The end of the season team meeting has officially brought us to the, well, end of the season. It's been one heck of a ride full of sweaty practices, hella long points, rainy practices, hella long car rides, early practices, fond memories, weird memories I want to forget, and friendships that will either last 4 years or last 4ever. Nancy has become a very important part of my college career and I am forever grateful for everything this team have given me. We have worked so hard all year long and now its time to finally take a much needed break and get ready for the next season (except for those that are playing summer league you try hards [just kidding actually good for you guys way to go!]). Next year we will get new rookies, our current rookies will turn into vets, our vets will become seasoned leaders, and our seniors will be doing real life things. Next year will be very different as we can never recreate this exact team again with all our different quirks and personalities, but it will still be amazing nonetheless. I could go on and on about how much I love Saucy but I'll let my teammates take it from here:
06 Stevie Watts
08 Brooke O'HollearnYears on Saucy: 3
11 Sarah Kersten
24 Faradis Lindblom
33 Kaitlin Brooks
42 Raleke Ekwena
THANK YOU seniors for an amazing last season and good luck on the rest of your lives. THANK YOU rookies for sticking around us weridos for an entire season. You guys seriously rock and I can't wait to see all the super cool things you will do in the future. THANK YOU Shayman, Twlight, and especially Bucket for coaching us. I know we can be a lot to handle but we really appreciate all the time you put into this team. THANK YOU to all the parents that have supported us all season long. Special thanks to those that supplied us food at the tournaments and to the Watts and Laurin for housing the team two weekends in a row. THANK YOU to my teammates for being some of my best and closest friends at Iowa. I love you guys THANK YOU all for dealing with my mediocre tweets and bad spelling all season. It has been an honor to be your tech guru this past year and I know that Greta will do an ever better job keeping everyone updated as social media chair next year (idk about Chloe she might do fine). Cheers to the end of the season! HFS Saucy Leadership 2018/2019- Captains: Alexis Abbeduto and Michele Siamis Club President: Rebecca Crown Treasurer: Erin McFadden Travel Coordinator: Kelsie Tingle Fundraising Chair: Claire Meyer Social/Recruitment Co-Chairs: Caroline Meek and Bridget Joers Social Media Co-Chairs: Greta Larget and Chloe Malkinson Fitness Coordinator: Maggie Norland
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Because we didn’t get enough of Ames at Sectionals, we took another visit to Cyclone city! This weekend included a lot of lasts for our seniors and Coach (Bucket) Patrick Landson. Some of these lasts included team trips to Panera and Saucy halftime dance parties. But I will talk about this more later… Saturday began with tough games against Minnesota and Iowa State. We were treated to an awesome tailgate sponsored by the Tingle family. The day ended with a win against Wisconsin La- Crosse and a super fun dance party…which we also won (shoutout to Sarah, Bex, and Bridget for bringing the house down). Sunday welcomed strong winds and looonngggg points. All of our Saucies worked their Nancy’s off. We started the day off with a tough loss against Wisconsin. We won our last two games against Marquette and Wisconsin Eau Claire; both coming down to Universe points! Our rookies completely stepped up during this tournament and made some baller plays. Overall we kept seed for Regionals! Everyone should be super proud of their performance this tournament; we pushed ourselves as a team and had great sideline presence! There were a lot of emotions being felt at the end of this tournament. For our six seniors this was the last time playing for Saucy. I think we all can agree that this program had a huge impact on our college experience and there is no other team like Saucy Nancy! It is made up of some of the best, craziest, and kindest people out there. It will always have a special place in all of our hearts and the friendships made will last a lifetime. THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us over the years. Also, thank you to our coaches for all of their hardwork and dedication to this team. Bucket…you and your clipboard will be missed so much. To close…this was a great season and we cannot wait to see what Saucy will do next year! “She needs wide open spaces Room to make her big mistakes She needs new faces She knows the high stakes” RIP all of Stevie’s toenails. (no, I didn’t make it through this without crying) After an April snowstorm pushed the tournament back a weekend (we love the Midwest) we stepped foot in rival territory, Ames. There were only five bids for Regionals and seven teams. Seeded fourth, it was crucial that we maintained or broke our placement. With finals week approaching, the past few weeks of practice hadn’t been quite as amplified, so we knew the first game of the weekend was going to set the tone for the tournament. And. We. CRUSHED IT. Saucy vs. Cuddle Raptors: 10-7 Saucy vs. Carleton: Oh darn we must have forgot to record the score……. Saucy vs. Minnesota Duluth: 13-3 Saucy vs. Scorned: 7-11 (a bit of a heartbreak, it was neck and neck throughout) Saucy vs. Monium: 10-2 Saucy vs. Minnesota: 6-11 (or was it 11-6…I mean, minor details. Who’s counting?) Saucy vs. Cuddle Raptors BONUS ROUND: 8-6! Overall, we came out hot! We kept seed, screamed on the sidelines, and everyone made huge strides towards achieving personal goals. Not to mention… WE’RE GOIN TO DISNEY WORLD (jk REGIONALS)!!!!!!!! wowza what a tourney. It