10 Seconds At A Time

Haze Love

2010-06-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

I've been putting this final post off for a long time for several reasons. First, I said everything that was most important to me to my teammates after we won the backdoor championships at sectionals. Second, I think that after regionals a part of me needed a break from thinking about Haze Ultimate after a continuous four years of doing so. Third, after spilling my guts out to the guys after sectionals and then regionals, it personally became very difficult to eloquently express to anyone, including myself, what the past four years of my life meant. Lastly another part of me also didn't want to admit it was all over for me.

I knew coming into college that Ultimate would be a big part of my life, I wanted it to be. But I never would have imagined that my experiences with you all were going to define my time in college and also how I define myself. Someone who didn't have the pleasure of being on this team may scoff when I say this, but that's only because they do know how this team means so much more than a bunch of guys going to weekend tournaments, just like they may never understand the weight of the words "Purple Haze" "Haze Love" or "Haze." These words don't mean much to an outsider, nor do they mean much in literal meaning. However when I hear those words, I think about every game I've played with this team, every stair run, every huddle had, every weight lifted, party raged, every s-cut drill, and every time I've rushed the field. Obviously, to me, our tournament results are such a small part of what make us a team. A very smart ultimate player wrote:

"What you see on the field, good Ultimate teams winning, is just the tip of the iceberg. Team identity is everything except what you see on the field when you watch a team play. You build toward something with your teammates. On game day you show off that something to the outside world and see if it wins games. Team identity is the building, not the winning."

What do I think about when I hear the word Haze? Blood, sweat, tears, determination, personal organization and control, communication, self sacrifice, stairs, stairs, and more stairs.

Screaming "HAZE!" at the top of my lungs is not just what we yell when we go super saiyan, nor is it just a cheer to end a workout/huddle, it serves as a reminder of why we're sprinting our hardest, laying out and sacrificing our bodies and personal comfort. We work our hardest for "Haze," for our teammates and we know they are going to do the exact same thing for us. It is truly a beautiful thing to dedicate yourself to another person or team and have complete trust in them to do their very best to work towards the same goal as you.

When a group of friends get together and work hard and dedicate themselves to each other, only good things can happen, and only smiles can be had. I, for one, cannot help but smile when I look back at these photos, which capture the proudest moments of my life.

I cannot thank you enough for this season. I hope you all know how much it meant to me.

It was an honor to share the past four years of my life with this team and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Being on this team has helped me through some tough times in my life and so have the people on it. I've found my best friends by being on this team, had my happiest moments, and I hope that those of you who continue on will experience the same.

Haze on three. One. Two. Three…

Always,

Quinton

Mini recap

2010-05-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is just the body of a quick email I sent to Charlie and Eli about this weekend, during which Haze placed 7th in our region after being seeded 16th....I'll probably write more about the weekend and my last tournament of my college career. Haze Love.

....

Championship bracket:

Pitt- (lost 5-15)- these guys arent the same scrubs we played that fall tournament. heh. they were made up of some real good athletes. all of them had solid throws too and looked to break us alot. however i think we should have been closer point wise. we were pretty close in reality however with 5 or so drops early on, it was difficult to reel back in points when they had a lead. it was in the high 80's and we definitely were hurt by this. being used to different conditions

Backdoor Bracket:

Georgetown- (Won...15-11 i think) these guys weren't anythign special but didn't make too many mistakes. had only one star (not that awesome though). we got broken some but broke back. glad we won that one.

Queens-REALLY happy to win this. (Won...15-10..11? check later)- they were like rutgers in that they do nothing other than work it underneath on in cuts, and it was odd b/c for the first half or so we couldn't stop this. they have NO ONE special, however were very good at timing and knowing their offense. they worked thru their handlers and those guys were really squirrly. but we decided to win and we did.

SO HAPPY TO WIN b/c they make AWFUL CALLS, like i fouled a guy on a fake, he calls it, and then throws itaway to Berk for a callahan and then it goes back b/c he said i fouled him on the fake and then he threw it away (turn) then he changed his argument COMPLETELY and said i fouled him on the throw instead.....BS...frustrating team, but happy we won

Penn State (loss- 12-15?: honestly i like playing these guys, not happy we lost, but they're good spirited mostly and good natured, and run their asses off. worked thru their handlers, some real athletic cutters, but basically we just traded O points all day. they looked tired and so we got a break on them, held it til 10-9 or somethign then they broke back and then broke once more and ended up trading points. O-line was like a machine. Happy with them and as usual proud of D line for tiring their team out

WDYPU 9- it's been a while

2010-04-25T20:10:00.001-07:00

The Greatest Weekend of my Ultimate Career

2010-04-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

I wish we had video from this weekend, because it was the most important 2 days of my Ultimate life.

Haze rolled into Middletown, NY early friday night while watching Mighty Ducks on the bus. Quack quack quack mister ducksworth. The Hampton Inn was swanky as usual and I was happy with my room, however there was no hot tub (which is fine since all I take are ice baths now...) Both Haze and Femmes had their respective team meetings in their respective captains' rooms. To be brief, my speech quickly reviewed our goals for the weekend (no open unders, no breaks) and then I continued on to express how much confidence I had in every single one of our players. I told the guys how I honestly believed us to be the deepest, most talented, and hardest working team in our section (still believe it). This meeting of course concluded with me revealing I too would be joining the mohawk crew. Wes Wong got out the clippers and Paras hooked me up with a sweet hawk. We arrived early enough for some of us to watch D2 (dvd set!) in the Lu Wang room. Some of us got hungry so TGIF!!!!!!! Got myself some mozz sticks and mashed potatoes.

Saturday morning didn't come quickly enough as I could tell Haze was hungry for wins. I was glad to have a high seed and have 11am games:

First up: SUNY Purchase (W: 15-2): Almost bageled these guys, I was pretty angry we didn't. I caught a casual Callahan (my first ever), which was later followed by VP scoring a sick layout Callahan after baiting his man in. I of course put myself on the line after to try pulling and getting the callahan. Anyway, nothing important happened until I threw a huck to double covered Larry, who laid out out of bounds and was landed upon by an opponent and injured his arm....my fault. I take responsibility for such a crappy decision. I promised him under my breath I'd get it back for him by making regionals.

Ramapo (W: 15-6)

This game was scar for me because when we were up 7-4, I thought we were 4-7. This game shouldn't have been this close at all and I was pissed. Most of the weekend was pretty upwind-downwind, and so I'm happy with our wins and D-line who got breaks at will. D-Line Love. Ramapo was frustrating because they worked well thru one main player but after we shut him down with some Zone variations, they pretty much crumbled. After the game they were good spirited/cheered us and gave Chris Nelson a present.

Columbia (L: 8-10)

This game was great but of course had a shitty outcome. I wish we could have beaten these guys Saturday and had an easier road to regionals, but in the end I feel more accomplished battling through Sunday to take the 2nd bid. These guys are good. Kerry/Milo combination is frustrating to shut down and Izzy is frustrating because he's so quick and reads everything so well. Columbia was the one team I was not looking forward to play b/c I knew they'd pose problems for us. Kerry was great at drawing fouls on basically every one of my marks, and Milo has sick throws. There's only one guy I really disliked on their team, but overall I can't be too upset with how we played. All we needed was an early break upwind and we would have had this game. Oh well

Saturday night: ice baths, rented out a conference room and Anne's mom organized Pizza/pasta/wings/drinks/dips/chips to be delivered. Vurple Faze bonding time rocks.

Sunday:

I had 2 dreams Saturday night. One was of a rat biting me on the finger and me flinging it on the ground (I interpreted this as Columbia beating us and me being like "fuck that") and the 2nd dream was of me point blocking Alex Nord twice during a game against Sockeye. That felt great and I was so happy when I woke up. I knew that Sunday was going to be a good day. I knew that Haze was going to win.

Princeton (W 15-9): I was so happy going into this game against a team I never liked because I'm positive they're responsible for 5 of my lost discs this season alone. I made a shitty call against them, and retracted it (after waiting for Bergman to stop yelling at me). Adlai, #1 on their team, made me love him more by retracting a foul call on Lu, when Lu laid out into his back but Adlai decided it didn't stop him from making a play on the disc. What a stand up guy. I see him being a star on that team/in our section soon.

Rutgers (W 11-6):

We came out too friendly and the first few points took a good 10 minutes each (so it seemed). Way too many turns, granted their poachy endzone D was effective against our planned offense (so we switched to fast break plays and quick upline cuts by yours truly for scores). D-line generated breaks and O-line did their job.

TCNJ (backdoor finals) (W 15-8):

TCNJ, aka Greg Owens and #22, weren't enough to trouble Haze. This was the first game all weekend I lost the flip in and so we started going upwind on D. Finkel had a sick upwind pull and ran it down to catch the first pass, and the starting line scored upwind to start the game...this made our win so much easier...

I think the O-line only allowed 1 break upwind but we furiously broke back upwind right away and sealed the break after. D-line won this game for us though, with I think 3 breaks in a row before half? We came out of half with a quick score and continued to exchange downwind points (they hucked to Greg Owens, while we worked it downwind and took shots when we needed to or saw openings). In the end, TCNJ was gassed since they really worked thru 2 players who couldn't physically shut down our entire team.

This entire weekend, the team played as a unit. Both lines ran their asses off for each other. Individual plays were made, but were overshadowed by a true sense of teamwork. I will never forget this weekend and like I said to the guys in our final huddle, I cannot thank each of you enough for leaving your hearts out on the field and getting us to regionals. I'm so proud of each and every one of you and am not ashamed of the tears I shed on Sunday on that field.

Haze Love.

Regionals 2010

2010-04-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

Haze Love.

2010

2010-04-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

Every year around this time, I usually send out super long pump up emails to Haze about how we need to step it up this season or talk about individual players and how they're going to dominate this weekend or how this is our time to prove ourselves. I usually send out or post videos on my blog to get the team in the highlight making mindset or give some sort of advice to the team about what we're going to do exactly...
This year I have nothing to say. (of course "nothing to say" means this will be only "relatively shorter than years past)

I found myself in the same situation at this week's last practice, which I was happy to see deteriorate into fun and laughter, because that's what our sport should always be in the end. I had little to review or teach the new guys, who have shown so much heart on the D-line this year and likewise I had little to tell the O-line and rest of the team who have heard me repeat the same things for the past 4 years.

Of course I love winning. But I play this sport for the emotions, relationships, and memories I experience with all of you. I love to celebrate with all of you after a win and if that means destroying Columbia and Vassar this weekend, so be it.

Femmes, you're going to rock out this weekend, I know this for a fact. You have so much talent you don't even know and if you play with confidence this weekend, no one can stop you.

Haze, I've already told you all that we need to accomplish to be successful against any team in our region. You've heard me preach basically 3 things all season:
1) Do not allow any open side in-cuts.
2) Do not allow anyone to break your mark.
3) Have your teammates' backs: cut hard for each other, clear out for each other, communicate, rush the fucking field when they score for you, because if they score they're not doing it for themselves, they're playing for you.

Haze, if you all play with the belief that I have in every single one of you, we can do amazing things. A big part of me regrets going abroad last fall because this season has been the most fun I've had on any Vurple Faze family. I have all of your backs and I'm going to leave everything on the field for you this weekend.

I love you all.
Thank you.
Quinton Rampage Ma

Psychology

2010-04-13T20:11:00.001-07:00

Read it, Haze.

A Video Interlude

2010-04-05T11:07:00.001-07:00

After this weekend, I'm confident our O-line is Regionals/Nationals quality.

2nd place at Roll Call isn't enough for me.

2010-04-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

More to come, once I decompress a little...and sleep? One thing is for sure, I will never forget this loss in the finals.

Kingdom Come

2010-03-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Message to Haze

2010-03-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

1) Lu and I feel that some people need to step up their sense of urgency. There are less than 3 weeks left til Sectionals (18 days) and it's shameful when people aren't coming to practices/conditioning. We need everyone to step it up and make everything they can because when you don't show up, you're not letting yourself down only, you're letting the guy who got his ass out of bed to make it to a rainy day of ultimate practice, your brother.

On Sunday, we couldn't even hold down a full sized field and had to play mini. That's effing BS. You can't let your friends down like that. Maybe you had a rough night the night before, so did a lot of us, but I scheduled practice sunday also b/c you can't expect to be 100% on the Sunday of a tournament. We played in shitty cold and misty/rainy weather without you and I am glad I did b/c it really simulated having to play men down and in crappy conditions (both personally and environmentally). It's tourney sunday, you're not going to be freaking fresh as a daisy, you're going to be hurting and so will everyone else. What counts is how you overcome these feelings of fatigue, sickness, pain, etc.

Lu had a lot more moving stuff to say that I can't remember word for word, since it didn't really apply to me since I make all the practices. In summary, step up your sense of urgency, both mentally and physically. Our season is about to get real.

2) We have 2 more practices this week (about 8 practices total until sectionals). Tonight I set two VERY simple goals for this week. And everyone must comply by them. They are both defensive:

A) Do not get beat in to the open side--this is the primary option of nearly every team in the nation and it is your job to not let that be a viable option this week. I dont care if you get beat deep Wed/Thurs, but you WILL NOT get beat in to the open side. Front your man, or stay even with him, do whatever it takes to stay in between him and the disc on an open side in cut. Ultimate is pretty simple. Teams have a primary option (open side incut) and secondary options (throwing deep/break side) and we WILL shut down this primary option this season and force teams to fall back on their secondary options.

B) Do NOT get broken while marking. You should keep a mental tally if this happens in practice (I will be trying to break the mark lots when I have the disc) and we'll talk about the count at the end of practice.

3) Husayn made a good point: all of you should be thinking about Ultimate constantly now. When you have a chance to get to practice early, talk to your teammates about Ultimate (our zone d, problems you're having, etc). Talk to those more knowledgeable. Read up on anything Ultimate related

-Here're two sites I read or have read in the past and recommend:

- http://www.the-huddle.org/

- http://www.brown.edu/Athletics/Mens_Ultimate/zipstips/ (this is for fun but it has some great advice from, in my opinion, one of the best players to ever have played the sport of Ultimate

Cya all Wednesday/Thursday night 7:30- @Grand Street.

Love,

PS: Workout tonight, for those that missed but have asked to know what we did so they can do it tomorrow:

-3 sets of stairs (with double bunny hops instead of one leggers

-3X raichu abs (15 each), but instead of planks, during the "resting period" between ab sets, we did as many pushups as we could in 30 seconds, so use a watch/stopwatch

-marking drill

-5 suicides (free throw line, back, half court, back, repeat= 1 suicide)

-BREAK: over the fence, back over the fence plyo stretches to the top of the key/3 point line

-another suicide

-BREAK: toe touches to top of key and back

-another suicide

-BREAK:lunges to top of key and backward lunges back

-another suicide

-side shuffles half court and back followed by suicide (without repeat, so just free throw line/back/half court/back)

-repeat side shuffle (facing other way) + suicide

-repeat side shuffle + suicide

-REST

-repeat again facing other way

-REST

-3 suicides

-be tired

-speech about the next 3 weeks, think about ultimate

PPS:

Vassar has been practicing at 6am, four times a week this season. Although I absolutely despise that team, that shows dedication to me.

