Our fall season has been one of the best in recent Pain Train history. We went 24-5 this fall. Two of our losses came on universe point. Of all the teams we played this fall, Pitt is the only team we did not beat. Some teams beat us (UMass, Cornell, Tufts), but we always managed to win against them at another point. Some impressive stats for the 2010-2011 Pain Train.
We now head into Leverone for practices and track workouts and into RVC/Wayne’s/Alumni Gyms for lifting. We will also be missing some of our guys, who will be taking the winter term to do great and awesome things in non-Hanover locations. We will travel to at least one tournament this winter, but otherwise, all Pain Trainers, whether in Hanover or elsewhere will be training very hard until spring break and the college series. We have a lot of work to do until the spring, but as we say: “ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it.”
Our last fall tournament, UOA Nationals was a good opportunity for us to get some quality ultimate in before our confinement to Leverone. We did exactly that, winning 7 of our 8 games, with our only loss coming to eventual champion Pitt, on our fourth game of the first day.
We narrowly missed the championship game, as VT had a better point differential. The Pain Train is now 15-1 in UOA games, tying Pitt for the best record in UOA play this fall.
After a long drive on Friday, a relaxed night at the hotel, and a Denny’s breakfast, we headed out for day 1.
Day 1
Dartmouth 15 – Brandeis 11
This was our third consecutive UOA game against Brandeis, we came out fired up and took half 8-5. This was a bit of a windy day, but not that much of a factor in this game. In the second half, Brandeis crept back a little bit, as we had some trouble converting our turns into breaks. But a huge Matt Murphy ’12 layout d got us our mojo back and we took the game 15-11.
Dartmouth 15 – JMU 9
We didn’t know much about JMU, except that co-captain Chase Raines ’11 had some friends on the team. The wind picked up a bit and we saw and threw some zone looks. Our focus this entire day was working on our transition looks, throwing zone for the first few throws to disrupt the other team’s pull plays and then moving into man d. We were guided on trannies by Assistant Coach #1/Official Pain Train Tweeter Writer/Former Pain Train captain, Misha Sidorsky ’10. We improved as the day progressed. Coach Brook went Belichick during and following this game, concentrating on high strategy, supreme command, and the preparation of PB&J’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOaGkPXn9LQ. While the first half was a bit closer than we hoped (8-6 good guys), we broke away in the second half, taking the game 15-9.
Dartmouth 15 – Tennessee 11
This game was sloppy. From the beginning we felt in control, partly inspired by an early Callahan, which led to some careless play afterwards. Though it was a win, it was definitely one of our least inspiring performances of the weekend. After breaking to take half 8-6, we worked to increase our lead in the second half, eventually taking the game 15-11.
Dartmouth 8 – Pittsburgh 15
This was our first game against a non-New England (USAU) nationals-caliber team this season. We went up early, 2-0 with an o-point and a break. We were pumped. But Pitt broke us to get it back on point, and broke once again to take half 8-6. Still, the game was wide open at this point. But for some reason, we weren’t in it. The sidelines were quiet, we weren’t focused on the field, and soon enough the game got out of hand for the Train. Pitt took the lead convincingly in the second half and our rotation became a lot looser. We ended up losing 15-8. Only later did we realize that a few more points would have made a huge difference.
Day 2
Dartmouth 15 – UCONN 13
After our disappointing first (and only) UOA loss against Pitt, we came in to Sunday hungry. First of all, we got woken up very early by the leadership. Secondly, we didn’t go to Denny’s for breakfast, just breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin’ Donuts. We got to the fields so early that the parking lot’s gate was opened as we rolled up. It was a good start. We had UCONN up. We haven’t seen them yet this year, but they are always tall, athletic, and huck-happy. The wind completely died down for the entire day, which created a very different dynamic from Saturday’s zones and up-wind down-wind games. We were trading points until half, with a Cecil Qiu ’13 layout d that led to the o-line recovering and taking half 8-7. It was similar to the Tennessee game in that we felt in control, so we played a bit sloppily. But eventually we came out on top 15-13.
Dartmouth 15 – Virginia 12
We knew we had to step it up here. Although they were missing some guys, UVA is another good team, and last year on spring break we had a miserable loss against them in Charlottesville, VA. We were very excited for this one. This was a good game all around for the train, with our offense looking particularly sharp. After some halftime adjustments to flatten out our marks, our defense stepped it up as well. Ended up winning the game 15-12, and felt good heading into the VT game.
