CCC 2016

Our final tournament of the fall took place in Athens, Georgia at a relatively unknown tournament called Classic City Classic. The competition was spruced up this year in the wake of Fall Eastern’s being canceled, and the team was hungry to prove they belonged in the conversation of best teams in the country. Seeded at 17th, we had a lot to prove coming in as Ultiworld’s scouting report even failed to mention our Callahan nominee, Kyle Flynn. No respect.

Saturday:

We entered pool play with five games scheduled for Saturday, starting off with the top seed of the tournament, UMass. After trading points the first half, we lacked the mental energy to get the necessary breaks we needed. This led to a series of turns by Burn and resulted in a UMass win. Our second game was against Ohio State University, the team that received a strength bid (stole our rightful strength bid) to nationals last year. It was an average game and our O line held constantly. Our freshmen class forced a few turns on defense which led to crucial breaks. We ended up routing them 11-7 in a sweet game of revenge. Our third game was against Auburn. They did not respect us. Nobody did. Not until we employed the power of the walker. We defeated Auburn by a larger margin than the 11-9 score line suggests, slicing through their zone D after learning our lesson at Alumni weekend. Our fourth game was against NC State. We were even the whole game until the final two points. A poor decision throw led to a turn and a break. NC State ended up winning by breaking us again the next point. The shock of this loss was enough to force us to open our chakra gates. After a long bye, we had our last game against Florida. They were tired after a long game against Auburn and did not come out nearly as hot as Burn. We roasted them with our BBQ chant, winning 11-7. We ended the day 3-2 and snuck into the championship bracket as the only two-loss team. A lot of people, including Bama Secs, claimed we did not deserve to be here. No respect.

Sunday:

Our first game (quarters) was against Pitt, a team we had struggled with in recent years. Without the superstars that led the team last year, Pitt lacked the system to punch beat our superior athleticism. As we cringe at the screams of their captains, we drained their energy and used it to fuel ourselves. We finished them out 15-12.

Our second game (semis) of the day was against a cheeky Michigan squad. After defeating UGA through huck and D, they had the confidence they thought they needed to use the same play scheme against us. No respect. Our D line beat them out in the deep constantly which forced a lot of turns for us. Although they had multiple great open hucks and insane lay outs, they lacked the system to punch it in the endzone. After gathering the energy of the people, we unleashed a Spirit Bomb onto them which led to a win, 15-12.

No one but ourselves and alumnis (is this the word?) believed we would make the finals, or deserved to be there after we cruised through the championship bracket. No respect. We faced UNC-W, our regional rival who has consistently finished among the top teams in the nation. We started off slow, allowing the Seamen to take half 8-5 with little resistance. Then after an inspiring halftime speech from our captains-in-training, we flipped the switch, demonstrating that we had the system and athleticism to not only hang with them, but to outplay them. After a handblock by Mike "Fast Mike" Vignali, we punched in a break to bring the score to 14-13 Burn. After a UNC-W hold, it was now overtime. Game to 16. Coming out on offense we worked the disk smoothly down to the red-zone, but an unfortunate execution error led to a break. Coming out again on O at 14-15 we took a good aggressive look downfield and just overthrew a sure score. UNC-W responded with a full field huck to end the game. UNC-W 16, Tech 14.

What we've learned from this weekend is that we can keep up with elite teams. It's a matter of maintaining a strong mental game and taking the opportunities given to us. As the underdog of this tournament seeded 17th, we finished 2nd. No one out there respected us but now they have a reason to. That concludes our recap for the fall. We'll see you in the Spring with a brighter and hotter Burn.