Step it up, Haze. Every one of us has to come to practice and work their ass off. We will reap the benefits during tournaments.

We have what it takes to be great. So every day and every practice, ask yourself "what can I do to help my teammates?"

Sorry Charlie- tourney recap

2010-03-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

Big shout out to our brothers abroad.

My blogging has been lackluster to say the least. Sorry

Summary: In my opinion, Rutgers went fairly well. There were lots of great plays followed by silly turns, which I somewhat expected being a first outing this spring for City College B. We went 2-1 with wins over Princeton/Rutgers and a loss to Columbia.

Our O really suffered when it comes to dump resets and when we do get those working, our cutters weren't good at recognizing break opportunities or deep opportunities. Lots of work to do on that.
Our zone D is quite good. I've worked on our cup with ryan/zach a bit and it works quite well in windy Metro East conditions, but it's not perfect yet.
Our man D is what won our games. Every team we played brought way more players than us (I think we had 14 to Princeton's 25? Columbia's 17ish? Rutger's 30?) but I think we were better conditioned b/c our man defense would shut teams down when it needed to (except against Columbia)

Princeton (13-10): This win should have been by a bigger margin. This team really worked through 3 throwers, one of which seems to be a transfer or grad student from Williams who had some nice hucks. Burgman, aka whiny mcwhiny pants, had some nice downwind hucks as well. However, once we started backing them their offense wasn't so effective b/c we were faster and could cover their incuts. I clearly remember 3 turns that were the dumbest things I've ever done: one scoober behind husayn, one bad swing to chris, and one horrible dishy to a crashing Schulz in which i took two steps from a standstill and then threw it right to the Princeton cup apex....whatever, I knew my first tournament game back in 7 months would be rusty, I'll fix it. When the disc is ours on the sideline, what they like to do is force straight up on the mark and have the dump defender force upline or even, while all the cutter defenders would front our downfield cutters, something we actually thought of doing and maybe will in the future? Nothing much else to note, we are faster than these guys and if we can improve our marks and clean up our O (my O) i think we'll do well against them in the future.
Columbia (10-12): This was a tough loss. The final score was close, but it didn't feel like it. Their O, which works through Izzy, Milo and some random asians I dont know (Carey wasn't there, but they didn't seem to hurt by this fact), broke our zone too easily. I was pissed about that. Furthermore Zac seems to have taught them a nice D which works very well in windy conditions when the disc is on the sideline. They seem to have used a 2 man trap cuppy thing while manning the dump. This gave me headaches b/c i felt very trapped and couldn't even huck it b/c the wind and large man in front of me (damn you zac roy- in retrospect, seeing as we didn't adapt to said trap cuppy thing, I should have just boosted it deep on an early count instead of trying unsuccessfully to throw to guarded incuts), but eventually we learned to get the disc off the line faster, but we didn't fix this fast enough in the end and Columbia pulled out the wind. Izzy, who really doesn't amaze me played well for being injured and Milo frustrated us with some nice throws. They have talent and we gotta tweak some things to nullify that. We could have beaten Columbia had I made some conscious changes earlier on (they would have beat us by a larger margin had we not made any changes)...In all, i never felt like we were in this game, even when we broke to take the first score...or am i making that up?...Anyway, yeah the score was close in the end, but I felt like we were down the whole time.
Rutgers (15-13): God this game should have been a blowout, but in regular Haze fashion we let them claw back from a 8-4 (i think? we were up like 4 breaks) half time score. Our zone d got shredded a few times by over the top scoobers/hammers. I think it wasn't windy enough for it to be super effective, then again I may be remembering said scoobers b/c we threw zone on them working downwind too :P Anyway, we know these guys well. A bunch of them are friends, so it was a little fun playing them. My friend from Cal is playing his 5th year is joining this years' Rutgers squad which has some reals threats in Joe, Glenn, Frenchy, Greg, Brian Li. It felt great to layout over my friend, Albert, for the score though...he's a much better cutter than me and I dont score goals much. I'm glad he's such a good sport about it too.

VP-Defensive MVP: I think VP got like 10 layout D's on incuts. If that number isn't right, he definitely got the most on the team. Furthermore, he had some major skies for big scores during the day too, def touched rim.
Hus- had some phenomenal bids as usual- but we should be throwing better so he doesn't need to make such huge bids. In my opinion, Hus could be All-Region (college or club) with his talent and athleticism. I saw one great sequence of events in which he caught in incut, turned to see a Schulz streaking deep, actually decided to huck it to him for once, but got footblocked (huge thud, which the rutgers sideline followed with a roar-Hus, you released your huck at your hip...), had his man cut deep on him and I could see in Hus' eyes that there was no way he wasn't getting the disc back for us and him, so he caught up to the trailing edge of the huck to his man and prevented a Rutgers score. Honestly I know he has the throws, mark, speed, field awareness to be great, but I think now he's gotta learn to play smart and conserve his energy on offense to make the most damaging plays necessary for our team to win. Furthermore, I'm not sure how to explain it better than saying he needs the confidence to take over games not just as a receiver but as a thrower/leader too.
Schulz-played most points as usual. The Schulz/Hus power cutting combo should work better than it did this day. Gotta think why, since these two cutters are definitely the fastest players in our section and top cutters in our region.
Me- too many turns when teams threw crappy zones on me-1 lay out D in the redzone against princeton and 1 layout score
Chris Nelson- played some great D on the day, definitely is the scrappiest rookie right now, and one of the most in shape players on Haze
Kyle- had the prettiest dishies which resulted in a goal
Lu- got open at will and had some nice hucks to open the field up
Zach-he's good, couldn't connect with Schulz on our pull plays though
Kahyee- I know we have him handling but I'd like to see him cut deep sometimes like he does on me when I guard him in practice.
WesW-needs to play more aggressively for his size on O and D

I/The teams needs to learn to use time-outs more effectively and to our advantage....not sure how, since I'm not great at it, but that should happen. We need someone to keep score, b/c I suck at that. Also, people need to start cutting deep off dump swings....and whenever I have the disc...everyone seems to cut in when I have the disc...I HAVE NICE BACKHAND HUCKS TOO GUYS....GAWD...also, our dumps suck. I'm looking at VP, Larry in particular.

Gotta get some sleep. Goin to work early tomorrow. Spring break starts at 1am Friday night for me.

Georgia on my mind,

Rampage

An oldie but a goody.

2010-02-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Central Regional Finals - Hodags vs. CUT from Brandon Malecek on Vimeo.

Another favorite.

Animal's handler D/bookends for the win and to go to 2008 Nationals as top seed. I want this feeling. Time to hit the weights. (animal....rampage...i've got the nickname, now all I gotta do is get a D like that and cut deep and hope someone will huck it to me)

...also time for Spring Break....I need some sun and some people to destroy

I like this video

2010-02-22T16:31:00.001-08:00

ECC 2007 - Rhino from luke johnson on Vimeo.

Oops...

2010-02-05T23:44:00.001-08:00

Why did I schedule the tentative, impromptu outdoor disc practice at a time I cannot make...? My bad...UGHH

img from: scaughtyphotography.smugmug.com

Captaining/Quinditioning

2010-02-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

It's a weird experience for me to be captain this year because when running the conditioning practices (Quinditioning) or figuring out how many extra sprints the team is going to do after disc practices, I am base my decision on "how many more can I do before my body gives out"....and then since I know some of teammates can outrun me, I add to that number and consequently we all do those extra sprints/stairs...

...thanks Haze, you're my extra push.

Busy

2010-01-31T23:33:00.000-08:00

I'm so busy doing captainy crap and being a nice to people that I have no time to rant about people being bitches and not coming to practice.

Otherwise, good running tonight Haze.

Updated Spring Schedule

2010-01-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

Bolds are "for sure" (since I doubt we'll be turned away from Roll Call)

Hellfish Bonanza- (Feb 20-21)

Battlefield Brawl (Feb 27-28) --http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=18&id=7266 (open- luthch01@gettysburg.edu) http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=34&id=7267 (women- luthch01@gettysburg.edu)

Spring Break (March 13-20)- maybe want to leave friday (12) night

Roll Call (March 27-28)--

Yale Cup 2010-(April 3-4)-- http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=18&id=7273

Sectionals April 17-18 (rain date: April 24-25)

Regionals May 1-2

Spring Schedule 2010

2010-01-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

First official Spring meeting next Thursday (Jan 21st) at 7pm, 7th floor Kimmel. We will use this as just a quick hello and review of our schedule/goals, but it shouldn't take more than like 20 minutes. At 7:30, after the meeting, I'll be going to Coles and I expect everyone to come with for an informal session of lifting and stairs. It'll be the end of the first week of classes, so you shouldn't have work. Thursday will be 30 days before our first planned tournament (Hellfish Bonanza where we placed 5th last year) so if you've been slacking off and if you've been telling yourself you're going to step it up...this should be, at the latest, Day One.

Secondly:
SUNDAY 24 JAN: 10:00pm-12:00am: The girls will be taking Sundays nights, but if they are ok sharing Coles for one night, be ready for an indoor disc practice Sunday night next week -- Coles couches @ 9:50 -lights/darks, running shoes, games faces

Thirdly: here is our early Spring weekly practice schedule starting the 25th:
MONDAY, 25 JAN: 9:00pm - 10:30 pm. Novagility/Workout Practice at Coles -- ready to go at couches @ 8:55
WEDNESDAY, 27 JAN: 9:00pm - 10:30 pm. Novagility/Workout Practice at Coles -- ready to go at couches @ 8:55
THURSDAY, 28 JAN: 10:10pm - 12:30 am. Gym Floor Practice at Coles -- meet on gym floor @ 10:10
SATURDAY/SUNDAY: TBD. When weather permits, we will have outdoor practices, otherwise this time will be set aside for pickup or small group track workouts/disc work/scrimmages

Rough Tourney Schedule (keep your weekends open as always- we'll be finding more tourneys to go to as time goes on and if anything we schedule scrimmages with teams in the area- Columbia thinks they're the shit this year):
FEB 20-21: Hellfish Bonanza
MAR 13-20: No practices b/c Spring Break
MAR 27-28 -- Roll Call, Washington DC
APR 10-11, 17-18, or 24-25 -- Sectionals, Location TBD
MAY 1-2 or 8-9 -- Regionals, Location TBD (must qualify)
MAY 28-31 -- Nationals, Madison, WI (must qualify)

Reminders:
-- All weekly sessions are mandatory. We will be figuring out tourney rosters based on performance and attendance. And it is not okay to be late.
-- Fitness: We don't have the luxury of nearby fields like some teams, so we will work in the gym and track to be the fittest team in our Region. All of you should be working towards getting to the best shape of their lives by spring break. You'll feel great, be less prone to injury, have more fun, I promise.
-- Throwing and Catching. Whenever possible, throw: Best way to make buddies and take breaks from studying in the library.
-- Get Pumped. Every time you step onto the field/gym, be excited. Frisbee is awesome, so are layout Ds.
--LATE NIGHT COLES PRACTICES. Late night Coles workouts occur after Coles has closed. We will meet 20 minutes before the activity areas close to warm up, but dont let anyone see you throw a disc while activity areas are still open to the public, we'll get in trouble. It is never okay to be late to practices, but for these there are literally no exceptions -- you will not be granted admission to Coles unless you arrive ontime. Additionally, you are not permitted to leave early, unless you develop an emergency condition that requires hospitalization (again, a Coles regulation). Also, DONT use lockers or towels or anything that requires surrendering your NYU ID -- the facility will have long since closed when we exit.
--WORKOUT PRACTICES. "On time" means changed, ready to go, on the couches, at the scheduled start time.

Disappointment

2010-01-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

Aside from a few consistent guys, workouts have been shitty. Step up your game. You have to be willing to work hard if you want to beat anyone this season. The commitment shown over this break has been disappointing. I dont know the new guys well, but some aren't making very good impressions... and returners? WTF? you're better than this- update the spread sheet or I'll be updating it for you.

After a quick lookover, here're people who have been seriously absent from the spreadsheet:

Evan- never

Chris Nelson- nothing this week

Nick Scoulios- never- come on man, you say word is bond, but your word has been worth nothing lately.

Pokey- almost never

Sam Mielnik- never

Wes Cronk - almost never

Zack D- nothing this week

Vivek- I love you man, but nothing for the past 2 weeks-

Paras- greatly lacking- everyone hates running, but that doesn't stop them from trying

Nova- nothing this week, but I have faith you're keeping in shape, knowing you...you're probably still running circles around me.

That's 10 guys.

If you're not working out, you're not only screwing yourself over, but you're letting your teammates down. We aren't anything if we can't trust each other to bust our own asses off in the gym and on the field.

If you're back in NYC and goin to the gym, make sure to send out emails, I know others are back already, so go toss/lift/run/stairs together.

Sorry if this email is a little mean or harsh, I still love you all, BUT the group leaders are being a little too nice to those of you not reporting at all.

I'm not the most athletic dude on the team, by far, but I definitely try to work hard for myself and for you guys, and I expect as much from each of you.

Represent HK

2010-01-14T00:19:00.000-08:00

Threads 2010

2010-01-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

I swore I'd never get VC jerseys after experiencing the ugliness that is my freshman jerseys, but I've decided to give those canadians a second chance. I mean, my favorite jersey still is the World Beach Ultimate jersey my brother gave me from Portugal and that was VC...so there is hope that these will turn out to be sweet. Cross your fingers, they're coming, accompanied by shorts.

If you're bored or not bored...

2009-12-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Read this blog...great players/coaches talking about many aspects of the game: The Huddle

Copied from The Huddle- Haze should read this blog

2009-12-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

Preventative vs. Deceptive

by Brett Matzuka

The most common mark you see on the frisbee field is what I would define as a preventative mark. The mark has each arm extended out fully, explicitly placed to take away a specific throw. This is a useful mark as it does prevent the intended throws and it is seen at every level of frisbee (see photo 1). However, though it is useful, it has certain disadvantages. It allows the thrower to know which throws you are trying to take away before they even attempt to throw or fake. This will allow the thrower to find the gaps in the mark and exploit them. Looking over the Japanese mark, you can see that the thrower has yet to initiate a throwing motion, or fake, and the mark already has her arms fully extended. The thrower can now find the gaps and use these for release points in her throw.

What I find helps to apply more pressure to throwers on most levels is what I would call a deceptive mark. Instead of fully extending your arms out in a way that gives the thrower knowledge on what you are trying to prevent, keep your arms closer to your sides, ready to pounce out once the thrower has committed to a throwing motion. As can be seen, Thomas Ward of NC State, and Ring of Fire, has his arms close to his sides and ready to strike once the thrower has committed to an option. Since they are tight to his side while the thrower is not in a throwing motion, this does not allow the thrower to find holes and gaps in the arms to exploit as before. While it does not guarantee that you will prevent the respective throw you are trying to stop every time as the previously mentioned mark will (having your arm constantly up to prevent a high release will certainly stop it, but may give up other throws), it will force the thrower to work harder to get a throw off (they may try to throw a inside break backhand and your hand appears, which makes them work harder by faking multiple times to get the option they want). In general, a foot block is not earned by constantly holding your foot in the air where you think they will release it, but by executing right when they enter into their throwing motion. This same idea can be utilized with your arms, and is useful, to apply more pressure to the thrower.

