Deadline Day!

Nation,

It is NHL deadline day. It should be a national holiday in my mind..

I'm at home watching.. Feel free to post your comments on trades and ideas about what teams should do!

I like the sens move thus far (Leclaire and re-signing Kuba)

Hot sites to check out today besides mine

spectorshockey.net
hockeybuzz.com
tsn.ca
sportsnet.ca

Ottawa Spring Shootout Review: Fast but not Furious

Nation,

The first Ottawa Spring Shootout took place this weekend. The picture gallery is available here, with special thanks to Rene Champagne for his time and ability to shoot photos in the dome.


The goal of this tournament was very simple: Have an open indoor tourney in mid February that brings the best open and college in Ontario and Quebec together. It's good for relations between cities, it's good for college guys to experience, and it should be a kick in the proverbial pants for those of us who need to realize more off season work is needed. 3 hours of sub on the fly at an open level pace of play is definitely a workout in February.

Teams were split up with the hopes of being fair and also to take advantage of existing rivalries. Luckily, the general consensus is that these goals were realized. The final time slot featured an all star game with pre selected "stars" and players who played their way into the tourney (MVPs of their round robin team).

Team three, despite trailing in the midway point in all of their games, managed to go undefeated and win the tournament. The team roster was as follows:

Jeff	Lindquist
Colin	Green
Mike	Davidson
Dave	Brook
Dave	Hennigar
Brent	Gerhart
Tim	Nardy
Jason	Grant
Ahmed	El Sidani
Sean	Harkins
Rahil	Suleman
Steven	Trainor

One player was selected as an all star from each team an given a swank new VC jersey compliments of tournament sponsor VC Ultimate. These players are:

• Peter Hook
• Dave Hennigar
• Seth Sazent
• Aaron Kucherawy

The all star game was played out to much fanfare, with a very large number of females present to encourage the players and direct them to the after party at Barrymores. Hopefully we help raise some much needed funds for the Ottawa lady Gee Gees UPA run this spring.



All Star teams were as follows:

All Star Team 1
Derek	Alexander
Jamie	Craig
Billy	Alexander
Ken	Alexander
Scott	Westwell
Brent	Gerhart
Rey	Arteaga
Sean	Harkins
Peter	Hook
Dave	Hennigar
Joel	Bellavance
All Star Team 2
Colin	Green
Jeff	Linquist
Luke	Phelan
Mike	Wronski
Paul	Cobb
Marc	Pepin
Rahil	Suleman
Shaw	Dungate
Seth	Sezant

Tom King
Aaron Kucherawy

Finally, Kevin Korecki and I would like to thank our sponsors for the tournament:

VC Ultimate
Red Bull

We look forward to seeing everyone at the event next year!

How Good is Your Reaction Time?

Nation,

I'm looking forward to the Spring Shootout this weekend. If you haven't signed up.. do so immediately by e-mailing me at steven.trainorATgmail.com

I've been a little slow at the posts lately.. mostly because of the following

1. Real work that pays
2. The Spring Shootout
3. CUPA stuff
4. I've been reading a lot of stuff. in the hopes of being (more) interesting for the coming months of posts.
   

I recently submitted two articles to the upcoming spring edition of the Canadian Ultimate Magazine. One article is an updated Talking with Trainor interview of Andrew Lugsdin. The other article was a broad focus piece on the value of Indoor Ultimate in imrpoving one's reaction time.

I won't spoil the article, but I can give you a link that tests your reaction time and might get you thinking/interested in the concepts of bio-mechanics and how it can affect your game.

World Games 2009 – Team Canada

Nation,

The World Games roster was recently announced on the CUPA site.

Selected by a committee (consisting of Andrew Lugsdin, Jeff Cruickshank, Eva Cham, Sherri Madigan, Lara Mussell) that has exstensive World and National experience as players, the 2009 Worlds team is as follows.

MEN
Alex Hughes- Vancouver
Andy Ouchterlony- Toronto
Derek Alexander- Ottawa
John Hassell- Toronto
Kirk Savage- Vancouver
Oscar Pottinger- Vancouver
Sam Kennedy - Toronto

WOMEN
Alex Snyder-San Francisco/Fury
Alyson Walker-Toronto
Anne Mercier-Ottawa
Genevieve Dufresne-Montreal
Kira Frew-Vancouver
Vicky Chow-Vancouver

ALTERNATES
Jeff Lindquist-Toronto
Morgan Hibbert- Vancouver
Nick Menzies- Vancouver
Jenn Kwok- Vancouver
Kate Crump- Ottawa
Val Dion- Vancouver

My Comments/Analysis

• I think this is a good team, heavily based on the past performances and experiences of some of our country's best.
• So who are the captain(s)?
  
