Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Fort Collins Club Ultimate - The Katfish Written History - Part 3: 2009-2012 - KILL KILL KILL JOYYYYYY

If haven't yet read part one or part two take a few minutes to brush up and get some context for the Fort Collins club ultimate scene heading into 2009.

In 2008, Fort Collins United flopped. A unification of the two 'factions' in Fort Collins was a big personality clash and the team disbanded after just one year. 

Part of the problem with FCU was the team failed to draw talented young players from either the of the college teams at Colorado State. The largest contingent of male CSU players joined together and formed a ringer team called Noonan for the 2008 UPA series, relying on a laid back attitude and raw talent to finish 6th in the southwest club open division.

This team would continue in future years under the moniker "Interesting Tummy Birds" (ITB) for just the open division of Colorado Cup; bringing together a bunch of talented players for a casual, fun time. ITB prided itself on showing up five minutes before game time, not warming up, imbibing various forms of "Interesting Tummy Brew," and still competing with and beating established club teams. 

Anyway, in 2009 the club scene in Fort Collins was wide open. There were no established club teams in any division heading into the summer.

2009 - Killjoy

In response to lack of quality club options in Fort Collins, Lance Everette, a Fort Collins staple, decided to found a team with an emphasis on a fun culture while still staying driven and focused on competitive goals. 

He teamed up with Wisconsin Hodag alum Greg Vogel and UC Santa Barbara alum Charles Stone to form a new mixed team, Killjoy. I don't know how it all shook out or who decided what, where, but by the UPA series, Killjoy was in full force. 

I'm sure many readers are familiar with Lance, but for those who aren't, he has an infectious enthusiasm for the sport. In recruiting for Killjoy he personally reached out to many good players (myself included), and the genuine excitement he had for the team went a long way both towards recruiting a talented core, but also setting the foundation for a good, positive team philosophy. A lot of people who had been disenfranchised from the club scene from some of their previous experiences were brought back by Lance's sheer force of will and personality.

Killjoy 2009 was a blast. There were some new faces and some old. The team had (in my opinion) a great balance between competitiveness and fun. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my teammates both on and off the field. I hadn't played organized mixed since the half-season on DTL in 2006 and hadn't planned on making a return to the division but that year's iteration of the team was just a great group of people.

Down in Boulder another new mixed team, "Kapow!", had formed, which had brought together a very athletic core of ex-open and women's players including Beau Kittredge's little brother Camden and Enessa Janes, formerly of Fury. As two first year teams with lofty expectations, they became our impromptu rivals (in our minds at least), and we figured one of the two of us gave Colorado the best opportunity the state had to take back southwest mixed since the end of the DTL/Bad Larry dominance.

Heading into the series Killjoy was lightheartedly optimistic. We slipped up a bit at sectionals, losing unexpectedly to Alchemy out of Boulder, but I don't feel like the team was overly concerned with that result. The "new-team" feel still had us confident heading into regionals in Scottsdale, AZ.

At regionals, we lost to Kapow in pool play 17-12 but secured second place in the pool with a win over Party Van from Hawaii (I'm not sure there's a team miss playing more than those Hawaii folks, a wonderful and fun group). We stomped through pre-quarters over another Hawaii team, Shugga, leading up to a quarter finals match-up with Brown Chicken Brown Cow from LA (featuring Fort Collins native Jake "Jacuzzi" Juszak in his formidable years). In a windy, zone-ridden affair, we came away with a 12-9 victory and a semi-finals match-up against reigning southwest champion Barrio. A win in this game would secure either a first or second place finish and a bid to nationals. Across the bracket Kapow faced the exact same scenario against LA Metro.

Barrio outclassed us. Their athleticism and big game calm trumped ours. We came into the game with a lot of energy but that was quickly squelched as they shut down our main players with very physical defense and showed a level of poise on offense that we could not match. The game was not competitive; we lost 15-4.

Barrio would continue on to nationals finishing 6th, losing in quarterfinals 15-12 to eventual national champion, Axis, from Virginia. Kapow, meanwhile, lost to LA Metro on the other side of the bracket.

Our loss to Barrio was disappointing, but there were three bids to nationals that year and we still had shot in the backdoor bracket. We needed to win two more games and our ticket would be punched.

Game one was against Cougars, another Colorado team who was a 'ringer' team in the truest sense. They were made up of mostly older ex-Bravo/Rare Air players. They didn't practice, they just relied on buttery throws and incredible field IQ to win games. This team also included my future club co-captain, David Chan, who I believe had very recently graduated from Northern Arizona University and moved to Colorado.

It was a defense-oriented game. The wind had picked up enough that both teams were running zone and it was a pitched battle back and forth. They certainly had the experience and throwing advantage, but we countered that with a lot of effort and energy. The game was tight all the way through until they scored the final point at cap for the 9-7 win.

