Canadian Ultimate

CUC 2011- Women's Division Preview

2011-08-09T11:11:00.001-07:00

Nation,

I am happy to present my women`s preview.

Let me say this first... CUC lost some very strong teams to regional competition this year. Lotus and Zephyr, and even spunky Lily will not be at CUC. Two of these teams went to worlds last year! It is great that the fight for bids is tight, but it sucks for those teams. The lessons learned is simple: pressure your region`s strongest teams to attend CUC annually instead of showing up in a worlds year and "stealing" other`s bids.

2011 CUC Preview- Women's

The Favorites

Two teams stand out as finals candidates- Traffic of Vancouver and Capitals of Ottawa/ Toronto

What everyone really wants to know is... Can the Capitals seal the deal this time? In 2007, they dominated all summer, and in the CUC final suffered a match up issue that they could not rectify ( Does anyone else remember that tall blonde from Traffic running deep early and often) and had some disappointing uncharacteristic performances from key players.

A lot has happened since that failure for Capitals. They have finished 2nd at USA championships last year, and they have used the club and university systems to add new talent and experience to their roster.

Traffic will be no slouch either. They still have the swagger, and they have a great talent pool in the Vancouver area as well.

The goal for both teams- Use their depth to get through the first three days, stay injury free and rested for finals.

The Challengers

PPF (Kitchener Waterloo)

Watching their final at No Borders versus Capitals, I saw leadership, skill, and athletic talent. More than previous years. I also saw more potential than what has been shown. This team should aim to be in the semis and give Capitals and Traffic lots of trouble. That will mean they need to be better with the disc and fight the mental barriers that come with trying to upset.

Dame (Ottawa)

You gotta love a local story. Made up of Stella, Capitals, and Fuse leaders/stars of the past, this will be a very talented squad.

Cohesive, talented, and blessed with some speedsters like Sue Sallaj Ginn and Jamie Collins , Dame prefers the humble "awh shucks" vibe and it works for them.

The core of team leadership is really savvy, and given the talent at their disposal, they might make things interesting all weekend.

Storm (Montreal)

Losing many players to coed, we are reminded that Storm was the 2010 CUC champ, is always a presence at CUC semis, and will be a force in 2011.

Enough said. :)

Fusion (Winnipeg)

Stable leadership, good juniors program, and no coed teams to sap their talent pool means Fusion could look to strike into quarters and semis.

QUB (Quebec City)

This program has continually been working on making the jump to the top level. It will be very interesting to see if this is the year that next step is taken

Wild Rose (Alberta)

Really unsure what to expect from this squad.

Vintage (Montreal)

Like Dame, a collection of former local stars that made up past Storm and other squads.

If the weather is rough, expect strong handling teams like this to benefit and compliment their talent base.

Stella (Ottawa)

One of the proudest names in ultimate, they were roughed up at regionals this year. There is no denying it.

However, the team has strong talent to rely on, and will welcome the local support which is sure to follow them every time they play.

Salty (Halifax)

Always a bubble challenger, Salty has the same development issues as Red Circus (Players coming and leaving the city often based on school), but a full squad for Halifax's team means they can play spoiler this year.

EXO (Sherbrooke)

I saw this young team play last year at No Borders. It looked like the makings of a very good program. No doubt, one that needed some experience and skill development, but gave a glimpse of better things to come in the future (Think PPF in 2008).

2011 CUC Preview - Open Division

2011-08-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

This preview is dedicated to all the friends and readers that have asked me to post since my hiatus. I really appreciate the feedback, and wish I had more time to write.

Nation,

The nation's best players are coming to Ottawa this week for the Canadian Ultimate Championships.

Yes, the best players. This is a worlds qualifying year, and although the location for worlds is earthquake and radiation contaminated Japan, everyone seems very eager to be the team to represent Canada in their respective division.

In order to preview, I think it is important to focus on the following things

Past worlds qualifying results this decade
Past results this year
Team rosters (that we know of)

As you know, I always try to "go positive", and I certainly try to avoid cliches and conventional wisdom when possible.

Open Division- 2011 Preview

It's going to be an exciting year. It's probably the deepest field of teams we have seen at nationals.

If you expect a new team to emerge and upset either GOAT and Furious in the finals, you might be disappointed. Many of the teams that could have pulled off this trick have been hurt by key losses, Phoenix has lost many players to GOAT or coed squad Trainwreck. Mephisto has been devastated by the loss of key players to coed squad ODYSSEY. General Strike might challenge, but the loss of Mark Lloyd to GOAT smarts.

It looks like a two horse race. I will personally enjoy watching how it enfolds.

The schedule is posted here. Team Profiles are below.
_________________________________________________________________
Pool A

GOAT (Toronto)

Fresh off a No Borders title, and a win over Furious at Colorado, hopes are very high for the team. Expect them to be in the finals.

Most impressive at No Borders 2011? 19 year old Tim Tsang. The pulls, the confidence with the disc, attention to coaching he was given, and his Swagger really stood out in the finals.

The Ghosts (Calgary)

Let's be honest, we don't know much about this team, or the status of ultimate in Calgary.

I think we would all love Calgary to become a more stable ultimate market with open, women's, and coed squads that make it to nationals annually.

Feed The Geese (Toronto)

A squad of solid former GOAT and Grand Trunk players. The talent is there to beat almost any team in this tournament.

Can this team hold up over three days versus teams that have practiced much longer than they have?

Their match up against The Ghosts will be the key tilt of day one in the entire division.

Newfoundland Liberation Army (St John's)

These guys are awesome, and I hope this will be an excellent experience that they can take back to Newfoundland and the rest of their leagues.

They are going to be hard pressed in such a great field of teams, but are the frontrunners to legitimately win the spirit prize
_________________________________________________________________
Pool B Furious George (Vancouver)

We know they will be great. The old stalwarts are gone to Masters, so the new players will get the opportunity and task to bring home the Worlds bid.

Maverick (Kitchener/Waterloo)

I like this team. I like Andrew Higgins overall play and leadership, I like the speed of Shaw Dungate, and I like the overall team talent level.

Semis? Maybe.

Q (Quebec City)

Another team I have always liked. They would be a lot stronger if their local coed team wasn't so strong (featuring lots of former Q guys).

You better understand how to play against this team on defence, because they run the handler cuts as well as anyone.

NADS

I often wonder where North Bay ultimate will be in 5 years. For many years it has been an overachieving city, developing great teams and great players (some playing for GOAT and Furious this year)

A good friend once used the phrase "good at ultimate" to describe teams like NADS. They don't practice 3 times a week, train all year round, or attend tournaments. However, they can roll out of bed and beat the very teams that do work so hard. Experience and athleticism will again serve them well, but it will be much tougher than in years past.

_________________________________________________________________
Pool C

Phoenix (Ottawa)

This team lost in the semis at CUC 2010 by one single point to Mephisto. The lost the 2009 CUC final by one point to Mephisto.

The team has lost several key players in 2011 (The Alexanader family, Kielan Way, Reynaldo Arteaga, Dave Janssen, Simon Teather, Colin Green, etc).

However, the team continues to be a strong threat for a semis berth at CUC. There is still a core of experience talent and a large group of emerging players. One player to watch is Nick Boucher, still juniors aged but playing Phoenix after dominating at World Juniors last year.

Blackfish (Vancouver)

I understand that this team has lost a lot of players to graduation (Furious), but this team really is the perfect example of why people can't judge a "B Team".

This team will be tough, benefiting from their regional competition and local talent pipelines. It will be interesting to see how they match up with both Phoenix and Grand Trunk.

Grand Trunk (Toronto)

Very strong in 2010, Grand Trunk hopes to repeat its success in 2011.

Losing many players to Feed The Geese, Grand Trunk has retooled with new players, and will feature sibling giants Kevin and Ben Horgan. Kevin, of UWO and Team Canada U-23 fame, will be tough to match up with. You can't teach tall!

Too Bad (Toronto)

Every nationals, it seems like the pick up format of Too Bad gets harder and harder to qualify for nationals and be a top 8 factor.

Squeaking in to nationals with NADS, Too Bad will have many solid veterans, and at the very least will be a factor in the consolation bracket.
_________________________________________________________________
Pool D

General Strike (Winnipeg)
The team that impressed Furious George's Andrew Lugsdin the most in CUC 2007 has the top seed in its pool.

An excellent juniors program, stable leadership, and strong past results position this team well for a quarterfinals spot.

Mephisto (Montreal)

What a great history this team has. 2009 CUC champs, finalists last year, and many top 4 finishes over the past two decades.

Losing many players to co-ed, Mephisto has to moderate their expectations this year. The 2011 squad did win the Quebec regionals title, and will aim to take their familiar spot in CUC semis.

Bloody Gary (Sherbrooke)

Do not be fooled by their seed- This team could be in quarter finals as easily as they could play for 13th.

It's been an up and down touring season for this team. Most of their games against CUC teams have been close games.

Red Circus (Halifax)

Red Circus, a regular factor at CUC, had a strong Boston Invite. Conversely, they had a very tough No Borders 2011 effort.

The program relies on university students in the area, and less on the junior and league programs. Getting players like Ramsey Wright or Matt Hogel is a great help, but these players rarely stay in the town after school is done. In order for Halifax to improve CUC chances every year, they need to change that recruiting mix.

Halifax's finest have to beat Bloody Gary to stay in the power pools on day 2.

Open Division- The Past

2003- Montreal

GOAT and Furious meet in the finals. Furious spanks GOAT in the finals by a score of 17-6.

At the height of their UPA dominance, Furious is a dominant team with dominant players. The final featured two excellent teams, but Furious seemed to surprise the GOAT offense and force
turnovers.

No other teams challenged the top two teams. Furious was the champ, and no one was close.

2007- Toronto

Four years have past, and the top two teams in the country are still standing at the finals.

GOAT had great hopes as the host squad, entering the final with many positive results leading up to the tournament. Defeating Furious in Vancouver at the Flowerbowl 2007 final. They were a revamped team, featuring many young players who would lead the team for years, and John Hassell was entering his prime as the star of the team, someone recognized as one of the best players in the world.

Whether intentional or not, GOAT adapted and learned from the 2003 finals. They adopted the multi team integrated program (First introduced by David Brook in Ottawa) and used Grand Trunk and Roy to harvest players that were younger, faster, and taller. University programs in their regions also developed players, as GOAT players got involved. This made them more competitive at UPA events and leveled the playing field with Furious.

Furious did not adopt the B team system quite as quickly, but they still had many advantages. Vancouver still had generational talents Andrew Lugsdin, Aaron Cruickshank, and Mike Grant. They also had a solid university program and a juniors program piping out talent. Vancouver also drew players from other cities for real life reasons (work, quality of life in the city, etc).

The much anticipated final was a wet affair. Advantage Vancouver. Although the teams were much more evenly matched this time around, Vancouver proved to be the better team on the day, in the conditions given, and emerged as champions again.

Overall, the division saw improvement in terms of overall depth. Mephisto, Invictus, and General Strike were able to give Furious and GOAT tough matches.

TDDM Twitter Feed

2010-08-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Great first day at cuc 2010.

Follow Tommy douglas on twitter @tddreamchine

CUC 2010 Preview

2010-08-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

Nation,

After a weekend battling the flu, I regret not being able to provide a division by division preview of the CUC.

Fortunetly, a contributor from www.iamultimate.com has done a preview. Inmitation is the highest form of flattery when sincere, and the breakdown by the author is similar to mine. I encourage you to go over to the site and give it a read.

U-23 World Championship Update

2010-07-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Quick update on our young stars:

Canada is 5-1 in womens play after a 17-12 loss to Japan. The team squandered a 2-0 lead and was unable to come back. Canada's next game is against Ireland (2-4 record) before heading to the playoffs.
Canada's mens squad is an impressive 6-0 and has enjoyed balanced scoring throughout the roster. Their next match is a quarterfinal match up with Switzerland.

The mens team can be followed via the following link

http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1282

The womens team can be followed via the following link:

http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1283

2010 Ontario Open Regionals

2010-07-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Ontario Open Regionals are upon us this weekend. Waterloo is the host, and KW's WODS organization will do a fine job I am sure.

As an Ultimate Canada board member and someone that works in the sport events business world, I see regionals as a very important thing for our sport. We should have regionals for every region, making it an important part of our Championship series. It's good for competition, and it's very alluring for businesss and cities/areas that want to bring ultimate to their communities. It should be a tournament and an event people want to be part of and see. Right now, we seem to be headed in a good direction with regionals. Notably, the maritime regionals had its best turnout on record this month. (PEI Ultimate readers, send me a Magnum PEI jersey!!) :)

My only hope is we can time regionals away from key tournaments (like No Borders, JazzFest, Team Canada tournaments) that take place in July each year. Perhaps setting up regionals in June might seem early to some but gives time for teams to properly prepare and regroup for August nationals.

Open Regionals- Preview

According the online schedule, we have the following teams:

Phoenix (Ottawa)
Moondoggies (Toronto/Various)
Maverick (KW)
Too Bad (Toronto)
Grand Trunk (Toronto)
Firebird (Ottawa)
ROY (Toronto)

7 teams and 6 spots to nationals!!!

This might be the best group of seven teams at an Ontario regionals yet. Realistically, all teams could make the top 10 at nationals, but sadly one team won't get that chance.

Phoenix from Ottawa finished 2nd at CUC last year and just finished a trip to Worlds and a 2nd place finish at No Borders (despite missing many players during that weekend. The team is flat out strong this year, at the CUC and UPA/USA level. Injuries and absences might affect their performance this weekend, but the goal is simply to qualify and that should be an easy task.

Moondoggies from Toronto will most likely feature young, up and coming GOAT players with strong college/open players from the Vancouver/southwestern Ontario region. (If it is the same team that won No Borders last year). The CUC conflict with the Emerald City Classic might change the roster a bit.

Maverick from KW are having a great season. They finished 9th at CUT, 5th at No Surf, and won JazzFest. Like Phoenix and Moondoggies, they must qualify for nationals, gain intel on their opponents and avoid injuries at this home tournament.

Too Bad is always a tough team to gauge due to the fluidity of the roster. I must have stated that 900 times since I started this blog. If they are going to have strong ex UWO players like Rene Frye and Mike White to run down big hucks, they should figure to grab a spot to nationals.

Grand Trunk from Toronto continues to build towards nationals. 2009 CUC was a bit of a dissapointment for the squad, as they didn't fully capitalize on the evident talent they possessed. Their 2010 team looks very impressive again. Regionals should be a perfect gelling excercise.

Firebird of Ottawa is back after a one year hiatus, and they look like a young, strong club. Featuring a number of ex Phoenix players, the 'Bird had a very strong No Borders and should be a tough matchup with a full roster this weekend. Particular strong play recently has come from Colin Froats and Matt Godkey.

ROY of Toronto had a very strong Jazzfest and impressed many at No Borders this past weekend. Coaches Nate Brown and Brad Amson have done a good job of getting results out of a young athletic bunch.

World U-23 Championships- Team Canada Links

2010-07-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The World U-23 championships take place this week in Florence, Italy.

Canada has both a mens and womens team entered.

The mens team can be followed via the following link

http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1282

The womens team can be followed via the following link:

http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1283

Will Canada Win?

Given that the US will not be attending the tournament, the questions to you the reader is simple:

Will Canada win in Open and Womens respectively?
If so, who will lead both squads
Who will be Canada's best rivals with the Yankees absent?

Look forward to your analysis

No Borders 2010

2010-07-20T11:30:00.001-07:00

Nation,

Just want to thank all participants for another outstanding No Borders tournament.

Special thanks to local league host OCUA and staff, our volunteers and my technical team (Matt Pinard, Jitka Licenik, and Carl Sharpe) and my TV color commentators (Justine Price, Mike Wronski and David Brook).

Also a big thank you to Five Ultimate (Who created an amazing lounge area and made a significant donation to the Team Canada junior ladies team) and our tournament sponsors.

Thanks,

Steven Trainor
Tournament Director
No Borders 2010

Newspaper Article

Ultimate took the front page of the City section in Ottawa's biggest newspaper:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ultimate+players+come/3294083/story.html

TV Coverage of the Finals

From their website, womens final will be aired on the 22nd at 8:30pm:
http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?lid=12&rid=4&sid=82&cdate=7/22/2010

Mens final on the 24th at 2:30pm:
http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?lid=12&rid=4&sid=82&cdate=7/24/2010

Final Standings- Open

Open: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#open/tournament/7608

This year, North Bay claimed the championship for the first time in 26 attempts. It was a star studded team that, along with Phoenix, provided an excellent final that I can't wait to watch without any distractions!

Also congratulations to Mule, which won the Sean Green Cup. Mule captain Dave Brown, a friend of Sean Green, was extremely pleased to win the trophy named in honor of his late friend for the first time.

1. Nads (North Bay/Toronto)
2. Phoenix (Ottawa)
3. Strike (Winnipeg)
4. GLUM (Ottawa)
5. Q (Quebec City)
6. Red Circus (Halifax)
7. Too Bad (Toronto)
8. Firebird (Ottawa)
9. Bloody Gary (Sherbrooke)
10. Team Canada East Jrs (Various)
11. Grand Trunk (Toronto)
11. Fuel (Toronto)
13. BDU (Ottawa)
14. LXG (Ottawa)
15. Max Power (Toronto)
16. ROY (Toronto)
17. Mule (Ottawa) - Sean Green Cup Winner
18. Fossil (Toronto)
19. Magma (Montreal)
20. Arrested Development (Ottawa)
21. Agony (Montreal)

Final Standings- Women
Womens: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#womens/tournament/7616

Ottawa's best womens team has returned to the top of No Borders! Stella played a great tournament and saved their best for the Saturday showcase game and Sunday final versus Team Canada Juniors.

The tournament featured a number of young womens club teams that showed lots of promise and talent. In particular, new team EXO from Sherbrooke looked like a promising athletic squad.

1. Stella (Ottawa)
2. Team Canada U20 Women (Various)
3. Fusion (Winnipeg)
4. QUB (Quebec City)
5. Lily (Toronto)
6. Dame (Ottawa)
7. Salty (Halifax)
7. Missconnduct (Connecticut)
9. Exo (Sherbrooke)
10. Mystik (Montreal)
11. The New Black (Ottawa)
11. WTF (Brooklyn)
13. Scarlett (Ottawa)
14. Tempest (St John's)
15. FEISTY (Toronto)

Boston Invite 2010 Preview

2010-06-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Attention Leominister MA! Make the beds at the motel 6 and clean the restaurant grills! Massachusetts prepares for an annual visit from Canadian open and women's teams. Boston invites some of the best teams north and south of the border for its tournament located in Devens.

Canadian content will be in heavy supply this weekend.

Open

32 teams are in action, with 9 Canadian squads making the trip.

Elite Pool includes GOAT (Tor), Phoenix (Ott) and Mephisto (Mtl)
Other Pools include Firebird (Ott), Red Circus (Hfx), Grand Trunk (Tor), Demon (MTL), Bloody Gary (Sherbrooke) and Magma (Mtl)

Defending champs GOAT make their first appearance as a full squad this summer. Phoenix will be looking to build on a very strong 2nd place performance at CUT and some big wins against Bodhi and PoNY. Mephisto has 3 strong opponents on day one (Ironside, Pike/Philly combo team and Bodhi) and will look to beat seed.

This will be the first chance we get to see clubs like Firebird, Trunk, Circus and Demon compete in the same tournament, and we will have a better idea of where these teams are relative to each other.

So, who's going to win the Boston Invite this year?

Easterns Womens

With the Elite women's division previously played a few weeks ago, the eastern womens divisions will be the focus of women's play this weekend.

Canadian clubs QUB (Qc), Salty (Hfx) and Mystik (Mtl) are sending squads and are well ranked in the field of eight.

Mixed

8 teams in the coed division, with a Canadian team from Montreal (RIP).

Format is round robin and all teams seem full squad and highly competitive. It should be another excellent pre worlds tune up for RIP.

Team Canada U-23 Training Camp Report

2010-06-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Submitting Author: Alex Davis, Furious George

Canadian clubs were busy on the weekend of June 19-20, but some competed a little shorthanded while they lent some of their talent to U23 training camps in Vancouver. An elite constellation of young stars met here for two days of hard practice. Regrettably, I did not have the hours to study them all, but I can pass on some modest observations.

I stopped by the men's Saturday practice during a recovery jog (a cabin-feverish attempt to cope with a hamstring strain) to take a look at our prospects. I was immediately impressed by the fluidity and quality of play for a team that had been thrown together on short notice.

Soft-spoken coach Kevin Cheung (formerly of TFP and Furious George) instilled a sense of dedicated productivity into what time they had. I don't know how well it survived a subsequent night of socializing, but the vibe at the time was healthy and busy, with an excited touch of swagger. Skill-wise, most visible at the time I arrived was Jeremy Noorden's command of zone-busting blades. Noorden (USAU college all-region, NW) shows better in the university game than he does in the Open field in part because he can get away with more, and with this complement of receivers, his fearless overhead throws should serve him well against less experienced opponents in Europe.

I also noticed that the men's U23 contingent (that was present at the camp) is not a particularly tall team, with just a couple of players cresting 6'2”. I forgot to ask Cheung about this fact – whether it was a strategic calculation or mere coincidence. With the tall and lanky air force of the USA not in attendance, a shorter, faster roster may yield better match-ups against Japan and Colombia, among other opponents. Nevertheless, the U23 roster is full of deceptive deep and defensive threats, such as utility players Dre Gailits, Aaron Liu, Adrian Yearwood and Mark Lloyd. Underestimate them at your own risk.

On the following morning, Team Canada tested their skills against Furious George, inviting the usual brand of joking, shoving and screaming that comes from playing with some familiar match-ups. Morgan Hibbert's answer to a call by Bobo Eyrich abruptly ended an idyllic Sunday morning for some well-to-do Shaughnessy families.

Canada made a strong start, took advantage of some of the Monkey's lack of finesse and won the early break at 3-2. The two teams otherwise traded points while the Furious defense made adjustments. The Canadian deep defense, though comparatively dwarfed, was positioning quickly and correctly. Their offense shied away from the sidelines and emphatically centred the disc at every opportunity. This latter tactic played a crucial role early on, since it was surprisingly difficult to predict the next dump target; cutters sometimes exchanged dump priority with handlers midway into the stall count, and handlers began dump-cuts unconventionally far upfield. Thus, defenders who had lost sight of their relative positions repeatedly failed to contain unexpected dumps and breaks. Eventually, Furious adapted to this style of play and learned to pressure the resets, forcing turnovers. The Monkey went on to win 17-8.

Outstanding contributions were made by Yearwood's handler cutting, and throws by Noorden and McKnight. The latter two repeatedly made Mark Lloyd an offensive poster child by threading hammers and outside-ins into his hands. Defensively, Nate Dandurand's hustling mark made a strong impression on Furious handlers as well.

Some time ago, after the vote had passed to send teams to Florence, there was a lingering question that irked many of us. How would we assemble an all-star team with so little notice and so little money? Can we comfortably assemble a “national team” if we can't get certain luminaries on it? Eventually, I realized that the question itself was wrong. The chief obstacle any national team (any elite team) must face, I remembered, is its own collection of sense of worth. Every team I have ever played on (and in particular, the most successful ones) really amounted to just yet another group of guys trying to figure out how to play together – and the sooner we realized that, the better we became. When I look at this Team Canada, particularly after this scrimmage, I see faces not content merely to make the cut. One way or another, I don't think we can send a better team than one that looks like that. Good luck, gentlemen. The hunger to prove oneself, sometimes urgent, ravenous and insane, is the greatest weapon I have ever known in sport.

World Cup 2010- Putting the 'I' in Team

2010-06-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

Nation,

I have been closely following the World Cup this year, as I often do. Once you put national jerseys on in any sport, I become infinitely more interested as many of us do. Every four years, North America tunes in to football/soccer and picks apart the aspects of the game we don't quite understand (The excitement when there are so few goals, lack of replay, the offside rules, the terrible diving and the ties).

For the first time, the World Cup is in Africa, South Africa to be exact. Do we need to have a world sporting event in a place that can't afford the 9 soccer stadiums built, that have cities so unsafe reporters (e.g. Stephen Brunt) are advised not to walk even three blocks without armed escort? That's a moral dilemna. A struggling population has embraced the World Cup, but it's like enjoying a wonderful meal before seeing the final bill. Nobody on this continent will be around for that moment of realization.

