Monday, March 26, 2007

Spring

Definitely feels like spring here in New England. We are looking at a nice string of 50 degree plus days. Even an old guy like me thinks, when driving by a lonely, brown patch of grass, "Hey.....nice field".

-Lots of RSD posts these days announcing club tryouts. Is it me or does it seem like there are more than usual? In my little world, I attribute it to the fact that it is a Worlds qualifying year. I look forward to the Worlds year in the four year cycle. There is a little more at stake for the Fall Series.

-On the home front, my girls are returning from Spring Break. They had a successful jaunt at Southerns two weeks ago. I think the highlight was a big comeback win against Georgia. Nice stuff. They also played at Ultimax this past weekend. I would post the link, but the tournament is not listed on the SRT. We will have a lot of stuff to work on before Yale Cup and Sectionals. One big thing will be our ability to concentrate for a whole tournament. I try to talk as little as possible during practice, but even when I do spout just a bit.....some of my girls immediately start to wander mentally. We have distinct and robust ability to tune out as a sideline and take little advantage of this opportunity to help each other. This seems to me like both a culture and a focus problem...so we will work on that.

-Registration is going well for Mixed/Masters Easterns. Geoff is doing a great job in keeping the teams list updated. We are working on many details, so this should be a great event. We have also been receiving inquiries about the Boston Invitational. Geoff (TD) and me(Comp Director) will be serving in our same capacities as MME. We will be getting the BI website up soon and registration info will be available shortly.

-I have said before...but I have to say it again. In my opinion, the "conventional wisdom"(Interesting description of this Galbraith term in "Freakonomics". The term was not intended, originally, as a compliment...basically Galbraith was saying that we associate truth with convenience.) that high scoring offensive games are the most exciting to watch is a bunch of crap. I don't care what the TV ratings "prove" as we are in sad shape if TV Ratings are the "truth" (you can have the revenue). I think one would have to be brain dead not to find Purdue's defensive tenacity against Florida or Memphis' athletic D to be the most fun to watch so far in the March Madness. One just had to flip over to any Pro Basketball game to see the contrast...a bunch of guys standing around when on D.

10 comments:

degs said...

In my little world, I attribute it to the fact that it is a Worlds qualifying year.

As in, the Mixed championship is more up for grabs than the Open and Women's? I suspect you're right.... since one of three teams will represent the Open side, and one of two will represent the Women's.

Sam Tobin-Hochstadt said...

degs -

Who's the third team?

degs said...

The three are Sockeye, Bravo, and whatever the top Bay Area team is.

parinella said...

Bravo? Why not Chain, too?

And what about Furious?

And it's probably more likely that teams (at least in Mixed and Masters) ramp up in the World Clubs qualifying year.

Luke said...

that's good it's like saying...

it's either going to be the yankees, the nationals, or the bo-sox

hang your hat on it.

no, wait, wait, here's a better one.

it's going to be ManU, Sheffield, or Chelsea.

Bet the farm.

Wait, wait, i just spit out my corn chips...

Barry bonds is either using Steroids, HGH or a bunch of caffeine.

Test him. prove me wrong.

This is so good...

I mean, do you think towson state or some patriot league team or whatever the comparable ultimate frisbee team in some college game at nationals walks in and says...

Boys, one of these teams is walking away a winner.
No reason it shouldn't be us.

Well probably. In those cases you might as well say, "every street fight ends up in the gutter boys. let's bring this game down to an ugly slopfest. let's go out there, and get lucky. one in a million? that's what they say. i say WE GOT A CHANCE"

Rule One.
Bet the CHALK

Rule Two
Be the CHALK

Are you the chalk?

degs said...

Bravo? Why not Chain, too?

And what about Furious?


It's WUGC, not Club Worlds. One team gets admitted from each country. Furious will take the Canadian spot, and Sockeye is the favorite to take the American spot, though Bravo and Jam/JL/whoever could contend for it as well. Chain is too crazy. Although if Zip gets in Emory.....

gapoole said...

Anybody can score on a lazy D. I think big defensive plays get more praise and generate more intensity then big offense. At the very least, I think there is a greater variety to what kinds of plays are "big" on defense. But I don't think that you can delineate it that clearly: an exciting game requires great offense AGAINST great defense. You need something to hang in the balance, even if it's just ego between rivals. It might be interesting to watch one team shut another team down with effective defense, but I don't think that it's truly exciting unless you have the risks, lead-changes, and intensity of a close game. When players are pushed to leave it all on the field, it's fun to watch. You don't know what will happen next. Kinda like I don't know what Luke is talking about.

parinella said...

Ah, gotcha. I was incorrectly reading it as "contenders for the title."

But that opens it up to maybe four or five teams. All you have to do is to hope that whoever you think are really the best teams end up in the same semi.

sometallskinnykid said...

Degs- do you play for Bravo? Or do you just root for them on the sideline like Hector?

degs said...

Don't play for Bravo. I just know what they know.