Summer 2015 USA Ultimate Magazine by USA Ultimate

ULTIMATE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION ULTIMATE PLAYERS USA ASSOCIATION ULTIMATE 4730 MesaDrive, Dr., Suite I-200C 5825 Table Delmonico 4730 Suite Table 350 Mesa Dr., Suite I-200C Boulder, 80305CO ColoradoCO Springs, Boulder, 80919CO 80305

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#HEFORSHE: LESSONS LEARNED TEAM IDENTITIES: ON CHANGE IN ULTIMATE HIGH SCHOOL REGIONALS COVERAGE COLLEGE CHAMPIONSHIPS COVERAGE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF USA ULTIMATE SUMMER 2015

CONTENTS FIRST THROW:

FEATURES:

#HEFORSHE: Lessons Learned

Letter to Our Members

5 By the Numbers: Spirit Awards 6

Sand, Spirit and Spin

College Championships: A New Perspective

59 On Change in Ultimate 64 Following the Sport:

From College Rankings to Score Reporter and Beyond

D-I MEN’S Darkside 2015: A Retrospective

12 C allahan Spotlight: Jonathan Nethercutt

COLUMNS: 66 Above the Competition 68 Nutrition Matters 70 Coaches’ Playbook 72 What’s the Call? 74 Local League Spotlight 76 News & Notes

D-I WOMEN’S Best of the Best

17 Callahan Spotlight: Alika Johnston

D-III MEN’S Fatal Attraction

D-III WOMEN’S Even More Torque

HIGH SCHOOL REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

ON THE COVER: Jonathan Nethercutt not only won the 2015 College Championship with North Carolina Darkside, he also took home the much-coveted Callahan Award. Photo and Art: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

U S A U LT I M AT E

SEEN & HEARD 2015 FINAL CLUB REGULAR-SEASON RANKINGS

MEN’S 1. San Francisco Revolver 2. Seattle Sockeye 3. Ann Arbor High Five 4. Chicago Machine 5. Washington, D.C. Truck Stop 6. Austin Doublewide 7. Denver Johnny Bravo 8. Boston Ironside 9. Madison Club 10. Philadelphia Patrol 11. Florida United 12. Portland Rhino 13. Minneapolis Sub Zero 14. Raleigh Ring of Fire 15. New York PoNY 16. Kansas City Prairie Fire 17. Santa Barbara Condors 18. Atlanta Chain Lightning 19. Toronto GOAT 20. Pittsburgh Temper

MIXED 1. Ames Chad Larson Experience 2. Seattle Mixtape 3. Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust 4. San Francisco Mischief 5. San Francisco Polar Bears 6. Boston Slow White 7. Boston Wild Card 8. New York Metro North 9. Boulder Love Tractor 10. New York 7 Express 11. Philadelphia AMP 12. Atlanta Bucket 13. Missoula Mental Toss Flycoons 14. Pittsburgh The Muffin Men 15. Madison NOISE 16. San Francisco Blackbird 17. Minneapolis Millers 18. San Diego Dorado 19. Austin Cosa Nostra 20. West Chester Bang!

WOMEN’S

USA ULTIMATE 5825 Delmonico Drive, Suite 350 Colorado Springs, CO 80919 719-219-8322 www.usaultimate.org info@usaultimate.org USA ULTIMATE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mike Payne – President DeAnna Ball – Vice President Brian Garcia – Treasurer Josh Seamon – Secretary Val Belmonte Kathy Hendrickson Mary-Clare Brennan Stephen Hubbard Michael Eck Kevin Minderhout Ness Fajardo Henry Thorne USA ULTIMATE STAFF Dr. Tom Crawford – Chief Executive Officer Administration & Finance Julia Lee – Director Ethan Taylor-Pierce Competition & Athlete Programs Will Deaver – Managing Director Ty Krajec Byron Hicks Connor Maloney Sarah Powers Dan Raabe David Raflo Ernest Toney Marketing & Communications Andy Lee – Director Matthew Bourland Stacey Waldrup Membership & Sport Development Josh Murphy — Director Leah Dolan-Kelley Kristen Gallagher Becca Simeone USA Ultimate is a non-profit organization and serves as the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States. Founded in 1979 as the Ultimate Players Association (UPA), USA Ultimate is one of the first flying disc sport organizations in the world and the largest, with 50,000 members and a national volunteer network.

