Who are the best players in the North Central region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
First off, blessings to everyone who came out/played this weekend in the cold, rain, and sleet. Hope everyone got home safely.
Grinnell: Just want to shout out two of our senior leaders who I look up to a lot. Jacob Cowan #24 and Mack Trachtenberg #34. Both excellent players and friends who have gotten so much better as the season has progressed.
Olaf: I don’t know names, but #11 and #3 for Olaf were pretty outstanding. Really big, fast, played great D, had great throws.
Carthage: #1 and #26 were both very good. Caught everything, great throws, etc.
Michigan Tech: #87 and #7 were tough matchups. Big, strong guys who played really hard and had good spirit. A really good team.
CHOP: no numbers since they wore floral shirts, but a bunch of great guys. Pleasure to play them as always.
God bless!
Jack Connelly #20, Grinnell
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The all region team is wholly incomplete without Michigan Tech’s Clayton Donajkowski (#87). Clay was the life of the offense. Starting downfield, he was permanently open and initiated the offense. He often went every other, and is equally comfortable in the handler space as well. An offensive menace on the daily, but defensive monster when needed. He was always matched up on the other teams best players, significantly subduing them (and getting a layout D or two on Jacob Cowan 
) . Anyone who has watched him play knows without a doubt that Clay deserves a spot on this list.
Huge shoutout to everyone who came out and played last weekend, the weather was horrible but we played through it.
I’d like to nominate #99 on Macalester Flat Earth. Although they ended up loosing to CHOP on universe, his play was very impressive in our game against him.
He had a wide variety of extremely difficult throws even in the high winds, great defense and positioning. He was able to lock up some of the top guys on our team and in the CHOP game. He also connected with these twin downfield cutters all game at an impressive rate. All around great player.
CHOP: Chris is the real deal. Elite thrower. We love CHOP, it’s always a pleasure to play them. CHOP has a bright future
Macalaster: #99 was nice with it, huge throws that kept them in games. Mac had a great year
Carthage: #3 and #26 were very solid, consistent throwers with absolute motors. Relentless offensive system
Grinnell: Jacob and Will are great. looking forward
to seeing Grinnell at nationals!
Didn’t play Michigan Tech or Platteville
Shoutout the boys
Olaf
00 Eric crosby lehmann
- pure straps on your best player
11 and 3 Willy B and Matty K - the o line fellas on your dome
Chop
Chris O mara and Eye-black cutter (felix?)
Macalaster
99 and 77 
Carthage
3 and 26
- Hex offense gods
Grinnell
My boys jacob cow and Will norr
All region-
Will Brandt
Jacob Cowan
Matt Kompelien
Chris O Mara
Eric Crosby Lehmann
#99 Macalaster
#26 Carthage
You might notice St. Olaf continued their streak of dominance over the north central region. One might ask “how is this possible, after St. Olaf graduated a huge star studded senior class?”. A naive observer might say “Will Brandt can carry any team” which isn’t totally false but the complete dominance of the Zerks stems from their depth. The Zerks lost a big senior class and in it’s place, an insane freshman class. Simultaneously players across the roster stepped up huge.
Matt Kompelien has stepped into the big shoes left by Ben Fjet and not blinked. His throws are unmatched in the wind. Don’t test him.
Eric CL is a offenders worst nightmare with the motor to be a dominant two way player.
Caleb Griffiths is going to make plays no matter who he has to guard. His contribution to the dominant Zerks defense has been invaluable.
Now to the Freshman,
Owen Lehmkuhl might be the most efficient player in the region, with no shortage of athleticism.
Jonas Geere will shake you out of your socks and good luck trying to get the disc on O.
Taro Jelinek, beast.
Carter Petrella, is a phenomenal connector and will be even more impactful as his role grows.
This incredible step up in development wouldn’t have been possible if not for the Zerks coaching core.
Caleb Szydlo, Aidan Clements, and Dave Truesdale have organized a composed and resilient group of 22. Their ability to help the Zerks control games is going to pay huge dividends well into Nationals.
For rookie coach of the year: Gordon Larson was able to orchestrate the oppressive Zerks defense.
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Wow. Eloquent writing @ (user) Lukebleers. Rookie coach of the year might not be a close race this year 
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CHOP player here. Any all region team imo should include:
Will Brandt (zerks)
Jacob Cohan (Grinnell)
#3 from Carthage
#87 from Michigan tech
#99 from Mac
Chris O (fantastic chop captain)
one of the Platteville guys that had crazy throws
also want to shout out the macalester coach, mac had a really effective game plan against us and we struggled to deal with it. Also absolutely huge to take a COVID-affected struggling program to a big issue for everyone at regionals.
Also pretty sure that the eye black guy shouted out earlier is our freshman Jonah T (tango)
Carthage Blitz player here, this past tournament was such a great event and props to everyone that showed up! I probably won’t be the only team member who posts, but here are some impressions that I’ve gotten from playing teams this year:
Carthage:
#26 Jimmy Chaudoin - He is one of the team’s O-line orchestrators who is so solid and smart with the disc and has unrivaled knowledge of the game. He always knows the best way to get the disc back into and out of his hands to initiate a dribble or hit that big point opening swing, and will still book it deep from the handler space to catch a huck. Such an amazing player and has been the main towards the teams growth the last 5 years from a regionals afterthought to competing for a Nationals spot. S/O his Hive videos too, Cardenas Sisters Supercharging Molly Brown’s O and here’s to more to come!
#0 Tim Pecharich - Tim was the stud of our D-line this year and for the past few as well, and he is a main reason why our team was able to play an effective defense. He led our team in layout Ds and Ds in general by a wide margin, and his ability to poach into lanes and get discs so quickly is pretty much unrivaled. On turns he was the main factor in our D-line O and has such a great ability to get and release the disc quickly and efficiently, and also was a top tier O-line player when he crossed over (frequently). He has such a nasty around backhand that is immune to marks too. He’s such a well rounded player who knows how to play and has the tools to do it at a high level.
