NW Plains Sectionals

This past weekend was the first step of the real season. I'm of course talking about the Badgers defeat of the Hawkeyes and the start of their Big Ten football schedule.

Sectionals were played in Delafield at the Milwaukee Polo Club fields, where when you think about it, we've played a whole load of tournaments there as they hold Cooler, Sectionals, and Regionals there over the years. 14 teams and 3 bids left us with a 4 pool into semi's mish-mash (maybe a preview of regionals?). We were in a pool with Goose Egg and the second best college team out of Northfield, MN (aka CUT) with games to 17. We cruised in both games, only allowing 6 against CUT and 5 against Goose. High points from the games:
1) My CUT defender seemingly trying to prevent my around by bowling into my knees, me taking exception, calling foul, shoving him to the ground and throwing a push-pass blade at him (without any intention of hitting him). What can I say? I'm very conscious of others hurting my knees as I've put a lot of money into them. (He had tripped and apologized to me).
2) CK taking the Goldstein mantle and controlling arguments with opposing teams and making fun calls to annoy the other team.
3) Beast Master lay out D's for Goose Egg against CUT. That kid may be skinnier than Timmy, but you gotta feed the beast.
4) Lagging as a team against Goose Egg, the game reaching 5-5, then reeling off 12 points in a row enroute to a double oat bag.

Semi's were against Ding Wop. Our D line came out firing, and we essentially won the game shortly after it started. 15-5. Sunday finals were against Frontline (Madison), and they seemed to be as psyched out as Ding Wop was, making bad throwing mistakes and decisions. We win 15-4 and keep Dan Heijmen's Sectional title streak rolling.

Overall, I think the loss to Goat in the finals of CHC may have been a goood wake-up call for us. We played much more relaxed and that allowed us to bring a much higher intensity on D. This team operates well under much different conditions that Sub Zero's past. We can do the "intense yelling" thing to get us motivated but seem to perform better under more relaxed almost fun attitudes than when we are very pissed.

There's been some discussions about lifting versus technique in ultimate in the blogs and RSD. While throwing technique is paramount, after playing more with the likes of Shane Hohenstein, Will Lokke, and Muffin, no one is going to convince me that a good weights program won't take your game to the next level.

Favorite moment of the weekend that made me laugh besides Pat Baylis getting lost and making CUT almost miss the start of our first game:
Poodle Club (Mixed Carleton currents and alums) playing Flaming Moe, Leon going after a deep throw, and a Moe woman gets in his way as she runs for the disc too. Without her there, Leon definitely gets to the disc for a score. So what does Leon do? Calls the foul. I've never seen such shock and disdain at a call before from the Moe side.