Canadian University Nationals 2007- Men's Preview

Nation,

CUUC 2007 has quickly approached, and will be taking place in Vancouver this weekend. The main tournament site is right here.

Open Preview

First off, the seeds and schedule are listed on the upa site. It would be nice to see CUPA work towards having a similar tournament details capability in the coming year.

Here's my brief preview of the teams (in order of seed per pool) and their chances to the extent of my knowledge.
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Pool A
Toronto- The defending national champions are looking to reclaim their title. Whether you like the eligibility rules at CUUC or not, the grad students and exceptions used by this team greatly complement a team with solid undergraduate talent. The positives are the depth of talent, experience playing and winning at this level, and the solid leadership. The negatives going into the tourney is the expected loss of players due to travel costs, and the expected absence of GOAT players who will be focusing on Florida after qualifying last weekend. The spiders have decided to spin a web in Vancouver, but they will face a much tougher UBC squad than the skeleton crews that travel east for other nationals.

Alberta - This team participated at CUUC 2006 in Ottawa, and failed to make a lot of noise. They finished no higher than 13th. One more year of experience, and one cheaper plane ticket this time around might lead to better results. Given the growth of Edmonton, the existance of a men's competitive team in the town (EMU), the athletic resume of the school in other sports, and the sheer size of the school, this is a program with much promise.

Saskatchewan- If you saw this team play last year at nationals, you can understand why they might be a little insulted by being ranked lower than Alberta. Last year, they were seeded low and destroyed weak teams en route to a crossover game with Western. The lost their chance to sneak into quarterfinals, but they gave the prairies a solid name with their huck game and their team athleticism. If the roster is similar, expect them to beat seed.

UBC C- Absolutely no pressure for UBC's third team. How deep is Vancouver's high school and university programs when UBC has three teams and SFU has a team? This team likely won't be world beaters, but they'll get some great experience, and look to upset one A team at least.
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Pool B

UBC A- Expect this team to dominate their pool. One of the posters on this site brought up the fact that past squads attending recent nationals were missing some players- Let this tourney be a showcase for the school. One of the things I detest in ultimate is seeing young/talented teams not play their best at all times. I hope the Thunderbirds bring the intensity and help raise the training/development of other teams.

Queens- This is not your older brother's Mothership. They proved this with their 5th place finish at Easterns. The team is going through a lot of change after a dynasty in Kingston. After watching them lose to Western at CEUUC 2007, I saw plenty of players and pieces, but their was a leadership void and time is needed for it to come together. I have seen Miles Wilson and Ernie Lin for several years, and they are great college players. Lin will make every effort in his home city.

McMaster- Okay, I'll just say what many have told me- the response to their new jerseys is luke warm at best. It's a collar versus no collar debate. To me, it doesn't matter. They looked much better skill wise this year, and they gave 2nd place CEUUC 2007 finisher Guelph a super close game a month ago (9-8 loss). This is a wide open tourney, so do they have enough talent and handlers when we get to quarterfinals?

UBC B- I think this team will be a proverbial grenade which McMaster and Queens steps on.

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Pool C

McGill/MUT- Listed in UPA under the B team name. However, I expect it to be composed with many of the same zone happy guys that finished 2nd last year at Nationals. McGill had a disappointing CEUUC 2007 this year, getting pounded by a Carleton and finishing out of the top 3. I think they have a nice seed, and its up to them to hold it. Victoria and SFU have every intention of upsetting them.

Victoria- Two of the top reasons for eastern teams to attend nationals this year, in my opinion, is to play for a national title, and to play UBC. The other reasons are to enjoy Vancouver and to get a rare glimpse at Victoria's new players that will hit the scene. There are a lot of "Eastern" people who spend time in Victoria. They tell tales of goaltimate, coed tourneys and players who are not the most athletic and training driven, but are just "good at ultimate". I have nothing to go on for this team, but I would not be surprised to see them in the semis. I also hope it's not the aggro/chippy type of squad Victoria has had in past CUC coed versions. Does anyone remeber the chick from Lucky who mooned the crowd and threw a disc into the stands? I forget what the disc had written on it....

Simon Fraser University- The SFU clam are making an appearance. I have SFU's excellent co-op program to thank for two reasons. One, they sent a huge number of students/players to Ottawa for co-op and these students ran the pick up ultimate games on Parliament Hill that lead to my introduction to the sport and the formation of the MAUFO Parliamentarians dynasty. Secondly, the coop program lead to the meeting of my fiance in Ottawa.. another huge bonus.

Burnaby's finest are not as advanced as their UBC opponents, but expect them to continue to use the Vancouver talent pool and near bye US/Canada competition to develop into a strong team nationally.

