Who are the best players in the Developmental Division? This is an open thread to discuss the top talent, best rookies, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
There are a lot of players from Midas (UCLA B) worth talking about! For starters you should talk about Amy “Synapse” Zhu when you talk about rookies. She’s a 1st year handler with big throws and pulls, ultimately coachable, total composure, wonderful athleticism.
Angela “Nitro” Lin should be a (the?) major contender for Developmental player of the year. She’s the fastest cutter/player on pretty much any field, with great hands, amazing catches, and huge leadership potential.
Please also consider the emerging handling talent of sophomore Samantha “Fresca” Rustia, a very exciting, dynamic player to watch and a true leader. Big hucks, amazing layout D’s. She is one of the team captains and she has great vision on and off the field.
Both Lin and Rustia inspire admiration, spirit, and hard work in their teammates and opponents.
Our team is much deeper than these 3 (someone should weigh in about our junior cutting dynamos Caitlin Shener, Glenda Marshall, Grace Hubrig, and Kerrie Tonking, for instance), but this is to get the conversation started.
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In addition to the players on Midas (UCLA-B), Meghan “Rho” Kemp-Gee should be a front runner for Coach of the Year. Rho has coached Midas for several years with consistently excellent results (up to last year, something like four or five straight years winning developmental sectionals, and a trip to D-1 regionals last year). This year was particularly challenging, as Midas graduated a huge group of (12?) seniors last year, and came into this year a very young team needing new leaders to step up and take charge. With Rho’s guidance, this young team has grown and improved so much, and they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come.
Coaching in the developmental division poses some different challenges from coaching in other divisions: coaches are faced with bringing in a hoard of brand new players each year, while continuing to grow more experienced players. Rho handles this exceptionally well. New players are integrated into the system very quickly and efficiently, and she manages team development and individual development simultaneously, giving each player specific, individualized suggestions for things to work on. Rho has players work on impressively advanced skills and strategy, while at the same time developing brand new players, and she is incredibly effective at managing this balance.
Honestly, given Midas’s consistent success with so many different players, a more suitable award for Rho would be “Developmental Coach of the Decade,” but Coach of the Year would be alright 
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Hi! I wanted to give a shoutout to UMD B player, Margaret Tatum. I play for UNC B and she was one of our harder match ups because of her aggressiveness, throws, and HOPS. It seemed like the UMD team ran a lot of their offense through Tatum.
There was also a player on UMD – shorter, lean, asian, wore black leggings on Sunday of regionals – who played great defense and got a lot of blocks. She was a speedy cutter overall and I really liked the few times I was able to match up against her!
– Maredog
I’m just here nominate a couple Delaware players (I’m on the men’s B-team, but I spectate a lot of their games, including a couple at sectionals):
Suz “Swagzanne” Sirianni- Probably their best cutter, if someone just got a crazy layout D or skied the pants off of someone it was probably Suz
Rachel “Deech” Owrutsky - Captain, Primary Handler. Cheeky throws and Always good for a couple Poach D’s
Renee “No nickname that I’m aware of” Lamprinakos - Captain, Primary Handler. Again great throws, and plays really good handler D, excellent understanding of the game overall
Leah “JP” Coppage-Gross - Captain, Primary Handler. Again great throws, great strategist, poachiest defense I’ve ever seen that actually works