Who are the best players in the Men’s Developmental division? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
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the best players in mens dev are Jacob Larue, Matt Ayers, and Aaron Fandel all for umass dev. Could go on. Liam Reynolds is also a beast for midd b (and he shared his account with me). Also gotta shoutout kaleb zuckerman on Pfunk and those uvm boys.
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Gotta love UVM’s Adrian Staples and Eric. Both good players who are fun to play.
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Jack Dickola on Midd B. Oh boy, where do I even begin with this one? Let me tell you folks, Jack Dickola is a slam dunk choice for the 2023 all developmental rookie first team. I mean, have you seen this guy play? He’s an absolute monster on the court. I’m talking about a real game changer here.
First of all, let’s talk about his raw talent. Dickola has some serious skills that can’t be taught. He’s got the speed, the agility, and the sheer athleticism to blow past defenders and make plays happen. I’ve seen him take on some of the toughest opponents out there and come out on top every time.
But it’s not just his physical abilities that make him a standout rookie. Dickola’s got the brains to match his brawn. He’s got a real knack for reading the game and making smart decisions on the fly. He’s got great court vision and knows exactly where his teammates are at all times.
And let’s not forget about his work ethic. Dickola is the kind of player who puts in the time and effort to improve his game every single day. He’s always pushing himself to be better, and it shows in the way he plays.
So there you have it, folks. Jack Dickola is a true force to be reckoned with on the court, and he deserves a spot on the 2023 all developmental rookie first team. If you’re not convinced yet, just watch him play and see for yourself.
Oh sure, let’s put Jack Dickola on the 2023 all developmental rookie first team. I mean, who needs actual talent and skill when you’ve got raw potential, am I right? Sure, he may not be able to shoot, pass, or dribble very well, but hey, he’s got “heart” and “grit” and all those other intangible qualities that coaches love to talk about. And let’s not forget about his work ethic. I mean, he’s always the last one to leave the gym, even if it’s because he can’t hit a shot to save his life. So yeah, Jack Dickola for the win
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Oh, absolutely! Jack Dickola should definitely be on the 2023 all developmental rookie first team. I mean, who cares if he’s barely scored any points or made any meaningful contributions to the team? He’s got potential, right? And isn’t that what really matters? I’m sure his parents are thrilled that he’s finally being recognized for all his hard work, even if it hasn’t actually translated into any success on the court. So let’s give Jack a participation trophy and call it a day!
i hear that reynolds guy is an absolute machine
Binghamton B Team - #10 Devon Umzoer #Goat
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Quick homework break to proudly present my Metro East Dev team of the year:
David Wu - #24, Cornell: all around stud, longest man in the region, just give him player of the year already
Noah Grenert - #10, Cornell: tall (and good) but mostly tall
Max Siragusa - #56, Cornell: nastiest uplines in the region. Will break your ankles then break your heart.
Bing #10 - dude is so good bro. Pink headband also goes crazy hard.
Uconn #44 - also mad tall. Good throws too.
Uconn #33 - good deep threat and sick bucket hat.
Rutgers #3 - probably best throws in the region.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Shoutout my metro east gang.
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Devon Umzoer (Bing #10) and David Wu (Cornell #24) are the two frontrunners out of the metro east region. David Wu’s deep defense and amazing handler movement was a big reason Cornell went to regionals (and broke seed) while Devon Umzoer’s strike cuts were nearly ungaurdable. If I had to choose one, I would pick David because of his teams succes. For rookie of the year, I do not know his name but #11 on Cornell was amazing and cooked us when we played. Finally, all of buffalo B deserves to get a shout out. We played hard and were supposed to make bracket as the last seed coming in.
Going to be a bias ZooDisc D player, but these guys deserve the praise and notice.
Tomo Liou- Tomo was an absolute workhorse these regionals. Played a ton of points in all situations and was probably our most consistent threat coming under and getting the disc. In our only streamed game against Northeastern, he was our MVP. Got open on just about any undercut he wanted, saved a couple 50/50 balls, played great defense and was just tearing up Northeasterns’ defensive looks. Watch out for him in the future, he’s going to be a stud.
