All-Region 2024: Great Lakes (D-I Men's)

[eliotlaj (eloit)]

All Region:

Elliot Davis (MSU)
The downfield guy that drives the Michigan State offense, was open almost every time they looked at him.

Nate Astrom (Illinois)
A one man highlight reel for Illinois. Does everything and more downfield with some ridiculous game saving plays, both offensive and defensive, in our semis matchup.

Ian Falck (Northwestern)
Northwestern’s entire offense. Crazy throws. Also took a team photo for us at Huck Finn.

Eric Palia (Purdue)
One of the toughest defenders we saw all of regionals, and was just as much of a threat offensively as he was defensively

Some of our guys that absolutely deserve mentions:

Grant Harris (Chicago)
The best handler in the region and I don’t think it’s close. Unguardable in small spaces, and can throw the disc to any spot on the field at any time. Fantastic defender as well. All-region lock

Dale Decatur (Chicago)
Defensive menace who moved to O line this year and became a huge point of consistency. Crossed over to most D points on Sunday of regionals and locked down anyone we asked him to. His shoes will be impossible to fill next year.

Cory McCormack (Chicago)
Downfield athlete both offensively and defensively. Can sky anyone. Consistently finding insane layout D’s downfield as well as handblocks on the mark. All around demon

All-Rookie

Michael Hlavaty (Chicago)
One of the most athletic players in the region already, and is someone consistently trusted with the disc in his hand.

Coach of the year

Eric Delgado (Chicago)
Having been injured most of the year, I’ve been able to observe the team’s improvement from the sidelines and so much of this has to do with Delgado. This team has made leaps and bounds from last year (see regionals results) and this is the reason for that. Chicago will only continue improving at this rate as long as he sticks around.

[eric.c.badger]

This is Eric Badger, one of the head coaches of Illinois. While we played most of the teams in the region this year. However, Michigan State and Notre Dame were the 2 quarters teams that we did not face. So I will refrain from conjecturing on which of their players were deserving of honors this year. Here are the players who I believe are worthy of being in the conversation of all-region.

Michigan

James Baker Jr (Michigan) - Shapinsky and Bartlett get most of the attention for Michigan, but James Baker Jr was just as, if not more important than the other two. He has an exceptional throwing arsenal that stretches the entire field for Michigan’s corps of big downfield targets.

Theo Shapinsky (Michigan) - The elder statesman of the Great Lakes is one of the most difficult covers in the region. Force him into the backfield and he’ll pick you apart with his hucks and small-ball. Force him out and he’ll run you ragged. A terror for the Great Lakes the past 6 years, Theo is one of the most accomplished players the region has ever seen.

Aaron Bartlett (Michigan) - Bartlett is a multi-faceted player that impacts the game in every phase of the game. He has huge throws, dominates the skies, and has outstanding help-side range as a defender.

Zachary Loyd (Michigan) - Defensive stalwarts don’t usually get a lot of love on these threads. However, Loyd is absolutely deserving of recognition. I believe he was one of the most important pieces of Michigan’s final’s victory because of his defensive contributions. He is a sticky matchup defender who makes touches difficult and will wear you out over time.

Illinois

Nate Astrom (Illinois) - In my incredibly biased opinion, Nate is the player of the region. I don’t think any single player created more gravity than Nate. Highlight plays aside (and yes, there are a lot of them), Nate is a workhorse on both sides of the ball. His deep threat ability gives him huge unders that he punishes with his lanky throwing package. Defensively, he generates blocks in both the under space and deep spaces. A transfer from Minnesota and obvious snub from Ultiworld’s All-Transfer list, Nate dominated all season long in just his Sophomore season.

Trevor Scott (Illinois) - Trevor is a composed center handler with consistent throws into all 3 spaces on the field. He was a field general for us on the field throughout our run to the finals. As a defender, Trevor is known for his thunderous layout blocks. After playing through injury last season, Trevor played a full season at a consistently high level this year

Kai Tang (Illinois) - Kai is the definition of a high-motor player. He simply outruns and outwills his defenders in the cutting space. No one grinds out continuation cuts quite like Kai does. And all of this on top of the fact that he is one of the best defensive players in the region for both his lock down ability and his ability to generate blocks.

Tim Sheehan (Illinois) - Tim is another one of those players who doesn’t get love because he doesn’t play O-line. But Tim is a fundamental, lockdown defender. If you’re on the other team and you see Tim guarding you off of the pull, take it as a compliment. His athleticism allows him to play with the big dogs in the region, but his attention to his body positioning, footwork, and peripheral vision makes him a defensive savant.

