Shewolf

Meet one of the newest members of the wolfpack. An all-male wolfpack would just be ridiculous.

p.s....The Contest

So Tai can't back out, I gotta make it public. It is me vs. Tai in a layout contest at regionals. Who will get the most Ds? The Nigerian Nightmare or the Savvy Vet? (no one actually calls me the Savvy Vet, but I also have zero cool nicknames). Positive points for layout catches or Ds, negative if we don't bid when the other thinks we could have had a shot.

By the way, Tai, if I would have thought of it, I would have kicked your ace at CHC.

Coupla a Things....

Here's some stuff you may not know about me:

*I like to go to the bathroom in the stall at work with the roll of toilet paper not in the dispenser. As in, the janitors saw that the roll would end soon, so replaced it, but left the remainder of the roll on top of the dispenser. If there are no "extra rolls", I go in the last stall.

*I do things in threes. When picking seat on a plane, I almost always choose a number divisible by 3 and usually seat C (a=1,b=2,c=3). I set clocks and alarms such that the sum of all numbers is divisible by three (example- 7:02, 6:36). Other things, too, like volume settings.

*I used to eat nearly everything with a spoon, including lettuce salads. I'd get annoyed with my mom if she didn't set a spoon out for me & huffily get up to get one.

*I love food, but will not eat the following: sweet pickles, cherry pie, ketchup, or liver. Of those, I'd be most likely to eat liver. It is good I am not picky about a lot of things b/c I will pick sweet ickle relish out of tuna or egg salad & wipe ketchup off of sandwiches.

Okay, we're done with that. I had a dream last night about missing a plane. I think I was in New york City. I think it stemmed from my conversation with Jon about how many plane trips I was taking & how many plane tickets I'd purchased this year. Trips this year: to Germany & back (Feb/march, school). Madrid to Paris (March, Fun). Boston(June,Ultimate). Denver (Aug, Fun). Sarasota (Oct, Ultimate). Savannah (Nov, School). Jacksonville (Dec, Fam). I also bought 5 tickets for other people, for various reasons.

Sectionals: We won a lot. Did some things on offense a LOT better, learned some things I think we WILL do better. Both Sheldahls played. My mom came to watch, which was nice of her; she also helped pick up trash afterward, 'cause, well, that's my mom. Scorned looks good in a lot of respects, but overall needs to throw, throw, throw. Read Mike Liu's blog.

Central Open has 3 bids. I hope this gives the VBBs ALL the hope they needed to make Natties. I know some of them have believed the whole season, but others needed this bid to fire them up to play their best. I haven't seen them play a team they can't beat. Defense, keep getting turns & convert. Offense, looks like your slipping into an unstoppable flow. I love you guys. Now let's go to the Big Dance together.

I minorly injured my right foot/ankle for the 3rd time in just over 2 weeks. I lightly sprained it at CHC, iced randomly afterward. I plowed into (through/over) Jake at pickup last Wed on a poach D attempt (he was also on D & going for the disc)& he managed to hit my foot in 4 spots- I don't even know how that is possible. PRetty sure I pulled a muscle during that. I may have bruised his ribs (for me, p=mv doesn't apply; an extra R factor must be added-I am like a small freight train). Last night, the stupidest: I am walking up to Jon's place, on a sidewalk, just normal walking & step on THE ONE ROCK on the sidewalk, roll my ankle, and fall down. No kidding, I hit the ground. It hurt. So, we're on full rehab this week. Tonight we'll see how it takes sprints. I bought some athletic tape for it this morning.

Lastly, I was stoked by Gibbs' blog today. She is awesome and has been a great workout buddy this summer & fall. Can hardly wait for tonight's workout (it's the 60-90s I skipped last week to go run into Jake at pick up). Regionals: 10 days and counting.

Grinnell...in brief

So I don't know if very many of the Woman Scorned players have blogs so I feel obligated to metnion it here (those dozen people that check my blog may have an interest). Given that I had to TRY to finish the trailer work & attend a baptism, I only saw the final against Truman State, but heard some other tidbits as well.

When Jon & I arrived, ISUC was playing IHUC and having a lot of trouble breaking their zone. The defense looked pretty good: I saw some bigs lays & mighty effort. There were a few miscues on D, mostly from new players, but I think the future of ISUC looks bright. To any ISUC guys that read this: you can own any zone. Handlers, have confidence and keep the disc swinging. Poppers, move AGAINST the cup, or get ahead of them. Deeps, don't STAND by your defense- take them deep, bring them in, move from side to side! Switches are the best time to get open; if you keep moving, sooner or later either you will be double-covered, allowing your teammate to get open, or you will find a hole created by another teammate. If you receive the disc from one side of the field, try to continue it (like receiving a swing & looking continue). While in a person-to-person D you need to move down the field with the stack, the easiest way to get open after one throw through or around the cup is to cut IN towards that person- counter to the defensive movement. Okay, I could talk forever about zone strategy, but it can be difficult to implement, especially for people used to getting open through athleticism. Besides, you've got a good coach in Jakerz.

