SOUTHEAST OPEN REGIONALS, hosted by Atlanta Flying Disc Club
May 5-6, 2012
Georgia Soccer Park
East Point, GA
Tournament Director: Jonathan Monforti

FLORIDA OPEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
April 21-22, 2012
Citizens Field, Lincoln Middle School, & UF Rec Sports
Gainesville, FL
Tournament Director: Jim Martinez

GULF COAST OPEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
April 14-15, 2012
U of A Recreation Fields & the Alabama Soccer Stadium
Tuscaloosa, AL
Tournament Director: John Rhodes Martin

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN OPEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
April 14-15, 2012
UGA Club Sports Complex & Sandy Creek Park
Athens, GA
Tournament Director: TBA
Local Contact: Caleb Edwards

Most current players don’t remember, as my age group does, a time when Tulane was a relevant opponent. This year they are in a position to make a comeback. They have four good college ultimate players, and the necessary athlete or two. That combination, in Gulf Coast, would be enough.

The Good
Drew Galigher is arguably the most important spoke in their offense; without him, the wheels tend to fall off. He makes possesion-saving cuts and throws. Brandon Xureb, as his name perfectly implies, is the X-factor and Tulane’s most consistent big playmaker. He’s also the heartbeat of the team, and his energy dictates their pace. His size is his disadvantage; however, non-familiar teams will probably underestimate him over the first few points of a game. Whether or not his early big Ds can translate to late success in games will depend on to what extent his teammates rally around him. Greg Cousins is just a sophomore and has a rarity for Gulf Coast–competitive high school experience. Remember that. He is quick, can get up, and his throws are improving (more on that later). Patrick I-don’t-know-his-last-name has the lanky build of your prototypical ultimate player and a practice drive uncharactristic of your typical frisbee player. With captain Jon Schlosberg still recovering from a serious knee injury, the performance of these four players will primarily determine Tulane’s success.

The Bad
The drop-off from here is steep, though not insurmountable. Tulane could run a tight line and still be successful, but they still have time. Defense against a clean offense will be a challenge due to lack of size. On the sideline there are a handful of young athletes who haven’t developed the awareness or disc skills (yet) to make a maximal impact. Not their fault, entirely, and some of them are improving weekly (Andy comes to mind). I’m gonna put my neck out there: too many of the older guys on the team are far too comfortable with their roles, which is ironic because not many of them contribute much of meaning. It’s my opinion that they are just dialing it in to the detriment of Aftershock’s competitiveness. Jon has a tough dilemma. In tight games does he sub to “experience” or to “potential”?

The Ugly
Tyler Conger, with Robert Runner and Greg Ericksen, led UVA to quarters at Columbus before falling to Stephen Presley and Texas. Conger then played with Chase S-B’s Axis of C’ville and significantly contributed to their Summer trip to Prague. Since then, he has helped Nicky Spiva lead Tanasi to back-to-back appearances at Sarasota. He is also, of all things, a really, really nice guy. And he now lives in New Orleans. And he now shows up twice a week to Tulane practices. Greg Cousins is the only one I have seen take Conger up on the offer to put in extra time–and to the benefit of his backhand. Not only has it gained distance, but control and placement. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they haven’t asked Conger to lead more practices. He may as well not be there. So my previous post was one of only slightly disguised incredulity. Because I think this team does deserve its current ranking and should continue to improve (and because Lee called me out), I’m gonna call Tulane out–let Conger be more involved in your learning now and be in the running when you wake up on April 15th.

Remember, transporting illegal substances across state lines is a federal offense. (For Baskin Jones, Madison Central’s chaperone, this may mean minors.) By the way…

If at some point during the weekend you don’t send someone from your team to go talk to these guys–I don’t care if it’s a rookie or whatever–then I’ma ban you from Sectionals for life. Let them know how badass it is they’re playing. One of the main reasons GC lags behind other conferences is a lack of feeder high schools. It’s still in its infancy, but Baskin has been working diligently to get more high schools in the Jackson metro area interested in the sport, and in the long-run that can only benefit GC. Witness: Alabama has rookies that could throw forehands from day one. I still can’t throw a forehand.

Get bored in the car? Check this out. Some real journalism on the weekend. This also may be a first–I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone outside of Gulf Coast mention Gulf Coast. However charitable the shout-outs, hey, at least they happened.

And of course, follow the one Twitter feed not neglected in the bottom of someone’s Ultimate Bucket:
@bamasecs, ftw

The State of Our Union
Let’s see if we can’t stir up more shit than President Obama.

Gulf Coast teams, ranked according to their T-Town seedings:

1. Vanderbilt
2. Tulane
3. Alabama
4. Ball State*
5. Mississppi State
6. Auburn
7. Ole Miss
8. MTSU
9. Auburn-B
10. Mississippi State-B
11. Rhodes

Many of you have been asking about when we’ll make the Sectionals announcement. Surprise! This is it! With virtually every Gulf Coast team competing, this first major tournament of the Spring will also be the last. I see no need to carry this out longer than necessary. Everything gets decided this weekend. Ball State will serve as surrogate for LSU.

The Year of the Dragon
Actually, Ball State is in the blog conversation this week for a legitimate reason. Will Drumright–the fourth best player for Alabama last year (and the 8th man All-Conference)–is bringing the good times back home from Funcie. I love Brian Moore for seeding Pool B this way. Since Alabama and Ball State are practically playing for second place behind tOSU, this is the game I would totally go watch if I were the kind of person who wakes up before 9 A.M.

Prediction: If the wind blows and the sky turns black, Ball State will win this game. Chirp, chirp!

I also really like that Pool D sets up a rematch game for Vandy. Cincy can’t be too happy about it, but who cares? Amir Aschner felt like Cincy stole this one from them in the fall. This is one of two pools where GC could produce a winner, and it will come down to this game. Field 10, 3:30.

Class Participation!
First, match each of the following “Bold Predictions” with the respective team that proclaimed it. Then, rank each “Bold Prediction” in order from “most likely” to “you’re effing hammered”.

• “We will win our pool.”
• “We will finish Top 4 on Sunday.”
• “We won’t be there. Regardless, first games on Saturday and Sunday will be played, and won, still _____ed from the night before.”

Your team choices:

• Auburn
• LSU
• Mississipp State

Too Lame
So… um… you ever have weird fantasies? You know what I mean. Like, say, you’re sitting in class daydreaming about frisbee, right, and you’re thinking about tonight’s practice, and you’re all like, damn, wouldn’t it be awesome if–well, okay, total “Field of Dreams” moment, here–but wouldn’t it be awesome if out of the woods or parking lot some former World Champion would just, like, randomly show up? Just, like, I dunno, it’s stupid, but what if he materialized just to teach us how to play. What if he started coming out for no other reason than to make us a better team and teach us how to win? Wouldn’t that be awesome? But that’s a dumb idea. That would never happen to anyone. And if it did we’d probably just be like, meh, whatever.

Slo Your Roll, Bros
Remember the first time you ever played with a Frisbee? No, I don’t mean the first time you played ultimate in college. I mean the first time you ever played with a Frisbee. Now imagine that moment, instead of happening at a church picnic, happened at T-Town Throwdown.

In a family room somewhere in Madison suburbia, a group of high school guys are playing video games are ripping off Samuel L. Jackson-inspired monologues to pump themselves up for the weekend. Only they don’t realize this isn’t fiction, or even Pulp Fiction. They’re in deep.

Seriously, take it easy on these guys.

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