CCC 2010 Recaps – The Semifinalists

Sadly, as you may have already seen, we did some damage to ourselves this weekend. Up until today, our right hand looked (and felt) broken at least to a certain extent. While the swelling has gone down, the signs of some kind of deep bruising have gone up. Pain is at a minimum so we’re going to pound this write-up out. Apologies to anyone who wanted more in-depth coverage and specifically to Jojah, who was kind enough to invite our services, not expecting us to be debilitated by the end of Saturday.

We’re going to do things a little bit differently than usual since, by now, you surely know how the tournament turned out.

CCC LIX – Random Thoughts and Previews

Obviously we didn’t have time to preview every team in the field. Our pools and seeds post discussed a little news on each team but we wanted to go ahead and give the briefest of thoughts in a more news-like manner on some of the more notable players, occurrences and oddities of the teams attending. In alphabetical order.

CCC LIX Previews – Texas TUFF

Texas TUFF from 2009-2010 poses together. Photo courtesy of http://texasultimate.com

A short look at Texas’ history page will leave one wondering what happened to TUFF in 2010. Did the team disband? As far as the results are concerned, the team might as well have. After winning USAU South Regionals for five straight years, UT didn’t even make it to Nationals in 2010. It all started at CCC 2009, where TUFF began Saturday 0-3.

The team went on to have what can easily be described as its most disappointing year in anyone’s recent memory. While being the only group of TUFF players to not go to Nationals since 2004 would typically be an extremely draining experience. UT’s squad kept the faith and knew that last season was a learning experience.

CCC LIX Previews – Georgia Tech Tribe

Georgia Tech poses after a winning 2010 USAU GA/SC Sectionals. Photo courtesy of Facebookstalking.

If there is one team in the new South Region that isn’t as worried about replacing big name players it’s Georgia Tech. In spite of the fact that Tech lost one player who currently is counted among the elite players on Chain Lightning’s roster, Tech will still have 3 of 8 main O-line players and a big chunk of its D-line players. With that knowledge in mind, Tribe is expecting big things from this season.

CCC LIX Previews – Georgia Jojah

Caleb Edwards sends a backhand around his defender at CCC 2009. Photo courtesy of Chad Borer.

Just like a couple of other previews we’ve mentioned, the preview of Georgia’s Ultimate team is going to be more focused on who isn’t there anymore than who is still there. Jojah has become a staple of the Nationals scene and seems to reload on talent every year no matter who leaves but there is no question that last year’s graduating class was one of its best in recent history.

CCC LIX Previews – UNCW Seamen

UNCW poses together after qualifying for Nationals at 2010 AC Regionals. Photo courtesy of Greg Vassar

You’re going to begin to notice a theme among our previews for former AC Regional teams, that theme is a reloading of talent. Most of the top teams at CCC are going to be missing faces that have become staples around the college scene. UNCW is definitely one of those teams. The Seamen lost Rusty Ingold-Smith and Todd Doroski to graduation. While Doroski might not be as familiar of a name to some readers, no one can deny the Seamen are going to miss this.

CCC LIX – Seeds and Pools

Pools and seeds are up and this is going to be a tough one to predict but we’re going to take a stab at it anyway. All we know, is that for a team to win this tournament someone is going to have to put their team on his back… though.

CCC LIX Previews – Florida Gators

Last year Florida’s season started with a lot of hype.

And then it ended with more hype.

However, the fall of 2010 has been a bit quieter for the Gators. Anyone would be hard pressed to find a team from Nationals that lost a larger percentage of its scoring this offseason than Florida. The departure of Chris Gibson and Brodie Smith will hurt UF tremendously. Just take a look at this video around the 2:25 mark to see what Smith did last season during his team’s Championship run. No one is more aware of this negative impact than the remaining third of Florida’s 3-headed monster, graduate student Cole Sullivan.