Ottawa- This serves as a "last ride" for several players who have played with the Ottawa team for many years now. The core of the team has its star players (Eric "The Show" Morrow is nearly unstoppable as a cutter), but a majority have battled injuries, lack of leadership, and simply personal skill limitations. However, a new core is developing on both the A and B team, and leaders have been in place since last year to flesh out talent and results. I really think Ottawa should strive to be a tough opponent in the quarters, and to finish in style.
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UPA Update

Hey Folks,

Just a quick review of the weekend games. I have to enjoy the rest of my holiday with the Pride of Praha aka The Fiance.

Congrats to Goat and Capitals for getting into the UPA championship round.
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Northeast Regional Update

Open
-Goat finishes 2nd in Open, losing a close game to Boston Ultimate and then squeaking out a one point win over Pony in the game to go.

-Grand Trunk wins the division II crown. I'm not surprised. Even in beating them at sectionals with Firebird, you could tell that despite some key missing people, the team still had a core of talent and some key ROY pickups that could do some damage with the right focus.

Lowdown via Jamie Noonan on ocua.ca

"I'm sure people have read the accounts of the Open Sunday on rec.sport disc, but holy crap -- GOAT had two of the toughest finishes to their 2 games-to-go I've ever seen; simply amazing ultimate both ways. Boston's comeback win against them in the 1-2 game was ridiculous, and PoNY hanging with them right to universe point in the backdoor equally crazy. Fortunat Mueller of Boston made at least 2 sick plays to win his team the #1 NE seed -- one of them on a huge huck to two 6-2+ GOAT strikers, who he split at the last second and simply out-wanted the disc for a d-grab (he's 5-10, tops) and another monster layout for the game winner. But GOAT is soooo deep with tall, athletic, skilled players, and their confidence level and calmness seems so high after their stellar summer. They've got a real chance to make some waves at UPAs."

Women's
-Capitals and Storm go undefeated on day one pool play
-Capitals drop their semi final to Lady Godiva 14-11
-Storm is crushed by Brute Squad (15-1) in the other semi. Brute Squad takes 1st over Lady Godiva
-Capitals climb back and Sugar Shack, Ambush, and Lady Godiva to take 2nd and secure a spot in Florida
-Storm loses to Ambush, then beats Rouge and Chikitas before bowing out to Ambush in the final game to go (15-4).

: Capitals advance, Storm finishes one place out of qualification.

Mixed
-Bytown Flatball Club opens the tourney with wins over 7Express and Denoiret. Unfortunetly, like the CUPA regionals and the nationals final, the wheels then fell off for this squad who has no shortage of talent for the coed level. BFC loses to eventual champ Slow White, then to the Bashing Pinatas, and then to Puppet Regime. Their final placement is 6th.

-Montreal's Denoiret (A coed team based on open and women's players) crush their seed and finish 5th, up from their pre tourney ranking of 11th.

-Qualifiers are Slow White, Tandem and Bashing Pinatas. The Bashing P's take a spot and beat BFC during the tournament, despite losing to BFC twice in sectionals.

Masters

-Team Chemistry and the lack of practice time does not appear to be a factor for Tombstone as they go 3-1 in Saturday pool play.

-However, Tombstone runs in Sunday difficulty. They lose 15-7 to DOG, and then lose 15-11 to Above and Beyond. They fail to qualify.

- Jaime Noonan of Tombstone writes on the ocua.ca forum about the Tombstone roster makeup and their performance on the weekend:

"Everyone contributed all weekend. It was absolutely not a TO-centric effort. I still think we had the deepest team at Regionals, and had we had more time to play together -- it was the first time for many of us even meeting each other, let alone playing ultimate -- we would have pulled out one of the two games to go. A&B played the 3-4 game against Not Dead Yet, a much, MUCH weaker team, while we were fighting DoG. They ended up finishing 15-2 and waiting for the loser of our game. It started out very even; DoG is, as you would expect, extremely efficient with the disc, and turnovers were hard to come by. Our chemistry issues showed, as we worked it down to the red zone time after time and couldn't punch it in. Every point was hard-fought, but by half, the score was 8-4. It felt much closer, but a team decision was made to shut it down in the second half to rest the starters for the game-to-go. I think the final might have been 15-6 or 7?

The A&B game-to-go was another typical NY vs. 'NE Cdn Masters Team X' scrap. Lots of calls and "discussions", a few of which ended up going to observers. Pitched battles on every point. Arnie Sanchez was a machine, outrunning and hauling down hucks over and past our defenders. We had a better time getting turns than we had against DoG, but also had the same problems punching it in. They went up a couple breaks early and took half 8-5. Another break early in the 2nd had us down 4. We laid it all out right until the end, and had a better second half, but couldn't close the gap and lost 15-12 or 11, can't remember.