1. Boston Brute Squad 2. San Francisco Fury 3. Seattle Riot 4. Denver Molly Brown 5. Vancouver Traffic 6. Quebec Iris 7. Toronto Capitals 8. Washington, D.C. Scandal 9. Atlanta Ozone 10. San Francisco Nightlock 11. Raleigh Phoenix 12. Madison Heist 13. Portland Schwa 14. New York BENT 15. Austin Showdown 16. Pittsburgh Hot Metal 17. San Diego Wildfire 18. Seattle Underground 19. Philadelphia Green Means Go 20. Los Angeles Viva

USA ULTIMATE USA Ultimate is the official publication of USA Ultimate, published quarterly. All ideas expressed in USA Ultimate are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of USA Ultimate, the national governing body. USA Ultimate assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Editor-in-Chief Stacey Waldrup Advertising Complete rates and specifications are available online at www.usaultimate.org/sponsors. Change of Address USA Ultimate is not forwarded by the post office. To update your address, please contact USA Ultimate. For a complete list of contacts, visit www.usaultimate.org. Mission Statement To advance the sport of ultimate in the United States by enhancing and promoting Character, Community and Competition.

SUMMER 2015

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LETTER TO OUR MEMBERS Our Volunteers Are Awesome! Dr. Tom Crawford

USA Ultimate Chief Executive Officer

e are just are wrapping up an incredibly busy season, with nearly a dozen national championship events plus countless conference, sectional and regional championships having been organized and run all across the U.S. As I watch all this unfold, I am always reminded of how amazing a group of volunteers we have. The many local organizations that step up to help are both inspiring and impressive.

Volunteers put together score sheets for the next roundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s match ups at the 2015 Beach Championships. Photo: Paul Andris/Ultiphotos

Let me start with a group that probably has the most thankless job of all, yet do that job very well and with a lot of pride: our observers. Led currently by Mitch Dengler, and for a long time by Greg Connelly, these crews make many personal sacrifices to volunteer at events all season and work very hard. Rarely do they get thanks, and often they get criticism. I am always impressed by how incredibly conscientious they are and how they stay positive and really care. So to all you observers out there, here is a great big thanks for the commitment you have made to the sport and your volunteer profession. It makes a huge difference and is one of our sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great differentiators! Your work is greatly appreciated! We currently have over 300 dedicated national, regional and local volunteers. They are the web that holds the national scene together. If you visit usaultimate.org/about/contact_us, you can find a snapshot of the national volunteer infrastructure that guides and manages our sport. These people are the very generous and important arms, legs and hands of the organization that serve selflessly to help the sport both grow and flourish, and simply run day to day and week to week. These volunteers function at every level from youth to masters and do a great job. We could not operate without them! Every time we run one of our major events, I am blown away by the hard work and generosity of the local volunteers. Often arriving at the fields at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. and staying well past when everyone else has left, they pick up waaaay too much garbage left by the attendees, drop tents and get the venue set for the next day. Often driven

U S A U LT I M AT E

LETTER TO OUR MEMBERS

There are also some phenomenal tournament directors around the country who have been great partners of ours and their local disc organizations for many years.

