Years ago I started writing in my old blog about recruiting for ultimate, but never finished it. In major sports like college football coaches have systems that they install at whatever school they end up at and you might see them recruit certain types of players to fit that system.
In ultimate you want the best athletes like in any sport, but we don’t have scholarships or boosters and can’t offer the glory of being a D-I athlete to anyone. Outside of the Carleton’s and Wisconsin’s of the country, we take what we can get. “You’ve played sports before? You’d be great at ultimate! You played pickup ultimate in high school? Shit, you might be a FOTY candidate.” I just hope I don’t have to teach them how to run and that they can change direction at a reasonable pace. Obviously the juniors program is growing quickly, but the state of Iowa has barely been affected yet. If we aren’t proactive and get involved with high schools around Iowa I fear we could fall behind quickly.
Year after year Carleton and Stanford seem to find those squirrely players who can just break the mark and zig zag the disc up the field consistently. They always seem to have players who can play the quick, small ball game. Although it did seem like Carleton got away from that style in Finals last year against Florida. Florida, on the other hand, is known for relying on a few players to make big play after big play and just be overall more athletic on defense. These teams have clear identities. I wonder if a Brodie type player ended up at Carleton would they change their identity to play more like Florida or would Brodie’s stat line just have been much different if he had played for a team like Carleton.
As a coach I have my ideal “system”. In my semester and a quarter of coaching the Iowa Women’s team I have recruited zero players. I “installed” a few things here and there, but even if I had been recruiting for years would it be realistic for me to be able to find players who fit my system? Probably not. Coaching college ultimate means a lot of trial and error. Possession based or big play offense? Focus on breaks or hucks? Horizontal? Vertical? Zone? Man?
I don't think you can arbitrarily choose what to run without knowing your team outside of a few basic concepts. In my experience I've had to tailor what we do to fit the strengths of my players, because I don’t have the option of recruiting players to fit specific pieces of the puzzle. I wonder how different that is from major sports. You can expect just about every Jim Boeheim team to run a 2-3 zone. Back in the day, it seemed like the only play Nebraska football would run was the option. The Twins used to be all about pitching and defense. I was elated if we ever had a 20 homer guy.
Will I have a signature as a coach? What will my stamp be? Do other coaches draw from their own strengths and preferences as players? If that’s all I did then I would expect everyone to be hucking to the endzone every other throw. I definitely draw from my experiences as a player more than anything and I know I have principles that I preach over and over, but are they unique to me?
Whatever, I guess. I do know that I want Saucy to have an identity of its own and for it to be one that new players want to be a part of. Finding out what that is has been challenging, especially while integrating the younger girls, but I think we’re moving in the right direction. When I decided to come to Iowa City and coach I didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately I happened to get a lot of talent, so regardless of how good or bad of a job I do the girls can go far on their raw ability alone.
