For those who follow the game or are at least knowledgeable about the big name players on local elite teams, getting press and accolades is rarely a problem for the stars of today’s game. Yet, there are also kind words written in the Ultimate blogosphere about contemporary all stars that were published before said players hit the big time, or in Muffin’s case, early onset promotion (in jest of course). RSD is a virtual treasure trove for some of these examples and here are a few tidbits over the past decade of Frisbee newsgroup postings.
CHUF will drop some surprises….they’ve got a solid starting 7 Amherst is going to be fired up and they’ll have the confidence knowing they Paideia is beatable. They’ll also have Will Neff leading them….hard to oppose.
– Connor May 6, 2003
Zahlen Titcomb: it would be fun to see what he would do on one of the region’s top teams. He and his brother carried Chicago to a top 8 finish.
– Adam Tarr May 6, 2003
at least seven others could fill the last three spots, including Will Chen, whose smile alone makes him freshman of the year.
-Ben Van Heuvelen May 7 2003
while all these freshman did contribute a lot to their teams this year, there was one freshman who consistently made huge plays for his team. They call him Boo, (#1) i believe the name is Brian, and he was one of cal’s top players this year. hes one of those players that after putting your top d players on the gabes and the hodges of the world, you consider playing zone because you know he will beat whoever you put on him. he gave cal exactly what they needed this year; a tall, athletic player who what to do after the disc started to move. game point against oregon this year at easterns, the disc went from the handler to gabe to dan to boo for the sky over one of our top defenders. after seeing boo do this again and again, it just became the norm. boo deserves the freshman of the year award for the northwest region not because he was a freshman who you think, “wow, he will be amazing in 3 or 4 years”, rather he was a player that gave his team a huge weapon that created matchup problems all around due to his field sense and his knowledge of the game combined with his athleticism.
-Seth Wiggins (referring to Brian Garcia) May 9, 2003
Damn right muffin the best frosh of the year! Nobody, let me clarify, nobody can guard me. I will make a fool of you, not to mention even as a gimp i will sky you. My domination is unprecidented as a freshman, and you need to get that shit outta here cuz i will bid for your mom before i even mature to a kid. You think you got a big flick, as previously mentioned, get that shit outta here because i can put it so deep your mom will be beggin for more! Once again just to clafify all doubts, the boot will come out and dominate yet, be afraid.
Still Gimping
“The Boot”
-Brandon “Muffin” Malacek May 2, 2004
Freshman of the Year: At first I thought this was rookie of the year, which would make this very tough for me. Being a first year team we really required a lot of rookies to step up. However, since the award is restricted to true freshman that makes it a little easier to choose, and in the end the choice became clear.
Anna Nazarov – UCLA: First year player, became one of the main handlers for UCLA. Chilly throws, great fakes. 3 layout Ds at Regionals. Solid, unshakable. I was amazed at her mental toughness and focus. On Saturday of Regionals the team went swimming in the ocean and she stepped on a stingray. She got a big gash in her foot, and we took her to the ER where they gave her Vikadin and Demarol for the pain of the venom. She played almost the entirety of the Back-door finals against Colorado, where she got one of her layout Ds. After the game she took off her shoe and her sock was covered in blood from the cut. She changed socks and played almost the entire game in the Game-To-Go. Hardcore.
-Korb May 13, 2004
The tall guy for Amherst–Can anyone help me out with his name? I only saw him play a couple of games this year, but he looked pretty good. Great in the air, nasty throws.
-Seigs May 11, 2004 (referring to Brian Stout)
Also, there was a guy on Texas they called “freshman” who had bookends on one point in the semi’s against OU. He was pretty good. Maybe a nomination for freshman of the region?
-Rob C Hilton May 4 2005 (referring to Stephen “Franchise” Presley)
I have to say that the Freshman of the year has to be Dusty (#3) from Oregon. He was a huge part of that team from the handler position and he game some of our best players some serious problems trying to cover him.
-Evan Pierce May 10, 2005 (referring to Dusty Becker)
For reference, it was a 10-9 win over Buffalo. Skidmore won earlier to also qualify for regionals. On a related note, Skidmore had a handler named Hammer (don’t know her real name) who was very instrumental in leading her team to regionals.
-BHM April 10 2006 (referring to Megan Schoellhamer)
To continue what AJ said in an earlier post, Chelsea Murphy from Emory is absolutely the best freshman in the AC Region. After watching countless games this past weekend, she stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Her confidence and sick grabs helped her team win the Region for the first time in the program’s history.
If you got a chance to see this young superstar play, you will agree. You just may not have known she was a freshman because she plays like a club player.
-Julia Echterhoff April 30, 2007
any FOY candidates?
#14 from Florida is okay, but nowhere near as good as the winners of the past few years… there must be somebody else out there.
-Fisher April 29, 2007 (referring to Cole Sullivan)
Robert Runner (Junior) (handler, tallish guy w/ curly brown hair), He’s out of Woodward HS (sp?) in Atlanta and has unbelievable touch and precision with the disc and is tenacious on defense.
-Childs April 28, 2008
Without a doubt Hylke Snieder for FOTY: He has been dominating since high school, he is an absolutely incredible athlete with an amazing work ethic. As a freshman he manages to shine even in the shadow of big names and great players like Jolian, Matrin, and Mac.
Axl
15
-Axl Brammer April 3, 2008
I know you haven’t seen much of him yet, due to SLO CORE’s inferior schedule. But for FOTY, watch for Jake Juszak #56, if you don’t know who he is, then just look up. He’ll be the guy skying you. Keep your eye’s out at sectionals and regionals.
-Tyler Bacon April 3, 2008
Tommy Li from claremont was the best freshman I played this weekend ( far as I know)
-Nicky Spiva April 27, 2009
Well, my first thoughts when I came to this thread were to talk about how impressive Alex Thorne was this weekend. Besides the fact that he looks 12, nothing about him says freshmen. He looked so composed with the disc, with money throws and decision making. But now his own teammate states someone is more deserving. Oh well.
-Keith Raynor April 27, 2009
White Hat, Tall Guy (Hirsch), Cornell–sick catch on that overthrown blade–good thing your like, lurch long. That was the game closer. This guy caught 3 or 4 goals in finals.
(referring to Jon Hirschberger)
Tyler Degirolamo–didnt know Ty going in to the weekend–really know him now. The Pitt coaches plan for the finals, for this TRUE ROOKIE, was to play him 3 points on, 1 point off in the finals. Played for the first time in the fall. If he becomes a thrower over the next year, he will be scary.
-Sean McComb April 27, 2009
Since no one has really put up names for FOTY in the Central Region what about Eric Johnson from Luther. He tried out for Sub Zero his junior year and went up to the final cuts. He is very athletic for a freshman, has great speed and quickness as either a handler or cutter and can do both at a high level. He played Soccer for Luther in the fall so he wasn’t on the scene in the fall but look for him to be turning some heads at regionals this weekend.
-Five101 April 22, 2009
FOTY – Will Driscoll – Texas, this is hard bc no one knows who is a freshman and who is just a new face, but Will is a true freshman. Big Blondie, splits pulling duty, fun towatch, I recommend it.
-BJ April 20, 2010
Feature photo of Blackbird’s Brian Garcia by Jeff Bell – Ultiphotos.com
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