UChicago

Grant Harris (UChicago) - Grant isn’t very flashy, but he’s incredibly consistent. He gets resets at an incredibly high rate, can break any mark, and is a plus defender

Joe Sifakis (UChicago) - As Grant is the engine of UChicago’s backfield, Joe is the engine of their downfield. An athlete who seemingly never gets tired, Joe is a tough cover for anyone in one-on-one situations. He has speed to beat you anywhere on the field and he always has more to give

Indiana

Collin Rassel (Indiana) - Rassel was noted on here as probably the best match-up defender in the region before Regionals. After playing them in quarters, I can understand the sentiment as Rassel is a fundamental lockdown defender with good athleticism. However, I think he deserves some recognition for his offensive skill as well as he was an force for Indiana on every point he played

Conner Blalack (Indiana) - Blalack is a solid thrower and a plus defender. Overall a well-rounded player who affects the game in multiple areas

Purdue

Eric Palia (Purdue) - Palia is an outstanding defensive player who takes the best matchup on any team Purdue plays. With his size and length, he can win in the deep space. And with his speed and quickness, he can lock down the underneath space. He also shouldered a large offensive load for Purdue, especially on D lines

Northwestern

Ian Falck (Northwestern) - Ian is the best thrower in the region, in my opinion. His throwing prowess really shines when the windy Great Lakes decides to impose its windy will. Falck is unaffected by the wind in the small space and throws pinpoint hucks and blades against strong winds when others struggle to throw simple unders. His give and go ability also allows him to get the disc back quickly so that he can continue to sling it out. Additionally, Ian is a very solid defender in the handler space. He has quick, explosive feet and positions his body well

Kentucky

Cole Bernstein (Kentucky) - Cole is a powerful hucker and consistent lefty breakmark thrower for Kentucky. He completely opens up the field for their offense

SIUE

Pat Driscoll (SIUE) - Pat deserves recognition for player-coaching SIUE to their first Regionals appearance in program history. A relentless worker and big thrower, Pat is a leader on and off the field for an SIUE team that broke seed at basically every tournament they played at.

All-Region

James Baker Jr

Theo Shapinsky

Aaron Bartlett

Nate Astrom

Trevor Scott

Grant Harris

Ian Falck

Coach of the Year

I don’t know the roles of each of the specific coaches of the region, so instead I’d like to recognize the coaching staffs that impressed me the most this year.

UChicago - Every year, UChicago outperforms their seed at Regionals. Last year they were the 8 seed and finished in the 5-6 game (result isn’t on USAU). This year they were the 6 seed and finished 3rd. UChicago always continues to improve as the season goes on. They have their guys (Grant, Joe), but equally important is the development of their other pieces. Players like Dale Decatur, Quinn Hauck, and some other players (who I don’t know the names of) improved to a level where they were able to take over if teams overplayed to stop Grant and Joe.

Michigan - Michigan has won the region 5 seasons in a row. They lost club Coach of the Year in James Highsmith and have continued to perform at a high level. Defensively, they have multiple looks to slowdown and confuse opposing offenses. Offensively, they space the field well and allow their stars to shine. But most notable to me was their line-calling philosophy. They trusted multiple freshmen to handle O line responsibilities with James Baker Jr and friends while leaving Shapinsky, Bartlett, and Doehring on their starting D line, only to cross over if their O line got broken. This strategy defies the typical “stack your O line” convention of the college level, but paid off huge for a Michigan team that was able to get on runs of breaks

[DanD8]

