The new spring practice schedule is posted in the sidebar. Also, there is an informational meeting Jan 12th at 9pm. Location is TBA but likely ZHS163.

Monday:

Chi-Fran 8-7 Dshu-Zazu

Chi-Fran starts off the game with a quick 2 point run. The second point of the game was a true battle, lasting around 10 minutes. Both teams played intense d on either sides. After a timeout was called, a perfectly executed set play resulted in Brian catching a sweet dish from Sam for the score. The next couple points went back and forth and eventually Dshu-Zazu pulled ahead by a point. However, a late run by Chi-Fran gave them back the small lead that they held till the end.
Chi-Fran Highlights: Wendy on Chi-Fran made some houdini like one handed grabs. Sam and Brian formed the twin towers and effectively took out anything in the air. The highest flyer was Luke. He set the tone early with a huge 2 handed man grab to start off the game. He also had this “out-of-nowhere” sky d on “dark wonder” Chenu.
-Chi

Team Queso (Will-Bartok) > Manos-Blondie

Manos-Blondie started out strong, scoring several points to begin the game, aided by the expert tutelage of Grandmaster Dave Okaya. Team Queso rebounded, taking half 7-6 due in large part to rookie Alex’s huge forehand hucks to Stevezilla. Queso caught another break when Manos’ hammer to the endzone was disallowed due to the no-returner hucking rules. Lawrence and Kim also had some nice grabs for Queso. Ultimately, Blondie and Manos could not withstand the onslaught, and were defeated by the Queseros in a close game. ¡Olé!
-Will

Tuesday:

Team Q (terrence & Pandora) – 11~12 vs Team J (magma & chi) 7~8

Game started out quick with a sick toe the line catch by Charles. Team Q mounted a quick run that was punctuated with some crazy D’s by Mighten the Titan over a guy who was more than a foot taller. Both teams played hard as Team J made a run of their own. The Brenden/Brandon/Brendan trio had some great plays on both offense and defense. Rock-solid handing by Ethan and Morelle allowed our team to slowly creep ahead. The game was perhaps highlighted by a marathon point that lasted a good 10-15 minutes. Both teams had many great puts to the end zone; however, no team could convert. Amy had some great in cuts as she torched whoever defended her to get open, allowing Team Q to retain possession. Alas as it was not enough to win the point as Team J capitalized. The game ended with a massive all-team free for all with bodies falling left and right. Thankfully nobody was injured, overall it was fantastic game, and we were glad to get a win. Good game Team J!
On Team J’s end, we had some sick highlights as well. Lindar the monstar showed some sick hands. Joe had a nice bid attempt on offense that definitely resulted in some turf burn. Big message was sent by Chi. Warning to all teams: Chi will D a girl.
-Terrence and Chi

Sonic-Gabe vs. T-Tom-Sputi

Scrape Mode Squad SCRAPED. It was a good and fun game against team X, ending in craziness with all the players taking the field at the same time for the last few points.
-Sonic

Korn (Manos-Sixxi) > Zesty Zombies (Starz-Luke)
Team Zesty Zombies (Starz-Luke) had a rough start in their first game against Korn Like the Band (Manos-Sixxi), only scoring one point in the first half. They played some good points and had some great flow with the disc at times, but couldn’t quite finish with a score. Then, after some pointers at half time, the Zombies turned it around and played a much better second half. They made great cuts off one another, stepped up the intensity on D, and fought through some really long points for scores. In the end, even though the teams played quite evenly in the second half, it wasn’t enough to stop Korn, whose dominance of the first half really gave them the victory.
Zesty Zombies highlights: Just all around great play in the second half. We were down big going into the second half, but no one gave up. The entire team really stepped up their game, and worked together really well to get into a great rhythm to get back a couple points. The D really stepped up on a few points as well, generating turns left and right.
-Luke

Sign up for IM league!

The involvement fair is this Wednesday from 11-2 on Trousdale. Wear your USC Ultimate gear and help recruit new players. If you’re new and interested in playing with us this year, stop by and check us out. We’ll be signing people up for our mailing list and the IM league.

A Men’s Ultimate and IM League info session will be held Thursday, August 25 at 6pm in THH102. We’ll be talking with new people about what the team and sport are all about, and about the upcoming IM league. Afterward, we’ll also have a discussion for returners about the team this year.

Also, be sure to check out our facebook fan page!

EDIT: If you got one of those flyers at the involvement fair saying that the informational meeting would be on “Thursday the 24th,” please ignore it. The meeting is really on Thursday the 25th, 6 PM, THH 102. As you can see, the brightest of minds didn’t create the flyers, so sorry. But see you guys there!

Next up was SLO, who have always been just a step up from the Ghettobirds. But the Birds have closed the gap quickly on them in recent years. Unfortunately, Ghetto was without grad student Ty Smalling, who played for SLO for the last four years and knew them as well as anybody. While he gave help from the sidelines, he wasn’t able to play due to a hamstring injury suffered the day before, and that was a blow to a team already suffering from poor numbers.