Other great tips from this Issue on Marking: Defending the Area Around the Thrower, Tricks of the Trade! , and of course Angles.

You're goin to like the way you look...I guarantee it

2009-12-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

Still waiting on 5ultimate to get back with modded mock up b/c we didn't account for their patch on the jersey.

(black) Shorts will have big jimi on the side.

subject to change

Jerseys

2009-12-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

Number on front of shorts or front of jersey?

End of Fall Meeting Follow Up

2009-12-21T22:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

First off, it was great meeting the few new guys that came to the meeting yesterday. Of course I'll be talking to Lu and others to learn exactly what happened in the fall and what needs work, but the meeting was a nice way to generally recap how the season went and teach me what we need to focus on in the Spring. For those of you that didn't make it to the meeting, I understand it's finals time and some of you may have already gone home, however something I want to emphasize now is that everyone will be held accountable for their actions this Spring. This includes attendance to meetings/practice/workouts, logging your workouts on the spread sheet, and the effort/dedication/focus you show during practices. I didn't get any emails from people telling me why they couldn't come to the meeting, which is really lame since it's so easy to shoot an email, even if the excuse is weak. We'll let it slide this time, but come spring there shouldn't be any excuses of "I have to study for my exam tomorrow" or "My girlfriend needs help on her homework" Get your work/girlfriend done early and come to practices/workouts ready to work your ass off :P

That aside, I'm PUMPED for this Spring season. You guys won a tournament and had a great performance at Brisk Winds! That's sick and it's a great place to build from. However I heard several things need a lot of work. Our Defense sucks balls, our marks are broken too easily, and therefore we rely way too much on our opponent's turnovers and our O-line to win games. That's bullshit. We're not going to make a dent at sectionals if we're not the ones creating D's. We've had some solid Fall performance yes, but there still are blemishes against two of our biggest sectional rivals: Columbia and Rutgers. My friend at Rutgers told me that he punted the disc as hard as he could after their first score against us and moments like that and those results should fire up each and everyone one of you to work harder this winter break and spring. We can be friends off the field, but teams like those look forward to beating us. They want to embarrass us. Fuck that.

I believe we can beat every team in our section and it's going to start with conditioning and dedication. In the next few days Lu and I will talk and I'll to send out workout groups, which will be headed by one group leader. Every player is responsible for logging his own workouts on the spreadsheet during and after break and the group leader will be responsible for checking up on his group. He will then send a weekly email to the entire listserve reporting on his group, highlighting who was slacking and who was doing well.

It is necessary to be running, lifting, strengthening your core, and doing stairs during break. I'm going to set a goal for everyone to meet right now. You should be running 2-3 miles at a fast pace (8+) on a treadmill every other day during this break (or full sets of stairs). If you can't run that fast, work up to it. We want fast pace running and sprinting, not long marathon runners(lookin at you, Pat). I'm bad at setting up lifting regimes, but if you have access to weights this break, use them. If you need help email Nova within the next week figuring out lifting or running regimes. Lastly, you should be doing sit ups and pushups/planks everyday to help your core. These are easy to do every morning when you wake up and before you shower at night.

So finish up your finals, log your workouts, expect some future emails about jerseys, workout groups, and I'll be sending out certain strategic stuff (basic playbook stuff) that you all should have learned before Spring starts.

~Q

My Winter Break goal/plan

2009-12-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

Seeing as the Metro East is windy as shit in the spring I will be doing 2 things all break: getting in shape and throwing ONLY and I repeat, ONLY flick hucks into the wind. (if i'm just tossing in a small park-I will only throw IO flicks)

What will you do to make this team better this upcoming season?

~Q

Jerseys

2009-12-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

Hope you guys realize how much money I'm fronting for these...and how much time Ryan and I spend thinking about the designs.

Hugs and Kisses
Q

FInished my hardest week this semester

2009-12-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

And so I relax by watching this great vid of Ring's run at UCC:

Club Natties 09 - RING of FIRE from Chris Casey on Vimeo.

Spring

2009-12-01T15:52:00.001-08:00

We gonna bring it.

Fall so far...

2009-10-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

In case you were under a rock or are a bad Haze fan, here's an update.

The team is 10-0 so far with an undefeated Saturday at Briskwinds and a tournament win (the programs 2nd ever) at Penn State's Fall Phling.

It is still fall, which means these results aren't as important as what we take away from them, wins against not so great teams early on is a good sign. Being able to clean up the garbage teams easily is something our team should get used to doing so we can focus on better teams and harder games.

That said, I am extremely proud of my teammates and can't wait to get back to the USA to play with them. I'm glad they stuck it to TCNJ (only team in our section that we've played) and equally happy to hear about the Penn State win.

I hope the crew work hard for the rest of the fall and are ready to take it to an even higher level in the spring.

~Q

Haze Representin' In Cordoba, Argentina

2009-10-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia de Haze -

Eli "We Out Here" Wilkins-Malloy, Gabe "Gabi" Schoenberg, and I (Charlie "Chussle" Eisenhood) are currently kickin' it in Buenos Aires. This weekend, we traveled to a tournament in Cordoba, the second largest city in Argentina.

We definitely stepped it up and represented the cherished Haze name.

Ch-check it out:

Eli getting a dirty handblock on me at stall 9.
Gabe skying some folks.
Gabe getting the forehand past Javi.
Me just beating Eli to the disc. (Rookies, position is the most important thing when jumping for a disc, especially if you're shorter/have less hops than your opponent, like me).

Just to note, I did rock the white Haze jersey in a couple games. Looked super fresh in contrast with the dirt "fields."

Hey Haze

2009-09-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

So, I've been racking my brain all day figuring out the best way to introduce myself to the new Haze players and shout out to the returners from across the sea...and I haven't really come up with anything that special. But seeing as the Maryland tourney got canceled this weekend and because of that I was pissed enough to do an extra few sets of stairs tonight, I decided to just suck it up and write whatever came to mind.

For those of you that don't know me, my name's Quinton (Qma, Q, Rampage...the list of nicknames go on) and I'm one of the captains for Haze this year. The reason you haven't met me yet is because I am studying abroad for the fall semester in London. Don't worry I'll be back soon.

For those lucky returners who DO know me...WHAT UP!? I want to hear from you guys. How's the fall treating you? How're practices? Is Nova pushing you guys in the gym? Seriously, email me with as many updates as you can/want.

(if you wanna stop reading here, that's cool. this is where i just update you on my London life and ramble):
Not a day goes by that I'm not thinking about you guys. Seriously, it's kinda sad. Before last season, I had never pushed myself harder physically or mentally as I did with you all at practices and workouts. That is, until now, since I find myself having to run stairs without my teammates leading the way in front of me and urging me on from below. I know you guys have started workouts, and let me tell you, the only joy I take out of running stairs and doing sprints is knowing that you guys are doing the same (if not more). I've been playing decent pickup 2 times a week here in London and plan to try fitting a college team's practices and tournaments into my schedule soon. In terms of workouts, I do 2 stair workouts/week followed by an upper body/ab thing. The stairway here is a little different than Coles, so instead of what you guys are doin, I started with 5x10stories the first 2 weeks, and now am doin 5x12 stories and plan to increase these sets soon. Aside from stairs, I!
'm running on off days to build up my stamina, because when I get back, I plan to earn my spot on the field as much as any of you.

I really hope all of you are training hard and getting your work done on time so you can dedicate your mind and body to the team during practices. I am confident in Lu and Chooch's ability to lead the team this fall and I hope all of you will listen and learn from them as much as possible (as well as listen to Finkel and Schulz since they've got some serious years under their belts too)

To the returners: Every single one of you has an important role on this team. Maybe you're a playmaker who everyone ooh's and ahhs at. Maybe you do so much work on the field that no one even notices you're there. Whoever you are, you have to lead by example when it comes to attendance, effort, willingness to help, and perhaps more importantly a willingness to learn and improve yourself as a player and teammate. What makes a team great is not only the player with the best athletic abilities, but also the player who knows his ability's limits and uses them to help his teammates improve/succeed (without being a dick about it). Furthermore, to me, what makes a great leader is the person who doesn't want to have the power to lead, but the one who steps up when his team needs him. I hope he doesn't mind me speaking on his behalf, but I know Lu didn't want to be captain this year. However, I asked him to b/c I knew he'd be a good captain and he accepted because he knew his team nee!
ded him. So help him do his job by doing yours.

To the new guys: if you're still reading this...(impressive) I hope that you enjoy your first semester playing on this team. I've made my best friends in college though Haze/Femmes and I hope you guys will learn to love the team and this sport as much as I do.

Lastly, the fall is about getting to know each other and throwing ALOT, so go out and throw every chance you get before it starts getting cold and shitty in NYC. Always have a disc in your bag (and if you dont have one, buy one from Lu) b/c just tossing the disc from hand to hand while your bored will help your catching ability on the field. Seriously, I think my freshman year I threw almost every day after class until it got dark and even past that time. It's a great way to learn how to throw/catch plus you'll get to know each other better. Keep your heads up about this weekend, it sucks having a tournament canceled like that, but just train harder so that the next tournament you do go to, you'll kick ass even more. Stupid shit like a cut budget or a thunderstorm canceling a tournament (last year) could happen any time, but it's how you guys make the best with what you have that will ultimately determine this fall and spring's success.

Drop me an email whenever you can.
~Qma

Stairs

2009-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

They pay off so much. My evidence? I skied five guys today. One of the times it was 3 guys at once. Let me repeat: I skied five guys today. Me. Quinton Ma. Standing at a measly 5 foot 8 inches (maybe a lil less?). I've only been doing two stair workouts a week. But after 1.5 weeks, I can definitely feel the difference in my jumps and layouts and all around sprinting. I love it.
My goal is to hit 120 stories a week for the first few weeks, then I'll step it up to 150 and then hopefully be doing 180 a week by the time I am about to fly back to NYC.

Run your stairs hard and you can grow up to big a strong like me.

I hope Nova and Lu and Chooch are running you guys hard.
Q

Live it, Love it, Dream about it.

2009-09-23T15:08:00.001-07:00

Stanford Ultimate Highlights 2009 (unfinished) from arieljackson on Vimeo.

Miss you guys. Kick ass this fall. I'll be checking in soon.

Rawr

2009-09-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

about Zoji jerseys

and frustrated about certain happenings at the end of my summer. could have made some big strides for our program

but moving forward, I am working out alot here in London, playing some good pick up and training with some good players when I can. I hear Lu is doing a good job with the beginning of this fall season. So I am happy about that. I can't wait to talk with him about how practices go and how the fall shapes up.

Del Potro just beat the greatest player in Tennis history in the US Open final and likewise Haze will meet whatever challenges are put in front of them this year head on. I miss the team every morning I wake up and am thinking about you all when I go to bed.

Chugging along...

2009-08-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

and trying to get some stuff sorted out for the fall...we'll see how it goes. Cross your fingers for me (even if you dont know what I'm talking about) if you're interested in what's goin on in my haze world, you can email/chat me at quintonma@gmail.com

Now that it is almost fall, I really hate to leave NYC. I know London will be awesome and when I get back, everyone is going to be in great shape, but I hate to miss out on the fun times that make up the fall season. The fall is all about learning about each other, as players, as friends, and as a team. You guys will learn your limits (physically and skill-wise)and help each other push past them. And sadly, I'll be missing out on all that.
From the little experience I have had teaching ultimate to random people, I discovered I love to teach this game. I think I have a good grasp on the sport's basics (on paper at least, executing them is a different story) and I wont be able to help much until January. My hope is that I'll be able to help Lu and our coach in organizing what we want to teach during the fall, but a lot will be on their shoulders. Anyway, I hope I will be able to catch up with everyone and learn to play with you guys quickly when I get back. Here's to hoping!

WDYPU 8- Summer/Zoji edition

2009-08-13T14:13:00.001-07:00

I got a DSLR. Here's some pics from my cams inaugural tourney.

If you ever need fire...

2009-07-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

http://vimeo.com/4316390

I was going to embed this video onto the blog, but decided against it b/c I hate this team too much.

There're only a few experiences in Ultimate that I remember as vividly as the highlights against us that TCNJ included in this video.

The first experience I remember is playing a shitty team at Sectionals my freshman year (montclaire). Because I knew we'd beat them handily, during this game, I made a half assed upline cut which got thoroughly D'd. My lazy cut was actually baited by my defender who does this kind of crap to this day (played him at Easterns). Anyway, my defender didn't just D me, he flew by me to knock the disc out of bounds (eugene greenberg). I literally remember the feeling of the wind blowing by my ear as he laid out past me and the embarrassment that followed. I use that vivid memory to push me every time when I make my upline cuts as hard as I physically can. That on mistake/experience is what I think about every time I make that handler cut and I will probably always use it to my advantage. (by the way, I didn't let that short fool D me once during our easterns match up)

The next memory I think of when I reflect (not really to fire myself up perse, quite the opposite actually b/c I use this memory to make sure I'm chillier with the disc) happens at 7:22 in the linked video. Tyler made an unsuccessful upline cut and was sorta camping out int he endzone and I wanted to score so badly that I thought I could squeeze an IO flick to him, which was a retarted move on my part b/c where else would his defender be but right there to D my throw.

I have a few more memories that I think about now and then, but those two really stay clear in my head in terms of personal things I can use to always improve on. Anyway, remembering our loss to TCNJ truly fires me up and I hope if any of you ever need something to replay in your mind in order to push yourself, use that video. When you're trailing your man on D and need something to convince yourself to lay out past him for the disc, use the fire that this memory brings about. I hate that team. I hate that loss. The bad calls they made against us are one thing that gets to me. The fact that one of their players caught a goal, and then came back to place the disc on Charlie's back after he'd laid out to D it is another thing that gets me. Okay it not only gets me, but that is something I, as captain will not allow at all, b/c if that happens ever again I will be the first person to get up in that guys face and make him cry (in the most respectfully captain-y way that I can)...likewise I hope none of you guys ever do something so lowly.

Last random thought, after watching that video, #15 really carried that tcnj squad, and I plan on us shutting him down completely next year.

Night.
Q

Jerseys

2009-07-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Not sure if it's an addiction. But I do like jerseys. As you can see Haze jerseys make up the majority of my collection.

Zojirushi Leak

2009-06-25T21:52:00.001-07:00

Schulz designed these for the team Zach/Lu/Schulz/Kahyee/I/Pete/Linh/Claire/Jimmy (nyu contingent) play on, I dont expect anything less cool for Haze next year:

edit: here's Cori's steam version:

Watch and learn

2009-06-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

People constantly comment on the way that Lu (and Kahyee) and I throw our flicks and try to imitate the way we position our feet/legs.... All I have to say is, there's nothing weird about how we throw...

We're like mac's, we "just work"... and we look good doing it. So watch your mack daddy work.

It's about time...

2009-06-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

2009 from Brian Li on Vimeo.

How do you feel after watching this video? What does it make you think about?

