Southern California Sectionals 2009 Preview

California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, CA

A1: LA Metro
A2: Brown Chicken Brown Cow
A3: Merge
A4: Cancun
A5: In N' Out
A6: OC Disorder
A7: Lunch Money

Bids to Regionals: 5

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Format for this tournament is again round-robin with a championship game the final round of the second day. Similar to last year, Metro and BCBC take the top two seeds in the tournament followed by the up-start Merge team. Top 5 teams gain bids to the Southwest Regionals in Scottsdale, Arizona in two weeks. I am pretty disappointed that Southern California was unable to field more teams as there are numerous quality ultimate players in the section. Round-robin format is not neccessarily my favorite format, but then again it allows us to play every team in the tournament. Should be a great tournament and a crucial tune-up tournament for us.

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A1. LA Metro
We field our biggest roster ever with the full alloted 27. Point taken... we will probably have the biggest/loudest/obnoxious sideline at the tournament. This will be the first tournament all season where we will have everyone not only present, but healthy. Aside from the normal wear and tear from the long season, we're looking close to finally having everyone on the active list. That's a big pick-me-up and having a full amount of subs makes breathers more frequent resulting in harder cutting. It starts here for us.

A2. Brown Chicken Brown Cow
Another typical preview for this team... No one will know anything about this team and who they have until they get there. All I know is that they bring a consistent small core of players from last year as well as some very talented/athletic women to the table and are always a threat to run away with it all. They're a very good team and their veteran leadership as well as many years of experience tells the tale.

A3. Merge
I love this team. Not only are they the new, fun, upstart team in Southern California, they're good. They surprised everyone with their performance at Chico and have the parts to make some noise in the Southwest just like Inferno did last year. They've got solid handlers in Diesel and Mark Hartford and if I remember correctly, have a whole slew of fast women who have many years of experience. Their core group of players did well last year at Sectionals and broke seed at Regionals so who knows how well this team wil do this year. Metro <3's Merge


A4. Cancun/A7: Lunch Money
This is where the ambiguity for me begins. These two teams are out of San Diego and are pretty much teams that haven't really played all season but are put together just to compete at Sectionals and potentially Regionals. If I can any kind of scoop on these teams, I'll let you know. All I have heard about these SD teams is that they are a mix of current UCSD Air Squids + Psycho players which means we all know they can play. They're gonna probably rely on their youth, speed, and athleticism. I always find these unkown teams the most dangerous. You have no scouting report on them at all... and then all of a sudden you find yourselves greatly underestimating them. Can't do that with these teams. Gotta show them respect.


A5. In n' Out
Playing this team will be very different for me. The majority of this team I have played pick-up with on Mondays and Wednesdays in Irvine with a group called "Rocketsauce." They're a fun bunch of players with a lot of years of experience playing the game we all love. This will be a fun game although the guys who are playing on this team have been smack talking me all month about marking up on me. I know that my demeanor come tournaments is very different than pickup in terms of intensity. I'm looking forward to this matchup and to play against my friends from pickup. =)


A7. The OC Disorder (OCD)
More friends from pickup in Irvine! Well... only one or two, but the majority of this team plays for Chapman University and also playe dat last year's Sectionals in Oxnard, CA. They're a pretty athletic team but are less experienced. Don't know much more about this team other than they have several key ballers that are able to match up on anyone in the tournament.


Predicted Mixed Results
1. LA Metro
2. Brown Chicken Brown Cow
3. Merge
4. In n' Out
5. Cancun
6. Lunch Money
7. OCD


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Open Preview

There are 14 teams in the Open division and the teams are still TBA as of today. The top 4 teams will most likely be Strike-Slip, Street Gang, Condors, and Monster. However there is a new Masters team in the SB area (Beyondors) that has a very impressive roster and should matchup well against the open teams.

Strike Slip
LA's finest has had a very up and down season. The loss of AJ, Keith, and potentially several others to injury hurts the young squad and it will be interesting to see how they will respond. They recently scrimmaged the Condors and Beyondors and emerged 2-0 with 13-9 and 12-11 wins respectively. They had a disappointing showing at Chico in letting teams sneak back into the games late but their latest scrimmage results are optimistic. It's all mental for this team. They have the weapons to break out and win the Section, but it all comes down to mental toughness and if cool heads can prevail.

Condors
As I posted previously, they are a very young team that returns only 2 players from the Nationals team in '08. They are relying heavily on youth and athleticism and after seeing them at Chico, looked surprisingly good. Jeff Silverman is still a beast in the cutting lanes and with no other clear superstar, they have and will have to be more "team-oriented" in moving the disc. As a good friend of mine put it... this is the first sectionals in which the Condors aren't the clear favorite in over a decade.

Street Gang
I haven't seen them play since CalStates, but by then I was already impressed by how they played. They had a rough going at Labor Day beating only Rhino, but their early wins over Strike-Slip, Sub-Zero, and Truck Stop show that this team has what it takes to be Elite. Put this team in a section like the Bay Area, they would struggle against the likes of Jam, Revolver, and End Phase, but against the (sorry to say) softer Southern California Section, this team has what it takes to lock up the sectionals title.

Monster
aka... "smaug-vine," these bunch of guys have the "surprise" factor in their back pocket. Mostly a mixture of current or recent college players from UCLA, UCI, and CSU Long Beach, they have a simple offense, a simple defense, but run it well. In addition to the local players, they've managed to pick up some other key players from various college programs, some with multiple years of college nationals experience. They've had up-and-down success, the biggest highlight being a loss to Strike-Slip at Chico 11-12 on hard cap. The biggest strength of this team will be their motivation to ruin teams. When they're good... they're good. When they're down... they're iffy. They're a young team with mostly college experience and will find that although it's not enough at the elite club level, they’ve still got many players who have club experience as well as the motivation to mess you up if underestimated. Go Monster! I'm gonna be on their sideline most of the day.

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Predicted Open Standings
1. Street Gang
2. Strike Slip
T-3. Condors
T-3. Monster (only because I love you guys so much)