Review of Try outs Day 2

The DC Breeze held their second open tryout this past weekend. The organization took a lot of what players said after the week before’s tryouts and applied them. Instead of a long four hour tryout featuring only a few drills and tasks the days events were split into two separate two hour tryouts.

While some players were returning for a second chance to showcase their talent, a lot of players were making their first appearance, some traveling all the way from North Carolina for their shot at the Breeze. Approximately 50 players made an appearance increasing the tryout class to size to nearly 80.The weather was just as hard on the players as it was before, however, an improved schedule of events kept the players moving constantly and prevented the chronic warm up and cool down cycle.

The day started with warm ups lead by professional trainers and new arrivals were sent off to record their 80 and 40 yard times. This week featured tight rotations to minimize down time and had players do throwing lines,windshield wiper drill, cutting drills,  break mark drills, and some agility drills with cones and mini hurdles.

This week saw an increased turnout from the club players, which was something missing from the previous tryout. Ring of Fire sent a few players from North Carolina and the Baltimore area’s Medicine Men rolled deeper this week. While no current players from Truck Stop made an appearance, former Truck players did turnout this weekend.  The local colleges and High school still sent their best players and overall the level of play was a lot higher players said.

A new inclusion this week was the AUDL officials making calls during the games. This kept things in check but did create some situations that players were not familiar with; remember none of these players have played AUDL Ultimate before. Aside from some awkward calls though the players liked having the officials to ensure adherence to the rules.

Special guest Robert Bode, producer the Levar and Duke show, made a celebrity appearance along with Isiejah Allen who ran a 4.5 second 40. Allen  is non ultimate athlete that owner, Aaron Foreman, recruited. He is a raw athlete and blew a lot of people away with his athletic talent. Though he was not familiar with the disc he proved he could pick up the game and play.


There were rumors that the Breeze would hold a post tryout meeting to discuss contracts with select players. Breeze VP Tom Johnson confirmed that this was not true and that the Breeze plans on making full use of all the time before the season to decide on what players will be getting contract offers.

With the open tryouts now closed, the Breeze plans on moving towards an invite only tryout schedule for the remainder of the preseason. This will overtime morph into a practice schedule so coach Coffin can his team where it needs to be come April 20. While the events will stay at Woodland Tiger Field for a short while longer the players are expected to start to transition to the Breeze’s home field at Anacostia high school.

“We are always looking for players and won’t stop recruiting. We will have our eyes out for talent that has not revealed itself yet” Johnson said.

With contracts still a few weeks away what can Breezeheads look forward to?
Home tickets go on sale soon,the online store is expected to be running very shortly, and Johnson who was featured on the Lavar and Dukes show two weeks ago has been invited back to talk more Breeze news.

Overall it appears the Breeze are putting more and more of the pieces together as an organization. They are always looking for feedback on how they can improve and strongly encourage input from fans and players.

“Things are better but they are not at their best” Johnson said.