was easily the best tournament that Saucy has played in a long time. The energy was high all day both on the field and on the sidelines. We adjusted well to each team and played hard for the entirety of the game. Every player worked on their goals and wow it was a superb weekend. okay now get a load of this, Saucy was placed in the power pool... last seed of the power pool, but we were still in the power pool nontheless. That means that every single game we played was against very good and competitive team. Our first game against WuWu started off with a 20 minute long first point and we showed that we can to compete. All the Saturday games were hard fought and close; even though we lost all three games, spirits were high because we had held our own against some tough teams. The first game on Sunday was against our long time rival Minnesota. The Ninjas have a h-Uge roaster and we play them several times a year. I was very impressed by sauce as we tied it 6-6 right before half. Minnesota pulled ahead right at the end, but again we didn't fee bad about the loss, we had played well and felt good about it. We won the next game against Truman State (sorry Bucket) and then lost the last one against North Western. We somehow broke seed even though we only won one game (s/o to the power pool I guess), so it was really just an awesome tournament. Old Cap is in just a few weeks and Saucy is feeling real good. We've proved that we have what it takes to compete with the big kids and we are ready to show it off. After spring break we will be moving practice back outdoors instead of indoor morning practice which is a Godsend. It will also be good to practice in the element to prepare for whatever weather OCO might bring. I think this article from Ultiworld describes our Florida experience just perfectly. "Northern teams come down to FWC because it represents a rare opportunity to throw a disc outdoors at this time of year. Michigan coach Ben Murphy said the tournament represented his team’s first chance of playing outside since before Thanksgiving. For teams looking to shake off the rust and the frost, it’s a perfect tournament. But the timing and location do provide some challenges for teams, too. Many of the teams in Apopka were still on winter break. As a result, there were a few squads with some pretty significant absences. No team felt that more than Iowa Saucy Nancy, who were missing about half of their roster. They still made prequarters, due, in large part, to the assured performance of handler Brooke O’Hollearn, so it wasn’t a wasted weekend, but it’s still not ideal to start your tournament with so much of your team absent." -Daniel Prentice We may have only had 4 subs but didn't stop us from driving the 22 hours down to Florida to have a grand old time. Most of the team arrived on Thursday which gave us plenty of time to rest and explore before the tournament started on Saturday. On Friday we spent the day on the beach which was a nice break from the bitter midwest winter. Saturday and Sunday went pretty much as expected, we played some tough games but were able to hold own own pretty well. We won half of our games and left the tournament feeling pretty satisfied (also felt tired beyond belief and felt like our legs were going to fall off). S/O to the 11 players that were able to go to Florida; we got some hella playing time and tons of experience that will help later in the season. Also sending 22 hours in a van with your closest friends probably helped with team bonding... maybe helped just a little bit too much. This past weekend Saucy took part in the classic tournament that is Missouri Loves Company. We were unable to attend last year so it was nice to be back. This was the 3rd and final tournament of first semester so we really wanted to show off our amazing rookies and all that they have learned over the past couple of months. We came out strong and won our first two games on Saturday against Missouri and Milwaukee. Both games were very close and competitive but Saucy came out on top thanks to our strong D. The next game against WuWu did not go quite as well. We got in a slump after the first couple of close points and never got out of it. Alexis broke her thumb (finger? arm?) on a bid so I blame her for the loss. But the next game we railed Betty so its all good. During our last game Iowa football was playing against Ohio State so we may or may not have watched it on my phone while on the sidelines (no regrets it was a historic game). The team went to Hu Hot and crowded around the phone to watch Iowa defeat Ohio State 55-24 and see the fans rush the field. Amazing Experience. The most important thing that happened on Sunday was that we beat Colorado State. Hells Bells were in the power pool and seeded 7 spots a head of us so they definitely should have won. But saucy came and we delivered and heCK YEAH WE BEAT THEM. The vets proved that we can beat any team if we put our minds to it and it was a super cool experience. Overall Saucy had a gr8 MLC and set the bar for second semester. I learned a few things at the NoWisco tournament this past weekend. 1. Five hours goes pretty quickly... ...when you’re listening to a bopping playlist of songs queued in really random order (Moana, Bon Iver, Taylor Swift…). I really enjoyed getting to know my car more (as the only rookie in a car full of seniors) and learned that they’re super chill and have similar music tastes. 2. Ultimate during the rain is…just as fun. The tournament started out with four games on a rainy Saturday. Despite the mud and the chill, we kept the energy up throughout the whole day. We focused on the basics and clap catch clap catch c l a p c a t c h During the last game of the day, the rookies (plus Stevie) took the field, soaked but hyped, for a final rookie point. It was a great end to the day as we put into practice everything we’d learned over the last few games. 