes rest after the rather close Northeastern game. Oddly, we seemed more tired on offense than defense; we would generate turns, and then stand in the stack for a few stalls before making lazy cuts. Meanwhile, Brandeis was noticeably more energetic with a much deeper bench, and had a much easier path to the final. Despite this, we came out less flatfooted than the previous day, and scored the first point when Scheid passed to Vacarro after catching a huck with an awful layout (and almost getting squashed by Kevin in the process, holy shit was that scary). Tron responded quickly with some points of their own, and took half 7-5. In the second half we scored some very sloppy points TO KEEP UP WITH Tron's scores. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, we've always been a team that can score cleanly; it's good to know we can score with less clean and pretty play as well. One that really sticks out in my mind was a puntish laser PC put up over the stack about 11 feet off of the ground. Kevin came out of NOWHERE to snag it with one hand for the score. In the end though, the exhaustion was too much for us, and Brandeis scored the last couple points after we had closed the gap to 10-11. The Bullets end up in second place, breaking seed by one place (Northeastern was the original second seed), and winning some Hiram Walker's Sourballs. Woohoo!

Random Thoughts:

Sigh...poor poor Tim...he made so many first cuts for us, caught the disc for a 20 yard gain, and looked upfield at what was unfortunately a wasteland for continuation cuts. I blame this mostly on the lack of subs, but it is still something we need to work on. Vacarro seems to have played very well at short deep, especially in the communication department. Kevin did fine at deep-deep from a purely defensive standpoint, but could still stand to communicate more often and more loudly. Our cup needs to be on their toes more. Man defense looked pretty good all around, and for once the Dump D wasn't horrendous. One thing Mace mentioned was that our throws seemed wimpier in pressure situations. Throws against Bates that were crisp and fast trusting the receiver to catch it, became wobbly, floaty, and slower against Brandeis. This is a mentality issue, and I'm not sure how to fix it, but recognizing it is the first step.

Overall, good work Bullets, but don't get complacent because we still need to improve a lot if we want to contend for Regionals. Next stop: Midnight Huckbuddy Invite this weekend at URI. This will be a great tournament to gauge where we stand currently in our section since perennial contenders Brown-B, Roger Williams, Conn College, URI, and Holy Cross will all be there.

Tournament results can be found here: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=127&id=4861

And pictures here:

For Day 1-

http://www.whoopiedisc.org/whoopieimage/main.php?g2_itemId=7040

For Day 2-

http://www.whoopiedisc.org/whoopieimage/main.php?g2_itemId=8765

Man Up

Apologies to the women on the roster for the title of this post, but I think it gets a message across in more ways than one. Firstly, nice job this weekend. You handled the teams that you should've handled and played tough against the team that you're going to have to play tough to beat. Secondly, I like the new uniforms. You're now wearing the colors of the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, among others. Both of those Black and Gold teams are iconoclasts of blue collar sports, and for WPI Ultimate to be successful this season, I think you're going to have to follow suit.

WPI, for as long as I have been around, has not been a team of superstars. We've had some very good players, but have never been the tallest, or the fastest, or had the best throws. We have won games by being better across the mean, and working harder and smarter on average. This does not mean that all the stair sets in the world will get you to Nationals, but it does mean that you can contend with teams that have mere talent on their side.

Much of the hard work mentality, for me, is on the defensive side of the disc. Your offense will struggle at times, you will give up breaks and make mental errors that turn into points for your opponents. But you will beat some of those teams if you man up on defense. From what I saw, your zones were decent. There were some holes and gaps, but those will close up with more practice and team work. Your man defense can improve with personal effort, physical and mental.

The Deep Threat: Many of the points you gave up this weekend, but directly and indirectly resulted from bombs from your opponents. A solid "last back" system will help this, but the communication is tricky, and often it's difficult to turn and catch up to someone already sprinting by you. My immediate advice is to work on forcing them underneath. It was talked about in almost every defensive huddle, but there weren't many points where an offense scored after 20 passes against your man D. Make them throw. Before Regionals, you won't face many teams that can string together 20 passes consistently. Especially the first three points of the game, keep them underneath. Let the other team know that they are going to have to work all afternoon just to get one point. From experience, it is incredibly demoralizing to watch a team spend 5 full minutes defending my offense and then, even if we score, turn around and score in 3 passes. He burnt you on a 3-step cushion? Give him five. Don't make the under cuts a gimme, but don't bite so hard on the in fakes. Take your risks going away from the disc, and make sure that every huck is against 2 defenders. You will lose a lot of one-on-one battles to height and speed. Keep those battles away from the endzone. Every offense is worse if they have to double check the coverage before they throw. Keep. Them. Underneath.

