28
Jan
New Paganello Website!!
After more than half a decade of the classic Paganello website the new one has launched; view it at www.paganello.com.
28
Jan
Canada U23 thoughts
Disclaimer: The following is in no part the opinion of UC or any UC board members; it is wholly my opinion.
Lately I’ve been asked by quite a few folks about U23 and whether Canada will send players to represent us at the tournament. It’s a question that I’ve been asking myself even before the tournament was formally announced. The number of people who’ve asked me is astounding (I must really get around a lot) and I’ve been surprised to find out how many players are eligible. There are many players that I consider veterans that are eligible to play in the tournament.
So, what do I know? Not much as it turns out or at least not anything that I can tell you. I can however shed some light on the process by which UC will decide on whether or not to send a team or multiple teams.
25
Jan
Teams appear
As more details on WUCC 2010 pop the most exciting to date is a partial list of teams on the WUCC 2010 website (http://www.wucc2010.com/content/registered-teams). It’s a known partial list as many names don’t appear on the list (Lotus and Mephisto to name two) and much is left to conjecture as to what other teams we will see.
What is known is that this promises to be a hard fought tournament on all sides. With greater diversity in teams each country and club will be able to see how they can improve and how they compare to the US and Canada. ECC gives us a general idea of how the UPA teams will fare even though it remains tough to call how Australia and the UK will do in Prague. Given the intensity of teams these days and the massive improvement in play style around the world that the last four years have seen I wouldn’t be shocked if a European team finished atop each of the divisions.
22
Jan
U23 Another Update and Questions
An update to yesterdays post, a list of countries that are confirmed and/or very likely to attend are as follows:
Australia
Austria
Colombia
Finland
Great Britain
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Latvia
New Zealand
Poland
Russia
Sweden
The US (UPA) may be convinced to attend, more details as that develops.
Jeff Rathburn (Masters player on Fossil) commented on the post yesterday questioning why a U23 tournament is being held. I have thoughts of my own but please feel free to chime in with yours.
Traditionally (with other sports) a U23 tournament or event is used as a transition period for players moving from Juniors (U19) to the upper more Elite levels of play. In Ultimate most of the top players on any team are older players (older than 23) that were very good players in their youth but have become superstars as they gained experience. It’s quite true that most players that play on a U23 team are also players on club teams but they’re likely not the elite players on those club teams.
A U23 tournament gives players that are the superstars of tomorrow (and a few that are superstars today) a chance to develop further and it allows various countries to compare their programs and see how they will trend going forward. I see this as a significant tournament with regards to each Ultimate community learning where players need to develop further. In fact, I would call for a U23 tournament within each country but that already exists in the form of the University (CUUC in Canada) and College (UPA in the US) championships. How many players have we seen come out of the Colleges and Universities that are now Internationally recognized players? How many on Sockeye and Furious alone? However, I don’t believe that those College teams would stand a chance in the UPA club series and that’s evidenced by College teams not doing well when playing in the Club series.
Experience matters and U23 provides a place for players to mature as well as countries to gauge where to invest time and energy next.
21
Jan
U23 Possible Countries?
There’s a lot of speculation surrounding who will and who won’t attend the U23 tournament this summer. Within Canada there’s quite a bit of discussion amongst potential players that’s heavily in favour of sending teams and as of yet Ultimate Canada has not made a decision. That said, let’s speculate as to who will and won’t attend.
20
Jan
New Blockstack.TV episode
A new Blockstack.TV episode is now available on their site. Great coverage of tournaments in the Philippines by Vince and Hilco. If you look carefully you’ll catch a glimpse of me…from time to time.
Read on after the break to watch the episode.
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29
Jan
No Game for you!
After years of playing Ultimate at almost every level it still surprises me how seriously people at one particular level take Ultimate; those people are league players. To be more specific it’s league players that play Ultimate several nights a week but only in league or local tournaments. These are people that are athletic, friendly, and generally cool folks off the field but on the field (or at the edge of it) they become amongst the most idiotic bunch of folks I’ve ever seen.
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