Yet we still love the World Cup, and watch it, and continue to support it. It seems like nothing can turn us off this event. We even seem to enjoy the drama of teams self combusting in the middle of the tournament.

Two games in and already teams are turning on each other and their management. Most notably is France. Les Bleus have seen a star player expelle d from the team, a captain benched for game three, a player boycott of practice, and several admin and players publicly turning on their embattled coach. Raymond Domenech is certainly hard to love, and hasn't been shy to bash his players that he picked himself. What a mess after two games!

France is not alone. England to be on the verge of collapse and mutiny, less than a week after everyone sang the praise of their coach Capello. Host South Africa's players are yet another team questioning their coach.

Realistically, France benefited from an illegal goal to make the tournament, and they are not the same team that went to the World Cup Final in 2006 and won in 1998. Anyone remaining from those winning squads is four years older, and no replacement has been found for retired star Zinedine Zidane. England is feeling the heat from a soccer mad country, but they seem to be simply not good enough. And South Africa, how are players on the 83rd best team in the world complaining about their coach? They should be glad to be the host, and to have scored a goal!

What happened to 'Praise in Public, Scold in Private'? Everybody seems to be so quick to blame someone else for results that they haven't bothered to finish the tournament as a team. To me, that is a far worse crime than failing to perform.

As ultimate teams (both domestic or international), selfish finger pointing strife mid tournament is a terrible distraction that has very little chance of helping the situation. Commitment to the team, to the game plan (no plan works unless all are on board), and to the leadership is crucial to being a good team member and a person fans and teams can respect.

U23- Team Canada Womens Roster

2010-06-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

Team Canada-Women's Roster

The women's head coach is Danielle Fortin. Fortin, a club team player for Stella, Capitals and Lotus, won junior gold as a player in 2004 and will play for Lotus at the 2010 WUCC in Prague. Her experience as a coach/player coach includes several university national titles with the Ottawa Gee Gees and a 5th place world juniors result at the 2008 WUGC in Vancouver.

Her 21 player squad will include at least 6 ladies with world junior experience.

Players to watch include Jordan Meron of Western/Lotus (who scored an outstanding 29 goals at the 2008 world juniors), McGill captain and star Rachael Moens and former Ottawa Gee Gee/Stella Alex Benedict, a smooth handler with nice throws.

U23 WOMEN'S TEAM

Alex Benedict
Amanda Ho
Amy Zhou
Clancy Budiak-Jarvie
Geneva Locke
Jeannette Quach
Jenny Lo
Jordan Meron
Kaity Williams
Kat Lee
Lauren Romaniuk
Lindsay Olimer
Lydia Rasmusens
Maria Chau
Megan Thomas
Rachel Moens
Rena Kawabata
Sarah Bobak
Stephanie Mandal
Stephanie Salerno
Valerie Lefebvre

U23- Team Canada Open Roster

2010-06-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Several weeks ago Ultimate Canada announced the mens and womens rosters that will represent Canada at the inaugural u23 world championship in Florence, Italy. The tournament will be held July 19-25 2010.

For various (and valid) reasons, The United States will not be fielding teams at this event, and Canada will only be sending teams in the men's and women's category. Regardless of the lack of US participation, this will be a unique opportunity for some very good players to represent our country at the national level.

Open Roster

The open team's head coach is the young but experienced Kevin Cheung, most notably from Team Fisher Price. Kevin's barely too old for the tournament himself, but he has national championships, a world clubs championship (Perth 2006) and a Worlds title (2008) on his resume already.

Cheung's roster is as follows

U23 OPEN TEAM (World JR year in brackets if applicable)

Cam Harris (2008)
Russell Street (2006)
Jeremy Norden
Will Ranson
Daniel Dantzig (2008)
Graham Landon
John Norris
Adrian Yearwood
Thomson McKnight
Richie Tam
Aaron Liu (2008)
Dave So
Scott Hislop (2006)
Andre Gailitis
Kevin Fong
Blair Underhill
Thomas Black (2008)
Gord Harrison
Kevin Horgan
Kielan Way (2006)
Mike Adams
Nathan Dandurand
Raynaldo Arteaga
Michael Jones
Ernie Lin (2006)
Andrew Watts
Bobo Eyrich
Mark Lloyd (2008)

Analysis

A very talented squad will represent our country in this division. Many of the players listed have assumed key roles with various college teams throughout the country and with club teams in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.

Clearly, past participation in world juniors was not a requirement for selection. This makes sense for several reasons

Players start and stop playing during the 18-23 age period
Some players peak and some plateau after junior age
Sometimes junior selections are wrong (It's not easy!)

With so little time this summer for the team to practice and play together, you would think it would be a major challenge for team cohesion. However, looking at past world junior rosters, college experiences, and club play, we see that many of the players have experience with other members of this team.

For instance, the University of Western Sharks will be heavily represented by star handlers Mark Lloyd, Scott Hislop, Andrew Watts and the 6'6 Kevin Horgan.

National college champions Carleton Ravens will have speedy Rey ("Rey-Rey") Arteaga and the dominant Kielan Way (Phoenix newcomer Mike Adams is also on the roster). Toronto will have a slew of club players familiar with each other, notably Cam Harris, Adrian Yearwood, Daniel Dantzig, Thompson McKnight, and Michael Jones.

Bolstering the team will be emerging talents like Mephisto's Nathan Dandurand and Dalhousie star Bobo Eyrich.

Cheung has selected some players he is very familiar with as teammates. Hislop, Russell Street, Ernie Lin and Blair Underhill will be vital parts to a winning equation.

With United States out of the picture, Canada should be the pre tournament favorite to win the championship. (2nd in the 2006 and 2008 juniors). However, with many players new to the world stage, and the growing talent levels of teams outside of North America, Canada must be ready to deliver a strong performance in Florence.

Preview: Northern Flights 2010, No Surf 2010

2010-06-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Ultimate action this weekend in North Bay and Cleveland.

Northern Flights

The 22nd annual Northern Flights tournament takes place in North Bay, Ontario this weekend.

18 teams are registered this year, comprised of a mix of touring, pickup, and local squads.

The tournament favorites are a GOAT/Lotus + friends squad named The Dockers, champions for the past two years and three out of the last four years.
No Surf- Open

Cleveland's big tournament has a strong pool of open teams.

In addition to a high number of Canadian teams, (Maverick, Too Bad, ROY, and Grand Trunk) the tournament has added some stronger US teams to the mix. These include 2009 USA finals team Madison Club, a split squad of fellow USA finalist Madcow, LouEVIL (KY), Direwolf (Pittsburgh) and the always gritty BearProof.

No Surf- Women

The women's bracket for No Surf is much smaller and much more modest than their open counterpart.

Canadian content will be represented by Lily of Toronto.

FlowerBowl 2010 Review- Open Elite Division

2010-06-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Author: Alex Davis, Furious George

Flowerbowl (June 5-6, 2010) is Vancouver's hometown showcase tournament, and the earliest of the season in Northwest. Its cachet rises and falls, depending on the year, the timing of the major heavyweight tournaments and the objectives of the nearest clubs. Regardless, it is Furious George's home turf, and every year the Monkey can be found there, plying its trade and tuning up for the season. This year, with the timing and costs of WUCC2010, U23s, and WJUCs, the tide of talent rolled back into Vancouver again, turning Flowerbowl once more into a pitched battle.

Elite Open Division- Pool Play

Blackfish

Vancouver's national-level touring team is farming a lot of talent this year, sending players to all three world championship events. The talent pipeline has been good to Blackfish, replacing graduated veterans with younger pick-ups like Gordon Harrison, Jordan Tessarolo and Bobo Eyrich. Still, losing two former captains to Furious makes it difficult to direct all that raw talent, so Blackfish can expect its early-season tournaments to be learning experiences. Although they struggled with better-honed opponents like Furious, Sockeye, and ECU they gave a solid showing in a loss against Rhino (8-12) and took wins from Winnipeg and UBC, going 2-4 in pool play.

Furious George

The Monkey's roster looks largely unchanged after 2009's changing of the guard, and skillwise, well ahead of the mark from last year at this time. Still, the majority of Furious' D-line joined Invictus for this weekend and left something of a skeleton crew to navigate six games of pool play. Nevertheless, Vancouver held the fort, going 5-1 with only one loss (12-10) against Sockeye in a turnover-heavy game that both sides admitted was stilted and uninspired. Setting themselves up for a rematch in the final, the Fish and the Monkey later delivered a real crowd-pleaser.

Sockeye

The Fish will never die, one has to conclude, as Seattle continues to find substitutes for each name-brand veteran who moves on. Sockeye has changed its roster quite a bit in the last two years, but they thrive anew every year. The Fish added to the weekend's identity-confusion by donning basketball singlets and playing as the "Seattle Hoops" for pool play. Despite an awkward first game against Furious, they pulled out a victory and came down hard on Invictus in the showcase game, going 6-0 before the final.

Emerald City Ultimate

ECU of Seattle is Danny Karlinsky's brainchild, combining elite ultimate with a mission of spirit and charity. To this end, he has recruited an impressive team, with veritable museum of stars past and present. Most of ECU's marquee players were not hand for the weekend, but ECU still played a fast and grinding game, quarterbacked alternately by Karlinsky and Jeremy Noorden.

Rhino

Rhino of Portland, Oregon, grows steadily more dangerous a threat every year. Franchise player Matt Melius is difficult to contain, and when working in combination with deep-strike Tim, the offense never shies away from a late huck at the endzone.

Winnipeg U35 Junior All-Stars

Keeping TDs and captains everywhere guessing as to the true meaning of this moniker, a General Strike contingent landed in Vancouver and picked up local talent (notables Andy Siy & Pat Dowler, to name a couple) to enjoy some early-season competition against the Northwest. They impressed with an uncanny ability to score on fast and flat hucks despite surging crosswinds, but their greatest victory of the weekend may have been convincing Tyler Kinley of Sockeye and Danny Karlinsky of ECU that they were in fact a national team of sorts (no kidding).

3-Coiler

Another mysterious name for the weekend, the scatologically inclined "3-Coiler" was in fact Calgary's Invictus, with most of its WUCC roster on hand to practice as a team. Invictus has drawn heavily on Edmonton and Vancouver for players, producing a team that may yet prove to be a real contender in Prague if it can sync up its different components and personalities. Invictus went 3-3 in pool play, losing only to better-prepared teams Sockeye, Rhino, and Furious George -- the latter in a predictably fierce and spirited game that forced the tired Monkey to run. Invictus suffered a bad rout in the showcase game against Sockeye, in which the Fish exploited both offensive and defensive miscues. Tyler Kinley later observed, "they aren't short on talent, just on chemistry."

UBC Alumni

A handful of UBC T-Birds rounded out the elite men's bracket with their style of casual, fast-and-loose weekend ultimate. A note of caution if you meet them on the field: they may not look too serious, but standouts Eamonn Watson, Mike Aizawa, Blair Hole, and Jordan McPhee, all of TFP 2008 fame, will punish a lazy defense and put you back in your place.

Sunday Playoffs

After six games in pool play, all teams were ranked and paired into finals. The tournament final put Furious George against Sockeye once more, but this time, the Fish graciously agreed to play against Vancouver's full roster now that Invictus had released them for the day.

The game played out in exciting fashion, with Seattle scoring breaks early and late, whilst Vancouver took a strong lead in the middle stretch. Both teams played hard, fast and efficiently, in contrast to their earlier match. While Furious converted on some high-pressure turnovers, Sockeye could not force the same back on the Monkey, who used a combination of creative throws and deep looks (in particular to Andrew Lugsdin) to escape the Seattle defense.

Sockeye mounted a trademark late-game comeback that recently won the final for them at TEP Medellin, but this time Vancouver closed out the game at 15-12 -- the first time they have defeated Sockeye since WUGCs in 2008.

Dropping the 'F Bomb'

2010-06-10T08:08:00.001-07:00

Nation,

There's a new coed team from the Maritimes that will be looking to qualify for CUC 2010.

F-Bomb, as coach Scott Underwood pointed out, played at Mixed Easterns. Their weekend was summed up by their coach:

"F Bomb from Saint John NB attended their first international tournament with a pre-seeding of 31/32. We went 2-1 in pool play, won our crossover against a tough Boston club OTP to finish Saturday 3-1 and advance to the top pool. Sunday we hit a tough schedule, running into Slow White X who made the finals. Overall, we improved our ranking to a tie for 13th."

Here is their team website. It will be interesting to see how this team fares against other east Canadian teams (especially Fredericton's SPAWN) in their bid to qualify for Sherbrooke.

Weekend Warrior- You Pick It!

2010-06-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Nation,

This past weekend saw several strong performances from Canadian squads in tournaments south of the border.

In Cazenovia (CUT), Phoenix of Ottawa made it to the tournament final for the first time since 2005. On Saturday, they narrowly beat out split squad GOAT 12-11, lost 13-7 to the pool's top seed Bodhi and then beat Philly Open by a score of 10-9. Two wins by a single point each= two wins and a likely trip to quarters.

Maverick of Kitchener-Waterloo had a great weekend as well. They won their Saturday pool with a smooth 3-0 record. Starting the day with a narrow 12-11 win over Thrown Together, they then "upped their game" to beat more established teams Sons of Liberty (13-8) and Medicine Men (13-9). Maverick lost their pre quarters to Goat split squad (Y), but garnered top seed for the consolation quarters.

On Sunday, Maverick and Phoenix continued to impress. Maverick defeated Eastern Motors (14-11), Medicine Men (15-9) before defeating New York's Replicants (One of last year's surprise teams) in the consolation final to finish 9th.

Phoenix had won their pre quarters over Super Seed, and went to work in a tough quarters match with PoNY. Ottawa won 12-10 and met a very tough Bodhi in the semi. Bodhi, who had beaten Phoenix the day before, wasn't able to recapture that success on day two. Phoenix pulled off the upset (15-11) before losing to Ironside (15-5) in the final.

Both GOAT split squads went 0-3 on day one and lost their respective quarters.

Over in Boston at Mixed Easterns, three Canadian teams were duking it out in their respective pools. Tournament top seed RIP went 2-1 on day one, as did ONYX of Quebec City. Spawn of Fredericton went 0-3 in a challenging pool.

Our Canadian squads showed promise in their crossover games. ONYX had an impressive win over a Slow White split squad (15-8) and took top seed into Sunday's championship bracket. Spawn managed to win their crossover to join RIP and ONYX in the pre quarters.

Sunday clearly belonged to ONYX. They won their pre-quarters over Pandemic (15-8) before easily handling RIP in the quarterfinals (15-5). The beat Slow White split squad X in the semis (13-8) and Slow White Y in the final by a score of 12-10.

Who was the Weekend Warrior?

The poll question to the right of this article asks: Which team was the Weekend Warrior for June 5-6th?

Without any results from the Boston Invite Elite women's tournament being available, we still have several Canadian teams that turned some heads on the past weekend.

On the men's side, Phoenix went to the finals at CUT for the first time in five years. They also beat teams (PoNY and Bodhi) that have been very tough foes in past years and will be barriers to USA finals qualification.

On the other had, Maverick from K-W really threw down the gauntlet this weekend. They are not in the elite levels yet, but their wins over Eastern Motors FB, Sons of Liberty, Medicine Men and the Replicants in their first major US tournament is very impressive for a first year club (technically).

And then we have ONYX. RIP is the first Canadian team I can recall entering the tournament with top seed. ONYX is definitely the first squad from Canada to win the whole tournament since I have been playing/blogging.

It's an impressive victory and feat. But should we be really shocked with ONYX exploits? Before their loss to Chaos in the wet and windy CUC 2009 finals, this team looked almost unstoppable last summer.

Have your vote and your say about the most impressive Canadian performance last weekend!

Brute Squad Vs All Stars Showcase, Mixed Easterns and Gender Blender

2010-06-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Nation,

It's going to be a busy weekend for Canadian teams and American teams in the eastern region.
In addition to CUT, which we already previewed, we have coed and elite women's action in Boston, and we have the always popular Gender Blender.

Boston Invite- Elite Women's Tournament and Showcase.

According to the upa site and the BUDA site, it's going to be a great weekend for women's ultimate in beantown. The elite women's bracket of the annual Boston Invite is held on its own this weekend.

Brute Squad, 2nd at USA nationals last year and headed to worlds, will play a friday showcase game at Tufts Bello Field.

Brute Squad vs. International All-Star Conglomeration (7:30pm - 9:00pm)

Canadian teams are Lotus (Toronto/Ottawa) and Stella (Ottawa). Two UK teams and a new team from North Carolina (Phoenix) will be in action as well.

Mixed Easterns

Boston's Annual coed tournament is also taking place this weekend. 32 teams will be in action.

Canada should be well represented. RIP from Montreal holds the number one tournament seed, which might be the first time a Canadian team has had such a distinction at this tournament. (Respect!). ONYX from Quebec City is the top seed in their pool. Finally, SPAWN from Fredericton New Brunswick is going to have a great Saturday playing strong teams like Quiet Coyote and Ballometrics.

Gender Blender

North America's party tournament enters its 14th year and once again, the event will be taking place in Fergus Ontario.

Drink challenges, costumes, skills competitions, and camping are a staple of the event. There will be footage from some of the games live via the internet on iamultimate.com! Including the 9/10 play off, the semi’s and the finals.

On the side from all the fun, games will also be played and the schedule has many Canadian squads. Touring clubs BFC, Big Fish and Big Hammers will be in action. Long time Blender teams like The Bad Larrys and Force Gnome represent Toronto and Ottawa (respectively) with pride.

CUT 2010- The Big Boys are Back for the Summer!

2010-06-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The big boys of the north east hit the field in the sleepy upstate New York area of Cazenovia. I hate to give away Ottawa trade secrets, but if you are looking for a great post game/ tournament meal, take the detour to Syracuse for Dinosaur BBQ. The food is amazing, and the atmosphere is truly unique.

CUT annually serves as the first major open tournament in the region for the summer, and this year is no exception.

Here is a preview of the elite pools and other Canadian squads.

Pool A

Ironside (Boston)- A deserving top seed. 3rd at USA nationals last year (still getting used to the name change), 2nd the year before, and going to Worlds in Prague as a potential championship favorite.

GOAT Y (Toronto)- Split squad from Toronto's best. 12th at USA nats last year, 6th in 2008 and 3rd in 2007. Toronto understands the season is a marathon and not a sprint, and continues to use the early schedule to make the best decisions for the fall.

PONY (NYC)- I think we'd all have to agree that PONY is one of the best teams not to make USA nationals last fall.

Mephisto (Montreal)- The defending Canadian national champions will have no shortage of day one competition.

Pool B

Bodhi (Amherst)- It was just 2008 that Bodhi was a relative unknown, trouncing teams in the early season tournaments and their seeds sky rocketed accordingly. The team had a great 2009 season, making it to the UPA finals and finished 11th. They're very young, they've already made it to the show, they have a pipeline of talent in Amherst, how can they not be excited about their 2010 prospects? I am.

Goat X (Toronto)- Second split squad from Hogtown. Toronto's three team open system had a very strong tryout process with large numbers of players trying out.

Philly Open (NJ/PA)- A new team building on players from New Jersey (Pike) and Philly Love (Philadelphia). Pike went to USA finals last year and finished 16th, so this merger team might be a huge boost in their ability to compete at the next level.

Phoenix (Ottawa)- 2009 saw many changes for the Ottawa open program. Many players departed and the second team was lost for the season due to numbers. That being said, Phoenix had a strong summer and fall performance, with a best ever 2nd place finish at CUC 2009. They clearly battled hard at each tournament and got the most out of their squad.

In 2010, Firebird is back, and top team Phoenix has one of their strongest rosters- ever. It was a very tough year to make the squad. One of the biggest surprises was Jan Gorski. After experience with Carleton University and a brief tenure with Firebird in 2008, Gorski played with coed team Liquid in Kitchener-Waterloo. That benefit of a change of scenery (and improvement in fitness evidenced through tryout tests) seems to have made a great change in his game.

Other Canadian Squads

Maverick (Kitchener Waterloo)- As the web site states, "2010 will be Maverick`s first year as an organized, competitive Open team, the first such team in Southwestern Ontario. In previous years we have played as a pick-up team under the name Medicare."

I guess this was an inevitable step (dissolution of coed team Liquid) given Liquid's failure to secure a worlds bid last year and Medicare's strong performances in 2008 tournaments like No Borders and Jazz.

Players of note include but are not limited to Andrew Higgins, Carson Turner (ex Phoenix and World Juniors), Tom Dowler and Trevor Henry (2009 Gender Blender 'Fastest Man').

USA College Championships 2010

2010-06-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The USA college championships just wrapped up this weekend, and the lack of Canadian teams leads to a wane in interest in this side of the border.

However, our lack of interest is not shared by the many players and fans that took part, anxiously watched/followed and covered the event. Many great reports on the men's and women's tournament are on the USA ultimate web site.

On the men's side, Florida won the title with a 15-12 victory over Carleton College. In the past five years, Florida has won two championships, while also finishing second and third. Four semi finals appearances in five years with two titles might not make them a "dynasty" in many people's eyes, but clearly the University of Florida has built a great program and it will be interesting to see if this team can continue to excel at this level.

On the ladies' side, Oregon entered as the top seed in the tournament and won the championship with a victory over University of California Santa Barbara. Oregon clearly was the class of the division this year, allowing no more than 9 points per game in the tournament, with several routs in pool play action. Given the suspension of the men's program last year, we can hope that the women's title will help foster better relations between the school and the Oregon frisbee team.

Congrats to Oregon and Florida on your national titles!

'USA Ultimate' Lunched- May Tournament Reviews

2010-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Nation,

On May 24th, The Ultimate Players Association officially became USA Ultimate. This took place soon after CUPA became Ultimate Canada and launched its new site.
I don't think this was a major surprise to many. The new name, new logo and new website seem to be a fit for both organizations.

It seems from their communications that USA ultimate will continue with the status quo as it relates to their college and club series, specifically as it relates to Canadian teams participation.

Finally, CUPA and UPA won't have to explain to other members of the sports world that they are the national sport organization, and not a player's union. :)

Tournaments in May

KN in Montreal noted I forgot to review the recent Bell Crack Coed Classic in Philly and the women's section of the White Mountain Open. I had some problems with score reporter opening both of those tournaments.. previously, and apologize for the slight.

Bell Crack Coed Classic- May 15-16, 2010

Four of Ontario and Quebec's finest coed teams were active in this year's tournament.

Denoiret from Montreal, a mixture of Mephisto and Storm players entered as the third seed in their four team pool. They went 3-0 in day one pool play, beating tournament top seed Quiet Coyote 15-9.
RIP from Montreal also beat their seed and went 3-0 in pool play
ONYX from Quebec City entered as the highest Canadian seed and won their pool with a 3-0 record.
Monster from Toronto, one of Hogtown's strongest coed teams annually, went 1-2 in pool play and lost the crossover to get into the quarters by a single point. They later went on to win the B Consolation bracket on Sunday.

Three of the four Canadian squads advanced to the quarterfinals, and all of the easily moved on to the semis. Denoiret edged out ONYX in one semi, while RIP won their semi to nab a place in the finals.

In the all Canadian final, scratch that, all province of Quebec final, scratch that, all Montreal final, Denoiret defeated RIP 15-6. Perhaps these two teams could have a rematch before Mephisto, Storm and RIP all head to Prague to represent our country.

Overall, some fantastic performances by Canadian teams in a tough early tournament.

White Mountain Open- Women's Division- May 22-23 2010

Four Canadian squads were involved in New Hampshire at WMO.

Storm of Montreal entered as the number 2 tournament seed. They rolled on day one, going 4-0 in strong fashion.

QUB of Quebec City entered as the second seed in their pool and went 3-1 in pool play. They had a tough result versus top seed bent but set themselves up for a favorable quarterfinal with three very lopsided victories.

Mystik of Montreal held their seed in day one pool play. Their win over Dartmouth cemented their place in the quarters versus QUB.

Chikitas of Sherbrooke, also called EXO, qualified for a play in game to make the quarters with a 1-3 record in pool play. They won the play in game, but unfortunately they landed in a matchup with Bent, NYC's finest women's squad.

In the Sunday play. Storm and QUB advanced to the semis with victories. Chikitas and Mystik lost their respective quarters, and then lost in the consolation semi finals.

Storm beat another Hatch split squad team to advance to the finals, while QUB bowed out quickly to Bent in the other semi.

No score is reported for the final, but Bent's facebook site reports a 13-11 victory for NYC, and BENT leaves Hanover as 2010 champs.

