[TFDA] It’s All Just for Fun at 8th Annual Savage Seven Benefit Tourney!

Christian Schwoerke schwoerkec at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 2 11:00:32 EST 2009


It was all Just for Fun at the 8th annual Savage Seven Benefit Tourney, as that team swept all of its seven games, amassing 49 points while allowing only 15.  Even as this year’s event earned over $1400 for TFDA’s ultiplex fund, the budget permitted the distribution of trophy jerseys for the winners of the final championship round. (Someone, please, send us the picture of the champs in their trophy gear!)

It was a perfect day for ultimate, with temperatures at 9am a nippy 42, rising very quickly in the sun’s unhindered glow to a 1pm high of 61.  A constant breeze out of the south varied from a gentle 5mph caress to a whimsically mean-spirited 15mph, with occasional swirls that caused the disc to pop or drop suddenly.  There was a lot of side-line trapping zone, though the strongest teams eschewed this defense in order to make their opponents run.

As with past Savage Seven Benefit Tourneys, all teams were equal on paper, with rosters composed of players who were ranked 1 through 6, according to their highest level of play in the last three years, with a 7-player total that could not exceed 26 points.  Rosters were creatively composed, some featuring one, two, or three 6-pointers (Ring or Backhoe types), then a bunch of lesser ranked folks from college squads and leagues, while other composed teams with a focus towards a more even distribution of points.  For a good instance of both styles of team composition, compare the rosters of the A-Division finalists, Just for Fun and Truffle Shuffle (below).

All games were to 7 in 45-minute rounds.  While this seems a short game, the cumulative effect over the course of even pool play’s three games is significant when one considers the underlying premise of the tourney, ie, there are no subs!

At the beginning of the tourney, a stab was made at seeding the 16 teams.  The number in parentheses is that team’s actual finish.

Seeding:
1.	Cat Scratch (5)
2.	Just for Fun (1)
3.	Powdered Milk (6)
4.	Business Beards (8)
5.	Forkin’ Aye (4)
6.	Little Spoon Resurrected (7)
7.	Sassy O’Nassies (3)
8.	Truffle Shuffle (2)
9.	Sound and Fury (12)
10.	Perfect Season (9)
11.	Charlie Kroger Fan Club (11)
12.	Sparkle Motion (13)
13.	His Boy Elroy (10)
14.	Critter Vision (14)
15.	Hustle and Flow (15)
16.	Jumble (16)

Pool play had several upsets, with Pools A, C, and D having their #1s losing a chance at an easier match-up in the pre-quarters round.  The first set of parentheses is the win-loss record in the pool, and the second set of parentheses is points-for/points-against, which help to indicate the relative strength of the teams in a given pool.

Pool A                            Pool B
Cat Scratch (2-1) (19-15)         Just for Fun (3-0) (21-6)
Forkin’ Aye (3-0) (19-16)         Little Spoon (1-2) (13-19)
Sparkle Motion (0-3) (13-21)      C.Kroger Fan Club (2-1) (16-12)
His Boy Elroy (1-2) (18-17)       Critter Vision (0-3) (8-21)

Pool C                            Pool D
Powdered Milk (1-2) (15-16)       Business Beards (2-1) (19-11)
Sassy O’Nassies (3-0) (20-11)     Truffle Shuffle (3-0) (21-13)
Perfect Season (2-1) (17-13)      Sound and Fury (1-2) (13-15)
Hustle and Flow (0-3) (9-21)      Jumble (3-0) (7-21)

The pre-quarters round enabled some teams to right themselves and return to the higher echelons.  In particular Powdered Milk upset the Charlie Kroger Fan Club to make the A-Division quarters, as did Little Spoon Resurrected, which upset Perfect Season.

Pre-quarters
Forkin’ Aye over Jumble (7-2)
Just for Fun over Hustle and Flow (7-2)
Sassy O’Nassies over Critter Vision (7-2)
Truffle Shuffle over Sparkle Motion (6-5)

Cat Scratch over Sound and Fury (5-2)
Powdered Milk over Charlie Kroger Fan Club (6-5)
Little Spoon Resurrected over Perfect Season (7-6)
Business Beards over His Boy Elroy (5-2)

B-Division (Chumpionships)

Quarters
Teams were beginning to fade by the time quarters rolled around.  Some teams found a second wind; others did not.  Critter Vision squeaked past Sound and Fury, but an injury to one of the players on Critter Vision prompted that team to withdraw and give its place to Sound and Fury.  Sparkle Motion did all it could to stay alive, protracting the game beyond the time cap, losing at universe point to the Charlie Kroger Fan Club, 6-7. 

Semis
Perfect Season, poised in the pre-quarters to advance to the A-Division, was working overtime to ensure they finished with a respectable record, playing a time-capped game to universe point with the Charlie Kroger Fan Club, winning 6-5.  Elroy got a couple of lucky breaks in their evenly matched game with Sound and Fury, but prevailed with a lone break to win 7-5. 

Finals
Perfect Season featured youth over a strange mix of old and young on the Jetson-themed His Boy Elroy.  Nonetheless Elroy drew first blood.  It was a back and forth game, with neither team gaining the edge.  At 5s, after a failure to finish in the red zone, Elroy vainly tried to stop James Murray’s 60-yard hammer.  In the next point, after another failure to convert in the red zone, Elroy again went flat footed as another 60-yard throw from James Murray sailed into the endzone to make it a 7-5 Perfect victory.

