2011 Club Regionals Preview: Open Week 1
Bryan Jones, Rob Gross
Posted: September 28, 2011 11:12 AM
For the third straight year, the Central Region will receive three bids to the Club Championships. In 2009 and 2010, the region was represented by Madison Club, Machine, and Madcow. Before those years, however, Sub Zero was the Central team that saw the most success at the big show, and is looking to grab one of those bids to Sarasota this year.
Although the region has a few young teams on the rise, only these four have Nationals experience. Chicago Machine, the top seed going into Regionals, has proven themselves as the team to beat after going undefeated at Chicago Heavyweights. With close wins over Madcow and Madison in pool play and wins in the semifinals and finals against Madison and Sub Zero, Machine has gone undefeated within the region this season. Sectionals also saw Machine handily defeat every team they saw, with only Haymaker (the Central Plains’ only other Regionals-bound team) scoring more than twice against them all weekend. A trip to Florida is Machine’s to lose.
Madison Club locked up the region’s two seed with a 17-15 win over Sub Zero in the NW Plains Sectional Championship. Madison Club, who has a 2-4 record against the other top teams in the region (Sub Zero, Machine, and Madcow), is looking to iron out the small mistakes they have made in those games come Sunday at Regionals in order to book their trip to Nationals. With a strong core of players including the Valdivia brothers and a handful of Wisconsin Hodags fresh off a second-place finish at College Nationals, Madison believes they have the big-game experience to hold off the other contenders on their way to Sarasota.
Despite some bad luck in recent years, Sub Zero still commands respect every time they step on the fields at Regionals. This year, as the third seed, the Twin Cities club has a great shot to make it to Nationals for the first time since 2008. After an undefeated first place finish at Cooler Classic followed by one-loss weekends at Chicago Heavyweights and NW Plains Sectionals, Sub Zero has looked very strong within the region. Despite being a fixture in the region for over a decade, Sub Zero is heading into this weekend with a chip on their shoulder, looking to prove that they deserve another shot at the National Championship.
Rounding out the top four is Madcow from Columbus, Ohio. This is a team built off of depth, with a strong roster from top to bottom. Their ability to field any player on the roster with confidence proves invaluable late in tournaments, as nothing is lost when their playmakers are on the sidelines. Madcow rolled through East Plains Sectionals, but to make the trip to Nationals they will have to play spoiler to Machine, Madison, or Sub Zero, all of whom they lost to at Chicago Heavyweights.
Outside of the top-tier teams in the region, many younger, lesser-known teams look to make an impact in Milwaukee this weekend. Sentinel, from St. Louis, has been on the rise for a few years now and cannot be taken lightly by any of the heavy hitters, especially after nearly offing Madcow on Saturday last year. City Park Ultimate, a team comprised of mostly current and former IHUC players, is new to the scene but has already made an impact throughout the summer. A former captain once told me, “Beware of unknown club teams from Iowa,” and CPU certainly proves that adage. Evil, from Louisville, Kentucky, also looks to use their youth and speed to pull of an upset or two this weekend.
A couple teams from major cities who have played behind their top-tier counterparts for years are looking to finally make a name for themselves as well. From Chicago, Haymaker comes in ranked eighth, but with their experience at Regionals they seem poised to break seed. The same can be said for Minneapolis’s Climax, who will be looking to use their young legs to pull off some upsets. If Haymaker meets Machine or Climax meets Sub Zero, both young teams will look to pull out all the stops in order to upset their intra-city rivals.
Despite some underwhelming performances at Nationals, the Central region remains highly competitive. Whatever three teams can fight their way out of the region will be well equipped for some tough opposition come late October. Will Sub Zero be able to return to Sarasota? Will Machine continue its dominant season within the region? Will Madison Club show that their big game experience gives them an extra edge? Can Madcow’s legs help them win close games on Sunday? Or will one of the lesser-known teams punch their own ticket to Florida?