Matt Ayers- He just does it all on both sides. Takes a ton of the toughest matchup’s we face on defense and plays lockdown. Competes hard and always reliable to get open. Makes some really tough throws look easy (see Crossfield hammer in Northeastern game), and just a great teammate. Logged a ton of minutes this weekend and left it all out there, really leads by example.
Nate Shenoy- Nate was our rock in the backfield. He was our center handler in a lot of tough scenario’s and rarely made any mistakes. Got some awesome layout d’s playing as the apex in our zone and put his body on the line on the offensive end as well. Kept the disc moving on all areas of the field and was essential to our success this weekend.
Also have to shoutout Aaron Fandel, Nedav Berkman and Jayden Amirault they also played amazing for us this weekend and just because I didn’t write semi-long statements about them too doesn’t mean they weren’t as impactful, they were.
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There has to be some consideration for some Minnesota B players. They beat St. Olaf and dominated the dev teams in their region. Bela Konkoly was probably their best player, but #10, and #19 on the team (among others) also deserve recognition for Minnesota B being one of the best dev teams in the country.
Liam reynolds and #12 on middlebury B were also great players we faced this weekend.
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Honestly, and this might be biased, I’d give Umass dev the easy look to fill the all-region roster. UVM has some studs and Midd B has a few strong players aswell, but for the most part, the ZooDisc Dev boys had the most consistent depth on the line every point. Big boys Jake Larue and Matt Ayers got open on just about every deep/in cut, and Nadav Berkman was there handling to get the disc to them with incredible efficiency. Matt and Jake are liable to come down with any tough grabs, and with Jake’s ability to expand his catch radius by getting vertical or horizontal he poses a huge threat on the defensive side as well. Matt, has been using his height very well to knock down any 50/50s on defense and poses a huge threat by stretching the field with deep play ability, whether it’s his throws or his catches. Also have to shout out Tomo Liou for an easy all-freshman nomination because that guy can find space as well as some of the A team guys in the New-England region. A lot of guys to give flowers out to but those guys made the biggest difference in bringing us our success this year, along with Jayden Amirault, Aaron Fandel and Matthew Crowe.
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Jayden Amirault and Matt Ayers co-captained the team with me and there’s absolutely no way we would have the success we did this season without those guys pushing the team to it’s heights, especially considering that we don’t have a coach so we had to fill both those roles. Incredible men for the team on and off the field!
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As one of the captains of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Developmental Ultimate Frisbee Team, I want to shoutout a few heads from my team and others who I think deserve the praise.
Tomo Liou- Tomo was an absolute dog the entire season, especially at Regionals. He is extremely adaptable and just is able to be thrown in any scenario and thrive. I do not think someone has stopped him from getting an under and he equally has the ability to get up as well. He is easily one of the most impressive players I’ve had the pleasure of playing with and this was only his first competitive season of Ultimate. This is something that should scare the rest of the college division. Easily FOTY for Dev and it should not really be close.
Matt Ayers- He is an absolute grinder both on and off of the field. Logistically speaking without him we would not have had a season. And his performance on the field is nothing short of incredible. He would always take the toughest match ups on the field with him frequently winning those match ups. He has every throw one can imagine with the nastiest inside flick huck. As the deep-deep in our zone whenever there is a floaty disc, he just wins those. Overall, Matt is an absolute workhorse who pushed himself and all of the members of our team to heights and limits we never knew was possible.
Nate Shenoy- Nate transitioned from being a cutter last year to becoming a center handler for our D-Line. He also frequently crossed over to offense and just remained chilly. Also he was tasked at being the short deep in our zone and did that job at a very high level. Also my boy gets hella horizontal and had one of the craziest bids i’ve seen in a game vs harvard to save a goal. Nate was a pillar in our team success with his leadership both on and off the field.
Jake LaRue: I think he won every 50/50 he would go up for, or at least felt like it. I have also never seen someone so good at dribbling the disc through a zone as LaRue is. LaRue at regionals played until he physically could not. He is a lockdown defender with crazy good fundamentals with some of the best defensive positioning I’ve witnessed. LaRue was an incredible addition for the Zoo D fellas, and he is just a beast of a player.
