Truck Stop Knocks Out Southpaw, Earns Bid To Club Champs

October 1, 2012 by Charlie Eisenhood in Featured, News, Recap with 37 Comments

Once again, the conversation turns to observers.

Washington D.C.’s Truck Stop ground out a 15-13 victory against Philadelphia’s Southpaw in a gritty, physical Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals to earn the Open Division’s only bid to October’s Club Championships. But the conversation after the game was focused not on the strong defense but on the foul calls, penalties, and two critical moments late in the game that the observers — had they been given an opportunity — would have overturned.

The tone was set about one minute into the game. Truck Stop received the pull to start and worked it up the forehand sideline. Captain Sean Keegan made an in cut and was knocked down by Southpaw’s Frederick Brasz on a diving bid. Keegan had words with Brasz before being pushed from behind by Southpaw’s Greg Owens. Observers jumped in to diffuse the situation, issuing a Team Misconduct Foul (TMF) to Keegan and a Personal Misconduct Foul (PMF) to Owens.

After a second stoppage, Brasz got a big hand block on Keegan and Southpaw punched it in for the first break of the game.

The early part of the game was dominated by defense, with six breaks coming before halftime — most in Truck Stop’s favor. The game was back and forth until Truck, down 4-3, rattled off three straight, with the third coming on a Markham Shofner full field forehand huck to a streaking Jeff Wodatch, who had just connected the point before.

Truck would tack on another to take half up 8-5 after Alan Kolick made a huge bid near Southpaw’s endzone to give them a short field.

“I think we’re playing hard,” Truck Stop captain Tommy Nicholson told Ultiworld at halftime. “Defensively we’re making them look for their third or fourth option…We just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Southpaw captain Trey Katzenbach, who also captained the team during its stint as the Philadelphia Spinners in the American Ultimate Disc League, saw it differently. “Stop making bad choices,” he told his team. “I don’t think they’ve gotten a single D…Every single player on this team is an equal. Stop making hero plays.”

As the game continued, the play got increasingly physical. Southpaw was warned — and eventually given a second TMF — for too much bumping on the mark. But the aggression paid off midway through the second half when Southpaw’s D line earned a break to pull within one at 11-10.

But after Truck’s offense rebounded to score easily, frustration boiled over on the next Southpaw defensive point. Owens laid out for a disc he was nowhere near, pushing Keegan in the back. Owens was tagged for another TMF — the team’s third — which advanced the disc to Southpaw’s brick mark on a penalty.

Owens was not happy. “In what world is that a TMF?” he asked the observer. “That’s a fucking bullshit call.”

He was promptly given a second PMF for cursing at an observer and was — by rule — ejected from the game. Truck would go on to score to take the 13-11 lead.

More drama would follow on the next defensive point. After a Truck turnover, Southpaw’s Jibran Mieser — a Rutgers sophomore and rising star (he was named 2011′s Metro East Freshman of the Year) — had the disc on the sideline after a pick call. Tom Doi, his defender, indicated he was going to come in on stall two. But then, after some discussion, Doi and Mieser agreed that the stall should be seven — a clear violation of the rules. But Mieser did not make a call and was quickly stalled out for a turnover. Truck went on to score.

The Southpaw sideline was incensed. Steve Slocum, the Tournament Director, had to talk down some of the players by explaining the observers’ inability to make a ruling in a situation where no call is made by a player. For a team accustomed to playing with full referees in the AUDL, it was frustrating.

The final play of the game again exposed Mieser’s youth. With the score 14-13, a Truck Stop huck floated over a leaping Doi, who was bumped by Mieser as both went to the ground. Doi called a foul, and Mieser quickly made his decision: no contest. Again, the call didn’t go to the observers, who would have certainly overruled the foul call – the contact appeared not to affect the play.

Instead, Truck Stop got the disc on their endzone and, after some swings, flipped it in to seal the win and clinch the bid to Sarasota.

“We kinda had to throw some of the normal offense out the window and just grind,” said Keven Moldenhauer, a Truck Stop captain, after the game. He said he was happy with how hard everyone played, but that they have a lot to improve on before the Club Championships.

