Midseason report and highlights on Asian Players in the AUDL – Norden, Nguyen, Chang, Lim, Smith, Laviolette-Park, Davis, Doi, Wong, Vu, Tsang

AsianPlayers | June 8, 2017 | Ultimate Frisbee | No Comments

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The AUDL season is 10 weeks into the 2017 season. Most teams have played at least 7 games of the 14 game-season.
Here’s the midseason report of some of the Asian players contributing in the AUDL.

WEST DIVISION

Los Angeles Aviators
Offensive Cutter Bryan Nguyen (8gms, 32G-9A) is on pace to best his career best in goals(41) from last season. USA Team Member and defensive star, Tom Doi (7gms, 10G-15A-7D) has upgraded the Aviators defensive corps in his first season with Los Angeles. Michael Kiyoi (7gms, 9G-1A) is steadying the defensive line. The first Taiwanese player, KuoHsun Wang (7gms, 4G-5A), is proving he belongs in the league.

San Diego Growlers
Casey Wu (7gms, 13G-3A) is still a productive goal-scorer playing half his points on the defensive line.

San Francisco Flamethrowers
Antoine Davis (8gms, 18G-12A-15D) who is half Asian, is a star in-the-making. Davis makes high-flying highlight reel plays on offense and on defense. He appeared on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 in San Francisco’s game against Vancouver Riptide. Justin Lim (5gms, 10G-7A) is a productive offensive player. Byron Liu (5gms, 3G-0A) is playing mainly on defense. Barrs Lang was a standout player for the Flamethrowers last year, but he is not associated with the club team, Revolver. Lang plays for the mixed team Blackbird. Lang will focus on the World Beach Championships this year.

San Jose Spiders
The Spiders were predicted to finish in last place in the division. Yet the core of Asian players and others have surprised the league. The offensive handling line of Justin Norden (8gms, 14G-49A), Steven Chang, (6gms, 10G-17A), Chuck Cao (6gms, 3G-18A), Sonny Zaccarro (6gms,6 2G-7A), offensive cutter Drew Kim (5gms, 3G-4A) and their teammates have proven the forecasters wrong. Norden is considered one of the front runners for MVP.

Seattle Cascades
In limited games, the diminutive Will Chen (2gms, 2G-0A-5D) again proves how valuable he is on defense. Tommy Li (4gms, 3G-5A-5D) is producing across the board despite playing mostly on defense. Henry Phan (3gms, 1G-3A) comes over from the MLU to play in AUDL for the first time.

Vancouver Riptide
Riptide coaching staff tends to play their players evenly on offense and defense. Will Vu (10gms, 5G-27A-8D) has alot of crafty throws in his arsenal and is leading the team in assists, but is also leading the league in throwaways. Brendan Wong (6gms, 19G-11A) is the valuable veteran the young Riptide players look to when a score is needed. He also doubles as the team physician when a player gets injured. Tim Tsang (5gms, 6G-24A) hasn’t played in many games, but is putting up big number of assists. He would be one of the league leaders in assists if he played in all the games. Peter Yu (6gms, 1G-20A) is putting up his best season as a passer. Edward Guo (8gms, 11G-5A) production is down compared to recent years. Canadian team member Fred Lam (7gms, 9G-6A-9D) does a lot on the defensive side.

EAST DIVISION

New York Empire
Josh Alorro (6gm, 3G-7A-7D) offensive production is down this year as he played most of his points on the defensive line. Conor Kline (6gm, 17G-4A ) is making an impact as an offensive cutter in his first year for New York.

Ottawa Outlaws
Mike Lee is out for the year with an injured ACL. Lee was the 2nd leading goal scorer in the AUDL last season.

Philadelphia Phoenix
AUDL newcomer Scott Xu (5gms, 6G-7A-6D) is doing it all playing on both offense and defense and helped Philadelphia win their first game in over a year.

Toronto Rush
Jason Huynh (4gms, 4G-1A) is getting more playing time this season. Jeremy Norden (3gms, 0G-10A) is throwing the disc to show little brother Justin Norden how it’s done. Darren Wu (2gms, 2G-2A) started the season with the Vancouver Riptide and is now in Toronto. Defensive stalwart Jackie Hau (8gms, 5G-7A-5D) continues his stellar play on defense.

SOUTH DIVISION
Atlanta Hustle
Brothers Anders Olsen (5gms, 9G-5A) and Christian Olsen (8gms, 14G-13A) are big contributors for the Hustle. Matt Smith (9gms, 34G-16A) is on pace for another excellent goal-scoring season and currently leads the team in goals. Allan Laviolette-Park (7gms, 10G-21A) is taking a step up offensively and had a 10-assist game against Nashville Nightwatch. Sun Choi (9gms, 7G-12A) has been steady.

–Highlights–

San Francisco Flamethrowers’ Antoine Davis appears on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 play for this sky over two defenders.