After finding this video the other day, turning up my speakers, and taking it all in, I couldn't help but think about this Spring and how it ended.

I haven't put down in words many of my thoughts about the close of our Spring season because I don't think I ever recovered after our loss to Vassar. After an entire year of keeping this blog updated with how I feel "ultimate-ly" it wouldn't be right to not try to get some closure on the season. So here we go...

Let's get general thoughts out of the way. I think we were the best/most well conditioned team in our section. The best teams dont always win. We lost to Vassar, Rutgers, TCNJ, all teams we could have crushed any other weekend, but things just didn't fall our way.

Some specifics: Vassar beat us with dinky little undercuts (aka we got beat in to a the disc and they threw swilly high releases to open cutters) then bombed it deep to their one tall receiver. They also beat us when we had already "won" due to soft cap...but that's just a sore point we will all have to live with. Life goes on. Rutgers played well against us. Somehow we didn't address their well known offense as we did on spring break. Had we shut down their ace/front stack dump, we would have won in my opinion. BUT i never even voiced a mere peep about this. TCNJ beat us with shitty foul calls, bad spirit, and a bunch of desperation hucks that fell their way. One or two good players on that team, whom I credit the win to, but otherwise I hated that game almost as much as the Vassar one. I hated the Vassar loss the most because it threw us out of our kill-mode and I hate the TCNJ one because, even if those guys are good people, they didn't show me that during the game. The rest of the teams at sectionals sucked balls.

I think that, with the exception of that weekend, we demonstrated we were the best team in our section. And from my perspective, knowing our physical conditioning and natural ability, we would have given regionals teams much better competition than either of the teams that went from the ME (although Columbia definitely surprised me, good for them).

Regrets: Didn't speak my mind during huddles enough because I wanted to let the captains talk.
Didn't tell people that I was personally offended and pissed when they missed practice after promising alot at the beginning of the season. Or when a few individuals pissed me off with little things they did, all I'll say is, when we run stairs next year, no headphones...

I wanted this season to justify the time, pain, blood and sweat we all sacrificed. After all the shit I went through the in the summer/fall, not being able to play among other things, I wanted the Spring to be my redemption. And after the way it ended, this season left an empty feeling in my gut. However, I dont feel like it was all for nothing (although that is how I felt after sectionals for a week or two). The experiences of this season have taught me to appreciate every moment with Haze, every goal scored, every joke made, every set of stairs done, every layout. This season has taught me that in order to be successful as a player, I cannot drive myself for personal reasons, but I have to pull my inspiration from my teammates and the fun that we have together dominating other teams.

This post didn't really come out the way I wanted. But whatever I say here wasn't really going to change anything that happened this season anyway. I was sad about the way the season ended, sure, but life goes on. There's more Ultimate to be played. More fools to bitch out. I know how good we were and how much we accomplished and that's all I need to remember.

Thinking ahead: I'm going to not just speak my mind on this blog, but in every huddle. Other random thoughts: somehow I plan to get every player on Haze to be able to layout and handle confidently in a zone/ho...basically every player better be able to lay out and throw like Lu when I get back. We're all young still young, so learn to lay out confidently and properly. In college and in levels of club, laying out is essential to making the play/completing a shitty throw and if we not only develop basic throwing skills, which a few haze players lack in my opinion, but also learn to lay out, we will be well on our way to great things.

Be ready to give your all from the sidelines, at the gym, on the field, every set of stairs, every point played, every practice...or be ready to sit out, because by sectionals, I dont' plan on being a team to "look out for." We will be the team that other players see in their bracket and expect to lose. I plan on us being the #1 seed going into Sectionals next spring and I plan on being the #1 seed when we leave Sectionals.

Headshots.

edit: after reading zach's comments, I want to say he was being a good captain by not singling people out in huddles. certain players would continue to individually make mistakes then, so maybe I will try being a different captain b/c i can't make the plays he does, and see what happens if i really buckle down and let players know when I see them messing up and i know they could do better if they just tried something else.i'll definitely try to talk to them individually about stuff, but I plan on being pretty critical in certain aspects like if players are constantly throwing crappy throws and make no effort to change their throwing motions.

Good post about winning/marking

2009-06-16T22:16:00.001-07:00

CUT's post about their win against Stanford in the Semis

Things to note:

marking in a straight line, not trying to shuffle around thrower in an arc
recognizing/adapting to other team's offense
loving your teammates

Haze on my mind,
Q

PS: pic is not from stanford game (pitt), but still sick

I need to work out more.

2009-06-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Playing fair share of ultimate this summer, but without working out I feel the aches and injuries are so much easier to get.....Hit the weights/stairs, Qma/Haze

Out.

Heads up

2009-05-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

The Metro East Region (both men/women) gets an extra bid (3 total) to Nationals next year.

Get to work on your game Haze.

~Q

Summer plans?

2009-05-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

Just wondering who's out there reading this blog right now and cares to share their summer plans?

Ultimate plans?

I plan to be playing a bunch of pick up when I can + play on TFKAC (team formally known as crafty) up until I leave for London .... just in time to miss the series....

What are your plans? (anyone viewing can comment of course, just hit up the "comment" button!)

Callahan vids

2009-05-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just for kicks:

Will Neff- Michigan- I like this video. It shows that he's a force to be reckoned with and doesn't seem to have horrible spirit (no spikes when he has huge catches)

Jimmy FOster- Wisco- I hear he and Sarah Klein used to date. hubbahubba

Tom James- Stanford- Looks like a nice guy....stanford cutters make nice deep cuts.

Mac Taylor- Colorado- Pretty neat how he didn't play ultimate before college. Funny site pic too.....but i dont like how he spikes before the other team is gone. I mean god knows i love spiking but not until the opponents are a little farther

Georgia Bosscher- Wisco (women)- kinda redunculous....ultimate crush material? mmm maybe...boner check.

Video- Go out and play.

2009-05-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Although this highligh movie isn't even done yet......watch it.....some amazing plays.
Some of my favorite parts:

4:55 breakside flick to the openside?
+ next catch
6:12 spike- ....followed by opponent turning around, picking up disc and nailing the spiker.....i hope a fight ensued...

Captains email

2009-05-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hey boys,

First off, we just want to say that we are honored to be the captains of this team and that we will do everything in our power to make next year's team as baller as this year. Second, we want to stress this point: next year will not be a "rebuilding year." We are not just going to leave off where we ended but we are going to go even harder. We want each of you to take it upon yourself to push farther than you did this year, because we believe that you can do it. We know that sounds difficult, especially since we worked so hard this year, but honestly, our biggest asset is our intensity and heart and we will keep this tradition.

With that said, go out and play this summer. We cannot emphasize this enough: play ultimate, play ultimate, play ultimate. Summer is a very long time to be away from each other and committing to a summer league/club team will make your summer so much sweeter and will give you a chance to improve as individual players. Some of us who stay in the city may be able to play with each other, but for those of yougoing back home, it's on you to improve your game. If you need help finding a club team/summer league let Qma know, he'll use his googling skills to try to help. For all you new jersey fools, there is a MCUDL and maybe skylandsWherever you go, remember to be active (throw everyday, hit the gym, swim, etc.) Summer should be all about improving your individual Ultimate skills and having fun so that you can come back in the Fall and ball out with your brothers again.

We love this team more than anything and we know you do too. We're both extremely excited for the 2009-10 season and want you to know we will do our best as your captains and teammates to help this team be successful. If you need anything, let us know and we'll be there for you because we know that you'll do the same for us and each other.

we family and we out here.
~q/lu

My Ultimate Career (Part 2)

2009-05-08T09:16:00.001-07:00

Took me a little while to get to it, but here is the next exciting installment of "Ryan Schulz: An Ultimate Retrospective." It seems I'm getting increasingly long-winded in this post. Hope you guys can stick with it.

When we last left our young hero, he (me) had just gotten accepted into the prestigious pharmacy program at Rutgers University. Let's tune in an see what happens...

I would like to tell you how Rutgers was, but first, a little diversion back into high school. Right around the time me and my friends started playing ultimate, we also got turned on to volleyball. We started playing intramural volleyball and at one point we won a high-school-wide volleyball tournament. The prize was the school (or whatever club was hosting it) would make tshirts for your team. Being immature teenagers, we had cleverly named ourselves the Coalition Of Cool Kids, which makes just a delightful acronym. Unfortunately, they refused to make our shirts and didn't even offer a different prize. How rude. That's somewhat beside the point though. The real reason for this digression was to convey that by my senior year of high school I was playing just about as much volleyball as ultimate, and I was much better at spiking than I was at hucking. That being said, let's jump forward to Rutgers again.

Arriving at Rutgers, I had already decided that I was going to play ultimate and intramural volleyball. However, once again fate was to intervene in my ultimate career. The practices for ultimate and volleyball were at the same time. In that moment of truth, I remember the decision being remarkably easy. And so ended my volleyball career.

Rutgers Machine Ultimate was a very handler-heavy team. They focused highly on a structured vert-stack offense and good disc movement. With all those handlers around, the offense had a lot of dumps, swings, and dishies. This worked out great for me because I still couldn't throw well and freaked out whenever I had a mark on me. There were a butt-load of competent handlers there to bail me out when I got the disc downfield. If I remember correctly, the team was captained by the great Tim Chang and the infamous Bill Kieffer that year.

The obvious disadvantage of having all those good players was I looked worse in comparison, so when I first joined the team, I did what many rookies do and played extra hard to make sure they noticed me. I sprinted my butt off every point and laid out for everything. I had just learned how to lay out the previous winter when mother nature provided me with 2 feet of snow to practice in. Excited to show off this new talent, I laid out perhaps slightly more than I should have. After one particularly rough lay out at a tournament, I tore a muscle in my lower back. And that is how I got my first major ultimate-related injury.

The problem with those muscles in your lower back--specifically, the problem with tearing them--is that they're the muscles that are responsible for stabilizing your spine. So for about a month I was unable to turn my upper body or bend over. It took about a month and a half before I was able to play again. To this day my back still gives me trouble sometimes. Every once in a while it likes to give me a little twinge of pain to remind me that it could decide to give out whenever it wants to. Thankfully it hasn't done that again...yet.

The good news is my strategy seemed to work. People on Machine started taking notice of me. I had some huge shortcomings as a player still. I didn't really have a good sense of when or where to cut, still had no forehand at all and still freaked out when I had the disc. However, my senior year of high school I had done a program called Air Alert with my ultimate team, which is supposed to increase your vertical by some absurd amount. Coincidentally, it also destroys your knees, but hey, we were young. Who needs knees anyways? I had just gotten the hang of jumping high and after doing Air Alert my vertical was the highest it had ever been, and higher than it ever was again. I was practically flying around. This, combined with my increasing speed, made me a pretty good receiver, and despite my lack of disc skills I started getting in on an inordinate amounts of points for a freshman.

That winter was the first time I had maintained a workout routine in my entire life, so I was getting into alright shape. I was still exceptionally scrawny though. I ran more that winter than I had my entire life before though probably. There was a large parking garage on campus that we would sprint up and down all night. I thought it was a pretty intense workout, at least until this year (we'll get to that later though).

In the end, Machine had a fairly good season. We didn't win any tournaments, and they didn't go to High Tide that year for some reason, but we played pretty well in general. I remember playing NYU at Sectionals that year. I think Rutgers beat NYU like 15-5 or something. We were playing all our freshman and taking it as an easy game. We might have won the Section that year, but regardless, we made it to Regionals. The sports department gave us a giant check for about $200 for qualifying. I got to keep the check.

Regionals wasn't a great experience for me that year. Because of the stiffer competition, Machine played exclusively veterans. I literally did not play a single point the first day. The second day, they let the freshmen in at the end of a game when we were getting crushed. The first point we were in, my best friend on Machine, Greg (Rutgers Quinton), threw an assist to me for a lay out goal. They should have put us in earlier. I think we scored a couple points that game before they took us out. I don't think Machine did too well at Regionals that year.

Around this time, I had really started liking ultimate. I had invested 3 years of my life into it already (and I still couldn't throw a flick! After three years! Seriously?!). I loved playing with Machine, but I didn't care for the university. So it was around Regionals that I started looking to transfer. I applied to all the schools that wouldn't let me in as a freshman, and a few extra schools for good measure. I had pretty much gotten a 4.0 at Rutgers so I figured it would be an easy transfer. Turns out, schools still didn't like me.

I had finished all my transfer applications and was sitting around waiting to hear from colleges when my then-girlfriend, Christine, reminded me about NYU. It had been one of my top choices when I was in high school, but for some reason I had totally forgotten to apply to transfer there. I quickly went online, only to discover that I had already missed the application deadline by 2 weeks. I was a bit sad about that, but Christine insisted that I try to apply anyways. So I threw together an application in a day and sent it in late. A few weeks later, I get a nice fat letter from NYU. Not only had they accepted my application 2 weeks late, but they gave me my decision about 3 weeks early. I think it was the first one I got back.

I didn't feel as strongly about NYU as I had as a senior in high school, so I waited to see where else I would get in before I made my decision. Turns out it was a very easy decision because every other school denied me. Looks like I was NYU-bound. That winter my parents had moved from NJ where I went to high school, out to Arizona. So they flew back out to Jersey to help me move into the city.

Looking back, Rutgers was an alright time. Very different from NYU. I had friends who didn't play ultimate. In fact, most of my friends didn't play ultimate. My roommate sucked though. I promised everyone I would come back and visit soon and I was on my way. Somewhere in my time at Rutgers, I got famous. I don't know how.

Well, it's once again time for me to leave work, so this will end the second installment of this giant post. Stay tuned for the NYU years next.

My Ultimate Career (Part 1)

2009-05-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

I am terribly bored at work, so I've decided to post on this blog once again.

I was inspired by Quinton's ultimate history post, so if you ever wondered how Ryan became Schulz Schulz the Schultz Schulz, then this post is for you. If you don't like long, rambling autobiographies, then this probably isn't for you.

Before Ultimate

I've told this to some people, but not many know this about me. I used to be short and kinda chubby. I would post a picture, but no one is ever allowed to see me like that anymore. If you visit my house in Arizona my parents would be happy to undermine me and show you pictures though.

Like pretty much everyone else, when I was little, I played soccer. I guess I played for quite a while, starting when I was about 7 until 7th grade, but never that competitively. I used to be a fullback, but when I got a little faster I became a mid-fielder, always on the side though. My middle school required every student to do a sport after school, so during that time of my life I picked up track and wrestling as well. In track I ran hurdles. Keep in mind, this is when I was still short so I sucked at it. I was pretty awesome at middle school wrestling though. I conveniently fell in the top of my weight class, which made things easier. I got a few gold medals out of that.

In the summer before 8th grade, my family moved to New Jersey and I subsequently stopped playing sports. I probably got fatter. Also, I was a nerd. I was a nerd king though. I had a large posse of people who I could assemble at a whim to play Halo. Did this for the first part of high school. Things began to go awry though when one of my friends, Kevin, began hanging out with a few guys in the grade above us, most notable Ben Tong and Chris Oey. These troublemakers liked to spend their free time throwing around frisbees.