White Mountain Mephisto Magic!

2010-05-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Some great pics of TUF 2010 are available via Corry Berghout's site.

Teams are still in the tryout mode or the feeling out mode of the summer touring season, but we're finally starting to get some tournament results in on the new upa score reporter site.

This past weekend, the White Mountain Open took place in Hanover NH. Despite having a population of roughly 11,000, it's highly regarded as a place to live, and there is just enough to see and do for a weekend. It's a beautiful little area for a tournament.

6 Canadian teams were in action, as well as a number of highly regarded teams in the north east region.

Magma of Montreal had a tough Saturday in a very tough pool. They did not manage to score more than 5 points in any of their games. Any team would have tempered expectations if your schedule read: Sons of Liberty, Q, Chuck Wagon and a Bodhi split squad.

Q from Quebec City is back after a two year absence, and that is a welcome site for Canadian open ultimate. Q put up strong fights against Bodhi and SOL, and lost a heartbreaking one point loss to Chuckwagon. Expect this team to improve throughout the season.

Firebird from Ottawa has returned this season after a one year hiatus. Despite struggling against a Bodhi split squad, the team manage to pound Red Tide 13-2, the first time Firebird has beaten Portland's finest open club.

Demon from Montreal, coming off a fantastic 2009 season, went 1-3 record on day one. Demon had a tough day against their A team Mephisto and strong New York club Replicants, but handled Dartmouth Plane Train easily and lost a one pointer against Sherbrooke.

Bloody Gary is a new open team from Sherbrooke... building on the past juniors and coed development in that city. Bloody Gary had a great first weekend, going 2-2 on day and beating Montreal's Demon by one. I smell a rivalry in the making!!

Mephisto of Montreal (defending CUC champs) had a strong weekend. They breezed through day one play in three of their games, and beat the Replicants 14-12 in a strong pool match up.

In the championship bracket....

Mephisto was the only Canadian team in the quarterfinals. They easily outscored a Bodhi split squad and Sons of liberty to advance to the final.

The finals pitted Bodhi Y versus Mephisto. Montreal was able to take home the WMO crown with a single point win over the boys from the Boston area.

A small victory on the road to Prague Preparation! Next major open tournament in the area will be CUT in Cazenovia, NY.

Toronto Ultimate Festival 2010 Preview

2010-05-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The first major outdoor tournament of the season in the Upper/Lower Canada region takes place this weekend. It's used as either a tune up tournament for teams recently formulated, or as a final tryout out for players looking to make a team/program.

The 2010 version of the Toronto Ultimate Festival (TUF) promises to be one of the stronger editions in recent years.

Open

8 of the 14 teams in the division will be from Toronto. The open program in Toronto, GOAT/Grand Trunk/ROY, will be entering 5 teams. Other local teams include Too Bad, Fuel, and Fossil.

Ottawa, Montreal, and Waterloo have decided to participate this year, and as such add some great teams to the pool.

National champion Mephisto from Montreal begins its title defense this weekend, and will be joined by affiliate Demon.

Ottawa will be sending two Phoenix squads and Firebird, which makes its return after a one year hiatus.

Maverick is a new open team from Kitchener-Waterloo. The new team played well as an open team (Medicare) at both Jazzfest and No Borders last year, and will be a strong opponent this weekend.

Womens

There are three local teams from Toronto, with one Lotus team (defending national champions) and two Lily squads.

Ottawa is sending both their A and B squads to the event, and Montreal is sending Storm as a representative.

PPF from K-W should also be a very strong entry this season, benefiting from the folding of coed powerhouse Liquid from the same city.

A team from Peterbourough is listed. No team name is given, but I hope this team is the start of a regular women's team from this city. It's ultimate, so maybe it's just a ringer team from somewhere else.

Mixed

Usually the strength of the TUF tournament, the division has 27 teams this year but is missing some of the key coed teams in the region. (Gecko, RIP, etc)

Monster, Bytown Flatball Club, Mayhem, Big Fish and Big Hammers will be introducing their 2010 squads. Tundra will be continuing their tryouts with split squads entered.

After a great experience last year, Saint John's (Newfoundland) will be sending two squads this year. Currently, there is no word on whether the team will employ the services of Gavin "Zone Buster" Thompson this year.

2010 Junior National Teams

2010-05-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Ultimate Canada released the rosters of the open and women's 2010 Junior National Teams.

These players will represent Canada in Germany at the WFDF World Junior Ultimate Championships August 2-7, 2010.

Junior OpenJunior Women's


Head Coach: Kirk Nylen Assistant Coach: Patrick Mooney	Head Coach: Stephanie Chow Assistant Coach: Dan Byma
Ben Mussell Ethan Kovacs Evan Cole Fred Lam Greg Moore Hollis Maradyn-Jowsey Isaiah Masek-Kelly Joel Ruelens-Lepoutre Keanen Grant Kevin Greer Marc-Andre Perreault Myles Sinclair Nick Boucher Nima Mostaghimi Quin Rusnak Robert Schmidt Ryan Kremsater Tim Tsang Willem Konrad	Chantal Africa Jessica Chen Mira Donaldson Laura Hatch Katherine Ho Lauren Kimura Jacqueline Kwok Amira Maddison Kayla Pangos Aya Peloquin Dominique Rioux Adrianna Rowe Katie Scarth Kaylee Sparks Gera Stancheva Erica Tucker Nicole Vidal Olana Wach Claire Williams Lisa Wong
Alternates Gregory Loscin Jackson Byrne Kyle Patrick Thomas Canale	Alternates Sara Lawlor Emily Lublow Rebecca Saaltink Helen Thompson Jo-Hannah Yeo

Team Manager: A.J. Sainsbury

March Madness- Things picking up in the Ultimate Scene!

2010-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The world of ultimate is starting to buzz again as teams have already begin to announce final rosters for World Clubs and UPA College sectionals are mere weeks away

WUCC and U-19, U-23 and other Canadian Buzz

Teams are at various stages of organization for WUCC. Rumors about where certain Furious or GOAT players are headed for the Prague tourney are now being realized as fact (Andrew Lugsdin to Mephisto, various Furious players to Invictus, Blackfish players to GLUM) or fiction.

Kudos to Phoenix of Ottawa for being so early with naming their team. It would have been easy for them to delay naming their team in the hopes of landing some of the big names out there still available, but instead they went local and loyal to the players who helped them win their bid. And they spared themselves the ordeal of being "disc teased"by superstars.

U-19 tryouts will be starting soon in various cities, and men's coaches Kirk Nylen and Pat Mooney are in fact implementing some base testing measurements (40, shuttle drill, vertical, etc). These numbers will assist them in the tryout process and be very valuable to Ultimate Canada to compare to future years. Finally, we'll be able to quantify it when people say "Players are getting bigger/faster".

U-23 coaches and team manager will be selected this week. Tryout dates have already been tentatively set by Ultimate Canada.

There is also rumors that Furious George will attend Canadian Nationals in Sherbrooke this year, while Lotus will most likely not. Let the dominoes fall...
UPA College Sectionals

Is your college team representing Canada in the UPA college series. Send me an e-mail with your team preview!!!

College sectionals begin on April 10. After Roll Call this weekend, I will have a Canadian specific preview on both the men's and women's division.

Other News

It's been brought to my attention that Cultimate is taking over the running of the Emerald City Classic. I don't know the people of Cultimate personally, but they organize over 10 tournaments per year, and they are famous for trying to create a elite championship tournament series separate from the UPA before.

Most of the comments I have gotten about Cultimate is that of concern, and many question whether this group will be able to continue the reputation and standards of ECC.

Possibility that a very key member of North Carolina women's team Backhoe will be starting a new team, possibly sharing the same team name as Ottawa men's team Phoenix.

Backhoe has long been a UPA finals club trying to take the next step and challenge Fury and Riot. A new team and the loss of a key teammate might not be good news for the team.

Intelligence in Ultimate- Is it Valued Enough?

2010-03-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Every year the NFL carries out an extensive "combine" of potential NFL draft prospects. It has been formed into a profitable sport event that has extensive TV coverage and is fodder for pre draft discussion and hype.

Players are weighed, measured and fitted. They are poked, prodded, and sampled. They sprint, run, jump, listen to beeps and read charts. They dash, cut, catch, tackle, and block. It's a very complete process. Everything is taped and technologies (Dartfish) are used to analyze players.

In fact, if I am selected to help with Team Canada U-23 team, any type of tryouts will borrow from these types of combines. Limited by manpower and funds, it might simply be a case of videotaping and coding all scrimmages in the tryouts, and recording vital sprint, shuttle, and jump stats for each player. These "stats" shouldn't decide a players fate.. but they can help put a true numerical value for comparison and it can be used over time to see the development of players and the ultimate development system. (e.g. Are the athletes getting better)

The NFL and IQ- The Wonderlic Test

I have never played Football but it fascinates me that one of the most barbaric sports in the world is so sophisticated in planning, preparation and evaluation of its players. It is very impressive.

The NFL understands the importance of athleticism. Seeing them overlook Heisman Trophy winners and college championship players for division three players from small town Arkansas is done for a reason- They understand the link between winning and various player traits.

One of these traits is intelligence. They use a simple IQ test called the Wonderlic to get a measure of how well each NFL prospect will be able to mentally understand and adapt to the rigors of the NFL game.

Wonderlic is used in many professions as well. Getting a score of 10 out of 50 means a person is literate. Below that score of 10 suggests a person might be mentally challenged. The average participant scores a rating of 24

Here is an article on the scores for this year's best QB prospects. It also lists some of the current NFL Starting QBs and great past QBs for reference.

What has the NFL learned from this process?

Intelligence certainly helps, but it is not the lone factor in deciding stardom
Players with low Wonderlic scores have a tough time playing the game despite any great physical dominace (Vince Young, who originally scored a 6 in his test, and is alleged to have gotten someone else to write the retest in which he scored a 15)

Player scores in the Wonderlic vary by position. Some positions have higher averages than others. Here is the breakdown:

Offensive tackle – 26
Center – 25
Quarterback – 24
Guard – 23
Tight end – 22
Safety – 19
Linebacker – 19
Cornerback – 18
Wide receiver – 17
Fullback – 17
Halfback – 16

Back to Ultimate- How do We Value Intelligence?

With respect to ultimate, our tryout process are a little more primitive. They usually involve tryouts where most of the spots are already decided before the tryouts (Few teams are upfront with that) and the majority of the spots are available for the following

Tall people
Athletic and Fast people
Flavor of the month (Those who make a few big d's or layouts at the tryouts, someone new in town, etc)
In co-ed it sometimes simply comes down to romantic relationships

One of the reasons for this is the majority of captains who serve as leaders or coaches are handler types. I hypothesize that they have longer careers, and assume such roles of leadership. Asking these people to pick players who can/might replace them on the field is a tough task. Naturally they will pick players that compliment their importance to the team. This is understandable, simple human nature. That doesn't mean it is best for the team though.

I can say with some pride that the teams I played for or lead did place value on the mental makeup of a player and intelligence. Just like "you can't teach tall", you'll also be hard pressed to teach players how to think, read and react both on and off the field if they have a limited amount of grey matter to work with.

Along with cognitive ability, emotional intelligence is very important in picking your ultimate team. It's a long season with ups and downs, and few things disrupt a team faster than people who can't keep their own goals and emotions in check for the team.

Yes, there are many "smart" people in ultimate. However, there are many great stories of incredibly smart people who cannot relate to the real world, let alone teammates. Their inability to read and react to teammates is not helpful to team success.

Failing Wonderlic exams for your tryouts, I pose some simple guidelines to use in spring tryouts

Value the cognitive ability of players being considered
Take the time to correctly know and understand the emotional intelligence of people you are considering.
Be very clear about the goals of the team and the expectations of how players will carry themselves.
Have leaders that talk the talk and walk the walk (competent leaders in their roles who carry themselves well)

I look forward to reader feedback on the importance of IQ in ultimate.

Team Fundraising- What Works, and What is Acceptable

2010-03-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

Nation,

There are three world championships this summer. The implications of these events include but are limited to the following.

Some very good ultimate is going to be played
Some very deserving players are going to get some great experience
We're going to take the temperature of Canada's competitiveness at the world stage and who the emerging countries are

And...

Players will be scrambling to raise funds
We as a community will be exposed to a number of fund raising schemes and efforts.

Yesterday, I was asked to assist one of our Canadian clubs by taking part in an orange order (Mephisto is the team, if you are interested in buying some contact them). I have not been involved in the "buying oranges"game since I was in grade four. I remember the school fund raising oranges being of good quality, but even grade four me knew that I was selling a product that people could get in a more timely and cost effective manner. The chocolate bar racket was much better for the school, the sellers and the buyers, but it became less popular as getting kids pimping chocolate became less acceptable socially.

It doesn't stop at oranges. Fund raising efforts have included the following

Teams running their own tournaments for profit
Raffle tickets
Illegal poker tournaments
March Madness and other fantasy pools
Selling Live strong rip off bracelets (That has ceased thankfully)
Calenders (Most notably Storm of 2004)

All of the fund raising schemes appear to be the quick hit easy to plan and make happen projects. Unfortunately.. most of these projects end up merely taking money out of the pockets of loved ones and ultimate community. That raises a moral dilemma for people who think.

So, I ask you the reader to tell me

What is the Return On Investment for these Projects? Do people do them because they actually make money?
Which activities have worked the best for you or your team in the past?

Just some Friday Banter in Early March

2010-03-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Where have all the bloggers gone during the off-season?

First Jeters left his post early last year and hasn't returned. The Huddle has not put out anything new all year. MSSUI was a classic example of a hype site with a bad name and even worse dedication follow through (started in 2008.. no new articles since 2008). Parinella has been the most active blog whose posts I consider a must read.

As for me, I've been silent as well. Partly because some of the Ultimate Canada groups I am working on with require me to be silent. Partly because work and life have been pretty hectic as of late. However, all excuses have to be put aside when I get e-mails from readers like this.

"Dude that was one hell of a break on the blog...I felt like an abandoned child in a mall"

I'm not just a deadbeat blogger.. I'm also a terrible parent. Let's make some amends then shall we?

U-23 Worlds- Go of No Go?

It's a go. Men's and Women's divisions.

A very tough decision for Ultimate Canada. Here is why:

WFDF really rushed the decision to move forward on this tournament. No real bid process was followed.
The USA has pulled out for some very valid reasons.
Other countries were slow to commit
The tournament directory team looks a little inexperienced and their ability to carry about such a tournament at an International level is question.

We had a tremendous amount of feedback from players interested in attending. Hopefully that will remain the case when these players must spend money to travel and train with Team Canada. (Interest does not always equal to Commitment in ultimate).

Personally, I have put my name in for the Team Manager and Coaching positions. I feel like my experience working with the Operations section of the Canadian Olympic Committee for the 2008 games should be a strong case for the Manager position. Visas, accreditation, travel, accommodation, and tryout processes are all "little things" that are surprisingly important.

Coaching wise, I'd love to get a chance to coach some of the under 23 players who have expressed interest. Who wouldn"t? The players I've seen through college and open play are talented and have the ability to carry out gameplans and schemes. U-19 and U-23 National Teams are a great way to prepare these players for future development and World/Club level participation.

Olympic Thoughts.. and dispelling Olympic Dreams

2010-02-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

Nation,

I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow to watch some Olympic action live, meet some old COC colleagues. I will try and post anything interesting while I am there.

So far, here are my thoughts as a viewer

I feel for the VANOC people that have to deal with the thrashing from hostile media, protesters over weather, accessibility and plain bad luck (Zamboni breaking down yesterday at the long track speed skating oval). When things happen at an event, despite the best efforts, you simply have to solve the problem and take crap from people regardless of how fair it is.

At the last Olympics, Canada converted only 30% of the world championships medals they won leading up to the games. The USA converted 120%. This is something that the sport pych. team for Team Canada was well aware of and trying to solve. We'll see how our conversion rate works this time around

Jennifer Heil really wanted that gold medal in Canada for Canada. She also wanted to be famous forever.

I often find myself reminding others who sigh in disgust at Canadians who finished 16th in the Olympics that so many of these events are split second differences that determine final place, and so few of us will ever be 16th best in the world at anything. Makes you think differently.

It really seems like the action has been slow... but I assume more events will take place as we enter the first full weekend

The Old Olympic Debate- Sigh.........

It never fails. Every Olympics, ultimate open forums are clogged with "Why isn't Ultimate an Olympic Sport?".

I could go on with reasons why this discussion is foolish. The infancy of the sport in terms of organization/recognition and rules, the fact we're not even really a sport in Sport Canada's mind, the politics of the IOC, the sheer size of the Olympics as it is and the competition to get in.. I digress.

I understand that we have a great sport here, and I know we outsold Rugby 7s at World Games last year and they were just selected for the summer games, but we have to be realistic. Wondering why the game isn't in the Greatest show in the world when you can't find it at any major multi sport games level (Provincial games, national games, etc) at levels far below the Olympic Games.

I feel like a killjoy... so I will throw the dreamers a bone

Did anyone ever think that we would get our first gold medal in Canada by a Canadian in a sport that wasn't an Olympic sport until 1992 and wasn't created formally until the 1960's?

Maybe Ultimate has hope some day.

World Junior 2010 Tryout Information

2010-02-15T14:40:00.000-08:00

Nation,

The recruitment and tryout process for selecting Team Canada men's and women's World Junior teams is well under way. The tournament will be held August 3-7 in Heilbronn, Germany.

The coaches for the mens team are as follows: (teamcanada.jrmen@gmail.com)

Kirk Nylen- Head Coach
Patrick Mooney - Assistant Coach

Facebook Presence found here

The coaches for the womens team are: (teamcanada.jrwomen@gmail.com )

Stephanie Chow- Head Coach
Dan Byma- Assistant Coach

Who Can Apply?

If you are born in 1991 or later then you are eligible to represent your country at the World Jr. Ultimate Championships in Heilbronn, Germany (Aug 2-7th).

Applications and details regarding tryouts for Team Canada Jr men and Jr women are now available here:
http://www.canadianultimate.com/WJUC2010.html

We encourage all those interested to apply and look forward to seeing you at one of the three tryouts.

Vancouver 2010 Games- Be Part of the Opening Ceremony!!

2010-02-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

Nation,

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games start next Friday and my wife has asked me to post this:

Canada wants to welcome the world and—for the first time ever—people all over the world can become part of the Games. On February 12 during the Opening Ceremony, an official Olympic souvenir will be sent out digitally to those that want to be part of the action.

Everyone who is watching, listening, or reading about their favorite athletes or their most inspirational story, can receive a unique memento that will be sent out while billions of eyes are focused on the Opening Ceremony.

To be part of it, go to code.vancouver2010.com, which is the official digital and cultural interaction site of the 2010 Winter Games. Just click on the invite, sign up, and you’ll be ready to go on February 12, 2010.

Signing up is also your ticket to a global social media event that will give you the opportunity to be a virtual participant in the Closing Ceremony.

Cheer on your country, and become part of history.

I'm Back.... CUPA name Change.. World Clubs

2010-02-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Nation,

I apologize for a huge blog vacation I took. There has been a lot going on in Canadian ultimate during the off season.

Please note I'm probably going to be pretty terse in this review. Apologies in advance to my more "diplomatic" readers.

CUPA becomes Ultimate Canada

Just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that Canadian Ultimate Players Association is now legally called Ultimate Canada.

Excited about the name change, and I am glad my friends in sport will stop asking me why the national sport organization sounds like a players union. :)

World Ultimate Club Championships

This issue was simple: WFDF had decentralized the roster rules for teams/countries for the upcoming championships in Prague, Czech Republic. They left the rules for composition of teams up to the national organizations. Teams representing our country can look as much or as little as the club that won the right to go to WUCC. (In canada, you had to be at CUC 2009).

Personally, I find this decentralization of roster requirements for a world championship a major mistake by WFDF. Downright stupid really. I still am struggling to find the reason why.

Having this thrown on the NSO's, Ultimate Canada assigned the task of handling roster rules to our competition committee. The committee, which I chair, is made up of competitive players of varying experiences both on and off the field. We had extensive discussion on this, and tried to cover every single point and counter point.

It would have been EASIER if WFDF had told us we had to set roster requirements, and we could have set clear rules before CUC 2009. Of course, WFDF couldn't do this. That would take some leadership.

Teams had to play in CUC 2009 in order to qualify for World Clubs. Teams knew this heading into the summer season. Despite this, some teams ditched nationals to play at the Emerald City Classic. Should we allow players who didn't attend nationals to be part of the World Club Experience? Opinions from those outside the board were polarized, ranging from giving Furious and GOAT their own bids and private jets to shutting all non CUC 2009 players out altogether. (A little puffery there on my account regarding the private jet.. just trying to keep this discussion light)

If we make rules too easy for roster requirements, good players who went to CUC 2009 and qualified for worlds would be ditched for better players who did not attend CUC 2009. If we make rules too strict, we'll get tremendous flack and we'll handcuffed captains/coaches of teams going to Prague.

In the end, we came up with a decent solution. Moving forward, I believe we need to make world clubs bids and player eligibility contingent on CUC series participation (regionals and nationals in the year leading up to World Clubs). Executing these incentives, in partnership with changing the culture and quality of the CUC series, will be vital to ensuring better attendance at our national championships from our elite teams.

WUCC PROPOSAL

PRINCIPLES
Provide rules to support Canadian club teams attending the WUCC instead of all-star teams. In doing so, rules should accommodate the regular changes a team’s roster undergoes from year-to-year. Provide a policy that is fair to all Canadian ultimate players.

PLAYER CLASSES
Please note that while Ultimate Canada may not have any roster restrictions for the number of players from a certain player class, the WFDF has a roster limit of 28 players.

GENERAL REQUIREMENT
Canadian teams attending the WUCC must have a number of Class A players equal to the lesser of the following numbers:

a) 12
b) 50% of the number of players on the team's 2009 CUC roster.

Example a) If a team's 2009 CUC roster had 26 players then they would require 12 class A players (50% of 26 is 13, so we use the lower value of 12).

Example b) If a team's 2009 CUC roster had 19 players then they would require 10 class A players (50% of 19 is 9.5 rounded up to 10 which is lower than 12).

Class A (Regular players): A member of the club who was on the club’s 2008 CUC series roster and/or the club’s 2009 CUC series roster. There are no restrictions on the number of Class A players on a team’s WUCC roster.

Class B (Practicing players): A member of the Club who:

a) has been playing with the Club since May 1st, 2010, and has not
competed in that team’s division (i.e., Open, Mixed, Women’s, Masters,

Juniors) at a National Championship or WFDF Sanctioned Regional
tournament or series with any other team during that time.

b) practices with the team and has attended two team events (training
camps/ practice weekends or tournaments) since January 1, 2010, with
at least 1 event being a tournament.
c) meets one of the following criteria: Canadian citizen, Canadian
permanent resident, Canadian work visa holder or Canadian student visa
holder.
There are no restrictions on the number of Class B players on a team’s
WUCC roster.

Class C (Other players): A player who does not meet the requirements

for Class A or B. Class C players must meet one of the following
criteria: Canadian citizen, Canadian permanent resident, Canadian work
visa holder or Canadian student visa holder. Teams are restricted to
three (3) Class C players.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Happy Holiday to all of you! Thanks for the support over the past year.

I will be in Vancouver over the break, putting together end of year surveys and some new articles to start the new year right!

Thanks,

Steven

TULA Invite Tournament 2010

2009-12-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Torontula will once again be hosting an indoor ultimate tournament on January 15th from 9:30 - 11:30 PM. We will be playing at U of T's Varsity Stadium under the heated dome. As was the case last year wewill be playing with hat teams to encourage players from the different universities to get to know each other.

In the mix will be some ofToronto's finest GOAT players, so consider this your preseason chanceto show the club players what you've got. There will be prizes forTeam and Tournament MVPs, as well as a post-game party nearby. Costwill be $20 per player.

If you are interested playing please email me at the e-mail address below with the following information:

1) Name
2) University
3) Experience (last college or club team you played on)

Once again, please forward this invitation to your teammates.Registration is open starting now and will likely fill up.

Cheers,
Taylor Martin
taylor.g.martin@gmail.com

Torneo Eterna Primavera 2009- Medellín, Columbia

2009-12-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Recently, Furious George and Traffic, both from Vancouver, participated with Seattle's Sockeye and Riot at the Torneo Eterna Primavera tournament in Medellín, Columbia.