Bruce Mebust (far right) has been a great partner of USA Ultimateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for over a decade. He has been the tournament director of each and every Youth Club Championships tournament to date. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

just by their love for the sport or loyalty to their local disc organization or volunteer group (e.g., the Jaycees at Beach Nationals), these local volunteers help set up the venue, sell tickets, serve as score and stat keepers, run water, tear the venue down and much more during the course of an event. Please do not take any of these folks for granted, as we simply could not run our events without them. At the next event you attend, please take a moment to thank them and ask if you can help! We have a set of instructors that offers observer clinics and coaching education. Soon, tournament director certifications will be added

tirelessly put in hundreds of hours of planning and work to run tournaments and often only receive criticism instead of the warm thank yous they should hear. They do it for the love of the sport and because they enjoy seeing teams arrive in their communities and having a fun and well-organized experience. Next time you attend one of these tournaments, please be sure to pass along your thanks. I know it means a lot to them. USA Ultimate has a board of directors comprised of volunteers that serves to guide our strategy, oversee our finances and budgets and help us solve all kinds of challenges and issues

to the list of training courses. These instructors are playing a critical role in helping us build the leaders of our sport. They are also inspiring many new people to take up coaching, an area where we need a huge influx over the next five years to be able to grow the sport the way we hope to grow it. Parents and children need to know there are safe, competent, ethical coaches leading practices and coaching games, coaches who can teach children the appropriate skills and how to train the right way to have a fun, safe and successful experience. There are also some phenomenal tournament directors around the country who have been great partners of ours and their local disc organizations for many years. These generous volunteers

we constantly face. They work on committees and strategic initiatives all year and provide a lot of important guidance and support; there are some directors who have served for years and years! We owe them a big debt of gratitude. So in the end, like all other sports, it is a large and generous group of volunteers that make much of what we do possible. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all celebrate their tremendous contributions and never forget the great work they do for the organization and sport. Please join all of us at USA Ultimate in saying a big and heartfelt THANK YOU!

BY THE NUMBERS

19 TEAM

3 Most times a single team has won both the championship and the team spirit award San Francisco Fury, Amherst Regional High School Boys

Most spirit wins by a high school Amherst Regional High School 4 boys, 3 girls

Most spirit wins by a mixed team New York Bashing Piñatas

D AR S

Times champion also won the team spirit award

IRIT AW P S

253

0 Times a D-I college team has won both the championship and the team spirit award

1 Times a D-III college team has won both the championship and the team spirit award Rice

CHAMPIONSHIP EVENTS WITH KNOWN SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS

Most spirit wins by a men’s team Atlanta Chain Lightning

Most spirit wins by a women’s team San Francisco Fury

Most spirit wins by a D-I women’s team Kansas

Most spirit wins by a D-I men’s team Carleton College, Harvard, Stanford

Numbers reflect USA Ultimate championship events (National Championships, College Championships and High School Regional/National Championships) with known team spirit award winners from 1979-2015.

SAND, SURF & SPIN Words by Stacey Waldrup

Earth, [fire], wind, water, heart! By their powers combined, we had the 2015 Beach Championships. There was a lot of each of those elements – except the fire, thankfully – on display in Virginia Beach in May. There was probably a little more wind than most would have liked, but by the time the first pull went up on Saturday morning, things had calmed down enough to make the breeze only what you would expect to find at the beach. It took 10 blocks of sand to accommodate enough fields for the USA Ultimate Beach Championships. It took about 10 minutes of quick walking to cover that stretch from end to end, about six minutes if you could get away with making the trek on the boardwalk. Running on the sand was often a welcome break from constantly slogging through the sand at a “normal” pace. So if you saw someone alternately walking and running between fields with her eyes roaming from the action, down to her phone to type about what was happening and back up again, that was likely me. I made that trip from one end of the fields to the other more times than I can count over the course of the weekend. It was green smiley faces all around on my FitBit. It’s possible that I got more steps in than the athletes who actually got to compete at the inaugural Beach Championships. Those athletes, nearly 800 of them, comprised 56 teams that spanned five divisions: men’s, mixed, women’s, mixed masters and grand masters. They represented 22 states and countless cities SUMMER 2015

