1998 COLLEGE NATIONALS – QUOTE SELECTION
MAY 29–31, BLAINE, MINNESOTA

Jen Donnelly

RE AJ

"She calms everyone down. She's totally consistent"

R Coaching

"It jives with my inner being"

Her job: Chip designer (silicon valley?)

Greg Husak, RE Brown, other teams

"I think teams are ready for us to beat them and as soon as we show a little mustard they roll over."

"We were up 9—5 on Stanford (at Regionals?) then had trouble with the zone, so we will try to put the zone on."

"Carleton was the only unknown team, and we beat them. So we're not scared of anyone."

--they are returning 10 starters from last year's championship and 3 from 1996.

Fortunat, after ECU victory

"It's funny, because We're a young team, but we've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ultimate, in high school or whatnot, and have been to worlds and nationals. And know whats up. We put those guys on the line. They knew what to do. The ECU guys were tired. They didn't want to play D. We made them run.

"Cool as cucumber. Didn't even break into a sweat.

"Like to keep it exciting, for the fans

"I felt that we were in control of our destiny.We could score every time we got the disc. They were definitely going to give us the disc once a point."

Andrew "Hootchie" Schwartz, Brown

Your first appearance at Nationals, and you made semis, what do you think?

"I'm ecstatic. This is the best year that Brown has ever had....This is the first time we won the section, won the region."

How did it come together?

"It started two years ago when we got a lot more serious. Started being strict about the fundamentals of the game. ... Forch and myself were coached by Jon Gewirtz for example."

"We had some great recruits, Moses and Kyle, couple guys from Paidiea.… Really, Forch is an amzing leader. He's a gifted athlete, an amazing ultimate player, and he just makes everybody play better. Also Safdie…really Fortunat just brings us all together, its like a triangle with him on the top and a lot of people suporting. We have a really deep team, and we jus worked really hard. Our goal was to win the region, and we did that, and out goal was to make semis, and we did that (!)

"An Old School at Brown, liked to hang out and drank beer, just weren't that serious about it…They thought Ultimate wasn't a real sport. So when I came as a freshman, I couldn't even play. it sickened me. Cause I wasvery serious (and jon gewirtz is a real serious guy) and were 90th in nation....we kicked all the hippies off the team [to the b team] [This was in 1996] Last year we were just really young. And me and Forch with that Jon Gewirtz mentality...

Stanford Parent. RE Semifinals

"It's a pleasure for a parent to watch a game like that"

Ali, captain Yale

"We just looked at it like a nationals game.

"[UNCW} is really fun to play. They're really hard, they're spirited. I love to play them, they're so much fun.

"This is the first semis fo us....

"I think nobody was ahead by more than two, [upw/dwn game, yale got 2]

--Star player with layout, Emily Rodgers

de la Cruz, Oregon

"We had calculated it out, after we found out Rutgers beat Madison. We knew it wasn't going to be points anymore

…cornell didn't know until halftime

…they thought they only had to score 5 points, even in a loss.

"The fact that Rutgers beat Madison was huge for us"

"The other thing that was huge was that we scored the first 3 points, including an upwinder, and then by 4 Just to have that cushion was key.

played them at Stanford Invite…did't have all of our players,& weren't playing our best. I don't think theywere expecting us to play like we did.… Surprised them at the beginining for sure. They hucked it a lot in the beginning (no. 00).

"I was really surprised they had a huge running game. They're great athletes. A lot more defensive team that I thought, I thought they were more of an offensive flow team

"Oh, that was a heartbreaker (re madison loss)

"When we were down to Carleton, we were somber, and we thought Madison would beat Rutgers, because ""they were just working us yesterday"" [re Madison]

"Forget about that and win the next two games and we got lucky."

Coach Cory Pike from Women on the Verge

9 returners from last year…lost to UCSB in backdoor game. We haven't played Stanford all year...

RE strategy vs stanford

"Running our butts off. Trying to shut down basically every one. It's all going to be about playing our hearts out.

Brian Dobyns, & Butch ______ talking about NCSU & Colorado

You only had to win by 1

Dobyns - I'm glad nobody told me that!"

"I think that familiarity really paid off...[RE Colorado]

How did you beat Colo.?

dobyns "We actually talked to a couple of people that played them [already at Natls] and we played them a couple of times. They really like a nice long, wide swing around. Instead of working up the line. The first thing we did was drop the mark back a step to force them to throw upfield. And then we knew they like to come back to the disc. So we played denial defense, put our defenders in front of their cutters. So they had to work very hard to get anything easy."

Work all game?

"It worked all game. All game.

