All Region 2016: Southwest (D-I Men's)

[cmills (Cody Mills)]

These six should be 1st Team:
Cody Kirkland (UCSD #22)- incredible thrower, drives UCSD offense
Elliott Chartock (Stanford #10)- two way threat for Stanford. Drives the offense and generates a ton of blocks on D
Grant Novins (UCSB #13)- all around stand out
Joel Anton (Cal Poly SLO #82)- rock center handler for SLO, goes every other often. Hard to stop of the reset, great hucks downfield
Will Turner (UCSB #14)- all around stand out, became an elite thrower this year
Nate Pettyjohn (Cal Poly SLO #9)- this guy is an athlete. Fast, springy, always running. Kills you downfield on O and D

Fill in last 1st team spot and 2nd team from these 11:
Ben Souvey (Davis #7)- solid player on a young team. Makes big plays and demands you attention
Lior Givol (Santa Cruz #10)- good distributor and defender for Santa Cruz
Andrew Lin (California)- underrated (at least by me) pre-regionals, but he did a lot to drive a young Cal team. Cheeky zone throws award
Andrew Kohl (ASU #2)- athletic receiver who expanded his game this year to become a thrower. Still a great defender
Jessep Macfarlane/Austen Barden (Chico #15 and #11)- have become “the guys” for a Chico team that pulled a couple great upsets on Stanford and UCSB.
Josh Kapilivsky (Stanford #21)- Often doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being such a huge part of the offense. Consistent, incisive breaks, generally always open on resets, and smart decision making.
Gabe Hernandez (Stanford #7)- 2-way threat for Stanford. Takes big match ups on D and makes plays; fast cutter on offense that can beat you will speed, sky for a jump ball, and throw good hucks.
Ian Sweeny (Cal Poly SLO #33)- Crushes it for SLO on D-line offense. Great breaks and hucks
Cameron Warnier (Cal Poly SLO #11)- If this guy had played the whole year, I’d put him 1st team all region. I think he only played regionals and maybe conferences, but I’d still be down to put him 2nd team. Explosive both downfield and in the handler set, solid throws
Cal Poly SLO #20- played huge in the game to go. Got a handful of big blocks, and made great cuts. Didn’t see much on film, but definitely brought his A game when it counted.
UCSB #91- strong cutter who can also throw

COTY Peter Raines (Cal Poly SLO)- Obviously. Did a great job developing a young team over the past two years.
FOTY Nick Hirning (Stanford #33)- Ran Stanford’s D-line offense when healthy, occasionally crossed over to O; very talented.

POTY Elliott Chartock (Stanford #10)
Without putting too much weight on any one game, this should be between Grant Novins, Cody Kirkland, and Elliott Chartock. Perhaps also Will Turner, but he wouldn’t have been in my mind for this until Regionals so I’m favoring the full body of work viewpoint and keeping it among the first three. They are all outstanding offensive players, with hucks, breaks, and the athleticism to be strong cutters. Elliott is the best defender, Cody is the best thrower, Grant is the most well-rounded.

Elliott didn’t have his best game in the game to go, but based on 2 years of seeing all three of these guys he’d still be my choice.

[drcd (Dan)]

Cal Coach:

Of the players that we saw in the southwest region, the ones that were truly unstoppable by our team and that we had to game plan specifically for were:

Elliott Chartock (Stanford).
Cody Kirkland (UCSD).

Really superior players and I would be glad to have them on any team I ran. From what I have seen, Cody is the player with the stronger skillset but Elliott does more for his team. Although Elliott did not shine in the regional finals this year, I think that game was very indicative of how much the team has leaned on him this year.

I think that taking your squad to regional finals twice in a row earns Elliott POTY.

Players that did well against my team, and just were generally a headache for me:
(#13 UCSB
(#2 UCSD
(#21 Stanford

From watching the finals, these SLO players stood out:
(#82 Offensive mainstay
(#33 Defensive mainstay. I don’t know who you are #33 but you deserve a lot of credit for your team’s success in finals. Impressive throws and defense.

Players that I have seen play well in that past but did not stand out in this college season:
Nolan Walsh (Stanford)
Lior Givol (Santa Cruz)
Ben Souvey (Davis)

Coach of the Region: Peter Raines (SLO). You win the region, you get COTR. Really enjoyed getting to hear from you in the videos of finals.

All Freshman: Remember, it’s more than just freshman of the year. Nick Hirning is an obvious choice for FOTY. Played pro ball before even starting college.

I would also like to offer up two of my freshman for consideration. #6 Alex Pan and #32 Paul Han.

Alex Pan started this season with limited experience but a lot of passion. We slotted him in as our 4th string defensive handler, as he was quick lefty and smart. Halfway through the season we lost our two starting D-line handlers to injury (for the rest of the year!). He was a main D-line handler throughout the series for us and contributed to a lot of our breaks with his quick moves.

Paul Han started the season as a true rookie (ie could not even throw a forehand). He used his athleticism and determination to get a lot better very quickly. His coolheadedness, good hands, and deep cuts moved him onto the offensive line. This year we were running a shorter offensive line, and after a couple injuries here, Paul became the #6 person on our offensive line. He started throughout the season against teams like Oregon and Colorado. His efforts in both zone and man offense greatly helped our team to succeed. He was also one of the best defenders when the O line lost the disc.

