Month: June 2011

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How Revolver got its name

We asked the founders for a quick history lesson and they reminisced about the origins of the team...

Rewind to the spring of 2006. Nick Handler drove the name discussion, Marc Weinberger contributed constructive criticism, and Chris McManus just said, “Meh, sounds fine to me,” to all of Nick’s ideas. And it was a new idea every five minutes: Bay City, Bay City Breakers, Silverbacks (that one didn’t make it too far).

The team entered Cal States in 2006 as “Bay City.” That Saturday afternoon, Nick grabbed dinner with Louis Eisenberg at 99 Bottles in Santa Cruz, and the name “Revolver” just popped into his mind. He recalls, “[I] couldn’t tell you for the life of me where it came from, but the minute I said it we decided that it was a good fit.”

Marc and Chris approved the new name but the latter didn’t want any gun imagery, so he pushed for a green apple (Revolver –> The Beatles’ album –> The Beatles’ record label) as the logo. Marc and Nick, though admitted fans of The Beatles, thought that would have been “one of the softest logos of all time.”

Chris’ daughter had just been born under a full moon, and she always pointed out the moon in the sky. It occurred to him that this prominent satellite is a sort of revolver, so he pitched the full moon as the logo. After a conference call, the founders decided on the phases of the moon going around the team name–that it ended up looking like the chambers of a revolver was a bonus!

N.B. Thanks to the three Creators–Chris, Marc, and Nick–for contributing to this piece. Credit for crafting the original logo also goes to Mike Jones (old Stanford teammate of Nick).

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Final roster

The 2011 roster is set! Check the Current Roster page for the latest edition of Revolver. Individual bios for all members will start rolling out soon, so check back often.

New recruits:

  • Devon Anderson – bright, young Slug with afterburners and poise
  • Patrick Baylis – Carleton alumnus that embodies IHD with boundless energy on defense
  • Eric Greenwood – speedy Ego vet with a downfield nose for the disc
  • Adam Simon – If you can’t beat ’em…? ex-Colorado and Ironside handler with proven ability on both sides
  • Zach Travis – Harvard and Cal experience brings this tall graduate intelligent, quick defense

Old recruit:

  • Tom James – a year-long hiatus in Oregon sees him back in the Bay, ready to reprise his role as one of the founding members of Revolver–good to have this all-around stalwart back
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Cal States – Sunday

The weather held up nicely today as the teams reconvened on Sand Hill fields for more action.

Game 4 – Round robin – 9:00a vs Condors (Santa Barbara, CA)
The Condors jumped to a quick 2-0 lead as their deep game looked sharp early, but the Revolver pressure ratcheted up for a 15-9 victory. #2 Dan Bellinger had a swooping sky goal over a cluster of people waiting for a disc to drop down and Jacob Juszak played a solid deep game on both the throwing and receiving ends.

Game 5 – Round robin – 10:45a vs Renegade (Los Angeles, CA)
The young LA team brought excellent intensity to this match-up, but we wrapped things up to secure a spot in the finals against our only remaining round robin opponent…

…so we agreed to play one game for the title to 21 points, with three periods. One team would advantageously start the first and last periods on offense, so Boost Mobile suggested an alternative to the disc flip: a 70-yard footrace against their lanky speedster Ezra Schiff. The only rules: we couldn’t use Beau Kittredge, Nick Chapman, or Josh Wiseman. We cajoled the young UC Santa Cruz tryout, Devon Anderson, to clean the mud out of his cleats and race. Devon’s really fast.

Game 6 – Finals – 12:30p vs Boost Mobile (Palo Alto, CA)
We received to start and quickly built a 7-2 lead, then a 14-5 lead, and capped the day with a 21-7 finish. Boost is a dangerous team and will easily get better this season, maybe even making a run at Northwest Regionals in October like last year.

A great opening tournament for the 2011 campaign! The tryouts all played well this weekend, making for some difficult decisions. Thanks to the new guys for adding their best to the team.

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Cal States – Saturday

Cal States (Palo Alto edition) played out under sporadic rain and late sunshine. The format: round robin with all seven teams plus a finals round. Last chance for the tryouts to make their marks before the 2011 roster is complete!

Game 1 – Round robin – 11:00a vs Streetgang (San Diego, CA)
A tough initial match-up on the slate after a first-round bye. The game seemed to take a long time, but we managed to win 15-9. They’ll be even tougher next time we face them.

Game 2 – Round robin – 1:00p vs Journeymen (Bay Area, CA)
After a strong start from the improved J-Men, we fell behind 4-5 before reeling off an even stronger finish to win 15-5.

Game 3 – Round robin – 3:00p vs Wolf (Bay Area, CA)
Wolf is still a young, athletic team with plenty of talent but we got the better of them this time with a 15-6 victory.