Dartmouth 15 – Virginia Tech 12
This was our best game of the tournament by far. VT beat Pitt, and Pitt beat us, so in order to have a chance to play for the championship we would have to beat this team, though we weren’t exactly sure by how many points. The first half was on point, with a few opportunities to break that went unfulfilled. But the Train came out strong in the second half, breaking VT 3 times in a row to take over the game. Spencer “Chuck” Diamond ’14 and Robin “Beanio” Meyers ’10 are developing impressive chemistry on offense, scoring and assisting many of our points. Also notable was “Good” Dan Rosengard ’13, who was sick all weekend – at one point leaving a huddle to boot – and played like a warrior. We traded points until the end. Equally important were our sidelines. All of our guys were involved in the game, talking to the marks, cheering loudly, supporting each other, bringing water to timeouts. This was huge, and one of the biggest differences between this game and the Pitt game. And it clearly showed.
At this point there was a lot of conferring by the UOA guys, our leadership, Pitt, and VT. Since us, VT, and Pitt all had a 6-1 record, with us beating VT, VT beating Pitt, and Pitt beating us, point differential was the way to work this out. We lost the finals spot to VT by 2 points. Sad, but such is life.
Dartmouth 13 – Virginia 11
In the 3rd place game we opened up our rotation, more or less wholesaling every single line. The game was to 13, but we still wanted to win. Pretty solid play from the Pain Train. It was also clear that we had more legs than the ‘other’ train. One of the nicest moments came when Scott “scottoscotty” Sottosanti ‘12 threw a floaty huck to BFF Lee “Skinny” Farnsworth ’12, who made a great catch in the end zone to score. That’s kind of their thing. So when Lee came down with the disc, Scott ran the fastest he’s ran all weekend, with a shit-eating grin (and a noticeable halfie) in order to execute their meticulously planned high-five. Gotta love the big guys! Anyway, the Pain Train came out on top, finishing the weekend 7-1, and total 15-1 in UOA competition, tying Pitt for the best record.
We left the falling snow of Hanover on Friday morning to drive down 15 hours to sunny Greenville, NC to compete in UOA Natties!
Check out the scoreboard: http://ultimateobserversassociation.com/Nationals.html
Quick summary before we go do our homework/watch Harry Potter 7:
-We went 3-1 today, beating Brandeis, JMU, Tennessee. Losing our final game to Pitt. 'Twas a windy day. - Then we had Five Guys/Olive Garden/Panera. -We have a big day tomorrow. UCONN, Virginia Tech, and UVA with a fourth game against a-team-to-be-determined-later. We're still in the thick of it.
Follow us on twitter for some live updates: http://twitter.com/DMouthPainTrain
After going 2-1 on the first day, the Train was ready for some bracket play. As usual, it was windy; the top of Mt. Washington.
Game 1 - Dartmouth 15 BC 11 We played through some heavy wind this morning to come out with a strong win to advance to quarters.
Game 2 - Dartmouth 11 Cornell 12 Playing on a field that exacerbated the upwind/downwind dynamic because it was one long slope, the Train looked for its second win over Cornell this Fall. After letting the Buds get up 4 breaks in the first half, the Train staged a second-half comeback to reach universe point. Despite forcing 4 turns during the point with our hard man defense, going upwind and uphill on the last point proved to be too much; Wall Street Executives bonuses.
Though two losses on universe sting, the Train learned a lot this weekend, and is going into the final stretch of the Fall with a good idea of what it needs to work on and accomplish before the spring.
Our last fall tourney, UOA Nationals (Nov. 20-21), should be an excellent test of how much we learned this weekend, as well as a great opportunity for some outdoor ultimate before the cold New Hampshire winter forces us indoors.
Taking the car pool lane on I-93 southbound makes you late to your first game
Callahans are awesome
Our 14's (freshmen) rock.
Our second tournament of the year was incredible. Despite the absence of Coach Brook, we went undefeated (8-0) and won a bid to UOA nationals. This was the first non-sectionals tournament that the Pain Train has won since 08' Regionals.
