state OH10! (mostly varsity)

Best year ever? I've had some amazing kids come through the school, but this was my most successful mixed team yet. We lacked the one cannon armed kid we've always had, but had great depth accross the board. IN fact, I don't think we connected on any +50yard out passes, all weekend. But I don't think we took more than 3, and we were very successful on the 40ish range, with long throws coming from as many as 5 of my 11 players.

Most impressively, we ran, at least 70% of the offense: executing the cuts, scoring pretty frequently on 4-6 passes, lots of scoreing on 3 or less possessions (trust me, that's a big improvement). Many of them on 'one offense' or 'one defense.'

I really had no idea of what to expect. Last year, we didn't have a UPA event, and, we played no tournaments outside of our city teams. When we played our first tournament 7 years ago(technically 6 years ago, as this is the 7th state), we scored the first 2 points of the day against perennial powerhouse churchill, and never looked back enroute to scoring no more points the rest of saturday play. Over the years, we've still never played a single tournament outside of Or. State States. Which we once hosted.

We've gone 0-6, 3-4, lot's of .500 years, and then this year 5-2. Here is the link.

(1) Churchill 6-0 in pool play; won the final
(2) Summit Varsity 5-1 in pool play
(3) Sheldon HS 4-2 in pool play; won the 3rd place game
(4) Crescent Valley Tribe 3-3 in pool play
(5) Grant HS 2-4 in pool play; won the 5th place game
(6) Summit B 1-5 in pool play
(7) Corvallis HS 0-6 in pool play

We had very suprising margins of victory, until we met the Churchill Juggernaut. Our earlier 13-0 and 13-5 wins go away really quickly, when you are used to scoring those against a team that will give you 3 chances. Churchill has one absolute stud player, who looks ready to make the jump to the next level, and several very talented players who may do the same.

They played a great TEAM game, so it's it's difficult for me to assess individual talent. Lots of seniors. Great flow out of the Horizontal stack. Success long and short. They didn't blow me away with their defense, but frankly, in a 13-5 win, not getting any take aways from us doesn't speak to any 'lack' of defensive talent.

OH, and ironically, we scored the first 2 points against them in our first game against them.

IN the build up to our games, here is the round by round summary.

Round 1
Summit 13- Corvallis Mixed 0
A good draw. Corvallis mixed is a brand new team, (or rather, a return of a legendary program). The new team is young, and until 2 weeks ago, uncoached. But, now with some coaching, they may be on the upswing. This weekend was hopefully a jumping off point. But, it served as a huge confidence booster to my kids. And the seeding was luck, as this was the 5-6 game coming in. Turned out we were underseeded, but I told the tournament director that if Grant, Churchill, CV, and Sheldon had a tourney under their belt, we should be no higher than 5th. I think there was not a single call the whole game, by either side, no arguements. I'd played a couple games of the Gandy Goose with the new coach, and it was a really pleasant experience. Having been there (new coach of a new team), I really appreciate what the kids and coach are going through (fun for the kids, teeth gnashing frustration for coach, at least it was for me in past years. arthi seemed to handle it with more aplomb than I have in the past).

Round 2
Summit 13-Sheldon 3.
A stunning upset, at least on past results, but a wake up call for me to the vagaries of HS ultimate from year to year. They had some good talent, but just didn't get it going. And, it was my first inkling in our future of winning points that involved a turnover or two. Super classy, I'd played a tournament with the coach last year. Definitely, one of those games, where coaches are on the same page, and if they asked us, we'd probably have had the same opinions on calls and stuff. The turning point of the game was a best of 1 ROCHAMBO for a line call on the other side. A call that I had no opinion on being on the far sideline. But this ROCHAMBO: we won after, no kidding, 10 straight tied throws. Couldn't have been a cleaner game.

Round 3.
Summit 12 - Grant 3
The tournament format was 4-3 or 5-2, offense decides. Grant had a small team with only 5-7 guys on saturday, and 4 experienced girls. They (understandably, based on their experience) assumed it was 4-3,3-4 (their coach, an experienced dude wearing a barrio shirt missed the captains meeting). We played offense calls for a while, then they had a guy go down with cramps. Hmm. We played 6-6, 3boys 3 girls. It was a bit contentious, and I told my buddy (who's kid i'm coaching) that was the hardest 12-3 game i've ever played. Bottom line, they made calls, which is not inherently wrong, we usually don't, but that's team policy: until you know and play by every rule, don't bore me with cheap travel calls when some of the team travels. Didn't like the contention, didn't mind it. Good for the team to harden up a bit.

We had a bye round. I went for a 5 mile run.

Sat/Night Sunday Morning.
Camping was eventful. But not for the reasons that every coach fears. The campground was a grassy oak tree shaded place. I stayed there friday with 8 of the boys, and we were in bed by 10. I slept on the ground, and went to sleep staring up at the swaying tops of trees. Awesome. Too much light polution to be perfect, but I had an eye pillow. Saturday night, the whole team (v and JV are there). I again slept on the ground, curfewed them at 10, had to tell one kid he couldn't take his shower at 10 (sorry dude, i told you the curfew). Slept on the ground to make sure that there were no shenanigans of co-ed camping. Slept like a champ.