Alex Davis, member of Furious George, provided the following description of the tournament and the experience.

The TEP television commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8wGLTiC_1o

A promotional video for supporters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9BVnPqKyY&feature=related

A Spanish news report (June): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi3St2UzyZY&feature=related

An interview with Oscar Pottinger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQTjPozUIr8&feature=related

Owen's blog: www.thinkulti.blogspot.com

Tournament Website: www.tepmedellin.com

Between November 17 and November 28, Medellin hosted a uniquely ambitious ultimate event. In conjunction with an astonishing array of public, non-profit and private partners, ACUM and an army of volunteers brought four North American teams (Furious, Traffic, Sockeye and Riot) to Colombia to promote their sport. They facilitated a series of clinics respectively aimed at schoolchildren, at-risk youth, college students and competitive clubs. They convinced the public that ultimate is a sport worth investing in, teaching, watching and playing. They hosted an international forum on spirit of the game and development. And of course, they capped it off with an exciting, superbly run tournament, with televised finals and showcase games.

There's so much I could write about, but it would be an ordeal to read. I'll try to limit myself to a few reflections. For those just interested in the raw results, I'll spare you the agony: Sockeye over Furious (15-13) in the men's final and Riot over Revolution (15-11?) in the women's. The altitude killed the wind in my sails, the turf ate holes through my clothes and into my skin, and naturally, the heat was so stifling that the tournament paused for siesta -- and it was all great fun.

First and foremost, South American ultimate is on the rise. At every stage of the event, I was impressed with the state of the game, the cultivation of the sport, and its marketing. In their current states, almost every club in attendance could have held its own at the UPA Regional level. I say that not with patronizing intent, but to set a frame of reference; at least half a dozen teams appeared able to play on a par with Voodoo or Streetgang. Among these teams, the parity in skill is tight and competition is fierce.

Strategically, like most young teams, a lot of these clubs still lack team depth in throwing skill, for which they compensate in athleticism and feats of reception. Their cutting game usually emphasizes vertical cuts with very little crossing of lanes. Conventionally, this style of cutting would limit their options, but they have compensated with sheer agility and a willingness to rely on tight throws in spite of defensive pressure. The Colombians shine in their refusal to drop anything; as a defender, I was personally frustrated by this very consistent grace under fire. Indeed, this offense only faltered in one of two cases: either the defense effected savvy switches or the receivers eventually tired. The strict employment of vertical cutting is exhausting, of course (as someone who knows from personal overuse) and without a deep bench of replacements, the offense weakens in the second halves of most games. As evidence to that effect, Furious George won most games by a margin between 3:2 and 4:3, but typically only took half by one break.

As for development, I am humbled and alarmed by the calibre of the Colombian juniors, whom we had the privilege to coach for a week leading up to the tournament. There are not many teenaged players yet, but the next generation of Colombian athletes have learned the game much younger than our own; it was alarming to discover what players as young as twelve already had achieved in core throwing and catching skills.

This appears to be because the proponents of the game in Colombia (and notably, TD Mauricio Moore) have succeeded in gaining tremendous traction within the popular community. The governments encourage sports as a countermeasure to violence and perceive Spirit of the Game as a vehicle to teach conflict resolution to local youth. INDER Medellin (a massively staffed department of parks and recreation) has heavily invested in ultimate clinics and tournaments like the Torneo Eterna Primavera, advertising the events by broadly visible television and billboard campaigns. As one of the handsomely uniformed instructors explained, the sponsorship of TEP and visiting teams (like Furious) was literally an investment in combatting youth crime.

This community emphasis on spirit was also the motivation for a series of forums and speeches, inviting an international congress of players to discuss varied topics related to Spirit of the Game and international development. I won't recount everything that was said, as it would appear stale here. As for my experience, I have always reserved spirit (or sportsmanship, if you prefer) as a very personal matter; I rarely discuss my definition (I find it a tedious exercise), and have never felt a desire to proselytize. So perhaps when I say that this tournament was the most spirited, warmest, and most respectful competition I have ever played, I mean it without exaggeration. The rituals we followed were quintessentially Colombian: simple, easy and unforced; a shaking of hands, a post-game gathering and a few words in English and Spanish usually sufficed. No songs; no silly games. It carried a sincerity of respect I hadn't noticed elsewhere before – it felt genuinely Olympic. They had brought us to Medellin at great trouble and expense to teach sport and sportsmanship . . . and I just wanted to earn their respect.

"Being Classy is Free"...

2009-12-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Every year, teams and players go through the unfortunate following:

They say no to players trying to make their teams
They cut current players and leaders that they longer wish to "retain"
They get passed over by players who leave them to join other teams

Now, we can agree that these decisions are not easy. We can only handle/train so many players, so many voices, and so many egos on a team. We have no way to retain players in this amateur sport, and players have the right to leave when they want to. We can only assume that when these tough situations happen, teams and leaders need to do it with class.

As a friend said recently, "Being Classy is Free". And yet, in ultimate we are rife every year with stories about poorly handled situations where that unlimited and free resource of Classiness is not applied in ultimate.

Non-Football Example- Bobby Bowden Gets Axed at Florida State

This week, the president and athletic director of Florida State University unceremoniously gave football coach Bobby Bowden, head coach for 33 years at the school, no choice but to "resign" at the end of this season.

Bowden, 80 years old, was clearly nearing the end. In fairness, being 80 and running a national football program is a daunting task. His ability to recruit and field a powerhouse had waned, and a conference full of coaches who are younger, more tech savvy (Does Bobby Bowden tweet?), and more effective was clearly hurting the FSU program. The school was getting all the ego and swagger of a college football coach, and none of the results. I'm sure Bowden was a jerk, but that doesn't excuse one from their actions.

On the other hand, Bowden was an icon at the school. He made that school. The football field is named after him. His teams were top 5 in the country from 1987-2000. Won two national titles. And let's be serious- He brought more money to that school that anyone ever has.

What will the FSU Football girls (pictured) do without Bowden?

The major problem with the firing.. errr resignation was the way it was done.

The President, who made the firing, and the athletic director were responsible for the decision. In order to announce it, they used two current players to face the media. They refused to address the media and answer for their actions. Not only did they fire a legend, they didn't want to explain why.

Bringing it back to ultimate, I think these kinds of awkward situations are caused by poor leaders, or simply people who focused more on their own pursuits than the feelings and dignity of others. I think people forget that we play a volunteer amateur sport that the real world doesn't really respect a whole he&& of a lot.

There is no real hard and fast rules about being classy, but I would simply advocate the 'golden rule' of doing onto others as you would would have do onto you. That's a simple start.

One Play Does Not a Game Make

2009-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Last Sunday night was the Canadian Football League's championship game. One of very own ultimate players works for the CFL head office (Let's call him "Loic") so it is great to see the league doing so well and being so popular in Canada. 6.1 million viewers watch the final game of three down football in 2009.

The Montreal Alouettes won the game with a 28-27 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. This was Montreal's 7th appearance in the cup final this decade, and had only won once before in six tries. If they didn't win, I was going to write an article asking you readers if great players whose teams don't win are still great. (Jim Kelly and Dan Marino anyone?)

After a somewhat quiet first three quarters, the game picked up and saw Montreal come back froma 27-11 deficit to win the game on the final play of the game.

Pretty normal stuff right? But for those of you who didn't watch the game.. here's where it gets tricky.

On the final play Montreal's kicker (Damon Duval, who set a league record for points in a season this year) misses a 43 yard kick.
Saskatchewan celebrates their win
Flags are down amid celebration
Saskatchewan has too many players on the field for the final play. 10 yard penalty and another chance for Montreal.
Montreal boots the 33 yard field goal and wins the Grey Cup

So, this is probably the only time in professional sports both teams thought they won the championship. Replays clearly show the Roughriders had too many men on the field. There was no arguing the call.

The news headlines and TV coverage were pretty consistent: 'One big mistake costs Grey Cup'. But was that really the case? Was it just one penalty that decided the game?

We are guilty of this same type of analysis in ultimate. We often point to a single play as the "TSN Turning Point". That big d block "turned the tide" or "made the difference". It's simply not true.

Blaming a loss on one player making one play/mistake is very unfair. When you blow a 27-11 lead in a football game or a 14-10 lead in ultimate, there were many wrong things that lead to the loss. The defence failed to stop the opponent. The offence stopped scoring. Players allowed one play to get into their game and distract them.

Conversely, I also get disappointed from the overused word "clutch". Somebody can miss 70% of their shots in a basketball game, but if they hit a game winning shot at the buzzer they are clutch. Would the game have needed that shot had the player made more of their shots earlier?

Why should we try to avoid judging a game by one play?

The consequences can be heavy. It's a heavy burden to bear for the person that is at fault. It can also lead to overvaluing someone who makes a key positive play.

Look no further than Bill Buckner. Buckner had a stellar Major League Baseball career and made it to an All Star game. However, he and his name is now synonymous with one error in the 1986 world series. It doesn't matter that the team had another game to make up for that play and lost game 7, he is still the goat.

Right now the Saskatchewan team refuses to identify who was at fault for the play. They don't want someone to be labeled and I salute them for that. I hope ultimate teams behave in such a manner when the unfortunate happens.

The Potential WFDF Under 23 Tournament- Name the Roster

2009-11-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

Nation,

As you may know, there have been rumblings about WFDF holding an under 23 world championship. The original rumor was that it would be held in 2010, but this seems unlikely. Hosting a tournament that would run in the same summer as world clubs (Prague) and world juniors (Germany) does not make sense. It is rather late for planning purposes (picking a site and running the event in less than 12 months) and it would use players who are possibly involved in both of the other two events.

2011 looks like a more realistic possibility for an under 23 tournament. Currently, we await to see if it will happen.

In the meantime, we can speculate as to WHO would be on the team Canada roster for an under 23 world championship team.

So, my challenge this week to you readers
-Post me your top male and female under 23 (as of 2010) players, top 7, top 10, top 14, etc
-Describe their roles on the team and why you picked each player

Upon collecting a list of players, we will either put the player list to vote or just general discussion.

Spirit of The Game: A New Low for Soccer/Football

2009-11-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

Nation,

A classic story. France commits three violations (off side, two deliberate handballs) and directly scores a goal to tie Ireland. The goal is allowed to stand, and France unfairly beats Ireland on aggregate (that means they played two games and emerged victorious by goal differential/tie break). The referees seem to be absent on the play, missing all these infractions.

Why the uproar you ask? Why should Ireland care about losing a British game (Seriously, there are beautiful Irish stadiums throughout the country that forbid any sort of British based games to be played in them.. stemming from the famine and occupation atrocities of past centuries.. i digress.) to the French?

The key is what was at stake.

Despite the fact that gaelic football is more important than football/soccer, the Irish wanted to be part of the World Cup. Every country does. It's a global status symbol, and there is significant money involved.

FIFA likes to call their sport "the beautiful game" but sometimes it can be quite ugly. We have a world full of countries that raise players to dive and over exaggerate infractions to draw fouls. We have an outdated extra time system that makes no sense to the outside world. We have no replay or challenge mechanism in this day and age where these tools can easily be used to right the wrongs of normal human referee mistakes. I could go on with more stories of corruption and cheating throughout the world in this sport. It's not beautiful... it's downright ugly.

Ultimate... In the Same Position?

I can't be blind and say that ultimate and ultimate players are above making the wrong calls in games of importance. Put a worlds bid on the line and take out observers and cameras and we would have a much different game than we would otherwise.

However, I can say that ultimate has the following going for it

-Spirit of the Game, I think, has curtailed a lot of the incentive to cheat in most ultimate games. I rely on my opponent to make the right calls, and if order to do so I must in turn make the right calls as well. We can't rely on a 'parent' (observer) to step in.
-We're certainly open to using instant replay.. as was seen at CUC 2009.
-Our observer program seems to be growing and we are growing the pool of observers available for tournaments.

Using Stats to Make a Roster Decision: An NFL Example

2009-11-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Nation,

A group of local ultimate "think tank" members (as we're dubbed) have been geeking out over a very cool site called Pro Football Focus.

Looking at the best and worst players at each position this year, one of the thinkers asked where Cleveland Browns QB Brady Quinn would fall in the ratings of quarterbacks.

It's very true that Quarterbacks rely on many teammates for success. Receivers much catch, people must block, and people need to run the plays as directed in order to get success. However, QBs remain the most important people on the field and have greater control over the outcome of the game than any other player.

Sounds like a main offensive Handler's role in ultimate, no?

I went to the pro football focus site and looked for methodology... and didn't get much in order to answer the Quinn question. Looking for the Wages of Wins QB ratings, I ended up on a new site that builds on the wages of wins football measure (unlike the basketball wages of wins, the NFL model has been criticized).

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2007/07/better-qb-passer-rating.html

I took their formula (the model looks legit) and came up with the following 2009 wins produced of Quinn, Derek Anderson and Peyton Manning

Advanced NFL Stats= Brady Quinn versus Derek Anderson

QB Wins Added
Brady Quinn -1.542092593
Derek Anderson -3.963324675
Peyton Manning +3.300733894

Formula: QB Wins Added = (Comp% * 0.18) - (Int/Att * 50.5) - (Sack Yds/Att * 1.57) - 8

Thoughts
-Brady Quinn will lose 1.5 games more than the average quarterback based on his current performance
-Derek Anderson will lose 3.96 games more than the average
-Brady should continue to start, as he is the best of two below average options
-Peyton Manning is over 3 wins better than the average quarterback.

How it Applies to Ultimate?

I wish it did apply more. Right now, the best we have for stats is a clipboard or iphone used during the game, trying to capture everything under time pressure. It's easy to miss stuff and accurately measure what's really happening.

If you are doing stats already, and have data on your teams, please send it my way!

I will re-ask people to consider the following
-video tape their teams games
-break their games down play by play and stat by stat
-Work together with other teams to build a data set of a particular division to determine the average performance of players in a particular division/level

If that was done, we could move forward with a formula to determine whether players were average or below average on defense and offense.

Coordinating teams might be a problem, and one team breaking down video for all other teams is too much of a workload. However, teams like DoG have been using data for years to make better decisions about who's contributing.

It's time for teams to build on this. Don't wait for other teams to do it first and gain the advantage.

Ultimate Canada Conference 2009- Weekend of Progress

2009-11-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

Nation,

This weekend I attended and presented at the annual CUPA conference. Dubbed the Ultimate Canada Conference, it was held in Montreal.

The location and venues were appropriate. The conference was held on site at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) campus in downtown Montreal. The academic setting was perfect for the informative sessions, and it represented ultimate well- Good central location that was economical and practical. Ultimate doesn't need to pay to host their conference in the main ballroom of the Hilton.

Here were the highlights for the 50+ delegates that represented the NSO/PSOs and member city leagues..

-CUPA has voted to change their name to Ultimate Canada.
-Amazing delegate package featuring shorts and hoodies from 5 Ultimate, Jersey from VC Ultimate and disc from Daredevil
-Great presentations on topics such as youth development, innovative ultimate programs like the carbon flip and wheelchair ultimate
-Group brainstorming session regarding national plans and priorities
-A pickup wheelchair ultimate session participated in by all delegates

In the coming weeks, I will try to ensure that the conference presentations are available via the web, and I'll dedicated some posts specifically to discuss and highlight some key parts of the weekend.

Overall, outside of the fun/antics, this was the results of the weekend

We had a record number of delegates
We had an amazing chance for stakeholders of the game to meet and get to understand what is going on outside our region
Our leagues throughout the country got many opportunities to learn and provide feedback on what they see and what they want to see from the NSO moving forward

Thanks to Montreal Ultimate for once again being a great host.

You haven't left the GOAT Herd yet... Have You?

2009-11-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

Nation,

If you have had the pleasure of playing or watching GOAT or Furious George, you'd be hard pressed to dispute that:

Both teams are good at 'frisbee'
Both teams are very good elite teams at the UPA level
Both teams had disappointing UPA runs this fall

Usually when a team I support or am involved with does well, I think I must come across as a cynic devil's advocate. I don't mean to be, I just simply don't like it when people make too much of a win and make incorrect inferences from them. It's the complete opposite when said team doesn't do well. I get to be honestly positive when people are going over the top negative.

The wheels fell off for GOAT at nationals. Furious lost the last spot to finals at regionals versus a team they beat at the same tournament the day before. Hence, we have been subjected to "what's wrong with GOAT/Monkey" questions ever since.

These teams are elite teams. They played elite teams and won and lost. Heading into each game, there were certain probabilities that GOAT/Furious would win or lose. I think people would be shocked at how evenly likely teams at this level can win or lose and how arbitrary the outcomes can be.

A good example: Dave Berri of Wages explains Randomness and how people are fooled. (original concept from Nassim Taleb's book):

"At the start of each football game a coin is tossed to determine who will receive the opening kick-off. Let’s imagine if instead of just one team calling heads or tails the fans in attendance were also asked to make a call. And let’s further imagine that if you make the correct call, you get to stay. But if you are wrong, you have to leave.

Okay, now let’s do a bit more imagining. Let’s say 80,000 fans are in attendance – and since fans know it is a fair coin (equally likely to be heads or tails) — about 40,000 make the wrong call. So these fans exit the building. After they are gone, let’s imagine we play the same game again. This time, about 20,000 fans are incorrect and they depart. And then we play it again, and again, and again… After three tosses we are left with about 10,000 fans. After seven tosses there are about 625 fans. After twelve tosses we should still have about 40 people left in the stands.

Now what have these 40 people learned? These people have just called a coin flip correctly twelve consecutive times. Clearly these people are incredible at this game.

If we play the game one more time, though, we should expect about 20 more to depart. What will these departing fans have learned? Well, clearly they just didn’t match-up with the 20 who got the 13^th call correctly. And they better go home and figure out why that particular match-up didn’t work if they ever wish to see another football game.

The Point?

Makes you realize how good Fury and Riot are in the women's division compared to the rest of the field.

People often have problems understanding randomness. And what it says is relevant to how people see the results of a team at UPA finals or tournament finishes in general.

As for our Canadian teams

Furious proved they are able to win out of their ultra tough region, but they simply didn't win the game that counted.
GOAT shouldn't over-react to their recent slip.. unless there is a clear team in their team/opposition that leads them to conclude their chances to win have decreased.

So don't throw out the Furious or GOAT foam finger yet. You could replay Finals again this weekend and have completely different results on the open side.

This shouldn't stop teams from doing things in the off season to improve their probabilities and odds for next year. Training, studying video, strategy, recruitment, and all the fun stuff!

Goosebowl 2009 Review

2009-11-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

Nation,

Last weekend, Goosebowl 2009 quietly went down.

Once a very big coed tournament, the number of teams were down this year (12 from previous years of 30-42 teams) but I'm sure everyone in attendance had a good time.

Toronto club MONSTER emerged as this year's champs.

4 on 4 Ultimate- Skill Developer or Bad Habit Generator?

2009-11-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

Nation,

After a long hiatus from indoor ultimate, I signed up with some of my oldest and best ultimate friends for a 4 on 4 indoor ultimate team. I was really unsure about signing up for this, because I've never been a fan of variants of ultimate. Practice makes permanent, and surrounding yourself with indoor people who make bad choices is not good for your game. However, Goaltimate proved me wrong earlier this year, and worst case scenario I was playing with good people.

After my first experience on Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised with the 4 on 4 concept.

4 on 4 is very popular in Quebec (They just had a tournament last weekend), and it allows people to play on smaller surfaces and provides a serious workout. With four players per team on the field, You can't be a lazy handler in this game.

Major Things Quebec has taught us about indoor

No breaks between points (sub of the fly, or simply no pulls)
Handler movement

In the first half of our game, we looked like a bunch of comp ultimate players trying to figure out the new rules of this game. Personally, I found that the small field was going to change my mindset (outside of hucks, I like to play 100% low risk offence) and forced me to throw more breaks and challenging throws because.. the defence was giving me no option. We were also having a fun time trying to figure out how to game plan defensively (Do we force middle to take away the sneaky blade throws that some teams use indoors? Do we try some sort of junk zone? Please feel free to comment viewers)

In the second half, we started to roll. Maybe we started to adapt, maybe the other team got tired from a very fast paced first half (probably a little from column a, a little from column b). I can tell you it was major fun to make break throws that you wouldn't otherwise think and your cutters wouldn't expect in regular play.

In the end, I think this format of indoor can be a skill developer or a bad habit generator just like any other variant. If you want to practice throws that will work outside and can be used in ultimate, than you're going to improve your skills as a thrower and a cutter. If you want to throw off hand and make throws that the wind will not tolerate, than you're getting into bad habit mode.

I'll probably have to look into a Quebec tournament this winter. We'll see how the season goes.

Finally.. The Off Season... A time to Evaluate

2009-11-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

Nation,

It's been a long season. A good season mind you, but a long season for Canadian Ultimate. We had a lot of hot topics this summer:

Canadian Nationals
The annual UPA excitement (Club and College)
One of the best University Nationals ever
The summer tournament schedule was packed north and south of the border
World Club Bids
The unusual crappy summer weather

As we hit the off season, I have no interest in slowing down my posts. It seems like there is a lot to talk about:

Discussion of Canadian Nationals and its future
Canada's position on the world stage
Discussion of current Strategy trends and when the game of ultimate is headed (speaking in terms of x's and o's)
Online voting of best players and teams in 2009
Off season training
Off Season Team Planning and Review processes
Junior Worlds in 2010
WFDF Under 23 tournament.. and the Top players under 23.

If you've got any ideas about topics this blog should discuss, please feel to post.

UPA Finals 2009 Review- Chain Lightning Strikes.. with Fury

2009-11-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Nation,

A lot of teams (and their respective cities) entered the 2009 Finals with high hopes. Regionals showed us that defending champions in various divisions were vulnerable and could be beaten. With so many viable teams, team leaders (especially those in open) had a lot of different teams to game plan for. I can imagine it would be daunting. Underestimating any team could lead to an upset.

Open

I was happy to see the parity in this division in 2009. There was only two blowout games in pool play (both 15-5 losses) and it seemed that this was the closest all 16 teams have ever been in terms of talent. All number one seeds held their seeds on day one (Revolver, Chain Lightning, Ironside and Sockeye) and teams pulling 'upsets' included Truck Stop and Ring of Fire.

In the end, Chain Lightning from Atlanta and Revolver from the SF Bay Area both took undefeated paths to the finals. Both teams have been working for years to make the finals. Chain had already had breakthroughs at UPA finals 2008, while Revolver had added some high profile pieces to explode as an elite power this year. Chain Lightning took the final 15-11 over Revolver and wins it's first national championship.

As for Canadian hopeful GOAT, I can only speculate that it was a disappointing weekend. They were upset by Truck Stop and lost to Revolver on day one. On day two, they were upset on universe (16-15) by San Diego's StreetGang but still had a quarters play in shot versus Johnny Bravo. Heartbreak ensued, as GOAT lost this match 16-14 . The spiral continued as the team lost to Madison Club and finally Bodhi (13-9) to finish 12th.

Women's

Heading into the finals, a lot of people worried this would be a two team show once again (Fury and Riot). Thankfully, it was not, and we can thank two eastern teams (Capitals and Brute Squad) for that.

7 of the top 8 teams held seed on day one, save for Vancouver's Traffic (going 1-2 and being upset by Lady Condors of Santa Barbara). Day 2 saw a huge victory for Ontario's Capitals, as they defeated Riot of Seattle 16-14. With the win, the Capitals had set themselves up for their best possible chance of making semis and finals. Traffic took care of business on day two and got a quarters play in game versus Zeitgeist. Unfortunately, Zeitgeist got the win and Traffic was left to fight for 9th (they did indeed win out and get 9th spot).

The Capitals won their quarter final and headed into semi finals with hope- Their day two upset over Riot forced Riot and Fury to play semis versus each other, and all the Capitals had to do was beat Boston rival Brute Squad. You may recall that half of the Capitals sqaud (Lotus) won the Boston Invite this year and lost to Brute Squad at the No Borders final by one point. Combining Stella and Lotus could only help tip the scales against Brute.

Unfortunately, the Capitals fell just short of finals, losing to Brute on universe point (16-15). I looked forward to the readers giving the first hand perspective of this game. I have to salute the Capitals for progress made this year and at this tournament. (Simply beating Riot is a step forward.)

In the final, Fury won easily over Brute Squad by a final score of 15-3. It's the 4th straight title for the San Francisco club. Despite looking vulnerable during the summer season, this team won when it counted most.