Orbit: In what is becoming more common Boston-area terminology, orbiting is body positioning. In keeping with denying the deep game, and assuming that you're forcing forehand, you'll most commonly be behind the left shoulder of your man, facing the disc. Especially on a stoppage. Part of orbiting is dictating where you want your man to go. You are not a follower on defense. You tell your man where it is acceptable for him to cut, and you force him to go there. It's just like being on the mark. If I'm defending a stack cutter, and denying the deep threat, I want my man to make an in cut to the break side. He is going to have to go through me to get to the open side, and even more so to go deep on the open side. Instead of giving so much of a cushion that he has room to maneuver and deke you out of position, get in his shorts. If he moves towards you, you're starting at the same pace, and if he moves through you, draw the charge. Make it so that you don't even have to defend the deep throw, because the cuts are too hard to make. When you're following your man in, stay in control until the throw goes up, so that if he cuts back, it's just like you're in the stack again, and he has to go back through you to go deep.

Team Defense: This is not about zone or last back. You know what my favorite block looks like? It's a stall. It's murder on the statistician, because you can't attribute it to any one defender. It means that for 10 seconds, 7 guys locked down the field and the thrower had nowhere to go. Every time a throw gets off the defense gets weaker. The point of attack gets changed, and the defense has to reposition with respect to the new thrower. Every time your man gets the disc, you let your team down a little. Just like Nixon: deny, deny, deny. They might score this point, but it's not going to be through your guy. You're not going to win a lot of games because your best defender could shut down their stud and they just crumbled. You're going to win because you contained their best guys, and WPI defenders 4-7 played harder than their 4-7 offense. That's where you get blocks against good teams. Rarely do you win the contest against the All-Region candidates one-on-one, but beat their bench and you'll have the chance.

Alright, enough babbling. In summation, just outwork the other team on defense. Make them want to jack it every time, but because it's their only option, not the best one. Make an offense fight tooth and nail for every point, they'll give you the disc a few times. Just give it to you. Convert those chances, and win the game.

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. - Malcolm S. Forbes

Courtesy of Kid:

Connecticut College Fall Classic - October 6^th and 7^th, 2007 - Pre-Tournament Ranking: 8^th out of 10

The Short Version...

On universe point, against Brown University's pseudo A-Team, Nick Amendolare launches a full-field backhand huck to Tim Glover for the 15-14 victory. WPI wins its first tournament in recent memory, against some of the stiffer competition in the region.

The Long Version...

Game 1: WPI vs. Rutgers

Rutgers came in as the 4^th seed in the tournament (second in our pool). We traded scores on the first few points before we really kicked it into gear and went on a run. The D-Line was able to string together multiple breaks on a few occasions while the O-Line (when needed) kept the pressure on with various hucks to Tim. Rutgers was on their heels the whole game, and was unable to make a run.

Final Score: WPI 13 - Rutgers 7

Game 2: WPI vs. Brown A

Brown, the tournament's #1 seed, came into Saturday with only a handful of veterans, a few B-teamers, and a small group of new recruits. We started out very flat in this game, and lacked intensity throughout. The game was close most of the way until Brown began to play their veterans more. Brown makes a run near the end.

Final Score: Brown 12 - WPI 10

Game 3: WPI vs. Yale

Yale shows up late for the third game of the day. The game was rife with turnovers, on both sides. Yale repeatedly burned us on up-line dump cuts. Our offense struggled to find flow throughout. The D-Line could not move the disc, and the O-Line gave up a few breaks. Eventually, Yale pulled ahead before the game was capped.

Final Score: Yale 7 - WPI 5

Game 4: WPI vs. Connecticut College B

We practiced our transition-zone this game, at Mace's suggestion, in an effort to learn something valuable, even in a throwaway game. Conn was able to score a few on us a result, mostly on unexpected hucks. Overall, though, our play was solid.

