Preview

Sweep Across the South: A Discussion of Tactics

by Ryan Haggard | September 16, 2014

Photo by Nicole Harrig

In the final installment of Sweep Across the South, we take a look at the tactics each team uses and how those can be used to give each team the best chance at success.

Florida’s Finest Quidditch Club (FF)

Florida’s Finest will dominate the vast majority of the South teams. The biggest rivals it will face are the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Miami (UM). UF has not depreciated in talent over the summer, and its first two lines are about the same as last year; expect close games between UF and FF. UM is still a top-tier team in the South; however, to contend for its former throne, it needs to provide some solid playing time for its new squad. FF’s main strength is its chaser lineup. Most teams have a particular system: UM employs a finesse passing offense, UF uses a pass-heavy offense, etc. FF showcases three separate styles of offense that will be hard for a non-adaptive defense to counter, including four male beaters who will add a huge amount of pressure on both offense and defense. Finest has some of the fastest chaser lines in quidditch, with Sean Pagoada, Sean Snipes, Justin Tuimavana, and Dominic Mack. The Flamingos also maintain a significant chaser size advantage against the vast majority of the South, with Justin Goodman, Justin Crespo, Tyrell Byrd, Jack Harver, Andrea Cammarano, and Troy Roomes. FF will face the same problem most community teams face: practice. While an entire chaser line practices in Miami, and four beaters practice in Tampa, Florida, the vast majority of FF’s players only see each other on game day. Most of the team keeps conditioned, either by playing other sports (the roster includes some rugby players) or through physical training in the Military. Yet the inability to practice together remains a big hurdle.

University of Florida (UF)

Florida’s Finest will be UF’s biggest rival. While its management and play style has kept the team in the top tier for the past year, its system is extremely rigid, and UF finds it difficult to adapt to unexpected developments. At the Regional Championship last year, Tennessee Technological University (TTU) was evenly matched against UF with its scrappy, no-system, on-the-fly offense. UF pulled through due to TTU’s lack of beater depth. Expect to see UF decimate weaker teams and struggle against higher levels of competition if its system breaks down. Last year, UF relied on four basic passing schemes and its keeper to drive it in if that failed. One of those schemes is a mid-range threat offense, where the team inches the ball up with short passes. When UF is in the opposing keeper zone, it passes the ball to the wing chaser, who runs on the right side of the hoops, and throws it diagonally either to the driving keeper or female chaser standing next to the left-most hoop. It also relies heavily on its double-male beater set. While this is highly effective against teams that do not have a strong beater duo, UF’s offense tends to suffer against teams that do. Two male beaters means two female chasers, and UF has several good female chasers. Besides Dre Clements, UF does not have elite athletes. It has configured a system to dominate upper-mid and mid-tier to lower-tier teams. Clements goes in with the male set and holds down the fort until the male beaters get bludger control. Then, the female beater set comes in and turtles five feet from the hoops during the rest of the non-snitch play. UF finally sets its four male offense in motion and tries to score as many points as it can. Its early game is weak against teams that can hold bludger control. Its mid game is weak against top teams that can easily function with only one bludger (such as Miami last year). Its late game is weak when it doesn’t have the point advantage from dominating its opponent, when the snitch comes on the field. UF’s male beater duo functions best when they play together, and they often do not seem to be on the same page when they play with their female counterparts. The lack of a dedicated seeker puts a damper on the team’s SWIM situations. Despite these systemic weaknesses, UF is still a top team—its system works well against teams that cannot adjust. However, its own system is rigid, and it will get behind if it is unable to adapt to the other team’s style of play.

University of Miami (UM)

UM is at the bottom of the top tier and has something to prove. While there are few doubts that Miami is still a top program in the South, it is also the most vulnerable. All in all, I expect UM to hit its stride in its third or fourth tournament. Most of its beaters remain, and Miami still has half of the first offensive line on the team. The team has several good athletes, but I don’t expect them to be as dominant as last year until much later in the season. All of its chasers can fit into Miami’s pass-heavy offense well. Shannon Moorhead, a Team USA player, leads its beating corps. Its new seeker, Daniel Cantrelle, debuted at World Cup VII and turned some heads; he also looks to be their primary male beater. Miami’s offensive scheme is a powerhouse. Everyone has the potential to score, and everyone knows their role in said offense. Even with the loss of Sean Beloff and Stephen Ralph, Bernie Berges and Bridgette Foster are still half of that original lineup; the rest of the chaser lines do not have the “star power” that the originals had, but they have depth, and most of them are fairly similar in terms of size, speed, and skill. If Miami can develop these players over the next year, its skill ceiling may be lower than it was before, but its skill floor will be much higher than last year. Defensively, Miami will be lacking elite players to make those stops; Berges and Foster are adept at tackling, however, if last year as any indication, the Canes do not possess other significant tackling talent. Miami’s first line of beaters looks to be competitive, on the level of other elite teams in the region. however their substitutes need more development. Shannon Moorhead is impressive as always, and had picked up some additional lateral speed over the summer months. Cantrelle, a new player, seems to be UM’s answer to the larger beaters of FF and USF, and while he only has played a few months, Cantrelle looks extremely promising. Miami seems to be a more balanced team than before, look to see them gain momentum in the coming months.

