This writeup was submitted to UltiVillage by Bravo’s Elite Team Program representative, David Belsheim. As the ETP program develops you can follow Bravo’s progress both here and at UltiVillage’s website:
http://ultivillage.com/index.php/Elite-Team-Program
Colorado Cup 2010
Bravo brought a roster of 22 to Colorado Cup. Bravo was without offensive starters Keith Borsheim, Steven Rouisse and Justin “Rabbit” Salvia. On defense, we were missing Jimmy Mickle who was playing with the US U-20 team in Germany and Jon Greenberg who was still in Alaska. Apparently he met former Bravo player David Popiel while playing summer league up there. Bravo picked up Jeff Cohee for its final roster spot.
Colorado Cup was the first time Bravo had played together in a tournament setting since Nationals, so many of us were somewhat anxious to see what the new team was going to be like. We were especially exciting to see how all of our new faces would handle their first tournament with the team.
Game 1 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Machine (Chicago)
Chicago had most of their players, but as I understand it, there was a wedding conflict preventing some of Chicago’s players from making the trip.
Chicago came out with a transition zone despite the lack of wind. They’d have one or two chasers on the mark and the rest would cover areas and throwing lanes. Our offense calmly picked away at the zone, using overhead attacks to find the open player. Rookie Jack McShane (#5) drew first blood and his first assist of the season with an overhead pass into the endzone.
Our defense gets a couple breaks to jump on an early lead. Machine handlers Mike Shiel and a tall handler (Alex Kolb?) did most of the heavy lifting as Bravo was able to shut down a lot of early options. Most of our D’s came from short handler passes, less than 20 yards. Meanwhile, Bravo’s offense continued to pick away through the transition zone, no turnovers. At 7-4, Josh Ackley (#20) was able to put in a perfect pull that landed in the back of the endzone. Some quick pressure from David Belsheim(#17) and Matty Zemel (#13) generated an errant throw just outside the endzone. Bravo punched it in for the break and half.
Coach Krier didn’t really need to make any adjustments at half. Our offense was moving the ball effectively and our defenders were forcing difficult throws. Chicago didn’t seem to make any significant halftime adjustments either. They came out with the same transition zone. Bravo earned a few more breaks and we took the game 15-8.
After the game, we learned that the offense had zero turnovers. No drops. No errant throws. No defensive blocks against. Bravo’s never done that before.
Game 2 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Sub Zero (Minneapolis)
Bravo and Sub Zero had a somewhat strained relationship during the few years I’ve played with Bravo. I attribute this to the fact that many of Bravo’s players came from Mamabird, and Sub Zero used to be heavily populated by Hodags. The college rivalry carried over into the club game. The attitudes between both teams this year was quite different.
Sub Zero brought around 20 players and seemed to lack offensive power downfield. Kyle Gill, Grant Lindsley and Julian Childs-Walker were all notably absent.
Bravo’s previously perfect O-line was broken as a huck to Timmy Paymaster (#86) floated and allowed a second Sub Zero defender to get a clean D on it. Sub Zero worked it in for the break and an early lead. Zero’s new handler from Madison, Evan Klane, completed several nice deep shots. His backhand is very smooth and quite effective. Zero’s Dan McAdam made an exciting catch over Jackson Kloor (#24), which ended up being another fine example of sportsmanship. Kloor, a Bravo rookie and one of our fastest players, caught up to McAdam and got inside position. McAdam went up early and made an impressive grab for the goal. Bravo and Zero traded out to 5-5 until a huck from Klane sailed out the back of the endzone. Bravo worked it back in for a break and took an 8-7 lead at halftime.
