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Congratulations to the YCC teams and their coaches for working so hard and playing so well this Summer. The Open and Mixed teams made it to the semis against very tough competition. See complete results here http://youth2008.upa.org/results/ Here are some notes from the head coaches of the teams we sent to YCC. If you were there and have additional notes, pictures, comments, etc., please email
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Micah FlynnBUDA YCC Open team head coach This past weekend, BUDA sent two teams to the Youth Club Championships (YCCs) in Blaine, MN. Both teams played well and have lots of highlights, but I'll focus on the Open team for obvious reasons (like, that I was the coach and saw everything from the sideline). Saturday Game 1 vs. MAST (Madison, WI)Our team had played these guys last year so we knee going into the contest what to expect from them... hucks, hucks, and more hucks. In particular, they looked to put it up to one player in particular and after the first few points it was clear that we needed to do a beter job of making the long throws harder and pay more attention to where their main guy was at all times. Although we made a number of adjustments to our defense to limit the amount of looks downfield Madison got they did a great job converting what seemed like every opportunity and had a big lead late in the game. We mounted a furious comeback but ended up losing on double game point at the hard cap. In general, we all knew we'd just laid a bit of a stinker on our first game out of the blocks but as a testiment to how tough the team was nobody pointed any fingers, complained, or got down on the team. We all knew the road to a pool win would be harder now but we'd focus, put our heads down, and work our butts off for it anyway. A number of players had good games this round, but the play of the game was made by #81 Max Gillett (Lexington HS) who made a shoulder high bid to maintain possestion early in the first half. Saturday Game 2 vs. Superior (Minneapolis, MN)The guys from the Twin Cities were the only team that BUDA did not play during the 2007 tournament, so it was nice to get matched up with them in our pool for Saturday. However, we didn't know what to expect from them other than they had a HUGE sideline (like 35 guys) and were very fired up to get a win over us. The first half of this game was unfortunately familar to the first half of the Madison one, we went down early because of a couple mistakes with discs around the opponents endzone and because we were unable to stop their main handler from getting good looks at downfield throws. However, unlike the Madison game we started our rally a little bit earlier and this time pulled out the win on double game point. Both #27 Amos Adams (ARHS) and #6 Ryan Holmes (Needham HS) proved to be dominant cutters downfield during this game. Saturday Game 3 vs. DEVYL (New Jersey / Philadelphia, PA)The last round matched us up with the pool's top seed from the Delaware Valley Youth League that featured players from both Pennsbury High School (3rd place at Easterns) and Columbia High School (Easterns Champions). Prior to our game, DEVYL had rolled through the first two rounds with 15-7 wins over both Madison and Minnesota. Right from the start, the team was playing on a much better level than during the previous two contests. You could see the guys getting fired up as the team really began to play at the level that we all knew was possible and expected. Both teams gots break early, but we took half on a break when #2 Spencer Diamond (ARHS) made a great catch on the sideline to make it 8-6 BUDA. The second half was an absolute war. Both sides were playing with a lot of energy on defense and at times making some big mistakes with the disc on offense. DEVYL got two breaks back and pushed the game to double game point (making it all three game to end that way on the day for us). The final point saw DEVYL get the disc 2 feet from our endzone and call a timeout. After some inspired defense, we forced a throw away and worked downfield for our own game winning chance. Unfortunately, they made a big play in the endzone to get the disc back on their own goal-line. On the first pass attempt however, Gillett made a huge play with a point block which was picked up and converted for the game winning score. Lots of guys really came to play during this round, but in particular two of our captains #20 Tom Bassett (Needham HS / Penn State) and #16 A.J. Hutchins (Longmeadow HS) both played particularly well. Tom was a rock behind the disc on offense and A.J. sparked both sides of the disc with some phenomenal marking in the 1-3-3 zone as well as a number of great offensive efforts. After beating the NJ/PA team, we ended in a tie for first at 2-1 with them and grabbed the top spot out of the pool with the head to head tiebreaker. Sunday Game 1 vs. Flying Pig (Cincinnati, OH)Similar to last year, we opened up Sunday's bracket play in the Quarter-Finals against Cincinnati. It was apparent however from both their scores on Saturday and how they looked during warm-ups that they had improved tremendously since that time. We started the game on offense