Recap: Classic City Classic 2010

Jojah in the huddle (This picture and all subsequent pictures Courtesy of Jordan Echols)

As fate has it, 2010 was not the year for Jojah to capture the illusive Classic City Classic championship, but for the first time since 2004 a team not from Madison, Wisconsin won the tournament... (Congratulations to the University of Florida)

The weekend was a tale of two different days for the dawgs.

Saturday

Georgia started its morning warm-up a little tardy, as many members of the teams were still taking care of the loose ends of running a tournament. The rushed warm-up had little carry over into the first game, as Jojah got a break on the first point of the game. Despite looking a little out of sync at times, Georgia works out most of the kinks and moves forward with a 13-7 victory.

The second game of pool play was against Kennesaw State. Jojah was able to contain the people who throw to Taylor "Tree" Goforth and roll to a 13-4 victory.

Georgia has a bye round after that game and starts back with "Team 3" the University of Alabama. Georgia get two breaks early to go up 3-1, but this momentum stalls a little as Bama introduces the first true zone defense the dawgs see this season. Alabama gets a break back and Jojah takes half at 7-6. Although it wasn't recorded what Coaches Davis Waller and Rob Herrig said at half time, it must have been pretty incredible because Jojah's second half against Alabama was probably their most dominant half of the tournament. Running the competition ragged was a motif of the half, but big plays by Fletcher Hartline and Elliott Erikson kept the team's energy high and Jojah puts together a perfect half to win 13-6.

UNC Darkside was the most even match up for Jojah on Saturday, as both teams had rolled through the rest of the pool. Darkside had brought a small, boisterous army and with that came a a much higher level of intensity. Jojah rose their level of play and produced many defensive plays including lay out blocks by Michael Slade, Tom Ball, and Michael Peters. Play of the game: deep throw goes up to UNC receiver and Daniel Lily closes and skies for a huge block in the back of the end zone, resulting in one of 3 breaks Jojah gets in the game. The dawgs grind out a 10-9 win at hard cap.

Dan Lily, shutting his man down on D

Sunday

Georgia came out Sunday morning with two more players (the formidable Birdo and some guy named Matt Hess) but with much less in the way of team energy compared to Saturday.

Jojah played the University of Virginia Night Train in the morning quarterfinals match-up. This game was all Virginia as they capitalized on all of Georgia's mistakes. Georgia loses in a sloppy 15-4 rout.

Max Leonard surveying the field

Jojah's next opponent was the University of South Carolina. South Carolina had made some noise on Saturday, beating Virginia and challenging Florida, and they brought the fight to Georgia early getting three early breaks. Georgia began to take back the momentum with a few breaks of their own but it wasn't enough as the teams traded points from early in the second half all the way to a 15-14 South Carolina victory.

The final game of the weekend was played against James Madison University. This game was close for awhile and Georgia shows spots of energy and good play, but the tournament had finally gotten the best of the Dawgs. Jojah loses to JMU and finishes 8th in the field.

Statistics!

• Georgia played 143 points on the weekend, but only the first 122 (through the South Carolina game) were recorded in statistics.

Team Leaders in points played

• Max Leonard 85 points (69.7% of points)
• Fletcher Hartline 82 points (67.2% of points)
• Michael Slade 78 points (63.9% of points)
• Caleb Edwards 77 points (63.1% of points)
• Tom Ball 74 points (60.7% of points)

Team Leaders in Goals received

• Max Leonard 11 goals
• Fletcher Hartline 9 goals
• Caleb Edwards 8 goals
• Elliott Erickson 8 goals
• Dan Lilley 5 goals

Team Leaders in Assists thrown

• Max Leonard 15 assists
• Michael Slade 9 assists
• Caleb Edwards 7 assists
• Cameron Macke 7 assists
• Fletcher Hartline 6 assists
• Tom Ball 6 assists

Team Leaders in defensive blocks

• Elliott Erickson 8 blocks
• Fletcher Hartline 7 blocks
• Michael Slade 5 blocks
• Michael Peters 5 blocks
• Javid Aceil 4 blocks
• Daniel Lily 4 blocks

Team Leaders in retention % (minimum 20 touches)

• Mac Little 96% (25 touches 1 turnover)
• Max Leonard 91.9% (99 touches 8 turnovers)
• Cameron Macke 91.6% (71 touches 6 turnovers)
• Tom Ball 89.4% (66 touches 7 turnovers)
• Fletcher Hartline 87.2% (39 touches 5 turnovers)

Other Interesting Things (THANKS STATISTICS!)