"And then we played with a sense of a mission. We worked a long, long time with a goal of playing on sunday.. We hadn't played well all wekend. So we had the opportunity to play well. We had been able to rest our better players in the second game of the day. (against Rice, who they had beaten 4 times already that year ) So they were able to play a tremeduous amount in the game. That was a key. And then we did very even subbing throughout the weekend, so their was nobody that had played too much when it came down to the last 5 points of the game. for last 5 poins, We wee able to leave our best players on the field and they still legs....We have gotten very used to winning at the end of the game. Played very even until last 5 points. …changed

"The 4 man cup. We didn't have wind all season long. I made these guys play the cup in practice because I knew there would be wind here.…It picked us up 4 or 5 points in the beginning of the game.

"When they start getting bored at practice. I make them play a game where they have to where you have to score a "greatest" before getting a point.

And we scored a gret in fist hlf, "It was wild"

"Practices, scoring counted by d points

"We had 5 weeks down time after Regionals. Started to get a little stale. Have to change the focus. Something else you play for"

Bobby Croom to Roy Attride

"Pretty much knew halfway in the air [that I was going to do the greatest]

Mike Payne, Stanford

"It'a all about playing your game. Most people haven't played in front of 700 people. There's a big element of cganging your game to fit the situation. For istance, In last year's finals we changed our game and didn't play the game we played all year and had been winning. All about playing our game, running hard, and not being fearful."

Strategies:

"Swinging it to the man thats poached. And when on D, we're probably going to front them alot. They don't have the deep cpacity they once used to."

"It depends on how we frame it, especially to our younger players.Don't know what it means to play in the big game.

"It's all a game of psyche, Nationals finals. Whoever comes out psyched up and mentally prepared.

Credits Jim Reggets, Wachter, Husak, Studarus

Semis, James Studarus

"We made some early mistakes. State had a really good 4 person cup. And if its windy that 4 persn cup is pretty crucial. We had a little time adjusting to that. I give credit to them.

Stanford guy tried to play for jerseys

"Black Tide jerseys are very symbolic. It's a symbol of completing a season thru Regionals and Nationals. Only in regionals and nationals do we wear our yellows

"Santa Barbara is windy!"

"We feel a little more confident because we play in the wind."

"We're used o it. A lot of teams put zones on us. We played Calreton and we put a zone on them and went on a 7-point run. We're confident throwers.

RE Stanford

"We play Stanford a lot. They know us. They know what they like to do. But we're just going to do our thing.

"There's definitely a mystique with Black Tide. If you ask them they would say they're a little worried about us. Even though they have a winning record.

"I give credit to them, they're great players. But we're the Black Tide. When it comes to Nationals, thats our tournament. We've won Nationals 5 times and Regionals once. When it comes to nationals its a different story. We don't train for sectionals, regionals, we peak at Nationals. That's what we do. [they are still in school]

Dobyns, re NC St

"Our other loss was against Stanford when that storm came through and it was windy"

"They would throw the disc to the downfield corner and put all the onus on us to get back upfield. And we couldn't do it (maybe got 1 upwinder, but then that scored the upwinder back).

"We started the 4 man cup in the last weeks of practice..."

"If we went man-to-man they would have crushed us because they have such great skills."

Losing 3 players. Thats all. For next year.

"We have to improve our throws in the wind"

"Everybody is really disappointed about the loss. But frankly, you have to take steps. Nobody gets a free ride."

I noticed everyone enjoyed talking to me and had things to say.

Brian Harriford, re Callahan

'I just wanted to dedicate this award to my team, John malone (who started team 7 years) and especially to my wife. We butted heads a lot about the time I put into Ultimate. My wife, she supports me 100%"

lou Burruss, Carleton

What did you tell the team at 18-18?

"I apologized for crying. I apologized for crying the point beofore. And I told them they kicked ass and I knew they were going to fucking win."

Re down at 18-14

"I said 'play with your gut and you'll win'"

"I really tightened things up at the end

"They've got the 3 main players, Martita, AJ and Carla. Our zone wasn't very effective. So we had to go with person. I was fiddling around with matchups until I got a system of matchups that was effective. It was that sys of mcthups that I think carried us down the stretch. Katie Obrien on AJ, Deb Cussen and Jen Wilson on Martita, Julie Gardener on Mary Hunt (until injury)

We graduate 5 people (only one handlers ) They call it upfield and downfield ( a split). Players

All season were you intent on winning the championship

"Absolutely."

We had the disc to beat Stanford on Spring Break and lost that one too.

Jen Donnelly, Stanford Coach

It was 18-14, how did you let them back in the game? 2 upwinders

"I think we made a few strategical errors. I'll take the blame for that. I said 'huck it' but for whatever reason the Gods chose not to make it as windy during that period of time. What we really should have said was "have confidence, walk the disc up smartly" But the huck had been working for us so much. And being an advantage so much I really didn't want to give it up. And I have faith in our defense. But our defense did not come through in those points. That really was the kicker. At 18-17 we had two goalline drops. You gotta convert!! You gotta take care of the disc!"