IN the morning, dads cooked pancakes and eggs, and a random cow ran through camp. Told the kids to stay away. Didn't get a look to see if it was a cow or a bull. It was MOOOVing too fast. Udderly amazing though. OK, I've milked this too much. The cow ran off to the west into the RV park. WE drove into town, saw police lights, long story short, one of our cars reported a cow sighting. The cow had escaped. And run at least 4 miles to campus. free at last.

despite my best efforts, rather than warming up at 8 for our churchill game, we warmed up at 8:40. We went up 2-0, before losing 13-5.

Round 5 (our 4th game)
Churchill 13- Summit 5
Once they got going, we could't hang. We let them run by us to the endzone too much. Too much inexperience, vs too much experience. Too many seniors, vs too many sophmores. Too many big arms vs an offense than needs 4 passes to score. Again, they had 1 obvious great individual talent, and some other good players. They had no coach, which, I think HS teams should have a coach on hand so that I can talk to someone about 'game issues' without engaging the athletes: to do so is to be pedantic. A couple highlights though: when we had it going, the offense looked good. We just didn't have the bombs to make them crumble. And my sophmore was covering their senior stud, and at least 'kept him honest'. I won't say he stopped him, but he did 'take a charge' and challenge most throws. and hopefully with reinforcement he gets that it's not tag, it's keep away. maybe if we hold a mark or two, he gets a block or two next time.

Round 6
Summit Varsity vs Summit JV
13-3. Back to form. Vs teams willing and able to have a couple turnovers, varsity wins. My JV team had 2 players who were of 'a' quality, and specifically would have been great goal scorers defenders, but, I thought it best to let the JV team have some anchors. Appropriately chippy, but only lightly so. I got in a run during the pregame and early game, as I didn't want to 'over coach' one team or another. From 5-1 I just worked with each team a bit to get them to focus on improvement.

Round 7
Summit 13-Crescent Valley 5.
We may have been automatically into 2nd before this game based on other outcomes and point diff. But I didn't discuss this with the team. Until about 5-4, I don't think CV's offense had a single turnover. I was very concerned. Their H stack was a slower, but equally effective version of Churchill's. But it faded, and we won. They were The coolest of the cool. And they deservedly won the spirit award, and it's always good to see that not as some bail out for last place team (allthough, the corvallis mixed team was no less deserving). They constantly showed courtesy and respect, slapped hands after good plays, etc. I can only hope that they saw our team as showing similar quality. We've had some great games with them over the years, usually loosing. And Andrew, TD and coach, is nails in my book, coaching a nice game plan, yet holding his team to the highest level of accountabillity for personal behavior. And his team is made of the best quality kids. We faced them missing their best player, and I'd like my team to face them at 'full strength' as they are good.

'Finals'
In the 7 team round robin, the last round was 1-2, 3-4, etc.
We hung around a bit vs. churchill, but, they'd had a bye, they were better, our 11 person roster was just cooked. But all in all, a great weekend. A little chippy. Again, I wish they had a coach, not just a chaperone. The kids know how to play, but, I want an adult to chat with about the nature of the game, and to talk about if I need to address my kids' play or calls or whatever. Just b/c I don't want to have to talk to a kid as it either creates a sociological power differential, or resentment. In the earlier game, I made one rules clarification during half about a recurring misunderstanding about 11th edition fastcount / disc space, the count goes back 2 every time rule, but other than that, i just dealt with my own team and told them, i'm not calling your fouls for you. deal, and i'll explain the rule you didn't want to read about.

A note about the JV team:
Seeded 7th of 7, they showed steady progress throughout the weekend. Scoring better and better all weekend, it culminated in a big win over corvallis' new team. In the last round, they had a chance to move from 7th to 5th, having already secured at worst, the 6th spot. Against Grant, grant had a different guy get hurt. So we, at their request, played 3 girls every point. But Grant had to play 4 guys all game, so tough for my 12 JV guys, but fair. Game A bit chippy, but basically fair. And, at 11-8, I told my team, I could shorten the lineup, or we could play it out with our open rotation. They chose the open rotation, and lost 12-9 after a couple long points ate up the cap.

A wonderful weekend for the team. Ironically, I was talking to a parent 10minutes before the end of the JV game, and I said, "it's been perfect and... well one more thing, but I'll tell you later." I was thinking, 'and no one has gotten hurt.' 3 minutes later, a player went down with an ankle injury (lots of swelling, but hopefully a sprain).

'horrible noises' by me.

But a great game by the team, yeah storm.

Basic comments: Self called is always a mixed bag when players don't know the rules. And this is why i think teams should have a coach; if I see one of my players make an incorrect call, I tell them to let it go. Then I talk about it with them after, as they are new, and don't know the rules well, and can make incorrect calls. If I see one of my players as OUT, I tell them. IF we had coaches in HS, couldn't we just agree to stayon opposing lines, and make the calls, and agree that if we can't tell, give it to the other team (like tennis)? And agree that if our player doesn't make a good call, tell them to 'take it back?'

I'll NEVER do the UPA certification unless you come to bend: Sorry Will and Melanie, I coach 3 varsity sports, I'm an ASEP certified coach, I've played for 20 years on winning and losing teams. And I'm fair to the fault of my team. But, I do think every team should have a knowledgeable coach on the sideline. (Now, If you want to give me an online rules check, and accept my ASEP certification (more rigorous than UPA) as a substitute, I'm in.