Final Score: WPI 13 - Conn College B 5

Game 5: WPI vs. Skidmore (Quarterfinals)

We arrived Sunday morning for a showdown with Skidmore, a very solid team from a small school in upstate New York. Our start was abysmal. After a dropped pull, several goal-line turnovers, and many, many mental mistakes, we found ourselves down 7-2. Fuhrmeister tells us on the line, "We need to score this point, Tech. We need to scrap for a point, or else the second-half deficit will be too much." And score we did. The O-Line finally works it in for a goal, and the D-Line follows up with three consecutive breaks (including a goal-line, layout block by Nick, during a Zone point) before Skidmore gets their act together and takes half 8-6. We come out of the half sluggish, and all of sudden we are down 10-6. But we fought back the rest of the second half; the O-Line did its job, and the D-Line picked up a few breaks until we found ourselves receiving, down 12-11. Hard cap had blown, it was game to 13. PC throws a backhand bomb to Nick sprinting deep, but it's too high. The throw hangs in the air until Nick gets up, over two defenders, for the sky in the endzone. WPI pulls on universe point. Tim gets a huge poach D, but Fuhrmeister throws it away at stall-9 on the goal line. Skidmore works it upfield until Vaccaro comes up huge with a block. Scheid gets the disc underneath, near the goal line, and throws a high release backhand to Tim. GOAL!

Final Score: WPI 13 - Skidmore 12

Game 6: WPI vs. Yale (Semifinals)

We arrived looking for redemption against a Yale team that had beaten us just a day earlier. We came out firing on all cylinders. Stifling defense forced Yale to repeatedly throw feeble high-stall hucks. Some great Zone-Defense also lead to some more D-Line breaks. We took the lead early and never looked back.

Final Score: WPI 11 - Yale 6

Game 7: WPI vs. Brown A (Championship Game)

Brown beefed up their roster for Sunday's competition, adding a few more veterans. The game was back and forth. We took the lead after a few early D-Line breaks, but Brown countered with a few breaks of their own, and the score was 8-7 in our favor at half. There were several hucks thrown in the direction of Nick and Tim, and on defense we matched them step for step. Highlights included a huge layout poach block by Fuhrmeister, a handblock by Jon, Moakley scoring several goals right near the sideline, Sippy breaking the Brown marks so much that they were forced to put Vandenberg on him instead of a cutter, and a double-D by Kevin and Tim also near the goal-line. Nick also had a 360, pirouette (between two defenders), finger-to-thumb catch, followed immediately by a hammer to Fuhrmeister for a goal. Brown matched with big plays of their own, though, and the game was tied a 13-13 before "the catch." PC puts up a blade of a forehand to a streaking Eric Scheid who gets airborne and horizontal for a righty, trailing-edge, layout grab. WPI takes the lead, and pulls to Brown, but they work it upfield efficiently for the game tying goal. The score was 14-14, game to 15, and the O-Line was receiving. The play-call on the line was for 'Shredder'. Scheid catches the pull and centers to PC. After several jukes, Nick loses his man and catches a short high-release break from PC. Without hesitation, Nick launches a full-field, backhand huck down the right sideline. Tim Glover is open deep, but the throw hangs a bit and his man gains ground. Both sidelines (and most of the players on the field) stand frozen as the throw floats past the arms of the leaping Brown defender. The rest is history.

Overall, we had great play for most of the weekend. Our freshmen (Ian, Owen, Moakley, Kevin, and Jon) played awesome, and the veterans stepped up to play some of their best ultimate since Nationals last year. Tim Glover proved that he can run, jump, and catch with just about anybody on the planet, and Eric Scheid proved that catching fundamentals are overrated. Most importantly, WPI Ultimate proved that it can play with any team in the region.

And now a short anecdote from the car-ride home:

Nick: Wow. Look over there. That guy is terrible at tennis.

Fermi: Yeah, but he's playing against that Asian girl, who looks like she's obviously good 'cause she's Asian. I wonder if she's giving him lessons... You know what, I bet that guy is just really awkward, and is trying really hard to get with that Asian girl, so he asked her for lessons. Except he's probably so awkward that he's still paying for the lessons or something

Club Sectionals '07 Recap

[this is mostly from a B-team perspective, hopefully some A-teamer will post a recap from their perspective]

the first tournament of the year is always an awesome experience. we always seem to luck out with great weather for club sectionals, and this year was no different. not only that, but they were on some absolutely beautiful (and annoyingly expensive) fields.

although i got up early with a few other crazy people and trekked out to lancaster set up fields, the majority of the WPI team got the rare luxury of sleeping in the day of a tournament. Our first game wasn't until 12:40 so we had plenty of time to throw around and warmup.