Overall, this was a level of contribution from freshman that I think was not experienced by any other team except for Stanford.

Fun year, let’s get some more bids in 2017.

[bsouv]

Disclosure: I play for Davis and can only discuss teams i’ve played against (haven’t seen SDSU, Arizona, USC) I wouldn’t say all of these players should be on an All Region Team, but they all deserve consideration

Cal Poly SLO
Nate Pettyjohn-Standout athlete, variety of throws and always makes big plays. Big plays in finals of regionals.
Ian Sweeney-Defensive Standout, Huge upwind hucks, crucial to SLO’s success
Cameron Wariner- Sat out the majority of the season aside from Stanford and the series I think so probably shouldn’t be considered but he is arguably one of, if not the best all around player in the region. Plays shut down D and will immediately roast you on the turn with huge layouts, skys and an arsenal of throws. Definite POTY watch for next year.
Joel Anton- Seemed to be the core of SLO’s O line, very chilly with the disc and made smart throws. Destroyed zone and junk looks all season.

Stanford
Elliott Chartock- One of the best throwers in the region, Stanford’s success this season was dependent upon his play, few players contributed as much on both sides of the disc as Elliot did.
Nolan Walsh- Great cutter and defensive presence.

UCSD
Cody Kirkland- Amazing arsenal of throws, will destroy any defensive look he faces and one of the toughest defensive match ups in the region

Davis

Casey Shugarman- Makes huge plays on both sides of the disc, gave everything he had on every point he was on, tough combination of height, speed and athleticism sure to give anyone trouble
Bryan Lococo- Arguably one of the best throwers in the region, conservative player with very few turns, and a defensive standout in zone and junk looks.
Ben Souvey- I was injured and missed the majority of the season, still unable to sprint at regionals, should not be considered for any regional awards based on past performances
Nick Helms- Huge player on both sides of the disc, tight defensive and can always get open on O
Nick Tolfa- Was injured on and off throughout the season, but when healthy made a huge impact on D, greatly improved disc skills this year, was pivotal to getting breaks

Santa Cruz
Lior Givol- Played nearly every point at regionals and willed his team to a quarterfinals appearance, quick give and go movement and good arsenal of throws, all over the field on defense

Santa Barbara
Will Turner- Watching the impact he had for his team at Pres Day with a broken hand showed how good of a player he is, UCSB wouldn’t have been a nationals contender without him, can do it all.

Chico
Austin Barden- Does it all for this team, their sectionals upset of Stanford was due to his outstanding play. Plays nearly all points and is crucial to Chico’s success at regionals these past two years.

Cal
Andrew Lin- Great handler with arsenal of throws, standout on Cal’s O line, destroyed our Junk looks at sectionals.
Ben Chiu-Athlete, great on both sides of the disc, great up and coming player

ASU
Andrew Kohl- Did not get to see him play this year but based off of reputation and seeing him play in the past he is deserving of All Region Consideration

[rwatson5]

Chico Coach here, figured I would throw out my thoughts on what I have seen throughout the season:

Didn’t get to see SLO or ASU play this year, i’ll assume the players mentioned from those teams are worthy of being in the discussion.

Chico
Austin Barden #11 - Absolutely deserves all of the talk about him, not only does he make absolutely insane highlight plays, but he is one of the most spirited players in the region. He also does 90% of the behind the scenes work for us, if that counts for anything.
Jessep Macfarlane #15 - Most consistent player on the team, he plays with fire (sometimes to a fault), but you can always trust he is always going to play 100% and has matured as a player/captain throughout the year. He also doesn’t take points off.
Tyler Grenier #4 - Surprised there hasn’t been any talk of Tyler, he does damn near everything for us. Legitimate threat on both offense and defense, as well as touches the disc damn near every throw.

Freshman: Nick Dahms #67, as a true freshman, never played any ultimate before this year, he was playing on all of our O lines. Without a doubt Nick deserves to be on the All Freshman team.

Stanford
Elliott Chartock - Definitely one of the best players in the region, and is definitely one of the reasons Stanford has made the regional finals the last couple of years.
Josh Kapilivsky - In my opinion one of the hardest players to deal with on Stanford on the offensive end. Deserves recognition for sure.

FOTY: Nick Hiring, though he didn’t play against us, I did get to watch him play at the Stanford Invite and he is the real deal. Scary that he’s a freshman.

UCSD
Cody Kirkland - POTY in my opinion. Scary good throws as already mentioned.

UCSB
Will Turner - Though he didn’t have his best game when we played them at Regionals, it is clear that he is very important to the success of his team. Without him, UCSB is a completely different team.

Santa Cruz
Lior Givol - Heart of his team, and is definitely one of the main reasons they made quarterfinals. Damn near impossible to guard with his give and go movement.

Cal
Andrew Lin - Best player on that team, without him they don’t make quarterfinals. His throws created openings all over the field for Cal.

Pomona
Matt Theologidy #23 - While I know that he won’t end up making any of the all Region teams. I wanted to give him a shout out. He was the reason that Pomona scored most of their points against us. He also played every point against us (and maybe even the whole day). His throws allowed his teammates to get open.

Davis
Not sure why I can’t think of anyone on that team right now, but they made semi’s so they definitely deserve some love.