• One of the biggest flaws in the 2005 team was the apparent lack of team chemistry. Given the familiarity of most of these players, that should not be an issue this time around
• Another major flaw in 2005 was the lack of team height. The small roster sizes for the tournament provide an obstacle to picking a team to handle every situation. I can't speculate on whether this team has enough height until we know the rosters of the other teams.
  
• I like the fact that recent college/university stars are emerging on the national scene. To see Kira Frew, Anne Mercier, Sam Kennedy, Oscar Pottinger, Jeff Lindquist and Morgan Hibbert this far denotes a changing of the guard and a lot of hope for future world teams.
• The three biggest suprises are probably Lindquist, Crump, and Kennedy. The casual touring fan might not recognize these individuals, but I am sure that they will be ready and able to play at this level. Crump is a late starter to ultimate that is a physically dominating presence in both college and Canadian club ultimate. Lindquist (along with Crump) impressed at the Worlds last year in coed. He's a handler that quite literally can run an entire offence and make big throws. Kennedy's star has risen steadily, through McGill and GOAT experiences.
  

So what do you think? Will Canada win the World Games ultimate title in 2009? Did the selection committee miss someone?

Spring Shootout Update

Nation,

As we mentioned in a previous post, the Ottawa Spring Shootout will be taking place February 28, 2009.

We're please to announce that VC Ultimate has sponsored all MVP jerseys for the tournament.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the tourney, and I hope you win some of VC's newest product line.

Finding that next Pipeline of Talent, and other cliches

Nation,

I've been waiting to post this for some time. About two months ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed two players from India, who were participants in a Million Dollar Arm reality show. In a nation full of cricket players, no person from the one billion population of India had ever signed a baseball contract outside of the country.

Kudos to the Pirates for innovative recruiting (the reality show was not their idea, it was a sport management firm) and making efforts to increase their competitiveness. Let's be honest- the Pirates are still terrible and will be for some time- but they may have the inside edge on a new mine of cheap (very important) talent.

I can only wonder why no other baseball team thought of this before?

Major League Baseball has a entry player draft system, but this does not apply to players outside of Canada and the United States. It's essentially a free for all outside of those borders. The backbone of the Blue Jays success in the 1980's was based on their development of a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. Hello Tony Fernandez, George Bell, Damaso Garcia and Juan Guzman. The Jays could pay the "students" next to nothing, get them under contract, and promote those with talent. The Dodgers and many other teams quickly copied this tactic, and teams moved throughout South American in search of hidden gems. Soon, players were being dug out of Korea, Australia and Japan. In all country cases, the richest teams swoop in an ruin the market by overspending until only they can attract the best of the foreign players. That's why the Pirates or the Jays can't sign the latest Japanese star, and need to look elsewhere.

Does this apply to Ultimate? Of course, or I wouldn't be rambling. :)

League teams take from lower level league teams. Coed steals from league, and Open and Women take from the youth leagues and the coed/league offerings. We don't play for cash (yet, for the forseeable future) but teams at every level always have a sales pitch- better level of play, status, etc.

At a certain point, highest level club teams realize that they can no longer rely on just what comes to them through existing channels. They need to start their own programs to improve the quantity and quality to choose from.

How does your team find new talent?

• Do you lure it from existing teams outside of your town (find jobs for them)?
• Do you take from feeder system in the city (that you don't control)?
• Do you run your own development program (high school, youth, etc)?
• Are you in the gyms and fields of other sports, actively recruiting prototypes from different sports
• Do you lack any plans/strategies regarding player development?

Each and every year, how we go about finding new talent will be more and more important at the club level. I don't think we'll ever be importing Indian or respective African talent for ultimate purposes in my lifetime, but I do think that those two areas (as well as Asia) will continue to develop in the sport and pose serious threats to Canada. With their population, Canada faces a very tough task to continue its position at the top of the World Championship.

Ottawa Spring Shootout Tournament- February 28 2009

Nation,

I'm pleased to announce the Ottawa Spring Shootout tournament.

The tournament will be an OPEN hat tournament with special consideration given to

• University players in Ontario and Quebec
• Club players

Prizes will be given to the MVPs of each team. Also, early entrants will have the chance to select one of the following formats in the final time slot of the tournament

-An All Star challenge versus a competitive club team
-An exhibition game of Goaltimate

Here are the details

Date: February 28, 2009
Time: 9:00 PM-12:00 PM (potential of extra time added)
Location: Frank Clair Stadium Dome
Cost: $20 per player (Paypal payment will be accepted)
Tournament after party and party host to be announced

Format/Rules
Quebec City Variant AKA sub on the fly 6 versus 6
25 min games

Registration Information

Please contact me at steven.trainor@gmail.com with the following information

• Name
• Club
• Skill Level Out of 5 (1= low tier league player, 5= Elite Level Open Player)
• Town/City
• Do you need accommodation? Do you want assistance in finding accommodation?
• Preference for 1) All Star Match or 2) Goaltimate Match