The second half would be a completely different game. Sub Zero’s low numbers began to hurt them as their cutter’s legs seemed to tire and forced the handlers to attempt difficult throws down the sidelines. In one second half point, a Zero player turfed a 15 yard pass with no mark, evidence that Zero’s O-line was fatigued. Sub Zero’s Q-tip (Dan Miller) had an exciting over-the-shoulder bid on a long huck from Bravo’s Ryan Farrell (#16) to Brett Kolinek (#11). Bravo’s Jimmy Hughes (#72) also played solidly in the handler rotation. His patience and ability to work the disc around in the redzone was an important part of Bravo’s offense in the game. In the end, Bravo ran away with the game scoring 7 second half points to Zero’s 2. Final score: 15-9.
After the match and team handshakes, Zero Captain Todd Owens remarked that this was the best spirited game Zero and Bravo had played. I agree. It reminded me of how much fun it is to play against good players without excessive fouling and aggressive posturing on the sidelines. I think this team will be much improved come Labor Day. The additions of Dan Hoff and Simon Montague certainly won’t hurt.
Game 3 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Prairie Fire (Kansas City)
Bravo had a bye during the third round, and came out a little slow against Prairie Fire. Coach Krier experimented with some personnel changes this game, switching Clark Bishop (#30) and Andy Stringer (#32) to defense and David Belsheim (#17) and Jackson Kloor (#24) to the O-line.
Prairie Fire lost around 17 players from last year and they were hurting on the depth chart. They still have solid club players like Jerrod Wolfe, Valley Renshaw and Andrew Wimer, but they were sorely overmatched at the back end of their rotation. Their defensive line, in particular, seemed comprised of mostly new players and they struggled to capitalize on turnovers.
Bravo jumped out to an early lead, using several different offensive looks. Prairie Fire jacked it into double coverage far too often. New downfield defenders Jordan White (#12) and Steve Roberts (#27) both had big Ds in this game. To Prairie Fire’s credit, they stayed in the game and eventually played a bit more conservatively. Andrew Wimer played extremely well for Prairie Fire. He kept the ball moving on offense and made some difficult grabs. Fire’s Brett Hidaka (5’10”) also had a ridiculously athletic D over Bravo receiver Timmy Paymaster (6’2”) in the endzone but incredibly, Hidaka picked up the disc and tossed it to the ground closer to the goal line for one of his teammates to pick up. For Bravo, Ryan Farrell (#16) and Jack McShane (#5) both got a lot of touches. McShane is quickly becoming an integral part of Bravo’s offense. Bravo cruised to another 15-9 victory.
Game 4 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. GOAT (Toronto)
The last game of the day was the Colorado Cup Showcase match between GOAT and Bravo. The weather remained consistent, no wind. GOAT brought a squad of 16 players down. They were missing Pat Mooney, Jesse Robertson and Kirk Nylen as well as some of their younger players who were representing Canada at the U20 and U23 world championships. Derek Alexander and Sam Kennedy don’t seem to be playing with GOAT this year.
We’ve played GOAT before, so we knew what to expect. Lots of hucks to their tall receivers Andy Ouchterlony, Jeff Lindquist and John Hassell. The lack of wind enabled GOAT to float their hucks nicely out to space, and their receivers did a great job of coming down with them.
The game started out very clean with both teams moving the disc quickly and taking shots when they were open. Despite their offensive success, GOAT had difficulty generating turns as Bravo moved the disc through the center of the field and enjoyed success with a deep game of our own. Late in the first half, Bravo receiver Tim Paymaster went down with a groin injury. Coach Krier mixed Andrew Mangan, Jackson Kloor and Andy Stringer on both sides of the disc to fill the void.
This game saw very few turnovers. John Hassell was, as John Hassell is, nearly unstoppable. He uses a wide pivot on his 6’3” frame and often throws outside-in hucks around the mark. Hassell and Ouchterloney have a great connection on the field.
GOAT was able to get a hand on a Bravo huck over the middle of the field to get a turn and a small lead going into halftime (8-6).
