Varsity Rocket League Season Wrap-Up
Amelia Green Dec 18, 2023
Our Varsity Rocket League team has been accomplished through their first official season of the program. The team, composed of Weedles, B00fless, CptBingBong, jakobryan, ElBlastito, and zachman491, was coached by Grreatt Britton. While we only get to see three of these outstanding competitors play at a time, throughout the season, we witnessed a variety of compositions that highlighted each strength of the players through the masterful insight of their coach! The overall score for the regular season was 5-2: an impressive showing! From there, we moved to the tournament, for which we passed the first week on a Bye. The semi-finals again pitted us against George Fox, for which we lost this time. This ended our Varsity Rocket League official season for the Fall.
However, this isn’t a bad ending! Our first year as a program led to the team pushing headstrong into the semi-finals of the NACE Tournament and has only encouraged our teams to work even harder! Some shining examples of improvement can be seen in the various developments in team plays and individual players! Weedles has been relatively active in his progress. While he was, of course, a great player to begin with, having achieved the varsity team, Weedles has shown that he can support and set up team plays with fluidity and power that allows the plays to push through opposing defenses. He has also improved his reactions throughout the season, especially when he needs to drop back and support defense! B00fless has been a key offensive player throughout the season, and anytime we see him on the field, we know that we will see aggression and push toward the opposing goal. Despite his aggressive plays, he is an incredible team player and doesn’t keep the ball to himself. He often initiates passing plays to further the ball into opponent territory, leading to the team’s success as a whole. CptBingBong has been more of a midfielder-like player. He has developed the skills to effectively prevent most pushes back toward our goal from a place at centerfield. He continues to be a tremendous support for our more aggressive players like B00fless, ElBlastito, and zachman491. He has excellent predictive capability to understand where he needs to place himself in relation to the ball and his teammates.
Moving on to jakobryan, he has shown astounding growth in his offensive capabilities throughout the season. He is quick to run up the sidelines for an advantageous position to be passed to, and he can push the ball forward to send it to the goal or a teammate. He is communicative and available for play whenever he can! ElBlastito is one of the most aggressive players on the team, and it’s only to our benefit! He is fast and has a beautiful reaction time with fantastic ball control. He quickly retaliates against opponents, going for an offensive push, and often overpowers them. ElBlastito is a powerful player who holds a valuable place on the team. Our final player is zachman491. He is often like a shadow that only pops in at the last moment to make a devastating move. Whether he’s stealing a goal out from the arms of our opponents or sending a last-minute rebound into the goal for another point on our board, he’s where his teammates need him. He’s also versatile enough to quickly drop back to a defender’s position with little consequence!
Of course, to truly highlight the fantastic gameplay of our varsity team, I shall detail one of the most team-intensive games of the season: Vandals vs. Neumont College of Computer Science B. This was a relatively quick series for our Vandals, but in this game, they had the room to utilize a multitude of exciting plays that really emphasized their teamwork! The players involved were Weedles, B00fless, and CptBingBong, and they really demonstrated what a varsity team looks like in this match! The plays were beautiful and well-communicated. The final series score of this match-up was 3-0; individual games scored 7-1, 7-0, and 5-1. Through these three games, B00fless achieved 7 recorded assists! CptBingBong utilized that backup with 7 goals made, while Weedles had the most recorded saves at 4! There were definitely more shots, saves, and assists than what the game displayed; however, this shows each player’s general activities and strengths in this game.
Make sure to follow our Varsity Vandals in Rocket League come Spring in not only a NACE League, but also ECAC!
Our Twitch: UIdaho