May 24, 2023
By Daniel Cohen
“Player Chatter” is a new series consisting entirely of player quotes, thoughts, and feelings from around the league. All current AUDL players were sent a handful of prompts earlier this week designed to be as open-ended as possible. Additionally, players were asked to vote in a single-question, multiple choice survey.
Week 5 Survey Results
Who's winning the Week 5 Game of the Week, the Chicago Union or Madison Radicals?
Chicago Union: 65.5 percent of votes
Madison Radicals: 34.5 percent of votes
Week 4 Reactions
“Turns out Carolina is still pretty good.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“Sean Connole has Dad strength.” Kyle Weinberg, Salt Lake Shred
“Salt Lake’s Sean Connole is the truth.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“Aviators falling quickly from cloud nine.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“LA looks shaky and they struggle moving the disc from the handler layer to the cutters.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“The Salt Lake-Colorado away double header in the West might be the toughest in the league. Both teams are skilled and athletic, and away games are hard enough as it is, let alone against both of last year's West Division finalists two days in a row.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“Minnesota's pulls were hands-down the best utilization of the new pull rules I've seen so far this season.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“AlleyCats are not satisfied with that win. Championship Weekend is our mission. And we did not have championship-level hold and conversation percentages. I care about that more than the final score.” Travis Carpenter, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“What's up folks, Calvin Coulbury from the Royal here. I played club with Will St-Pierre last summer on Montreal Manic, and all I'm going to say is that this guy is gonna take the league by storm. Six goals in his debut game??? Know the name baby, St-Pierre is on the way.” Calvin Coulbury, Montreal Royal
“I’ll donate my season salary to pay for [Jeff] Babbitt drug tests.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Justin Burnett is 20 years old.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
Early Season Takeaways
“Philly is better at 0-4 than most of these teams.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“Philly is the best 0-4 team ever.” Jacob Blackman, Atlanta Hustle
“Philly is the best 0-4 team in league history.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Chicago experiencing the Dalton Smith effect. RIP roughnecks, RIP Chicago ultimate.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Hot take: Salt Lake's better than Colorado. Can't wait to see them prove it in a few weeks.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Salt Lake and Colorado are looking like top teams out West, but I'm loving the Spiders' vibe and energy.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“Spiders are an impressive and fun team to watch.” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“Seems like almost every team in the West has gotten better this year. It's awesome to play in these high caliber games. The new pulling rules do seem to have increased defensive pressure.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“The pulling rule changes have massively increased the amount of sideline rollers we are seeing, and I think it was meant to do the opposite. Oopsies.” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“Philadelphia with four tough games in the first four weeks. Will they bounce back?” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“I love seeing the Alabama contingent contributing to the AlleyCats wins!” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“Looking forward to seeing a[nother] Philly/Boston matchup. Their records are quite different, but I presume the Hotbirds would take it given their success against New York.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“My team is best and all other teams are trash.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Someone should consider simply preventing Jeff Babbitt from scoring.” Jacob Blackman, Atlanta Hustle
MVP Conversation
“Jeff Babbitt. Man is unstoppable, maybe the best player in the league right now.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“Starting a petition to rename the end zone the Babbitt Zone.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“It has to be [Jeff] Babbitt. If anyone is saying anything else they need to go watch the film.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“[Jeff] Babbitt has to be in the conversation after having back-to-back game-changing performances. 16 goals, 5 blocks, and a total +/- of +19 in a pair of TIGHT games. New York only scored 36 total goals in those two games, so to have one player account for nearly half of your goals when your team is so loaded with high-profile players is outlandish. Outside of Babbitt, [Ryan] Osgar remains a good shout, Travis Dunn has a case through two games, [Jordan] Kerr is playing well for Salt Lake, and you'd have a tough time choosing which DC player has been most impactful to their season.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“No one really stands out as the mid season MVP right now, everyone is playing team ball.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Mark Henke, the LeBron of ultimate. Would have the best stats in the league if only the coaches would call his line on, or if he knew how to throw.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
On to Week 5
“I think the Game of the Week is going to come down to the wire. But I give the edge to Union. I say they win by two.” Travis Carpenter, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“[Andrew] Sjogren is going to put up six goals in the Chicago vs. Madison Game of the Week!” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“Chicago [over Madison].” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“The real winner of the Madison-Chicago game are the people that watch any other game this weekend. That being said, Union win this game.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“How can Chicago vs. Madison get the Game of the Week?” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“Maybe we've been spoiled by some great Game of the Week games so far, but this game is going to be an absolute cluster compared to what we've seen so far. Victor Luo is going to be the best player on the field because Nate Goff can't make the Union function by himself the way Victor often can. It'll be interesting to see the coaching battle in this one though, who will have the defensive/poach set that messes with the other team more?” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Sol breaks the scoring record [this week].” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Looking forward to seeing the Houston gunslingers venture out on the Carolina-Atlanta road trip.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Houston goes 0-2 away at Carolina and Atlanta.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“My good friend Michael Fairley will have a great game against the Houston Havoc.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Thank goodness Atlanta lost to Carolina. If they won it would've been kind of awkward to predict them to beat us this week... It'll be a tough week for us. If we clutch, that would be massive.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“Hot take?—Phoenix will beat Pittsburgh by six.” Travis Carpenter, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“Parlay of the week: Flyers, Rush, Wind Chill, Phoenix, Union, Hustle, Union.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“The Minnesota at Chicago game will be one of the most unusual games we've ever seen with both teams playing the second game of a double-header weekend. I don't know if that's ever happened before. Luckily for Minnesota, Chicago looks extremely vulnerable, and the Windchill play Detroit instead of Madison, for both shorter travel and a weaker opponent. Minnesota by eight.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
Water Cooler
“Kenni Taylor, let me be in the vlog this week.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“The fact that Google Maps can't connect Salt Lake’s home stadium and the airport with a public transit route tells you everything you need to know about Salt Lake City.” Ray Mendoza, Oakland Spiders
“Pawel [Janas] is the best teammate in the league, and an enigma. Nobody can comprehend how he manages to fly in and out of Chicago for all of our practices and games to be so deeply involved with LA.” Nate Kirchhofer, Los Angeles Aviators
“There is a 30 for 30 quality story brewing in Detroit.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
“Hot take: Dallas and Detroit both go 0-12 this season.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“People need to know that these are creative writing assignments and they can be tons of fun. I can write about the immeasurable depths of Jason Vallee's piercing white-blue eyes and how much I miss him and nobody bats an eye. But did you ever consider that he's the only defender that's ever made me feel this way? He covered me so well that I can't imagine life without him anymore. Who else in the league gives their matchup Stockholm Syndrome? That's next-level coverage and I'm excited to see how the game evolves to incorporate it more in the coming years.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Paul Lally is a ping pong ball elitist.” Reese Bowman, Austin Sol
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