Leesville had to make a tough decision before the tournament even started: whether to take the Leeville team or whether to take the Junior Nationals team. After much debating (and even considering bagging the whole tourney), we decided to take the Jnats team in light of the fact that nationals was only a week away. Our goals were to not only win the tourney, but also prepare for nationals. I guess you could say we were "training through" JUST NC. The actual games turned out as expected. No other team offered much of a serious challenge, but we were still able to practice our plays, defenses, etc. However, we did suffer one casualty when Brett White broke his wrist in our last game.
Game Commentary:
Leesville (13) - CFS (6): We did battle with one of our own, James Ellis, who just happened to be the captain of CFS. A little sloppy at first, but we started cutting down on turnovers as the game progressed. Gave up a couple of cheap points at the end.
Leesville (12) - CG (6): We encountered Cardinal Gibbons for the third time this year, having beaten them both previous times. Superb play by both teams. We managed to capitalize off of the CG turnovers. CG offered us the best competition of the day.
Leesville (13) - Providence (2) - one of those games....
Leesville (13) - JR Tucker (4) - really physical (White's broken wrist, John Niles getting bodyslammed, etc.) Worthy of notice: "Turtles Rule!"
Our final place was 7th (out of 8th) because we weren't allowed in the winners bracket since we were a combo team.
Someone forgot to take them...
JUST NC 2001
May 13, 2001
Lake Benson Park
Another successful State Championship for Juniors Ultimate in North Carolina.
The talent, level of play, and understanding of the rules has increased
across the board.
Congratulations to Cardinal Gibbons for winning the Title! The coaching from
Brad Watkins, the hard practices, and travelling to high caliber tournaments
(Terminus) paid off in spades for this hot team.
And congratulations to Chapel Hill for winning the Spirit Award! This was a
close vote. I was very glad to see that 4 different teams received Spirit
votes ... and for good reason.
In the very first round of play, the game was tied 12-12 with hard cap at 13,
Science and Math called a Time-out that they didn't have. By the rules,
Charlotte Latin should have taken over on offense. But the Latin players
decided to let S&M keep the disc. S&M scored the point and won the game.
The Latin players showed alot of class by not using the rules (which they
know very well) to their advantage against the teams that are still learning.
In the game to decide 3rd/4th place, Chapel Hill faced S&M for the second
time that day. Chapel Hill won the first matchup, and they decided to let
S&M win this one. Problem is, S&M was planning the same thing. What happend
was a fun, spirit-filled game with Hammer points and push-pass points.
Players and spectators alike were having a blast. Somehow the score ended up
12-12. To break the tie the teams decided to "rock-paper-scissors". Chapel
Hill won the "rock-paper-scissors" ... and then announced that this win gave
them the right to award 3rd place to S&M (Chapel Hill taking 4th). I've
never seen anything like it ... and I don't think anyone will soon
forget that game.
Carolina Friends School had a very small squad, but put in a fine showing,
lead by captain James Ellis (only a junior). If they can get a coach next
year, they'll improve upon their 5th place finish.
Providence Day (from Charlotte) surprised everyone, including themselves by
sneaking into the winners bracket. They won a hotly contested semis game
over Chapel Hill (a little too hot for my taste) to advance to the finals,
where they ended up in 2nd place. Terrific for a team thrown together at the
last minute, without any coaching. They learned alot about the rules (and
Spirit) as the day went on ...
and went home with some nice hardware.
Leesville was a combo team (players from Leesville and other schools),
practicing for their trip to the National Championship (May 19,20) in
Nashville ... so they were not eligible to advance to the winners bracket.
As expected, they played very well and dominated all of their games.
J R Tucker was a team from Richmond, VA (out-of-state), so they were not
eligible to advance to the winners bracket. Tucker is also a new team
playing in their first tournament, but with the help of a strong coach (Ty
Lawson), they played fantastic.