After trading a few more points, Matty Zemel (#13) came up with a huge poach D on the off side handler. Two passes later, Bravo tied the game up at 10s. Both teams continued to complete crowd-pleasing hucks until Andy Stringer (#32) got a D on an errant up-the-line pass at 12-12. Bravo worked it to half field and then hucked it to a seemingly wide open Ryan Farrell (#16). Unfortunately for Bravo, the huck floated and the tardy GOAT defender flew in to prevent the score. The two teams traded blows back and forth, with John Hassell playing both sides of the disc now. Bravo’s Mitch Schminke prevented a pivotal Bravo turnover by making an incredible layout grab in the endzone for a hammer that was trailing away from him. Andy Stringer (#32) also made a great grab in a crowd over two GOAT defenders. Hopefully we’ll see a highlight of that on UltiVillage. In the end, Bravo ran out of time and the game ended, quite fittingly, on a perfect 60 yard huck from Hassell. GOAT wins 17-16.
Game 5 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Truck Stop (Washington DC)
The fifth round started at 9AM on Sunday morning and the sun was already blazing. Truck was still undefeated and we knew that we would have to beat them if we wanted a shot at playing in the finals. Truck brought as full a roster as anyone and I could tell as we were warming up next to each other that this was going to be a hard game.
We weren’t able to scout out Truck before, but we suspected that Brian Stout was going to be a factor. Year after year, they continue to come together as a team, growing more mature as a unit. They are one team that no would deny is on the upswing.
In contrast to Saturday’s play, the Sunday morning game against Truck was very sloppy. There were lots of mistimed hucks and poor dump reset choices on both sides. I think we got 5 or 6 defensive stops in the red zone as Truck consistently forced tight throws on high stall counts. Where Truck really hurt us was on their side of the field. Truck has 5 left-handed players and they did an excellent job of hitting their deep receivers with big backhands.
Our offense made some uncharacteristic turns as well. Without Tim Paymaster, we weren’t stretching the field enough and Truck played some hard downfield defense to get layout blocks on in-cuts. Bravo took half 8-6, but Truck scored 3 in a row after halftime to gain the lead. The hard cap horn blew at 14-12 and we finished a sloppy 4 turnover point to lose 14-13.
Game 6 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Madcow (Columbus)
Bravo has never played Madcow before. Madcow, like Sub Zero and Prairie Fire, is in the midst of big turnover. Madcow picked up some talented players from Indiana this year, and they have a good shot at winning the central region if they can improve on their team chemistry. Bravo was fortunate enough to pick up Madcow’s primary handler from last season (James Hughes #72).
Several of Bravo’s starting players saw less playing time this game as Coach Krier gave rookies the lion’s share of playing time. Bravo and Madcow traded for several points before an errant handler throw gave Bravo the lead. Madcow’s offense uses a vertical stack and they were able to hit continuation cuts on the open side for large gains throughout the game. Bravo’s main highlight of the game came from former Madcow player James Hughes (#72). After working the disc though the middle, Hughes took off for the end zone and came down with a huge grab over a taller Madcow defender for a score. Bravo never built up much of a lead and traded out to 15-12.
Game 7 – Johnny Bravo (Boulder) vs. Madison Club (Madison)
After playing against 4 other central region teams, Bravo prepared for what has been their toughest matchup in the past. Madison is another solid team from the Midwest. Their style of play is now remarkably similar to Sub Zero’s. Both teams are full of fast 5’11”/6’0” cutters and like to work it under if you give it to them. They also both fall back on their huck game when they get tired.
Unlike the Sub Zero game, Bravo was able to get a couple breaks early and maintain a lead. Both sides played hard man defense and despite the fact that this was the sixth match of the tournament, the level of energy was still very high. Former Bravo players Hector Valdivia and Rodrigo Valdivia hooked up on a deep shot over Andrew Mangan (#4) in the first half. Both Gigo and Mangan came up with smiles after the play. Bravo got a few lucky breaks as several of Madison’s hucks sailed out the back of the end zone and Bravo was able to take half 8-5.
The second half featured Tom Annen getting an handblock on Steven Rouisse (#9), only to get handblocked by Rouisse several throws later. Madison wasn’t able to convert on the turns they generated and Bravo walked away with a 15-8 win over Madison.