Michigan State coach here jumping in to break up this Illinois circle jerk

Some all region thoughts-
Michigan was the best team in the region once again this year and should be heavily represented. They have probably the two best players in the region in #23 Theo Shapinsky and #14 Aaron Bartlett. I think everyone here knows what those two can do. In my opinion #22 Chris Doehring is a critical support piece to those two if they are going to have success at nationals. It’s unfortunate that he’s been hurt parts of this season for them. He can command the backfield letting the other two push up field or if Theo and Bartlett are going every other he creates space well and can sneak off downfield (I’m pretty sure he was their leading goal scorer last year at nationals last year). Adding to those three, a couple people have mentioned it but #13 Jimmy Baker took the reigns of their stripped down “oline”. Jimmy and Tobey Chang marshaled a young group that made drastic improvements over the spring semester. That line was getting the job done, getting holds against other team’s crossover lines, freeing Theo, Bartlett and Chris to play the next dpoint and stacking up breaks. Jimmy has been a great thrower for a while, but I think over the last two years he’s become a really calm presence on the field and a great communicator which was crucial for that line. And Tobey, when they needed someone to get open, or play aggressive, he stepped up. We played Magnum a lot this year, and those two were the match-ups we needed to focus on to get breaks from that line. And if they played well, it was very hard.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get to play the 2nd best team in the region in Illinois this year. They knocked us out on DGP last year and I was hoping for a rematch. That said, last year I was very impressed with #9 Kai Tang. He had an amazing motor, great defensive positioning and was a great competitor. I only watched a few points of some of their games at regionals but he was looking like he was still doing all that and taking on more offensive responsibilities this year. In those handful of points I saw, #2 Nate Astrom jumped out as a new face to me. He had a nasty layout d and you could tell from just a few points that he was the biggest playmaker on the field in the semis against Chicago.

Moving on to a couple teams we played this year:
From UChicago, #28 Grant Harris was the guy for them. He was critical to their success, had a good package of throws and was a really reliable reset target for them.

From Purdue I think it was #13 Eric Palia who was definitely a player I would love to have on our team. He was a big cutter, but ran hard and didn’t seem to stop. At the end of long weekend he still moving and giving us a really hard time. After the first few points we were scratching our head on what to do about him. On a turn, he was a great defender as well. If Sean Bourne was the guy wearing the ripped white t-shirt in our 5th place game, he’s also deserving a shoutout. Solid player, good defender.

From Notre Dame, they had two big cutters that played very well in our quarters match up. #4 and #8, Sean Miranda and Patrick Schwartz. Their offense was predicated on those two getting unders and then taking shots from the mid-field. We knew that and still couldn’t stop it. When they needed a break, those two crossed over and made some big time plays getting blocks and then marshaling a good fastbreak offense. I want to shout out another ND kid, although ya’lls jerseys are impossible to read. I thought he was #17 or #27, and his nickname was Eggs. Great offensive package, really good feel for the game, if Sean and Patrick are returning with him, ya’ll are gonna be a great team again.

Finally moving on to MSU.
At our core, we’re a defensive team. Sometimes that’s not very flashy and gets overlooked in these discussions, but I’m still surprised that we’ve gone 20+ comments without a #24 David Zoldan-c mention. Because we’re a dumb state school and can’t throw and catch, we have to use him as our initiation cutter on offense (said with all the love a coach has for his team). David gets open whenever he needs to and can take a few shots from there, but in my opinion he really shines when we cross him to defense. Against UChicago he got a massive footblock on Grant Harris. He denied Grant the disc in the reset space multiple times, which was critical to beating them. Same again Northwestern and Ian Falck, we crossed David twice, put him on Ian and Northwestern completed ~4 passes on those points throwing turnovers in the reset space. We’ve beaten Michigan twice in the last two years and David vs Bartlett was the match-up to watch in both of those games. He’s the best defender in the region in my opinion and is proving that at the next level in club with Hybrid. He can be quiet and calm, so on a team of ‘fiery’ loudmouths, maybe he sneaks under the radar, but if anyone on MSU is deserving of all-region, it’s David.

Speaking of the rest of the squad, we had big years from a bevy of athletic play-makers. #45 Aiden Rudy (long blonde hair) was our go-to dliner, taking on tough physical matchups, and then heading our much improved dline offense this year. #25 James Kloss-c (backwards baseball hat) was David’s number two on oline and was someone who crossed over with David when we needed another playmaker on defense. He got some critical blocks in big moments for us. #32 Elliot Davis (tall blonde haired kid, usually with eye black and a headband on), was our teams favorite downfield target. He scored a lot of goals on teams’ best deep defenders, even with the sidelines yelling what was coming. Lastly, the guy who was usually throwing those shots to Elliot, #33 Will Zamsky-c. As much as he would prefer to be a cutter, he was forced into our team’s center oline handler role due to his throws and his steady presence. He went back to his roots though occasionally when he was called on to play defense and loved to get some big time layout blocks when we needed them.

Luckily for ya’ll, David is finishing his master’s program, but all 4 of the other guys are returning. We’re looking forward to challenging ourselves against the region on the fields next season. Good luck to Michigan at nationals!