Nevertheless, Ghetto came out hot and scored the first point, thanks to a beautiful huck from junior Brian “Chi-City” Leung to freshman Nick “Needs a Nickname” Manos. However, the Core came back and scored three straight points to take a 3-1 lead. Ghetto wasn’t going away easily though, and junior “Tall” Will Price had a nice huck to Manos for Ghetto’s 2^nd score to bring them within 3-2. The teams then traded a few points before SLO took half 7-4. After half, Ghetto, who never gives up, made a typical late push but it was a tad too late as SLO took the game 13-10.

This pushed Ghetto out of the Championship bracket, but luckily for the Birds, SLO decided they had enough for the day and withdrew from the tournament. This gave Ghetto the automatic win and thus, the team advanced to the quarterfinals against a familiar foe, Azusa Pacific.

Many people questioned the mindset of the Ghettobirds, who were getting in cars to eat lunch when they found out SLO withdrew and thus, the Birds had to play in 10 minutes, but to their credit, they came out strong and fired up. After going up early, Azusa switched things up a little bit and threw a zone defense. The Ghettobirds were ready for it and continually shredded it down the field, until they got to the endzone. The Birds couldn’t figure out how to work it in the compact field, and turned it over on the end zone line three times in the first half. This allowed APU to get quick breaks down the field and they took half easily, 8-3.

But incase you haven’t picked up on a theme here, I’ll clue you in one more time. You can never count the Ghettobirds out. They could’ve resigned to the fact that this was the last game of the day, and just mailed it in, but they came out and kept fighting. They finally figured out how to score in the end zone as handlers senior David “V-Neck” Horrell, Chi City, senior Brian “Prius” Ball, sophomore Andrew “Jay-Bird” Bailey and Manos did a great job moving it side to side and tiring APU out. Pretty soon, APU was only up 10-9 thanks to some great deep cuts by junior Luke “Skywalker” Vollherbst and some hucks by sophomore Thomas “T Tom” Liu and V-Neck. Azusa stretched the lead out to 12-9 and looked to end the game on but Jay Bird came up with a huge D in the end zone to keep the game alive. Ghetto ended up scoring the next two points, but it was too little too late as Azusa finally ended it for a 13-11 win.

That was the last game of the day as the Ghettobirds tied for 5^th in the tournament. Not a bad weekend considering the depleted squad. Overall, lots of fun was had by all in Vegas and the Ghetto House.

Onto the action, the Birds started off strong on Saturday morning. Facing a new foe in Utah State, Ghetto started off slow considering it was an 8:30 am start, but got things rolling in the second half, advancing with a 13-9 victory.

The second game proved to be more troublesome. The Ghettobirds faced a familiar opponent in Cal Poly Pomona, who we hadn’t played in a tournament since sectionals last year when we prevailed in the game-to-go to regionals. Pomona always provides a tough game and this proved to be no exception. Pomona played strong defense, and the Birds just struggled to get a flow going offensively. A scary moment came when freshman Spits went down with dehydration and cramps, but would miraculously return to play in the last game of the day. Also, grad student Ty Smalling injuring himself on a layout and would be out for the remainder of the tournament, which was a huge loss for the Birds. Ghetto still fought hard but couldn’t hold off Pomona, losing 13-11.

The Birds then went on to face Western Washington, who traveled a long ways to get to Sin City and it showed. Ghetto took a strong hold from the start and held Western Washington at bay the entire game.  Rookie junior Luke Vollherbst was phenomenal in his deep cuts and sophomore T Tom put some good shots deep to stretch the game out as Ghetto won 13-6.

The last game of the day came against Wyoming. The Birds were exhausted, having been playing with only 13 people the majority of the day, and it showed in the first half. Ghetto came out flat and slow as Wyoming pretty much did whatever they wanted on offense to take half 7-3. But you can never count the Ghettobirds out and this game proved it. They could’ve mailed it in, but instead the Birds rallied, sparked by some great deep hucks from junior Tall Will Price (TWP) and a momentum turning bookends from senior captain Jas Smogorzewski. The Ghettobirds went on a 5-1 run to bring the game within 11-10. But sadly, that’s as close as they got, as they dug themselves too deep a hole and Wyoming came out victorious 13-11.

Special shout out goes to Mario’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Platzer, for coming all the way from the e

We’re also still looking for more players! If you want to come out and play with us this semester, we encourage you to come out on Tuesday nights and join the B team. We’ll be meeting at 9:30 to warm up on the Cromwell track and then moving to the IM field for practice at 10. Please bring running shoes, a white and a dark shirt, water, and football/soccer/lacrosse cleats.

Both teams will be travelling to tournaments this semester. The A team will most likely be going to Santa Barbara Invite Qualifier, the PresDay qualifier, and the Stanford Open. The B team tournaments are yet to be finalized but we’re looking at going up to SLO and down to San Diego. Let’s get ready to work and have a great season. Das Bird!

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