Boston Invite 2010 Preview

Nation,

Attention Leominister MA! Make the beds at the motel 6 and clean the restaurant grills! Massachusetts prepares for an annual visit from Canadian open and women's teams. Boston invites some of the best teams north and south of the border for its tournament located in Devens.

Canadian content will be in heavy supply this weekend.

Open

32 teams are in action, with 9 Canadian squads making the trip.

• Elite Pool includes GOAT (Tor), Phoenix (Ott) and Mephisto (Mtl)
• Other Pools include Firebird (Ott), Red Circus (Hfx), Grand Trunk (Tor), Demon (MTL), Bloody Gary (Sherbrooke) and Magma (Mtl)

Defending champs GOAT make their first appearance as a full squad this summer. Phoenix will be looking to build on a very strong 2nd place performance at CUT and some big wins against Bodhi and PoNY. Mephisto has 3 strong opponents on day one (Ironside, Pike/Philly combo team and Bodhi) and will look to beat seed.

This will be the first chance we get to see clubs like Firebird, Trunk, Circus and Demon compete in the same tournament, and we will have a better idea of where these teams are relative to each other.

So, who's going to win the Boston Invite this year?

Easterns Womens

With the Elite women's division previously played a few weeks ago, the eastern womens divisions will be the focus of women's play this weekend.

Canadian clubs QUB (Qc), Salty (Hfx) and Mystik (Mtl) are sending squads and are well ranked in the field of eight.

Mixed

8 teams in the coed division, with a Canadian team from Montreal (RIP).

Format is round robin and all teams seem full squad and highly competitive. It should be another excellent pre worlds tune up for RIP.

Preview: Northern Flights 2010, No Surf 2010

Nation,

Ultimate action this weekend in North Bay and Cleveland.

Northern Flights

The 22nd annual Northern Flights tournament takes place in North Bay, Ontario this weekend.

18 teams are registered this year, comprised of a mix of touring, pickup, and local squads.

The tournament favorites are a GOAT/Lotus + friends squad named The Dockers, champions for the past two years and three out of the last four years.
No Surf- Open

Cleveland's big tournament has a strong pool of open teams.

In addition to a high number of Canadian teams, (Maverick, Too Bad, ROY, and Grand Trunk) the tournament has added some stronger US teams to the mix. These include 2009 USA finals team Madison Club, a split squad of fellow USA finalist Madcow, LouEVIL (KY), Direwolf (Pittsburgh) and the always gritty BearProof.

No Surf- Women

The women's bracket for No Surf is much smaller and much more modest than their open counterpart.

Canadian content will be represented by Lily of Toronto.

Montreal Jazz Tournament - 2009 Women's Preview

Nation,

This year's Montreal Jazz tournament features 16 teams, up from 8 last season. The early favorites, of course, are local elite club Storm. However, club teams PPF, Salty and QUB and Sugar Shack might have something to say about that. Further, some of the unknown American teams might surprise on day one and make noise in the Sunday playoffs.

Storm 2008 Jazz Warm Up
Photo Source (Phillipe Maclean)

Pool A- Storm (MTL), Salty (NS). QUB (QC), and Chrome Ladies (NB)

It is probably a safe bet to predict Storm to take this Saturday pool. The games of excitement (that I would like to watch) will be Salty and QUB. These are two teams that have run their programs for several seasons, and 2009 seems like an up year. Every year I hope both programs take the next step and challenge Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa.

Photo Source (Phillipe Maclean)

Pool B- PPF (Waterloo), Vintage Ultimate (MTL?), Sugar Shack (VT), Hucking Gorges (NY)

Last year I watched PPF play at this very tournament and I saw two major things:

1. This team lays out and plays aggresive like an open team, downright exciting.
   
2. This team needs to play more efficently when they face the top teams

Many captains and coaches would take the athletic team and say "I can teach discipline and technique". Teaching players to be efficient is easier said than done. Expect a lot of returning players like Tawyna Jackson, Darcy Drummond and former Ottawa junior Rebbeca MacPherson to make plays.

Vintage Ultimate may be Alison Fischer's (former Storm captain) tean and feature ex comp players from Montreal and Ottawa. Sugar Shack will hope to enter quarter finals in their 3rd major tournament of the year. Hucking Gorges from Binghamton might shock all 3 teams in the pool, or bomb out entirely.

Pool C- Chinchilla (NY), Lily (TOR), Fingerbell (?) and Chicklets (QC)

Lily should be a team to watch over the next year and half. Their sister team Lotus recently won the Boston Invite and seems to have taken another step to being UPA competitive. Does that mean Ottawa and Toronto might shy away from combining each fall and instead focus on developing their own farm teams? If so, that will be a huge plus to Lily and Feisty.

Two goals for Lily this weekend should be to clean up this pool and win a crossover into quarters, or to beat any future CUC competitors they face during the weekend. Especially Scarlett from Ottawa.

Pool D- Scarlett (OTT), Mystik (MTL), Feisty (TOR) Karma Chameleon (MTL)

If you want season long rivalries, this might be the pool for you. Scarlett from Ottawa looked promising all season last year. They brought in rookie players that were taller, more athletic, and had upside. If they had a larger critical mass of savvy handlers, they would have scared alot of teams.

