Sean Ryan: Part deux

As we return to the tale of our heroes, we find them congregating on Roble field in preparation for another early departure to Santa Cruz. As our perspective pans across the tired and careworn faces of these brave souls we notice that many faces are missing from among the crowd. Work and ping pong tournaments have taken their toll. Well, a few casualties are to be expected and those who remain will battle on without fear. A closer look reveals that we have gained a few key reinforcements overnight. Robbie Cahill joined team X and takes on the college game again after a brief but successful sojourn on the club scene, and a couple of athletic rooks joined up with team Y. We talked thing over and decided to shuffle the teams a bit to even things out. Basically team Y had suffered the most casualties and had 11 players and team X had 17, so we moved Solon and a couple of tryouts over to Y so that the team would be competitive. After the first round some of the SB guys had a beef with this, but I really don't understand. They lost to the Stanford team that lost players, and crushed the team that gained players. Plus it's a tryout tournament, would the have learned more about their tryouts by crushing team Y by more points than they did. I doubt it.

In any case, back to the action. The schedule worked out so that Quarters was Stanford X vs. SB X and Stanford Y vs. SB Y. As I mentioned above team Y had lost most of their returning A teamers and so the rookies had to step up into roles to which they were unaccustomed. For the most part they did a great job. It was difficult for them to move the disc with any kind of flow, but the rookies and tryouts had to step up and be primary cutters with our experienced players having to play behind the disc. This gave us a great opportunity to see how they would handle the pressure of good defenders and having to think on their feet. They all managed to make good things happen out there. Unfortunately, they were not consistent enough to keep the game close and despite moving into the lead at the start they were not able to maintain that pace and fell behind to lose by a bunch. To their credit, SB has some sick athletes and we weren't able to deal with them all. I expect that a full squad and some strategy that goes beyond the bare minimum will make a substantial difference. We'll have to see. The second game for team Y was against SB X who lost to Stanford X in the other quarters game. Team Y struggled throughout this one as Solon took the game off to nurse a groin injury and thus we were down to 2 A teamers. We lost it something like 15-4. It was a tough one to swallow, but the rookies got some great exposure.

Team X, on the other hand, was out to show that the combo of Josh Wiseman and Robbie Cahill will be tough to beat this year. With a little help from the other guys those two were just making folks look silly. The score board didn't look silly though, b/c SB had some ballers on that squad too. In the end, Stanford X scored a come from behind victory and a date with SB Y in the semis. The semis was another game that centered on the big play. Stanford and SB both put up big throws to their athletes expecting them to come down with it, and often they were right. The throws were not always high quality and that led to some exciting jumping matches. The score was mostly trading after halftime until SB managed to pull ahead by a break. Then the cap went on, a few more trades later and we were pulling to SB at double game point. They put up a big throw to their sickest athlete and he came down with it. 13-12 SB X.

Now, as much as I hate losing to Santa Barbara, I was happy that we weren't going to be playing another game. My boys were tired and another game would have meant the potential for more injuries.

So, I think that most of our remaining questions about the tryouts were answered, and it's a good thing too, with team selection going down soon. A couple of guys were big question marks going into the weekend and I think that we've sorted that out. By this point I am confident about who I want on the team, and I am once again stoked for the coming season. I know that the rookies will take this team to a new level, by challenging the vets, and running us all into the ground. They will all make plays and have big moments. The real season is about to start and I couldn't be more excited.

My next post will probably cover personal updates, and after that you can expect a review of the rookies that we selected.