Get Ready...

...for this blog to fire back up soon.

In the meantime, make sure to check out the new Squid site:

www.airsquids.com

Sectionals 2010

If you are around the Long Beach area on Sunday, come support us. Saturday won't be much fun to watch.

Remember that time...

....that the Squids won PresDay and Stanford Open and even though they had a blog used for the express purpose of posting tourney recaps, they still haven't updated the alumni on what the fuck happened 2 months later?
Yeah, I remember that.


Sorry everyone, ill try to get to it by this Sunday. In the mean time, I hope y'all are making plans to be in SD for Alumni Day May 22&23. I hear that we are gonna have a one day beach tournament which could be sweet. Here is the Facebook Event Page.

Lastly, its probably a good idea that you watch this video so you can understand what is sure to be 30% of all the jokes in the Fish Skit at the Alumi Day party.

Peace,
Pumba



PS-

Kabaddi on Spring Break.
I have no fucking clue how I got so lucky, but out of 5 years of Texas-Coast-Kabaddi, no one has been sent to the hospital. Luck smiles favorably on drunk Squids.

PSS- Yes, that is a hole to Middle-Earth in the background. Props given to the fish for building most of it but let it be known that nothing can compare to Bilbo's original.

Centex 2010 quickie

Hey everyone. This is gonna be short as I am typing on the Broberg family computer in Austin right before we leave for the Jesus Coast and the Texas Giant.

The weather for the weekend was wet and windy. Games didnt start on Saturday until 2:30 and they were at the double-super secret backup fields 2 hours away in San Antonio. We get to the site (full of mud from the rain) and start warming up and cant believe our in ability to throw more than 10 yards in the 25-30mph winds. Every game this weekend was Huck & Z going down wind.

First game vs Texas we get 2 up wind breaks by ridiculous catches from Forge. Bobble's forehand is real important cause it can go 35 yards upwind.

Second game vs Northwestern (Stukel...Retard) we get a few up-winders, some of which we actually manage to work it with short throws. Nice around breaks by a few dudes.

Last game from UNC. A little bad blood from last year's Centex when we beat them on DGP. They have 2 dudes that have 35 yard flicks and one guy who can catch blades better than Dollar. We trade back and forth for an hour and they get a lucky upwinder and rode it out for the last few points. Fuck.

We get in the van and drive back to Austin cold and tired.


Sunday is back at UT.
First game vs Cal who we have played at every tournament so far... so much for coming to Texas to play new teams. Their break throws in the wind are way better than our and we don't adjust to their stack plays. On to the 9nals bracket.

Next up is NC State who got Schawn on a transfer, a promising looking fish from 3 years ago. Except for the fact that he quite their team too. Not to name names, but the captains from that year only produced one fish from that year that still plays frisbee. (And thats Kenobi, so...)
They actually get the first up wind break but we get it right back and then proceed to take over and win handlely. Cable (a rookie) gets a ninja kick D which really sealed the deal and had us on the ground laughing for a while, even Angry Kevin.

Westen Washington has a guy on Sockeye, Nate Castine, who has money throws. But we all show real poise and work it through the cup. I think this was our best wind game. Of note, Metz has a pull that went up, made it to their endzone (in the Stratosphere) and then blew back to our goal line. Craziest thing ever.

9nals Final vs Pitt. Some teams are made up of nice guys. Some are composed of dicks. I respect the fact that they played better than us, but nobody is a fan of their attitude. They need CAT scans.

10th aint bad but I woundn't put much stock in the results of this tourney as few points actually had offenses.

Now its off to Spring Break!!! Boya

Squids Win PresDay '10!

Ok everyone, I know that it has been a really long time since PresDay 2010 and there are lots of alumni anxious to hear about how we did, so i'll get right to it: we WON! First time ever baby!



Saturday’s Pool Play lineup consisted of Las Positas, Humboldt State, Carleton GOP, and UCLA.

The first game against Las Positas started off smoothly for most everyone except for Coach Dollar who's stat sheet starts with "HUNGOVER. Didn't take stats for first four points. Squids 3-1" Many young players were able to get some extra playing time after the veterans built up a sizeable lead. Coppa catches loose frisbee in endzone and throws a turnover on 2 foot pass to open Kenobi. Fortunately, Coppa is already in endzone. Boom Baby! 11th Addition!
The offense looked great but the defense was a bit sloppy and despite the victory, we knew things had to shape up in order for us to keep winning.

UCSD: 13 Las Positas: 5

Next was Humboldt and this team has a small group of very experienced players who could not be taken lightly. The O was mostly solid. An exception: Brooks throws up some floaty huck to Forge and 3 Humbolt guys. Forge wins at .500 but Pumba yells at Brooks "That's fucking bullshit!" right in front of his Mom, Dad, and 13 year old sister. The defense did make a few plays but once again most of the turnovers were gifts as opposed to earned. We could all feel the need to step up our game for the 2nd half of the day.

