Over the next two or three weeks, I'm going to be rolling out a series of posts on Nationals. I had planned on writing from Columbus, but we stayed at the Red Roof Inn where you had to pay for Wi-Fi service. I've been called a cheap bastard by many folks and poor fool by many others. I'll pay for the service once I've either made my first feature film or convince this blog's readership to pay for the extra coverage. Those of you who think I write way too much can pay me to hire an editor to pare down my posts.
The Big Stories
1) UPenn's Cinderella Run - I'm sure that the UPenn folks don't see themselves as a Cinderella, but coming in as the 20th seed and pushing Element with a tight match in the quarterfinals far exceeded the expectations of anyone following the women's division. More details should be coming soon from Marc 'Doc' Stachowski, the head coach of Venus.
2) UCSB wins it all - The best team won it all this year. Ending the Northwest's reign, the Burning Skirts came into the season as the favorite and had a remarkable run to the title. I think this was the most impressive season since Stanford's 2006 championship run.
3) Callahan voting - After last year's Nationals, I detailed a few thoughts on why I thought the Callahan voting was flawed. I remain convinced that the voting process is flawed. That said, Georgia Bosscher is certainly deserving of the award and congratulations are in order. I simply don't understand how Andrea Romano didn't finish in the top five, and no UCSB player finished in the top five in the three years their team has appeared in the finals. It doesn't add up.
4) The Northwest's dominance - With three teams in the semis, all doubt about which region was the strongest this season was eliminated. It'll be interesting to see what happens after the restructuring process takes effect, but it's a shame that Cal, UBC and Western Washington will have missed being potential beneficiaries of the new system.
I'll examine this more closely in a future post, but I think next year could be the year that the national balance of power shifts. The Southwest and Metro East will give the Northwest a run for the unofficial title of the strongest and deepest region.
3 comments:
Maybe nobody likes the Burning Skirts, Callahan is a popularity contest above all. How else do you think Michael Stout, from a team that never made nationals would get into top 10 Callahan votes? He could barely throw after his injury and yet (because of a sweet video) he landed a top 10 because many people liked him and voted for him.
I was surprised by Dre not finishing Top 5 as well. I think she and KB have done a lot to change the Skirts' reputation for bad spirit during their tenure- I think they are, for the most part, very well-respected on that front now. Dre is a fairly "popular" player too, so I'm not sure where she lost votes. I think she's pretty content with winning Nationals though. :)
I'm interested to hear your thoughts about the SW and ME. Are you predicting a huge dropoff from the NW or big strides from the SW and ME?
The fact that UCSB finished 2nd and won the title is pretty amazing. I know that spirit rankings aren't the primary focus for teams, but I do think teams do consistently either reward or penalize teams when they have a positive or negative experience with a team. Their high spirit score is no fluke. Has anyone ever won both the title and the spirit award?
I'm hoping to post something with thoughts on next year, but I do see a bit of a dropoff in the Northwest. They will still be very good. I definitely know that the Southwest will retain elite-level talent and will likely be a little bit better next year. Losing players like Dre, Katie Barry, Heather Waugh and Courtney Verhaalen are significant losses, but the number of potential stars waiting in the wings is really impressive. Marie Madaras and Bri Cahn (UCSB) are already good but they should thrive as primary options next year. Hawkins, Boba, Sapphire and Kodiak (UCLA) are all very impressive athletes who will keep BLU contending next year. USC is returning the bulk of the team, and I think we'll be that much better in 2010.
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