UPA Finals 2009- Open Preview- Pool C

Nation,

Results will be posted here

Pool C

• Ironside
• Doublewide
• Bodhi
• Streetgang

Ironside (38-3) from Boston finished 2nd last year and seems poised to improve on that result this year. Boston ultimate had a bit of a let down after DoG bowed out from out after 2006 finals. A tough 2007 lead people to think Boston ultimate was lost. 2008 saw a new name and a return to dominant play. Lead by well known players Jeff Graham and Danny Clark, the team is

Doublewide of Austin Texas (28-4) is described by team captain Max Cook:

The team has trained and prepared for the UPA series with one singular goal, and that is to be playing frisbee on Sunday at Nationals. We have made the final of every tournament we competed in this year. While we have only won one of those tournaments (Sectionals), there is a learning process that teams go through when they lose. Losses either drive you to work harder, of suck you into complacency, and players on this team have been pushing each other to continually train harder with that goal in mind.

Sectionals is/was a mental challenge. When you are beating teams 10-0, its hard to practice doing the right things and being focused. I think DW did a good job of coming out hard in each game, and closing out our opponents quickly. Regionals was a good experience for the team as well in a couple ways. We got challenged in our quarters game against an athletic Florida team that we may have looked past, we were able to pull ourselves together and play a very clean semi's game, we were humbled by our loss to chain in the finals, and finally we came out with fire in the backdoor finals. Some things we took away from the weekend: never underestimate an opponent, you have to win the game, it won't be given to you; coming out with fire and getting up early on opponents can be a backbreaker for them; and hope that if we see Chain in Sarasota, there will be at least some wind to slow down their hucks.

Doublewide is excited about facing both Ironside and Bodhi in Pool C. Both teams are unknowns to DW, so it will be interesting to see how conditions and dynamic in-game strategy play into those games. We would also like to get a shot at Chain one more time. It's always a good game between the two teams, and they are probably the best team in the country right now, so if you want to be the best you have to go through the best.

Key Players to watch on our team? Doublewide prides itself on not having superstars, but rather being able to challenge other teams with our depth.

That doesn't mean we don't have any studs though. Keep your eye out for a few of players: #16 Kiran Thomas, a great downfield cutter that is hard to match-up with; #8 Chase Hudson, a solid handler/cutter that has smooth throws and likes to get up; #17 Jake Anderson, a tall defender that enjoys aerial battles, and usually wins them; and #19 Daniel Poindexter, a defender that has hops and loves to lay out to get D blocks.

Bodhi (34-11) of Amherst has been the most improved team in the Northeast in 2009. Making it to UPA finals in 2008, Bodhi has built on that experience with a strong summer, closing the gap on elite teams like GOAT and Ironside and distancing themselves from pretenders.

Team Captain Micah Flynn summarizes the team as follows:

We've never really set expectations heading into tournaments, at least not as a group. Obviously, we'd like to finish as high as possible and I'd say that we'll be shooting for a birth in the quarters.

To be honest, I think our biggest goal is to do our part in getting the Northeast a strength bid again.

At Regionals we had two pretty decent lapses of focus that caused us to have to come from behind- the first on Sunday morning against Mephisto who took half on us and I think may have been up 11-10, game to 13. Against GOAT in the Semi-Finals we came out pretty flat again, starting down 4-0. After that point, we did a much better job and basically played to our potential for the rest of the weekend. Our second half against GOAT and play in the game to go against PoNY was much more up to our expectations for the team.

So, we had a bit of an up and down time but always played our best when it mattered most, so I think we consider it a success. And, we're headed back to the Club Championships so we've had a good fall so far by any metric.

The only lingering issue is we've had a number of injuries to O-Line players and most (or maybe all) of them won't be back in Sarasota.

We don't have any specific teams we're looking forward to, so the only thing that will be nice is seeing teams we've never played before like Streetgang on day 1.

The team features a number of returners from last year who figure to be impact players. On offense, look for Andrew Hollingworth (#3) and Alex Kapinos (#10), with the defense lead by Brendan Nichols (#7) and Miles Montgomery-Butler (#4).

We also added a number of new young players-

Jonah Herscu (#12), a current senior at Amherst Regional High School who will be playing a lot for the offense.

Sam Kanner (#32), played for Sub Zero last season and will be playing for the defense. He's currently one of the captains for defending national college champion Carleton CUT.

Jon Hirschberger (#43) will play a decent amount of offense and defense and is coming off a monster performance at regionals and is a senior at Cornell.

All three of those new players have been a part of a junior worlds team at one point, bringing our number of Team USA alumni to 10.

Streetgang of San Diego is a product of cooperation. The team (taking it's name from the legendary teams of the merging of Last Call and PBR Streetgang and it has propelled San Diego Ultimate into the Championships for the first time since 2005. Sporting a modest 20-14 record this season, the 2009 finals might be a necessary learning experience for the team the city's ultimate program for future success.