Fam 3

Fam 3 was the champion student team for TiP West Term 1 2017. It was arguably the most stacked team TiP has ever seen.

Members

• Fourth Years: Alex Baker, Creston Brooks, Nicolas Sanchez, Jeffrey Jehng, Mathew Potter, Brandon Robinson, Sam Korzelius, Wyatt Gildea, Jay Yadav, Katie Tanner
• Third Years: Simone Kwee, Campbell Harman, Rishab Kolachina
• Second Year: Luke Yium

Background

The team was based off of the original Fam 1 in 2015. Fam 1 was a primarily 3rd year team that lost to Black Magic in the final game of the tournament. Many of the members of Fam 1 returned as 4th years and continued the Fam tradition. After they recruited Creston Brooks and Wyatt Gildea, Fam 2 lost in the final game of the tournament to the third year team Creston Betrayed Us (CBU) consisting of members Alex Baker, Nicolas Sanchez, Brandon Robinson, Katie Tanner, and Simone Kwee. This year, Fam 3 entered the bracket with extra motivation to win.

The Start of Fam 3

• Recruiting began on day one led by Nicolas and Creston. First recruited were Jeffrey Jehng, Wyatt Gildea, and Brandon Robinson. During the recruiting period, rumors said that the student staff game was going to be determined by whoever won Quadfest. Obviously, to all the premade teams, this was devastating news. Luckily, RC Eric understood the feelings of the TiPsters and went out to convince the admins to allow for the games to happen. Shortly thereafter, the signup sheets were posted on HH208 with a limit of 14 players per team... although the signup sheets had more than 14 lines. Although Fam 3 was originally an all fourth year team, Nicolas convinced the members that Second and Third Years Luke, Rishab, Campbell, and Simone were worthy enough to be on the team.

The Student Tournament

The bracket consisted of four teams total: Fursbey, Game of Throws, Ultimate is not a Sport, and Fam 3. There was one mainly second year team, two mainly third year teams, and one fourth year team. The first round was Game of Throws vs Fam 3 and Fursbey vs Ultimate is not a Sport. The first rounds were on June 22nd and 23rd. The morning before the first game, Fam 3 made all of its members come to morning run to practice and discuss strategies. All members showed up except LUKE YIUM and MATHEW POTTER, who "overslept".

• The first game (Fam 3 vs Game of Throws) happened during 4-5 free time on a section of the main quad. After Fam 3's starting line scored twice within the first minute, each of the 7 players subbed out. This repeated for the next 8 points until it was 10-0. At that point, Game of Throws was playing Fam 3's second lineup and brought the disc almost all the way to the endzone until Campbell Harman came out of nowhere, intercepted a pass, saved the perfect game. Shortly thereafter the clutch save, Fam 3 made it to 11-0 within 15 minutes, ending the game and bringing them to the finals of the student bracket. Chris the Super RC said "Couldn't you have have let my second years have one point". It was a landslide victory. Fursbey, Fam 3's main competitor, also won their first game 11-0.
• On the Monday of the last week, Fam 3 and Fursbey went head-to-head. Students gathered to watch their friends, and the staff came to scout their competition. The game started off rather tight, with the score being 1-1 at one point. Kavi was the MVP of Fursbey and lead his team in both handling and cutting. For Fam 3, the game was an eye opener as they realized all the weaknesses they had to fix before the student staff game. While some players didn't wait long enough after catching the disc to look for a cutter, others waiting too long and didn't throw until it was too late. Although 3rd years Kyle, Kavi, and Peyton dominated the short game, Fam 3 was able to huck deep to cutters like Rishab and Alex, winning the game 10-2 and securing a spot against the staff. MVPs included Sam, Alex, Rishab, Jeffrey, Campbell, and Katie.