This was a UOA tourney, so the rules were a little different and there were observers counting stalls for us. This was supposed to be an Ivy League tournament, but Cambridge is far, so good non-Ivy (Umass, Brandeis, Tufts) teams were used to round out the pack. Check out the website if you're interested to learn more about the UOA: http://ultimateobserversassociation.com/index.html.
Day 1: Saturday
Game 1: Dartmouth 15 Umass 10
Funny thing about first games that start at 8:30 AM – sometimes not all of your team is there on time. The beloved sprinter van, carrying all of our captains, the disc bag, and all but 8 players arrived at the fields at about 8:27. In addition, one of our players (who shall remain nameless), was late because he got kicked off the bus. Unlike Advanced Transit, apparently you have to pay to ride the buses in Boston. Oddly enough, this worked to our advantage, we kept it loose and made fun of our own navigational incompetence. We went up a couple of breaks and never let go. Nice first win.
Game 2: Dartmouth 15 Columbia 0
Score speaks for itself.
Game 3: Dartmouth 15 Brown 12
As it turns out, this was our closest game of the weekend. It was windy so we threw a lot of zone at them, but as usual Brown's handlers were solid and made us run a lot. We toughed it out to earn the win.
Game 4: Dartmouth 15 Tufts 8
We were all looking forward to this one after last weekend, where Tufts beat us twice. So far, they're the only team to beat us. We were hungry. Tufts just had a tough universe loss against Harvard, and looked tired. Even though it was windy, we decided to go man on them and make them run. After a close first half, we broke away and took our revenge. Team president Alex Taylor 11' took it home for us with a layout catch in the end zone.
Dinner
Anna's Burritos!!! There is no better way to celebrate an undefeated day than with some delicious burritos. Thanks to former captain Alex Kell 10' who let us stay in his house in Needham afterwards.
Day 2: Sunday
Game 5: Dartmouth 14 Yale 11
This was a sloppy game to open Sunday. On a windy day, we had a lot of drops in the end zone, we left at least 4-5 points on the field. Cap went on and the game ended with another Dartmouth victory.
Game 6: Dartmouth 15 Harvard 9
After the sloppy game against Yale, we went up against regional rivals Harvard. Boy, were we pumped for this one. Coming out on D, Robin Meyers 10' Th 11' caught a Callahan off a tipped disc. We got a break the next point as well, and ended up taking half 8-4 on a Lee Farnsworth 12' catch of a well-placed Scott Sottosanti 12' huck. Sophomore Sensations indeed. We didn't let up and took care of business.
Game 7: Dartmouth 15 Brandeis 0
Due to the seeding and design of the tournament we were slated to play Brandeis twice in a row, once to finish off pool play and once again in the championship game. Brandeis has a 10-player squad and they had a number of tight games. The UOA is very strict about playing all games, but since our championship spots were locked up, Brandeis practiced dropping pulls. That was ridiculous.
Naptime:
We had about an hour to burn before warming up, so there was a lot of sideline spooning. We definitely won the cuteness championship.
Game 8 (Finals): Dartmouth 15 Brandeis 11
We rarely play Brandeis, but they looked good on a very windy day, breaking our marks around a little too often. Our offense was looking smooth in the wind, despite a few miscues against the zone. Especially dominant were Spencer “Chuck” Diamond and Dan “Fat Albert” Harris, both 14's. On defense we got a lot of turns, but sometimes had trouble converting them into goals. “Good” Dan Rosengard 13' understood this. On game point, after a spectacular Caleb “Burrito” Ladue 14' pull, Rosengard decided to end the shenanigans and caught a layout Callahan to win the championship game and end the tourney. Boomslam. Ivy league champs baby (check out the pictures below and above to see what we look like)!
Everyone wants to update the blog regularly, nobody wants fail their midterms. So it took a week to post this meager summary of the second day. Such is life. Here are the results. After a delicious breakfast, courtesy of the Diamonds, we headed out to the fields.
1. Dartmouth 13 UMASS B 0
Caleb Ladue 14' got a point block and earned a burrito from Coach Brook. Too bad he only point blocks for burritos.
Dartmouth 15 Amherst 10
Solid game from us, we ran our zone a lot. Check out Robin Meyers' 10' Th 11' acrobatics below.
Dartmouth 15 UMASS 12 (Semis)
Close, tough game against the hosts. We ran a lot of man d to disrupt their handler motion, with co-captain Chase Raines 11' submitting a notable performance.
