Highlight Vids

Hi again, world. In case you've missed us, here are a couple of videos of Junk this year. The first video listed is from our winter and spring seasons. The second is from this past fall before the A/B split. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZuenGBSx_8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYOn0lpSR80&feature=related

-Hupps

Mardi Gras 2011, or, Trouble Redux

Junk headed to Midway airport for their first flight without Southwest in ages. Underwhelmed by the half-can-of-beverage and pitiful-packet-of-peanuts that the unnamed airline provided, the troops descended upon Baton Rouge, LA for a long weekend of glorious rain and outdoor Ultimate. Everyone arrived more or less on time and were ready to test our mettle outside of Krown Kastle.

Day 1

Game 1

After taking an early lead against Houston, per Coach Zubair's orders of up-by-four-or-bust, play was suspended on account of lightning. After several hours of sitting in cars or watching other teams play monstrous games of flutterguts, play resumed. Junk continued to rack up the points amidst the torrents of rain and the shrill whining of the tornado warning siren. 13-5, Junk. Undefeated for the 2011 season. The day then got called because of rain or something, and then the sun came out shortly after. Balls.

Day 2

Game 2

Ex-captain Ryborg Bartox takes the camera and proceeds to shit the dog. Game 1 vs. Missouri State, he missed my sick endzone D, sang to himself while staring at the ground, and missed Bank's almost-throw-a-Callahan. Overall, Ryborg's frisbitch interpretation of the Blair Witch Project was underwhelming. Apart from saying "Drrrl" a lot and calling Dean "Mean Mister Dean," not a whole lot was captured on film. I didn't think this was possible, but Binder, can you hold the camera again?

Missouri State had some dece players, but their dubious response to every pick call ("were you within 10 feet?" Fuck you, Mo State, I know what a pick is) was irritating at best. They did have a pretty sweet endzone call though: "V-stack Frankenberry." Note to handlers, incorporate that into our repertoire. 13-10, Mo State.

Game 3

After some waiting and much fumbling about on the tournament director's part, Junk found themselves faced with an opponent once more. They discovered that ultimate players from Arkansas are frighteningly similar to the contraceptive device used to wash out a human vagina. Hirsch calls a foul and the Arkansas sideline erupts with profanity. Coach Zubair clarifies what the actual rules are and the Arkansas players on the field tell the sidelines not to get involved. 9-8, Junk. No comment.

Then a bye round in which Hupps films Supersnatch for 5 minutes with no goals scored. The Men's Competitive Tanning Team enjoys jerky bits in the wind and then heads for field 6 and their final game.

Game 4

North Texas had a lot of tall athletic bros that like to throw up some swilly hucks. Someone said they went to nationals recently. Junk breaks them repeatedly. The rookie line (plus Scott and Hirsch) get a break for the win. 13-4, Junk.

Final thoughts: Jake loves watching himself on the sidelines with his hands in his pants at all times, Men's Competitive Tanning Team will have a crispy spring break, and Zubair doesn't know the difference between blind and deaf (re: a paper for an ASL class, "wait, why isn't it in Braille?"). Is Junk going to Nationals or just Taco Bell? Stay tuned.

Looky What Baby Found on the Innernet

Have you ever had your peeny "slickled"? Would you like to? Click this, close your eyes, and get a rough approximation of how I feel about winter practices.

The only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that by the end of the quarter, I'll look like this -->

What keeps you excited about Ultimate?

UChicago Ultimate Frisbee

Hey all,

Welcome to the homepage of University of Chicago Men's Ultimate Frisbee. The U of C's men's ultimate program features over forty players on two teams, the A-team Junk and the B-team (tentatively called) Hedonism Bots. While the teams are split X/Y in the fall for tryouts, in the Winter and Spring the teams attend a variety of tournaments as far away as Georgia and Las Vegas. Last year was a bit of a rebuilding year as Junk graduated 10 starting seniors and finished 12th in one of the strongest sections in the country. This year we will be coming back stronger than ever and hoping to improve significantly on last year's results. We also have a women's team, Supersnatch, http://womensultimate.uchicago.edu/about.html who would love to recruit any women ultimate players out there.

Interested in playing?
Good. Tryouts are held in the beginning of the Fall (Late September, into October) and will consist of 3 practices a week and several tournaments. Junk is intended for players with superior athleticism, disc skills and dedication throughout the year, which includes morning practices and workouts in the winter, tournaments in the Spring and practices year round. Hedonism Bots is oriented to those with less time or experience for ultimate and is excellent training for newer players who want to play with Junk in the years to come.

What Next? - Practices, Tryouts and Facebook groups
If you are an incoming undergraduate or graduate students, our ultimate season will start practices the week of September 29th. Practices are held during Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:30 - 5:30, so be sure to leave this wide open as you schedule classes [we realize that some conflicts, like discussions or BA seminars are unavoidable]. Weekend practice times have yet to be established. All practices and pickup will be held at Washington Park.