B Quarters
Sound and Fury over Critter Vision (7-6)
Charlie Kroger Fan Club over Sparkle Motion (7-6)
Perfect Season over Jumble (7-3)
His Boy Elroy over Hustle and Flow (7-1)

B Semis
Perfect Season over Charlie Kroger Fan Club (6-5)
His Boy Elroy over Sound and Fury (7-5) 

B Finals
Perfect Season over His Boy Elroy (7-5)

A-Division (Championships)

Quarters
Little Spoon was risen from the ignominy of the B-Division, but the fork proved the more durable utensil, winning a close one, 6-5.  Another hard-fought game was the Truffle Shuffle v. Powdered Milk game, where a single late break gave Truffle the edge.  Business Beards was brooking no nonsense against Just for Fun and were tied 4-4 when their handling wizard Grant Gill had to pull himself from the game with a twisted ankle, enabling the Funsters to finish out a game of 6s with a 7-4 score.  Last year’s runners up, Cat Scratch, was no match for the impertinent youth on Sassy O’Nassies, and they fell 2-7.

Semis
This reporter was not privy to any color or even first-hand information about the A-div semis and finals games.  Hence, it would be merely speculation to assert that Truffle Shuffle employed an effective zone against Forkin’ Aye.  It’s also not far-fetched to speculate that the Truffle women did a good job of matching up against Forkin’ Aye’s women, giving Truffle the edge.  Speed and youth on the Duke-based Sassy squad was not enough against Just for Fun, as the Funsters prevailed relatively easily with big throws from Taylor Pope and Stephen Poulos.

Finals
Again, this reporter was engaged elsewhere so that details about this very quick game could only be inferred.  While Truffle Shuffle did score the first point (and two more), it is surmised that Just for Fun was able to neutralize Truffle’s long game with the poaching defensive work of Poulos and Pope, who in turn were quick to send the disc long once they’d got it.

A Quarters
Forkin’ Aye over Little Spoon Resurrected (6-5)
Just for Fun over Business Beards (7-4)
Sassy O’Nassies over Cat Scratch (7-2)
Truffle Shuffle over Powdered Milk (7-5)

A Semis
Truffle Shuffle over Forkin’ Aye (7-4)
Just for Fun over Sassy O’Nassies (7-3)

A Finals
Just for Fun over Truffle Shuffle (7-3)

Rosters

It’s never just a matter of who’s on a given team; it’s how that team gels.  All teams began with the same team-building premise: reach 26 points with the best players one can.  Speculate for yourselves how these teams may or may not have fulfilled their potential...

Cat Scratch             Business Beards          The Sassy O’Nassies
Ben Dieter      5       Baker Pratt      5       Alex Trahey    4
Tim Lupo        5       Grant Gill       5       Eric Guenther  3
Tommy Cleveland 4       Patrick Rabenold 2       Tommy Ferguson 3
Bryce Tenant    1       Brendan Miller   2       Will Kane      3
Thuy Brooks     5       Frannie Goodrich 6       Erin Wiltgen   5
Sara Stanley    5       Amy Hobbie       2       Sophie Lehman  4
Dianne Freund   1       Shellie Cohen    1       Ashley Chan    4

Truffle Shuffle         Sparkle Motion           Just for Fun
Terry Kramer    5       Tuba Bensonjaja  6       Stephen Poulos 6
Rocky Payne     5       Mick Styers      3       Taylor Pope    6
John McLeod     4       Joseph Kinnarney 2       Alan Ellis     3
Rodney Guajardo 2       Tim Woods        2       Damian Craig   1
Meredith Niece  5       Nicole Chauvigne 6       Rachel Gross   6
Becki Cleveland 4       Lee Veit         5       Whitney Morgan 3
Mary Frazer     1       Tatjana Benedict 2       Sarah Thompson 1

Jumble                  Sound and Fury           Li’l Spoon Resurrected
Brian Sherry   5        Brian Lang    6          Joey Connelly   6
David Kaminski 4        Dwayne Purper 5          Larry Durgin    6
Dan Widis      2        Joe Carley    3          Mike O'Malley   2
Eric Davis     1        Cole Lantzy   2          Samuel Linnartz 1
Amy Morrison   6        Sharon Tucker 6          Lauren Gardner  5
Sara Wobker    2        Sanya Carley  3          Julie Morris    4
Mandy Davis    1        Emma Johnson  1          Marcia Frisbi   2

Perfect Season          His Boy Elroy            Powdered Milk
Kris Bass      6        Christian Schwoerke 3    Chris Shepard    5
James Murray   5        David Berendes      6    Kenny Marcus     4
Peter Linnartz 4        Eric Hagan          4    Tom Pearl        2
Chris Prosser  2        Victor Maneilly     4    Justin Brinkley  2
Alison Murray  4        Rachel McCarthy     3    Lesley McCormack 6
Kelsey Penrose 2        Jenn Coon           4    Becky LeDonne    6
Jessi Jones    2        Anne Burroughs      2    Judy Ray         1

Hustle and Flow         Charlie Kroger Fan Club  Critter Vision
Nick Crawford   5       Ben Murphy     4         Derrick Marcey  4
Robert Luedeman 5       Charlie Kroger 4         Chris Kelley    4
Jake Palmer     2       Tate Hancock   1         Andrew Phelps   4
Arnett Brown    2       Luke Hancock   1         Tim Hyde        2
Melanie Morgan  6       Becca Stephens 4         Laurie Williams 4
Sara Allen      4       Lauren Tompson 6         Shannon Marklin 4
Meghan Atkinson 2       Tammy Moose    6         Meghan O'Brien  4

Forkin’ Aye
Steven Panasci   5
Lucas Darden     5
Mat Thomas       5
Casey Haigh      2
Cate Foster      6
Caroline Guthrie 2
Lindsey Lang     1



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