When asked about the fouls, he praised the observers. “When teams are being over aggressive on defense, they can call that TMF now,” he said.

Katzenbach wasn’t happy about many of the game situations, saying the stall seven “shouldn’t have happened” but that his team also needed to not “lose [its] cool.” But he didn’t blame any of that for the loss.

“We talked about it going in, that they couldn’t score going down the length of the field,” he said. “And they knew that too. So they started putting up deep shots and we didn’t shut them down…On top of that, our late-game turnovers weren’t converted.”

He also brushed aside any blame for their time in the AUDL. “It’s convenient to say the Spinners were the reason we didn’t make Nationals,” he said. “But that’s not what caused us to do poorly at the two regular season tournaments.”

Southpaw narrowly missed earning a second bid for the Mid-Atlantic after losing all of their games at the Labor Day Championships, the final elite tournament that decided bid allocation. They finished the season ranked 17th — a top 16 spot would have earned a strength bid.

“It’s a shame we both didn’t get to go,” said Katzenbach. “I think both teams from this region have the potential to surprise at Nationals.”

Watch the full game footage of the Truck Stop v. Southpaw game. The cover photo is courtesy of Kevin Leclaire at UltiPhotos — check out more Mid-Atlantic Regionals photos.

Tagged greg owens, jeff wodatch, jibran mieser, keven moldenhauer, mid-atlantic, Open, regionals, sean keegan, Southpaw, tommy nicholson, trey katzenbach, Truck Stop, USA Ultimate

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Duke

Not looking to nitpick on a very good write-up, but Ultiphoto’s picture (http://bit.ly/UC520f) of the Doi/Mieser bid on the final point shows a little more contact than you indicate. Great show of integrity by Mieser not to contest when it essentially sealed the game.
- Peter
  
  There was definitely contact but the outcome of the play (Doi missing the disc) was already determined before contact. Therefore no call should be made and it should be a turnover.
http://www.ultiphotos.com UltiPhotos

Photo of the play with the game point foul/no contest: http://www.ultiphotos.com/fall_series/2012/midatlantic/sunprev/h452b10dc#h452b10dc
Charlie Eisenhood

Great shot, Ultiphotos. I will recommend to everyone that they watch the game video (we will post it later today) before deciding that this was a foul.

Either way, Duke, your point is well-taken — excellent spirit from Mieser.
anon

It is unfortunate that in a situation where a player didn’t contest a foul (and based on this article there was not even conversation regarding it) people are questioning him. It is unfortunate that what we are talking about is the validity of a call that went uncontested. It isn’t even a situation where it was contested and then didn’t go to the observer. We’re talking about a situation where the two people involved agreed a foul occurred.
Mr. Mieser should be commended for his spirit and held up as an example of Spirit of the Game. Not have his decision put under a microscope. Mr. Mieser at minimum showed that he doesn’t believe Mr. Doi would cheat and that he trusted Mr. Doi on the call. Or possibly Mr. Mieser actually thought the contact impacted continued play.
This should be a story about when it is supposedly MOST likely to fail, Spirit of the Game triumphed.
- Guest
  
  This is NOT a situation where Spirt of the Game triumphed. Spirit of the Game is not explicitly defined anywhere, right? If it is, someone please help me out with the definition, but I think we can all agree that it probably involves playing the game while following all the rules. Jibran thought he fouled Tom, so he did not contest, but he had no idea that the disc was way out of bounds and Tom had no shot at catching it in bounds. His no-contest was not the right call. Whatever happened, happened, but please do not make this about integrity and spirit of the game. I think this sport should be less concerned about honor and integrity and more concerned about making sure the correct calls are made. Two separate instances of the wrong outcome occurring, just because observers are not allowed to speak unless first spoken to? In a regional final that was decided by two goals? Give me a break.
  - Jet
    
    Maybe you should actually READ the rules .. …
    - Guest
      
      How is that relevant? What is incorrect about the statement you are replying to?
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Rob

