Breeze cannot close out Rochester

This past weekend on May 25 the Breeze hosted the Rochester Dragons for their second meeting. The Breeze looked good off of the first pull where  a huge huck to score came in the game’s first 20 seconds. The Dragons would go up two breaks in the first quarter and close it 3-5.

The Breeze really only had one good chance to get a break in the first quarter,but retreated on swings and got point blocked near their own goal line; giving Rochester a short field and easy opportunity to score.

The second quarter was full of throw aways and drops due to the windy conditions. Despite the conditions the Breeze got some flow going and put themselves back into the game outscoring Rochester 4 to 2.  The last 3 of those 4 points came on back to back, to back breaks.

DC had trapped Rochester on their own goal line around 0:30, down by one. The Breeze had  been using a two man double team to force a lot a bad throws off the sidelines in the wind and got another clutch take away on a high and floaty swing. This set up an easy gainer to tie it up at 7’s with 0:17 remaining.

It has come to be the norm that the winds are a huge factor in the Breeze games at Willie Stewart stadium. While at home, the Breeze have shown more confidence and and success while throwing in the wind and this game was no different. Throughout the first half Rochester had more of their throws fly out of the reach of their cutters due to the wind. While DC had more accuracy with their throws, their cutter’s had more drops. With the momentum swinging towards DC at the end of the first half it seemed clear that DC would be able to move ahead in the third.

The first two points of the third quarter were on serve and not even a minute had run off the clock yet. Then a marathon point lasting over five minutes spawned out of countless throwaways and drops from both teams.

Rochester was set to score at 6:20 with the disc on the Breeze’s goal line, but a incredible block gave the Breeze another chance. The intended receiver, Rochester’s number 88 Rob Smith, felt he had been fouled on the play and got into an argument with the official (block captured below). This resulted in a 20 yard penalty and caught the still transitioning Rochester defense by surprise. A power position, 50 yard backhand huck was kept alive by the same winds that had been haunting the deep game all day; allowing the Breeze to reclaim the lead 9-8 at 6:07. This was DC’s second lead of the game since going up 2-1. The third quarter finished on serve with the breeze up 11-10.

Photo by Pete Guion for UltiPhotos.com.

While Rochester had led the first half in throwaways and DC in drops the second half saw a complete reversal; now it was the open Rochester receivers dropping the disc and the Breeze handler’s who were losing throws to the wind and making some poor throwing decisions.

The Breeze defensive line began dabbling with some zone in the fourth quarter and were able to set up their sideline trap. Turn after turn came from this set up with a lot of throw’s coming from the Dragon’s number 10, Sean Donnellan. The Breeze would go up for the last time at 10:30 remaining, 12-11. The last tie of the game came on a DC break to make it 13’s with 5:43 left.

Back to back Rochester breaks on two forced turnovers would seal the game, comfortably up 3 with 2 minutes to go. DC  would score with just under a minute remaining, and had plenty of time to take the deep shots that had been working for them (4/5 on 40+ yard throws), but  they could not get any open in cuts as the clock was expiring. Rochester’s win evened the series at one apiece with a final score of 14-16.

DC had won the turnover battle with 29 drops and throwaways to the Dragon's 32, but failed to capitalize on that advantage. That and some poor decisions late in the fourth quarter cost them the match up.

Military Day at The Stew

 

As we salute our troops and veterans abroad and domestic on Memorial Day, DC Breeze is hosting Military Day at The Stew this Saturday, May 25, 1pm. Join us!

Active duty & reserve service members and their families are free with a military ID, including wounded warriors. The fan with the most patriotic outfit wins two tickets to our next home game!!

Don't miss the action against the Rochester Dragons! Use promo code FREEDOM to get $3 off. A portion of the discount goes to VetTix, a partner of DC Breeze; visit vettix.org for more information.

Nike camp through the DC Breeze to bring exposure to Ultimate

Breeze fans did you know that the team is running a Nike sponsored Ultimate camp this summer?