Masters

GLUM of Ottawa had huge hopes heading into this tournament and with good reason. Their play against DoG at regionals indicated that this could be THE YEAR. It was not to be.

Starting off day one with a serious leg injury to talented newcomer Derek Hodgson, GLUM never seemed to get on track. They had the misfortune of having 3 of the top 4 final finishers in their pool -who seeded these teams? :) , and faced the talented Beyondors (Think Ex Condors players like Husak, Steets, etc). However, GLUM won out after their quarters exit and finished in 5th place.

In the final, Troubled Past from California defeated Surly of Minnesota 15-11 to take the UPA title. It is the first championship for Troubled Past, after finishing 3rd last year.

Mixed

The final saw two teams looking for their first upa finals championship. Virgina's Axis of C'Ville, lead by former Sockeye player Chase Sparling-Beckley, faced off against Iowa team Chad Larson Experience. Both teams went undefeated through pool play and breezed to finals. In the end, the Axis of C'Ville won 15-11.

On the Canadian end, Edmonton's Psychoplastique held seed on day one, going 1-2 and playing top seed Mental Toss Flycoons hard head to head. On day two, Psychoplastique suffered losses to both Jukebox Hero and One Trick Pony. Playing for 13th, Psychoplastique beating Bashing Pinatas before losing to Brown Chicken Brown Cow and finishing 14th in their first UPA finals.

UPA Finals 2009- Open Preview- Pool D

2009-10-27T11:13:00.001-07:00

Nation,

Results will be posted here

Pool D

Sockeye
Johnny Bravo
Madison Club
Machine

Sockeye (24-4) was UPA champions as recently as 2007 and represented Team USA at Worlds in 2008. In 2007 I wondered if Sockeye would dominate for 5-10 years based on the quality of their roster and the stars who were hitting their prime. Now we wonder if they can return to their almost invincible status.

As always, Sockeye is very open to provide information and captain Ben Wiggins provides the following review of his squad.

This is the youngest Sockeye team, maybe ever. We retired 5 players, we have 6 rookies, and a large part of our team is built around very young players, so it is going to be fun to see what we can do. We lost Nord and Fleming to season ending injuries, and we lost CK to med school (he's been to one practice this year, but he is a star and we hope he'll be able to gel quickly in Sarasota).

Our expectation is to play our best when it matters most, to bring energy on every point from the sideline, and to play together. Everything else is beyond our control.

We did a lot of intra-team scrimmaging at Sectionals, and none of our games were very tight. Even in our good games against Voodoo and Furious, they didn't have a lot of motivation to expend energy or use strategies that they wanted to keep hidden for Regionals. Regionals was all about making it to the show. Anyone could fall out, even a great team like Furious, so we were focused on getting to the final as our #1 priority. I'm sure Revolver was thinking the same thing; keep the season going and get to Florida. We were a little extra worried because the flu ran through the team in the week leading up to the tournament, but some of our younger and newer players rose up to really excel, especially in the Regional final.

Who do we want to face? Same opponent, every game. Guys in shirts, trying to keep us from outdoing our previous best game. The level of play is so deep, there are legitimately 10-12 teams that could win the whole thing without surprising me, that it is just about getting hot at the right time and overcoming another hot team. Psyched to play Bravo in pool play, we always have great games at Nationals, and then everything else is just gravy.

Key Players to watch on our team?-It's a team mentality, so you'll infrequently see someone on Sockeye throw 4 hucks in one game or score 6+ goals...but watch for guys on our D-team to blow up and have the kind of multi-block games that Skip, Blaine, Nord, etc have had in the past that have pushed us over the top in bracket play. Our new D-guys this year are Tyler Kinley, Spencer Wallis, and Eddie Feeley, all of whom have good Nationals experience with other teams.

Johnny Bravo of Boulder (28-9) has been on the doorstep of a championship for some time. Despite losing several great players to other teams in the off season, Bravo is still an elite team that has beaten some of the very best this season. They will be an interesting team to watch, and difficult to predict how they will finish.

Madison Club is a entry from the great state of Wisconsin. Players from this team used to help feed Minnesota's Sub Zero depth chart, but under the leadership of Hector Valdiva, they are their own club and beat some very good teams to qualify out of the region. (e.g. Sub Zero and Machine of Chicago). In a busy touring season of 46 games, the team went 36-11. Unfortunetly, the team lost the majority of its matches with teams that qualified for Sarasota, and they will face an uphill battle to reverse that trend.

Machine of Chicago is a perpertual UPA finals participant but has not been able to make the jump past quarter final contender. The team compiled a 20-12 record during the season. However, the state of their opponents in this pool (All new or in roster transition) opens the door for Machine to make some noise on day one.

UPA Finals 2009- Open Preview- Pool C

2009-10-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Results will be posted here

Pool C

Ironside
Doublewide
Bodhi
Streetgang

Ironside (38-3) from Boston finished 2nd last year and seems poised to improve on that result this year. Boston ultimate had a bit of a let down after DoG bowed out from out after 2006 finals. A tough 2007 lead people to think Boston ultimate was lost. 2008 saw a new name and a return to dominant play. Lead by well known players Jeff Graham and Danny Clark, the team is

Doublewide of Austin Texas (28-4) is described by team captain Max Cook:

The team has trained and prepared for the UPA series with one singular goal, and that is to be playing frisbee on Sunday at Nationals. We have made the final of every tournament we competed in this year. While we have only won one of those tournaments (Sectionals), there is a learning process that teams go through when they lose. Losses either drive you to work harder, of suck you into complacency, and players on this team have been pushing each other to continually train harder with that goal in mind.

Sectionals is/was a mental challenge. When you are beating teams 10-0, its hard to practice doing the right things and being focused. I think DW did a good job of coming out hard in each game, and closing out our opponents quickly. Regionals was a good experience for the team as well in a couple ways. We got challenged in our quarters game against an athletic Florida team that we may have looked past, we were able to pull ourselves together and play a very clean semi's game, we were humbled by our loss to chain in the finals, and finally we came out with fire in the backdoor finals. Some things we took away from the weekend: never underestimate an opponent, you have to win the game, it won't be given to you; coming out with fire and getting up early on opponents can be a backbreaker for them; and hope that if we see Chain in Sarasota, there will be at least some wind to slow down their hucks.

Doublewide is excited about facing both Ironside and Bodhi in Pool C. Both teams are unknowns to DW, so it will be interesting to see how conditions and dynamic in-game strategy play into those games. We would also like to get a shot at Chain one more time. It's always a good game between the two teams, and they are probably the best team in the country right now, so if you want to be the best you have to go through the best.

Key Players to watch on our team? Doublewide prides itself on not having superstars, but rather being able to challenge other teams with our depth.

That doesn't mean we don't have any studs though. Keep your eye out for a few of players: #16 Kiran Thomas, a great downfield cutter that is hard to match-up with; #8 Chase Hudson, a solid handler/cutter that has smooth throws and likes to get up; #17 Jake Anderson, a tall defender that enjoys aerial battles, and usually wins them; and #19 Daniel Poindexter, a defender that has hops and loves to lay out to get D blocks.

Bodhi (34-11) of Amherst has been the most improved team in the Northeast in 2009. Making it to UPA finals in 2008, Bodhi has built on that experience with a strong summer, closing the gap on elite teams like GOAT and Ironside and distancing themselves from pretenders.

Team Captain Micah Flynn summarizes the team as follows:

We've never really set expectations heading into tournaments, at least not as a group. Obviously, we'd like to finish as high as possible and I'd say that we'll be shooting for a birth in the quarters.

To be honest, I think our biggest goal is to do our part in getting the Northeast a strength bid again.

At Regionals we had two pretty decent lapses of focus that caused us to have to come from behind- the first on Sunday morning against Mephisto who took half on us and I think may have been up 11-10, game to 13. Against GOAT in the Semi-Finals we came out pretty flat again, starting down 4-0. After that point, we did a much better job and basically played to our potential for the rest of the weekend. Our second half against GOAT and play in the game to go against PoNY was much more up to our expectations for the team.

So, we had a bit of an up and down time but always played our best when it mattered most, so I think we consider it a success. And, we're headed back to the Club Championships so we've had a good fall so far by any metric.

The only lingering issue is we've had a number of injuries to O-Line players and most (or maybe all) of them won't be back in Sarasota.

We don't have any specific teams we're looking forward to, so the only thing that will be nice is seeing teams we've never played before like Streetgang on day 1.

The team features a number of returners from last year who figure to be impact players. On offense, look for Andrew Hollingworth (#3) and Alex Kapinos (#10), with the defense lead by Brendan Nichols (#7) and Miles Montgomery-Butler (#4).

We also added a number of new young players-

Jonah Herscu (#12), a current senior at Amherst Regional High School who will be playing a lot for the offense.

Sam Kanner (#32), played for Sub Zero last season and will be playing for the defense. He's currently one of the captains for defending national college champion Carleton CUT.

Jon Hirschberger (#43) will play a decent amount of offense and defense and is coming off a monster performance at regionals and is a senior at Cornell.

All three of those new players have been a part of a junior worlds team at one point, bringing our number of Team USA alumni to 10.

Streetgang of San Diego is a product of cooperation. The team (taking it's name from the legendary teams of the merging of Last Call and PBR Streetgang and it has propelled San Diego Ultimate into the Championships for the first time since 2005. Sporting a modest 20-14 record this season, the 2009 finals might be a necessary learning experience for the team the city's ultimate program for future success.

UPA Finals 2009- Open Preview- Pool B

2009-10-27T10:56:00.001-07:00

Nation,

Results will be posted here

Pool B

Chain Lightning (GA)
JAM (CA)
Ring of Fire (NC)
MadCow (OH)

This is going to be a tough pool.

Chain Lightning of the A-T-L (Atlanta folks) features Josh Zipperstein (who, until he comes to No Borders in Ottawa, will be referred to Dory Zipperstein's brother) Rob Barrett and a plethora of speed and talent. They are 27-4 this season, and were tied for third at UPAs last year.

Chain should have high expectations this year. Seeing this team in the finals is a very real possibility.

Jam is the defending champion. Their handlers are world class and provide the speed and throws that make it almost impossible to game plan for.

However, it's been a real up and down year for the year and they narrowly qualified for finals out of the Northwest. With a season record of 25-16, they have not looked invincible. Still, opponents often sense that Jam still has the talent, and they have been playing possum this year. They will be exciting to watch.

Ring of Fire (24-8) from Raleigh North Carolina is celebrating its 20th year of elite ultimate. Captain Kris Bass gives the following preview of the team (and he gives a special plug to sponsors at 5 ultimate, who have provided our awesome anniversary Fire Jerseys).

As always, Ring is planning to bring it strong at all times at the tournament. We have had an exciting post-season so far, losing in a classic finals match against Truck Stop on double game point. We followed that by another one point game against a strong NC team, LOS. We are absolutely looking forward to playing any and all the teams at nationals, and interested in taking on whomever we face.

We have had lots of close games this year, and hope to avenge a few earlier losses if we can! It is always a challenge and great experience to test yourself against the best everyone has to offer.

If you are coming down, you will want to catch some of our exciting style of play if you can! Larry 'Dirty' Durgin sets the tone for our D line. Brian Lowther conducts sunday morning service in the endzone. and Thomas 'T-unit' Ward and Ken 'Kapow" Porter patrol the skies for the Ring Air Force.

Madcow (39-10) of Columbus Ohio enters their first UPA finals in their tenth year of existence. It's such an inspiring story it needs an article to itself. Rodger Oakes, team captain... provides this rundown:

Madcow is a team built around spirit, depth, and comraderie. We play Ultimate as an outlet to enjoy time with each other. Our expectations for every tournament are to play the best we can...and play our best game during our last game.

This is the first time we've made the Club Championships...and it has been a long road. The team has been around for 10 years now...and a good amount of players have been there for nearly that entire stretch. Over the last 2 years, we've really added depth from other areas (Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Indiana).

We're hoping to win a game, maybe 2 on Thursday. But, our main goal is to get into the play-in game Friday afternoon. We're a team built for long runs...we've got a few high end players that could play on any time, but our strength is the consistent, strong play from 5-27 on our roster.

Sectionals was a good tournament for us...we were clicking on almost all cylinders, and were able to stay focused through most of the tournament.

We knew Regionals would be our real test. We had the #1 seed going to regionals, but ran into a bad matchup against Chicago's Machine. For one reason or another, we just had a little trouble against there Defense. In Semi-finals, we lost a 1 point thriller. Our main goal for the weekend was to qualify for the Championships...so we were able to get over the loss in okay fashion. Sunday morning of regionals was cold and windy...but we persevered. It was a nice setup for us, because we were able to get past Louisville and had to play a Prairie Fire team that had just come off of an upset victory over Sub-Zero. Prairie Fire virtually eliminated us the previous year in Regionals, so we had a little taste of revenge to help motivate us. We got that victory and hit a buzzsaw against Machine again. But, we were able to pull through...knowing that we had beaten Sub-Zero at CHC, we were confident in our ability to play with them...and got through.

The Central Region has 5 teams all at the same level, and we were pretty happy to get the timely victories to qualify. We're excited to play a lot of the teams down in Florida. We have seen a few over the past few years...had plenty of run-ins with GOAT over the last 3-4. I think we realize they're all quality teams, and we'd like to see as many different styles of play as possible.

I don't think there is any one team that we're looking forward to...they'll all be great competition for us.

Our top players on offense are: David Vuckovich (Tlake), Kevin Ryan (Willis) at the cutter position, and Jimmy Hughes and Jeff Kula at the handler spots. Tlake and Willis are open all the time, and just never stop running. Jimmy has great throws, and Kula is the glue for the squad...just does all the dirty work to keep the disc alive and moving. Willis is our highlight reel on O.

Defensively, I'd put Craig Poeppelman (BMW) with any player in the world. He covers any position...handler, 1st cutter, or deep cutter. I don't think I've seen him go through a game without getting a D on his man...or he just keeps his man from touching the disc altogether. He is that good...which is tough for me to say since that was my role until a pulled hamstring put me out for most of this season. Timmy Meyers is also on Defense, and is the heart of the team. He has great passion for the game, and usually covers the largest, tallest cutter on the other team. Ryan Sitler is our main puller, and he has changed our defensive dynamic with his ability. He's been disc golfing for awhile, and does things with the pull that are tough to understand. Scott O'Brien and Josh Botti (OB and JB, respectively) are 2 way speedsters that are a constant annoyance to anyone they cover. They also double on the O line as 2nd cutters to keep things moving for us.

UPA Finals 2009- Open Preview- Pool A

2009-10-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Results will be posted here

Pool A

Revolver (Bay Area CA)
GOAT (Toronto/Ottawa ON)
Truck Stop (Washington DC)
Pike (Princeton NJ)

Revolver enters the tournament as the #1 seed and enjoys a new status this year as an elite team. This team has been around since 2006 and is based on players from the Stanford University program, but took a big step this year with the addition of Colorado Mammbird legend Beau Kittredge and Mac Taylor. In 41 tournament games, they are an impressive 36-5. By no means is this team a runaway favorite (dropping semi final matchups in tourneys this year against Sockeye and Ring of Fire) but they do serve as strong contender deserving of the hype they have received all season.

GOAT of Toronto comes into the tourney on the heels of a Regionals final loss to rival Ironside. It was less a loss and more of a (slap the taste out of your mouth) defeat. In a very good season where they have won the Boston Invite and have a 39-8 season record, a wake up call so close to finals might be a necessary evil.

There is lots to like about this team outside of their passports. My yankee viewers will recognize John Hassell (yes he's great) but there is many more players to like on this team. Joel Hogberg (Sverige Klub Skogs) and Derek Alexander (Team Canada/Furious/Phoenix) have been added to give the team handler weapons with big game experience. GOAT boasts a glut of home grown talent like Taylor Martin, Adrian Yearwood, Lowell Heppner who are just entering their prime. Mark Lloyd serves the role of Kid wonder who'll steal the show if given the opportunity. Inian Moorthy has been noted by 'insiders' as playing particularly hot this fall.

Here's the paradox for GOAT- They have to talent to try and win now, but they also have the vast majority of the roster on the right side of 30, even 26. There will be no talk of the future this week though.. it's time to hunt.

Truck Stop won their regional tourney with a big one point win over Ring of Fire. Trying to build on that, DC's finest (The area has 3-4 touring open clubs) will be looking to show teams that their disappointing 2008 finals showing was a fluke. 25-11 in 36 games this year, they defeated GOAT 13-9 at Chesapeake in their latest head to head.

Pike of New Jersey played Mid Atlantic regionals (I thought they were a North East team) and were 29-14 during the season. Their team is described by captain Duty Rhodes as follows.

Our team expectations are the same as they are for every tournament:

Put the team first
Trust the play of your teammates and earn their trust through your play.
Work and fight for everything because no one will give it us.

Pike is looking forward to facing every team. Especially since we have not had the opportunity to play any of them in well over a year. They each provide unique challenges for our personnel, strategies and mental/intestinal fortitude. The differentiation of the challenges is one of the best aspects of team sports-- Ultimate is no exception. That a high-level challenge exists every round rather than which challenge exists every round is the glory of The Show.

I mean, wait... this is a Canadian site? We're particularly excited to play GOAT!

On Offense, Nick Malinowski, CJ Kozarski and Art Shull anchor our downfield play while Ian McClellan is a handler with every throw in the book as well as a number that aren't.

Defensively, J Dono (attending his 10th Open Nationals), Jon Fink and Jake "The Jake" Rainwater lead the charge. All three are extraordinarily versatile defenders and devastating offensive players on the turn.

UPA Finals 2009- Masters and Mixed Preview

2009-10-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Due to time constraints, the Masters and Mixed previews will be brief.

Masters

Results here.

Canada is represented by GLUM. GLUM is fresh off one of their biggest victories ever- A regional championship with not one but two victories over legendary Death or Glory. Mentally, this might be a huge barrier removed for Ottawa.

In their regionals victory and their National championship, the team has been very quick to attribute their success to their defence and their new cutters, who have provided the speed needed to get open and provide easy looks.

A UPA championship is possible, but GLUM will have many tough games throughout the tournament. A team to watch will be Double Black of Colorado, who was one of the few squads to play in open tournaments through the summer and defeating strong club team Blackfish during the Colorado Cup.

Mixed

Results here.

As stated, Canadian finally has a UPA finals participant in this division and the team is looking forward to the challenge.

Psychoplastique finds themselves third in their four team pool. They will face the defending champions (Mental Toss Flycoons) on day one and will look to build on the previous head to head matchups with them.

More importantly, they must beat both Barrio (AZ) and BCBC (CA) in order to stay in the power pools and remain alive for quarter finals.

UPA Finals 2009 Preview- Women's

2009-10-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Two teams have dominated this division for this decade- Riot and Fury. Is this the year someone else makes the final? Can Canada get a break through in this division?

Two Canadian Teams enter this week with strong teams and stronger hopes of a UPA championship.

Schedule is here and will also be updated here.

Pool A

Riot (Seattle)
Showdown (TX)
Ozone (ATL)
Wildcard (PA)

Riot (Seattle) enters the finals with a season record of 27-4. They have only lost to Fury (twice) Uno (Japan) and Traffic this season and are on a particular hot streak. They have given us reason to think that, despite losing to Fury for several seasons, this is their year. They beat Fury at regionals and at the Emerald City Classic. Can they do it a third time?

Showdown is out of Austin and they represent the growing talent from that city and that state. After a solid season of touring, it appears that while this team is not quite ready for prime time, they will provide finals opponents with a tough match. In 30 games this year, they are 19-11 with big wins over Ozone at regionals and a very good Nemesis team at Chicago Heavyweights.

Ozone of Atlanta has had an intersting season. In compiling an impressive 26-4 record, they have beaten some VERY good teams (Zeitgeist), play Fury and Riot hard, and then lose to Showdown at regionals. Despite the mess up at regionals, they get a chance to face showdown again and get into day two power pools.

Wildcard is the third seed from the Mid Atlantic region. They've had a busy summer and fall, with 39 tournament games and posted a 25-14 record. They had a rough ride at the Chesapeake Open earlier this summer.

Pool B

Capitals (Toronto/Ottawa)
Zeitgeist (Berkley CA)
Nemesis (Chicago IL)
Safari (San Diego CA)

Capitals have had a very strong fall season since merging Stella (Ottawa) and Lotus (Toronto) as per fall tradition. The team is 16-0 this year, winning Chesapeake against some tough teams and their sectional/regionals with relative ease. As I look at their pool, I think they will have a tough day one because the teams below them are all very good. However, the Capitals are as good as they have ever been, and they need to beat teams like these to make it to semis and finals.

Here's the makeup of this team. Lotus (roughly 21-1) won the national Canadian championship this year, and won the Boston Invite in addition to losing on universe to Brute Squad at the No Borders final. Stella (roughly 12-7) finished second at CUC 2009, and both teams were able to compete against the best of the east on their own. Combined, they should be a huge threat when deployed properly.

And if they don't make semis, at the very least, I suggest they change their merger system or personnel. I really like how these ladies have stuck to their program and system for several years (others could learn from this), but they must take the next step.

Zeitgeist has always been a team of interest, because they are capable of beating the very best and being surprised by less stellar teams. In their summer season, they played 36 games and had a 23-13 record.

Nemesis of Chicago appears to be a program on the upside. They are led by a fantastic handler in Jessi Witt, and they owe a lot of their success this year to the addition of new athletic players. In 37 tournament games, they sport a 30-7. Yeah.. that's pretty damn impressive for the third seed in a day one pool!

Safari of San Diego is a tough California team that will give all three of their pool B opponents a tough match. 15-10 during the season in tournament play.. and will look to play spoiler during the tournament.

Pool C

Fury is the three time defending champions of this division and aim for the elusive four peat this year. With a 37-3 tournament record this year, they seem to have the same mystic of past years over all opponents except for Riot, who was been responsible for all three losses.

Traffic of Vancouver has been away from CUC since 2007, and as such Canadian teams and cities do not get to see them very much. Focusing on tourneys and opponents from the ultra tough north west US region, Traffic has an 18-12 record this year, and it's been a bumpy ride. They have shown to play Riot and Fury tough, but have also lost to Seattle's B team (Underground).

Lady Condors of Santa Barbara have not won a national championship since their fourth straight title in 1987. They have had a strong touring season, going 15-5 and played well at Chesapeake.

Pop of Minneapolis has had a long touring season and have collected a lot of travel points playing many of the teams that are in this finals tournament. In 35 tournament games this year, Pop sports a respective 22-13

Pool D

Brute Squad of Boston pose as one of the strongest Boston teams to come to UPA Finals in some time. After getting the chance to see them at No Borders, it seems like the team has an advantage of many strong leaders, as well as good coaching. They are also very skilled with throws and will be able to handle the winds of Sarasota. If you want to see a young player who uses angles and savvy to handle, look no further than Dory Zipperstein. In 45 games, they had a strong 34-11 record.

Backhoe from North Carolina is a squad that has long been on my list of teams to see. Lindsey Hack is highly regarded as a leader and a very fit "big" (5'10) with skill. That package causes matchup problems. In 32 games, they sit at 26-6. They appear to be a strong candidate for quarters if not semi final action depending on how things shake down.

Rare Air is Boulder's Best coming out of the Southwest region. After getting some humbling elite team spankings at their home tournament (Colorado Cup), they have gotten stronger during the season and enter finals with a 18-12 record in 30 tourney games this year.

Scandal from DC is an interesting team when you look closely at their season win/loss stats. They went winless at the Boston Invite but played every single team hard, including eventual champ Lotus. They had similar tough losses at Chespeake. Since then, they have pounded some lesser knowns and enter Florida on a high note. In 39 games, they went a respectable 25-14.

Talking with Trainor: Who is PsychoPlastique?

2009-10-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Every year, Canadian Ultimate wonders when the city of Edmonton's ultimate program will have a breakthrough. We thought it might happen in 2005 with the play of Open team EMU at nationals. We thought Team Alberta's strong play at CUC 2007 was a strong indicator that the women's team would lead the way. These were all false starts for an Edmonton breakthrough (a larger Canadian city that should be a more prominent at the national level). We were disappointed when CUPA gave Edmonton CUUC 2008 and did not see any of their teams make it to CUUC 2009.

It's official- we finally have a breakthrough in Edmonton. Mixed team Psychoplastique.

Psychoplastique is not new. They finished 3rd at CUC 2007, and were a team to watch at CUC 2008. However, the team has accomplished a very tough feat recently, beating out many Northwest region opponents to capture a bid to UPA 2009 Finals in Florida. Not only is this rare for a team out of Alberta, it has not been done by a Canadian mixed squad this decade.