How in the world did they end up on the disc coming in on 7? I just can’t figure out how you would arrive at that. Someone on the southpaw sideline’s gotta intervene there somehow…
Aseem

Spirit of the Game is defined in the official rules, FYI:

http://www.usaultimate.org/about/ultimate/spirit_of_the_game.aspx
charlie

The second TMF seemed a little excessive, especially in a game of this magnitude with southpaw looking to break again and pull to even. Seems like there were far more physical points of D played in this game-

I would agree that the Pick Call was unfortunate, but Southpaw did force another turn that point and didn’t convert. I might also argue that the PMF/Ejection was far more of a momentum swing / buzz kill to the Paw momentum.

Clearly the pick and final point demonstrates that the observer system at least deserves a second look, and begs the question. If the observers on the field to be champions of spirit of the game, how does that help our sport more than having observers that ensure the game is (self) officiated correctly.
anon

The sport would benefit greatly from having appointed referees to make these calls. At this high a level of competition, it is mind-boggling that the game is left up to the players who are in the game to decide the calls. Clearly there will always be a bias and mistakes are bound to happen.

USAU needs to change the rules and require referees at these tournaments. Spirit of the game is a nonsense term that might have made sense when this sport was not as competitive as it is now. Non-biased officials are the only way to ensure legitimacy.
Bobo

Why this push for the referees? I don’t understand. It’s important that ultimate remain referee less so that players who know the most about what happened in a play make the call and if they can’t agree go to a third party. The observer system is great. It means that players have to know the rules which is that way is should be. It sucks to make those mistakes but you have to know what the stall count should come in on, and if you don’t know, ask someone. The observers will help if you don’t know a rule, that’s in part why they are there.

Would the Truckstop guy have caught the disc without the contact, who knows but if you make no contact on the disc and hit the player while catching and it’s called, it’s up to you. I commend Doi for his trust in his opponent making the right call. Anon hating on SOTG evidently doesn’t know about sportmanship.USAU is trying to make the game more watchable by reducing excessive fouling on the mark, if the observers warned Southpaw and they didn’t change their behaviour it’s deserved. The observing system is great.
Anon

The uncontested call at the end of the game certainly speaks to some elements of SOTG, like mutual respect (trusting an opponent’s call isn’t being made to try to cheat), adherence to the rules (can’t cause contact that affects play), personal responsibility (for your own actions, within the context of the rules and the game, whether they help you at the time or not), and not trying to win at all costs.

However, it also speaks to the power of self-officiating. Both player’s agreed it was a foul, including a player that wasn’t benefited by the call. If a ref calls it a foul, then you get the same outcome.. OK fine. If the ref doesn’t call it a foul, then you have the two opponents involved in the play disagreeing with the ref. Sounds like a questionable call by the ref in that case. What’s more accurate about that?

If there was disagreement between the two players, it would have gone to the observer, and who knows what they would have ruled. But there was no disagreement. So the system works great…perhaps better than others even.

Tons of respect should go to the player who has enough integrity to make that no-contest in that situation, when he agrees with his opponent that his play was not within the rules. Would the offensive player have caught it without the contact? Who knows? But the point is that when the rules get broken, by someone trying to play hard and fair, then the system allows that person to acknowledge it. And you end up with the right outcome…and not only a more accurate call, but you also get a display of personal integrity that is a lot more worth writing about than calling the outcome of the game into question b/c of officiating (even if it is a trendy topic).

Freshman of the Year! Nice. Hopefully we’ll see more examples of young stars like this guy elevating the game in a variety of ways, and showing that self-officiating with observers works just fine.
Feetch

I think it reflects badly on SOTC that a player in the game to go is unaware of some of the rules in ultimate. Education and some kind of enforcement needs to occur if we want to have self-officiating be considered a legitimate way of having our game regulated.

Unfortunately, at most levels of the sport, there are people with minimal knowledge of the rules willing to make ridiculous arguments (one i witnessed recently – the pulling team has to all have their foot on the line, not allowed to run up and pull)

It’s embarrassing that this level of ignorance can be displayed so prominently, but it really shows a glaring problem, that has an easy two fold solution.