There are camps being run all around the country this summer. The kids of the east coast are fortunate to have several opportunities to come out and learn the game from north to south. There are day and sleep away camps planned for New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Maryland.

The Breeze will be hosting High School students ages 13 to 18 at Bible College in Lanham, MD from June 24 to 28. The camp is part of the Breeze’s mission to expand the popularity of Ultimate while also trying to give back to their community. This time in the form of game skills.

Ultimate players from the DC Breeze, Truck Stop and George Mason University will be coaching kids on everything from the basic fundamentals of throwing to the ins and outs of the game. The staff plans to ensure the campers walk away with meaningful instruction and an improved playing ability, regardless of prior experience.

The Ultimate community has been seeing  a lot of promotion and publicity over the past year. Cloud Coverage believes though it is the Nike Camps that are going to have the largest impact on expanding the presence of Ultimate, especially in terms of number of players.

Online streams, professional leagues, broadcasting contracts and top 10 rankings are all huge advancements for a sport that for so long has been under the radar. However, by going out and providing in person education, training and organized opportunities to play; the ripple effects are bound to be huge. It is a grass root movement at its very essence, unless the camps are held on a turf field.

Kids may see a highlight on TV or hear a feature about their local pro team over the radio, but these things only provide an inch deep look into Ultimate. Camps put discs in their hands and cleats on their feet. Camps provide an environment focused on learning and comprehension, not competition or performance. Recreational leagues and club teams are good, but can be intimidating to a kid without a clue of what the game even is.

The numbers for the first year of camps may be low compared to the number of kids that turn out for soccer or basketball camps. This is still a huge improvement over how many kids were attending Nike Ultimate camps last year (0). The success of these camps now is going to play a huge impact in the kind of skill we will see in college, club and pro players 4, 5 or even 10 years from now. Who knows? Maybe in a few years we will have some star handler or cutter on the Breeze whose first serious take at Ultimate came from one of these camps.

Mother's Day win

The DC Breeze won their first match-up against the New Jersey Hammerheads on Mother’s Day, May 12. Both teams entered with a 1-3 record. New Jersey was scheduled to have played Philadelphia the day before, but the game was called due to weather; meaning a more rested team than DC was expecting.

A gusty day at Willie Stewart Stadium didn’t prove to be much of a challenge to the Breeze who came out on offense and took three breaks to start a 4-0 run. The Hammerheads had a cold start in the wind and had a lot of easy drops that turned into a hole they would not escape. After coming down with a big huck to Matthew Tacheron, he found Jibran Mieser open in the end zone to get on the board 4-1 at the eight minute mark in the first.

Following that score came one of the longest points of the game. Spanning three and a half minutes and over six turnovers. The Breeze ran a zone and got the disc back and punched it in much to the Hammerhead’s dismay. Most of DC’s turnover on this point came from throws that were a little careless given the windy conditions. The first quarter would end with two more breaks from the Breeze  up a commanding 7-1.

The second quarter featured the same recipe from DC that put them up so much in the first place taking half 11-4. The tenacity the Breeze had was just not matched from the Hammerheads in the first half. They would come back firing on all cylinders later in the second half to come close as 14-10 at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Hammerheads came up with a lot of D’s as Breeze were putting up some iffy throws. This created a big momentum shift towards New Jersey that even the fan’s were picking up. The DC offensive line finally broke out of a rut in the fourth with  beautiful possession of up lines, in cuts and swings at 9:11 to go up 15-10.

The winds had picked up in the start of the second half but were not much of an issue in the end of the fourth. More deep shots were going up and staying on target. The Breeze started working the clock with three minutes left; and the Hammerheads could not get the fast points they needed. New Jersey had last pull at 1:44 and DC swung out the last few seconds to snag the 4th place spot in the East.

The wind really seemed to be a big factor for the Hammerheads. Drops early set them back and  a second half rally that, perhaps come not being down six,  could have taken the game under their control.

The Breeze were confident throwing in the wind and played with more desire to get the disc back on defense, forcing a lot of turnovers and capitalizing on Hammerhead throw aways. They play the 2-1 Philadelphia Phoenix at home on May 18.