Also #3 Jacob Brodkorb is a freakish athlete who eats zones and ankle for breakfast and #1 Justin “Birdman” Rummelhart is an amazingly solid handler and cutter who makes plays effortlessly, including so many soaring dives 
Shoutout to everyone else on the team, I could list off so many other names on this list but my thumbs would fall off!
Also #99 Ethan Weishuhn is a freshman candidate who was an O-line starter who always gets open, never turns the disc, and racks up so many scores, he’s a heck of a first year player.
Grinnell:
#24 Jacob Cohen - He was probably the best player that I’ve ever played against, a force of nature that is so hard to stop
Olaf:
#11 Will Brandt - He was a great player, really good at those crafty zone breaking throws
A really well rounded team, probably will and should have another player on the region team
CHOP:
#GET SOME REAL JERSEYS CHOP PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE - the handler with the grey hat and goatee in our game, he was super calm with the disc and had great throws, not sure who he is tho because they don’t have jerseys
Michigan Tech:
#7 - We’ve played Tech 3 times this year, and I came away most impressed by #7, he is their best and most reliable handler who is so so fast and had to be accounted for at all times, and he burned us when we didn’t, a great player
Congrats to all of the teams who were there, the tourney was a blast and a success! Good luck Olaf and Grinnell!
My All-Region:
Carthage: #26 Jimmy Chaudoin
Carthage: #0 Tim Pecharich
Grinnell: #23 Jacob Cohen
St Olaf: #11 Will Brandt
CHOP: #Good handler (get jerseys)
Tech: #7
Wildcard! (Probably an Olaf player)
Great regionals last weekend; the North Central is a great region to play frisbee in, everyone we played this weekend was super spirited and intense. CHOP player here, Wanted to give shout-outs to a couple standout opponents:
Grinnell: Jacob is a beast, but I was really impressed by #20 (Jack?). He’s super squirrelly in the cutting space and really hard to defend. He was wearing a pinnie with no number when we played them, but the handler with the curly hair was super consistent and reliable, tough mark.
Mac: Having played Mac a couple times this season, they’re an awesome opponent with great spirit. Will and Noah are killer throwers, they’re fun to watch play and really. Also, the twins #77 and #9 are fantastic, they made so many plays in the air for Flat Earth.
Olaf: We all know the big names, but I wanted to shoutout Cade #7 and Eric #00, they really do so much to stir the drink for the Zerks after the turn, super smooth and clean offensive players.
Carthage: #3 and #26 are absolutely filthy on Zone O, insanely quick releases and a killer first step. Blitz had 1 or 2 other high usage offensive players with similar play styles, just a really impressive offensive system overall.
MTech: #87 is a beast, few can guard him going upline. #7 is another player who I was really impressed by, great throws and presence for the DiscoTech offense at Regionals.
I’m not going to give biased takes on my own teammates, but just to give some names to the faces listed above, the beanie/goatee handler is Chris O’Mara, and the eye-black cutter is Jonah Tannen, a first-year player for us.
Excited for another great DIII NC year in 2024 and good luck to Olaf and Grinnell at nationals!
Discotech player here, great regionals last weekend everyone, wanted to shout-out a few people we played against.
Grinnell: Always a blast to play against Grinnell, great spirited team and always a close battle (think we’ve gone to U-Point the last 3 times we’ve played one another).
#24 Jacob Cowan: Was an absolute menace against us, both with the disc and in the air, phenomenal player.
#11 Will Norry: Has a cannon of an arm, great hucks and mark.
#52 Solomon Golden: Very composed with the disc and played great defense against us.
Winona State: Shout out to y’all for gritting it out with only like 8-9 players at regionals.
#13 Johnny: Was willing to lay-out for anything in his vicinity and played great defense. Heard he’s only a freshman too, huge props dude.
UW-Platteville: Your zone absolutely gave us fits. Had a blast playing y’all at regionals.
#3 Cole Quigley: Great throws, broke practically every mark/zone we threw at him.
#14 Keagan Gustin: Was the rover in their zone and led the counterattack on the turn. Extremely solid with the disc.
CHOP: Always a joy to play against CHOP. Great spirited team, with EPIC jerseys (seriously, love the Hawaiian shirts). What impressed me most playing against CHOP was their depth. Different people were stepping up throughout the game and making plays. You can’t really key in on any one person when everyone on the field is a threat. So really just want to shout-out their entire team.
Carthage: Their quick motion offense gave us fits, very smooth with it.
#26 Jimmy Chaudoin and #3 Jacob Brodkorb: Both have an elite first step and are very shifty in the handler space, hard to stop them from getting the disc.
Didn’t play St. Olaf, Mac, or Luther at regionals, but did get a chance to watch Mac and St. Olaf.
St. Olaf:
#11 Will Brandt: Huge throws and presence on the field, really does it all at a high level.
#3 Matthew Kompelien: Great throws in the wind, will give defenses fits at natties.
Mac:
#99 Had some huge throws that opened the field for them.
The two twins (#77 and #9 I think) are incredible athletes and downfield threats.
Luther:
#7 Griffin Glassel: Didn’t actually get to watch Luther, but from past experience Griffin is a phenomenal handler defender and an anchor for their offense.
Won’t go too in depth about any of my teammates, just wanted to shout-out the following players:
#69 Chandler “Pedro” Carey
#7 Colin “DK” Donajkowski
#81 Colin “Beek” Vander Beek
'Twas a great season, good luck to Grinnell and St. Olaf at nationals. Looking forward to another phenomenal season next year!