USA Ultimate

 This August, 44 of the best youth Ultimate players in America will be traveling to Germany to participate in the 2010 World Junior Ultimate Championships. But first, the Open and Girl’s teams will meet at Amherst College next week for a weeklong training camp hosted by USA Ultimate.

Five members of Team USA have agreed to blog about thier experiences for usaultimate.org - Bethany Kaylor, Sally Landefeld, Maddy Roorbach, Nick Stuart and Matt Barnes. Follow their progress here as they train, travel and compete throughout the next few weeks.

The thirteenth entry is from Pauline Lauterbach, assistant coach of the U20 Open team, as the boy's finish day two.

USA came out strong on Wednesday morning with more sun and a keen sense of competition from the Australia game the evening before. The focus for the day was on increasing the effectiveness of our defenses and fine tuning our offense. Having set the bar high against Australia, we continue to see each game as a golden opportunity to play together as Team USA and to showcase our game and our teamwork.

The team came out strong, establishing control early on with strong man defense. Amos Adams set the tone, coming out strong with two D’s on one point and then throwing for the score. Carter Mize picked up on his cue, getting a layout D and increasing the intensity of our man to man coverage.

Having dialed in our defense, we worked on finessing our offense. We found several long looks, finding one another and even managing to score one point in two passes with a long look from Justin Norden. Julian Childs-Walker set the model with his strong work cutting downfield and Jimmy Mickle continued to break the mark to work the reverse side of the field, opening up new looks. With our deep game and consistent disc control in front of the end zone, USA took the game 17 – 2.

The game ended with a truly spirited celebration of the game. In the international tradition, the two teams came together in a circle to say a few words and exchange gifts in honor of a game well played then played two rousing games, ending with both sides laughing together with one another enjoying the opportunities international competition brings.

After one round off, Team USA warmed up again and set out to meet the challenge of keeping the intensity level high for the second game. The challenge proved to be tough as the team continued to work on its zone and 1-3-3 defensive sets in a less than ideal setting given the lack of wind. Austria proved to be a strong opponent for our zones, finding spots behind the cup or front wall with well placed hammers.

Team USA stayed strong and focused though and regardless of the outcome continued working to accomplish relentless positivity. There were several points where the Austrian team scored but Team USA cheered louder, picking up their teammates and keeping the energy high. Our positivity and level of effort is one of our greatest weapons.

With a switch to man-to-man defense, the team began to more clearly pull ahead. Once again, Amos Adams set the tone with aggressive man defense with assistance from Chris Kocher, Casey McPhee, and Josh Klane. We were able to challenge the long throws while putting consistent pressure on their dumps with our defenders. USA finished the match running hard, winning 17 – 8, ready for another day and the opportunity to play together again.