heading down wind and scored with some nice and patient offense. Then the defense was on the field and put a good amount of pressure on the Cincy offense but we were unable to convert turnovers into a goal for the break. Little did we know this would end up being the story of the game. Our offense continued to roll through the whole contest without giving up a break and in fact only turning the disc over TWICE. Although we did get a couple of breaks from out defense, the Flying Pigs did a good job of playing their own patient offense and the result was maybe the most cleanly played and effecient youth game you will ever see. Both teams combined for only 15 turnovers and did a great job of mixing up offensive looks and strategies to keep their goals coming. In the end, we pulled out the win 15-11. Captains Tom Bassett and #3 Ryan Rzepka (Longmeadow HS) both ran the show behind the disc and #15 Mike Parker (Andover HS) provided some great defensive energy off the bench. Sunday Game 2 vs. Overcast (Seattle, WA)In a rematch of last year's finals we met up with the team from DiscNW's youth league, this year dubbed "Overcast" in the semi-finals. Seattle is one of the few areas of the country that can match the depth and talent that New England has in juniors ultimate and our two programs at this point have played each other in YCC finals twice ('05 and '07) with both games going to Seattle in close contests. If it were not for the exciting come-from-behind double game point win that Seattle would go on to pull off in the finals over Pittsbugh, this game would have been the best one of the tournament. Both teams were flying around on defense and nearly every possestion for both sides had at least one lay out block attempt. This game alone also provided more highlight reel plays than all of BUDA's other games combined, three in particular that stand out: 1. On the first point, Max Gillett grabbed a disc over two defenders (and one teammate) to which he was giving up at least three inches to all of them. 2. Late in the second half A.J. Hutchins throws a high-release backhand for what looks to be a goal, but Seattle's defender jumps up and swats it out of the air. But, flying out of nowhere, Longmeadow teammate Rzepka lays out to save the possestion and throws the goal himself. 3. Facing the hard cap and needing a break, Rzepka makes another huge play with a full extention lay-out block 2 yards outside the Seattle endzone. He quickly gets up and throws the score. Additionally, the play of the tournament was made by one of Seattle's recievers during the first half of this contest. Marked up against BUDA's strongest downfield defender Ryan Holmes, Seattle's reciever manages to layout over Ryan's shoulder for one of the best grabs I have ever seen. And, in a testiment to the sportsmanship of the New England team, a number of our defenders (including Ryan) jogged over to congratulate the Overcast player before heading back to the line for another point. Seattle ends up winning 14-11 and advancing to the finals. So, we fell short of a return trip to the finals, but the team represented the BUDA youth league and New England juniors ultimate with great class and skill. I think all of the guys were proud of our efforts and have already begun looking forward to next year and making a run to the title. Josh SeamonBUDA YCC Mixed team head coach Hello everyone, Sorry, no photo updates today -- I was too busy coaching to take pictures :) We woke up early and had a nice long warm up. In the first round we went up against a very strong team from Eugene, the #2 seed.. They jumped out to a 6-0 lead on several unforced turns, and we managed to pull off a goal before half to make it 8-1. We squeaked out a few more goals in the second half to finish the game 4-15. In the second round we faced the #1 seed, Atlanta. After going down 2-0, we came back with out own run to go up 6-3. We ended up taking half 8-6. Atlanta came out strong after half and fought back to 10-10. At 12-12 the cap came on. We then scored the next two goals to win 14-12, the last goal coming off a great low sliding snag by Mia Greenwald. In the third round we played Seattle. We traded many goals all the way to the cap at 11. We had been down a break for a long while at that point and the D-line came through scoring a break for us to go up 12-11. We then pulled, got the turn, and worked it down to the end zone line. After a time out, Zach Lou made a great iso cut through traffic to score finish the game with us on top 13-11. In the fourth round we went up against a very big team from Minneapolis. After they went up 5-3, we fought back a bit but ended up down 10-3 after the first two points of the second half. We then scored 5 consecutive breaks to close within 2, and had possession to close within 1.... but then things stopped working so well for us. We ended up losing 15-8. You can find complete score run downs right here. After our last game we headed 1/4 mile down the complex to the tourney dinner where the kids sang me happy birthday for the 3rd time in a month (My actual birthday is on 8/26). Tomorrow morning we play Denver and then the elimination bracket begins where we could potentially play 3 games. Nice :) |