I interviewed team captains Jenn Nichols, Seb Toth and Patrick MacQuarrie to find out more about the team and their expecatations as they embark for their first UPA championship.

Best of luck in Sarasota!!
____________________________________________________________________

How did the team take shape? What have been the keys to success in developing?

Although the name Psychoplastique has been around for a while, it was only last year that we started to adhere in an organized fashion and travel to competitive tournaments to gain experience and increased exposure to higher level Ultimate. Edmonton struggles with maintaining numbers in the competitive touring scene, so a mixed team formed as we could not support a competitive separate open and women's team.

Last year, the team had a very similar core to this year, but our systems and values were not as developed. We had a good nationals, apart from our semifinal loss to TFP, and then sent a skeleton squad (almost entirely younger players) to UPAs, and finished middle of the pack at regionals.

This year, Jenn Nicholls (Flycoons and TFP last year, making her a defending UPA and world champion) moved into a captain's role (along with Seb Toth - Furious last year) and really began to push to make this team competitive . We went to Philadelphia to play the Philly invite, and played well enough to beat a couple teams that made UPA nats last year. We had losses to AMP and Slow White, but gained a lot of experience getting to play these top teams. At Potlatch, we lost games to both Mischief and DropCop, but our top powerpool finish helped players to believe that this team had the talent to compete at a high level.

Canadian Nats was a huge let-down for us. For a variety of reasons, we just didn't bring our A game. Perhaps we got a little to comfortable with our Potlatch and Philly experience, but we didn't come into Canadian Nationals with the right attitude, and we paid the price. It was a great wake-up call for UPAs , however, as we addressed a number of issues . Practice and training intensity increased, focused roles developed a little more, and talent was brought in to fill roles that were needed.

How was the sectionals and regionals experience?

Sectionals had a couple tough losses for us. We were up a break on both Flycoons and Spike early, and then collapsed after half. We decided, before regionals, that it was important to keep the energy in games, especially on D, and that started with sideline support. One comment that stuck with me was "our sideline should pump up our D line, not the other way around."

At Regionals, the cards fell into place for us. The weather was bad, but not awful. There was rain, snow and wind, but nothing compared to playing in the swamps at Canadian Nats. The elevation was an issue on the first day, but we adjusted quickly. Although, upsets in the other side of the bracket worked in our favour, we ran hard when we needed to and got our job done.

The Saturday went as expected, as we went 3-1 with a loss to Flycoons. We played Spike on the Saturday morning, and were down 3-2, with no breaks yet, when there was a long delay due to lightning. We came out focused and cohesive, and our D line rose up to take that game 8-4.

In our first chance at a "game to go", against D'oh, we came out flat and never figured out their poaching D systems. Our next game was against Night Train, who had just beaten Mischief in a nail-biter, and seemed to have burned all their energy . We led throughout that game to a 13-3 win. The next chance in a game to go was against CTR. We targeted our D on stopping their break force throws, and took half 7-3. Each team broke early in the 2nd half, and then we traded out before breaking again to win 13-9.

I can honestly say that no one on the team expected us to make it this far, but we feel like we deserve the opportunity, and we hope to be playing meaningful games on Saturday in Sarasota. The northwest is a strong region, and we feel like we can compete near the top.

How is the team preparing for UPA Finals?

We are preparing for the tournament by pushing fitness training and player connections over the next two weeks. We just had our first snowfall, and, combined with limited day-light hours, and limited numbers to practice against, our scrimmages will likely be few and short.

How would you describe your team style of play? Who are the key players on offence and defence?

If you ask almost anyone we have played, they will tell you that we like to huck to both our men and women, and that we are very physical on defense. It is difficult for me to pick out 'key' players, but, if I had to try, on offense it would be Brendan Wong and Jenn Nicholls, while defensively, Seb Toth and Terri Whitehead usually draw the tough matchups.

What's the current state of Edmonton ultimate? Growth?

Edmonton ultimate is still struggling to achieve a high number of competitive players. While there is a healthy city league (www.eupa.ca), we struggle to maintain numbers throughout a full season and at Psycho practice. We hope that this exposure in Sarasota will help with growth in the competitive scene, as well as coaching and mentoring skills that can be brought back to our university and city teams.

UPA 2009 Finals Website + 10 Things I Think I think

2009-10-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The big dance is but mere days away.

The 2009 UPA Finals website is up, and the teams and schedules are listed. I will be posted previews of the divisions shortly.

Canada has five squads in the championship this year:

Traffic (BC) and Capitals (ON) in Women's
GOAT (ON) in Open
GLUM (ON) in Masters
Pyschoplastique (AB) in Co-ed

In the meantime, here are 10 thoughts to be discussed.

I think VC Ultimate is on fire right now, and their sublimation series is H-O-T.
I think the Carleton-Western game, from all witnesses, was a great game play wise and spirit wise.
I think University of Toronto's (Torontula) run from 2006-2008 qualifies as a dynasty.
I think I wish the national championship at the club level was as valued as the University one is now.
I think Mark Lloyd will be a captain for Team Canada at some point in his career
I think the Capitals need to make semis in Sarasota
I think GLUM is as good as they have ever been, and their time to win Masters is now
I think GOAT getting their a$$ handed to them in the regional final was a blessing
I think WFDF under 23 worlds is a great idea for 2011, but too late for 2010
I think Ottawa's first national title in open since 1998 should not be underestimated

UWO Sharks 2009 CUUC- VC Ultimate Sublimation Jerseys

Ravens Soar, Gee Gees Gallop to CUUC 2009 Championship

2009-10-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Ottawa is the proud home to both the mens and women's 2009 Canadian University Ultimate Champions.

Open Results

Finals- The University of Western Ontario Sharks vs the Carleton Ravens.

The Sharks dominated their pool and power pool matchups. The Sharks gave up no more than 7 points in 7 pool games, including a 14-7 win versus Carleton on Saturday. Their wins of Torontula and UBC (14-12) brought their 2009 win streak to 17 heading into the final.

Carleton made it finals after winning a nail biting 13-12 semi versus Queens. They had won 9 of their first 10 games in this tournament, losing only to the Sharks on day 2.

In what is being described by both sides as a great final, Carleton had an outstanding game and took the national championship with a decisive 15-11 victory over Western.

Congratulations to everyone who helped develop this program in Ottawa and helped bring this championship to Ottawa. Team roster is below:

Tobiah	Abramson
Reynaldo	Arteaga
Ryan	Bauer
Joel	Bellavance
Neal	Dawson
Gerrit	De Vynck
Shaw	Dungate
Brad	Fackoury
Brent	Gerhart
Mat	Goodkey
Jan	Gorski
Jason	Lobb
Karl	Loiseau
Christian	Mahaffy
Eric	Mazzei
Devin	McCabe
Tim	Nardi
Colin	Purdy
Bryce	Ring
robert	schmidt
Joshua	Tai
Rene	Toupin-Piper
danny	vanwilligen
Kielan	Way
Tyler	Zandbelt

Womens Results

Womens Finals- Ottawa Gee Gees versus McGill Martletts

From the outset of the tournament, this bracket seemed to be (at best) a five team race for the national championship.

Ottawa
UBC (depending on who/how many players came out "east")
Montreal (Upstart rookie team)
McGill (Constant contender)
Guelph

Ottawa entered CUUC 2009 with a 36-4 record this season, having not lost to a single Canadian team all year. Outside of a close 11-8 win over UdeM Diva in pool play, Ottawa moved quickly and easily to finals.

McGill entered the finals off of a big win over city rival UdeM in the semi finals. In winning 8 straight games at this tournament, McGill showed they were a worthy finalist and the strongest challenger to the Ottawa machine.

In the end, Ottawa won the title with a 14-9 victory over the host Marletts squads. Ottawa finishes 2009 with an astounding 44-4 record for the calender year, and sets their sights now on the UPA college series in the spring of 2010.

Team roster below...

Chanelle	Pratt-Johnson
Jenna	Atchison
Viviane	Bartlett
Shannon	Becker
Anita	Benoit
Eloise	Clement
Laura	Evgin
Danielle	Fortin
Stephanie	Gobin
Louise	Guolla
Angelia	Hughes
Marie-Andrée	Imbeault
Brianna	Jaffray
Meghan	Kane
Sonia	Komenda
Julia	Laforge
Kylee	Letourneau
Stephanie	Mandal
Chantal	Mayotte
Anne	Mercier
Ariane	Morissette
Samantha	Morris
Lauren	Murphy
Aline	Pfefferle
Kathryn	Pohran
Gabrielle	Robineau-Charette
Vanessa	Scharf
Tayla	Sedgwick
Kaylee	Sparks
Michelle	Warren

CUUC 2009- Women's Preview

2009-10-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Results Link

CUPA took a very important and bold step last year by hosting nationals in Edmonton. Short term, it saw a small tournament, smaller than it hoped. However, it spread awareness to a key area of the country. The major dissapointment is that the University of Alberta will not be sending teams to CUUC 2009 after such an investment was made in their city the year previous.

In 2009, university nationals return to Montreal and both open and women's divisions will be heavily populated with talented teams.

It looks like there are two clear cut favorites to make the finals (UBC and Ottawa) followed by a glut of teams that could either make semis or fall out of quarters. That large group of teams after the top two will be providing the suspense and excitement as the games are played and scores are posted.

The format is 14 teams, two pools and two day pool play. Here are the team reviews based on current schedule and seed. (Schedule subject to change)

Full reviews of all East teams that participated in CEUUC 2009 can be found here.

Pool A

University of Ottawa Lady Geegees
UdM Ultimate Diva
UT Torontula
UWO Sharkbait
Queen's
McMaster
Carleton Stealth

U of O Lady Gee Gees take the top seed, and equally share the title of championship front runners from UBC. Ottawa looked focused and determined during CEUUC 2009, and won the tournament in style. Expect this team to be in the semis,

UdM Diva shocked many with their 2nd place finish at CEUCC 2009. They only had 12 players playing, which made this brand new program even more impressive.

The next three teams are established programs that seem to be going through a year of transistion/development. Torontula rebounded from a tough CEUUC 2008 and finished 4th in 2009. UWO Sharkbait finished 6th at easterns this year, and have a lot more talent capable of better performance. Queens Paper Bag Princess finished 7th at Easterns and such an established program will be looking to improve on that.

McMaster and Carleton Stealth finished 9th and 10th respectively at Easterns. They will be looking to take advantage of any teams above them that fail to perform up to their abilities.

Pool B

UBC T-Birds
McGill Martlets A
US SWUP
Guelph DOA
Dalhousie DKUT
Sherbrooke
McGill Martlets B

UBC Thunder Birds enter the tournament as the two time defending national championships. Viewers will be excited to see this tournament playing Ottawa, in the hopes of answering which team is the best women's team in ultimate this year. Of all accolades, the fact that this team won the 2008 UPA College Championship is remarkably impressive and speaks to their talent level.

McGill Martletts A finished a respectable but dissapointing 3rd place at CEUUC 2009. As mentioned in previous posts, this team has had a very steady decade and would like to cap it off with another national championship in their own city. They are a serious contender.

University of Saskatchewan SWUP enters the tournament as an unknown and will find themselves fighting off a number of good teams to hold their seed. These teams include an up and coming University of Guelph DOA team (5th at CEUUC 2009), Dalhousie (DKUT) and Sherbrooke. McGill Martletts B team is the only second team to make an appearance, and will look to improve on their 12th place finish at CEUUC in front of the home town fans.

CUUC 2009: Open Preview

2009-10-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Results link

Montreal hosts CUUC for the first time since 2005. Expect a great tournament from a great team, lead by TD Kirsten Niles.

The pool of open teams is both large and full of talent. Teams are reviewed as per current schedule/pools (Schedule subject to change).

Full reviews of East teams that participated at CEUUC 2009 can be found here.

Pool A

University of Western Ontario Sharks
US Tommy Douglas
McMaster
Waterloo Mannshaft
Concordia

The UWO Sharks are the defending CEUUC 2009 champs. It has been a long time coming. The team boasts height, speed, skill and efficiency throughout the roster. The team will have a plethora of talented players, and all will need to play as expected to making national title hopes a reality.

Of the many Shark players to watch, one will be Andrew "Drew" Watts, who plays club for Grand Trunk. Watts has always brought a winning attitude to the Sharks team since 2006. It's hard to explain, but the kid is a gamer. He brings a swagger but is a hard worker. It's invaluable to have players like Watts that don't change their game or mindset regardless of the score.

University of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas Dream Machine returns east for the first time since 2006. In 2006, they impressed many teams with their height and athleticism. They overcame a tough seed that year to make it to pre-quarters. Expect this team to fight heavily with the remaining squads in the pool for the second place

McMaster finished 8th at CEUUC. University of Waterloo Mannshaft had a disappointing 9th place finish at CEUUC 2009, and will be looking to rebound.

Concordia University did not participate at CEUUC 2009, but did take part in 2008 (tied for 11th) and make their first nationals appearance in their home town. No one is completly sure how this team will fare. Do they have students that also play for Mephisto? Is the team made up of newcomers? What we do know is that no team in the pool is taking the unknown team lightly.

Pool B

UBC T-Birds
UO Geegees
UQAM
Lakehead
UWO Seals

The UBC Thunderbirds are a perennial powerhouse at the national level and, until proven otherwise, are a solid number two seed. They will be very tough to beat in this pool and should emerge However, they have not won a national championship since 2003, and they lost in 2007 to Torontula in Vancouver. Thus, they have something to prove at this nationals.

University of Ottawa Gee Gees, long the weak college sister in Ottawa, had a strong 6th place finish at CEUUC 2009. While the jury is still out on their ability to beat the top clubs above them, one can expect them to finish as seeded in pool play.

University de Quebec a Montreal is a local team that did not attend CEUUC 2009 in London. They are lead by Jean Levy Champagne of Mephisto and are rumored to have enough established club talent to pose as darkhorse sleeper candidates.

Lakehead University from Thunder Bay, Ontario makes an appearance at nationals and appears to be a growing program on the rise. Lead by ex Firebird player and Ottawa native Eric Mathieu, the team is unknown to its day one opponents and will get an excellent acid test of where the program is and where it needs to go.

UWO Seals is the B team from Western, and are a combo team of two teams that competed at CEUCC 2009. B team label aside, expect this to be a very difficult team to face given that they get to practice with and scrimmage

Pool C

UT Torontula
Queen's Mothership
Dalhousie DKUT
U d Montreal
McGill Redmen B

Finishing 2nd at CEUUC 2009, 3 time defending national champion Torontula from University of Toronto is by no means ready to give up their national title without a serious battle. Lead by Taylor Martin and Adrian Yearwood, this team is once again loaded with talent and working hard to build the next group of Tula starters. A player to watch would be former world junior Giorgi Traini. He's a very large physical player that needs to be a factor for the team to repeat.

Queens Mothership finished 5th at CEUUC 2009, and impressed many viewers with their athletes and their team's play. A very great and historic program seems to be on the upside again and they will look to challenge TULA for top spot in the pool.

Dalhousie (DKUT) from Halifax will be a very tough 3rd seed in the pool and are most likely a little underseeded. Matt Hogel will be an animal/machine against Tula and his alma matter Queens. Hogel also promised some of his teammates will really make their mark in this tournament.

Universite d Montreal makes their first national appearance. Like UQAM, they skipped out on CEUUC 2009 and their unknown abilities make this pool very interesting. As a host city team, expect their best players to be available and ready to play.

McGill Redmen B finished out of the top 8 at CEUUC 2009 (I wish all results were posted) and has a very tough schedule on day one. Any victories they can generate in this pool should be seen as huge victories.

Pool D

Carleton Ravens
Guelph DOA
McGill Redmen A
Sherbrooke
Queen's Superfly
UT Torontula B

University of Carleton Ravens from Ottawa finished 3rd at CEUUC 2009 and are a legitimate championship contender. University of Guelph DOA finished 4th and was gave eventual champs UWO Sharks a tough time in the semi finals. Both teams realize that their key pool matchup will be against one another. Whoever wins gets an easier route to quarters and semis, and that can make a big difference.

McGill Redmen A had a 7th place finish at CEUUC 2009, and I am sure no one on the team will consider a similar result at CUUC 2009 in Montreal an acceptable finish.

Sherbrooke finished an impressive 6th at CEUUC 2008 and that means pool d opponents have to be ready for an impressive squad. Failing to make it to London for easterns, Sherbrooke will be at a disadvantage against McGill, Carleton and Guelph, those teams already with at least one tournament under their belts.

The second squads of Queen's (Superfly) and Toronto (Torontula B) have a shot at making it to the power pools. However, they will need to win the head to head matchup against one another and beat two of the four teams above them. It won't be easy, but it's strong motivation for both teams.

Talking with Trainor- Matt Hogel, Dalhousie Ultimate

2009-10-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

Nation,

I was part of the first Dalhousie university team. DKUT was started in 2000 and was lead by future GOAT player Chris Lee and his friend Chris Ford. Playing the game (pick up on parliament hill) for less than a year, I was excited to see the yellow poster in the Commerce building indicating an information meeting in the beautiful King's College quad area. A friend (Andrew McQuinn) and I decided to check it out.

On a beautiful September day, the team was established and practices soon followed. The team was coed because there simply wasn't the interest or competition in the region. I learned a lot from playing on the team and it was a good experience playing with a diverse group of characters.

DKUT (Dalhousie Kings Ultimate Team) has evolved over time. Located in the student mecca city of Halifax and attracting students from all over the world, Going to school at Dalhousie is very attractive and DKUT has also been attractive to many excellent players. GOAT alums John Hassell, Andy Ouchterlony , Chris Lee, James Donovan have played for the team. Ramsey Wright, Brad Callaghan, Loic Dalle, Robert Macleod, Mike Lovas and Maddie Hall are also notable club alumni.
____________________________________________________________________

Few players will enter CUUC 2009 with as much experience as Matt Hogel, one of DKUT's current leaders. Hogel has been playing club ultimate (Phoenix, Red Circus) since 2005 when he played with Phoenix. He have been playing university ultimate since 2002 when he started with the Queen's B Team (Superfly).

Hogel joined Queens Mothership in 2003 and was part of one the best canadian unversity open teams on record. The school went to the 2004 UPA college finals and had a dominant run at CEUUC and CUUC championships.

Hogel provided feedback on his experiences, DKUT's expectations at CUUC 2009 and his assessment of ultimate in the martimes.

What's your greatest Ultimate accomplishment?

Qualifying and competing in the UPA College Championships in 2005. Qualifying for the tournament validated the incredible amount of hard work that everyone on the team put in, and being able to compete against some of the best players in college at that time was an unforgettable experience.

What's your worst moment in Ultimate?

Failing to qualify UPA club championships in 2005. Not being able to win games we expected to be able to win, and missing out on a great opportunity to play at the highest level in ultimate was very disappointing.

Favorite tournament city?

Boston. Nice fields, always good competition and if you can get into town there's plenty to see and do.

Favorite Opponent? (Team/Individual)

Haven't played College ulitmate in a while, but the most enjoyable team I ever played against was Texas. Staying closer to home, I enjoyed the rivalry that Queen's had with Guelph in the two years I played with Mothership. I can't say I have a favorite individual opponent. I enjoy playing against players I know and who know me.

Who's the best University player in the game today?

I am very uninformed regarding the players in the college game today, but with that in mind, if there is anyone playing right now that is better than Kielen Way I would love to see them play. He's like the 5-tool player in baseball. He can do everything and he has that competitive fire on the field that keeps him from getting complacent or relying in his skill alone.

Who's the best ever during your time?

Josh Zipperstein. I still don't understand how anyone is able to defend him. Staying inside Canada, Adam Melnyk. Aside from his abilities on the field he is the best leader I've ever played for.

What are DKUT's expectations at CUUC 2009?

We are limitted by the fact that we haven't played any tournaments together since UPA sectionals last year. We have plenty of depth, and a good veteran core. We will be looking to find our rhythm through the first couple of days and play our way into a quarter-final. After that, anything is possible.

Describe the state of ultimate for Atlantic school teams in general. Will we see more Atlantic schools at nationals soon?

Unfortunately I doubt it. Unless CUUCs come to Halifax or somewhere in the vicinity, they will never get closer than Montreal. With only Dal coming to Montreal this time, you won't see more teams traveling when the tournament moves to Toronto or Winnipeg or Vancouver. Ultimate on the east coast is disadvantaged by its isolation. It takes 11 hours to drive to Boston, 13 hours to get to Montreal and 15 to get to Ottawa. Those are the cities you have to travel to play Open and Women's tournaments. Everything in the area is co-ed which doesn't foster growth of men's and women's teams to play at CUUCs. Schools such as Acadia and SFX only have 8-10 men, and 4-6 women on their rosters. That doesn't allow them to play anything but co-ed. Until we start hosting open and women's tournaments closer to home, I don't see the smaller schools developing anything other than co-ed teams.

What was/is the most aggravating thing about the game?

The ability players have to make questionable calls that benefit themselves and their team. Everyone does it due to the inherent bias in self-officiating. Some are a lot worse than others. Watching the two observed games at Northeastern Regionals this past weekend, it was amazing to see the number of calls that were overturned by observers in those games. I don't think the game should be fully officiated as I like putting the onus on the players to know the rules and regulate themselves, but so long as you have quality observers that you can trust to make the right calls, I like having observers to keep the players in check.

How would you describe DKUT's playing style?

Hard nosed. If a team is going to beat us, we want to make them have to work hard to do it. Nothing is going to come easy.

Which players will DKUT rely on for Offence and Defence respectively?

I have a feeling that people will know who Bobo Eyrich is by the end of the tournament. He is still getting better, but as it stands now he can change a game in multiple ways on either side of the disc.

Given that Dal has a large majority of students who are from outside the maritimes, does the Halifax system help feed players to Dalhousie? Can the Halifax system improve to help foster better development (through Dal and HURL)?

I feel it's the other way around. Dalhousie feeds players to Red Circus (the halifax Open team). I count 11 guys on Red Circus whose first competitive ultimate experience was with DKUT.

Throughout the country, the goal has to be to get kids playing ultimate at a younger age. The next step is to get kids coming to university as great players already. It's starting to happen, but when you look at the quality of the high school system in the states and the types of players they are pumping out, we have a long ways to go. One of the major goals of Halifax Ultimate right now is to foster the growth of ultimate in schools in the maritimes. They are establishing coaches for high school teams and host a high school tournament every year, and are implementing clinics in junior high schools to target kids at an even younger age.

Talking with Trainor- Isabelle Ascah-Coallier, Université de Montréal - Ultimate Diva Montréal

2009-10-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Nation,

On the eve of the 2009 Canadian University Ultimate Championships, we profile the captain of one of the newest teams in university women's ultimate- Université de Montréal - 'Ultimate Diva Montréal'. Despite a small roster for CEUUC 2009, the team surprised many and finished second.

Beating many established programs like city rival McGill made readers ask- Who is this team?

Isabelle Ascah-Coallier has just completed her first year of women's club play with Montreal's Mystik. Identified by coach Sonia Kraijeck as one of the key players on Diva, Isabelle was kind enough to take part in an interview with me to tell us about her team, her ultimate experiences and her hopes for the U de M program in the future.

Name: Isabelle Ascah-Coallier
Number of Years playing Club : 1 year competitive with Mystik, 6 years in total
Number of Years playing University: 1
History of the U de M women's team: It is the first year of the team. We created it because the CUUC are in Montreal, but we wish to establish a long time program of ultimate at UdeM.

How would you describe your team's style of play?

We are an athletic team. We have many fast girls that are really intense in defense. I think that this is our strength. And Sonia Krajicek, our coach, worked a lot to improve our defensive play.

Describe the team's experience of CEUC 2009 in London?

It was amazing. We went there with high expectations and we achieved our goals. We were competitive against each team and we reached the final. We couldn't have asked for more from our first tournament.

Which team does U de M most want to face at CUUC 2009?

Ottawa or McGill. Two good teams. There is lot of intensity when we play against either one. We had two friendly games against McGill and each was great. It would be fun to meet them in a tournament.

What are the team's expectations at CUUC 2009?

We want to reach the semi-finals. That said, our first goal is to finish in the top two of our pool.

Describe the state of ultimate for Montreal school teams in general. Will we see more Montreal schools at nationals soon outside of CUUC 2009?