This year, they lost some of those developing players via coed, moving out of the city or simply real life. So, despite the addition of former Stella player Emily Sangster (many have raved about her athleticism and upside) the team has to start over with a smaller roster but more help from the big club. One player to watch- former basketball player Nathalie Johnston. In her first year of play, Johnston has height, tremendous athleticism and might be a very dominant cutter with the right coaching. It's always exciting to see new players that just need good coaching to harness ability. (Note: Johnston has now moved to Victoria for the rest of the season)

In 2005, Ottawa ultimate was the only program with a men's and women's A-B system. Imastation is the highest form of flattery, and now cities like Montreal and Toronto have equal or better systems to Ottawa. This year Mystik has emerged as a B team for Storm, and they have several familiar names. Anik Turcotte and Brenda Campbell are two of the players opponents should be watching out for.

Feisty is another women's team from Toronto that is affiliated with the Ultimate Experience. Karma Chameleon is a local team that might shake up this pool.

Boston Invite 2009 Preview- Rank the Elite Pools

Nation,

Seedings and Pools for the Boston Invite have not been posted. In anticipation of my preview, I thought I would post the possible Elite Open and Women's teams and have readers rank them.

• If the tourney only has 8 teams in the power pools, which 8 teams should be in Saturday's power pools?
• Seeding?

Elite Women- Possible Teams

Bent

Brute Squad

Hatch

Havoc

Lady Godiva

Lotus

missCONNduct

Mystik

Nemesis

Ozone

Pop

QUB

Salty

Sauce

Scandal

Stella

Storm

Sugarshack

Elite Open- Possible Teams

DoG

Bodhi

Brooklyn

Colt .45

Forge

GOAT

Ironside

Medicine Men

Mephisto

Metro Boston All-Stars of New York

Philly Love

Phoenix

Pike

Pride of New York

Sons of Liberty

Truck Stop

Wiretap

CUT 2009 Preview

Nation,

First major open tourney on the Eastern Seaboard takes place this weekend in Cazenovia, New York. Tournament Director Darren Kupinsky has done a great job once again this year.

Cazenovia is a sleepy little college town that has been attracting big teams for many years. One funny story from a trip there involved walking down the city streets and seeing an older couple on a picturesque front porch. Noting there was a huge american flag on the flagpole for the house (as with every other house on the street), I remarked to teammates that we should "look for the pies cooling." At that moment, we saw said pies on the windowsill and just assumed we were on a hollywood set. 1950's America in a nutshell.

I digress my boring story!

Here is the schedule for CUT , and here is the breakdown:

PowerPool A

This is a doozy of a pool. Ironside has emerged as a UPA force to be reckoned with. Teams that played them last year remarked at the teams overall depth and balance. Different d-lines had different strategy and confused opponents. Their offense executed break throws to space with ease.

PoNY is truly becoming the Pride of New York. Invited to the ECC this year, the team seems to be building on previous years successes.

Forge from Pittsburgh may proved to be the sleeper of this tourney. Long a city with three splintered open squads, it is reported that all the big players are on the same team and looking for big results in 2009.

Ottawa's Phoenix had a great summer in 2008, earning their way into quaterfinals in CUT, Boston, and winning No Borders. Phoenix has added a number of younger players who formerly played with Firebird, who is on hiatus for the summer.

Power Pool B

GOAT carries high expectations into the 2009 season, and they should. A very deep team with UPA experience and excellent UPA Finals results, the team is looking to challenge for their first UPA Finals title this year. (That's me talking, not them) :)

Bodhi was the shocker of 2008. It was a frustrating experience playing against their zone last year at White Mountain Open, and they proved their mettle all summer. Barring a player overhaul, this team should look to be in the semi finals of all the major east tournaments this summer, trying to pick off the top teams when possible.

Mephisto made some tough roster changes in 2008 and inserted a B team into the program. If they are willing to stick with this system for the next couple of years, they may become a team that can legitimately beat Boston and Toronto . 2009 will likely see a stronger squad, lead by Eric St Amant. Amant is at his best leading this team, and he has lots of good teammates to help him.

Sons of Liberty is, as I understand, Ironside's B Team. Last year's team had a decent squad of height, throws, and athleticism. If they have added the right players that can help the team be more efficient with their chances, they might be in store for a pleasant summer tour beating up unsuspecting teams.

Pool C

Pike is out of the power pools because of results last year. It's one of the tough parts about ultimate seeding. Early in the season, you're being judge on last year's results and last years players. Hopefully, they will get the chance to have a cross over for quaters, and we can see how they match up with the power teams this summer.

Wiretap is from DC and should be an excellent matchup for Pike. Philly Love was an great team to play against at Boston last year and hopefully will bring a full squad to CUT. Space Jam describes itself as a young talent team from Longmeadow MA that's going to bring sideline noise and intensity to their games. Their opponents should really try to get the early lead... as this type of team gets tougher the longer you leave them in the game.

Pool D

Medicine Men has long been one of my favorite US teams because of their annual participation at No Borders. (Shameless). Watching them play last year, I saw a lot of good things about the team and how they play.

Colt .45 was a very fun team to play at White Mountain Open and Boston Invite last year. They have one particular player who serves as a very talented deep threat on offence and defence. Like many of the teams just below the elite of the east, efficiency is one major area that they could improve on.

Brooklyn is an off shoot of the Red Hook team that toured last summer. It's probably an improved squad, and will give all three opponents in this pool a tough match-up.

Too Bad is a relic team, loosely formed with different players every tournament. However, there are several constants that make the team work. Greg Lang has a cannon for a huck. Too Bad added some excellent Zebra Muscles/Upstate New York players that really complimented the squad for open play. Not worried about this team scoring. Defending might be a bigger issue.


Predictions?

I'm calling Ironside and Goat in the finals. I'll be a homer and say GOAT in an early season warm up.