Photo: Kevin W Leclaire/Ultiphotos

from across the United States and included world champions, national champions, college champions, local league champions, and even some players who normally stick to pick up. A kite festival made the skyline extra colorful beyond the pier that marked our north fields, and Crush Fest, an annual Virginia Beach tradition, had plenty of tourists and locals alike crowding the boardwalk. Many of them were seeing ultimate for the first time and typically came to similar conclusions, usually something along the lines of, “That looks fun!” All that is to say that the atmosphere at the inaugural event was unique. Experience levels varied. Teams’ expectations were wildly different. Attitudes spanned the spectrum. Teams were conglomerations of friends we don’t normally get to see play with one another. And it all came together to create one great event. Ultimate players roamed the boardwalk during byes and after days ended, rented quad bikes to pedal up and down the beachfront and bought and shared ice cream – all the great things everyone loves about the beach. And to top it all off – they all got to play ultimate as well. Those athletes who arrived in Virginia Beach a little early were probably a bit nervous in the days prior to the start of competition. In the week leading up to the Beach Championships, Virginia Beach was battered by a crazy storm that included strong winds and high tides that threatened to wash away fields. But Mother Nature complied just in time. Saturday and Sunday

PLAYERS ROAMED THE BOARDWALK, RENTED BIKES, AND SHARED ICE CREAM – ALL THE GREAT THINGS EVERYONE LOVES ABOUT THE BEACH. TO TOP IT ALL OFF – THEY ALL GOT TO PLAY were warm and mostly ULTIMATE sunny, with only normal beach breezes for throwers to consider. By the time the sun set on Sunday, we had five new national champions. The men’s division, at least on paper, was the least exciting division, with the semifinals playing out to scratch – the top four seeds made the semifinals, and the championship final was a match up of the one and two overall seeds, with top-seeded And the Warhawks (Boston) pulling out the victory. In the mixed division, L.A.’s Point Break pulled out a 13-11 win in the finals over Houston, Texas-based No Tsu Oh. The 7 Figures/Mischief-heavy squad survived a close game against Arlington, Va.’s Opig in the semifinals to reach the championship game and kept their record perfect to take home the title.

7 The women’s division was largely a two-horse race from the time the first pull went up on Saturday morning. It remained that way throughout the weekend, until the overall one and two seeds met in the finals on Sunday afternoon. The two seed, Skeeahreet, what was essentially Boston Brute Squad, built a cushion early on in the final against The Mussels, a who’s who conglomeration of San Francisco Fury and Seattle Riot with a couple other all-stars thrown in for good measure. The Mussels mounted a late comeback, tying the game at 12-12, but Skeeahreet held on and pulled out the 13-12 win on double-game point. The masters divisions belonged to North Carolina. The Swamp Rats held on to win the mixed masters title against the Washington, D.C. contingent of Over the Hill. Neither team was really tested until bracket play, and even then, the Swamp Rats still managed a four-point win in the semifinals. Over the Hill had a tougher battle in their semifinal match up, squeaking out a one-point victory to reach the final, which may have cost them in the end. The fresher legs of the Swamp Rats led them to a 13-10 win. After losing to them on double-game point in Saturday pool play, Alchemy upset the overall one seed, Brattleboro, Vt.’s No Country, in the championship game, 11-9. No Country led early, up 7-5 at the half, but Alchemy battled back to claim the gold medal. In the end, it was a great way to truly kick off competition in the USA Ultimate beach division. And I’m sure just like everyone else who was in Virginia Beach, I even got surprise reminders of the great weekend for a while after I got home, thanks to all the sand that made the trip back with me.