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Central Open Regional Update

-General Strike is a factor in the 3rd place bracket, but loses 15-5 to The Van Buren boys
-They fail to qualify, and all we can say at this point via the upa site is that General Strike finished somewhere in the 5-14 range.
-Qualifiers for this region include Sub Zero of the Tri Cites, Machine of Chicago, and The Van Buren Boys of Ames. That's Ames, Iowa. This might be the cinderella team of the UPA championships folks, as they moved from a 6th seed to upset 2nd seed BAT and 4th seed Madcow in taking the last qualifier spot.
-Hopefully Pegger can update us on the tournament..

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Rare Bold Predictions

Here are my rare bold predictions for this weekend's regionals

-GOAT makes it, finishes 2nd
-Capitals make it, 1st place
-Storm just misses out and comes 3rd
-Bytown Flatball Club makes it, coming in 3rd.
-Denoiret comes in 4th and misses.
-Tombstone finishes 3rd and misses. Lack of cohesion with new teammates allows Above and Beyond to slip past them into second.
-General Strike will fail to make it out of the regional bracket, but will finish 5th and beat seed.

Any others want to make some predictions?? It's Friday....

UPA Regionals- Prairie Update

Prairie Update:

It seems as though I missed a team who was competing in the UPA fall madness. I am sorry for the snub, maybe this maritimer has been in Upper Canada too long. lol

Best of luck to General Strike this weekend.

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Open Central Open Regionals- Oct 6-7- Tulsa Oklahoma

• Schedule is right here
• Canadian teams
• General Strike (Finished 3rd at Sectionals secured last guaranteed spot out of the section)
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Jake Regala Photography ____________________________________________________________________

UPA Regionals-Eastern Canadian Teams

Eastern Canadian UPA Update

This weekend sees all Northeast Regional divisions in action near Boston (Devens), and there will be lots of Canadian representation:

How many of our Canadian teams will qualify? Share your comments.

Craig Stephen Photography

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Open

• Schedule for Division 1 and Division 2
  
• Canadian teams
• GOAT (Division 1)- Toronto
  
• Grand Trunk (Division 2)- Toronto
  

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Women's

• Schedule for Division
  
• Canadian teams
• Capitals- Ottawa/Toronto
• Storm- Montreal
  

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Mixed

• Schedule for Division
  
• Canadian teams
• Bytown Flatball Club-Ottawa
• Denoiret- Montreal

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Masters

• Schedule for Division
• Canadian Teams
• Tombstone- Toronto (some Ottawa representation)
  

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UPA Regionals Update-Western Canadian Teams

Western Canada UPA Regional Update

Only one Canadian team from the west remains in the hunt for the UPA crown in both the open and women's divisons.

Furious qualifies but their results this year make another title seem difficult. Invictus fails to qualify, but has a strong showing.

Traffic fails to make it in the toughest regional division. Was their CUC 2007 victory a fluke... are they really better than the Capitals? That question should raise some backlash.. :)
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Open Results:
Northwest Regionals: Qualifiers

1. JAM- Another statement from San Fran. Jam... on your mind!
   
2. Sockeye- Defending UPA Champs.
3. Furious George- Beat Sockeye in semis but lost the 2nd place game... by a lot.
   
4. Rhino- Beat some very good teams to grab the last ticket to Florida.

Other Notables
-Invictus (Calgary) does not qualify, finishes 6th. Yet another strong performance to a solid season. Things look good in cowtown as they host CDN nationals next year.
-Blackfish (Vancouver) qualifies for this tournament, but choses not to attend.

Craig Stephen Photography

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Women's Results
Northwest Regionals: Qualifiers

1. Fury- Looks like they are peaking at the right time. Shout out to former Ottawa player Gen Larouche. :)
2. Riot- 5 losses all year. 3 to Riot
   
3. Zeitgeist- Interesting name. Interesting team to watch @ UPAs.

Other Notables:
Traffic (Vancouver) suffers a close loss in semis to Riot (15-13) and then loses another heartbreaker to Zeitgeist on universe point (15-14). Thus, they fail to qualify.

Craig Stephen Photography

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Talking With Trainor- GOAT Prepares for UPA Regionals

Talking with Trainor- David DJ Janssen- GOAT

UPA regionals are coming up for all divisions. In the eastern part of Canada, we can look on with interest at the remaining Canadian teams. Tombstone (Masters), Capitals (Women's), BFC (Mixed), Denoiret (Mixed) and GOAT (Open) are the Eastern Canadian hopefuls still alive. This is also a rare chance for us to cheer for Furious, Traffic, and other West teams making a run at their respective regional tournaments.