Observers need to be available at more levels of ultimate. if 5 year olds running around playing soccer can have a ref, then summer league can have an observer. If you want to participate in the USAU series, you can read the rules – and we can enforce this with something like a 50 question multiple choice test when you sign up for your yearly membership.

love,
feetch
- Leah Tsinajinnie
  
  What rules are Meiser (I’m assuming that’s who you’re referring to) unaware of? There’s no evidence to back you saying that he’s unaware of any rules. He didn’t contest Doi’s foul call and the UltiPhoto picture suggests that contact could have affected the play (although in the video the play looks like either a foul/no foul call could be argued)
  
  I see no embarrassment in Meiser not contesting this specific foul call, neither do I think it reflects poorly on SOTG, However, I can agree with you that in general, players should have an understanding of the rules.
Dan

“Owens was not happy. “In what world is that a TMF?” he asked the observer. “That’s a fucking bullshit call.””

The only reason Observers are required is to keep trouble makers and cheaters in line. You know when you’ll hit someone on a layout D bid and you know when you’ll be close (or not).

Cheating is not synonymous with playing hard. Lots of Club teams need to get that through their heads.

Lastly, Referees suck. They miss calls and are generally a problem. Every sport that has a referee has a problem with them. The problem here isn’t with observers, referees or calls. Its with one team hacking that they lost and being man enough to take that.
Bill

You forgot to mention Keegan running his mouth every time he got touched complaining to the observers for a TMF. Must have happened at least 15 times he asked for one
Sean Keegan

Interesting take Bill! Nothing like the power of hyperbole… Anyway, my guess is you don’t play much high level ultimate and don’t have people constantly laying out into your legs and back. Either that, or you don’t value being able to walk without pain or crutches due to an injury caused by some reckless player the same way I do. Regardless, not that I need to warrant your anonymous claim with a response, but I felt my safety/health were being compromised (multiple times) and I don’t see a problem with asking the observers to clean up the game.
kiki

It’s good to see your response, sean. I won’t comment on whether or not i agree with bill, but I do agree that you have a responsibility to take care of yourself.

my question then is, if you’re the captain of truck, how do you explain the stall 7 incident? I realize i don’t play club at a level nearly as high as you, but if that situation ever came up at one of my club games or in a college game i’d correct it. is this just a difference in spirit in two levels of the game, or were mistakes made?

also, what’s up with norden? why didn’t he play?
Guest

Points taken, Sean. I think everyone understands that your safety, as well as everyone’s safety, is in concern in such a physical game, but the correct thing to do is to make discussion with the other player first, not to immediately play to the observers.

Tell your defender to “clean up” the game, not the observer, who’s has the power to make a game-changing decision to toss a critical player. You knew this. Not the right way to handle it.
- Bulb
  
  When playing high level Ultimate, telling your defender to “clean up” the game is an exercise in futility. Observers should be awarding PMF’s every time a defender takes out or lands on a receiver’s legs, with no play at the disc. And if they aren’t doing their job, the receiver has every right to ask them why not.
  
  For the record, I didn’t see any of the plays in question, so I can’t comment on how dangerous they were. But if the play *is* dangerous, the observer should step in. We are not professional athletes. We do not have million dollar health insurance policies that will pay for all the medical bills that will come if a serious injury occurs. As such, every reasonable step should be taken to prevent those injuries. Asking your defender to “clean it up” does not fall into this category.
anon

I wonder if ultimate will ever become an olympic sport without referees…

The answer to this question is no.

Let’s look at every other legitimate professional sport in the world, do they use referees?

The answer is yes.