Note: The second edition of the USA Ultimate Beach Championships will return to Virginia Beach, Va., next year – May 14-15, 2016. 1 AND THE WARHAWKS of Cambridge, Mass., and Humiliswag of Ocean City, Md., competed for the men’s title at the 2015 Beach Championships. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos 2 Alchemy from Carrboro, N.C., defeats No Country from Brattleboro, Vt., for the grand masters championship. Photo: Kevin W. Leclaire/Ultiphotos 3 Sharon Tucker and the Swamp Rats of Raleigh, N.C., maintain possession of the disc to defeat Over The Hill of Washington, D.C., in the mixed masters championship. Photo: Kevin W. Leclaire/Ultiphotos

4 Claudia Tajima of Skeeahreet goes up for the disc against Calise Cardenas of The Mussels. Skeeahreet of Boston, Mass., defeats Seattlebased squad The Mussels by one point to place first in the women’s division. Photo: Kevin W. Leclaire/ Ultiphotos

5 Peter Miller, the youngest player on The Kevin Seiler Experience, a mixed team based out of Ames, Iowa, flies for the disc. Photo: Kevin W. Leclaire/ Ultiphotos 6 Playing for Sharks & Kisses based out of Gainesville, Fla., Claire Chastain bids for the disc at the 2015 Beach Championships. Photo: Kevin W. Leclaire/ Ultiphotos

U S A U LT I M AT E

MEN’S D-I

DARKSIDE 2015 A RETROSPECTIVE

Words by Ian Toner

n 2011, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Darkside failed to advance out of the North Carolina Conference in the USA Ultimate College Postseason Series. You read that right. When 2015 Callahan Award winner Jonathan Nethercutt, 2014 Callahan nominee Christian Johnson and fellow captain Ben Snell were freshmen, they didn’t even qualify for the Atlantic Coast Regional Championships. “We had a team with plenty enough skill to be an upper-regionals-level team, but we did not understand what it took to win games,” recalls Snell. “We did not understand much of the mental side of playing.” Fast forward over the next three years. Darkside’s seniors win a tournament for the first time in their college careers in January 2012. Darkside defends their regional title by winning the Atlantic Coast Regional Championship in 2013. And UNC reaches their first national championship

game in 2014. Unfortunately for Darkside, 2014 Callahan Award winner Jimmy Mickle led Colorado Mamabird to a decisive 15-10 victory in that game. Despite the lopsided final score, and despite losing Snell to an ACL tear at 2014 College Easterns, Darkside coach Mike DeNardis felt his team was well prepared heading into the match up. “Colorado had a great game plan, and they didn’t beat us with pure talent,” explains DeNardis. “I was really impressed with their adjustments after facing them earlier in the season. I was disappointed, and I believe we could have won that game, especially with Snell.” “That loss was brutal,” says Nethercutt. “We thought we had earned a shot at the title, and losing in that fashion was pretty tough.” Snell, forced to watch from the sidelines, was more motivated than ever. “Right after Nationals, I got in the gym thinking about today,” Snell told Ultiworld after winning the 2015 championship.

Aaron Warshauer, a junior at North Carolina, comes down with the disc against Oregon in the championship game. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos SUMMER 2015

Developing

ut North Carolina learned a thing or two from that game and from the 2014 season as a whole, and the leadership focused on attacking the team’s weaknesses at practices throughout the 2014-2015 campaign. “I think we relied on Christian and myself too much,” said Nethercutt, “and if one of us underperforms for even one half against a great team like Colorado, we’re kind of doomed.” Assistant coach Dennis Tarasi, a Raleigh Ring of Fire captain who came into the fold after his team’s run to the 2014 National Championship semifinals, says, “One of my big points of emphasis was to get the most we could out of the younger guys.” “I wanted the offense to get to a point where I could not touch the disc for the whole point, and we could still be successful,” adds Nethercutt. “We had six or seven guys coming off that YCC Triforce team that had just won a national championship, so Snell and I knew that we wouldn’t have to be teaching completely from scratch with our rookies on either side of the disc.” Mindful of 2014’s extensive breakdowns by Ultiworld and other strategists, DeNardis was also especially cognizant of keeping his team’s cards close to their chest throughout the 2015 season to ensure opponents couldn’t study Darkside’s strategies and tendencies earlier in the year. “The last thing I want to do is give opponents more fodder they can use against us,” explains DeNardis. “But because we kept things simple for the majority of the season, we got to develop really solid fundamentals. And then when push came to shove, we knew we could lean on our rookies at any point, because they were getting really good.”