Photo by Kevin Leclaire for Ultiphotos.com

Breeze offer to bring organization and professionalism to AUDL referee situation

 A problem that really plagued the AUDL's first year was the referee situation. More involved than observers, the AUDL referees play a larger role in the game than most players were anticipating. Each team was in charge of finding and training their own referees. This led to a lot of inconsistency across the board with calls and signals.

Earlier this year the situation was looking to be the same with teams hiring and training their own officials. Breeze owner Aaron Foreman had contracted FISO (Flag It Sports Officials) a local official training group to provide referees for their home games. He recognized the problem posed by not having uniform referee training and education from his time involved with the NFL, and offered to the league to have FISO train all of the officials.

"A lot of the players are still getting used to playing with on field referees, and having them make different calls and signals would only be creating more frustration for these guys. So, I made my offer to the league," Foreman said.

The league tentatively accepted Foreman's proposal and FISO is in strong consideration for training all AUDL referees for the 2013 season. The original plans were to fly FISO representatives out to each location, but this is likely to change due to logistics.

Coffin Is Confident in Head Coach Position

Cloud Coverage had an interview with Breeze Coach Tom Coffin and all we can tell is, a lot of things are still under wraps and developing.

No players have been given contracts yet, but there are definitely some on Coffin’s shortlist. Contract and signing day is expected to be very, very soon. Once the roster starts to form we can expect to really see what Breezeheads are  going to be getting out of their team. While essentially no players in the DC area have played AUDL ultimate before the tryouts, Coffin is not worried about getting his players familiar with the AUDL experience before opening day.

“We’re not the only first year team in the east, so while I think it will give Rochester a leg up it will not be big,” Coffin said. The Rochester Dragons moved from Buffalo and are the only team out of the AUDL East to have played in the league last year.

When asked about what kind of team he wants to build Coffin said that he does not want to commit to anything right now.

  “We will see how it all pans out, we have got a full hand of things to try. Whatever we come up with will be tailored to our players,” Coffin said.

The one thing Coffin is very sure of is that key to winning in the AUDL is going to be speed. The field is larger than college and club  and leaves so much space for cutters to use. One challenge he foresees the team having is going to be getting stops on defense and producing a high performance offense.

“We are on a great track so far towards our goal of building a championship team. It will take winning some games, that is pretty key but everything just has to come together... The team needs to gel and players need to be in top notch condition with solid skills and of course healthy,” said Coffin.

Another battle Coffin and the Breeze are fighting right now is the battle for the heart of DC Ultimate fans with the MLU’s DC Current. Both teams are drawing out highly experienced players but Keven Moldenhauer’s record and relations with Truck Stop seems to be stealing the spotlight.

“We’ve never been here before, it’s new territory having two professional ultimate teams both in their first year in the same place,” Coffin said. Both the Breeze and Current have opening games on April 20th. It is Cloud Coverage’s prediction that the team that produces the best mix of fan game day experience and overall wins will take over as the ‘official’ professional ultimate team of DC.

Without seeing the full Breeze roster in a full practice it is hard to tell what kind of performance we will get out of Coffin as the head coach. He has a lot of experience with ultimate on many levels and a knack for gauging players’ performance patterns, two things that will grow to possibly define how he will play his team.

The Breeze has not formally announced any information regarding assistant coaches yet.

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.

Looking for College Teams to Feature

Open tryouts for the Breeze are closed and the season is still two months away. In the mean time Cloud Coverage is looking to do some features on DC area College Ultimate teams.

We want to highlight your fall season and see how you are preparing for the spring college series to keep DC Ultimate fans in the know about college Ultimate.

Send us an email or message us on Facebook or Twitter if you are interested in being covered!