*** UPDATE - 9/29/11. Mid-Atlantic Regionals has been postponed until next weekend ***
If you can only keep an eye on one region this weekend, the Mid Atlantic should get your attention. With four bids and at least seven teams in contention, every game is going to matter. Truck Stop and Ring of Fire look to be in command, and it would be a shock to see either of them not punch their ticket to Sarasota. Southpaw is the most experienced of the teams remaining, having advanced to quarters last year, but has stumbled this year before the Series. Cash Crop has formed out of the Triangle area and has made some noise by defeating Southpaw at Labor Day. Oakland formed out of the Pittsburgh area and consists of mostly Pittsburgh players and alumni. Medicine Men are out of Baltimore and took down both the Virginia Squires, who made last year’s game-to-go, and Capitol Punishment, Washington, DC’s second team.
Who’s going to win the region?
Truck Stop is hurting from the cancellation of Chesapeake, as their last major competition goes all the way back to ECC in early August. In Seattle, they were taken down by Ring of Fire in the semifinals after holding a lead late in the game. Truck relies on standouts Alan Kolick and Sean Keegan to make an impact down the field, where in the past we had seen Keegan on defense and Kolick in the offensive handler spot. If anything, Truck Stop hasn’t varied in terms of performance all that much. They haven’t had any signature wins against national contenders, but they haven’t had any crushing losses that made you scratch your head. Besides the Ring of Fire loss, they’ve lost to who they are supposed to, and beaten who they should beat. Look for Truck to at least make the finals.
Ring of Fire might just be the most passionate team in Club Open. A team that wears their heart on their sleeve, they have had ups and down during this season. Their resume sports some impressive wins and some puzzling losses. They bested Sockeye and Truck Stop at ECC to advance to the finals, but lost to Cash Crop in a one day tournament that replaced Chesapeake. These guys are at their best when they are fired up on the D line, and are breaking the mark on the O line. The Combination of recent North Carolina players Paul Weeks and Noah Saul to help Brett Matzuka with the handling worked in at ECC. These guys have the capability to win the region, but we’ll see if they’ll have the momentum on their side come Sunday.
The Unusual Suspects- Who takes the last bids?
The Inside Position:
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The Outside Position:
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Southpaw has an outside shot to win the region, but we will have to see a much better team than what we saw at Labor Day, where Southpaw came home winless after being completely decimated. Dave Bear and Trey Katzenbach are big playmakers for the Philly based team, along with Jake Rainwater, who can provide stable cutting down field. During Labor Day the offense was in disarray at times, with few options downfield. Should the offense run smoothly, we could very well see Southpaw in Sarasota again.
Cash Crop and Oakland are two new teams with talent who could be in the game to go come Sunday. Formed from the Triangle Area, Cash Crop consists of a solid core of some of the ECU and Florida players to come out of college in the last few years. With a few crafty veterans, they’ve managed to make some noise heading into the series. Young athletic players definitely help with D’s, but the Crop has been weaker from the handling position. When the game gets tight and options aren’t available, they haven’t been able to grind it down the field, instead relying on a hucking game to produce offense. Oakland consists of Pittsburgh players, and relies on the innate chemistry built from the college team. We do get the chance to see college standouts like Tyler Degirolamo, Alex Thorne, and Chris Brenenborg make a difference on the field. They nearly beat out Southpaw for the Founder’s Sectional title, but came up short by a point. The cancellation of Chesapeake has left another casualty as we have little regular season results.
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At Sectionals, Medicine Men showed that they should be in the mix by beating rival Virginia Squires. They’ve been around for several years, and with a fourth bid, this is their chance to realize the goal of national contention. The Virginia Squires have a core of players from the University of Virginia, and made it to the game to go last year. After their defeat to the Medicine Men at sectionals, they will need to do some reshuffling to push into important games on Sunday.
For those of you in the area, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not going to watch these match ups. With tough competition, we’ll get to see what these squads truly are made of going or not going into Sarasota.
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How do you beat Revolver?
If you’ve been paying attention at all this season or last, you know that Revolver is still the front runner to take the Northwest regional title as well as repeat as the national champion. With only one loss in the last year of play, the other teams across the nation are scratching their head on how to take down the World Champions.