I should note that at this point in my life, I despised ultimate. It was just an annoying game we would play occasionally in gym. I had a slightly better backhand than most of the gym-ultimaters because I always used to play frisbee golf with my dad when I lived in Ohio. But I thought the game was stupid and generally avoided it when I had the choice in gym. Unfortunately for me, Kevin started hanging out with Ben and Oey enough to pick up some ultimate stuff. He slowly managed to get other people from my Halo posse to warm up to ultimate. Before I knew it, I was grudgingly tossing with them in the gym before school every day. And so it began.

The Early Years

This all began during my junior year of high school. Perhaps the most important take-away from this era of my ultimate career is that I sucked. Compared to most actual ultimate players my age, my backhand was pretty bad and I had absolutely no flick. I got pretty good at catching though, and I had one important development during this time.

I got bigger!

I got a hearty growth spurt around junior year and by senior year I had shot up to the impressive 6 feet you see today (5'11.75" if you want to be specific). The grand part about this was that I grew almost entirely vertically, and not at all horizontally. I went from short and chubby to tall and lanky, which did wonders for my ultimate career.

With my new long legs, I could run faster and jump higher. It was fantastic. I still couldn't throw, but at least now I could be a decent receiver. I still couldn't really jump that high though, so I wasn't nearly as good as I would have liked. I certainly wasn't skying anyone back then. It didn't help that most of my friends I played with were 6 foot or taller. But thankfully, another miracle was about to occur.

Up to this point in my life, I had never had a cramp. That was about to change. I was sleeping happily in my bed late junior year, when suddenly I was awoken by a sharp pain in my calves. I writhed in pain for a minute or two, trying to stretch out my ever tightening muscles until it eventually passed and I was able to go back to sleep, slightly irritated. I woke up the next morning to sore calves, and they stayed that way for a few days. However, later that week when we were tossing around, I discovered that I could suddenly jump much higher than before. My epic late-night cramps had somehow unlocked a new level of athleticism for me. Just like that, I became a deep threat.

I should remind you again here, I still sucked at throwing, so a deep threat was the only threat I was for a while. It worked out alright in the setting though. We were the founders of the ultimate frisbee team at our high school, so strategy was not a huge part of our game. Ours mainly consisted of running a bunch of ineffective in-cuts until stall 8 then hucking it and hope we're taller than the other team. Thus, I became one of the 4 or so guys on our team who just ran deep and skyed people. Good times.

Nonetheless, it was a little depressing since most of my team had developed at least serviceable flicks and pretty decent backhands, while I still floundered in my own suckitude. That was pretty much how my high school career looked. Eventually it became time to graduate and move on to college. Among many other schools, I applied to NYU. Then, like many other schools, NYU denied me admission. And so began...

The Rutgers Year

It's about lunch time now, am I'm particularly famished after finishing my last final, so I'm going to take a break now. If I have time after lunch I'll continue with the second part of this epic tale.

What should I talk about?

2009-05-03T19:17:00.001-07:00

Hmmm....finals suck.

I'm excited for club.

Tips for Defending

2009-04-28T20:56:00.001-07:00

Knowing what you're taking away

Positioning

Haze '09

2009-04-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

It was all worth it.

2009-04-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone.

Last Post before Sectionals 2009- "Think about your teammates"

2009-04-16T22:28:00.001-07:00

Things I've done to prepare for this weekend:

Laundry, cut my nails 2 days in advance, drank copious amounts of water all week, ate balanced meals, trained all season with the team, played my hardest at every tournament, fought past many mental barriers in working out with the team, tossed whenever I had free time, set my clothes out for this weekend, watched many many ultimate videos, broke both feet, fought back and decided we were going to win this weekend.

Here's our Roster:

Mr. Altschuler: one of our two main D-line handlers, long, lanky handler who will break you given the chance and isn't afraid to put it deep, has the calm look of an O-line handler but a deep fire within that allows him to play shut down D on the opposing teams handlers.

Mr. Briggs: lazer sharp flicks and quick feet, his bright smile lightens up any dull day.

Mr. Burt: squirrly freshman, will run circles around you until you get dizzy, plays the tip well, i've never really seen this boy be tired.

Mr. Carnegie: honestly one of the fastest ultimate players I've seen to play the game (college AND club players- including top cutter likes Beau and Lokke), runs 20 sets of stairs like it's a warm up, will sky your best player, newly found sense of confidence with the disc, able to D any of your players from any starting point on the field, has the athletic ability to be the best ultimate player I've seen, has the raw physical ability and confidence to win any match up....most likely open anywhere on the field

Mr. Cassarella: mr. football himself, loves to beat you deep and when you least expect it comes under hard, his wide pivots will bring you off balance, having learned the game of Ultimate very quickly this year he has helped our offense greatly by opening up the field all day, has the competitive fire that is necessary for any great athlete....most likely always open deep

Mr. Drumm: big heart, loves to yell at himself, but this is a sign of how he always wants to play his best,

Mr. Eisenhood: chilly D line handler, can bust deep from a handler position at any moment, tenacious handler defense as well as great natural reading ability when his man is thrown deep to, can turn from defense to offensive mindset on a dime, makes good decisions with the disc and moves well without it too.

Mr. Zach: all around great player, threat on D or O, chilly with the disc and possibly the best disc reading ability on the team, with his big ups Finkel has led this team for the past 4 years by example (and getting the D when we need it most), a young veteran of the sport, willing to sacrifice body for the team, great breaks and hucks, sells the best "palladium" and "oak tree" cuts in the history of haze.

Mr. Fong: long reaching Kahyee is a chilly handler, has great fundamentals (a threat off both wings, but has a killer break mark flick), good reads and confident in the sky, i see a lot of potential for Fong.

Mr. Fortune: perhaps the highest vertical on the team?, not afraid of some contact, one of the fittest people on the team, always finds a way to get open.

Mr. Gilchrist: our head strategist, knows what should happen on the field all the time, has great hucks and makes smart decisions, knows the rules better than you, cooks delicious food, has systematically transformed a team with potential into a regionals/nationals contender, strong mark with a huge wingspan, great natural and mathematical line calling ability.

Mr. Larrbear: Not many people want the disc more than Larry, runs town what many would think are uncatchable puts and uses his quick legs to make the impossible possible, solid throws off both wings and good skying ability as well.

Mr. BEN KENIGSBERG: a veteran of the sport although he's only a year older than me, the Stanford machine usually produces pretty solid players and they didn't disappoint when they sent this guy, solid throws off both sides and good hucking ability, coupled with athleticism makes this guy a threat on D and O, explosive speed and layout ability have allowed Ben to come up big for us many times this year and I expect he'll make some great plays this weekend.

Mr. Perrbear: as squirely as squirtles can get Perry is a quick popper who will shred your cup, quick flicks and flat high release backhands are his specialty, usually is seen running with his hands in front of him he's usually so open on his cuts it doesn't matter he doesn't use his arms heh, will always get his flick off...somehow...even if he only throws flick fakes.

Mr. Ma: "crazy fakes", pretty good hucks, usually makes good decisions, will makes calls when he sees them, very angry player, if he doesn't like the person he is guarding he will usually make an effort to piss that guy off, loves to break your mark with IO flicks for the goal, will spike the disc every time he scores and sometimes when he doesn't, gets low, very vocal, comfortable throwing from awkward positions/stances from either wing, doesn't dump.

Mr. Noyes: a physical specimen, can put it deep from a standstill from anywhere on the field, conservative in his decisions, has a big head, fast upline cuts, not afraid of contact and not afraid to give some back, good throws, tries to be fancy with stupid no look throws.

Mr. Pandya, P: the little big Pandya, lanky, fast learner, surprisingly good IO flicks, nova thinks he can be super fast, really good at pacman.

Mr. VP: big VP, has developed into a defensive monster, has excelled on O as well (demonstrated some great cutting and catching ability), will lay out past you if you even slow up on your incut a tiny smidge, tight/aggressive mark, fiery player.

Mr. Rago: fast, jumps super high, has gotten very chilly with the disc this year, has a vertcial higher than he knows, bronze god, great cutter, great layouts and has the hip scars to prove it, 1/3 of the crunk chalice.

Mr. Schoenberg: good field awareness, always seems to come up with a huge D when we least expect it, including the occasional sensational lay out d past his man coming under, vocal, runs his ass off.

Schulz Schulz: I like to think of Schulz as Haze's workhorse, gets big on D, and skies the fuck out of bitches, hard marks and handblocks out the ass, plays most if not every point and never complains, another 1/3 of the crunk chalice, can put it deep when the time is right, has always been a good decision to throw to, faster than you, pretty good at video games.

Mr. Shi: Kevin has solid throws off both sides, as most asians do, learns quickly and takes my criticism well, a bunch of potential in a small package, i'm definitely turning him into a top player in london.

Mr. Schlong: similar to his stuy schoolmate, Richard has solid throws, confident in his throws I've seen him put it deep to high percentage deep looks and has shown in doing so he recognizes opportunities and takes it, lots of potential.

Mr. Smith: jared works out a lot and it shows on the field, he gets open easily with his athletic ability and recently has been able to get open deep for goals, has good field awareness and ability to recognize when the perfect time is to make a continue cut, solid throws and chilly with the disc, hard marks which frequently result in turns for the other team, has a funny dance he does when he gets super jazzed after a foot block.

Mr. Wang: my vote for an All Region cutter, always open on the under, great throws and hucks, plays with a swagger that can only be matched by Eli, seems to float in the air when he skies fools, strong marks which result in many point blocks, impressive lay out ability, natural ultimate player, if a swan were to play ultimate...it's name would be Lu Wang.

Mr. Beast Mode: the name says it all, the final 1/3 of the crunk chalice, tenacious defender, great offensive cutter, plays the tip, NEVER EVER gives up, will sky you, limitless source of energy for our team, new found confidence in a sick flick huck, he's a beast.

We have an awesome group of individual players here and thankfully we all play on the same team. We family. We dont play for NYU. We play for each other. I have faith in every single one of you to do what we need to win Sectionals. Wreck shit, Haze.

We out here.

Pump up videos....continued+ Some words

2009-04-15T21:04:00.001-07:00

Didn't want people have to scroll down to the old post. Heh

Double feature: Thursday April 16th: My favorite Nationals 2007 Remix....pump up the volume. Get hyped Haze!--(edit) after watching this video twice after posting it.....I think it may be one of my top 5 short ultimate highlight vids....Let's wreck shit this weekend. + Here's a Revolver vs. Sockeye vid for Ben Kenigsberg

Last Video: Thursday April 17th: Get ready Haze. We're going to war and we're going to crush everyone. BOOOM HEADSHOT

+ Some Words: Tonight was our last practice before sectionals. I just had some random thoughts...All spring the D-line would trounce the O-line during scrimmages (much to my chagrin being an O line handler) but this practice (and in other recent ones) the O line began to play a bit better and I saw some real ultimate being played back and forth at times. I was happy with that. Mistakes were made all around. Shit happens, but we kept running our systems hard. I was happy with that too. I made it a goal to make many upline cuts followed by hucks to open cutters streaking deep. I think I accomplished that and was mostly successful, yay me.

Changing directions...I love this team. The NYU men's team has never made it past sectionals. Our "program" has not been without talent, plenty of our past players are of club national caliber and have demonstrated so (and based on my knowledge of ultimate, I think a handful of players on our current team have potential to excel in the same regard)....so whats been the missing link?

I've been thinking about winning sectionals since I got off crutches last fall and wondering about the weight of winning when no past team has...but tonight I was thinking that the past is history (please excuse the corniness). The 26 man roster(which means we have a 19 man Haze sideline all weekend+family/fans...GET PUMPED) we have going into sectionals is nothing like NYU or our section has ever seen. I believe we're the most well conditioned team going to Rutgers this weekend. I believe we cut harder for each other than any other team going into Rutgers this weekend. And I believe we want to win more than any team this weekend. And if we play the way I know we can, we will win every single game by a comfortable margin.

I hate making predictions. But I will let that one stay on the blog. So what's been the missing link in the past? I think it's the team dynamic that this team has...that fire we exhibit when we break a team, get a huge layout D, or finish a grueling set of stairs. That's going to win us the sectionals title.

Also, you guys have me on the team.

~Rampage

PS: We out here. I'll say it again. I love this team.

From our captains...

2009-04-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

[Another way we are going to win sectionals] is with our depth. Although I'm confident that our starting lines will destroy other team's starting lines at Sectionals, I'm even more positive that we will be the deepest team at Sectionals. And I can't express how excited Zach and I are to cheer from our sideline and watch our second and third and fourth lines eating up other teams this weekend. (One of the things I learned from the fall and women's Sectionals last weekend is that I might be better at cheering than playing anyhow, so this could be a big win-win for the team.)

If you haven't been constantly staring at the pools for this weekend and comparing our format to other section's, you should know that the Sectional Coordinator has basically designed the format for us. We have to go 7-0 to win Sectionals, while teams from other sections only have to go 4-0. Why is this such a huge benefit? Because we are the best team in the section, and we are the best because of our depth. As the weekend wears on, all of us are going to be fresh for each game for the entire tournament because we're all so damn good. (Did I mention that we're also well-conditioned? I'll get to that tomorrow.)

The game plan this translates into should be obvious, and won't differ much from what we've been doing all season. We will be seeking to build big leads early in games with fairly tight rotations and, once established, loosening up the rotation and cruising to victory. Throughout the year we're been using a 20-man rotation at tournaments, and this weekend we'll be on a 26-man rotation. The criticality of winning is obviously heightened for the series as well. All this translates into a substantial amount of pressure on the line-calling decisions for the weekend. And we will be making every decision based on the fact that we must win every game. So while there will inevitably be games in which not everyone plays, that certainly does not mean that there will be any game, or any point even, where having everyone there will be anything less than crucial. Whether or not you are one of the seven players on the field for a given point, you can substantially contribute to the team's ability to score that point. You can be involved in the game. You can cheer on your team. You can disperse across the two sidelines and communicate with the seven players on the field. And when you do all these things, perhaps above all else, you will help to reinforce the sense of inevitability that, regardless of how the situation looks at the given time, NYU will win, and we will win decisively. The workouts we've done all year build individual strength, but without the entire team sprinting behind you on those stairs there's no reason to keep going. This weekend, any seven players on our team can score against any opponent, and with the sideline and our whole team behind us we will ensure victory.

The importance of making this strategy work is huge. I know that building leads is something our top lines can do, and I know that I am putting pressure on them in asking them to do that. But I know they're up to it. And I know that asking loosened rotations to sustain and build on those leads is putting pressure on the rest of the lines. But I know they are up to it too. Excel in your role. If you are on the field, whether the score is 0-0 or 12-0, your role is to win the point. The better we are at crushing other teams, the more playing time there will be to go around (that's a total lie -- there will technically be fewer points to go around, but, well, you get the point), and the more rested we will all be for the next game. And the more rested we will be to destroy whatever team has the unfortunate distinction of playing us in the finals -- because there is no chance in hell they are going to score a goal.

So, without further ado, here is the 26-man roster for the weekend. I look forward to seeing everyone at practice at ERP this evening at 7:30. We will be meeting for Sectionals on Friday, once again, at 5:00 in preparation for our 5:15 meeting in the Conference Room.