However please contact us before practices start. During O-Week (student orientation week), which starts September 20th we will be out throwing on Bartlett Quadrangle and the Main Quad every day. If you see someone with a disc, just come up and talk to us, especially Saturday the 20th. Pickup will also be held during O-Week, so check this Blog and join this Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=127775923910860&ref=ts.
Also feel free to email the captains at chicagoultimate [at] gmail [dot] com.

This Week

I think about ultimate more than many of you probably think about eating or sleeping. I don't really know why, but it is a fixation, an obsession, a disease. I am not going to be a productive student this next week. I am not going to be paying attention in my classes. I will not be focusing on video games when Hupps is playing them in our living room. With sectionals looming on the horizon, that is all I will be thinking about. This is not to say that any of you should have that kind of relationship to the sport we play. The amount that I think about all aspects of ultimate from tournament structure, to throwing form, to watching highlight videos over and over again to the point where I know what is going to happen in every play throughout the video is probably not healthy.

However, I have rarely left a practice feeling as dejected as I did after practice today. I can blame some of my mistakes or fuck-ups on my groin, I guess, but the performance of the O-Line was sloppy, unfocused, and downright pathetic at times. If we come out that way at sectionals, we will not only get walked-over by Illinois, we will get upset by Purdue, and we will not be going to Regionals. There is nothing that I can think of that would make me more dejected about our season than breaking a four year streak of Regionals attendance. I sure as hell don't want to let that happen on our watch, do you?

If there was ever a week to cut classes, to let your work fall to the wayside, to be in attendance at practice, this is the week. Tuesday is the last serious practice we will have before Sectionals, and if we don't have full lines at the very least, how are we supposed to iron out all of the faults and flaws and make ourselves ready to run, play, and win come Saturday. I know people are injured, I know people are stressed, but that is all the more reason we need more people at practice. I can't be playing every point if I want to be as healthy as I can be by sectionals and no one should have to be.

I conclude with my favorite ultimate highlight video. Without fail, when I watch this video, I am awed by the beauty of our sport and reminded of why I play and who I want to become as a player. It is something to aspire to, and a reminder that all of us are capable of playing ultimate and playing it well.

Enjoy, and GET FUCKING PUMPED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wDvuBTj8Vk&feature=related

Brines

For Posterity's sake, first of all, here are Junk 2009-10's tentative, subject to change, highly flexible O- and D-Lines.

Bro-Line:
Jake
Zubair
Baby Craig
Dinger
Hupps
JMo
Sasha
Smutko
Huge
CJ

Dece-Line:
Seth
Bank
Hirsch
Scott
Jefferson
Shane
Nate
Sachs
Binder
Old Craig
Eric

Sick.
How our lines gel or don't gel is one of the most important factors in how Junk will do as a team this season. The reason that Junk's best ultimate came at regionals last year and the reason that Junk hung around in our game vs. Michigan was that our lines were really good at doing their assigned jobs. This is not to say that O-Line should only work on it's O-Face or the D-Line does't need to work on their throws, but just that coming together and getting to know all of the people on your line is vital. By the time we get to Sectionals, and even more so by Regionals, you should know where everyone on your line is going to be going at the same time that they do. Or at least almost as soon as they do. The point is, lines, along with jerseys, are one of the most exciting things about ultimate for me, because lines aren't about which line has better disc skills or is more athletic, but about being able to work together as one unit to accomplish our team goals.

Or some other corny shit.
Word.

Oh, also... SPRING BREAK!

(Counterpoint) TiV

Trouble in Vegas 2010 was a learning experience for pretty much everyone involved. While Cultimate was laughing their asses off for the weekend and rolled in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, the wimmynz team learned how to play brrr pong, Ball Sachs learned how to spike a game point score, and Jake learned how to spell the word "catheter" (he spelled it "cathider" in a 12:46 pm text message to the Bungalo Bros). Even Hupps learned a new word, "coliseum," though I'm not sure he knows how to use it yet. And while I'm more prone to associate him with the sitcom character Alf than the Alph River, we're certainly very proud of him.

Three things we can work on before Spring Break (!oow) to get some solidified coke lines and build some full-strength conditioning shampoo:

-in cuts. Even from the limited footage I took, it is increasingly obvious that running back and forth horizontally (or just standing still) is not a good way to get the disc in your hands. Cut in. If you don't get the disc, clear to the wings. If you get the disc, take a second or two to look upfield and maybe throw in a fake or actually make that continuation, but if you've got nothing, then get it back to a handler.

-handler movement. Guilty as charged. For example, we were by and large unable to run the wrap on the sideline and even when we did, it was not as effective as it should have been at opening up the rest of the field. This is definitely something we can drill over and over indoors, but we've got to really get on the same page with this.

-cheers. With the exception of Smutbro's "Sons of Gondor, of Rohan" speech, there was a serious paucity of pump-up cheers. I'm looking at you, Bänkenstein. "h" is Planck's constant. Bohr doesn't have a constant. He's got models and formulae galore, but he used Planck's constant and had no constant to his own name.

As Hupp-Alf said, we've been cooped up in Crown all season, and we'll be cooped up for another few weeks. Let's make the most of our time. Let's get mentally and physically fit. Also, we really need to work on our tans.

Baby Craig

Captain

University of Chicago Mens Competitive Tanning Team