In 1990 we had an extremely large team, 35 players. Our captains, Tom Duffy and Greg Wadley, somehow made it work and kept everyone reasonably happy. But this meant that if you weren’t among the seven or eight core group members playing time was at a premium, and the more important the game the tighter it got.

In the National finals we played Wilmington. It was a close game until just after half-time when they gambled on playing zone, and we broke their spirit with a 117 pass offensive score. After that they only scored three more points. Near the end we were in control of the game and this meant we could loosen the rotation a little. The majority of our first and second year players got at least one point on the field.

When it was game point, Sean Wallace, who had not yet been in, went to Tom and said, "You know Tom, some of us won’t be back next year." Sean went in, and so did I. Before every game at Nationals Sean and I had warmed up together, and all weekend he had told me that he just wanted to catch one huck from me at Nationals. As we stood on the line getting ready to pull, at game point in the final, he made sure to remind me of this.

The funniest thing about all this is that after the game, in the hot tub back at the hotel, one of the Wilmington players and I were sitting there alone talking about the game. He said he was in on the last point and when he looked across to see who he was match up with he knew he was in for a bad time. What he saw was "a six-foot-tall black guy, who had not yet played, who was not standing on the line but rather bouncing up and down."

Sean only played one point in that game but he made the absolute most of it. Wilmington had nothing left and gave us a quick turnover. Sean was off to the races. He was instantly open and his man never did catch up. We worked the disc for a few short passes, and then Sean came open in the corner. He caught the disc, raised his arms, and kept on running. He never did get his huck, but he did get the twenty-first, and winning, goal in the finals at Nationals. Sean had a pretty good nickname: Billy O / Billy D, but his one point in the finals got him a name that he seemed to like even better, twenty-one! (and he insisted that you pronounce it right).

Stories like Sean’s are not uncommon. Throughout our history the Tide has had more than its share of star players, but what out history has shown is that a team of stars won’t win it all, but a team with stars will. The ‘role-players’ and ‘contributors’ are the ones who made the difference between our being a very good team and our being the best team.

1990 UCSB Game Scores:

01/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara xx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xx
01/xx/90
01/xx/90
01/xx/90
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02/xx/90 ??????
02/xx/90
02/xx/90
02/xx/90
02/xx/90
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03/xx/90 ??????
03/xx/90
03/xx/90
03/xx/90
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SECTIONALS:
04/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara
04/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara
04/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara
04/xx/90 SLO ?? U.C.Santa Barbara ?? - (Finals)
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REGIONALS:
05/xx/90 Stanford 13 U.C.Santa Barbara 11
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.S.Santa Cruz 12
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Humboldt 10
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.C. Berkeley 9 - (BD)
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Oregon 7 - (BD Quarters)
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Humboldt 13 - (BD Semis)
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Chabot (LPC) 11 - (BD Finals)
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NATIONALS:
05/xx/90 U.N.C. Wilmington 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 10
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Carleton 12
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Vermont 11
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Kansas 8
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Georgia 9
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 19 Cornell 17 - (Semis)
05/xx/90 U.C.Santa Barbara 21 U.N.C. Wilmington 12 - (Finals)