On Saturday, Scorned had outscored their 4 opponents 52-6, with the most points scored by one team being 3 by Iowa. The first 2 games on Sunday weren't much different, from what I heard. I was looking forward to the final b/c TSU has one current player for Rackages (or 2, I don't know if Noelle just wasn't there) & they have a similar team attitude: scrappy, fun, partilicious. They also qualified for Nationals last year, which is amazing given that they are a 3rd year team. Stu Jack is no longer coaching them, which I think will be a bit of a blow. He is a great strategist & teacher on top of being a terrific handler himself. They have a coach, but he seems less purposeful than Stu. Anyway, the game starts off with lots of turns (it IS fall college), but it looks like both teams are using their full lines, playing a lot of rookies. TSUnami has 3 or 4 standouts, Duh & Mona handling, a cutter I don't know but who cuts hard and soccery. Scorned doesn't take what the defense gives, but battles to get open, and usually does. There are nice plays from both teams, but Scorned starts to pull away. The second half looks cleaner, especially from Scorned & they are using a handler dominator to get the disc moving, which works well for them. Jaz has a sick grab against the good Truman cutter, Sarah has a couple nice rescues. Meghan Solo is of course getting Ds, especially after a few adjustments against the soccery cutter. Jenny Dobson is an absolute machine, cutting, cutting, cutting. I think she got frustrated with throws, but they'll come, especially with her amazing work ethic. Overall, the group looks like a great bunch of ladies to work with. Mikey is getting the basics under their belts, and I'll officially take over this spring.

Last night was a bit of a silly practice at times, but we got a lot done in the end. I think MIke gets annoyed in a brotherly way at the girls' lack of focus. I am sometimes not helpful b/c I am trying not to laugh (unsuccessfully), but I think have a speical knack for being silly one moment, then totally focused the next. The girls get the first part, but not the second. Seems like we've got plenty to work on, but plenty to work with. I am excited to be coaching again & have already started drawing up ideas for practices, discussions, and drills for next spring.

CHC

Should-a, would-a, could-a. It was just one of those weekends. I hate losing. I had a long, pointlessly negative spiel after this that I wrote Tuesday and erased today; I gotta admit, I was in a bit of a bummer after the weekend, wondering if our offense would ever pull it together. I sent feedback e-mails & realized how easy it is to come up with something positive about EVERYONE'S play. Everyone. Yeah, we didn't have as many sick layouts as I expected. Yep, we still came out slow on Saturday. But I never wanted to pull anyone off the field at any time. That's a tough thing to say for a team that has roughly equal playing time for everyone. That's right, Rackages is that deep. What we need to know, believe, and make happen is that 7 of our best are playing all the time. Step up, girl, you are on the A-1 team!

How many times have I started this post? At least three; the above is from last week (with a few temporal changes), the following from today. I’m very glad I didn’t post on Monday or Tuesday afterward; my view of CHC then was very negative, I think inappropriately so. Since then, I’ve had people broaden my view of happenings & been able to be a little more optimistic.

Saturday
Game 1 vs. Mojo 9-13
Despite many e-mails about the importance of being ready to play hard, fired up, and smart, our offense looks scared, forced, and unflowing. Our defense is okay, but there are fewer big plays than expected, hardly any layout Ds, and a few too many breaks. Mojo looks good, solid. They have Kali? (the really nice blond that played w/Notre Dame) that made some really good defensive plays- I am pretty sure she did not play in Detroit. Personally, I had 2 layout Ds & turnovers typical of me- too many, a combination of overthrows & trying to throw to where I think the cutter SHOULD be. I got pretty frustrated with my offensive cutting, too.

The rest of Saturday
We clean up our offense, remember how to cut, stack, and throw. Our defense is doing better at shutting things down, especially underneath. On the deep side, I think we are getting taken too many times- possibly due to an overly individual defense as opposed to a communicative, interactive team defense. There are few big plays or exceptional players. Standouts: Sam; just doing what she does- getting open, making good defensive plays, few turnovers. Possibly me on defense. Oh, we had some good cup action, both 3-2-2 & 3-3-1. I was usually a part of the really successful ones, but can’t remember who else was in it. I think a key point we are picking up on/improving is the recovery of a break past the cup- the middle(s) of the cup & the wings are doing a good job of containment. New weak spot of 3-2-2: Sideline deep. The last game of the day against PPF we looked TIRED; it didn’t help to have all those sickies have to sit out. I felt a step behind most of this game.