The Student/Staff Game

• When some of Fam 3's members were throwing with the staff the day before the game, they knew they were in trouble. The staff's team consisted of Neuroscience teacher Scott, a 6'6 giant who could catch over any Tipster and could frequently be found showing off his fancy moves to his class during their hour-long breaks, and Sam, the Programming for Video Games teacher who had been handling in national USA ultimate games for decades, along with many other athletic staff members who were very good at Frisbee, such as Josh, Gautam, Ike, Ana, Eric, Joel, Jeremy, other Jeremy, Tim, Ava, Chris, Desmond, and others.
• At about 4:15 on the last Wednesday, Creston pulled to the staff to start the game. Without a single turnover, the staff worked quickly up the field to gain an immediate point. All the TiPsters and staff watched as Fam 3 trailed the entire first half, with scores of 0-1, 2-4, 4-5, and 6-8. After the score reached 8-6, halftime was called, and TiPsters and Staff went inside for a water break.

Upon returning back from the break, Tim told the students that the game would now be played to 11 instead of 15. This was upsetting for many people considering the staff now only needed three more points to win. Tim roasted the students, saying "If y'all were playing better, we wouldn't be that close to winning". The students, now even more mad, went even harder in the last half. Since Fam 3 was such a deep team of 14 handpicked players, they had been subbing in and out the entire game, but at this point they sent out a final lineup: Alex, Nicolas, Creston, Katie, Campbell, Rishab, Mathew/Sam (Sam subbed in for Mathew near the end).

• The players walked up to the line to receive the pull, emotional and angry. After receiving the pull, Fam 3 kept it short, swinging it between handlers until a cutter was open deep. Since nothing could get past Scott in the endzone, Alex drew him out every time Fam 3 got close, which opened up opportunities to score. The staff called multiple fouls on the students, but the students still pulled ahead to 10-8 with a great catch by Katie. The students pulled to the staff one last time and played a very tight defense that caused a turnover. The students capitalized on the moment to finish the game and brought it all the way to the opposing endzone. There was a midrange throw to Sam in the endzone, but the staff called a travel on the handler. Despite the foul, the students started over and worked it back to Sam who finished the game with a short toss to Campbell in the back right corner of the endzone. The students celebrated with tears in the eyes and jumped into a big group hug. Unfortunately, all the other TiPsters went off the dinner since the game ran late, so they were not able to see the amazing victory. The students came back from a two point deficit and scored five points in a row. Their unbeatable defense and masterful cutting and handling proved to be unstoppable for the staff.
• Highlights in the game included: short handler movement between Luke, Nicolas, Campbell, and Creston, one-handed snags in the endzone from Rishab and Alex, endzone swats from Jeffrey, clutch endzone play between Katie, Sam, and Rishab, full-field hammers from Mathew caught by Alex and Rishab, Rishab completely decking Tim, Brandon and Jay's jumping catches.

After the Game

• After the students beat the best staff team ever assembled and lead Fam to its first staff game, Fam 3's captains left the tradition of Fam to 3rd years Rishab and Campbell who will return to lead Fam 4 in 2018. They also told Rishab and Campbell the secret of FAM, passed down to the captains every year since FAM 1. Creston also left the Legendary Disc to Second year Luke Yium, after sneaking into his room at 1:00 am to give it to him.

Memories of the Game

• Even though the disc was nowhere near, Rishab trucked Tim and knocked him on the ground
• At 8-8, a deep throw from the students went up, and Mathew tackled Alex to the ground, thinking he was Scott, so the students didn't score.
• Campbell was almost thrown off of the field by RC Eric for "obscene" language
• The students really underestimated RC Ana, even though she was new to ultimate, she had several diving catches that scored for the staff.
• After a score by the staff, Fam 3 noticed a mismatch: TA Josh guarding Rishab. After the staff pulled, all the students stood horizontally to the disc, until Rishab broke out for a long pass and scored.
• Since Ana was new to ultimate she wasn't sure how stalling worked, when she guarded Creston and started stalling, he told her that's not what she was supposed to do, so he stood for about 20 seconds waiting for a good pass.
• To anyone still reading, ask RC Chris about "big kahuna 315".