- Hope for bad weather? Good thing it’s in Seattle
Bad weather could be the element that turns the tide in a close game. Revolver’s best attributes are utilizing the field, spacing their receivers and timing off cuts. Anything that helps reduce their options, ie: wind or rain, will make them less multidimensional. We’ll be sure to see some junk zone looks from both Furious George and Sockeye, each of which can force turns. In Revolver’s one loss to Chain Lightning at Labor Day, the wind definitely influenced a few turnovers and created some contested throws that normally would have been automatic.
- Pressure Watson and Cahill
Revolver’s line up has great stars, as well as great depth, but two players touch the disc more often than anyone else. Bart Watson and Robbie Cahill are two of Ultimate’s most versatile players: each has great hucks, vision, and speed. Since the disc is running through their hands for most of the game, anytime that you can catch one of them in a funk means that your defense is going to get chances. Doing that, however, is quite the challenge: there is a reason that these two are touching the disc the most, and it’s because they have lead to Revolver being the most successful team in the last year.
- Offensive Consistency
When looking at the games across the nation from Colorado Cup, ECC, Labor Day, there’s been one thing missing from most team’s offensive production: consistency. Sockeye has had multiple pieces injured with Mike Caldwell and Andrew Fleming missing time, and it has showed early on. With a month to prepare from Labor Day, Sockeye has had the time to put it all together. They definitely have yet to play at their best this season, and are going to need to bring it to take down Revolver. Furious has benefitted during the season from the Canadian Championships, as they clearly have offensive chemistry. Rhino has also improved throughout the season, with Seth Wiggins distributing the disc around the field, and are going to need to play their best to have a shot.
Regardless, we would be fooling ourselves if we didn’t think that Revolver was the likely champion of this tournament. They have manhandled most teams without too much issue. If anything, the loss to Atlanta may have given them the motivation they need to keep on improving.
The Second Bid
The Northwest may be the strongest overall region, but with only 2 spots to nationals, we’re going to likely see Sockeye, Furious, and Rhino fighting it not only to go, but to get to the game to go. Voodoo has proven that they cannot be taken lightly, but would still be a big surprise to advance.
- Likely Candidate #1, Sockeye
With the exception of a loss to Rhino at Labor Day, Sockeye has the most impressive resume of teams not named Revolver. They have battled hard with Ironside and Chain and manhandled Furious at Sectionals. Nate Castine, Mike Caldwell, Tim Gehret, and Andrew Fleming are the studs on the team to watch out for, but their roster has so much more left that we just don’t have time to go over. They love to break the mark, work it up the field, while using creative rotational zone looks and the aforementioned 4 man cup involving Alex Nord, who returns after some time off, and Erik “The Cracken” Doesburg from the Netherlands.
- Likely Candidate #2, Furious
Furious almost made their way into the championship bracket at Labor day by beating Chain Lightning, but unfortunately was ousted due to point differential. They were beaten soundly at sectionals by Sockeye, but were reportedly short on numbers. Regardless, the course of preparation was clearly a good thing for Vancouver, as they seem much improved from last year. Oscar Pottinger is still around, and Marc Seraglia is making plays all around the field. 2009 World Games standout Gabe Saunkeah is an impressive addition, and one that has certainly helped so far this season. Again, we see a seasoned squad full of veteran playmakers, but they are going to have to play even better than Labor Day to get back to Sarasota.
- Likely Candidate #3, Rhino
Seth Wiggins is playing as an offensive handler for the first time in his club career, and it’s made a huge difference for Rhino this year. Joined with a plethora of playmakers, including Timmy Preston and Cody Bjorkland, Rhino was the surprise of Labor Day. They came in as a 6th seed, and made it all the way to the semifinals, having to come back down from 5-1 against Sockeye to win the pool. It’s going to take a great effort by this club to make to Sarasota as they will have to likely win back to back games against Furious and Sockeye to get in.
In the end, two teams that could do damage on a national level are going home empty handed. Just means we’ll see some of the more intense games played a month before Sarasota