There is strong desire in Montreal to have men and women teams at each university (Concordia, McGill, UdeM, etc). The AUM is working towards that goal this year and there will be men teams from the four Montreal universities at CUUC. With all the work done by many people at each university this year, we can just hope that long time programs will be established.

On the women's side, we have two schools with women teams: McGill and us. We hope that the girls on UdeM team enjoy their experience and that next year another womens team at UQAM will be established. I think that multiplying school teams is a good way to improve womens ultimate in Montreal. And as I said, UdeM's team was created because the nationals are in Montreal this year, but we really want to keep this team alive.

What is your favorite thing about the game of ultimate?

I like the way we can combine intensity with good team spirit on the field.

What was/is the most aggravating thing about the game?

Never-ending discussion on the field.

UPA 2009 Regionals Review- East

2009-10-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Review of this weekend's east regional action.

Canada had the chance to send a record number of Canadian teams to UPA finals this year, and it would be largely due to the North East region clubs who had shown promise at sectional tournaments.

As the weekend progressed, the results showed such a breakthrough would not happen. While some players offered up excuses for their team's results (Injuries, full team would have qualified, format, etc) the vast majority were professional and took their results with class and spirit. Every team has injuries. Every team is missing a key piece of talent from their roster and battling some type of adversity. In the end, you have to suck it up and avoid loser talk!

Congratulations to all teams who participated and the teams (American and Canadian) that advanced!

Masters Division

Dominance from Ottawa' GLUM on day one. They had a easy first match in game one, then beat top seed DoG 15-14 in a huge statement game. They went on to go 5-0 in pool play and faced off against DoG in the 1st place final.

By several first hand accounts outside of the team, Ottawa should be proud of a dominant 15-7 victory over DoG. GLUM was impervious to the zone defense thrown at them, and lead convincingly throughout the match.

Mixed Division

As feared, the format called for teams to be at their playoff best from game one. The rundown on our solid Canuck teams is as follows:

RIP had an impressive Saturday run and made it to semi-finals in the 1st place bracket. They lost in the semis to eventual champion Slow White and their qualifying efforts stalled. They lost again to NTC's Puppet Regime and Enough Monkeys to finish in 6th.
Gecko from Sherbrooke went 3-3 and finished 9th
MONSTER from Toronto went 2-3 and finished 11th
Bytown Flatball Club was quickly eliminated from UPA Finals contention but competed strongly in the 13th bracket and finished 2-2 with a 13th place finish.

In the end, Canadian teams didn't get the Florida bids they hoped for, but they did play well in a tournament with several great American squads. It's nice to see continual improvement from a number of programs that have been in existence for several years.

OPEN Division

We knew one Canadian team would make it to Florida, and we had high hopes for another to join GOAT at UPA Finals. Here's the rundown

GOAT goes 6-0 straight to the final, but loses 15-6 to Ironside and takes the second bid. The team gave full credit to Ironside for their win and will be working hard to prepare themselves for UPA Finals
Phoenix of Ottawa finished 6th. After going 1-1 in pool play, they defeated Red Circus before losing to PONY in Quarters. Still alive, they beat darkhorse Dark of Light before losing to Bodhi for the second time on the weekend and being eliminated.
Mephisto of Montreal had a very tough weekend for a defending CUC champion. They went 2-5 and lost to relative unknown Dark or Light to settle for 8th.
Red Circus of Halifax upset Colt. 45 in pool play and eliminated Hartford's best from playoff contention. Circus went 1-3 on the weekend, losing to Phoenix in quarters. Ironically, they scored as many points against against Ironside as GOAT did (file in the small victories) .

Everyone knew that Ironside and GOAT were likely to qualify. However, the play of Bodhi was noteworthy to many who watched them live. They have not lost to anyone in the region outside of Ironside/GOAT all year, and they seem to be narrowing the gap with the top two this year.

Women's Division

As expected, the Toronto/Ottawa combo team Capitals was able to hold seed and win the region.

We didn't know how dominant the Capitals would be, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. They went 5-0 in pool play, and had four games where they allowed only one point against. FOUR GAMES. That's a great killer instinct.

Straight to the Finals, the Capitals beat a very good Brute Squad 13-10 and won the region. Brute Squad then won their 2nd place game over Bent and took the last bid.

Storm from Montreal lived up to their 5th place seed but couldn't break through in the playoffs. They earned a chance for 2nd place, but had to beat a high seed in the other pool (Lady Godiva) and could not get past them. They ended up tied for 5th. So ends a very good season for Montreal ultimate, and some of the steps taken this year (like a b team program) will be huge for their chances next season.

UPA 2009 Regionals- East Preview

2009-10-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Nation,

As most of us enjoy our long weekend and Thanksgiving, some hard working Canadian teams will be making the trek to the U.S. for play regionals and qualify for UPA Finals in Sarasota.

BFC vs RIP- CUC 2009
Photo Source: Aaron J Cohen

Given the high number of Canadian teams, the hope is that we will have a record number of teams qualify for finals. With our first co-ed team this decade already confirmed.. anything is possible... but some things are more probable than others.

Before I get to the other divisions, I note the Northeast Master Regionals (featuring the relatively ultra strong GLUM squad from Ottawa) is slated for this weekend, but no schedule is up yet

2009 Northeast Mixed Regionals

Number of Canadian Teams: 4
Number of bids to Championships: 3

Straight forward format for the 16 teams that puts pressure on all teams to be ready from game one.

RIP of Montreal is the top seeded Canadian team. First game is versus Brooklyn's Zojirushi, who will be a tough match-up and potential sleeper team.
GECKO of Sherbrooke is a streaky team by nature this season. They can impress and upset higher seeds, or can drop a game 15-6 to RIP like they did at sectionals. They'll be playing a Portland squad (Mogwai) that finished 4th in a very tough section.
Monster of Toronto won their section and figure to advance to quaterfinals, albeit against top ranked Slow White.
Bytown Flatball Club made some drastic roster changes this fall and managed to upset Tundra to grab the last spot to regionals. Their first game is against number 2 seed Quiet Coyote. It will be a tough task.

Expect three of four canuck teams to make the quarter finals. It's going to be tough to get into the top 3, but I hope one of the teams can. If Pyschoplastique did it, so can RIP/GECKO/MONSTER or even BFC.

2009 Northeast Open Regionals

Number of Canadian Teams: 4
Number of bids to Championships: 3

GOAT of Toronto enters as the number 2 with one goal- ending the weekend in first against an equally good Ironside. These two teams appear to be safe locks to grab the first two of three bids to Florida
Phoenix of Ottawa fell short of their goal last fall of making it to fall series. This year, there are less bids from the region, but they have had a strong summer and a best ever finish at Canadian nationals.
Mephisto of Montreal, defending Canadian Champions, are in the same proverbial boat as Phoenix- Great team, Stiff competition.
Red Circus of Halifax got hot on sectional Sunday and made it to regionals. They now get a matchup with Ironside, and can try to knock off Colt .45 and Replicants.

Outside of GOAT, Canadian teams's hopes to qualify for Florida come down to this- Can you beat out BODHI, PONY, Replicants, Sons of Liberty and your Canadian foes for the one spot remaining?

2009 Northeast Womens Regionals

Number of Canadian Teams: 2
Number of bids to Championships: 2

Capitals of Ottawa/Toronto will look to continue their ride to Sarasota with a top 2 finish on the weekend.

Finishing first is vital for seeding purposes for the Capitals. They want to make the next step in UPA finals, and move from top 6 to top 4 or even to finals.

The key opponent will be Brute Squad. Boston's top squad is tough, experienced and able to pull out the wins in key games. They won't be intimadated by the roster of Capitals.

Storm of Montreal enters the tournament seeded 5th but could be an overlooked sleeper team (Heck, in my rush I left them out of the preview). After breezing through an easy sectionals tournament, it appears a good time for this squad to make a huge breakthrough for the program.

2008 was a season of strides for Storm. They added a coach (Lorne Beckman) whose work with Camelot (2005-2006) and Magma (2007) revealed very good results. In 2009, they added an all important B team, but it seemed the 2008 CUC silver medalist lacked the mental edge to upset teams like Lotus and Stella this year. You must perceive in order to achieve.

If Storm makes it to Florida, they'll have to go head to head with these teams

Capitals- Stella and Lotus was a combined 4-1 versus Storm this year
Brute Squad- 3-0 versus Storm this year
Bent- Have not played Storm this year
Lady Godiva- 1-1 versus Storm, lost at WMO, beat Montreal at Boston in June

Given those past results, don't be surprised if Storm finds itself in the game to go this year.

UPA 2009 Regionals Review- Monkey Plastique in Traffic!

2009-10-05T20:57:00.001-07:00

Nation,

Some Regionals have already been played last weekend. Some great news, some good news, and some sad news for the three Canadian teams active.

Psychoplastique of Edmonton rose from their 8th place seed to finish in 3rd place and qualify for UPA Finals in the mixed division. This might be the first time a co-ed team from Canada has made it to UPA finals in this decade. Unbelievable. In the next few weeks, I'll do my best to find out more about the team and their makeup heading into their Sarasota debut.

Traffic of Vancouver finished 4th in their regional tournament and qualified for UPA finals. After being beaten by Fury and Underground on day one, Traffic had to make a huge backdoor run to get to the 4th place game. They then got revenge on Underground and took the last bid to Florida.

Also of note in this tournament was the defeat of San Francisco's Fury (featuring ex stella player Gen Larouche) by Seattle's Riot. For years FURY has been unstoppable and had the edge over Riot. However, Riot has registered 3 victories this season over Fury, sparking some excitement about the possibility of a new UPA champion.

Canada's most storied program, Furious George of Vancouver, finished 4th in their Northwest Regionals, missing UPA finals by one spot and for the second consecutive year in a row.

Ironically, Furious fate was the exact reverse of Traffic's- They beat defending UPA champion Jam in pool play, but lose to Jam in the 3rd place game to go.

Is it better to be in the best ultimate area in the continent and not make UPA finals, or to face weaker competition all year and have an easier trip to Florida. That's a topic being thought and/or discussed in Vancouver this week.

Olympic Dreams in Chicago- Windy City Blown Away!!

2009-10-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Nation,

One of my readers suggested I provide some Olympic articles over the next few months. I have worked for the Canadian Olympic Committee and I was a student in the International Centre of Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario (Any sharks out there that have the chance to study under the great Bob Barney at ICOS should do so).

I'm currently watching the IOC vote for the 2016 games. Chicago and Tokyo have been eliminated in the first round.

Chicago would have been a great story. A parade of stars and notable people supported the bid. Long time residents President Obama and Oprah made pitches. Chicago is a great city with a long and rich history, good and bad.

It would have been great to see the games come to a city where the longest serving IOC president (Avery Brundage) lived for so many years. He was an athlete at the 1912 games, ran the USOC from 1928-1972 and was President of the IOC from 1952 to 1972. Simply put, the most powerful figure in modern games history. He left a very large and meaningful collection to the University of Illinois.. all of his Olympic artifacts to be exact. When looking the very critical wikipedia page about him, it's clear to see he had collected many skeletons. I think a more fair depiction of his life and character is expressed in Allan Guttman's biography of Brundage.

So, Chicago was wise to avoid mentioning Brundage and his contribution. It would have played out well with the IOC, but been terrible at home. Obama alone would have been a huge boost.

So why did the bid fail?

Cause the USOC failed to play the game. I don't mean paying off African votes like Salt Lake, I mean focusing their bid on working the political chaos of the IOC without buying off people. It is much tougher to win a Summer Games than a Winter Games, but Chicago could have learned some things from Vancouver

Bid video was not impressive
They are competing against a European city, thus Europe votes were not there to help them
They needed to convince the world why North America needed another games so close to 2010
They failed to convince voters that Chicago had the support of the people and was an ideal host city.

In the end, only the voters know why they voted as they did. I am pretty jaded about the motives.

RIO or Madrid- Who should win?

My vote is for Rio. They did a solid job hosting the 2007 Pan American Games, which is the closest games in terms of size and scope that could be used as a trial run for hosting 2016.

The 1992 games were held in Spain and happened only because of then IOC president
Juan Antonio Samaranch. Under his watch, vote buying, doping cover ups and other illegal acitivities ran rampant. He wasn't above doing whatever it took to bring the games to Barcelona and to ensure professional basketball players could play in the Olympics (What, you thought that the Dream Team first appearing in 1992 was a coincidence?)
Here's a breakdown of both bids courtesy Ron Judd of the Seattle Times:

Rio de Janiero: An apparent sentimental favorite among IOC members who see themselves as international missionaries of sport and long to preach the gospel of gold medals to South America for the first time. Brazil has put big money on the table -- projected budget $11 billion plus -- and is widely considered a favorite going into the week. Areas of concern: Security and experience. Lawlessness in parts of the city have plagued other big events, and major glitches befell the Pan Am Games there. Also remember: TV rights and sponsorship potential pales in comparison to a U.S. Games.

Madrid: A stalking horse that very well could snatch the bid away if votes split between Chicago and Rio in first rounds of voting. Solid bid proposal, strong connections to the Euro-dominated IOC board, and the lingering backroom influence of IOC president emeritus Juan Antonio Samaranch should not be underestimated.

UPA Regionals 2009 Preview for October 1st Weekend

2009-10-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Regionals start this weekend in various parts of America. Here's a preview of the tournaments that involve Canadian teams.

2009 Club Northwest Open Regionals

Number of Teams: 14
Number of bids to the UPA Championships: 3
Number of Canadian Teams: 2

This regionals is a pool of Death! At least 4 (maybe 6) teams that are worthy or UPA finals appearance, but only three will get the right to move on.

Furious George of Vancouver seems to be getting stronger as the year progresses. However, they will have to defeat one of the final to make it to Sarasota

Sockeye- 3 time UPA Champions
Revolver- The exciting California team lead by Mac Taylor and Beau Kittredge
Jam- Only the Defending UPA Champs

It's going to be a tall order for the Monkey. They've played all three teams this year, with their only win against the trio coming against JAM (17-16). Expect the 3rd place game to go to feature Furious, and we're hoping they can pull it out.

Blackfish of Vancouver suffered the most of any team from Furious retirements and recruitment of new players. However, in losing players like Adam Silverstein and Alex Davis, the team simply has spent the summer developing a new class of talent. That's what good teams with good leadership (Moses, Gats, etc) do.

According tho their kick a$$ site, the goal is to make it to regional quarters. That would likely include a great matchup against the big boys, which to me seems quite realistic.

2009 Club Northwest Womens Regionals

Number of Teams: 8
Number of bids to the UPA Championships: 4
Number of Canadian Teams: 1

Traffic from Vancouver enters the weekend with a very strong chance of making it to Florida. Despite being seeded 5th, Traffic simply have to finish ahead of one of four teams to make it:

Fury- Probably not going to happen against San Francisco's finest (0-3 season record in favor of Fury)
Riot- Seattle's top squad (1-2 record)
Zeitgeist- Traffic beat them 15-10 at ECC 2009 in only match up
Underground- 2-2 record against Seattle's B team

Realistically, the difference between Traffic and seeds 6-8 is great, so Traffic should find themselves beating one of the top four and make travel plans!

2009 Club Northwest Mixed Regionals

Number of Teams: 16
Number of bids to the UPA Championships: 3
Number of Canadian Teams: 1

Edmonton's best club team, Physchoplastique, will take on some of the best coed teams in the country to win a spot at UPA Finals. It will be tough.

Seeded 8th with only 3 spots to Florida, they should expect nothing short of a quarterfinals appearance.

CUUC 2009 website and Suggestions for Pre CUUC 2009 Interviews

2009-09-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

Nation,

The CUUC 2009 is up and here's a link to it. If you're a university squad that hasn't confirmed your presence yet, please do so. With travel subsidies, great travel deals with WestJet and a host city like Montreal, you'd be silly not to do so.

I'm looking to conduct some interviews with key teams and players before CUUC takes place. As a reader, which team do you want to learn more about? Which players should I speak to?

How do we explain Spirit of the Game to the Outside World?

2009-09-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Nation,

CEUUC 2009 TD Nick Gifford gives a solid interview for the London Free Press.

In particular, I liked his effort to explain spirit of the game to the reporter. It's not easy to explain it to someone with no grasp of the game with a mic in your face.

In light of some of the focus this issue/question gets in all media interviews this year, I have to ask if CUPA should develop some talking points regarding this question and others we face from main media and outside observers.

So, what should that definition be?

At No Borders, the "professional" announcer really couldn't get over/accept the non referee aspect. His tone suggested that no refs= Anarchy. In retrospect, I would have liked (hindsight, so clear and easy) for one of the announcers to simply explain how it does make sense- When you have someone policing both teams, the strategy becomes "let's cheat as much as we get away with". Under spirit of the game, I play by the rules because if I don't, you won't either. We police ourselves for mutually beneficial reasons.

It's a simple question and answer, but if we can work as a sport to better explain this unique part of our game, we can easily market spirit of the game to be reported and viewed as a positive uniqueness, rather than used to categorize us as fringe.

CEUUC 2009- Shark Bite!!!!

2009-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the University of Western Ontario Sharks, who defeated the University of Toronto Torontula 11-7 to win the Canadian Eastern University Ultimate Championship.

This is the first championship for Western. Torontula had won the three previous CEUUC and National championships.

On the women's side, the University of Ottawa Gee Gees won their 4th straight CEUUC title. Newcomer U de Montreal Diva had an impressive tournament and finished in 2nd place.

(Top 8 Listed today, the rest tomorrow on the tournament site)

Women's:

1. University of Ottawa - GeeGees

2. Université de Montréal - Ultime Diva

3. McGill University - Martlets

4. University Toronto - Torontula

5. Guelph University - Guelph

6. University of Western Ontario - Sharkbait

7. Queen's University- Paper Bag Princess

8. University of Waterloo - Waterloo

Open:

1. University of Western Ontario - Sharks

2. University of Toronto - Torontula

3. Carleton University - Ravens

4. University of Guelph - Guelph

5. Queen's University - Mothership

6. University of Ottawa - GeeGees

7. McGill University - Redmen

8. McMaster University - McMaster

CEUUC 2009 Preview- Open

2009-09-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Nation,

University ultimate has changed for the better in this decade.

Gone are the days where Queens was the unquestioned leader of the East, and UBC was an unstoppable force from the West. 17 open teams will take part in Easterns in London, Ontario this weekend and I would venture to say that at least 8 teams have a chance of winning the title.

Thanks to a growing number of strong junior programs in the country, players are emerging as star caliber University players in their freshman years. Teams are also committed to better fitness and development plans and attract serious athletes from other sports.

Now, greater parity has resulted and picking the winners and losers is much more difficult. Let's look at a preview of the teams, ranked by 2008 CEUUC results. Special thanks to the captains who supplied me with team information.
_________________________________________________________________
University of Toronto "Torontula"
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 1st

The numbers are simple

* 3 straight national championships
* 3 straight eastern championships

Tula is being led by Taylor Martin, Thomson McKnight, and Adrian Yearwood (all of GOAT fame) and being coached by Nathaniel Brown (ROY) for the first time this year.

They have many returning players, and 5 new players. Two new juniors (Mateusz Bocian of DIRT and the hard working Gabriel Brown of OJ) will be looked to contribute immediately.

Players to watch: Rob Svaluto and Mike King (a very "raw new guy").

In addition to adding another title as a short term goal, TULA maintains a focus on developing the depth of their roster, which is helped by their B team. "We always want to be breeding new players and this year has been good to us", says team captain Taylor Martin.

University of Western Ontario Sharks
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 2nd

The year of the Shark may have finally come.

Since 2005, the only team that has eliminated the Sharks from Eastern and National championship contention has been Torontula (save for CEUUC 2007, Guelph). Losing to the very best each and every time has lead the Western program to learn and develop accordingly. The program will feature three open teams this year, and the quality of the A roster is equal or better to any squad in the tournament.

GOAT player Mark Lloyd wowed fans and opponents at nationals this year with his individual talent and skill. He (along with Kielan Way) can arguably be considered the best player in University ultimate.

By no means is Lloyd alone, He is accompanied by Scotty Hislop (national and world championships in coed) Andrew Higy Higgins (Captain and star of Liquid) Andrew Watts (Grand Trunk and stud d line player) Andy Siy, Kevin Horgan (6'6 monster) , Trevor Henry (One of the fastest players in ultimate), and the addition of former Guelph captain and current Grand Trunk regular Andrew Butler. Myles Sinclair is a freshman to watch.

The leadership group, including Aaron Leung and Lee Gonzalez are quick to point out that the team lost 1/3 of the team from last year, but they will have a tough time convincing me that this team doesn't want to win it all now.

McGill University "Redmen" A
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 3rd

One of the most historic programs in the country is alive and well. After experience a bit of a performance slump mid decade, the program took off in 2006 and has consistently been a top three team at eastern and national events.

As an outsider, I expect this team to once again be a threat for the title, and to do it with team depth and a strong system. In the past, their zone defence has been a great weapon.

Here's a write up from coach Markian "Muk" Kuzmowycz:

One word this year -- versatility. we're inundated with skilled handlers who can just as easily be cutters. will try to beat teams with athleticism and lots of movement, with the usual emphasis on team defence that mcgill has prided itself on in the past several years. it's the fastest team we've had yet, and we've got great veteran leadership behind captains Rob Sevalrud and Piotr Mankowski. we only lost a handful of players last year, and this team is rallied behind the goal of a nationals win on our home turf. players to watch -- veteran cutter Rob Sevalrud and rookie handler Tim Tsang for our O-line. Piotr Mankowski (cutter) and Tobias Froehlich (handler) are going to be giving the opposing offence a very hard time, every time. they're just as skilled following the turnover.

University of Waterloo Mannschaft
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 4th

Another program that shows nothing but improvement and progression over the past 5 years. They will be sending a B team to this tournament as well, the first time I can recall they have been able to do so.

The A team from Waterloo will be looking to return to Eastern semis this year, and perhaps improve on it. Key players include Phoenix player Carson Turner, along with ex Carleton players Aaron "Kooch" Kucherawy and Bryan Cunningham.

Carleton University Ravens
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 5th

They have a seven footer! More on that later.

Carleton has been on the edge of great things for several years. Like Western, it is time to produce.

The Ravens boast Kielan Way.. who was dominant versus Mephisto in the CUC 2009 final. He has one of the quickest flick hucks in the nation and is equally strong on defense and offense. Opponents can factor him to mark the strongest player and be the go to offensive cut on every play if needed.

By no means will he be alone. Phoenix players Brent Gerhert, Rey Arteaga, Bryce Ring, Ryan Bauer, Matt Godkey, and Rob Schimdt are gifted and seasoned. Chess Club also has athletic talents Danny Van Willingham, Josh Tai and Joel Bellavance to provide even more skill. Grand Trunk veteran Jason Lobb and Liquid's Jan Gorski return to the team.

On the rookie side, I would be excited to see Karl Loiseau (Big Fish to Phoenix in one season) and 6'5 Ottawa Junior Tyler Zandbelt. Also, the team has added former Carleton Ravens Basketball player Neal Dawson. Dawson, who stands 7'0, has shown quick promise despite complete newness to the game.

In short, this team has the ability and athleticism to beat any team in the country. What they must overcome is the habit of wasting such athletic and defensive prowess with unforced errors.

McMaster University
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 7th (Tied)

Hamilton continues to rebuild their program. Gone are the late 1990's where John Hassell was leading the team to national title glory, but the A team will be building with strong juniors and a b team.

Players to watch include Matt Penman, Aiden "Kirby" Koplimae Smith, Dan Robertson, Ryan Keyfitz

According to team captain Ryan Keyfitz, the team can be described as:

McMaster has a few talented, experienced handlers and a lot of strong, athletic cutters this year and will look to make some noise grinding teams out, both on D and on O, with our speed. The team also has a number of promising young players with some touring experience with DIRT, Roy, GT, and Mayhem.

Guelph University
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 7th (Tied)

The team is lead by the young and uber talented Cam Harris of GOAT and world juniors fame. Seeing Harris play at No Borders this year, it was impressive to see a player that age be that effective against some of the best players Canadian open ultimate has to offer. He will be even tougher to face at the university level.

Harris indicates the players to watch include "3 of the most under rated players I have ever had the privilege of playing ultimate with: Andy Kubinec, Tim Likely, and Tim Martin. All three are ready to break out this year."

University of Ottawa Gee Gees
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 9th

On the women's side, Ottawa U is strong, Carleton is weaker. On the men's side, it has been the opposite. However this year might see Ottawa have it's strongest team in recent memory.

