January 2010

This will probably be the busiest month for me... in terms of just weekend activities and "ultimate" related business. Here's a rundown as to what I'm up to this month.







===================================



January 9th-10th
Santa Barbara Qualifier, Goleta, CA


This year I have the honor of coaching the UC Irvine-B team. This is my first coaching gig and quite honestly, despite being excited for the opportunity, I am also pretty nervous and anxious for the upcoming season. I have never coached anything related to Ultimate before, and I feel like I still have so much to learn and understand myself and fall short in adequately teaching these young college players the strategies and skills neccessary to become successful ultimate players. We had our first B-team practice this past monday and I felt like it was a success and the kids are excited. I guess since I am coaching now, you faithful readers will now be treated to new posts discussing strategies, failures, and successes. It will be an exciting tournament that will hopefully give the kids a lot of experience. On top of that, I'll get to see my jie and my SB friends =).


January 16-17th
Lei-Out, Santa Monica, CA






The biggest beach tournament west of the Mississippi, this tournament is gonna be off the hook. This year I am playing on a team called, "Sky Hammers in Flight, Afternoon Delight," organized by my club teammates Jeff Chai and Karen Ko. My team features ballers from LA Metro as well as many others from the surrounding area and Santa Barbara. Typically I don't like playing beach, but playing beach league up in LA made me a believer and I feel like my quick give-go offensive style bodes well on the sand. I think we're in the A-bracket... but I'm hoping for just sunshine, seeing a lot of friends, and a great weekend of disc. People from all over the country are flying in for this shindig and this year should be one of the biggest turnouts in the tournament's history.


(www.leiout.com)


January 23-24th
Club Trouble in Vegas, Las Vegas, NV




Now this is the tournament I've been waiting since November '09 for. Trouble in Vegas is one of the craziest, outrageous, and memorable tournaments I've been a part of. I have only been to the past two College TIV's, and this will be my first trip to Club TIV. I had the honor of putting together a team for this tournament and I am excited to see how my team will fare against the high level of competition. Back in April of '09, my friend box, also the TD for the Irvine Invitational, needed a 16th team for the tournament and asked me to organize a community team. I recruited several alumni from UCI, UCLA, and surrounding schools to make a team that flew under the team name "Frorida" (Too asian to be "Florida"). We had matching custom hand made jerseys and despite a terse warning from the TD NOT to win the tournament, we just had to and trounced LPC 15-7 in the finals.



So the same crew is back... but this time with the addition of other players from Orange County and Los Angeles. We are flying under the name "City Wok" and even gained a corporate sponsorship from City Wok Restaurants to help cover costs for our jerseys. Our competition is tough with the likes of Wisconsin, ISU, Colorado, and GOP Alumni playing in our division. Here is our current roster, with College and current club team:

• Samuel "Hammie" Chen (UCI, LA Metro)
• Steven Lowe (UCI, LA Monster)
• Jerry Yang (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Allen Lai (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Matt Khosh (UCI)
• Jamison Gorin (UCI)
• Brandon Gerstle (Cal Poly Pomona)
• Andrew "Straight-Jacket" Chao (UCLA, TFT)
• Ed "Biclops" Melo (UCLA, LA Monster)
• Danny Walters (UCI, LA Monster)
• Simon Margolis (Cal Poly Pomona, LA Metro)
• Matt Hennessy (Wake Forest, LA Monster)
• Barrs Lang (Notre Dame, LA Metro)
• Andy Curtis (Cal Poly Pomona, LA Metro)
• Scott Mahr (Claremont, LA Metro)
• Andrew "Box" McRae (UCI, LA Monster)

A lot of people from the LA/SD area will be traveling to Vegas this weekend... and I know that it will be one for the ages. We are looking to place well in this tournament and I feel like we have the personnel to do so. Vegas here we come!

(http://cultimate.com/tivclub2010)


January 31, 2010
UPA Coaching Clinic, Malibu, CA

Attending a coaching clinic in Malibu at Pepperdine University. The course will be taught by none other than Alex Korb, whom I respect a lot as a player and especially as a coach. I'm excited to learn as much as I can and hopefully my experience will be beneficial to the program at UCI.


----------

January is PACKED! And I am so looking forward to it. Great start to 2010. =)

-hammie #10