10/10 would play in the rain again. 3. Defense is a thing They told me that I'd figure out a lot of stuff during a tournament. This is true; somewhere along the way, a flip switched in my head and defense started making sense. As a whole, I think our whole team did a great job with this and the rookies especially made a lot of progress. 4. By NoWisco Time™, Ultimate starts seeping into most parts of your life… Between throwing on the Pentacrest almost every day, and slipping the word ‘ultimately’ into essays every chance I get, this sport has won me over much more than I expected, and I’m glad it did. Frisbee count, September: 0 Frisbee count, October: 3 Author- Caroline "Carl" Meek On Saturday, September 16th, about 20 girls woke up at 6 a.m. to make the hour long drive over to Grinnell for Saucy Nancy's first tournament of the season: Elephantitis. Grinnell has always been a great tournament, not only because of its fun and relaxed style, but for the chance to show our rookies what an ultimate tournament is and teach them more about playing the game. This year we had a great group of rookies who already have shown their dedication and eagerness to learn at practice. Our vets took this tournament to become teachers to the rookies they were paired with on their line, while also working on improving their fundamentals. Our first game against McCalister was the first time our rookies got to play in a real ultimate game. While it took a while to get the hang of things, our rookies began to understand where to cut and when, establishing a good flow on the field. Vets continued to help out both on and off field by talking to rookies, one of the things I heard most was "other side" (to be fair as a rookie I got flick and backhand force wrong ALL the time). IHUC came towards he end of the second half and helped cheer us on as we continued to fight to take the game. While we didn't win, our first game provided Saucy with a look on what adjustments needed to be made for our next game. After the LONG trek to field 1 we started our second game against Grinnell. The rookies really began to come into the game, there was an impressive amount of sick Ds. Our dump drill we did last Thursday proved to be very helpful, however there were a ton of good rookie to rookie throws that connected and helped our team take the W for this game. Our last game of the day was against Mizzou and proved to be tougher than the last. While everyone was tired from our previous two games, we did not cease to continue pushing ourselves. The vets stepped up to help bring the game to universe and displayed to the rookies just how important fundamentals become in a tight game. Bucket was on the edge of his seat the the entire time! While we couldn't clinch the win on universe it was a great game that was well fought by both sides. What we take away from a game like this is we can never stop pushing. Even when you're tired or even if it's Grinnell, every point is just as important as the last and we need to keep our heads up and our eyes on the prize. Because Mother Nature decided to be unkind we ended up not camping at Grinnell this year. Once back in Iowa City we had some saucy bonding where most of us danced/sung the night away before our bedtime at 9 (Okay maybe I stayed up until 10, I sacrificed a little bit of my beauty sleep to catch up on my shows). On Sunday we began to warm up to what would prove to be our toughest game: Scorn (ISU). Scorn has always been a tough match up for us, I still remember playing them at Old Cap Open and it was our most competitive game, it was no different at Grinnell. Scorn proved to be a very solid team, with not many new players their vets really pushed our rookies to play harder than they had before. Our vets new the drill and played a very smart and hard game against Scorn's tough and quick offense. I believe the score of this game did not reflect the way that Saucy played. Both sides fought hard, but Saucy's rookies proved they will stop at nothing to continue learning and getting better. Our vets also proved what our mindset will be for the rest of this season. We want to play and we want to win, and we are willing to work towards that. That game was our last game on Sunday because the other team we were going to play kind of disappeared. So instead we played a friendly scrimmage against UNI, which culminated to a rookie point(!) in which we scored and took home another win! Twilight also made us do some drills, because we had the field and why East an opportunity? With it only being my second year on Saucy I can't talk about how excited I am for the rest of the season. Last year I was were the rookies were, nervous because I still kind of didn't know how to play ultimate, but excited because I came into college and was immediately greeted by my new family. Ultimate has become one of my passions and one of my loves. Saucy has become my family, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We're a very young team and we still have a lot of growing to do, but I can already envision Saucy becoming a very good and competitive team come the spring season. Everyone here is dedicated and everyone wants to improve. So I'll be out there on the pentacrest or thirty minutes before practice throwing and I hope you'll all join me as we continue help Saucy grow into the best version we can be. Cheers to this year, HFS Bex At the end of last spring, Saucy said goodbye to nine players. A big challenge for us this fall was to find a way to recruit more players, and for the returning players to step into leadership roles themselves, despite