Dartmouth 12 Tufts 15 (Finals)
Heartbreaking loss to Tufts in the finals. Revenge will come soon.
We were 6-2 on the weekend, with our only losses coming against Tufts, on our first and last games. Great first tournament for the Train, we have a whole lot to be excited about this season.
First day of the of the first tourney for the 2010-2011 Dartmouth Pain Train. A lot of learning was done, especially on our zone looks. More details (and some pics) will come later with the Day 2 post. For now the results:
1) Dartmouth 9 Tufts 13 After taking half 7-6, we let our foot off the gas and Tufts ran away.
2) Dartmouth 13 Cornell 6 Our zone d was looking better with each point we played. There was essentially no wind, so it was particularly awesome to force some turns.
3) Dartmouth 13 ARHS 9 Once again, we rode our zone d.
4) Dartmouth 13 Wesleyan 8 The wind picked up during this game. After building up an 11-2 lead, we let our foot off the gas and Wesleyan came back. We got there eventually.
Overall, 3-1 on the first day. A lot of good stuff from the train, but also a lot of room for improvement. We have UMASS B tomorrow morning to finish up pool play and then bracket play later in the day.
A huge thank you to the Diamonds, parents of Spencer Diamond '14, for inviting us into their home, making us pasta, and collecting blue glass. You are our sunshine.
We're compiling a list of where Dartmouth Ultimate alums are playing these days (thanks to Mike Zargham '07), so check it out and add anyone else you know of. This will be a good way for alums to catch up with each other at tournaments and whatnot. Here's the google doc:
Today was the first day of tryouts for the 2010-2011 Pain Train, as well as the first day for the 2010-2011 Discomfort Trolley. These are their stories:
Pain Train
The first practice of the Train justified the team name entirely – as it was both painful and locomotive. The level of intensity was high and all of the tryouts were working really hard to impress the venerable Politburo.
The tryouts began with the 3-handler weave drill, which got some the blood flowin' and the sweat drippin' despite some chilly New Hampshire temperatures. This was promptly followed by a good old fashioned go-to drill with some west-coast dishy-like twists.
After the drills we split into three groups (Team Chase, Team Lars, Team Sam) which alternated between scrimmaging and doing the super-nasty/triangle-of-death drill. The combination was challenging to say the least, but also incredibly fun – we got to play competitive ultimate and cheer on our teammates, to that we say: boomslam.
Our next activity was focused tossing: 150 throws. 25 flat/inside-out/outside-in backhands (75 throws). 25 flat/inside-out/outside-in forehands (75 throws). Breadbaskets were hit.
Lest we rest for too long, we did full-field sprints followed by what is now known as either “Misha-Time (M-T)” or “Misha's Booty Boot Camp (MBBC)” (NOTE: do not google the second term). Misha Sidorsky 10' will be using his ultimate experience, encyclopedic knowledge of strength and conditioning, and hot bod to train us this fall. We are all incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have Misha instruct us in painful, yet ultimately constructive, calisthenics. One of the best parts of our conditioning was how vocally supportive we were of each other. Some, though not all, of the magic of this team stems from it closeness, and it clearly showed today. Ronnie Coleman quotes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO45iY7hilI) abounded.
After our first encounter with MBBC, our legs were gelatinous, our shoulders hurt, and our cardiovascular systems were heavily taxed, Nottingham under Prince John.1 On the bright side of things, doing all that core work at the end of practice directly caused a bunch of dudes to take off their shirts and dazzle the lady-folk with their abs. Thanks Misha!
Discomfort Trolley
On the other side of the road, past the practicing women, the DT started working its magic. After some wildly irresponsible scrimmaging to start things off, the Trolley settled down with some concentrated throwing. Moving right along, though at an uncomfortable pace, the Trolley-ers did some flow drill and went over the mechanics of handler and cutter motion in the ho-stack.
After some more scrimmaging, there was working out of abs and pushing one's body off the ground repeatedly, as well as the freshman cone drill, with a cameo by Jon Wills 11'.
According to one anonymous, and incredibly biased, account, the practice “went awesomely!”
