..The this is how we’d use it.

The following is our incredibly biased, totally subjective first take on the Callahan voting for 2009. The Callahan is a special award, and the voters (current college division players) are an extremely varied group. They’ve proven that there are many ways to win the Award in the past 10 years…

Best player on the strongest team? Check.
Leader of a rising team? Check.
Attention-grabbing surprise run to Nationals with an unheralded squad? Check.
4-5 year history of dominance in the division? Check.

This is a subjective award. We repeat; this is a SUBJECTIVE award, and there is no combination of factors that should give any candidate an expectation that they are supposed to win. Which makes it unpredictable, and fun, and irreplaceable as an icon of the similarly quirky, cutthroat, up-and-coming, competitive and passionate brand of Ultimate that we see in the College Division.

To sum it up; the Callahan doesn’t always go where we think it should, but it always goes to a great player that is a role model for the division and the sport.

With that said, here is our ballot if we were voting. Each college player gets only 3 votes, so that is what we are holding ourselves to in each division. Deciding between candidates was brutal. So brutal, in fact, that once we got to a top three we couldn’t bear the thought of trying to decide what order they should go in. Total cop-out…but it’s just too hard. We hope current college players go to www.callahan-mvp.com to vote, and that they vote for someone that they think deserves it and that would be a great role model for the next generation of players, as Jody Dozono, Justin Safdie, Fortunat Mueller, and Johanna Neumann (among others) were when we were just learning to play.

Women’s Division Ballot

Georgia Bosscher, University of Wisconsin
Georgia has been an absolute beast of a defender throughout her career (since the first time we watched her play at Team USA tryouts in early 2004). She’s an offensive star as well now, and her team has had great results as of late. She plays fair, she plays hard, and she changes the shape of the field for the opposing offense.

Andrea Romano, University of Santa Barbara
UCSB is a fun team to watch play Ultimate. You can see Dugan’s fingerprints all over an offense that takes the easiest pass available, even when that pass is a bomb. Andrea does the big things and the little things, and she is a leader off the field as well, as anyone that has worked with her can tell you.

Claire Suver, University of Washington
Interestingly, we had the same thoughts about Shannon O’Malley (the other Element player we thought might be nominated). Claire’s throws, intelligence and defensive experience make her an outstanding talent…but that has been true since her freshman year. In leading UW to a Regional Championship this year, though, Claire seems to have mastered some of her weaknesses as well. Spirit comes naturally to some people…and some people (like Claire, or Shannon) have a hot temper that they have to, for the better of their game, learn to master. Claire has done this, and that commitment has rubbed off on the way UW plays the game. We think highly of the Spirit portion of the Callahan Award, and we hope this vote is taken as the compliment it was intended to be.

A Brutal Decision
We can’t believe we don’t have a fourth vote for Emily Baecher. A testament to the level of players in this division.

Men’s Division Ballot

Steven Presley, University of Texas
Noted Ultimate serialist “Match” gets a lot of things wrong. In his endorsement of ‘Franchise’, though, we absolutely agree with the end result. Presley has been a force in the Southern Region for years, and he always seems to play his best when it matters most…we see shades of a Michael Zalisk here in his game and his attitude. That’s a very high compliment, in our opinions.

Mac Taylor, University of Colorado
He’s huge, he’s intense, and he is very, very skilled. Credit both his coaches and his own personal drive to improve that he has the kind of athleticism that can take over a game, but that he has forced himself to develop the skills to contribute equally. Watching him churn through the mud in Vegas when many teammates and opponents were huddling in their rainsuits was a glimpse into his determination.

Brodie Smith, University of Florida
His team didn’t make Nationals. He might have played his worst tournament at Regionals. But has any player more comprehensively dominated the division throughout the year? When we think about ‘best overall player’, it’s hard not to gravitate towards a player against whom other teams game plan for him as a handler, as a comeback-cutter, as a deep…he draws 7 pairs of defensive eyes when he hangs out on the far wing. Brodie has infrequently been labelled as ‘eloquent’ or ‘diplomatic’, and for many that will lose him their vote. And probably rightly so. But the dude wears his heart on the front of his jersey between the O and R in Florida. And this was supposed to be their rebuilding year.

Brutal Decisions
Tom James is a quiet, confident leader and he makes his mark in huge ways on O and D for Regional Champs Stanford, a team whose season-long record would not have seen them as a high seed at Nationals were it not for their Regional performance.

Joe ‘BJ’ Sefton was an inspiration. Had UW made Nationals he would have been our top vote, as this year’s UW team was a fun team to watch, and a team that played the way that old folks like to see.