University of South Florida (USF)

The University of South Florida is its own biggest opponent. USF had opportunities to beat every team in the South at some point last season but fell short of its potential with an 0-4 goose egg at World Cup VII. USF doesn’t have structure. It has star beaters and star chasers, but the problem is that neither the beater nor the chaser corps have synergy within themselves or with the other position. USF’s defense performs well because a group of athletic individuals can throw a wrench into others’ carefully laid plans. Yet USF struggles with drawing up those plans themselves. USF has put together glimpses of an offensive synergy with the now-defunct Baus-Goss train, consisting of Baustin Archie and the recently-departed Tyler Goss, and the now-defunct Byrd-brothers duo (Rushaun and Tyrell Byrd). However, for USF to finally make it to the top tier, it needs a solid game plan that doesn’t fall apart at the first bump in the road. USF has also always been a card magnet. While this is partly due to the region’s reluctance to play a physical game, visible frustration has also played a big part in it. USF has two very strong male beaters in Austin Webster and Phillip Carrillo. Webster can and will get bludger control from any other beater in the country. The problem with Webster is that he is a tall player who gets carded for “over the shoulder or neck contact” during the struggle for bludger control with much smaller players. Webster will often tackle another player, palm the bludger one-handed, and shake it (and the player it’s attached to) up and down until the player lets go. Carrillo thrives in the transitional period between offense and defense, as well as in snitch play. He engages opposing beaters and beats chasers in blind-spots and hard to defend angles. Chaser Jody Louis will put the team on his back until USF can come up with a reliable game plan. USF’s main strategy will be the same as the one employed to beat FF at the South Regional Championship: keep within snitch range so it can release the double male beater set for seeker Zach Mouriz to catch the snitch.

College of Charleston (CofC)

This year, the College of Charleston has the potential to beat UF and UM, and it has a fighting chance against FF. CofC could have defeated both USF and UM at the South Regional Championship last year, but it lost by a snitch grab. It had great size at male chaser/keeper and good depth at female chaser, but its beaters lagged behind. CofC lacked direction when it came to seeking, especially when the snitch was on the other side of the field. It seemed that CofC was torn between quaffle play and snitch play, and there was no set game plan for it. At the end of the games, the female beaters seemed exhausted. For CofC to succeed this season, it will need to come into the game with a solid plan. Once it has structure it is confident in, it can finally live up to its potential. The size, speed, and physicality of the chasers are already at a level to contend for a Regional Championship. The beaters just need to catch up.

Tennessee Technological University (TTU)

TTU is at the very top of the middle-tier. They made it to the semi-finals of the South Region Championship. This year is a rebuilding year for TTU; they have lost most of their female chasers and their top two beaters. Last year, their chasers kept the team competitive but beaters were the team’s weakness. Its chasers are extremely physical on offense and defense. TTU has to prove, over the course of the next few months, that it can still perform the way it did at the past two Regional Championships, without many of the players that took the team so far. USF is in a similar position, however USF has proven year after year, that they can easily replace losses by the next year, and still upset top teams at Regionals. (Their World Cup performance was abysmal, but we are talking about in-region play). There is a good chance that they will move up to the next tier over the course of the season, however there is a big enough doubt that they need to prove wrong, that causes them to miss the Challenger tier ever-so-slightly.

They very well could be in the Challenger tier in a few months, but as of now, they have to prove that they can replace all of those lost skilled players.

Rollins College

Rollins didn’t have much to show last year other than a few sparks of potential and a win over USF. Every step of the way has been an uphill battle, from games with less than a full squad to public perception. However, Rollins has kept its drive and desire to win through all of this. It added some former members of Eastern Florida State College to its squad, and while this represents a larger talent pool, having a separate clique within its team is unhealthy. If cool heads prevail and Rollins can put out some decent showings at the South Regional Championship, it might be able to make it to the USQ World Cup. I expect it to compete against mid-tier teams and perhaps pull off an upset.

University of South Carolina (USC)

The University of South Carolina barely squeaked through to World Cup VII. The year before that, USC got in on a Division II bid. USC’s strategy, which it plans to hold onto this year, is to play with two male beaters and a female keeper. Objectively, a male set is good to regain and retain bludger control, as well as put pressure on the opposing team’s seeking game. However, this strategy sacrifices chaser potential, and causes the team to rely too heavily on both the beaters and bludger control. USC’s one saving grace is its aggression. Some of its goals scored at the Regional Championship last year were made through sheer force of will. However, USC needs to dial back some of the aggression: both of its beaters spent nearly 80 percent of the time on the opposing side of the field in several games at the Regional Championship; its chasers have a tendency to over-commit and over-pursue, leaving massive gaps in coverage. I see South Carolina winning a number of games in its own tier.

University of Southern Mississippi (USM)

Add a little bit of chasers, a little bit of beaters, and a little bit of strategy, and you get a little bit of team. USM has the seeds it needs to grow a new team, but now it needs to carefully cultivate them. This year is ultimately practice for next, and perhaps even the year after. I can see USM getting better slowly, but surely.

University of South Alabama

South Alabama might win a few games against other teams in the bottom tier.

Florida State University (FSU)

Because FSU struggled to field enough players, individual members temporarily joined other teams for the Regional Championship and World Cup. This year, its recruits outnumber the veterans by a wide margin. I expect FSU to be competitive against the other teams in the recruiters tier, and pull a few wins against the bottom tier.

Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU)

FGCU put out good showings for the amount of players it has. If it had more members of the same talent, it could be in the middle tier. However, this year is a recruiting year. Expect it to be competitive against the other teams in the recruiters tier, pull several against the bottom tier, and perhaps upset a middle tier team.

City of Palms (CP)

CP is a complete unknown. We won’t know much until the Canes Classic when it makes its debut. Realistically speaking, expect City of Palms to enter the game at the low- or mid-tier.