Tyler Kunsa, a senior at Pittsburgh, comes up with a handblock during pre-quarters against Xavier Maxstadt and the North Carolina-Wilmington Seamen. Photo: Brian Canniff/Ultiphotos

Recalibrating

t wasn’t all smooth sailing for Darkside in the run to this year’s title, though. As much as Darkside’s leadership said it prioritized youth development, others felt the team was too singularly focused on winning. After losing to Massachusetts ZooDisc in the Queen City Tune Up semifinals, the leadership went into a “fix everything” mode. Tensions ran high, and as Nethercutt puts it, “We were forgetting to let people make mistakes and learn from them...We were taking things too seriously and sucking the fun out of practices.” In a far cry from the fun-loving, Towel Squad-touting bunch that entertained the crowds in Milwaukee and those watching the ESPN3 streams, a scuffle at a chippy mid-spring practice made the discontent within the team crystal clear. “We weren’t enjoying the ride,” DeNardis recounts. A week and a half after the Queen City loss, veterans and younger team members aired their grievances in a players-only meeting. The captains led candid discussions to clarify how the rest of the team wanted things to be run. The younger players, and

the individual offensive and defensive units, wanted more trust and more opportunities to gain experience and prove themselves, even at the expense of early or mid-season wins. “We found a way,” said DeNardis. “If you find a good enough balance where you’re finishing well at other tournaments while getting everyone involved, losing in the quarters, or semis or finals of those big tournaments is not the end of the world. You just have to make sure your younger players know that we’re building the team and understand the reasoning behind our coaching decisions.” Darkside 2015 went on to produce “the most fun and amazing highs of any Darkside team” with which Snell had ever competed. “What kind of team has a Towel Squad?! That was definitely one of my favorite parts of the year, and that ability for every single player to find their role and enjoy the moment by the end of the year made for a truly unique experience.” Before the postseason championship series was in full swing, players and ultimate fans around the country had seen GIFs of the Towel Squad, comprised of younger Darkside players, going crazy with athletic towels to pump in energy from the sidelines. U S A U LT I M AT E

2015 Callahan Award winner Jonathan Nethercutt bids for the winning goal. Darkside defeated Ego 15-6. Photo: Brian Canniff/Ultiphotos

Executing

ur tournaments were case studies,” Nethercutt explains. “We wanted to see what personnel worked best, and we got lucky when everything clicked come the Series.” Darkside blazed through their conference and regional competition, drubbing storied rival North Carolina-Wilmington 15-7 in the regional championship game after the Seamen had captured the conference title 15-12 two weeks prior. With Nationals seeding on the line, the team began unveiling the defensive looks they had kept under wraps for so long. “We weren’t just practicing them,” Tarasi says. “We were using them...in scrimmages every two to three weeks from March through May, so we could see how they needed to be improved.” Darkside entered the 2015 College Championships in the tournament’s toughest pool, as three of the five teams from Pool C (UNC, Florida State and Oregon) reached the semifinals or higher. After a scary first half against Florida State to open their tournament, UNC rebounded and went on a 5-0 second-half run to secure a 13-10 victory and effectively clinch the pool title. By the time UNC faced Oregon at the end of pool University of Oregon Ego met North Carolina Darkside in the championship game at the 2015 D-I College Championships in Milwaukee, Wis. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

play, UNC had locked up the Pool C crown. Darkside gave their rookies unlimited playing time against Oregon. The next time Oregon and UNC faced off, though, the national title was on the line. With the help of their clammy defensive looks, Darkside went on a 7-0 run that put the game out of reach for Oregon. In a fitting end to both college careers, Snell found a layingout Nethercutt in the end zone for Darkside’s championship goal. “I think, in that moment, my emotions were simply drained,” says Snell. “I personally have had so many ups and downs in the last couple years that I was stunned it had all actually come together and worked out.” And Darkside’s commitment to developing its depth paid off, with younger players like Matt Gouchoe-Hanas, Norman Archer, Nick