2009 NYU PURPLE HAZE SECTIONALS ROSTER
Mr. Altschuler
Mr. Briggs
Mr. Burt
Mr. Carnegie
Mr. Cassarella
Mr. Drumm
Mr. Eisenhood
Mr. Zach
Mr. Fong
Mr. Fortune
Mr. Gilchrist
Mr. Larrbear
Mr. BEN KENIGSBERG
Mr. Perrbear
Mr. Ma
Mr. Noyes
Mr. Pandya, P.
Mr. VP
Mr. Rago
Mr. Schoenberg
Schulz Schulz
Mr. Shi
Mr. Schlong
Mr. Smith
Mr. Wang
Mr. Beast Mode

p / z$

That's That WOOT WOOOOOT

2009-04-15T07:17:00.001-07:00

If Eli was a wolf...

2009-04-15T07:15:00.001-07:00

This is what you'd get.

Random shpeel.

2009-04-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hey, so I'm not a usually blogger, but I I've been thinking a lot about Sectionals lately (god knows why...). We always say how Sectionals is the reason we've been working so hard, Sectionals is our goal, Sectionals is why we have extra conditioning practices twice a week, etc.

The more I think about it, I realize Sectionals isn't whats driving me. After not making Regionals last year, I was fuckin pissed, and during the fall I was thinking about Sectionals all the time (probably to an unhealthy degree). But since the spring season started, that hasn't been what's lighting the fire under my ass, pushing me through sprints. Because we're good enough to make Regionals. Everyone on our team and every team in our section knows that we deserve a spot at Regionals. Obviously, that doesn't mean we can slack off; that means we have to go out this weekend, play our game, and show that it's not already our bid to lose; it's our bid to win. We have to prove we're the one seed.

But that's still not what's driving me. Ever since the spring started, I've been thinking about one thing, and one thing only while busting my ass up those stairs; the bus-ride to the fields on sunday morning of Regionals.

I don't know where we'll be in terms of ranking if we make Regionals. I don't know if the first day we'll pull out huge upsets or lose some games we should have won. But I know that where we deserve to be, where this team deserves to be, sunday morning of Regionals, is playing for a bid to Nationals. Even if it means winning every one of our sunday games against higher ranked opponents, some way, some how, Haze deserves to have a shot at Nationals come sunday morning. And that's what keeps me going when I'm tired, keeps me focused at practice, and fucking keeps me up at night.

Let's do it Haze.

Pump up video for sectionals- 3 days left

2009-04-09T23:02:00.001-07:00

So I heard the femmes sent out these pretty weak pump up songs and vids...and I thought I'd use my deep Ultimate video knowledge and do something similar but much better (for those of use who love watching Ultimate highlights)

I wont do a post for each day, but I'll just edit this post every day til sectionals and add an extra vid for whoever is reading the blog so check on this post every day.

Video:

Thursday April 9th: Highlights from Oregon at Stanford Invite in 2008...lots of swagger

Friday April 10th: Michigan and Natties

Saturday April 11th: Watchung Hills High School...I know this is high school, but the plays are sick, the players play all out and the editing is better than most College highlights I've seen.

Sunday April 12th: Iowa. A tribute to windy conditions, like those that the Femmes toughed out and won Sectionals in today.

Monday April 13th: Here are two videos, one if shorter, Another Oregon highlight vid which I chose b/c I like the song and HD. And the second is from LPC, which I chose b/c its a good example of a few things(not really a video for a bunch of huge layouts): hard marks, great continue cuts that make the cutters wide open, and awesome soundtrack I do ab workouts to....
Tuesday April 14th: Everyone loves to hate the Hodags...but you gotta love multiple camera angles!- if you're bored and read the UPA handbook already like Pete said, check out his vegas and centex vids (20+min and 45 min...each)

Wednesday April 15th: Rhino Highlights from Nationals. Get Pumped

PS: you're going to want to turn up your speakers for all of these

PPS: look at this dude getting owned....great face

PPPS: Congratulations to the Femmes for winning their 4th sectionals in a row!

Bitches-8 days

2009-04-09T21:41:00.001-07:00

We had 15 people at practice tonight. By my count, excluding the people with religious excuses, we could have had 22. Honestly, that's pitiful. 7 crucial players (who sure as hell better make both practices/scims tomorrow and saturday) missing....ONE WEEK before sectionals? What the fuck guys? Tonight, tomorrow and saturday are, in my mind, the LAST 3 days we can truly go balls out and reap the benefits for sectionals. And tonight was the last hardcore workout (I think) + it was ONE of the FIVE practices we have before sectionals. We have one week to do everything in our power to be ready for sectionals. Your teammates are making the sacrifices or organizing themselves so they dont need to sacrifice....I dont know. *sigh*

All I'm saying is...I'm disappointed.

~Rampage

PS: Sorry I'm being harsh, but....come on, I want to win sectionals, dont you? If you were going to choose to miss any practices, you should have chosen to miss ANY except the ones a week before sectionals.

I had to watch this video to chill out because of all the people that had to disappoint me/piss me off by not coming tonight.

PPS (edit): I hate to rag on people who didn't come tonight. I dont want you to think it's a personal attack either, I just think of you guys as very important to the team and our success and my post of disappointment should be seen as me bitching you out + acknowledging how big a part you are to our team. WE FAMILY

Cori Comic

2009-04-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

Play the tip.

for more of Cori's work..... go here

Mini WDYPU 7- What will you do to get ready for Sectionals?- 10 days

2009-04-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

He did a thousand. I bet no one at Hofstra, Vassar, Princeton, Rutgers, (definitely) Columbia could do that. Those scrubs.

WE OUT HERE- 11 days

2009-04-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight was possibly the most grueling workouts I've experienced (36 sets of stairs...Ab workout...sprint/suicide wars...pushup/squat jump death circles :P ) There were several times where I really wanted to call it quits, but I didn't because every time I looked up those fucking stairs, I didn't see pain, I saw the faces of Purple Haze coming down those stairs behind me. Every time I wanted to quit on those planks, I wouldn't let myself look down at the wood floor where my own sweat was pooling and my hands shaking, I raised my head to look into the eyes of my teammates toughing it out with me. I am proud to play with this team because if I look into your eyes during gameplay/drills/workouts, I can see the hunger and the determination that burns in each player. That's what fires me up. Many of you hear me yell and scream and cheer as we run up those stairs to pump you all up...but I am not doing that just for you, I'm doing it for myself because I truly get my energy from you all. I get my second and third winds from two sources, anger (rampage power) and my teammates, that's you. Every time I want to give up, I think about each of you giving your all, sacrificing for the team, and I push harder. You inspire me to find that next gear. So thanks Haze. You have all helped me push myself past what I thought were my limits.

I'd like to think I dedicated myself to tennis in high school (3 hours a day on the court, countless days hitting against walls/machines) but after this season of ultimate, I can safely say I've never dedicated myself to or invested so much in anything else in my life. And that's pretty awesome to me. I want to win sectionals more than anything.

At one of our earliest team meetings, when we were discussing personal and team goals, I remember you all saying you wanted to: win sectionals, win a tournament, be in the best shape of your lives....and although I agreed with and shared in your goals, I had other things on my mind (i think i told you this at the meeting). For me, the most important aspect of a successful team is TRUST.

-Trust= being able to throw to space and knowing my cutter will run his ass off to catch that disc.

-Trust= KNOWING that every one of my teammates has put in the same or more time than me working on fitness and throws.

-Trust= running my ass off because every player on the sideline has my back.

The first two years I spent with Haze, I felt there was no accountability and more importantly, I didn't trust the team. I was literally afraid of messing up on the field because I thought Sean Carter would make fun of me or some shit like that. not the best learning environment. The players that made up Haze had their fair amount of skill and heart, but I dont think we were dedicated and I held that against some of the players and I definitely attribute our many losses to people either not working out enough or not working on fundamentals.

That's not the case this year. In the fall, I watched from the sidelines and saw displays of athleticism, skill, and heart. And this spring, once we stepped up our training and I actually got to play with you all, I learned I could trust each and every one of you. I know I can trust you guys because I've seen the pain on your faces running your ass off in suicides and I've been there, right behind you, running up those horrible stair. We, as a team, worked our asses off this season and I am jazzed as holy fuck to play with you guys at sectionals. No one has worked as hard as us and no one deserves a sectionals win more than us. I will not be satisfied unless we bring home that title next sunday.

I dont know what else to say, I love you guys. I'm gonna drop bombs next week and I trust all of you are ready to wreak fools. We're seeded #1 goin into sectionals, so everyone hates us and us gunning for us. I say bring it. I'm out for blood. LETS GO HaZE!!!

My hands are shakin' and my hearts beatin'.........but I'm still shootin bitches and I'm STILL gettin headshots and it's like.....

~Rampage

Regionals

2009-04-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

From the UPA Magazine:

"What else can we expect from the Metro East?"

"Like New England, the Metro East picture may take some time to develop. And while Pittsburgh seems to be a step ahead of the rest of the region, that doesn't mean that they're safe. Cornell had a somewhat strong showing at TiV, and teams like Maryland and Delaware are waiting for their chance to show they deserve to be in the discussion too."

I know another team that deserves to be in the discussion. They beat Delaware. They work harder than everyone. They're focused. They're chilly on O. They're insane on D. They know how to get pumped, get crunk. They know their roles. They play smart.

And they want it more than you.

Semi Useless Post

2009-04-04T01:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for another semi useless post, but words to Haze: never buy/eat "frosted flakes gold". They're neither filled with gold, nor as delicious as frosted flakes.....ugh worst use of money ever.

Your captain

2009-04-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Zach Finkelstein is currently on my bed gyrating his hips. I think I need to change my sheets.

I Completely Agree.

2009-04-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Lu Wang left this comment on my previous post:

as i sit here, dead tired from practice i just wanna say to u guys that i absolutely love playing for this team. i look foward to every practice and every game/tourney and afterwards, i actually feel a little disheartened when its over. i cannot say i felt this way last year, not at all. but this year, everything has just clicked, our chemistry, our work ethic, etc. its such an incredible and reassuring feeling when i can bust my ass on the field, knowing in the back of my head that the next guy whos going to be put in is gonna bust his ass just as hard. it gives me confidence and makes me proud to be on this team. i am so ready to win play. i am so ready to bust my ass. i am so ready to win sectionals.

lets fuk shit up.

Last Night Follow-Up

2009-04-02T11:10:00.001-07:00

I agree with much of what Q said. Here are my additional thoughts:

OFFENSE

-Much better movement after throws
-Much better continuation cuts
-Much better defense
-Still not enough conversions, you should be scoring almost every time without turns against our 2nd string D line with only 2 handlers. As Pete noted, way too many turns still. It's easy to forget those mistakes when you end up scoring the point anyway, but you can't. We were getting 3 or 4 turns on a point and continuing to give it back until you scored. A top D line is NOT going to give you that many chances once they get a D. Let's go.
-This reminds me, I think we should have mixed lines on Saturday, so that the first string players are up against first string players. I'm afraid some of our problems on O are stemming from the easier matchups in practice. Just a thought.

DEFENSE

-Overall, not great. Lots of getting burned deep, lots of breaks, and lots of just lazy play, particularly on the open side. Honestly, to get better, you have to want it in practice. Let's all make more of an effort on Saturday.
-Our offense was looking really nice in the 2nd game. Lots of solid continue cuts, especially deep. Chooch and I had open looks all throughout the game. We under threw or missed those cuts way too much, but keep doing what you're doing. We're gonna work those kinks out.
-HOWEVER, don't forget the fundamentals. Run through the disc. Catch it with two hands. Make sure you've got it before you turn upfield. If we had done these three things better, we would have scored twice as many points as we did.

GENERAL

-Don't try to do too much. Know what your role is. At the same time, work on things in practice - that's what it's for. That's why I kept turning it on hucks - I know I need to fix my problems, particularly in the rain, so I kept putting it even though I'd been having trouble. We can all try to add to our arsenal during practice.
-But, remember to dump on 5 and be realistic. If you don't have a flick huck and haven't been working on it, go throw in the park before trying to rip it during a scrimmage.
-Get hyped.

Thoughts on Tonight's Practice

2009-04-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

PRACtice? we talking about PRACtice? We talkin about PRACtice here....

-It was very rainy much of the time.

-16 players showed up. What the fuck are the rest of you doing? As Pete mentioned to me, we have 28 man roster for Sectionals. Right now, not all of the people on that list are coming. I am completely fine not bringing a handful of players who aren't coming to practice.

-great hard running on both lines. Stand outs for me were VP (plenty of D's and layout D's), Eli (did exactly what he said he was making his goal for the night), and Lu made some sick lay outs. Thanks dudes.

-Chooch keeps setting up as a dump on the wrong side. nice break throws from him tho and Charlie Hustle

-I wish Zach's knee wasn't so fat

-I wish David would stop yelling so ferociously. Big stressor tonight. As was some discussions on the field.

-Gabe was angry at me and fouled me and i fouled him with an illegal mark. He didn't like that. I'm surprised I didn't get angrier at him. He also yelled at Jared and other players alot and I thought it was funny when Jared replied quite calmly with "just stop talking, please?" as he was making a cut up field.

-Offense was alright. I dont really criticize Pete much, but he threw alot of turns, some were good decisions, some maybe not (hammer to somewhat open people while in red zone). But I think his turn count was near mine....and that's never a good thing if someone turns it as much as me.

-It was cold.

-Lu Wang has pretty layout form. but he still sucks

-I'm pretty.

Okay, back to homework.

Cya at 9:15pm.

~Qma

Happy April Fools

2009-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to whoever pulled the fire alarm this morning in Silver....

Making my trip to campus useless...I wanted to learn today....Ass

~Rampage

Love for the Game-

2009-03-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Being injured and sitting on the side during workouts/practices has made me kinda reflective. Plus I threw in the park for 4 hours today and didn't go to any classes... I have been trying to figure out why I love this sport and keep playing it after 2 broken feet and much harassment from my mother and haven't really come to any real conclusions, but maybe (maybe!) I will by the end of this post...

Beginnings

I think my first game of Ultimate was in the summer of my 7th grade at Choir Camp in Sonoma County (Bishop's Ranch). For those of you who don't know about my middle school life, I went to an private Episcopal school called Cathedral School for Boys, which is attached to Grace Cathedral. We had a professional Men and Boys choir, which was pretty darn good (sang every thursday and sunday, weddings, funerals/memorials, special events, etc) and I was in it. Every 4th grader auditioned and about 4-7 kids were taken in each year...some kids stayed with it, some didn't, it was a pretty big commitment since it meant getting to school an hour earlier than everyone else, and staying to sing/practice until 8 every thursday after school. Every summer, the choir would have a weeklong retreat before school started up again and we'd learn music and chill at this sweet ranch in beautiful Sonoma wine country...Kinda like the training camp in Remember the Titans..............but not at all

..ANYWAY, back to Ultimate. So in summer before 7th grade, I think my brother was a counselor and he with the others decided it'd be fun to play Ultimate in a cow field. They were right. I had a blast, especially since I picked up the disc and could throw off both sides to begin with and ran circles around some of the other kids (keep in mind, I wasn't the most athletic of kids in middle school....but I seemed to be able to throw and catch better than any of the kids that day...so I was ecstatic). I thought to myself "huh, I'm pretty awesome, and this is the most fun I've had playing a sport...I should keep doin this." But somehow these thoughts got put on the back burner for a few years. In 7th grade I picked up tennis, spent much of my mom's money on lessons and my dad's time on the practice court and played Tennis through my 4 years in High School.