many of them only playing for two years. This fall was a huge leap forward for us, not only in gaining 11 incredible and dedicated rookies going into the spring, but also in the leadership that the vets displayed on and off the field this fall season. Here’s a breakdown our fall season and how we’re looking to use this success to spring ahead (see what I did there- HA). Firstly, out of 25 players, 11 of us are rookies. That’s a lot of new blood and no-chillie endzone plays. The fall season is great because it offers rookies experience playing against other competitive teams in unsanctioned tournaments. With so much of our team comprised of rookies, they were put on competitive lines early, and stepped up to the challenge with gusto. Some highlights include Alexis, who has become a dependable cutter and defender, and even laid out twice in one game. Tricia, who became a handler from day one, is A1 and makes smart plays with the disc and is flawless in cutting in a handler formation. Mo, who makes great deep cuts and can sky girls with an impressive two inch vertical because she’s like 7 feet tall. And Brooke, who played ultimate in high school and now dominates the field with her sharp cuts and impressive disc reading skills. This is only the start of our incredible lineup of rookies, I couldn’t fit all of them in here, but their dedication to the team and learning curve from Grinnell to MLC is unparalleled. Major props to all of you! We started off at Grinnell going 6W-0L, but because of a fluke in the way the pools were arranged, we didn’t win the tournament. That’s A-okay though, because we’re always winners in our hearts. :) Grinnell was a great time for the rookies to get acquainted with the competitive play, and after weeks of practice focused on learning the basics of vertical stack, horizontal stack, and the fundamentals of a good mark, it was a beautiful moment to watch our rookies go off on their own and compete in some quality rookie points. The vertical stack was in a straight line in the middle of the field. We were all very proud of them. At No Wisconsequences, our rookies found out through trial and error that seniority determines who gets to sleep in beds and who sleeps on the floor at hotels. On Saturday night, Sam won free jerseys for the team! This was our 3rd time winning a free set of jerseys in three years! Overall in the tournament we went 3W-4L and finished 6th. Throughout the weekend, we played some tough competition like the Minnesota Ninjas (7-12), and continued to improve on our fundamentals. One of our main goals in the fall, and continuing into the spring is, as Hanky told us in a timeout huddle, to play solidly fundamental ultimate. In games against St. Olaf (9-8), SOL (9-4), and even in our tough fought last game against Shockwave (7-8), we played fundamentally sound ultimate. Throws were smart, cuts were good, and turnovers were minimized. A huge lesson to take into the spring for us is to play smart - and to go to the Patagonia raffle on Saturday night, which also a very important ultimate tip. In Ames to Please, we went 5W-3L overall and finished 9th. You can read more about the tournament in a previous blogpost here, but one of the highlights of the tournament was the last game against WUWU on Sunday. If you’ve played ultimate before, you understand that the last game on Sunday is the most grueling, and simple actions like running onto the field after a point to high five your teammates become infinitely harder when your legs refuse to work. At halftime, our energy was drained, but we pushed hard and came out on top 10-9 with some excellent bursts of energy on both offense and defense from vets and rookies alike. At the crux of the fall season, we played at MLC, going a strong 6W-2L for the weekend and finishing 5th. One of the things we realized we needed to work on as a team is conditioning (sure we shampoo a lot, but hair also needs the nutrients that conditioner supplies to look its best). Our last game on Saturday was against Betty, and even though they went to nationals two years in a row and had more experienced players than us, the level of competition we played was below our standards. We were tired after three games and ended up losing 4-13. Perhaps the only low point of the weekend though, Saucy came out roaring in all of our other games. Vets Raleke, Johnson, and Havel all got layout D’s. Rookies Mo and KB both had greats plays on offense and defense, and all around, the improvements from the beginning of the year were outstanding. On Sunday we lost against Notre Dame 6-8 in an all-out physical warfare of an ultimate game. It was heart-wrenching, but we played up to them to the last point. Liz told us in the post-game huddle that the score didn’t reflect how hard we fought. I think that philosophy is something to take into the spring as we continue to grow and learn. We’re a young and relatively inexperienced team. As we spring (ahhh yes, you see what I did there again?) into the next season, we will face teams who will be better than us, faster than us, and have more experienced players than us, but we must continue to exude strength in spite of the circumstances and stay fundamentally excellent. This is a rebuilding year and I am beyond impressed that we have been able to fight as hard as we have and accomplish as much as we did, but we still have mountains to climb and recycling to pick up between games before we’re finished. As we retreat into the winter workout grind, I assure you that we will continue to work hard and stay dedicated to being the best version of ourselves on the field that we can be. HFS, Novick |
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February 2021
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