The team will be lead by Phoenix handler Scott Westwell. He will be flanked by fellow handlers Fred Caron, Joel Driedger, and Rob Ainsworth (who might be the same dread locked Ainsworth who played for McGill/Phoenix in the early part of the decade).

Cutter wise, the team has some athletes. Phil Boisvert is a great deep strike who has played with Firebird/Demon and Mephisto in the past two summers. Craig Tai is a great defender who legitimately forces turnovers.

Travis Stinson (brother of Scott "Beast" Stinson) and Corey Boucher are exciting rookies to watch.

McMaster University B Team
CEUUC 2008 Finish: 10th

As per program leader/captain Ryan Keyfitz:

Players to watch:
Philip Sy, Alejandro Carrera, David Ip, Harrison Niznick

Team style or focus:
McMaster's B team has a lot of very athletic players and a few guys with good throws. They'll be looking to hang their hats on some solid grind-out D. On offense they'll be looking to catch teams off guard with their athleticism.

Queens University Mothership
CEUUC 2008 Finish: Did Not Play

Whatever the reason, Queens did not send a reason to CEUUC 2008. Fortunately, the downward spiral of this program seems to have been quickly curtailed and the prospects for 2009 are promising.

Patrick Mooney will be a key player who can affect this team's fortunes. The only veteran left from the squad that won the Canadian University Ultimate Championships back in 2002 and 2004, and who qualified for UPA college Nationals in 2005. Mooney won WUGC gold playing with TFP during WFDF 08 and has been a member of GOAT for the past 4 years.

Mooney's take on this year's a Squad is as follows

Players to Watch:

* Captains Richie Tam and Ernie Lin: It's quite possible that these two guys are twins who were lost at birth. Squirrely handlers who play both sides of the disc well. I think both have worlds juniors experience and they have some of the best communication going in the university game right now
* Alex Ginther and Andrew Carroll: Ginther played GT and got a lot better after a junior career playing with DIRT. he will make a big impact as an all purpose player this year for ship. Carroll is the youngest player to ever get picked by GOAT (19yrs old). He had a really stellar rookie season and decided to go back and concentrate on school and Ship as opposed to playing the fall. He will be a huge impact player for ship this fall
* Geoff Powell (captain) and Steve Lee: two speedster cutters with lots of experience at the college level. Geoff played moondoggies this summer and held his own amongst some of the best goat dudes

Team Style and Focus: More than anything Queens is a team. A faceless army of players who has been hiding in the shadows over the last few years retooling a system that was one of the strongest in the country. We play balls out team defense and try to make it exciting for the fans and scary for the opposition. On offense we spread the disc around and use multiple looks to keep the defense off balance. This team is close knit and will push themselves and other CUUC teams to their limit this upcoming fall

Other Teams Competing (Unable to Preview due to Timelines)

Queens University Superfly
University of Waterloo B
University of Toronto Torontula B
McMaster University B
Mcgill University Redmen B
University of Western Ontario Seals 1
University of Western Ontario Seals 2
University of Ottawa Gee Gees B

CEUUC 2009- Women's Preview

2009-09-23T11:20:00.001-07:00

Nation,

This weekend the best college teams in Ontario and Quebec will be squaring off in lovely London, Ontario. London has seen tremendous growth ultimate wise in the past 5 years. The development of the local league and the University program has seen steady progress and now the league is able to host such an regional event with ease.

12 women's teams will compete for the Eastern crown. The division will feature perennial powerhouses, developing teams and new squads.

Ottawa Gee Gees
2008 CEUUC Finish: 1st

Fresh off a 2nd straight UPA college finals appearance, the Ottawa Gee Gees are looking to take thier third straight CEUUC title and return to CUUC for the first time since 2006.

Some of the core players from the last three years have graduated/moved on (Jaimie Collins, Kate Crump, Jen Reid, Alex Benedict), but the leadership trio of Anne Mercier, Sam Morris and Kathryn Pohran is terrific. Mercier's abilities to handle and play d are especially effective in the college game, so expect her to have a standout season should UPA club committments not interfere with the fall season. Morris had a great performance at Canadian nationals and can mark up with any college player. Pohran and Sonia Kommenda are very tough to stop even at the elite club levels.

Other big time players to look out for include Shannon Becker, Danielle Fortin, and Kaylee Sparks.

Expect the remaining core to work with the new junior and athletic talent and be a top 3 program in the country.

McGill University Martletts
2008 CEUUC Finish: 2nd

When one looks at the past results of McGill, we see a team that has been banging on the front door of a CEUUC championship for most of the decade.:

* 2004 Championship
* 3 second place finishes
* 2 third place finishes

It's been a strong decade, and it should continue to be that way. Outside of the club/varsity woes that this team faces, it appears that McGill is one of the schools that has strong support from its school, strong coaching (Dan Fassina) and good leadership (Kirsten Niles et al).

Players to watch include Niles, veteran Brenda Campbell, Rachel Moens, and Alison Verney. Finally, fans should watch for ex Stella/Scarlett player Emily Sangster. I was told about Sangster's ridiculous athleticism and potential early in the summer, and I saw it firsthand in August. It's an accurate description.

One question remains: Can they beat Ottawa? They will need a good tactical system and players who can carry it out to shut down Ottawa's best.

University of Western Ontario Sharks
2008 CEUUC Finish: 3rd

This team finally broke through with a 3rd place finish at last year's regions. That team boasted the likes of Tiffany Lin, Andrea Cheng, Michelle Chandler, Tawnya Jackson, Christine Moore, Erin Dahlke and Rebecca MacPherson. Some of those players won't be returning. (Chandler, Moore, Dahlke).

While there was pre-season concern about the numbers and depth of the team, much talent exists on the host team. Jordan Meron enters her second year of college play after a great season on the Canadian National Champion club team Lotus. She was not just a part of that team but had a regular shift in championship game situations.

The top end talent to compete with any ladies team in the country is there. We will soon see at CEUUC if the right amount of time and effort has been put in to make this club a possible championship team.

Queens University (Paper Bag Princesses)
2008 CEUUC Finish: 4th

Like the men's side, Queens used to be the priority destination for junior players from all over the country. The establishment and development on programs in Ottawa (for example) have cut into that pipeline, but this team seems to be headed back to title contender status.

One player to watch is Ottawa's Sarah Wildgen. Wildgen is a second generation ultimate talent who's dad is a member of the Ottawa league's Hall of Fame as a world/national level d line player for many years.

Guelph University
2008 CEUUC Finish: 6th

A long tradition of women's teams from Guelph U. Known for their trademark shiny skirts, the school has not won CEUUC since 2003. Despite not possessing a lot of touring women's club talent in recent years, the team is usually in the middle of the pack for Easterns and always has the promise to upset other top teams.

Brianna Jaffray of club team Scarlett will be on of the players relied on to help the team in the clutch.

Carleton University Stealth
2008 CEUUC Finish 7th

Despite the large shadow of cross town powerhouse U of O, the Carlton program continues to grow and develop. Lead by captain and coaches Onita Basu and Paula Saliba, the squad will look to improve on their 2008 results.

The team lists Stella/Capitals player Kate Cavallaro as their technical coach and has experienced handlers Amy Richardson and Draza Stehlikova on the team. Richardsons ability to throw deep and against zone will be helpful in the college game where zones will be heavily used.

Of the new players, Dominique Rioux is an exciting rookie from the Ottawa Junior program who has huge upside.

University of Toronto Torontula
2008 CEUUC Finish 8th

2007 CEUUC runners up had a strong day of 2008 pool play but were upset in the quarters by Western and the wheels simply fell off. Bit shocking.

Given their location and the strong club/junior teams in the area, this team could very easily revamp and contend this weekend.

Former Western striker/cutter Erin Dahlke is listed on the A team and will be a welcome edition after a full season of summer club experience with coed squad Tundra.

University of Waterloo Kinnari
2008 CEUUC Finish: 9th

Yet another school with a solid/growing local comp program and a large school population base to build on.

Don't have much information for this relatively new program.. but given the progress of the men over the past five years, I would expect the women's team to have similar results.

McMaster University
2008 CEUUC Finish: 10th

This is a big squad in terms of roster size, with over 20 players registered for the tournament. Like the men's side, the progression of this program is evident, and the team may be a factor in the quarter finals.

Universite de Montreal (Ultime Diva)
2008 CEUUC Finish: Did Not Play

Easterns loses University of Sherbrooke but gains another Montreal team.

Despite it's newbie/expansion status, reports say there is established club talent affiliated with the squad and they might be a very difficult opponent.

Sonia Krajicek of Storm fame will serve as the coach of the team, and she will be an extremely helpful resource for this new program establishing a long term system.

University of Toronto Torontula B
2008 CEUUC Finish: Did Not Play

Second squad for U of T.

A little undermanned (13 players) for a two day tournament, but should be an excellent experience for players, many of who will graduate on to the A team.

McGill University Martletts B
2008 CEUUC Finish: Did Not Play

17 players on the second squad for the McGill team. Amanda Fortier and Krista Smeltzer will be serving as coaches.

Seeing this many players on a B team, being groomed to help out the A team in the near future might help explain why McGill has had such a strong decade of performance.

Sectionals Weekend Review- Canadian Teams

2009-09-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Rundown of the results for the Canadian teams this weekend.

2009 Upstate NY Club Sectionals

Open

Goat goes undefeated and wins the section as expected
Phoenix plays strong all weekend and loses 15-11 in first place game to Goat. Manages to hold off Medicare to secure 2nd
Medicare continues their strong summer/fall season with a 3rd place finish and a tight match versus Phoenix.
Black Ace disappeared from schedule, and Firebird made the semis despite going 1-3 on day one. Not sure what was going on in day 2.
No other results yet, so we're not sure how Sunday played out for the other teams or who advances to regionals

Womens

Capitals goes 2-0. They shut out Albany E-Z Pass and beat Starkist from Waterloo 15-3
Starkist shuts out the Albany squad
Both Canadian teams advance to regionals

Mixed

MONSTER of Toronto has a.. well Monster weekend with a 5-0 record and a narrow 12-10 victory over a strong Rochester team (Kung Fu Grip)
Bytown Flatball Club manage to take the back door route and upset Tundra 15-13 to take the final spot to regionals
Tundra is done for the season barring some spots opening.

2009 Wash/BC Sectionals

Open

Furious George goes undefeated in pool play, beats Voodoo in semis, loses in the 1st place game to Sockeye by a score of 15-10. They then regroup to crush Voodoo 15-6 for 2nd
Beefshark goes 3-1 in pool play, scores an impressive 8 points against Sockeye in the semis, but then trips up to Seattle b team Voodoo to finish 4th.
Blackfish goes 2-2 in pool play and wins their 5th place game. They qualify for what will be a very exciting regionals.
Flatline falls flat on Saturday (0-4) and loses a tough 15-13 game to Downpour from Seattle and goes home early. Will not qualify for regionals.

Womens

One day round robin tourney format, everyone gets to regionals
Traffic of Vancouver goes 2-2, with disappointing losses to Seattle teams Riot and Underground.
SFU Clam go 1-3, upsetting Bellingham squad Apartment Eleven.

2009 East New England Club Sectionals

Open

Red Circus qualifies for Regionals
As predicted, Tufts and Brown college squads are tough and upset Halifax on day one pool play
Circus then goes on a big Sunday run. They beat RIO, Slingshot, and then get revenge over Brown to garner 6th spot.

2009 West New England Club Sectionals

Mixed

RIP of Montreal goes 3-1 in pool play
Gecko from Sherbrooke goes 4-0 in Saturday games
RIP then crushes Gecko 15-6 in the semis
RIP beats Enough Monkeys (New Hampshire) to claim 1st
Gecko then works their way back to defeat Enough Monkeys and take second
Both teams from Canada qualify for regionals

Open

Mephisto from Montreal goes 5-0 in pool play, but loses first place to Bodhi before winning 2nd spot over Chuck Wagon
Demon goes 3-2 in pool play but the wheels fall off in the playoffs. They lose both games and finish tied for 7th.
Magma has a 2-2 pool play day but have the same two loss meltdown in the playoffs. They tie for 7th.
Crimson from Montreal has a tough weekend, winning only one game. However, it's probably excellent experience for the players on the team who may or may not play for a school I can't mention for reasons related to school club rules. :)

Womens

Storm of Montreal goes 3-0 in pool play, and then wins their 1st place playoff game versus Middlebury Lady Pranksters 13-5.
Storm qualifies for regionals

UPA Sectionals Preview- Canadian Teams- UPDATED Sept 18th

2009-09-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Canadian Teams competing in UPA Sectionals this weekend.

2009 Upstate NY Club Open Sectionals

Number of Bids to Regionals: To Be Determined TBD
Canadian Teams: 8

GOAT (Toronto)
Phoenix(Ottawa)
Medicare (Waterloo)
Black Ace (Ottawa)
Firebird (Ottawa)
Torontula (Toronto)
University of Western Ontario (London)
Ravens (Ottawa)

The Skinny: Likely a minimum of three teams will get to move on to regionals. This is the first year I look at the team list in this region and wonder why the tournament is not held on the Canadian side, at least for this division.

GOAT will start their UPA finals run here with little difficulty. They will welcome Derek Alexander to their o line for the first time since 2005.

Phoenix comes off their 2nd place finish at CUC 2oo9 and will try to overcome the absence of Kielan Way with several new exciting rookiers (Karl Loiseau and Leon Forest-Nault).

Medicare pulls in the best men's players from the Kitchener-Waterloo players, including those from strong coed team Liquid. Black Ace is Ottawa masters team and CUC Masters champ GLUM. Firebird will be a skeleton crew of junior players and other newcomers.

The final three teams are university open teams that are major contenders for this year's national title. These teams are using sectionals as a valuable tool to get ready for University regionals and nationals.

Outside of a surprise from the Cornell team, expect Canadian teams to grab all spots from this section.

2009 Upstate NY Club Womens Sectionals

Number of Bids to Regionals: 2
Number of Canadian Teams: 2

Capitals (Ottawa/Toronto)
Starkist (Waterloo/Etc)

The Skinny: The Capitals will breeze through sectionals barring a miracle, much like GOAT. However, Capitals will not entertain the quantity or quality of competition that the open side will give GOAT.

The Capitals are a combo team of the best players from both finalists of CUC 2009. The team got off to an excellent start at Chesapeake Open, winning the tourney and beating some strong competition.

The big question right now is: Who's better right now... Traffic in Vancouver or Capitals in Ontario?

Starkist a mix of the ladies from Liquid as well as some pickups from PPF and the Kdub area. (Hat Tip Gorski)

Expect both Canadian teams to head to regionals.

2009 Upstate NY Club Mixed Sectionals

Number of Bids to Regionals: 4
Canadian Teams: 3

Monster (Toronto)
Bytown Flatball Club (Ottawa)
Tundra (Toronto)

The Skinny: Should be an easy ride to sectionals for the four Canadian Teams. Outside of Kung Fu Grip, the American teams are inexperienced and unknown.

Monster has added some depth for their UPA run (including Jamie Boss of Stella) to help out an already talented roster. Tundra is equally skilled and building off a strong summer season.

Bytown Flatball Club has undergone a roster shakeup in the hopes of reversing a negative trend- BFC has failed to beat any club team ranked above them since May.

Expect the Canadian teams to hold seed and for all three to advance to regionals.

2009 Wash/BC Open Sectionals

Number of Bids: Estimate is 6
Number of Canadian Teams: 4

Furious George (Vancouver)
BeefShark (Vancouver)
Flatline (Vancouver)
Blackfish (Vancouver)

The Skinny: Furious George should very easily advance from this section, knowing full well their real challenge will come at the toughest regionals in the country.

Beefshark is comprised of coed team TFP males and others. They have some serious talent and will get to test it versus the Monkey and Sockeye.

Flatline was the C team from Vancouver who skipped out of nationals this year. Little surprised to see them ranked higher than B team Blackfish.

Expect Furious and BeefShark to make it out of regionals. Darkhorse is Blackfish to challenge for the last spot.

2009 Wash/BC Club Womens Sectionals

Number of Bids: 5
Number of Canadian Teams: 2

Traffic (Vancouver)
SFU Clam (Burnaby/Vancouver)

The Skinny: Everybody advances... five teams, five spots..

Traffic comes off a 2nd place finish at the Labour Day Classic. That's no small feat. Have they been able to attract Ottawa star Anne Mercier this year, or will she return to Capitals this year?

SFU Clam will get an excellent experience playing Traffic and Riot and will advance to regionals. Hopefully, we will see this program at university tourneys this fall and spring. It's weird to see SFU but not UBC at this event.

2009 East New England Club Mixed Sectionals
Number of Bids:6
Number Canadian Teams:1

The Skinny: Red Circus from Halifax competes in a section full of regional bids and stiff competition.

While holding seed and garnering a regionals bid is likely, Red Circus must be very wary of the college teams (Brown, Tufts, Bowdoin) that will be very likely difficult to deal with. Also expect 8th seed Slingshot to be a tougher opponent than rankings would indicate.

2009 West New England Club Mixed Sectionals

Number of Bids: 3
Number of Canadian Teams: 2

RIP (Montreal)
GECKO (Sherbrooke)

The Skinny: Once again, the chances of all Canadian teams in the section advancing to regions is good.

RIP and Gecko both have the talent to make some noise at regionals. Hopefully the wins over TFP at nationals is the mental edge needed to face tougher opponents that they will eventually face in Devens.

Unlike me, these two teams can't overlook their sectional opponents. Diaster and Enough Monkeys might be formidable foes.

2009 West New England Club Womens Sectionals

Number of Bids: 3
Number of Canadian Teams: 2

Storm (Montreal)
Enigma (Sherbrooke)

The Skinny: Storm looks to be the class of the section. Enigma is a new team from Sherbrooke, and has a real possibility of beating seed and getting a spot to regionals.

2009 West New England Club Open Sectionals

Number of Bids: ?
Number of Canadian Teams: 4

Mephisto (Montreal)
Demon (Montreal)
Magma (Montreal)
Crimson (Montreal)

The Skinny: The tourney page finally reveals teams and schedule. The three major squads from Montreal will be participating, and a pick up team from Montreal will also be attending.

Most likely, only CUC 2009 champion will be advancing to regionals.

Talking with Trainor- Kenny Dobyns

2009-09-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Nation,

As teams compete in the annual UPA fall series, I sought an interview with one of the greatest players in UPA history.

At the urging of current players and great players of the past three decades, I made efforts to contact one Kenny Dobyns. One of the greatest players ever to play the sport, His career is best described with the following numbers:

Number of UPA titles- 6 Open, 1 Mixed
Number of World Titles - 4 Open, 1 Mixed

Ken Dobyns- 1991 Worlds

In ultimate's humble beginnings of the 1980's and 1990's, he was a rare charismatic star, one that continues to be discussed to this day. At a modest height of 5'7, he dominated taller opponents for years and lead NYNY with undisputed leadership and passion for the game. Many say he is one of the greatest players of all time, of any size or era.

Given his own ability to write, his separation from the game, and his new passions that keep him busy (see below for the scoop on the Tiki Foundation), I was very pleased to get such prompt and honest answers from Dobyns.

This interview speaks to all players chasing the plastic dream. Most importantly, it may speak to the very best players in the game, who balance the hero worship they get in the sport with everyday reality.
_________________________________________________________________

What's your greatest Ultimate accomplishment?

I'm not sure it qualifies as an accomplishment, but being fortunate enough to be an integral part of NYNY and through that association to grow as a player, teammate and leader.

What's your worst moment in Ultimate?

Blowing my knee out in the semifinals of Nationals 1985.

Favorite tournament city?

We used to have an awful lot of fun at Tempe, Arizona, but that was really because of the hotel, The Buttes. Overall I guess I'd have to say Boulder, Colorado, but Leuven, Belgium is a close second.

Favorite Opponent? (Team/Individual)

Easily Windy City. Great players who came together as an even better team, and played the game with a sincerity and commitment to competition that was exhilarating. Individually, I think the most fun I ever had was matching up with Bob Lobel.

Favorite Opponent or Team from Canada?

Andrew Lugsdin. I was honored that a guy with that kind of skill set and size would cover a little guy like me, and like all great players, he plays physically both ways, and understands what it is to be an intensely competitive sportsman.

Who's the best player in the game today (If you follow)?

I don't follow.

Who's the best ever?

Pat King, and it's not close.

What's better- Vertical or Horizontal Stack?

It's all the same to me. At its core it's a very simple game. All the strategy gives you something to talk about at practice and in the huddles, but when the game is on the line and all that shit breaks down, the best players on the team with the coolest heads only have to do two things: throw and catch.

What made NYNY tick?

Talent, intelligence, commitment, will, drive, and a collective value system that placed team accomplishment above personal fulfillment.

What made you step away from the game- Life, Injury or Pride?

It was time.

How does it feel to be a "legend" in a sport?

It doesn't feel like anything.

A documentary featuring you and your team was spoofed by ESPN. Compliment or shameful on them?

ESPN ran the documentary originally, and I give them credit for treating us like the committed, competitive, and highly skilled athletes we were. Cheap Seats spoofed the documentary 10+ years later, and I give them credit for treating me like the self-impressed, self-obsessed, egotistical blowhard I was. Not to mention making me laugh. We all need to laugh at ourselves a little more, me more so than most.

Should Canada get to compete in the UPAs?

Hell yeah

What did/do you love the most about the game?

The open architecture of it. The transience of it. An ultimate field is a perpetually blank canvas on which the most creative, daring players routinely create single point works of athletic art that are wiped away with the next pull.

What was/is the most aggravating thing about the game?

The fact that we had to share the field with finger-painting dullards.

Any final thoughts about the game itself or your experiences?

I think as the years go by I'm struck by how oblivious I was to what a special time my ultimate years were. Looking back, I wish I had a little more awareness. That or it was all a colossal waste of time. I can't decide.

Tell us about a little about your current endeavor.. Tiki Recreation. How did it come to be?

After teaching high school English in North Carolina for five years I was ready for a change. I had previously had a somewhat lucrative career in the business world, but I loved working with children and didn't want to give that up. I was hoping to find some way to keep working with children but make a decent living at it. At the same time, I knew that the current generation of children is sorely lacking in physical fitness and generally healthful well-being as compared to previous generations, and that the "hot topic" nature of that fact would provide fertile soil for a business endeavor if I could come up with one.

I went to NY to visit a friend (and former ultimate player) who was involved with Tiki Barber in an affordable housing venture, and came upon the idea of designing fitness oriented playgrounds to be installed in affordable housing complexes and underserved urban communities. Tiki liked the idea and we became partners.

Perhaps the best thing about the venture is that in Tiki I found a kindred spirit. We share a passion for improving communities and the lives of the children in those communities, but we also share a background as highly competitive athletes who walked away from our respective sports because we knew there had to be more out there. We work closely together, get along well, rarely disagree, and share a vision of how business should be run: focus on doing the right thing and success will follow, but never put the dollar before the deed.

This Week's Posts

2009-09-15T10:25:00.001-07:00

Nation,

Flying back to Ottawa today.. here's what is coming in the next 24 hours

-Talking with Trainor post
-UPA Sectionals Preview

Looking to do a thorough preview of CEUUC to be held in London this weekend. If you have a report for any of the teams involved, please send them to me.

Labour Day 2009 Tournament Preview- West Coast Bragging Rights

2009-09-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Nation,

This weekend some of the best teams in the continent square off in Santa Cruz California for some early fall bragging rights.

The 23rd annual Labour Day Ultimate Championships feature 12 womens and men's teams. Clearly, the focus of this tournament is quality over quantity. It appears that the depth of the open pool from top to bottom is improved compared to 2007 but not compared to 2008.

The women's side looks equally to 2007 but is a little weaker than 2008.

Why the drop from 2008? It simply looks like a case of Chesapeake and Labour Day running back to back and taking away teams from the other. This happened to me as a TD last year when we ran counter to a tournament I didn't know about (Wildwood) and one whose date seems to change often (Motown). Hopefully next year tournament directors can start working together to better time and space out tournaments).

Format/schedule is not listed on the UPA site, but here is my predictions:

Womens Finals: Fury over Riot
Mens Finals: Bravo over Revolver

Hot off the Parinella Press!!

2009-08-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

Nation,

Two very good posts through DoG's Jim Parinella.

A good discussion of strategy

A forwarded post about Losers and the Losing Losers who make excuses for them.. it's about how losing teams and players make excuses.. and it made me think of a lot of ultimate teams.