However, during high school, I never forgot how fun it was to play Ultimate, which is why I still had dreams of starting a real team at UHS. During my time in HS, I played intramural ultimate after school and when I didn't have Tennis practice, designed a school disc to basically sell for fun and designed a jersey my last year for the intramural team to play in (although we just scrimmaged ourselves after school anyway, so I felt dumb when we only had white jerseys). My senior year, I remember I almost organized a scrimmage against Redwood High School and Branson (both schools had actual teams that practiced, while we just played with no real organization). My brother, as well as my experience playing pick up in SF, taught me the basics of throwing and cutting and a simple vert stack offense, but I never really imposed any structure on our high school "team."

Family

Most of my early exposure to Ultimate came through my brother, Jesse, who is 5 years older than me and began playing for Chicago JUNK his freshman year. I always seem to have followed in his footsteps (same middle school, same choir, same high school, same Choral group in high school) and so it felt very natural for me to pick up Ultimate after he did. I was initially attracted to the sport because it seemed to be what my brother did other than study (to my knowledge) in college, so I "knew" that I wanted to play Ultimate when I got to college. This is a little saddening b/c I had dedicated countless hours on the tennis court since 7th grade and once I got to college, I kinda gave up on that sport....anyway...I began to read about ultimate and I think once my brother began to play, I started becoming a fan of the sport...which may explain my near fanaticism these days.

I decided to break up my post for those of you reading who wanted to take a break....sooo take a break HERE!

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

Freshman

Once I began to play Ultimate in college, I think my main motivation/goal was to surpass my brother in playing skill. To be better than my brother at something was kinda a big deal, being a younger brother and all...but not the healthiest/best way to approach anything in life. (BTW I know i'm better at tennis than him, since he spent his high school days on the stage while I was on the court :P )

I guess during the early stages of my Ultimate life, I played because the idea of playing Ultimate and being part of the culture was in itself "cool" (my brother did it, so it must be), plus I wanted to be better than him at it. However, after Jesse stopped playing, there was no challenge of trying to be better than him. He had reordered his priorities and I was left trying to figure out what I was doing in this evolving/hippyish sport world?

During my freshman year at NYU, I played to have fun and get better as an individual player...and I accomplished those goals. Along the way, I made friends that I believe will last me a lifetime, but that wasn't really something I set out to do, just a plus. A few weeks before sectionals I broke my foot and from the sidelines experienced my first disappointment in my Ultimate career, losing sectionals. I didn't expect to feel so disappointed since I knew I wouldn't even be playing a single point and I began to realize I had made such a strong connection to this team that I felt horrible when we lost.

Sophomore

In retrospect, after I broke my foot and after sectionals, I began to appreciate the game of Ultimate from a fan's point of view and began to think of Ultimate as a great way to make friends. This is mainly because the summer before my sophomore year, I went to Regionals with the Femmes, led by Mia and co., and watched them make it to nationals...then I went to watch them at nationals and saw my first high caliber Ultimate. That experience was pretty cool in itself, but it was made even cooler by the fact that I became pretty good friends with Schulz/Finkel during that post season and I thought I met the girl of my dreams. And I guess I had Ultimate to thank for that. Thanks Ultimate.

So...yeah I spent that summer falling in love and being a gimp. By the time I could walk/run again I played Ultimate ASAP. During the academic year, I split my time mentally and literally among school/ultimate/my girlfriend... probably not weighted in that order and probably without school even in the picture b/c the year was pretty easy in that area. So my life was split between my girlfriend and Ultimate. It was weird because although I was a total Ultimate fanboy, I wanted to play Ultimate so that my gf would be proud of how good I was getting and how hard I was trying (because I know she understood how much time I loved the sport) and at the same time I wasn't ever having as much fun playing ultimate as I would be if I were spending time with her...When I was in school or playing Ultimate, I was usually thinking about my girlfriend, instead of really dedicating myself to those two things (not that I would really change this given the chance). It's funny because I used to think I was trying really hard at Ultimate back then in order to make her proud....but this year I know what it really means to push myself and try hard (our workouts makes last year look like a vacation)

Anyway, my sophomore year is a little bit of a blur. I spent most of my time thinking about my gf or spending as much of my free time with her. And Ultimate seemed to be a minute part of my life. By the time sectionals rolled around, I hadn't worked hard enough and I dont think I was in the best shape I could have been and we experienced yet another disappointing end to the season. I think I let the team down in my dedication to them, but at the same time...I was in love and stupid...In retrospect, I'd say I played Ultimate that year because of the people I met...and this carried through the summer when I played my first season of Club.

Club--Summer--> Present (Junior year)

I played with two teams during this past summer: PieMo and BAG. PieMo was just a fun team I played one beach tourney with and BAG was a more competitive team. A few days before flying down to a tourney with BAG, my girlfriend broke up with me on the phone and I was devastated for the next several months. However I began to dig deep during games and became a much more emotional player (for better or worse) and still am an emotional player today (Hence the nickname Rampage). During that club season, I began to use Ultimate as an outlet for my anger and negative energy (again, for better or worse). At the same time, I got to make some great friends in the Bay Area on my team. When I got back to NYC, I talked to Capt. Pete and he needed a handler or two for Crafty for Chowdafest, and so I thought "hey I have no gf to visit this weekend before school starts, why not!" and I promptly broke my other foot during an endzone drill. W00t!..there goes my outlet.

Honestly, after this injury I thought about quitting the sport (something my mom really wanted/wants?)...life sucked: my girlfriend dumped me, my mom didn't want me to play the sport, and apparently God didn't want me to play ultimate anymore, so he broke my foot, stupid deities.;)

.. but once the fall season came around, I decided I was going to dedicate myself even more to Ultimate and to Purple Haze. The friends I have on this team and the friends I have made through Ultimate are my family and I can't walk away from them (not that I could walk at the time)... :P

So I used helping and supporting Haze this fall as my outlet and i guess rededicated myself this year. Shouting from the sidelines helped relieve stress but at the same time made me more frustrated because I could be out there playing...Anyway, we did pretty well in the Fall, in my opinion and I was so happy to start playing with this team again when I could. Once I could train with the team and once we started our intense workout practices/Novagility stuff, I wanted to see how far I could push myself and the team. I want us to be successful. We've shown promise this Spring. Everyone is working hard and we have been pushing through the pain. I am inspired the look in the eyes of my teammates when I see them run up that 20th set of stairs (especially when i'm injured and have to shamefully watch them from the bottom or top of the stairs). That is where you see a real look of determination. Everyone is faster and I think most of the pressure relies now on our handler core stepping up their game (a pressure I'm scared of since in the past years, handling and dictating an offense has been the job of others)

I want us to win our Section, that's my goal right now. That's why I'm playing this sport. Friends and family have brought me back to this sport, and winning our section is my motivation to play this sport right now. I have to win for them and myself.

I dont just play because I'm good (back in choir camp) because I know so many peple are better than me, or I need to prove myself better than my brother, or impress my gf, or prove something to myself, but I play right now because I have a responsibility to...

Future thoughts-

I wonder if I'd rather play with a nationals team that I didn't have much fun with or a decent team that I had much more fun with. I used to think I wanted to be the best player in the world....but now I'm having my doubts.

Not a Conclusion-

I guess there isn't one reason I love this game because my motivation and goals change from time to time, but I do have to thank it. Thanks Ultimate. Thanks for being my outlet in hard times, thanks for not turning your back on me when I wanted to give you up. Dont let me down now. I'm looking forward to what more you can offer me. Love? Adventure? More friends?

~Quinton Qt-Rampage Ma

Schedule

2009-03-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

MONDAYS -- Workout Practice. 9:15-10:45. Coles couches.
WEDNESDAYS -- Outdoor Practice. 7:30 - 10:30. ERP Grand Street fields.
THURSDAYS -- Workout Practice. 9:15-11:00. Coles couches. (With any luck, we'll have the gym floor to throw on for the last 30 minutes.)
SATURDAYS / SUNDAYS -- Outdoor Practice. Times and locations TBD based on weather, availability, etc.

Stretch, drink water, study, eat healthy, heal up those injuries.

~Qtma

Roll Call

2009-03-29T11:47:00.001-07:00

Fail.

Roll Call

2009-03-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

I want to win. K thx.

WDYPU 5: Because Spring Break deserves more photos...

2009-03-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

and because, what WDYPU boils down to is the people you meet and the memories we share...

(and some of these portraits are too good to pass up)

love~QTma

photo credits go to Kari and EmTurnTables

I'll miss you, Spring Break.

2009-03-24T14:34:00.001-07:00

So the City College Men/Women's teams again took the field in the sunny south at the annual High Tide (hosted by our christian friends at ....whatever they represented) and I am happy to report that this city college student had his best spring break in a wHile.

My favorite part of the trip was getting to hang out with both teams. This was most easily accomplished in our sometimes lukewarm tub (props to all those who figured out ways to fix the hot tub). Although I've always been quite friendly with the femmes in my 3 years, I was particularly happy about how much the two teams got to hang out/interact this year. I've never wanted to be part of those college co-ed teams who made it their goal to get drunk at tourneys and "just have fun"....which is not to say that fun isn't at the top of my list of important ultimate thingys...but I like being on a team serious about winning. At the same time, in the past i've seen those teams and thought "it'd be cool to be so close to every member of both haze/femmes"....anyway...

Jekkyl Island was great. The fields were sweet (especially compared to the old cow fields). The island was clean and s beautiful (if you didn't get a chance to take a long walk or bike ride, I'm sorry for you). The people were friendly. I can't complain much about my time on Jekkyl.

On to ultimate: we played really well:) 3-0 Tuesday, 3-0 Wednesday, 0-1 Thursday. I was very happy with how we rolled teams that sucked. In my experience, Haze has always had trouble with lesser teams in terms of playing down to their level, but I feel like we've begun to overcome that mental problem. Even with a smaller squad than usual (which in a way I think helped me play better at times because I didn't have much time to get stiff on the sidelines) and without a few starters, we got our jobs done.

Eli was open on the under and deep all day and skied people when he needed to and played the tip successfully about 5 times a game. - he had a great week

Kahyee stepped into a handling role this week well, I think on the second day, he had zero turns while handling. Jebus.

Schulz picked up the trashy hucks I threw down field and played shut down D.

Zach was zach, played like zach...wish we had him cutting, but hey, he does what we need him to do when we're down handlers.

I threw lots of turns, but a few sweet puts here and there too. :)

Pete had this one gorgeous huck. I dont remember what day it was, or tournament, but it was beautiful. (IO backhand around his man- maybe a break throw?) anyway- it was sick. He also called himself On the Block once, we laughed about it after I think.

Jared got a handful of point blocks.

Lu wang was a bitch and forgot to come to Georgia. Ditto for Ben, Tyler, Charlie, Hus, Chooch.

I wont recap every game fully. Sorry.... we had a universe win over Amherst and then rolled the other teams until losing to URI....thats all

Our loss on Thursday (URI), i think, was due to miscommunication and lack of adapting to a different man-man game where hucks would come from both sides of the field. They out ran us and wanted the disc more. Sad day. but I'm gettin over it. I'm still not over the fact that on game point, the guy caught the disc by jumping from out of bounds and they sent it back and then i got finger tips on the next huck to the same guy...i should have moved my hand one inch more....ugh

Highlights:

-Bologna!

-Mallory and my secret faces.

-cup o'whisky

-Mime-off

-VP injuring his ankle while stupidly pokeying jeff from rutgers....silly VP

-Zach high fiving random dude while said dude was making out with "chick" on the sidewalk at 3am.

-no shady drunken hook ups to report of on my part, sorry people...sickos

-Jared yelling BAM and dancing after a footblock

I miss you Spring Break.

PS: i get tired just thinking about Southerns, but maybe i'll write about it another time.

6-1 High Tide- highlight (many)- but specifically crushing Columbia

3-4 @ Southerns- highlight- crushing Rutgers

Message to Haze:

We have 7 team workouts, [6] outdoor practices, 22 days until we board that bus for Sectionals. Rest your injuries if you have them. (i broke my foot 2 weeks before sectionals my freshman year, and I dont wish being sidelined for sectionals for anyone). It's time to shut your mouth and give one last push because it's time to bring it. What will you do April 18 and 19? Are you going to let the pain of this season, these workouts, these gym practices be for nothing?

I can taste Regionals and you will see tears whatever the outcome this season because I've never worked so hard for anything than winning our section this season. I believe in all of you, especially after the performances I've seen at High Tide.

We've beaten Delaware, we've crushed Columbia, we've run Rutgers into the ground. So they're scared and know what to expect of us, but nothing matters if we dont take our section by the throat. Every fucking team is gunning for us now. So let's not disappoint them, our supporters, or ourselves.

Here we come Metro East. It's time to get some headshots Haze.

WDYPU 4 - Spring Break Edition 2009

2009-03-23T20:30:00.001-07:00

Best Spring Break to date. I love you all. Rampage random rants about the weekend will be written up later this week. In the meantime, enjoy these great pics (credit to Kessy for the pics +one from Cassandra)

Georgia On My Mind

2009-03-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Heyo, it's Finks updating for Quinton. Some favorite items of note I've seen recently:

1. A space shuttle being launched into outer space
2. Chappy almost taking flight while jumping on a windy beach
3. Wooden fish sandwich
4. Cold Cola and Cup O' Whiskey
5. Popeye's delicious popcorn shrimp, though they might not be EmilyTurn approved. But she can suck it
6. <---my number
7. Walking down the street at 4am and high five-ing some dude making out with a girl on the sidewalk
8. Kahyee spoke words. Many of them were funny
9. Florida giving out free orange juice at the Welcome Center, and two minutes further down the highway, free shots
10. Richard jumping on a wall and said wall collapsing underneath him
11. Richard falling backwards onto collapsed wall
12. Schulz, while helping put the wall back together, stepping on an in-ground electrical box and cover of said box collapsing sending Schulz falling through the earth.

Get Hyped

2009-03-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

So I've been pretty absent from this blaug for a while - I've been really busy with other stuff. But after breaking down this weekend in my mind I have a lot of thoughts to share.

D-LINE

I'm going to reiterate what Perry said in the comments: we just can't go out there and get 1-2-scored on. It's totally unacceptable to get smoked deep off a continuation without having a bid on the disc. It's one thing if you get skied, but getting burned by 10 feet or more is just not OK. We know how this game works and we have put ourselves in a position to run with any team. DON'T GET BEAT DEEP.

Also, because we're in good shape (and will be in even better shape come series), we need to start working harder. More contested in cuts, stronger dump D, and tighter marks. We will more often than not have the speed to catch up on deep cuts, which allows us to totally shut down the in cut. Lay out D city. This can also involve strategic switching with our last back to further stifle the O.