The first two teams the B-team played were seeded pretty high in the tournament and were both quite talented. however, they couldn't have been more different. MIT was rather similar to us; a group of college aged athletic kids bringing some freshmen to their first tournament. Rude Boys on the other hand were a group of old veterans (they actually won nationals in 1982) that brought their non-surprisingly good kids to the tournament with them. needless to say, we didn't perform too well against them, although we managed to put up a few against each. and we got to witness a nice kodak moment against rude boys, when a father threw the game-winning hammer to his 12ish year old son for the score. some highlights include pc hucking to moakley for several scores, rick making a beautiful 2nd effort grab for a score, and the emergence of ian/ryan/jeff as go-to guys on the field.

the last game of the day was aginst tufts-B, and was a much better matchup for our team. we were even tied at threes at one point before tufts started to pull away. around 4-14 we decided to throw a zone on them, and broke them 3 straight times to end the day on a respectable note.

the next morning we played andover high school, in a game that was very reminiscent of the tufts game. we were close in the beginning, and made a nice run at the end again thanks to the success of our zone, but the final score was something like 15-7. this actually ended up being the last game of the weekend due to some lame teams not showing up on sunday, but we entertained ourselves with some scrimmaging, go-to drills, and cheering on the A-team. The A-team seemed to have a roller coaster of a weekend, playing very well at times and absolutely abysmal at others. I will say though that i was pretty inspired by the end of their game against red tide B, where they scored like 5 out of 6 points during one stretch. goes to show what stifling defense can do for you. props to kevin for getting like 5 skying D's in a single point, and to vaccaro for playing the best defense i've ever seen out of him. it was nice to see that even when they were down 11-3, they never gave up, and i think red tide was starting to get nervous before the end.

all in all it was a good time, and hopefully a good learning experience for those new to the game. there should be more tournaments come B term, so keep coming to practices so we can improve on this performance next time.

things that went well: attitude/spirit, zone D
things to work on: vertical cuts/cutting with confidence, communication on D, pivoting, conditioning

over and out

Squat's Thoughts #4

so you're sprinting downfield for the deep look with your defender desperately trying to catch up from a few yards behind you. you're not to worried though; you've made this cut a million times, and as long as the thrower leads you into the endzone with the disc it should be a score. sure enough, the OI forehand huck goes up. "Shit, it's coming fast," you think to yourself. the disc has good distance, but it's quickly blading in high from your right. you continue sprinting after it, and jump with your right hand raised for the one-handed snag...and it tragically macs off your hand and quickly turfs. disgusted with yourself, you turn to play defense on the poor sap you just torched. and you think to yourself, "i should've listened to scheid all those times he rambled on and on about how to catch with one hand!"


well now is your chance :)

first off, i should say that two-handed catches are often preferable. pancakes should be used for anything from your thighs up to your head, and two-handed claws for most low throws, throws on either side of your body, and most jumping catches. sometimes though, a one-handed catch is the safest route (skying attempts, many layout attempts, very high or low throws to your side), and this primer is for those times.

different throws have different spins, and it's much easier to catch with one hand if you learn to instinctively read it. so for the next couple of weeks, every time you throw around with somebody, train your mind to read the disc's spin. backhands spin clockwise when viewed from above, and forehands spin counterclockwise (vice versa for southpaws). therefore, every disc approaching you has an edge that is split in two: half approaching edge and half trailing edge. try to visualize this; have your roommate throw a short pass to you if it helps. always catch a disc on the approaching edge, it is much harder to catch a trailing edge pass.

this means you should catch forehands on their left side, and backhands on their right side. this holds true whether you are chasing down a disc on a deep cut, or running to it on an incut. a corollary to this is that it's easier to catch forehands with your left hand, and backhands with your right hand, because of the way our hands are naturally shaped. give it a try next time you're throwing around. if you focus on it for 30 minutes straight, you'll never have to think about it again because it will be instinct. and a good ultimate player thrives on instinct. but that's a thought for another day...


-scheid

Eyes on the Prize

It's not about practice. I want to be very careful about what I say here, because I don't want it to be misconstrued, but the Ultimate season is not about practices. Or tournaments. It is important at the beginning of the season and at checkpoints along the way to set certain objectives as a team and make sure that everyone is on the same page. Yes, Ultimate is fun. Practices, tournaments, parties, road trips and eating contests. All good times. But the season comes down to the Championship Series in the spring. WPI has taken great strides in acknowledging the importance of the end of the season, and I only want to highlight how necessary it is to keep that Sectionals tourney in mind throughout the year, not just in D term.

Practice helps. Going to tournaments helps. Winning at tournaments helps. But what happens at individual events earlier in the season has less and less bearing as the Championship series approaches, which brings me to my actual point. There is a distinction between performing well and improving, both on an individual and a team level, that must be recognized. It is not of primary importance that you perform well at practice, but it is important that you improve. Same at a tournament. Sure, it would be nice to win Yale Cup or Terminus, but you can't display your won/lost record in April to the TD and explain to him or her why that should greenlight you to Regionals.