UCSD: 13 Humboldt: 7

After a bye we started up against the high flying Carleton GOP. . Great disc skills, physical D, and a knack for huge lay outs and taking chances (and being very pasty white) was their M.O. though and they gave us the closest game yet. Time in and out their offense would come down with amazing grabs but a break early and another late in the game was enough for the Squids to secure their 3rd victory of the day. Yui, a grad student that played with us from last year, was on GOP during undergrad so there were plenty of drunken heckles to be had.

UCSD: 13 Carleton College GOP: 10

At last the game we had been looking forward to all day, UCLA, and we had a nice alumni contigent on the sidelines. This team, whom we often liken to our little brother, always brings fire and passion for our games (they were overheard saying “this is why we play ultimate!” in their pregame huddle). Tempers flared and bodies flew all over the field as the first half was a tight game.

Kattan gobbling up some trash. Probably from Brooks.

Neither team wanted to be the ones to falter first but fortunately we were able to capitalize on some critical UCLA mistakes to take a lead into half. Coming out with fire in our eyes the second half, the Squids cruised on the shoulders of their defense to a clean victory. One big turning point was when one of Bobble's big, blading flick pull hit some cutter who was trying to stop the roll - to bad it hadn't bounced yet.

They got him back though:

Some dude skied him so bad, that he had to hide from all the heckles. (Not really, I think this is a pic of after he got a D).

This is only in here to show how awkwardly Brooks catches the disc.

Finally the defense was beginning to play as we knew it could. We would need that as the games became increasingly difficult on Sunday.

Bid on the open side huck fake. Woulda been sweet if he'd thrown it.

Our zone that has always given them fits continues to cause many turns. I wonder if they will ever catch on. Bender drops his Callahan (...how many times do we do the Callahan catching drill??? Gosh!!) He catches a layout score to end the point(and game) to make up for it.

UCSD: 13 UCLA: 7

Sunday’s quarterfinal matchup brought Chico State to the table. This team runs the same “take the deep shot whenever” offense as San Diego teams are generally associated with. Their players continually were coming down with the hucks but fortunately our offense marched up and down the field with relative ease. Eventually our different defensive looks were able to generate some D’s and it was a decisive victory. The defensive intensity we always stress was not quite there yet, and it would have to be soon.

That short dude skied every damn short person on our team- Meowth, Coppa...
Unfortunately, Coppa decides to tear his kneecap in half to save face for getting skied.

By the way, the scoreboards that Cable (a fish) and Pumba made for every field were bad ass:

Quaterfinals: UCSD 13 – 8 Chico State

Semis and Finals will be in the next post.

Photo credits go to the amazing Amy "Meeko" Chang. Check out her site, she has some really great shots.

Pres Day, Stanford, Alumni Day

Hey everyone, watch out for a forthcoming post about these three. For now, mark your calendars for the Alumni Weekend: May 22&23. This one is gonna be big!

Who the heck are these old Squids?

Pres Day 2010 This Weekend

Hi everyone. PresDay is this weekend, come out and watch - most of the guys games are on Warren field, most of the Women's games are on RIMAC.

Here is the score reporter schedule:

http://scores.upa.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/6709

Come on out, the weather is going to be perfect.

Santa Barabra Invite 2010

Kattan's throw'n-go to Forge

Short Recap:

• Tourney gets cut down to 12 teams so the whole thing can be played on turf due to prior week's rain.
  
• Decently good conditions during play
• SDSU jumps up on us early as we are slow to warm up. We win on DGP in classic Squid fashion. I would be really pissed at the squids if I were state (see: Regionals '09)
  
• Santa Cruz is missing one of their key guys who helped them beat us twice at Sean Ryan (but hey, we were missing Bobble at that tourney)
• Cal tares us a new one in the 1v1 crossover. Pumba gets injured and thinks his collar bone is broken. Forge gets skied by a 5'10 guy. Twice. Its all bad.
• Tide in the 8pm Quarterfinals. Pumba figures out it is not a broken collar bone, just a sprained joint so he plays through. Pumba is such a fucking man. Besides the first point which was a fucking disaster (while Pumba is still warming up on the sideline), the O only turned the disc once. Tide throws a lot of juky zone and we absolutely shred it. Pumba has a really nice scoober. With that win we are slated to play Colorado tomorrow morning in the Semis.
  
• Woodstock's is still delicious. Apparently they stop selling booze in IV at 12. We leave Woodstock's and head to the liquor store...at 12:20. Fuck! Epic journey to find booze. Epic invasion of the hotel room of guys who didn't want to hang with the team and study instead. Dollar introduces the Squids to the Lunchbox (beer, OJ, Amaretto), Meowth swears to never drink anything else ever again. Ziggy is the coolest Psycho by a long shot. We finally leave Monstro and Coppa's hotel room at 3, he can finally get back to studying. We make it to Jawa's house (Fish. Sweet throws.) and try to get some sleep. Bobble is out like a light, others decide it would be a good idea to recount some of the better lines from "The Emperor's New Groove". For 30 minutes, ugh.
  
