The tryout times for this season starts Tuesday the 18th. For the first week we are on the turf fields at the CRC 6-8pm TWTH After the first week of classes we will still have practice at the CRC fields. 4-6pm TTH If you want to tryout but cannot make these times please send an email to The Captains and let us know so we can try to accommodate you.

Are you going to be visiting the Georgia Tech campus soon? Are you planning on attending Georgia Tech next year? Are you interested in joining the Tribe? Let us know! Send an email to one or all of us.
gth733 at mail dot gatech dot edu
mspear at gatech dot edu
ndlance at gatech dot edu

Today we played a trifling bit of ultimate at the Atlantic Coast Regionals. Tech came in seeded 11th, which was pretty much justified based on a few bad tournaments and crucial losses to teams just ahead of us. In any case, we got put in the A-pool with Florida, William and Mary, and James Madison. It was a flippin’ warm day, which resulted in some serious hydration and cramping issues. With Garrett, TK, and Zirbel missing and Maxwell still hobbled from DoG, Tech essentially played 15 guys all day.

SPOILER ALERT: Overall finish: 1-3, t-9th , no advancement to Sunday.

The Florida game, we came in expecting just to have a solid warmup, and that’s about what it was. Florida broke twice as Tech had the intimidation jitters and struggled with poaches off of the handlers. Spear started Tech’s scoring with a flick to Fish. Florida scored a couple more times, and didn’t really have to throw much zone—the only time they did, Victor got a blade from Spear, popped it to Hogan, and the point was finished with an easy flick for the score. Half was done 7-3, and the D-line got some opportunities to play O-points to warm up their flow. The game ended at 15-7, with nothing hugely spectacular happening. The deep game was clicking effectively, and it seemed we could work it under with no trouble. Major issues: poach and switch by opponents, reading discs instead of opponents, and occasional silly drops and throwaways. Our conclusions on Florida: Despite the negative publicity, they didn’t play dirty or really make bad calls. Maybe we’re just too far beneath them.

With that game ending early, Tech had half an hour to investigate bagels, other rounds, and get a scouting report on future opponents. William and Mary, the 8-seed, had a very patient offense that wasn’t afraid to swing the disc and isolate a single under at a time. When that started not working, due to great pressure by the marks, led by Aaron and Ramu, they opened it up and #27 and the guy who looked like a steroided Russian assassin #1 put shots at will. Tech stacked D-points to start, with Nick throwing two early hammers to Fish for scores. William and Mary fought back, though, as they scored and broke to tie it up. After a chilly O-point, Tech took the lead and got a turn. After working it down to the goal line, Ramu had a flick mark on the flick side. He saw Spear making an in-cut, but threw to the end zone too far inside. W&M thought it had an easy D, but Victor flew out of nowhere for a siiiiiick layout grab, 4-2 Tech. #27 had two run-through D’s on Hogan and Fish (with silent footsteps, who knew there was a man on?). Some effective isos by William and Mary kept working when we went man, and the trusty 2-3-2 was spread so well that it seemed like we had to man upfield, and they eventually took half, 8-6. With the O-point coming after half, GT resolved to play it smart. That failed quickly, as the wind had picked up and a Hogan huck went out the back downwind. From the initiation, Ethan’s man went deep on the backhand third, and the throw went up downline. Fish saw it the whole way and crashed, getting a clean sky and sprinting to the other end zone for the trigger-happy Spear, running down the bookends, 8-7 W&M. The downwind throws kept getting tougher, as we had trouble finding the right touch. Hogan had the opportunity to make the “best sky of [his] season” and did so in style. With a pretty upline throw from Hogan to Nick, Tech retook the lead 11-10. Both teams started struggling to get flow working, with EJ playing heads-up downfield D, twice bodying out to knock away scores. At 12-all, the cap blew, game to 14. This was a D-point for Tech, and Sean got the circus D in their end zone. With 70 yards to work and already a tired team, the cuts were struggling, as Nick and Aaron had to work it back and forth. Finally, Nick got pissed off that this wasn’t club, and demanded that Fish go deep. With a deep poach already back, he put a 70-yard downwind hanger. Fish had time to get position and ripped over two guys, striking a pose to celebrate. Panicked, William and Mary threw their ensuing O-point on a perfect grounder to shortstop at midfield. Tech patiently swung the disc to move it upfield, and Fish called a timely foul on his marker. With a nod to Noah, he planned to break upline, but Ramu got to the corner first to end the game, 14-12.