What makes any of you think that self-officiating is a reasonable way to decide an athletic competition? Just because it is a system that may work some of the time and also might inspire players to play with more integrity does not necessarily make it a fair system. People should play with integrity regardless of the system that is in place to enforce the rules. There will always be players who abuse the rules and do not play fairly, but this is to be expected at the highest levels of competition. The best way to ensure people play fairly is to have an unbiased official that can enforce penalties to keep unruly players in line. If anything, a self-officiated system gives more leeway to players who are willing to abuse the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Gearoid

@last anon comment

Sports where referees aren’t primarily involved in making calls (i.e. where players make calls between each other before referring to referees/dispute bodies)

Golf
Has a referee, but as was seen at the Ryder cup, players chat it out and then refer. 90% of the time, no ref was needed.

Sailing
In normal sailing, disputes are made by a boat to another boat. Post race, they discuss it and if they can’t reach an agreement, it’s referred. But if they can agree, then it stands as is.

Not sure of others. But in both of those games, while the referee can overrule, players can and do discuss with each other before referring to the referee who can make a binding call. Very similar to the current observers, no?
Guest

I do not think we need to make this a referee vs. self-officiation debate. I just think the observers need to have more power. I think it is stupid that they have to remain silent, even when the wrong outcome is occurring. We can commend Jibran for not automatically contesting a call made on game point in the game to go to nationals. It is refreshing to know that players are not always cheating at that level, or at least making partially-motivated calls (although plenty do). But I think a much more satisfactory result would be the correct call, rather than just a call that both players agree on. Because I bet the other 26 guys on Southpaw would feel a lot better if Jibran had gone to the observer and had the foul call overturned.
Guest

I think the major point of discussion on this matter should be how there should have been no foul called in the first place:

http://imgur.com/bAXeo

Agreed about observers having more power.
Was there

For the record, Owens was not tossed because of his dangerous plays on the field. The reason he was ejected was for two PMFs: pushing Keegan during discussion of play (never okay, no matter what the other guy is saying) and swearing at the observers after they awarded him a TMF.

The observers punished his team appropriately for the dangerous plays, and punished him appropriately for the lack of respect for them and for his opponents.

Teams at this level know what a dangerous bid is. Owens knew Keegan wasn’t going to be happy about it. Keegan had no reason to confront him directly, especially after Owens escalated a previous argument to physical confrontation earlier in the game.
anon

I don’t agree that there should have been no foul called in the first place. It is borderline, but there is clearly contact *while* Doi is trying to make that catch. I don’t think, even watching it over and over, we can definitively say that that contact did not affect the play. Within the current rule set, if Doi felt that the contact affected his ability to catch the disc, he absolutely should have called a foul.

I also commend Jibran for not contesting the call for reasons other people have articulated, but this also to me looks like a gratuitous — and probably dangerous — bid. Jibran had NO shot at that disc with that dive. Diving at Doi the way he did guaranteed only that there would be a big collision.
Duke

For those arguing that the final play was not a foul: there is absolutely no question that it was a foul.

Whether that foul occurred after the outcome of the play was determined is up for discussion. What is not clear in the video is that Doi tipped the disc as Mieser made contact with him; it’s slightly easier to see this in the photo. There is a reasonable argument that can be made that Mieser’s hand on Doi’s shoulder had an affect on his ability to catch the disc. There is also a reasonable argument that it did not.

A perhaps even more likely outcome had the play gone to the observers is that it would have been ruled a dangerous play (Mieser clearly had no chance of getting the disc, and landed on Doi, injuring him and knocking him out of the game). In this case, the dangerous play would have overridden when the foul occurred, and Truck would still have gotten the disc at the goal line.

Given these three possibilities (foul affecting the play, foul not affecting the play, dangerous play), had the play gone to the observer I think it is more likely than not that Truck would’ve been given possession of the disc at the goal line.
Bulb

FYI, the observer standing right there later said he absolutely would have overturned the foul call.
anon

“The best way to ensure people play fairly is to have an unbiased official that can enforce penalties to keep unruly players in line.”

Yes because we know referees are all unbiased and can’t be bought off…especially in the Olympics.
sharkham

after the stall, truck stop turned it on their next possession. paw still had a chance to score that point. not as crucial an event as many people seem to be painting it.
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Truck Stop Knocks Out Southpaw, Earns Bid To Club Champs

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