This is getting too complicated for such a simple issue, but my point is that you need to fight complacency all the time if you want to improve. You should never leave a tournament with the feeling that it went as well as it could've. If you have that feeling, you have peaked, and you might as well just wait for the end of the season. Similarly, you should never leave a practice thinking "That was easy." I understand that, especially early on in the season with a huge disparity in skill levels, practice is not ideally tailored to everyone. Make it hard on yourself. Show up early. Run a few miles or some sprints and see if it's as easy to walk through the drills as it was before. Focus on the little things, and set a nightly goal for yourself. Maybe no turnovers (always popular) or picking up a new throw for your arsenal.

The overwhelming theme here is to push yourself. Stay late. Run harder. Throw when you're tired. Try to play a D point after you just sprinted 100m for kicks. Put yourself at a physical disadvantage to your teammates. Ask more from yourself all the time. Because come spring, nobody is going to remember that sick layout block that happened on a Thursday night under the yellow lights on the turf. And here's the hard part, they might not even notice that you didn't get broken all game, or that you played shut-down defense the whole day and your guy got looked off time and again. But what will be noticed is the scoreboard. And no matter how unglorious your season was, that ticket to the next round is pretty damn exciting.

On Recruitment

So this post is not directly related to ultimate, but I think it is extremely important to the team, especially in the long term. The fall season is about to start and a HUGE part of the fall is recruitment. We are trying to build the best team we can get, and hopefully try to continue that in the next year. There are a couple of very easy ways for the team to help make this recruitment season successful. Being in a fraternity (which a big percentage of the team is) gets you to learn some recruitment strategies and I am going to try and give the ones here that are most appropriate.

1. Go to orientation frisbee. For those of you who have not taken part in this, there is pickup just about every night (usually starting around 10:00pm or 11:00pm) on the turf. Frisbee is the kind of thing that attracts freshmen for some reason, so come out and start meeting people here. Hint at the fact that they should go to the information session. Talk to them a little bit about how the ultimate team works. Help them out with their forehand if they need it. This is a really great time for ultimate recruitment. Try and get to school by the Saturday before classes start so you can show up to these orientation games. Usually a TON of kids show up to this.

2. Learn kid's names. At each practice try to introduce yourself to some of the freshmen. Learn their names and talk to them when you see them around school or at the following practice. There is a certain ex-captain whose name I will not reveal who once said, "there are so many freshmen, I am not even going to bother learning names until most of them quit in the winter." This strategy is terrible and will end up causing the new kids to not feel welcome.

3. Show up to practice. This is also good because it will start teaching the new kids that even the most experienced players treat practice as important, so they will be more inclined to keep coming. Also, seeing the new kids at every practice makes doing #2 that much easier.

4. Persuade kids to come out. If you meet some cool kids, it is okay to ask them, "hey, are you coming to practice tonight?" I mean don't get really annoying and pester them every time you see them, but sometimes they don't have the schedules memorized and especially when they are just getting to college trying to figure stuff out, practice may slip their mind. But if you are telling them to show up to practice and then you don't yourself, it is going to look stupid, so keep doing #3 while doing this one.

5. Don't just focus on the really, really, ridiculously good kids. Yeah sure when we find a PC or Tim we should make sure that we get them to join because they are going to be great for the team. But keep the long term in mind, people can grow. I know I didn't have a forehand coming into my freshman year, and was not very athletic, but I (hopefully) have improved a lot and have become an important member of the team even if it took me a while to achieve this. So keep talking to kids even if they are not the kind of kids that are going to be on the A team in the spring.

That is all I will post for now. Remember that we are COMPETING with other clubs, organizations, sports teams, etc. We are also competing with laziness, so we have to make the team seem like a welcome place for everyone there and hopefully we can even steal some of the more athletic kids from their "real" sports (I know of a lot of kids who would have been on the team, but are doing crew or whatever instead. Come on, who would choose that over ultimate?) This past year, we barely had a B team. We should have at least as many kids on the B team as we had on the A team by the spring. These are the kids who should be replacing the A teamers when they graduate or become lazy and need to get kicked off the team. Keep all this in mind, and I will see you in the fall.

-Ravi

PS Captains, when is that club expo thing on the Quad? Make sure to email that out to the team so we have a ton of people their trying to recruit.