USA Ultimate

Saturday was the final day of the US Junior Team training camps and after three days of hard play the Sunday rest will be greatly appreciated.  Stepping back a bit, in the team meetings last night the US team captains were decided.  For the Boys Sam Kanner, Darden Pitts, and George Stubbs were chosen and for the girls Georgia Bosscher, Claire Suver, and Molly Suver will be the captains.  All six of these players are highly respected by their teammates as talented, well-spirited players with great leadership abilities.  Darden and George have both gained top level club experience with Boston DoG and Atlanta Chain Lightning respectively and Claire will be playing for Seattle Riot this year.

The morning for the boys started off with more focus on offensive strategy before an 10:15am match-up against Amherst HS Ultimate Huricanes players and alums including 2004 US Junior Team members Will Neff and Sam Roberts and coached by former US Junior Team Coach Tiina Booth.  The US was playing without Andrew Hollingworth who injured his shoulder late on Friday's practice.  The teams traded to 3-3 but while the 'Canes were firing on all cylinders, finding their deep looks, and not turning it on their O possessions, the US Boys were having more difficulty with their offense and had to work for multiple turnovers when starting on offense.  In the second part of the first half Eli Friedman got a sweet outside shoulder lay-out block and the US Boys stepped up on defense while the 'Canes made some uncharacteristic errors as the US Boys took half 8-5 up three breaks.  In the second half, the US Boys opened with a score to take the lead 9-5.  The teams traded to 14-10 and the US Boys added another break to take the game 15-10.  Both Kanner and Jeremy Norden played great offense for the US Boys keeping the disc moving and hitting some nice deep shots.  Overall the US Boys looked slower than expected as the two days of training had taken its toll.  On the other side of the coin, the Amherst team included players from multiple years, including some who had never really played togehter and many who had not been conditioning over the summer. 

The afternoon for the US Boys was lighter with a lot of talking and a little endzone work.  The light day tomorrow will allow the team to come out strong for their first game of the tournament against Great Britain on Monday.

The US Girls once again had a similar day with a lighter schedule and a game against a scout team made up of Amherst HS players.  Their game, however, was in the afternoon.  The morning consisted of extensive work on set pieces off of stopped discs and some scrimmaging that saw Bosscher making nice plays.  In the afternoon scrimmage the US Girls emerged victorious on the strength of their long game and their red-zone efficiency.  Minnesota high school league and Flaming Moe stand outs Sam Valesano and Patty King stepped up big with strong cutting.  The team looked strong heading into the day off tomorrow.  The US Girls day finished with some yoga and a solid round of miniature tanks.