Sunburn headed into the 3rd annual Trouble in Vegas as a lower seeded team than in previous years. The schedule was different than the previous two years with the top teams being placed into power pools. Not being in one of the power pools meant that we would have to win both of our two initial pools to qualify for the round of 16. This was probably because we had yet to face a single college team all season, and our fall results had proved little, coupled with our less than rousing performance at last year's regional competition.

We took a drastically different approach to the tournament this year, not staying on the strip but instead accepting the generous hospitality from Brandon Palmer's family to put us up in a house that they are selling. We may have felt like squatters in the humongous empty mansion, but we were treated like kings, with breakfast every morning, dinner at night, and even the chance to watch and analyze footage of all of of our games just hours after they had been completed. These factors all certainly influenced the outcome of the tournament.

The weather was beautiful all weekend. Highs in the mid-70's and not a cloud in sight. The wind was absent, unlike previous years at Vegas.

We started out early all weekend, getting in full workouts before each game and it showed. We were seeded 2nd in our initial pool which also included Western Washington (1) and Humboldt State (3). We had beaten Western at TiV two years ago and Humboldt twice at the SB Invite also two years ago, so we were confident. On Friday, we took the first game against Humboldt easily 13-5 and the next game after a bye round against Western 13-10. We established our routine for the weekend early, playing our dominant offensive players only on offense and relying on the relentless rowdy d-line to generate breaks. It should be noted that our o-line was scored against ZERO times in the first game and only once in the second. This type of offensive efficiency would come to typify the weekend.

We were reseeded into our second pool after these wins, being matched up as the top seed against Claremont (2), Tufts (3) and Florida State (3). The first game in this pool was also on Friday after an epic 5 hour bye against a tough Tufts squad. This game was back and forth, with each team getting two defensive break during the game, which was held under the lights of the field. We had received the start the game however, so we prevailed on double game point 12-11.

Saturday started with the same intensity as the day before. We were all fresh and feeling ready for action. We first took on Florida State who had squeezed by a win against our sectional rivals Arizona State the day before to take the spot in the pool. We couldn't allow this competing retirement state take all our glory so we punished them with a 13-4 win. At this point we were already eyeing our round of 16 matchup against fellow sunshine state residents Florida (who had been undefeated in the two previous TiV tournaments and were the 2006 national champions). This was perhaps a bit premature however, because we still had to beat regional friend and foe Claremont to avoid a three way tie for first place in the pool and a potential bumping down to the 17th place bracket. Avenging knockouts from the two previous years' regional competitions, we beat Claremont soundly 12-5. This set up another long bye break and a game against the overall tournament 2 seed Florida in the round of 16.

The game against Florida had all the appearances of epic. The Saturday sun was setting, the fields were emptying, and the crowds were gathering. We won the flip and elected to receive the disc, as we would the entire weekend. Our offensive monster quickly scored in three passes, shocking the Florida line. We had played Florida at each of the two previous TiV's and had basically given them no match either time. We were telling them that this game would be different. We have complete video footage of this game, so I would greatly recommend watching that, but suffice to say, we showed them that we are legitimate team, beating them in the air game, forcing mistakes and in general matching up to their every level. The last point was truly epic, double game point, with Sunburn receiving. We worked it up the field patiently till Scott Forsythe had the disc about 10 yards outside of the endzone on the right hand side. Joe Kershner was screaming across from the left and Scooter says that he saw his beautiful shining face and knew to threw it. Unfortunately, Florida big man Kurt Gibson also saw this and went to make the d. As his arm was extended for the D, Joe made the grab over his arm, landed inbounds and won the game. The crowd and sidelines went ecstatic. We had given Florida their first ever TiV loss.

The next morning we were rightfully pumped. We had a quarterfinal matchup against Cal-Berkeley. We had been knocked out of the quarterfinals at Vegas two years prior and would not repeat. We worked hard against them all game, eventually winning 13-10. The semi-final matchup was against Harvard. This game we also won, with a great score of 12-9. Sorry to gloss over these two big games, but the next one was just so much bigger.

This set up a finals versus the 2007 National Champions Wisconsin. The crowds were huge and were cheering for us all game. The support from the others teams was tremendous all weekend, and we credit this to our ability to befriend all teams that we play. Our boys from North Texas were probably cheering the loudest out of anyone, but even Florida was joining in the ARI---ZONA cheer. Both teams came out soggy in the first half. We were not playing our typical offense that we had all weekend, and most certainly Wisconsin was not either. We received but after a misthrow, Wisconsin broke us to take the first point. Wisconsin took half 8-5, so we were clearly showing them that we still had fight left in us. Each team was converting on D's and it was clear that this was an equally matched game. Wisconsin took the lead 12-10 and the hard cap was blown. We received one more time knowing that the game was lost but still wanting to make a statement. Se we worked the disc up the field as we had all weekend, with once again, Joe Kershner, making a sick layout grab in the endzone to finish the game with a 11-12 loss. At this point, the whole crowd starts cheering "LET THEM PLAY" and screams of ARI---ZONA. We knew we had been defeated however, and gladly shook the hands of our opponents who had given us a great game, and shown us how much more work still is to be done in our season.

Our rallying cries of the weekend were composure and maturity. We now all come back to Tucson recommitted to the team, and with a renewed appreciation of what we need to do to fulfill our team goals for the season. We have lots more work to do, but will certainly savor the feeling that we have after this tournament. We are no where near complacent with this outcome and look forward to proving ourselves again on the field.

Next tournament: President's Day in San Diego, Feb 16-18.

2008 Results: 8-1 (2nd Place at Trouble in Vegas)

Written by,
Wigga