DoG 2006
I know it's way too early, but Jim was just mentioning over here that Zip had renewed his contract for 2006, and the first comment was as follows:
Anonymous said...
Funny you mention Pike. Had the blogging craze struck a year ago, I can imagine someone on Pike writing a very similar post:
Made semis last year when no one expected it, everyone's coming back. We're cheering "our year" during every huddle. Watch out world.
Refresh my memory, how'd that attitude work out for Pike 2005?
Nice of you to do some gauntlet-throwing this early, though. Should be interesting to watch.
That comment made me reflect on some history. In 2002, DoG was 1 turnover from winning a national championship (I'm not going to waste my time arguing whether we would have won the final if we had beaten Furious by 1 instead of the reverse). We had dethroned the Condors in the quarterfinals in a satisfying victory after losing them to the semis the previous two years. Because of our success in 2002 most of the team stayed around for 2003 and hopes were high. After all, we were bringing back most of the team that had just missed winning it all. Naturally, we got smoked in 2003 in probably our worst performance, both literally and as a 'team', with lots of backbiting, bad spirit and just general malaise. It was a far cry from the year before and probably the most unpleasant one in all my years on DoG. In 2004 we again lost in the quarterfinals, this time losing to Furious after being up 10-7. In 2005, we were fated to lose in the quarters again (and I guess this year not even make it to the quarters, perhaps lose in the pre-quarters) but ended up the surprise semifinalist, although I'm not sure people were too surprised.
In 2003 (and Pike 2005), the teams brought almost all of their squads back, with very little turnover or new additions. Unfortunately, the state of the game is such that teams can't afford to stand still anymore, even national champions. Even during the DoG championship reign, we experienced significant turnover every year except after 97, where the only change was a trade of a very young Doug Moore and Zack Wills for Doc and import Daisuke. And, of course, 98 ended up being one of our closest finals victories.
It is projecting to be an exciting year. We are expecting serious turnover, losing up to 10 players off last years roster of 24. But if you consider that Zip was largely a non-factor at Nationals in 2005 due to a hamstring injury early in the tournament, his return is effectively the 'addition' of a stud (like the late-season return of a baseball #1 starter from injury). The pool of tryouts is also very promising even with the Pike guys choosing to pick up with the surprise 11th best team in the country. Hopefully they will seriously regret that decision.
I make no predictions for the fall, as at this point, pretty much any team can flame out of the tournament, witness Ring and Condors last year, but it promises to be an exciting year.
Anonymous said...
Funny you mention Pike. Had the blogging craze struck a year ago, I can imagine someone on Pike writing a very similar post:
Made semis last year when no one expected it, everyone's coming back. We're cheering "our year" during every huddle. Watch out world.
Refresh my memory, how'd that attitude work out for Pike 2005?
Nice of you to do some gauntlet-throwing this early, though. Should be interesting to watch.
That comment made me reflect on some history. In 2002, DoG was 1 turnover from winning a national championship (I'm not going to waste my time arguing whether we would have won the final if we had beaten Furious by 1 instead of the reverse). We had dethroned the Condors in the quarterfinals in a satisfying victory after losing them to the semis the previous two years. Because of our success in 2002 most of the team stayed around for 2003 and hopes were high. After all, we were bringing back most of the team that had just missed winning it all. Naturally, we got smoked in 2003 in probably our worst performance, both literally and as a 'team', with lots of backbiting, bad spirit and just general malaise. It was a far cry from the year before and probably the most unpleasant one in all my years on DoG. In 2004 we again lost in the quarterfinals, this time losing to Furious after being up 10-7. In 2005, we were fated to lose in the quarters again (and I guess this year not even make it to the quarters, perhaps lose in the pre-quarters) but ended up the surprise semifinalist, although I'm not sure people were too surprised.
In 2003 (and Pike 2005), the teams brought almost all of their squads back, with very little turnover or new additions. Unfortunately, the state of the game is such that teams can't afford to stand still anymore, even national champions. Even during the DoG championship reign, we experienced significant turnover every year except after 97, where the only change was a trade of a very young Doug Moore and Zack Wills for Doc and import Daisuke. And, of course, 98 ended up being one of our closest finals victories.
It is projecting to be an exciting year. We are expecting serious turnover, losing up to 10 players off last years roster of 24. But if you consider that Zip was largely a non-factor at Nationals in 2005 due to a hamstring injury early in the tournament, his return is effectively the 'addition' of a stud (like the late-season return of a baseball #1 starter from injury). The pool of tryouts is also very promising even with the Pike guys choosing to pick up with the surprise 11th best team in the country. Hopefully they will seriously regret that decision.
I make no predictions for the fall, as at this point, pretty much any team can flame out of the tournament, witness Ring and Condors last year, but it promises to be an exciting year.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 10:07 AM
8 Comments:
------>the Pike guys choosing to pick up with the surprise 11th best team in the country<--------
Does this mean Pike has broken up?
In 2002, we were also a collapse away from winning Worlds in a blowout.
2003: also added Olivier and Dan Mac and saw Ben W and Doug return after a year on the DL.
As for losses, on this blog entry, there is a graphic of players by year, so you can see who left when. Here's a table of lost and added players by year:
Year Lost Added
1995 6 6
1996 4 4
1997 3 4
1998 2 2
1999 4 9
2000 4 3
2001 7 5
2002 8 8
2003 2 7
2004 13 9
2005 3 4
anonymous: no, Pike hasn't broken up, but they have lost a significant number of core players, so they will have a very different look this spring. That does not mean that they won't perform, just that they'll be different.
Wicks: To evolve my thinking, I guess I was referring more to true turnover, the subtraction of players along with the addition of new players. According to Jim's spreadsheet, we added a bunch of new players, but only lost Lyn from 2002. This is especially important in this case, because to successfully integrate that many new players (and some of the impact) there had to be a lot of sacrifice from the returning players. Apparently we didn't do that very well...
Jim: Worlds... Still makes me cringe...Other than the fact that your spreadsheet actually only shows 1 person leaving, this sort of supports my 'new' argument. 98 and 03 saw the fewest players leaving, and also ended up with the most 'difficult' years. Then there was the huge exodus after the 2003 failure, but that is a plotline for another story. So we lost one offensive player, Lyn, and gained players which were going to require large amounts of playing time, Ron and Doug, and Sam and Dan Mac in the next tier, with Ben and O right behind them. There are only so many points per game to go around. And while it was nice having a lot of players at practice, I can still remember now that team morale was already fracturing even before getting to Nationals.
Pike is at very least (last I heard) losing Ryan Todd, Danny Clark and Bailey Russel all to Twisted Metal; Jim Regetz, Geoff Buhl and Michael Jaeger to the west coast; Jude Travers-Frazier, Walt Kalicki, Steve O'Lare, and Dave Hollander to retirement; and Joel Wooten to whatever.
So yeah, Pike is fucked.
walt retire? why? he's got total game left. and if j-dono, trey and brian lo where the jersey, pike is hardly fugged.
With Pike losing that many, this could also be an opportunity for the team to regenerate from within. It all depends on how strong the 'program' is. It will be interesting to see how they look at the NJ invite mid-May.
and i don't think i'd quite call
raising your hand for the pull and immediately placing it around your neck flaming out. but i like your colorful verb use.
Is that the flaming meaux? The flaming mow? I'm telling ya, cough syrup was GENIUS.
Post a Comment
<< Home