Scobel Wiggins Photography

Firstly, let me start off by saying that the majority of my first-hand experience with high level club players came from seeing them in college in the early 2000s, ultimate media such as RSD and UltiVillage, and from playing some club open in the NW and SW. Thus, my knowledge of east and middle coast players is much more based on reputation and asking questions of current teammates that played over there. For that I am especially indebted to Brody Brotman for some of my east/middle coast sleeper picks.

I got lucky and drew the 2nd overall pick, and assumed that the first two picks would be either Seth or Beau. My plan there was to pick up whichever one didn't go first. Sultan's choice of Chase was a surprise for me because he's purportedly playing coed this year, which may limit his exposure on the club level. That's not to diminish Chase, he's a superb player and athlete, but it wasn't clear at that point what the criteria for rating the picks would be. I ended up going with Beau over Seth for arbitrary reasons. The draft started the day the World Games ended and I had just watched Beau throw the winning assist (whoever thought they'd be writing that back in 2002?) and so went with him. Beau is the most dominant athlete in the game today. I was sad to see Masahiro go so early, I thought I could snag him as a sleeper later if people were afraid to venture outside N. America, and of course when Seth went it was to be expected. That was the story of the draft really, people seemed very much on the same page as to who would go in the first few rounds, so it was really just a process of elimination for the first three rounds, it practically wrote itself and went quite quickly. I ended up picking up Jolian and Kurt in rounds 2 and 3. Duh.

Round 4 was where things started to get interesting as I was courted by CUltimate for a trade for Gibson. They must have really wanted the Gibson/Gehret combo back together? There was some indication from the judges that synergy between picks could become important. I took the trade, taking Hassell and CUltimate's 5th round pick for my 6th. That gave me 3 close picks in a row, so I snatched up Will Neff (duh, latest Callahan, dominant performances in college and club, etc) and then went with the quick Cram-Wiggins combo. TheHuddle had discussed reuniting the Wiggins brothers earlier but I wanted that explosive handler combo: Ben as a movement/possession/breaking handler and Cram as my hucker. By trading Gibson for Hassell and the 5th round pick, I could pick up those two handlers with little chance of interference. I also missed out on Brian Stout this round, I was hoping he could come to me as a sleeper, but being a west coaster I guess he's a lot better known than I thought he was. I sat out round 6, all trades had to be net 0 change in # of players.

Round 7 I started to fill out my lane cutters with Heijman. Another Callahan winner (I ended up with 3 total, all since 2002) and big player on big teams. I thought the Pat Hard pick this round by Taylor was great.

Round 8 was where I felt I did really well picking up Asa as a sleeper. I picked up on a team with him a few years ago and was hugely impressed with his work ethic, speed, and all around ability to get his hands (hand really, he played with just one that tourney) on the disc, typically in the endzone. Awesome cutter, great for my team.

Round 9 I started to round out my D team with Hector and BVH, BVH for the height and the reputation and Hector for the gritty D. When he was in Champies finals a few years ago I recall he was (near to?) the fantasy winner with several Ds and no turns. I'll take those stats any day. I also just like his passion.

Round 10 I picked another tall receiver in Boo to round out my O-line and another possession handler. That allows me to put Hassell on D and pair McComb with Ben and Cram as my main O handlers.

Round 11 I thought was a great pick with Jeff and Austin, both of Barrio. Both could play for anybody and are playing, and really driving, the best disc in their area. Heckuva one-two punch with these two, as all as great, team leading all around play. They present matchup issues for anybody, and have the synergy going on.

Round 12 was, I thought, brilliant. The discussion amongst drafters up to this point had really centered around the established names. Big names were getting picked up, but the discussion was always, well, is so-and-so 2009 comparable to so-and-so in some previous year? Instead of looking backward, with this last round pick I chose to look forward. I know Spencer from Oregon, and he's a dominating athlete with a great work ethic on the field. Now I see he's on Sockeye, where he'll surely only get better, and probably be playing some hard running D. Similarly for Matt Zemel, he's a young guy with a lot of focus and athletic talent. I've seen him play for some local club open and pickup mixed teams and his field sense was good enough to keep him making plays all over the field. Now he's a youngin' on Bravo and I'm sure looking to tear it up.

Making O teams and D teams is a frustrating exercise, if only due to the quality of the players. I'll have BVH and Jolian play both ways. Otherwise:

I focused on my leadership for the O and D-lines, that being Ben and Will. Both have proven, demonstrated leadership capabilities both as strategists and as performers on the field. I'm eager to see how it plays out.

By the way, I think Michael Kiyoi's pick of Dugan at the end was awesome. If my team lacks anything, it lacks age, by which I mean the experience and perspective to understand what's important in a game, in a tournament, and in a season, and the confidence to carry it all out according to plan. I really considered getting Dugan as early as Round 7, but I wasn't sure what his roster status was for this season.

Adam Halverson currently plays in the Denver area.