McLeod, Nathan Kwon, J.D. Hastings and others earning valuable minutes, blocks and assists deep into the championship bracket. “It made me feel great when both Norm and Matt each told me after the championship that one of their assists in that game was something I had directly taught them,” Tarasi says. “We are losing quite a few guys from this year’s team,” he adds. “That said, Darkside made the 2014 championship game and promptly lost 11 contributors from last year’s team, including a significant chunk of the O line. We will have to find roles for our younger guys, and there will be some bumps along the way, but I can definitely see us back in the thick of things at Nationals next year.” With a strong youth scene to recruit from in the Triangle, Darkside’s future still looks bright.

MEN’S D-I North Carolina’s Justin Moore and Central Florida’s Kyle Lockwood fight for the disc during the semifinals. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

TEAM SPIRIT AWARD WINNER Colorado

FINAL STANDINGS 1

North Carolina

Oregon

3T Central Florida 3T Florida State 5T Colorado 5T Massachusetts 5T Pittsburgh 5T Texas 9T Georgia 9T Minnesota 9T North Carolina-Wilmington 9T Texas A&M 13T Auburn 13T Illinois 13T Western Washington 13T Wisconsin 17T California-Santa Barbara 17T Cincinnati 17T Cornell

INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS Auburn – Hank Womble California-Santa Barbara – Taylor Roberts Central Florida – Mike Taylor Cincinnati – Alex Flamm Colorado – Oak Nelson Cornell – Peter DelNero Florida State – Chente Ortiz Georgia – Mike Peters Illinois – Eric Badger Maryland – Nathan Prior Massachusetts – Ben Tseytlin Minnesota – Brandon Haus North Carolina – Tanner Barcus North Carolina-Wilmington – Gabe Fuller Oregon – Tim McGinn Pittsburgh – Christian Pitts Texas – Garrett Idler Texas A&M – Kevin Land Western Washington – Brandon McNamara Wisconsin – Eric Von Kampen

17T Maryland

U S A U LT I M AT E

CALLAHAN SPOTLIGHT Jonathan Nethercutt Breaking the Mold Words by Ian Toner

Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos

asual observers might define 2015 Callahan Award winner Jonathan Nethercutt by his massive hucks, towering hammers or spinning pulls. “He was the one person on Darkside’s offense that you had to account for and game plan against,” says Brian Casey, who serves as both assistant coach of in-state rival North Carolina-Wilmington and captain of Nethercutt’s club team, Raleigh Ring of Fire. But “Nutt,” as his teammates and opponents know him, is best known for his infectious and easygoing personality. He’s the type who’ll crack a joke in a huddle or kid around with his opponents without hesitation. Case in point: in this year’s national semifinal against Central Florida, Nutt jokingly tried to wrestle the disc out of star cutter Michael Fairley’s hands after the two contested a bobbled disc that Fairley caught for a goal. Despite the margin between the two teams at that point in the game, both Nutt and Fairley were able to share a laugh on the field. Yet North Carolina’s first male Callahan recipient still manages to focus and compete at the highest levels of the game. “Some of the greatest leaders I’ve been around, like Ring of Fire alumni Josh Berkowitz and Kris Bass, were quieter guys that led by

SUMMER 2015

example and had a business-like mentality,” explains Casey. “Nutt has those qualities but finds a way to balance it with having fun and trying to keep it light. He’s become a more vocal leader in the last year and has proven capable of balancing leadership and performance at the highest level.” Adds Casey, “For as long as I can remember, there has always been a negative association between North Carolina ultimate and poor sportsmanship. Nutt is a player that has changed the identity of his college program in a few short years and done it in a way that is respected across the country. It’s special to this community as well because he’s a North Carolina guy. It’s not like he went to a traditional ultimate powerhouse like Paideia and then was transplanted into the North Carolina ultimate community. Nutt is a homegrown specimen that has taken one of our local teams to a national championship in an extremely respectable manner.” And Nutt’s not done contributing to the North Carolina ultimate community yet. He returns as coach of the Triangle’s defending champion U-19 boys’ YCC team, Triforce, while competing with both Ring of Fire and the mixed under-23 national team this summer.