Since that game had gone into cap, Tribe had no time to get a good rest or warmup in. 10 minutes after the previous game, we started against JMU on defense. They love the invert, whether it’s flick or backhand, and used the wind well to float stuff just enough. Even “covered” upline throws were viable, especially on the upwind, gaining 10 yards at a time. To be honest, I don’t remember much about this game, because we were all flippin’ exhausted. Sean and Hogan both scored on deep shots. They also loved to huck, and even late looks were possible. The offense looked really good, at times moving the disc like an easy flow drill, but got broken once in the first half, as JMU took half 8-6. Nick’s semi-magic heart started acting up, and he had to take a serious rest. Tech took the O-point, and then we traded O-points, 9-8 JMU. After they sent it deep for a help D from Koch, Spear threw a flick upwind to a streaking Fish to once again even the score. On the next D point, Victor had another layout score on a crummy, blady huck from Fish. With the score at 11s and Tech receiving, each team turned once and the offense took the second opportunity to go up one, with the cap making it hard to 13. All the offense came out to be sure about the last possible point, and JMU knew they needed it, and they worked the unders followed by a 40-yard out to get the tie and force universe. Hogan and Spear started in the middle, and Noah started a series of unders, from Spear to Hogan to Ethan, swinging to Bui, back to Spear on the goal line. He wanted a quick high release to Fish, but put it within only two fingers of stretching reach for the turn. Our exhausted line bid three times on their unders, but a flick got off for another medium out and the heartbreaking loss. Based on point diff between W&M, JMU, and Tribe, we still took third in the pool, meaning we had a crossover for a berth to Sunday.

UNC finished second in their pool with FSU, Georgia, and Clemson, while playing a very tight line of 8 or 9 guys. It seemed like they expected this to be an easy game, not playing any of their studs for the first few points, and it showed; Tribe took an early 3-2 lead. Dunbeck and E.J. both had killer deep cuts throughout the game, as Spear continued to put almost anything he saw. He and Hogan both put inverts out to space that Fish ran onto, with UNC twice laying out into his back for discs that had already been caught above his head. That happened no fewer than 5 times throughout the day, and Spear and Hogan both had the same thing happen to them in the four games. At this point, fatigue was really screwing us, as Fish and Koch both had shinsplints seriously catching up to them, Victor’s legs and back cramping completely, and Hogan's 8-month old swollen ankle. In any case, UNC scored three straight to make the score 7-5. Tech turned a deep shot, and UNC was working it up the flick side. A throw went up to UNC’s #24, and Nick went right by him for a layout catch D. He gave it to Spear and took off. Spear decided it was not a good time to throw unders,FIXED: and called for a time out. After setting, seeing a stagnant stack and a timely foul, Nick took off deep from the start, then Spear lasered what I thought was a terrible throw—with entire zip codes to throw to, he sends it flat and right at the front cone—but Nick decided otherwise, getting a waist-high layout with full extension just inside the sideline and in the end zone, begging that the Chain player/observer call this his tryout. Tech broke once more to tie at 7, but couldn’t get another for half. No one listened to Spear at halftime, because everyone was too tired to decipher his mumblings. In the second half, Ramu matched up on #22, one of their main guys. He got a sa-weet bid on a deep shot to him, but the observer upheld the Lebron charity foul call on another high layout, which they eventually scored. UNC started doing some serious poaches off of the handlers, and Bui and Ethan both caught hucks by abusing the poaches. Continuing the success with Spear and Hogan’s hucking, Nick, Hogan, Fish, EJ, and Dunbeck all caught scores or near-scores. The game went to 11s, but Tech was exhausted and couldn’t finish strongly, as cap went on and the game ended on a break, 14-11.

Despite going 1-3 on the day and not having any shot at advancing to Nationals, the team wasn’t terribly disappointed with our performance. Florida aside, every game was competitive, and the entire team played well, individually and collectively. It was rough dealing with injuries and only 15 players, particularly in hot and humid weather. Tech returns almost everyone for next year, in addition to picking up a freshman class, B-team studs, and returning injured players. We don’t have any video or pictures from this weekend, but if we see links posted, we’ll put them on the website.

Team summer goals are to improve our athleticism, disc skills, and comfort in timing good cuts.