Brown Chicken Brown Cow beat Kapow in the other semi-finals, then lost to Cougars in the final game-to-go. In a further twist, Cougars then declined the bid to nationals, passing it along to BCBC. It was a bit of a disappointment for us as we'd beaten BCBC the previous day, but they had finished one spot above us in the bracket, so they were next in line for the bid.

Despite not qualifying for nationals, I felt pretty happy with where the team was heading. It was a great inaugural season, we had our shots and we played tight games against good teams. It seemed like Killjoy had securely established itself again as the competitive team in Fort Collins and would continue to grow.

2010 - Killjoy

In 2010, Killjoy leadership asked me to join them as a captain, with myself and Charles Stone acting as practice captains (we planned/organized and ran the practices). I also made an effort to recruit some talented CSU alumni to join the team.

On the whole, I think the core of leadership was solid and expected the team to a step forward competitively after the success of the previous year.

The team worked hard early-season to incorporate new players and develop strategy and scheme, however the team had started to become cliquey. Unfortunately, I was a part of the problem with myself and some of the other male CSU alum not integrating ourselves well socially with the rest of the team.

We secured a bid to Mixed Labor Day in San Francisco which was generally accepted as one of the most competitive tournaments in the country, but the team fell flat against nationals-level competition, losing all our games except for an early pool play game against LA Metro. I personally did not attend this tournament and I don't clearly remember how the team felt about the results, but for any team with nationals aspirations finishing 1-6 is tough to swallow.

At sectionals we lost on universe point to Masters of the Universe ( the same 'Cougars' team from the previous year who had eliminated us at regionals, re-branded). We beat out Kapow in the second place game to secure the 6th overall seed heading into regionals. Unfortunately, during warmups before Sunday play at sectionals I re-separated my shoulder (something I had been doing consistently for the previous three years), and spent the weeks between sectionals and regionals rehabbing.

Saturday at regionals we had a good, competitive day, finishing second in our pool and holding seed. We beat a young Mesteno team in the first round of bracket play and were still alive Sunday morning for a nationals berth. I played sparingly Saturday (not by choice), only getting a handful of points in, but feeling good about my play and my shoulder injury.

Sunday, we lost our first game and were eliminated from contention by Red or Green, a team from New Mexico. I played zero points that game. I didn't complain as I watched from the sideline; I had grown up since 2006 when I quit DTL over leadership concerns. I supported my teammates with sideline help and stayed vocal and positive.

In our final placement for 7th I again didn't see the field. It was a big blow to my pride. It wasn't since my first year of college play that I hadn't played a point in a game, let alone a placement game and let alone two games in a row. I was a core handler for the previous year's team who been more competitive. I was a captain and a leader on the squad. The person calling lines for regionals wasn't an elected captain, he was an injured, well-respected vet that the tournament captains turned over line calling duties to.

I internalized all of this and moved on from the team after the 8th place finish. The good-times aura I had felt the first year of Killjoy was gone. The team had taken itself too seriously and become too cliquey (admittedly, I was a part of both these problems).

2011 - Killjoy

I don't have a ton of information on the 2011 Killjoy season as this was the first year since 2004 that I wouldn't play the club series. I am not 100% certain, but I do also believe the team founder, Lance Everette, had either moved on by this year, but it may have happened after this season.

Killjoy again traveled to Mixed Labor Day with better results this year, finishing 2-4. The team stumbled at sectionals finishing 5th, but still qualified for regionals.

Because of the 5th place finish the team under-seeded at regionals: a cold, rainy regionals weekend at Dick's Sport Goods Park in Denver. After a first round win, Killjoy faced off with number one seed 7 Figures from LA. The game was close, but 7 Figures came away with the win 8-7.

Killjoy rolled through the second place bracket winning three games before finally falling in the second place semi-finals game against Colorado Springs Swingline for a 4th place overall finish.

Again, this is largely speculation, but I think the tight game against 7 Figures and the quality Sunday play at regionals energized the team for the next year, giving the core a reasonable expectation that nationals was a realistic goal.

2012 - Killjoy

I don't have a ton of information on the 2012 team either, but I know most alumni of the squad say that this was very much a 'peak' year. I personally sat out the club series for the second year in a row.

2012 saw the redrawing of the club regions. This had started in 2010 with the college restructuring. Colorado was now in the south central region, rather than the southwest. The region had only one bid to nationals and several teams had reasonable shots secure it.

Killjoy entered regionals in Austin, Texas as the four seed overall behind Cosa Nostra from Austin, Love Tractor from Boulder and Mesteno from Denver (nationals qualifier in 2011).

