[stextbox id=”alert” color=”050505″ bcolor=”6cc3f8″ bgcolor=”ffffff” big=”true” image=”null”]School Name: University of Vermont
Team Name: Team Chill
Captains: Ryan Rzepka, Jake Saunders, Matt Guild
Coaches: Mike Lee
Year Founded: 1986
Jersey Colors: Black, Green, White
Website: http://www.uvm.edu/~frisbee/home.html
Score Reporter
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What was the highlight of your season?
Ryan Rzepka: Last year our team placed 5th at Regionals. The highlight of our season was either beating Williams college in the game to go to Regionals or playing on Sunday at Regionals.
Who is your favorite team to play against?
Ryan: Umass because they are our biggest rivals.
Tell us about your coaches. What do they bring to your team?
Ryan: Our coach, Mike Lee, definitely brings a lot to our team. To be honest he really is our backbone. We would be a completely different team without him. As for our captains, they have a nice mix of personalities. They each bring something different to the table and they always find a way to keep our team motivated.
What player is most likely to make a huge play as a thrower? As a receiver? On D?
Ryan: Look out for hucks from Jake Saunders and Dylan Burns. Look for Dave Baecher and Sam Hart to be pulling them down. Look for Ryan Rzepka and Julian Summa to make some huge plays on D.
Who’s a player you have to watch more carefully to see how valuable they are to your team?
Ryan: Matt Guild plays a huge part on our team. He is fundamentally strong and really holds our team together.
Has your team set any goals for this season?
Ryan: Our goal this season season is to do better than we did last year but in order to do that, we would have to play in a game to go to Nationals.
What has your team been doing this fall to prepare for the spring season
Ryan: We have been working out and having practice 5 days a week this fall, which is a big step for our program. We are really motivated to do well this spring season and we know that means putting in the work in the fall.
How do you practice during the harsh Vermont winters?
Ryan: As you can imagine, it is very hard for us to practice consistently during the winters, but we really do make the best of it and to tell you the truth we are pretty lucky. We have the privilege of being 10 minutes away from one of the largest and nicest indoor facilities in all of New England. We have indoor practice on these full sized turf fields every Tuesday and Sunday for 2 hours and and during the week we have team workouts 3 days a week.
What tournaments do you plan to attend in the spring? Which one are you most looking forward to?
Ryan: Every year we plan to go to Trouble in Vegas, High Tide Session II, Yale Cup, URI, Sectionals and Regionals. We are always trying to be at our best for Regionals, so we are looking forward to getting in a game to go to Nationals.
What do you think about the USA Ultimate College restructuring?
Ryan: Honestly, we have always been in the hardest section in the Region. Our section only gets 3 bids to Regionals and we always have 5 Regional’s caliber teams. In the past two years all 3 of the teams that advance out of our section have placed in the top 5 at regionals. In 2009: 2,3,4 and in 2010: 2,4,5. So you would think we would be happy about the new boundary changes, but we are not. I wish USA ultimate would have allocated bids to Regionals based on section strength and not the size. So with these new boundary changes we lose a lot of old rivalries and intense games.
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