Review of Try outs Day 1

DC, Maryland, and Virginia Ultimate players showed up last Saturday morning at Woodland Tiger Field for the first day of tryouts with the DC Breeze. Over 60 players reported representing some of the best college, high school, and club Ultimate teams from the DC area: Maryland, George Mason, George Washington, U.M.B.C, Radford, American, Salisbury, Bethesda Chevy Chase High, Woodside High,  Pacme, and Medicine Men to name some. To no one's surprise no players reported from Truck Stop. Most were likely trying out for the MLU’s DC Current; coached by former Truck captain Keven Moldenhauer.

The weather did not do anyone a favor as when players arrived there was still an inch or two of snow on the turf and temperatures were in the 20s with the wind. Coach Coffin and owners Aaron Foreman and Marvin Graves were quick to introduce themselves and their mission to win a championship before starting the events. Players ran throwing lines, scrimmaged, and timed 70 and 40 meter dashes.

While player’s spirits were high at the start, the cold and wind quickly drained anyone not involved immediately in a drill. The scrimmages to three were long and left most of the players on the sidelines waiting their turn, never really able to stay warm. Most found themselves warming up over and over again in order to perform. With an AUDL size field many college players commented on the struggles of defense, not familiar with having to guard receivers with so much more cutting room. This was not the only surprise for players, some unfamiliarity with AUDL rules and lack of referees did create some confusion and debate on plays.

Observing the scrimmages it was clear that this biggest impact on the day was the weather. The points got sloppy as the day went on, turnover rates increased as hands grew colder, throws were getting taken more and more by the wind, and moods were not the best after being exposed to the elements for four hours.

After all was said and done though, the players had shown a lot of promise and talent. All were invited to return for round two of the open tryouts this Saturday.

Afterwards some players revealed how they were a little let down leaving comments on: the low number of touches on disc, the general athletic focus instead of a tighter Ultimate focus, mishaps with timing some of the heats, and the overall quality of some of the scrimmages.

As the Breeze staff become more familiar with these players it will be interesting to see what kind of performance will come out of them this weekend and this season.

ILC/Reebok Sponsorship

Two weeks ago the DC Breeze announced a sponsorship by ILC/Reebok. ILC (Interscholastic Licensing Corporation) is the only wholesaler in North America that works with Reebok and will be providing fan gear online for Breeze fans from head to toe. Several other teams from the AUDL including Philadelphia signed with ILC. Their CEO, John Saintignon, is excited to be involved with Ultimate and sees it as a growing market. As a former professional athlete, Saintignon has a business relation with Breeze owner Aaron Foreman.

“Our initial reaction to getting interest from ILC/Reebok was overwhelming. The fact we can bear their logo speaks volumes. Hopefully in the near future as the AUDL grows we will get a true sponsorship deal that involves all teams similar to what the NFL and other established leagues have currently,” Foreman said.

The name recognition of Reebok and the distribution power they have is enormous and global, to say the least. A 24 hour online store providing everything from socks and shoes to bags and hats anywhere in the world, all with the DC Breeze logo of course, is sure to make an impact in the expansion of Ultimate.
“We have over 7000 items for boys, girls, men, and women and not just sports specific either,” Saintignon said.

This deal benefits the Breeze in two key ways. The first being shared revenue, the profits are being split 50-50 Saintignon confirmed. The second being that Reebok may take future interest in the sport of Ultimate.

Saintignon is excited to be working with all the AUDL teams that signed with ILC/Reebok. While he does not have an Ultimate background, he is very eager to see professional Ultimate first hand.

“Most people have just been introduced to recreational playing, not in a competitive or professional format, it’s exciting.” Saintignon remarked.

The AUDL is still in negotiations with several Ultimate clothing providers regarding uniforms, and will make an official announcement soon. This further reflects the Ultimate community’s devotion to their Ultimate apparell providers. It was also recently announced that Nike would be starting Ultimate camps this summer. They were allowed to provide some gear for attendees but the responsibility of jersey production still goes to Ultimate apparel companies like Savage, Breakmark, and 5 Ultimate.

The contract with ILC is open ended so the Breeze will be meeting with them yearly to decide if they want to continue their partnership. With Nike and now Reebok showing interest in Ultimate, the future of the sport is definitely looking up.