STANFORD INVITE 2000: POST-TOURNAMENT NOTES

Tidbits and Analysis - Two Days of Top College Ultimate

One thing I reaffirmed from speaking to several players and coaches is that recruiting works. In the women's division, for example, both Stanford and UNCW benefit from drawing top talent from other sports. It is active work keeping talent and encouraging potential players to choose Ultimate over Soccer, Lacrosse, or Field Hockey.

Coach JD from Stanford seems to get at least half her team from this athletic pool. She is quick to point out a Superfly girl who was riding the bench on the Stanford Soccer team (but who likely could have started at several other division 1 schools) who was encouraged to play Ultimate and be a starter on the Championship team. I talked to a couple of Superfly sophomores, and one had come to Ultimate from Field Hockey, and one from Soccer, where she was successful in high school. It was telling perhaps that despite growing up in California, one even in the Bay Area, they had never heard of Ultimate until college. But once at Stanford, introduced by a friend and encouraged to stick around for a chance at a Championship, they are now Ultimate players.

For UNCW as well, recruiting top talent is key to keeping the program alive and successful. Coach Zeldin actively appeals to women with the promise of making Nationals playing frisbee. This year, he has managed to recruit and keep the leading scorer on the UNCW soccer team. Quite a coup - but it is only a one-year spike in talent.. She joined the team just a few months ago as a senior (soccer season was over) and is now a major contributor; defensively with her quickness and offensively with her speed.

The crossover recruiting in Ultimate is necessary for the top teams, and it often produces results. Last year's National champions in the men's division, NC State, recruited heavily among athletes at the university, while similarly small schools like Carleton and Oberlin get soccer stars, tennis players, and even basketball starters (like 6'8'' Josh Wilhelm) out to play Ultimate.

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Money. That's the other recruiting incentive. Lots of money given to kids to come and play our sport....no, no, no. We know that's not true. Ultimate doesn't have any money.

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Speaking of money - let me tell you a little bit about Toyota's sponsorship of this tournament. I don't know the exact amount of funding the Stanford Invite received, but I do know that Toyota paid for 600+ discs (some of which went to Toyota reps, some were given away at Finals halftime, and the majority were sold with profits going to the tournament.) Toyota also provided funding for an Observer's clinic that was held 2 weeks before the event and they put out money for some advertisements – notably an ad in the local Palo Alto daily paper.

Effectively, Toyota (through Jon Shepard) also provided for my presence at the tournament, paying for my airline ticket and hotel room (I stayed with Jon, the tournament Toyota liaison who also helped at every stage of running the tournament). For my part, I promised write-ups on RSD and on several websites. I also wrote a press release before the tournament announcing the event, and another one for Saturday's results. These I sent to some 15 or so media outlets in the Bay Area (with no noticeable results – but even seeing a press release helps to legitimize us in the eyes of the Media)

Toyota brought three medium-sized Toyota banners to hang from the tents, and four brand-new cars out to the fields for everyone to look at. All told, they were pretty much hands-off all weekend. They seemed more amused and interested in this Ultimate thing than they were in getting directly involved with the tournament or the rules of the game.

The Toyota people I talked to were fairly cool with the sport and its rules and regulations. About 5 different representatives showed up at various times over the two days. They stood around, watched this alien activity, and talked to curious discophiles about the new model cars they had out for display (in case you're wondering, they brought an Echo, which looks like a Jetta, a new MR2 Spyder, which has the stylings of a Miata, a pickup truck, and the new Celica which is truly a pretty fab looking little speedster.)

They told me that the average age of Toyota buyers hovers around 45. Therefore Toyota is trying to reach a younger crowd, and collegiate Ultimate is one market they are looking into for potential progress in this area (hence the website tracking – naturally the web is still a place for the younger generation). Toyota first discovered Ultimate when a regional executive in Colorado attended last year's College nationals and was duly impressed with the event. He later contacted Jon Shepard and Shepard worked hard to encourage him to sponsor a tournament, and potentially a series similar to what Nortel had done two years ago.

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A sentence on every team I remember, in no particular order:

MEN

Brown: Not in sync offensively but always tough on defense: a team patterned after DoG in nearly every way, so you can bet they will come together in time for Nationals.

Colorado: Hard-running, hard-defense, will crush teams but need to learn a successful scoring pace to make games played on their schedule instead of their opponents.

UCSB: Hardest-working team in showbiz and Tommy is finding a new role as a scoring threat.

UCSD: Need to mature and find some rowdiness on the field to generate wins instead of being complacent with losses.

Oregon: Tight and together team that looked good here, but may not do so well under pressure situations: otherwise the good showing here puts them in contention to make Nationals.

Stanford: Once these guys get on a roll they are one of the best teams in the nation, losing co-captain Jon Zalisk and Omar Atesman to injuries this weekend hurt them, as well as complacency. Always a dangerous and slippery team; need another deep threat besides Scott.

Michigan: Need to find a way to prevent lapses that lead to 4 and 5 point runs for the opponent. Murray still tries to do it all, even if he doesn't have to.

Illinois: A good solid team with a lot of experience will come together in a few more weeks, looked a little rusty here.

Cal-Poly SLO: I saw this one guy named Adam dive after a disc that was out of bounds and he landed in a huge pool of mud and water. He struggled up looking like a Mudman from some horror film, and charged back onto defense carrying five pounds of extraneous sludge. Five passes later he makes one of the most awesome D's I've seen, diving for the disc when he was two feet off the mark and leaning the wrong direction. They lost the game, but they have players, spirit, and intensity.

UNCW: Coach Mike G has these boys back in focus and that is a dangerous thing for North Carolina opponents. Still missing a few superstars to be a big threat nationally.

Cal-Berkeley: A solid, well-stocked team.

WOMEN

Stanford: A program that will be there in Boise and as strong as ever; just sans the superstars.

UNCW: Has all the ingredients, sometimes a little thin on depth, but hard-working and focused, might need one or two more power players to make them contenders.

UBC: Dominated here, if all these money players are eligible then watch out America, cause Canada is back to make another stab at stealing a North American championship. You can out-cheer and out motivate yourself against them to some effect.

UCSD: A solid core, likes the deep game and added a coach. Will be there in Idaho if they learned from their loss to UNCW.

Brown: Runs a Godiva-style O without utilizing a deep game and usually it works just fine. If you can throw a wrench in that system, you could emerge victorious. They also play hard defense.

Washington: Tenacious team with potential. One year away from making the show?

Oregon: Couldn't solve a zone defense against UNCW, but when able to run free they will score behind force Robin Birdsong.

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I probably have more comments to make somewhere but I can't remember them right now. It was a fun tournament to attend and college Ultimate keeps rising in strength.

This was put out on RSD, I believe.

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