• Three players didn't have a turnover this weekend (Brad Glisson, Tyler Haskell, and Devin Cox)
• Devin Cox also had 3 goals in 5 touches.
• Michael Slade touched this disc a lot. 107 times actually.
• Matt Bailey apparently played 20 points and had 2 turnovers...
• Taylor Nilan tweeted around 73 times (Thanks to Taylor, Cali, and other alumni/fans for coming out!)

Jojah gets down on the pull

Classic City Classic 2010

Fall has set in on the hills of north east Georgia and the time has come again for a tournament that has become the standard bearer for Fall college ultimate through a tradition of excellence in how the tournament is conducted and its competition. Classic City Classic. Many themes from last college season are being carried over into this weekend. The reigning National Champions, the University of Florida, trying to mitigate the losses of Brodie Smith and Chris Gibson. The UNC-W Seamen trying to build on a National's semifinal finish from last year. Regional realignments by USA Ultimate breaking up old rivalries and potentially starting new ones.

For many teams the biggest theme is that shortcomings and successes of the last season have become history and now they must start over.

Jojah, at this moment, is the same as many teams, a group of young men trying to find its identity for the season through hard work and play. The following is a transcription of conversations with Jojah captains Tom Ball, Caleb Edwards, and Charlie Herrig about what they think about this weekend.

What are Jojah's greatest strengths going into this weekend?

Tom Ball: I think I'm going to say that our greatest strength is going to be our depth, both within lines and across lines. The rookie class this year is going to be extremely strong, and last year's rookies have improved tremendously. I am excited to see how many different, but still effective, D lines we will be able to throw at the other teams. I am also confident that we will have very few weak links. I think our offensive lines particularly will be very deep. I anticipate we will make use of our fourth and fifth cutting options.

Charlie Herrig: Jojah's greatest strength is the return of a group of veterans that know what high level ultimate is. These veterans know how to achieve high level ultimate with fundamentals. (i.e. dump swing.)

Caleb Edwards: Our greatest strength is that our team everyone is pumped to play this weekend.

What about Jojah's Weaknesses?

Tom Ball: We lost a number of incredible playmakers last year. I think we may have some difficulties, particularly early in the weekend, with people waiting to cut, expecting Pete or Taylor to take over, and then realizing too late that we can't just let Pete and Taylor take over anymore. We may look a little like fawns, with players still trying to find their legs as they move into more prominent roles.

Charlie Herrig: Our biggest weakness is that we don't know what type of team we are. We lost 11 seniors and had a group of veterans had been playing together for three or more years.

Caleb Edwards: Our greatest weakness is that we have not had very much practice time as a full team.

With the much ballyhooed turnover from last year's roster, who do you believe is going to step up and become a major role player for Jojah?

Tom Ball: Max Leonard. He was an integral player for Atlanta Rival this year. He was a very strong player going into the summer, and has only improved. He is going to do some spectacular things this weekend. I expect Fletcher Hartline to lead the D line. He will get flying blocks. From the rookies, I expect Elliot to get a lot of attention and put in a very early bid for FotY.

Charlie Herrig: Our returning veterans will look to take the load this year and try and get back to college nationals. We have veterans such as Cameron Macke trying to anchor the D-line with his huge hucks, Fletcher Hartline getting d's and going to his home, David Hooten playing stellar d against the team's top players. On the offensive side we have veterans such as Captain Tom Ball, Max Leonard, Caleb Edwards, and Nate Kelly looking to lead jojah this weekend. Tom Ball brings this group together by his willingness to work for every inch of space. Look for Caleb Edwards and Nate Kelley to be primary cutters looking for Max 'white man can jump' Leonard to go deep. This weekend we are out with one of the best cutters in college Matthew Bailey. He is studying in England, but make sure to keep your ears open for him in the spring. We also have many rookies that are going to step up such as Elliot Erickson, Mike Peters, and Tyler Haskell.

Caleb Edwards: Everyone has a chance to step up this year. It will be exciting to see who steps up

and plays huge at CCC.

What teams are you most excited to watch and play against this weekend?

Tom Ball: I always get excited to play against North Carolina teams. Our rivalry with UNC predates my presence on the team but I feel very much a part of it. I always get excited to play against them. UNC-W too. We have had a few incredible match-ups in the last couple of years. I would love to get the chance to play against them. Florida, of course. I want to see who their new 7 are going to be. Tech I'd love to see as well.

Charlie Herrig: I'm looking forward to seeing how Florida is going to be after losing many of their starters. Many teams come from the region, so I'm excited who makes a statement. I hear USC has played quite well this fall.

Caleb Edwards: It sounds like most of the other teams lost alot of their big time players, so I am excited to see what every team looks like.