Ozark Mixed Sectionals (by April Johnson)

On September 16, Ozark mixed sectionals took place at Gary Hampton with three teams: Robot Unicorn Attack (Fayetteville), Hootie (Fayetteville), and Glory Daze (Conway/Little Rock). Hootie was a combo of current Arkansas college players who came together to play at sectionals. Glory Daze was primarily made of Hendrix players, but did have an ex-Fayettevillian favorite, Rich Walden on their squad. And Robot Unicorn Attack is the local mixed team who has been playing together since summer.  Our section received two bids to regionals, which Robot Unicorn and Glory Daze won. 

Captained by Jody Ayers, a stat junkie, here are RUA's stats from Sunday:

1) Possession to score ratio = 1.6. That's 48 possessions to score 30 points. 1.6 is a very solid ratio.

2) Clay Adams led the team with 5 goals caught. Even controlling for points played, he was most likely to score; catching a goal every 2.8 points played.

3) Abe Coffin threw the most goals with 7 assists. Casey Hooper was most likely to throw a point, doing so once every 1.8 points played.

Also, almost as exciting as winning sectionals, the RUA jerseys made their debut to a very warm reception:

Thanks to all the teams for coming out on a dreary Sunday and good luck with the rest of your seasons!

Hillbillys at Grandmasters 2012 (by Doug Behrend)

So we went 3-5 on the weekend and played exactly to seed (14th). We had chances to do much better, as this brief report will show.

Minneapolis weather was great, highs in the 80s all 3 days, breezy and dry on Saturday and Sunday, muggy on Monday.

Game 1: Against Grandmaster Flash the 5 seed in our pool. We came out, turned it over a couple times and went down 3-0. We called a time out, got our shit together, and scored 13 of the next 14 points to win 13-4. Bitty, Salty Mike, and Bailey led the way.

Game 2: Against Man Down (Philly), the 3 seed in our pool. We saw this as our big game headed into the weekend. We came out solid with good offense and solid D including several hand packs. We led most of this game and received the pull leading by 1 as the cap blew. We turned it over, but got it right back and scored for the 11-9 win. 2-0 baby!!

Game 3: We had the last round bye, so we turned right around and played 1 seed Boulder. Phil sat out, and Boulder with hardly anyone out of their early 40s on their roster, skunked us 13-0. We got everyone in the game, and were able to hit the keg of West Mountain rye early as the last round of the day played out and we prepped for a big matchup with Brooklyn in the morning.

Game 4: Crucial game as Man Down had beaten Brooklyn and we had beaten Man Down. Win and we're #2 in our pool, but we had our worst game of the tournament here, missing open shots to the end zone and dropping far too many. Brooklyn pulled away early in the 2nd half and won 13-8, leaving three teams at 2-2 in the pool and dropping us to 4th because of point differential.

Game 5: So instead of winning and facing a #3 seed from another pool in the round of 16 we were paired with hosts and eventual champs Surly in the round of 16. We played pretty well here, but Surly was the superior squad and won going away. Toad hurt his hammy and missed much of this game and the rest of the tournament. Bob got heckled by Boulder.

Game 6: Dropping into the 9th place bracket, we faced Old Line from Baltimore/DC/Annapolis. Once again the game was tightly contested early on, but with no consistent big deep threat (Joe G. didn't make it, Toad hurt, and Phil gimping along) they did a good job of stopping our possession game and took us down. Once again we salved our wounds at the keg and then headed over to the Surly brewery for Bison burgers, brews, and a pretty good band.

Game 7: A rematch with GM Flash. We didn't let them take the lead this time and won easily again, setting up a game with our rivals from Texas, the Sick Hammers.

Game 8: We sucked. Hammers beat us. People went to the airport, watched the finals. A few of us went up to a lake house for a few days.

The tourney MVP for us was Jon Bitler. Bitty's always fit, but I think his practices with the mixed team helped his play. He also caught just about everything and may have led the team in points scored. Chuck scored a Callahan, and Salty just missed one. Bailey had two great d's in one point against Surly. Everybody on the roster either scored or threw a point. It sounds like GM Nationals will be moved back to the midsummer next year along with Masters and Womens Masters. With the regions changing for us next year, things could be much different.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWWW!!