Jayden Amirault: Just an incredibly reliable cutter who is so good at getting open. And when asked he can seamlessly fall into the handler set and be just as effective for our team. He also is a very high level defender and really made the player he was covering work extra hard to get the disc. Also, as a leader he was our team’s vocal leader and without failure would always get the fellas locked in when it was needed.
Aaron Fandel: Quite literally the human embodiment of what it means to be a shooter, with his great deep puts. He has some of the most insane pulls I’ve seen which always put our D-Line in a good spot as he consistently pinned opponents in bad spots. He also is a cheat code in our zone since he is so large and would just rack up D’s and then instantly look for the break throw.
If possible I would shoutout every member on the Zoo D roster however that is a lot of work. Also, shoutout Matt Crowe, Nadav Berkman and Cam Salvatore for all being incredible contributors for our run to D1 Regionals.
From other schools: Eric and Adrian from UMV Dev are both problems, they are both very high level handlers. Also, Liam and #12 from Midd B are goats as well.
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Liam Reynolds here from midd B. Thomas Walsh on our team is one of the most athletic cutters I’ve ever seen and was an extremely valuable D line player. Also Jasper pearcy is probably the best pure offensive player i played with or against in the division. Also wanna give a shoutout to owen snyder-smith. Dude is fucking electric. Crazy good athlete, with good throws and makes an amazing hybrid player. Also had a nuts sky on some kid from tufts A. There were so many dudes on our team this year that really stepped up in a big way like jack dicola, lucas nerbonne, Max CJ, and ned cutler among many others. Our team was able to step up and grab some huge wins with no coach and a fraction of the practice time that other schools had. When we went to dev sectionals we had only had 10-12 practices. Our success would not have been possible without these dudes putting on a show. On umass dev one player that stood out for me was nadav. he was super efficient on offense and he rarely turned the disc over, but then on defense he locked me up better than probably anyone else on the zoodisc roster during the three times we played them. Tomo on that team is also super super good. Kaleb Zuck took a step down from Motion this year to play on Pfunk but he’s both an incredible player and an incredible person to be around. I’m not sure if he counts because he chose to play dev instead of A but if he does he should easily be on this team. UVM also had a couple of really strong dudes but I don’t know their names.
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Jasper Pearcy here, captain of Middlebury B (#12). I appreciate all the shoutouts from the boys on zoodisk Dev. I wanted to weigh in here too a little. Owen Snider Smith should be considered for the all region dev and freshman awards. Alongside me and Ned Cutler he quarterbacked our offensive systems and definitely propelled our team to its success in the dev region (and all three of us are freshman!) I also want to recommend in the strongest possible terms that Ned Cutler be considered for some awards in the dev devision, he is new to frisbee this year and became our most valuable cutter almost immediately. His athleticism is insane, his throws and catches grew faster than i’ve ever seen, and his smart and cerebral defense generated so many valuable turns for Midd B this year. Liam Reynolds and Thomas Walsh were also invaluable members of the D line for Midd B and should both be considered. Zoodisk had some impressive players as well (Nadav was particularly good) but their team definitely found its success through its depth, while Midd B had to rely on its top end of talent a little more.
One last thing about thomas- his energy was unmatched. His motor never stopped and he never failed to bring a smile to all of our faces even if we weren’t playing well. This was as important as any of the incredible plays he made on the field.
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Former UConn coach here
#44 was Nick Lambert, B team captain and the guy I came to this thread to shout-out in the first place. Huge contributor and motivator and all-around great dude
#33 was Elijah Bova, former A team player who voluntarily stepped down to help build the ultimate program at UConn from the dev side. Besides being a beast on the field, he also was a big leader for the team in community building.
For the second year in a row I’m gonna shout out UConn B coach Tony Li for everything he’s done to make another really successful season for the Slush Puppies. Tony gives so much more beyond what’s expected of a coach all while doing a PhD and being a pro disc golfer
Echoing shout outs to Devon Umzoer and Eric Stern on Bing B, and Matt Ayers the 2nd best Ayers brother