Killjoy finished second in the six team pool play with their only loss to Love Tractor. They cruised through quarters 15-4 against Robot Unicorn Attack, setting up a semi finals matchup with the one seed, Cosa Nostra. This game, it seems, would be the catalyst for sweeping change in the Fort Collins club scene.

I'm not going to speculate too much with just second-hand information but all I know for sure is that Killjoy lost 10-11 and Cosa Nostra would go on to secure the lone nationals bid (and would continue to do so for 2013 and 2014). This game is "the game" that people on that team talk about. The details aren't 100% clear to me, but I got the sense from folks I talked to that it was a very winnable game and something happened that many people didn't feel good about. That's as far as I'll go with that.

After that loss and the sentiments that followed that loss, a large portion of the team's core would not return in 2013. The team didn't fully disband, but this opened up the next chapter in Fort Collins - the renaissance man, David Chan was going to get involved...part 4.















Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Club Regionals Numbers

I was curious on some overall numbers from region to region so I put together some spreadsheets of results after the post-regionals rankings came out. Folks can draw their own conclusions, this is just some data. Do keep in mind that this does NOT include teams that played sectionals but still didn't accrue their 10 games after their series play and did not make it into the rankings as a result, so a few total numbers are slightly off.

Also note that the average rank is for teams participating in regionals, not of the total region.

All Regions


Men's

RegionAverage Team RankMedian RankTop 10 RankRegionals SizeTotal Teams
Great Lakes70.666.050.91622
North Central43.743.543.71017
Mid-Atlantic48.536.538.91220
Northeast51.254.030.51627
Northwest 47.239.547.21017
South Central78.789.056.91623
Southeast53.948.536.71636
Southwest59.057.559.01014
Total176

Women's

RegionAverage Team RankMedian RankTop 5 RankRegionals SizeTotal Teams
Great Lakes38.039.033.066
North Central39.641.039.665
Mid-Atlantic33.133.522.8810
Northeast25.122.011.81019
Northwest 26.320.513.2810
South Central35.126.023.277
Southeast33.131.022.489
Southwest23.131.017.8710
Total76

Mixed

RegionAverage Team RankMedian RankTop 12 RankRegionals SizeTotal Teams
Great Lakes96.3101.581.51624
North Central47.039.047.01220
Mid-Atlantic52.651.538.71628
Northeast65.867.047.11633
Northwest 49.657.549.61217
South Central90.999.070.41622
Southeast61.857.549.31628
Southwest48.443.036.41625
Total197

Men's (region by region)
Great Lakes
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Machine1106
High Five22011
Smokestack33038
Beachfront Property44044
Brickyard56146
Haymaker511667
Schweingeist78170
Enigma710365
Midnight Meat Train9123109
Black Market95-453
Kentucky Flying C.117-459
Ascension11165140
AK Pipeline1315291
Black Lung1413-1107
Black Market II159-6104
Spoiler1614-2120
Average71

North Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Madison Club1105
Prairie Fire22012
Sub Zero33013
Mad Men410640
Castle57263
Illusion54-142
General Strike79245
MKE86-264
Imperial95-451
Climax108-2102
Average44

Mid-Atlantic
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Truck Stop1102
Patrol22014
Medicine Men33025
Garden State Ultimate45132
Temper56129
Richmond Floodwall64-234
CITYWIDE Special77039
John Doe88050
Runtime910175
Oakgrove Boys1011189
Takers11121114
8$SOLD (SOL)129-379
Average49

Northeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Ironside1101
Pony2319
Dig34119
Goat42-28
Phoenix56126
Mockingbird65-133
Big Wrench77041
Colt88052
Bruises913460
Blackbuck915656
Breakers119-290
Red Tide1114383
Deathsquad1312-173
Dark or Light1411-371
New Amsterdam1510-586
Fat and Mediocre16160111
Average51

Northwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Sockeye1107
Furious George23121
Rhino32-115
Darkstar46236
Powderhogs54-130
Voodoo65-143
Ghost Train79266
Warchild87-178
Bulldawg Ultimate9101108
Killjoys108-268
Average47

South Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Johnny Bravo1104
H.I.P22010
Doublewide33017
Inception44024
Dreadnought56182
Plex55047
Choice City Hops714777
Dallas United: Desp.87-185
Papa Bear910198
Rawhide10155125
ISO Atmo11132100
Riverside12120110
Premium139-4122
Space City Ignite138-593
Supercell1311-294
Riverside Mess.13163171
Average79

Southeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Ring of Fire15416
Chain Lightning22022
Florida United31-218
Ironmen46231
Freaks57228
Cash Crop54-137
Turbine73-435
Sour Mash89162
Lost Boys911249
baNC1012269
Right Coast1110-155
Bullet128-448
UpRoar1313081
Memphis Belle1415187
Shotgun15161106
Orlando Citronauts1614-2119
Average54

Southwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Revolver1103
Guerrilla22020
Sprawl34127
Condors43-123
Streetgang56161
Sundowners59474
Renegade75-254
Shenanigans87-1112
Phalanx98-172
Brawl10100144
Average59





Women's (region by region)

Great Lakes
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Rival11017
Nemesis22021
Notorious C.L.E33035
Dish44043
Sureshot56149
Frenzy55063
Average38

North Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Heist11014
Pop22023
Wicked33041
Snap45158
MystiKuE54-162
Lockdown660N/A
Average40

Mid-Atlanic
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Scandal1105
Green Means Go22015
Grit33027
Hot Metal46234
Backhanded54-133
Virginia Rebellion67142
Pine Baroness75-248
Independence88061
Average33
Northeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Brute Squad1102
Iris25313
6ixers32-18
Siege44020
Bent53-216
Stella67124
PPF76-128
Salty88039
Vice99044
Brooklyn Book Club1010057
Average25

Northwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Seattle Riot1101
Traffic2206
Schwa34119
Underground43-118
Zephyr55022
Elevate68247
Ivy76-146
Club Mint87-151
Average26
South Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Molly Brown1103
Showdown22012
Colorado Small Batch33025
Maeve44026
Jackwagon55050
Inferno66056
Temptress77074
Average35
Southeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Ozone12111
Phoenix21-110
Encore34129
Steel43-132
Outbreak55030
Queen Cake66045
Tabby Rosa77055
Rogue88053
Average33
Southwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Fury1104
Wildfire2207
Nightlock3309
Viva45131
Phoenix Uprising57238
Deadly Viper A.S.66037
Venom74-336
Average23

Mixed (region by region)

Great Lakes
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Steamboat1107
UPA22022
Liquid Hustle36351
Columbus Cocktails43-143
Tequila Mockingbird55070
Dream Killas64-274
Prion77056
Shakedown8135104
Toast990136
ELevate10144123
Los Heros11110148
The Abusement Park11121144
Stack Cats13152163
Goose Lee138-599
Liquid Hustle B13163170
Mishigami1310-3131
Average96
North Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Drag'n Thrust1103
NOISE23113
No touching34128
The Chad Larson42-29
Chalice57242
Des Moines Metro68245
Bird75-235
Minnesota Star Power86-236
panIC99064
Mojo Jojo1010089
Wingdings11121107
Mad Udderburn1211-193
Average47
Mid-Atlantic
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Alloy1438
Ambiguous Grey22017
AMP31-21
Bang!43-110
Sparkle Ponies56139
Clue610441
Distelfink713671
MxD89168
Dub Club911250
American Hyperbole108-247
Lovebomb1112159
Jughandle125-753
Ant Madness137-663
Sabotage14162111
Tyrannis1515083
Legion1614-2120
Average53
Northeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Metro North12111
Slow White21-12
Wild Card33015
7 Express410633
Union54-130
Crash57262
Grand Army714791
Pleasure Town76-172
Titan NE98-167
Powermove99049
Gecko11132N/A
Last Call115-686
Mixed Nuts1312-194
Buffalo Lake Effect14151115
Darkwing1511-4103
Nautilus16160157
Average66
Northwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Seattle Mixtape1104
BFG22012
Bozos34125
Birdfruit43-132
ROC'em58366
BoyShe65-144
The Administrators76-155
MTF810281
Nassau97-261
Kermit Roosevelt109-160
Pegasus1112173
Seattle Freeze1211-182
Average50
South Central
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
shame.1215
Public Enemy24224
Love Tractor31-214
Cosa Nostra43-120
Freetail56178
Mesteno610484
Moontown 75-2101
Sweet Action88080
Risky Business9134108
theRUB10111105
The Strangers119-2129
tHUMP117-497
Wildstyle1312-1128
Mixed on the Rock14151165
Balloon1514-1141
Mixtape16160175
Average91
Southeast
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
G-Unit14331
Orlando Friends210829
Swing State311826
Toro42-227
Charlotte Storm53-223
Bucket61-516
Cahoots78158
Jared Lorenzen Project85-357
Pluff Mud Panic97-252
Murmur1015587
Malice in Wonderland1113288
The Hucking Dead129-398
Loveshack13141100
Carolina Reign14162119
Method156-985
KOD1612-492
Average62
Southwest
TeamFinishOriginal SeedChangeOverall Rank
Mischief1106
Blackbird23119
Polar Bears32-118
7 Figures44021
Classy57237
Dorado65-134
BW Ultimate76-138
Alchemy810240
American BBQ911246
Donuts108-248
Long Beach Legacy119-254
Rubix1213176
Groove1314179
Platypi1415165
Family Style1512-375
Ursa Major16160118
Average48