This weekend, the D was generally solid, but other teams were turning the disc more than we were taking it away. We need to take it away. We need to fucking dominate on D and then turn around, chill out, and put the disc in the endzone. Think about what you personally need to do to make that happen.

O-LINE

I don't have as much to share here since I don't play any O line at all. But I think D line outplayed O again this weekend. The O, in particular, had trouble against GWU, getting broken 4 (I think) straight times against what was (granted) a good zone on a small field. We have to be tougher. It's as simple as that. The weather was nearly perfect during this game so there's no excuse for turns. Against a good zone, we have to swing swing swing swing swing swing until the cup can't run anymore. There's no reason to get impatient and try to jam something through/deep that's low percentage. VALUE THE DISC. Make smart decisions. And please, God, stay chilly near the endzone.

O line defense also needs to get more amped. There were some great points (notably, the point before half against Delaware - truly epic) but as a general rule we really weren't running hard enough. The O line's gotta want it as much as the D line does. Bust your ass and then come rest while the D line ticks off two or three breaks.

META

Our physical toughness is really showing - we played hard and didn't give up exhaustion points this weekend. Now we have to really hone our fundamentals and our mental game. Everyone should be throwing at least three times a week - handlers even more than that. This will get easier as we move outside, but we've got to put in work now.

Mentally we broke down against GWU. They were the biggest test of our season IMHO and we showed our inexperience at higher level ultimate. The (what I would call) cheap calls and physicality during the game are common at the top - we need to play through it. Do what you need to to deal with it - get pissed, get focused, get loud, or get quiet.

I personally get pissed - I talk trash and call other teams out when I think they're wrong.

Bad spirit? Yea, probably. Oh well. Makes me play better.

This weekend was a step forward for us. We did beat a perennially good Delaware team, but lets not kid ourselves, GWU was much better and if we want to make a splash at Regionals were going to have to beat teams better than them. We can't be content with what was merely a decent performance. We all need to think about what we need to do better in order to help Haze kick some ass next month.

*

I think we have a very special season in the making. I spent two hours last night talking with Husayn about offensive tweaks I think we need to make. I'm not even on the O line. I was up until 4:30 studying because of that conversation. Let's make shit happen.

Hey, we just beat a Nationals team.

2009-03-08T19:48:00.001-07:00

I'm quasi happy with this weekend (one day tournament). Last year (2007) we played Pittsburgh in the Fall and got a win off of them when they were not at full strength. However we played Delaware today, a good team and consistent nationals caliber team, and won...and it's spring. Sure we won in soft cap, but we won. I'll take it. There was one player, I think his name is Vince (I didn't get a chance to talk to any of the players much), who stood out in my mind as what I want to work for in terms of moving after I throw. He has a great step right after his backhand passes to inside cutters and nice handler cuts off a stopped disc. I saw him make the same cuts and movements 2 years ago in Ohio. Anyway, we beat them. That was sweet. Doesn't mean we'll make nationals yet, but it's a good step.

Which brings us to George Washington...I hate these guys. They talked to me too much. And next time I see them, I'm going to bitch them out and jsut tell them not to talk to me. I hate when people constantly try to chat with me when I'm playing....I want to D the shit out of you and score with you looking up at me from the ground. I dont want to be your friend, G-Dub. Maybe off the field...if you're lucky. I have to say though, I see why they make regionals every year. Their zone hurt us, especially on a definitely non-regulation field...They got an early break probably due to one of my 6 turns (?) that game...personally not a good game for me....and their offense was pretty good, full of handler motion, like the handler motion that i got beat upline on for the score to win the game. Whatever, they're not unbeatable.

Buffalo was uneventful. I mean it was eventful to me because we are finally beating teams by large margins that we know we can beat comfortably...and that's a great sign. We've had our past troubles with playing down to teams and I think we're beginning to overcome that.

Swat: I was worried going into this game because the only thing I knew about Swat was my past experience and knowledge of their club team. However I was pleasantly surprised that our D-line kicked ass and capitalized on not only huge d's but were pretty chilly in converting on turns and easy drops.

For those of you keeping count:

W: Delaware (8-6)

L: George Washington (5-9)

W: Buffalo (13-6)

W: Catholic (forfeit)

W: Swarthmore (12-6)

Currently 9-3

Individual observations:

I saw Chooch make zero fakes and his mark would just keep creeping in on him. Also held onto the disc too long.

Charlie raised his conversion percentages. Way to go chuz.

Nova has a lot of turns on weird/awkward attempts at up the line throws....

Qtma- turned the disc alot. Didn't get any Lay out D's

Tyler- telegraphed all day and then fixed it and we high fived. it was cute.

Ryan- called his parents and said he almost got a cool layout but missed it, got some nice scores as usual.

Eli and Lu had a great tourney. Not too much to complain about them. some monster skies and sweet lay out grabs.

Orion lost his freshman goal virginity.

Perry got a sweet point block in our opponents end zone. Jared got a cool foot block.

I'm too tired and stricken with allergies to write any more. Good night.

Untitled

2009-03-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

I hate playing frisbee on a gym floor.

Sweet dreams.

~Rampage

Fuck the Irish

2009-03-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

Our first shot at Regionals contenders Cornell and Edinboro has been denied by shitty field conditions (snow)

http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=18&id=5643

My vote is for a full on day of mixed Ultimate (saturday, since we now have practice Sunday). 2 teams will be drafted made up by Haze/Femmes. We were planning on a full weekend of Ultimate, so we should have at least 40 people who were planning on playing ultimate to come out to this. I would like to nominate myself as one of the captains. Each team will have a girl and a guy captain.

Tourney format: 4-3 format. Games to 13. Best of 5 games. 2 TO's and a floater.

more thoughts to come...

I hate the east coast.

Schedule/Roster for Huck of the Irish

2009-03-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

SCHEDULE
...through Spring Break...

MONDAY :: 2 MAR :: 9:15pm - 10:45 pm. Workout Practice at Coles -- meet at couches.

WEDNESDAY :: 4 MAR :: 9:15pm - 10:45 pm. Workout Practice at Coles -- meet at couches.

THURSDAY :: 5 MAR :: 10:10pm - 12:30 am. Gym Floor Practice at Coles -- meet on gym floor.

FRIDAY :: 6 MAR :: HUCK OF THE IRISH (SALISBURY UNIVERSITY)

MONDAY :: 9 MAR :: 9:15pm - 10:45 pm. Workout Practice at Coles -- meet at couches.

WEDNESDAY :: 11 MAR :: 9:15pm - 10:45 pm. Workout Practice at Coles -- meet at couches.

THURSDAY :: 12 MAR :: 10:10pm - 12:30 am. Gym Floor Practice at Coles -- meet on gym floor.

1. Altschuler, Chooch
2. Berk, Daniel
3. Briggs, PJ
4. Burt, Orion
5. Carnegie, Husayn
6. Casarella, Nova
7. Eisenhood, Charlie
8. Finkelstein, Mr. Zach
9. Gilchrist, Pete
10. Kenigsberg, Ben
11. Leung, Perry
12. Ma, Q
13. Noyes, Tyler
14. Pandya, Vivek
15. Rago, Chappy
16. Schoenberg, Gabe
17. Schulz, Schulz "the schulz"
18. Smith, Jared
19. Wang, Lu
20. Wilkins-Malloy, Eli

BEN KENIGSBERG!

2009-03-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

We missed too many people at practice today. It's our only outdoor practice before Huck of the Irish and not enough people showed (in my mind). I am pissed about this because I think if we had 2 or 3 outdoor practices with full turnouts before Hellfish, we could have won the tournament, but instead we had to fight for 5th. We missed you guys out there today and you missed my single score and spike. Anyway, I wish people would write emails like this everytime they missed practice, I wont name names, but we missed a handful of people I wish I'd seen today.

"hey guys,

so i just want to apologize for not going to practice today. i somewhat pulled my groin muscle at the thursday practice. its not that bad but its tight/sore enough that i was worried that a full day of running hard would rehurt it enough to affect me this weekend. so instead i decided to hit the med books hard because I have a big exam on the monday right after the coming up tourny and i really need to get ahead. but now im sitting in the library and im having trouble concentrating because all im really thinking about is all you guys out there working hard at prospect park. which brings me to my final point, my not being there is unacceptable. in order to accomplish the team goals we set at the beginning of the year, we need a higher level of dedication and accountability than that. regardless of whether i was going to play today or not, i should be out there in the cold with you guys. so again im sorry for not coming today and i cant wait to see you all next time.

~ben"

PS: all y'all who missed practice are bitches except for Ben. you missed my first hammer assist ever. nice job

for those of you who made the trip to Brooklyn, here's an awesome picture of Lu Wang

Promises...

2009-02-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

I promise:

On the field, I will (with spirit) not respect any opponent. (leave friendliness for the party or sideline)
I will play like I should own any of the opposing 7 and if they score, I will let them know I will kick their ass if they look at me wrong.
I will unload bombs saturday morning through sunday afternoon and let teams know our deep game is as good as any in the nation.
I will spike every goal I score this season.
My teammates will always hear my voice from the sideline.
There is no mark I can't break, no cup I can't shred, and no handler or cutter I can't D.
My team is better than yours.
I want to win more than you.

I want Regionals.

Ryan's Pics

2009-02-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hellfish Bonanza

2009-02-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

5th place finish:

W: Lehigh: 13-12

L: Ohio State: 6-10 ..........definitely winnable if Quinton didn't have 2 easy turfs/turns throwing to Lu

W: Virginia (B): 13-5

W: Richmond: 12-10

L:Dickinson: 12-13 .............definitely winnable by margin of 5 ot 6 points if Quinton didn't get 2 turns/point blocked in the very first point. good job Qma

W: Wake Forest: __-__

W: James Madison: 15-8

great weekend to build on Haze, especially shown by how we dealt with shitty conditions. tore up some zone's, D lines got huge breaks, demonstrated our deep game and athletic ability. i love playing with this team.

however there were plenty of turns, bad decisions, general let downs in energy (let teams creep back with bad decisions),

Thoughts before I sleep:

-Need to practice dump sets into the wind-->all handlers and cutters (handlers...saw only 2 or 3 times in which we actually turned to break side handler and that handler made horizontal cut directly behind middle handler for dump)

-handlers need to get better...period...quicker resets, quicker/smarter decisions, no telegraphing throws (tyler- telegraphing flicks way too much/chooch- gotta be more confident with handling especially in windy conditions)

-i think perry should be moved to an o handler

-d line great job

-nova needs to learn how to be chilly with the disc, dump, catch with two hands (pancake)

-quinton needs to learn how to pull/huck up wind, cut up line, be faster

-husayn- saw a moment of greatness on D with a huge lay out D past his man cutting under...needs to use his speed to get d's like this more often.

- did i say handlers have to get better? yeah...cutters are doing all the work, gotta reward them

-we have to come up with a system of calls and such for the sideline players to utilize. general shouting and excitement definaitely help at times with energy, but can be detrimental to a structured Defense. (simple "no around, no inside" calls for marks could be beneficial and i feel like not everyone knows what these terms of ideas mean on our team, nor do they understand when to call deep or short on hucks (Ben Kenigsberg was playing D once on a cutter streaking deep and the disc dropped shorter than he thought and his guy caught the swilly huck b/c Ben heard nothing on the sideline other than RABBLE RABBLE YAHH WHOO from the sidelines when he could have picked up that d easily.

-lu wang, you played great. alex grant asked me who the MVP was for the weekend and it took me some time (b/c there were a handful of great performances) to decide that Lu would get my vote for this weekend. got some big d's and point blocks and was part of that huge cup made up of eli, lu ryan. i also always had him as an under option when he was on O. he makes great in cuts. schulz had a stellar weekend as well, with many score and huge d's.

-ben kenigsberg: BEN KENIGSBERG!!!! ...that's all i have to say about him.

-on a personal note: i dont know if i'm egotistical to say I'm a big part of the O line as a handler, but i think i am...and i want to be. i want to be that middle handler marching the team up the field. i both love and hate the pressure that comes with that role and want to do a better job at fulfilling that role by cutting down my turns and improving my deep game. I am blessed with a d-line that got us the breaks we needed to win games, but i dont want to rely on them to bail me out when i fuck up. (although i know they will).hmmm. i'll probably be more introspective later....

-although i have alot of things to say about improvement, there was a lot of heart and potential shown this weekend, i'm proud of how people played and i will personally use this weekend as a memory to fire myself up to work harder at exercising and perfecting my field awareness/throws

~Rampage

BOOM

2009-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

I mean, my hearts beatin, my hearts beatin, my hands are shakin, my hands are shakin, but i'm STILL shootin and I'm STILL gettin headshots. And it's like BOOM HEADSHOT, BOOM HEADSHOT, BOOOM HEADSHOOOTT!!!!

WDYPU 3

2009-02-19T21:38:00.001-08:00

Team pictures

2009-01-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

Next time we take one....more people need to kneel in the front. Otherwise shitty pictures will ensue. Maybe that was random. but it's been on my mind. Off to class!

WOOOO SCHOOL ROCKS

~Rampage

Practice? Practice? We're talking practice here!

2009-01-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

Tentative Spring Practice schedule:
MONDAY 9:15pm -- 10:30pm WORKOUT PRACTICE -- meet at couches at Coles.
TUESDAY -- off
WEDNESDAY 9:15pm -- 10:30pm WORKOUT PRACTICE -- meet at couches at Coles.
THURSDAY 10:10pm -- 12:30am LATE NIGHT PRACTICE -- meet on gym floor at Coles.
FRIDAY -- off
SATURDAY Occasional outdoor afternoon practices TBD
SUNDAY 10:10pm -- 12:30am LATE NIGHT PRACTICE -- meet on gym floor at Coles

Tentative Spring Tournament Schedule:
[28 FEB / 1 MAR -- Stony Brook Tourney, Stony Brook, NY] (tentative -- not announced yet)
7/8 MAR -- Huck of the Irish, Salisbury, MD
14 MAR through 22 MAR -- No Practice due to Spring Break
28/29 MAR -- Roll Call, Washington DC
4/5 APR or 11/12 APR or 18/19 APR -- Sectionals, Location TBD
25/26 APR or 2/3 MAY -- Regionals, Location TBD (must qualify)
22/23/24 MAY -- Nationals, Columbus, OH (must qualify)

Why Do You Play Ultimate Part 2

2009-01-16T21:36:00.001-08:00

Jersey ideas are temporary and just meant for viewing pleasure

No Vegas

2009-01-13T12:25:00.000-08:00

:( I can't say I'm happy about this. I think the high level of competition would have been good for the team, even if we couldn't bring as many players as we wanted to. But I trust Z+P made the right decision, keeping us focused on series. Spring season is almost here. Get hyped.

Fun post....

2009-01-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

So I broke up with my gf this summer and not in the way this other blog illustrates at all, but still... I really like it. So take a read.

Merry Christmas Haze!

2008-12-25T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hope all of you are having a great holiday. Make sure to keep in shape unlike myself. Also try to find some nice Ultimate at your respective hometowns.

Best Wishes

-Mr. Esperanto