1For more information on the Likeless Simile, the literary device used in the sentence, please refer to:
The second practice of the year was a lot like the first practice. There were a lot of 14's. We taught them a simple version of a three handler weave, the flow drill, and played 3v3. We ended practice by scrimmaging with the womenses, which included a lot of flirtatious fun on and off the field.
Sectionals
“ Got loads of compliments on how well things ran - congrats on a great tournament Dartmouth Ultimate!” – Matt Mackey 08'
Ah... The first tournament of the year. The aroma of tourney food (and a smiling Matt Mackey 08' and Maggie Zou 12', our venerable TD's) welcomed us to Sachem. We split into a ballin' team of 14's, led by James Kim 11' on the first day and Jon Wills 11' on the second day, and a team of returners. This was a learning experience for everyone, as we were trying to familiarize ourselves with the new offense. We had two goals going in to the weekend: one, have a lot of fun; two, get better each game.
We met both goals. The fun was taken care of pretty easily, as we all like each other, and we ate sausages and steak tips. Yummy.
Our second goal was also met. Our new coach Brook never missed a “teaching moment,” and helped us improve our timing and positioning on offense. The highlight of the tournament was our first game on Sunday against our new conference (the grouping of teams formerly known as a section) rivals, the Pranksters of Middlebury. The game was decided on universe after several lead changes and minor comebacks. Even though we lost the game, it was competitive and it was by far our most complete game offensively.
It is worth adding that a number of our returners were playing with club teams, which meant that due to eligibility restrictions they could not play with the train. But it also means that many of them will be playing at Regionals, gaining valuable club experience. Wicked.
Overall, a great way to start off the year and get the Train and Trolley rolling.
“You guys look like an army” Thought by awestruck Women's player, upon witnessing the horde of chiseled men warming up
Yesterday, September 23rd, was the first ultimate practice of the fall. After a boot-filled orientation, followed up by diligent stalking, recruiting, and general administrative work, the venerable politburo of Dartmouth Ultimate succeeded in luring freshmen to pastoral Sachem. Once we had them in our grip, and after a brief warmup, the captains and Brook introduced themselves and explained some general things about the program. With the boring talking section out of the way, we started teaching them the basic skills: throwing, cutting, marking. The leadership was aided by a whole slew of “extensively awesome upperclassmen” in teaching the 14's and other newcomers, who, it must be said, displayed a great level of skill. Every year the freshman class comes in with more ultimate experience, making teaching that much easier. After this, the returners played two points of a mandatory showcase, just to give the new guys a sense of what (close to) full speed, (gratuitous) layout-rich ultimate looks like. Then we scrimmaged. At the end of practice the captains led us in a stretching circle in which each person introduced themselves and revealed their first AOL screen name. Highlights included: freakykid59, larsistrouble, barnthazul. Fun times. We went bananas at the end.
Welcome Class of 2014! If you're interested in playing Ultimate Frisbee at Dartmouth then you're in luck, because Frisbee is starting up as soon as you show up for Orientation. Here are some times/places that you'll be able to hang out and play some disc:
- On the Green during all of Orientation! As often as possible we're going to be tossing some frisbees on the green and hanging out. It's a great time to come out and throw a little, ask a few questions, and get the lowdown on what Ultimate at Dartmouth is all about!
- After the first day of classes (Sept. 22). There's no better way to complete your first day of college than getting out to the Sachem Fields and playing some frisbee. There will be rides leaving from Dartmouth Hall at 2:50 to bring you to the fields. Practice goes from 3-6pm, but rides can accommodate your schedules if you have other commitments but still want to play frisbee.
- Friday, Sept. 24 Second Practice. We get to practice a couple times and get the hang of our throws before a super exciting tournament on the first weekend of the term! Practice from 3-6pm again as we get pumped for Sectionals the next day.
- Sept. 25-26 Sectionals! A tournament for Club Teams (non-college affiliated teams - the club season is in the fall, whereas the college season is in the spring). We bring two teams from Dartmouth to play since we host the tournament on our fields, one for returning players, and a whole team dedicated solely to freshmen! There is no experience necessary, and it's lots of fun. If you think you'd be interested in playing for even just part of the weekend send a blitz to MUF@dartmouth.edu .
- Informational Meeting! There will be a meeting early in the term explaining all the awesome reasons that you should join Dartmouth Ultimate, so be ready for a blitz about that in the near future.
Enjoy your trips, and we can't wait to meet you all!
