Scobel Wiggins Photography

Without some of its former leadership and experience taking the field this year, Brute Squad is a much younger version of the team that made semifinals in Sarasota last fall. Losing Nancy Sun and Chrissy Dobson to migration and Peri Kurshan to an injury (ACL tear) creates big holes for others to fill, and I think that Brute has a number of players that are up to the challenge. The main aspect allowing younger players still in college to assume bigger roles and turn into impact players is that Brute Squad has a very good system in place and still has a number of veteran players to teach it.

The offense strikes a good balance between taking deep shots to receivers like tally Kathy Dobson and speedster Rana Suh, breaking the mark for continuation movement, and letting the handlers push the pace with effective cutting. Additionally, the team's zone O uses patience and good spacing to set up zone-breaking throws through or over the cup.

Fury kept trying out different defenses to see if one would isolate a major weakness, but Brute responded well to each different defensive look. The errors I saw Brute make were not strategic, but rather simple execution errors within its system. By late October, those errors should be gone and opponents will be left facing an athletic team with good disc skills and team chemistry. I would expect Brute to take its region and make a return appearance in the semifinals at Sarasota.