Sunday:
Last pool play: cleaner, more fired up than our first game on Saturday. Roll to victory.

Semis: vs. Wicked
We beat Wicked in pool play, but they came out strong and really fired up. They played a lot of zone, which we tended to tear apart. Actually, it was more of a slow rip- handlers working it well, poppers coming up big, playing really calm. In the second half, this started to fall apart, usually when a popper would try to move it upfield- lots of turfs or rushed throws. We took half 8-6. I think we scored the next one then they had FIVE in a row. I think I should have called a time out earlier, but really, I didn’t know what to say- quit dropping & turfing? Our D needed to be making more plays. I think Gibbs had a big one & I had one layout D. They had a couple deeps that seemed to be able to take us most of the time. So anyway, the score is 9-11, and we are really struggling to close the gap. I think at 11-13 we finally score 2 in a row (and actually, I think it was 10-13, so 3 in a row, 2 on D). Cap is on, so we are pulling for Universe. Our defense and sidelines FINALLY look totally fired up. The first 2 or 3 throws the D is tight, tight, tight. My girl fakes a bunch, I am with her every step then bite too hard on an in-cut & she cuts down the line. The thrower makes a beautiful upwind flick down the line. I am trying to recover & get the mark on- it may have been the hardest I’ve ever worked to turn so slowly. They’re about 10 yards out of the endzone & I am trying not to give too much away on either side. She breaks BH around, with my hand meeting hers on the follow-through. I think another BH goes off for the win. On the upside: we thought we would win. On the downside: if we played like we WANTED to win the entire game, we would have. Stupid, stupid throwing errors & drops show a lack of mental focus. Unfired-up D on a team that we ARE faster than…..sheesh, we were faster than EVERY team. Self lesson: trust your sidelines to call the strike, don’t give up a break trying to prevent the score. In this game, I had drop, but fewer throwing turnovers. I had a couple that I think should have been caught, but for the most part, handled well against the zone. I am almost always smiling during Zone O & we have yet to face a zone this year we can’t break. I love to handler with Holarz on zone O. Jill & Lana did an especially good job popping.

Anyway, we play out the 3rd place game against Nemesis after about a 30 minute break- they had been misinformed that there would be no game. For having trouble rounding up their players, they came out strong & hard. They had some really sweet plays on offense to keep the disc alive at all costs. Unfortunately for them, the fury of our loss blossomed into hyper-aware tenacious defense & a cleaner, cooler-headed offense. We dominated, 13-3.

It was really disappointing not to play Mojo again. I am so looking forward to our game(s) at regionals; they really challenge our offense to think & they have a couple-three stellar defenders (the Kali/Cally girls & one Asian handler stick out) & a great team defense.

Weekend standouts: Christina with her amazing cheers. She has this cheering philosophy that you don’t re-use cheers. I like to reuse the ones I really like, such as “Huck it Hard”(Tenacious D remix) & “Because of you”. Sam- as stated previously, she is just awesome. I played zone O downwind b/c of my trust in her defense. Jill was awesome to have on Sunday; she is one of the Bait “thinkers”- she has a knack for seeing the field and how the TEAM can play better through minor changes.


Motivation: Feeling a step too slow for Saturday's game 4.
Motivation: Throwing a step too far to...everyone.
Motivation: Knowing we COULD have been in the finals....

I told myself I wouldn't....

...but, I have so many Ultimate thoughts, I've just gotta post. I watched the ECC finals between Riot and Fury. Riot played harder D (I saw 0 Fury layout bids), but were either trying a straight up that wasn't working or were overplaying the force side. I saw ONE IO forehand break, the rest were backhands, many of them big. I added marking to my visualization scheme; there is no excuse for a lazy mark. The first few points were LAZY D from both teams. Too much allowance of cutting to the force side- that is YOUR side, defense!

Layout practice on the mat last night with Huckett, Gibbs, and Natalie. I ended on a sweet high "D"- that is the one I am practicing & visualizing, that layout up for the OI throw to your girl one step ahead, the one that is just of reach if you don't leave your feet. That one that makes me idolize Christina & Dave.

Hucks: both teams had them, both teams threw them well. Deep defense: need to create a TEAM defense that won't allow hucks for scores; we've got the speed & ups. Both teams rarely throw poor passes, but both defenses allowed open cuts on the force side. 30 hours to go....I've got butterflies already.

Bring It

I shouldn't be posting as I have more microscope slides to look at and more pathology to read, but I just couldn't help saying to the Nemesis & Mojo fans/players: this weekend, baby, first thing. Rackages will be there, looking hot, playing hot, BEING hot. Will you? I hope so, because I am wasting away for some good Ultimate! Rackages, feel free to comment on how you feel about this challenge as well.