The Breeze have a new Head Coach and a new partnership with the area’s top men’s club team, Truck Stop.
The Breeze have signed Darryl Stanley as Head Coach for the 2017 season. Darryl led the Philadelphia Spinners to an 11-1 record and Major League Ultimate title in 2016 and was also named the 2016 MLU Coach of the Year. For the past two years he also served as head coach of Citywide, a developmental men’s club team in Philadelphia, leading that club to an undefeated regular season,#31 national ranking and one spot out of the USAU Select Flight.
Darryl has also served as Head Coach of the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team Void from 2014-2016, a role for which he was named the University of Pennsylvania Club Sports Coach of the Year 2016. Void were Eastern Pennsylvania Sectional Champions in both 2015 and 2016 under his leadership.
Darryl has prior AUDL experience as well. He served as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Phoenix from 2013 to 2015, including filling in as head coach in four Phoenix games along the way.
More details will follow regarding the makeup of the coaching staff and the new role of 2014-2016 Breeze head coach Alex Ghesquiere. Ghesquiere is actively involved with Darryl in the coach selection process, team strategy, and plans for the upcoming tryouts.
Truck Stop Partnership
Fourteen members of the Breeze’s 2016 roster also played USAU club ultimate with Truck Stop last season. Those players were instrumental in helping take the Breeze to within one overtime road loss of the AUDL East Title, and later they helped advance Truck Stop to the quarterfinals of USA Ultimate’s 2016 Club Championships. However, the teams missed some chances to formally collaborate on practices and strategies — collaboration which may have taken both clubs a few steps further in their respective competitions. With even more Truck players likely to suit up with the Breeze in 2017, the two organizations have agreed to establish a deeper and more formal partnership.
The arrangement starts at the top, in that the on-field leadership across the two teams will be the same. Newly named Breeze head coach Darryl Stanley will also be the head coach of Truck Stop, and additionally all three of Truck’s captains recently signed on to return to the Breeze in 2017. That means the teams will use similar strategies, systems, and philosophies. The Breeze tryout process will also serve as a preliminary tryout for Truck Stop, and later in the AUDL season Truck Stop players not on the Breeze roster will be invited to join Breeze practices. More information about this arrangement from the Truck Stop perspective is available at Truck Stop Ultimate’s website.
Tryout Update
Breeze tryouts for the 2017 season will take place on Sunday, March 5th, at a venue in D.C. Invitation-only follow-up tryout/practices will be March 18-19 and March 25-26, and the team will set the 32-player roster during that process. This 32-player roster will be trimmed down to a league-mandated 28 players later in the season. Also by league rule, only 20 players can be named to the active roster for each game. All players not named to the 20-player active roster for a game, or not named to the final 28-player roster after that late season deadline, will still be considered part of the team and encouraged to continue coming to practices and games.
More information about tryouts including the signup fees and instructions is coming very soon. To keep up with the latest information , please sign up for our newsletter below.
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