At 18's

I said, the hell with this, you girls take care of the disc. That's what winning this game is about. And they did. They looked driven.

Were you worried?

"No. No , actually no. I knew we were going to win. And I knew if we didn't win it was only our fault. And the thing is so did they.Thats why we worked it up because they knew they would never forgive themselves.

"It was not being afraid. They were not afraid. They were driven. I'm going to do this. They weren't afraid.

61 games in a row. 2 nationals in a row. 102nd victory vs 6 losses. Losing 3 starters next year. AJ back.

The dance at the end of the game. Taught it to them at Myrtle beach . The Bus Stop.

"That game at Myrtle Beach, which was SO similar. Similar in a lot of ways.In that it was a game of heart. But neither team was at 100%.

5 practices a week, 3 hrs day.

JD may not return to coach next year.

RE Lou

"Lou is a fantastic coach. Haven't seen the likes of that coaching since 1995 when Peter Ristin coached UCSB."

"I think Cory Pike is a fantastic coach as well,"

RE Foul Calls

"I felt that they were bodying on the mark a lot more. Both teams made the choice to be physical. Maybe the fans

After having that Wilimington exeprience froma couple years ago, still a bitter pill, make an effort to only make a call that is fair. but at the same time

More quotes here if you need 'em!

"The more we win the less people cheer for us."

Alex Young, C of Stanford

"I think they played excellent. I don't think we could have changed too much (in tems of strategy). Early on we had a little bit of the nerves and we came out a little bit slow.

"We had a very up and down year all around andwe came together for Regionals and Nationals. We were just playing our offense, Stanford offense, Stanford defense. Tight man D andd we went with what we had. We didn't try to change anything.

Stanford player
RE Final throw

"That hurts, but it takes nothing away from UCSB. Thats the way things go in Ultimate. You have your ups and downs, you have the wind take it some way, and that one went their way. It hurts, but it doesn't hurt any more than if they had converted on a spectacular play.

"People thought at the beginning of this year that we wouldn't be back here because we reloaded and had 10 new guys out of 22. This year we're losing 11 guys too. The tradition withour program is hat we have a ton of guys come out and we want to be back here every year. I'd say we'll be back here. We're losing a lot of guys, but we'll play.

"Our season came to an end and we lost. But hats off to Santa Barbara. They're a great team. But we're going to keep our heads high. The nice thing about our team is everyone on our team plays Ultimate because we love the game and we love each other.

Greg Husak, UCSB

RE Final Throw

3rd in a row

"That was pretty fortunate. it's nice to have teammates like that that are going to pick that stuff up for you."

Playing on badly bruised fat anke. Very big. Got the block against NCSU and a NCSU player landed on you.

RE at 18-18 when Stanford came back

"Honestly, I thought they might roll. I was a little worried. But then we just put in our veterans and we got a lot of experience in and they played veteran-like, sucked it up a little bit, got two discs back, and didn't turn it over too much.

"Love going to war with these guys."

"They had our number most of the season"

"We wanted to come out strong and get the emotions high and just sort of ride the wave and hope that we could psyche them out in the end and psyche ourselves up to play well."

James Studarus

"We've won Regionals once and Nationals six teams. Bring em on. That's all I've got to say.

Dedicated whole season to Mark "Sammy" Samuel. Died tragically this summer.

"Every time we were down or lacked attention, ok 'this one is for sammy'

Did you ever get scared in this game?

"You just kind of get lost in the game. And your focus is whats up. You can't have that mental edge if you're scared. It was tight, and maybe you get a little nervous.

"You just can't get.....

"You know like DoG, The winners, they don't get nervous. Alright, its our duty, its what we work for

"It doesn't matter what the score is, you play a certain way on the Black Tide. Everybody wants to beat the Black Tide.

relates story of ECU and "beat Black Tide" on their discs

"No matter what, everyone beats the Tide.

"You just have that mentality, 'down by two' no matter what the score is

"When I was taught how to play, 'your job is not to worry about the score, your job is to get a fucking layout block" And that's what happens, you get the layout block, you punch it in and you win a Nationals Championship

"There are 3 guys on our team that our supposed to know the score. The 2 captains and me. And that's it. That's all. No one else is supposed to know the score. If anybody in our huddle "whats the score" we chap em, anyone asks "we gotta play these guys next game" we chap 'em.

"You're concentrating on the point at hand and what you gotta do and that's it. I guess it breeds winning."

These quotes were pulled from a transcript of the mini-tape recorder and my field notes.

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