• We get to the fields on time and start to warm up, unsure of what to think about the defending National Runner's Up. Bobble's broken toe (Lei Out. Yeah, Angery Kevin is pretty fucking pissed about it.) is hurting a lot so he can't play. We talk about a super quick transition-poach-zone to stop the side stack plays(why did we not do this for other side stack teams?).
• We go up 2 breaks quickly because of this new zone, shit is clicking really well. Pumba hucks from the brick to Kattan and Forge who are both so open that they have enough time to talk about who is gonna catch it. Yay Pumba. Next brick, Pumba gets footblocked because he is trying to make shit happen. Boo Pumba. We go to half on serve. Soda is playing really well.
  
• We are doing well with working it against their constant poaching but the troubles come with actually scoring. We are shutting down their big man (#30 Hielka sp?) but having trouble with their smaller shifty handler dude (#13 Matty). We (and by that, I mean Kattan and Forge) are getting Ds on their hammers which is surprising seeing as how we've been having a lot of trouble with hammers the rest of the weekend.
• We pull on DGP, they work it and then huck to #30 who has it easily but somehow drops it. Pumba picks it up on the cone, they poach real big so he swings it to Coppa who throws it into the ground. Colorado takes a time out, they set up in Iso, Matty makes a up-the-line cut, its thrown, Kenobi get a piece of the disc but it pops back up into the cutter's hands. Mamabird wins 11-10. Have the Squids EVER beat Colorado? Fuck.
• We talk for a bit and decide its really not good enough to be happy with such a close game with them. We are all gunning for them, we are going for the jugular next time we play. This game helps us realize that we CAN work the disc verse a well-disciplined defense.
  
• 3rd place game vs Santa Cruz; we agreed to not report the score. Time to give the fish some playing time, . All of them are money and getting better every week. Look for Jawa, Mangle, Eomer, Frau, Cable, BeBeep, and Flounder to be blowing up tourney recaps in the next few years.
• 4 teams (UCSD, Davis, Cal, Santa Cruz) finished better than Tide but were not given a bid to Sanford Invite while Tide did get one.
  
• Freebirds after the tourney is still fucking delicious. Pumba fucks up talking to a hot chick from his high school days in from of the entire team. Mangle goes back to finish what he didn't the night before at Woodstock's; confirmed by Frau.
• 3rd place aint bad but we could have played a lot better. We will have another shot at Cal at Prez Day this weekend. Hope to see some of you old Squids there.
• PS-New jerseys are sweet!

Here is the writeup posted by Booble on the Club Sports page:

The UC San Diego Mens Ultimate A-Team headed up the coast for the Santa Barbara Invite. The tournament had been downsized because of the recent downpour that hit Southern California but the team was still ready to show that last season’s top 15 national finish was not a fluke. The first game against cross-town rival San Diego State started off less than perfect. A few turnovers from veteran players allowed State to hang in the game much longer than we had hoped. Fortunately when the game was tied and then next point would decide the victory, senior captains Guy Hughes and Justin Elliott connected on a deep shot to seal the first victory of the year , 11-10.

The next game against the always competitive UC Santa Cruz Slugs was as exciting as it promised to be. The wind had started to pick up in the cold Santa Barbara air and the two teams were locked for most of the game. Once again we found ourselves in a situation where the next point would decide the game. This time senior leader Josh Nickerson bolted to the endzone and Elliott let his playmaker go get the disc, and he did with the typical awe-striking athleticism we have come to expect from him over his career at UC San Diego (SD 10, SC 9).

California Berkeley was our next opponent and unfortunately we were not on top of our game this time. Several mistakes from our best players let Cal take a big lead and they handled us with not much difficulty, 11-5 (that’s all we’ll say about this one).

The final game of the day was against our biggest and most storied rival, the UC Santa Barbara Black Tide. This was the quarterfinals of the tournament and we had renewed our focus and were ready to put the pressure on our rivals. Thanks to great play from 5th year Stephen Hubbard handling the disc, we were able to navigate the zone defense that Santa Barbara has become famous for over the years. Once we went up we never looked back and the final score of 10-8 doesn’t quite reflect how well this game was played on our part.

Sunday meant the semifinals and our regional rival Colorado. They have historically dominated the Southwest region but we ignored the hype of last year’s national runners-up. With a few players injured we knew that vets were going to have to step up their game and battle through the soreness of 4 games the previous day to reach the finals. After getting out to a quick lead thanks to successful conversion of a few Colorado miscues, we coughed the disc up a few times ourselves and went into halftime down one. Then a constant battling for every point led us to our third double game-point situation of the weekend and despite a turnover by Colorado, we were not able to convert and Colorado scored to win the game (on their way to winning the tournament) 11-10.

The third place consolation game was a rematch against Santa Cruz and both teams agreed to play a rookie heavy scrimmage. This was a great opportunity for our first year players to get some more in game experience after spending much of the weekend watching and learning from the stars of our team. Adam Meckel, Aaron Lee, Rand Norberg, Donny Kleinhen, and Sean O’Donnell all developed tremendously and have really given our team hope for the future. Overall the weekend was a success and we did break seed (seeded 4th, finished 3rd). Once we’re free of injuries this team is going to be feared by everyone in the country.