All these east teams have realistic shots at making it to Florida for the UPA's final round but none more so than GOAT. Save for a loss in the Canadian national finals to Furious and a tight loss to BAT in the Motown tourney, this might be the best season GOAT has had.


What's the mood within the 'herd'? I asked one of their captains, David (DJ) Janssen, a number of questions related to the team and their upcoming challenge. For those of you who might not know DJ, he's a lightning quick offensive handler who helped WaX during their 90's Canadian dynasty and has been with GOAT for most of its existence. He also helped lead Team Canada Masters at Worlds 2004. He's a triple threat- captain, player, teammate- so shut up and listen!! :)

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What does the GOAT name mean.. exactly? Is it Greatest Of All Time, or something else?

I guess I was there at the beginning so I should be able to answer this the best. In truth a lot of things have been thrown out there over the years. Whatever suits the moment. I'm sure everyone had one in their head at the time but nothing was every stated officially as our name and I for one have never associated anything other than Goat to our team name. Just a simple hard working animal who roams around feeding off whatever life throws at them.

2. Is everyone healthy for Regionals?

For the most part. We have a couple guys who are coming off some wear and tear from the long season but for the most part everyone is building to be at full strength for regionals and through UPAs. I think our numbers are running close to 30 strong. Maybe just under.

3. What teams are you preparing for at regionals specifically?

Boston Ultimate, New York Ultimate.. I'm not too sure. Those are the two, along with us, that will likely be seeded in the top three in any case. I think we all know each other pretty well.

Boston is working things out with their new collage this year and will likely be strong through the fall. They've been showing signs of what they can do. I think we're in the same boat that way. New York, well they have the population of Canada in their greater area!
After that there are always teams that surprise at regionals and peak just at the right time. We might not be preparing for them but we'll keep our eye out.

4. How do you prepare for teams? (Practice, Video, Communication with other teams, Nothing)

A little of all the above. We've used video in the past. It mainly helps to identify positions and types of O or D. I know some guys use it for more specific player match up stuff but most of the teams we need to know we play or see play enough throughout the season. I guess ultivillage helps out with this a bit.

Practices can be used to better match up against teams if we see that they have been using a certain d's such as excessive handle poaching or back siding lane cutters... as an example. We generally make sure to get more specific reps in before playing those teams and maybe adjust play calling to suit those needs. Mainly it's just about strengthening our own game.

5. Who is new to the team this fall?

We picked up an artist, a boxer and an emergency medical guy. Not a bad combination. Plus three more top players from in town. All impact players to help us push through the long season.

6. Who has stepped it up this year and emerged within the team?

I'll keep it simple and say our captain is huge in all aspects but mainly the way he's stepped up to lead the team. Player wise it's across the board this year. I believe we're at new regime 2.3 at the moment. Meaning our whole work ethic and focus towards ultimate as a team has turned a corner. We do have some up and coming superstars who have done some incredible things this summer but I'll leave that for other people to point them out.

7. You've won 5 tourneys this year. Which one was the biggest for the team?

Without a doubt, Chesapeake Open (in my opinion). We knew it was going to be a long season this year with Canadian Nationals being a "world's year" and the UPA series running through until the end of October. We knew we had to build our training plans to have a double peak during the season. Canadian Nationals came down as seeded to one big game for us. It was a huge loss for us. As are any losses in the finals it takes time to get over them. To come back two weeks later and win strong at a highly competitive tournament was the best way to push past the loss with a fresh new start.

8. How do you call lines with this much talent? How do you ensure you make the right calls?

We do our best to build off game plans and selecting how we feel the players are playing at the time. The depth we have this year has actually made it much easier. Everyone has been very understanding and on board with the approach.

9. Is having players from the team in different cities a true hindrance?

As a generally philosophy I'd say, absolutely. The lack of practice time together and the lack regular team bonding hurts. However, in our case, the guys from out of town are only added if they bring something to the table that outweigh the negatives. Toronto has such a strong pool of players currently that role players and young prospects are already available. There's no need to go to other cities. Thus, there are only a small handful of guys who are outside of Toronto. In years past that was not always the case. The key is to have a strong and large enough core to be able to have full intense practices. We've made up for this by attending a lot of tournaments and having camps on off weekends. Attendance from the out-of-town guys is always at a higher priority because this is our only team time.

10. It's been over a month since nationals. Did the better team win?

The better team always wins. Don't they? In our case we were certainly the underdogs going in. I'm sure the Vegas odds would agree. I felt that we had the pieces to really make it interesting this year and make it close at the end. We made mistakes across the board and didn't play to the level we had or have played all year. I guess it's one of those things that makes you stronger in the long run. It has certainly kept the fire in our belly to push harder through to the fall season. Not to mention we're dying for a rematch in Florida.