Nethercutt jokingly tries to wrestle the disc away from Central Florida’s Michael Fairley in the semifinals at the 2015 College Championships.

Nethercutt won the 2015 Callahan Award and led his team to their first national title the next day. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

WOMEN’S D-I

BEST OF THE BEST Words by Jimmy Leppert

ime and again, when high winds enter the conversation, ultimate games are thought to be unwatchable, poor examples of the sport as they are aired on ESPN3 and other properties. But when Oregon Fugue took down Stanford Superfly 13-11 in the 2015ww College Championship finals in Milwaukee, Wis., none of these typical portrayals of a weather-affected game applied, despite the high winds. Instead, the on-field product was one of the most exciting championship games in recent memory, and no doubt an exhilarating addition to the storied histories of the programs involved. Without a doubt, a game with less wind could have ended differently. It would have been played differently, too. Lou Burruss, Oregon’s head coach, recognized that even with five miles per hour less wind, their team would have approached the game with alternative tactics. “We could have played right through [the wind],” he said. “I think some of our struggles were because it was in that grey area, in the pick and choose of strategies that could work.” “It was a funny wind,” Burruss said after the game, “so [strategy] was a bit of a question going into the game.” Especially for two teams that were so familiar with each other, having

met several times over the course of the regular season, the wind helped to dictate the tactics of each team. Stanford head coach Jamie Nuwer shared thoughts similar to those of Burruss after the game, about how much their strategy discussions changed thanks to the forecasted heavy winds. Each half was played differently. Fugue stuck to their game plan concerning how to shut down the potent Superfly offense. For most of the weekend, Stanford could be seen looking for the disc to end up deep, stretching past opposing defenses. By anticipating where Stanford would move the disc, Oregon could shut down the continuation. Meanwhile, Superfly attempted to change up their game after the midway point in order to better respond to what Oregon was giving them, with plans on defense to try to slow down the Fugue cutters. Stanford came out of the first half on top with an 8-7 lead. The teams traded breaks, but Stanford took control. And while they weren’t happy being down at halftime, Oregon knew the game wasn’t lost. “We took a while to adjust, acknowledge the wind for what it was, and that resulted in us playing a hybrid, and it involved a lot of turnovers,” said Fugue’s Jesse Shofner after the game.

Superfly’s Monisha White bids to get the D against Fugue’s Jesse Shofner during the women’s final. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos

U S AUU S LT A U I MLT AT I ME AT E

WOMEN’S D-I

Bethany Kaylor, a senior at the University of Oregon, skies two players to bring down the disc in the women’s semifinals against the British Columbia Thunderbirds. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

Superfly’s offense relied on much of what they had been doing all weekend. Nuwer knew going into the game that the offense had to continue to get the disc deep, away from any defense Fugue set up around their handlers and inside cutters. “I think early we really struggled on those upwind points,” said Nuwer, “and that continued to the second half but in different ways.” Burruss talked about how disappointed Fugue was as a team going into halftime, knowing that they had had opportunities to break down the Stanford offense but simply did not execute. “We had our chances to really take control of the game early,” he said, “but simply did not do it.” Oregon got an up-wind break to take a 6-5 lead in the first half, off of long throws that completely disregarded the wind. But their offense couldn’t maintain that lead through the final points of the half. Defense didn’t present a problem though, with players like Jesse Shofner and Hayley Wahlroos coming up with end-zone defensive blocks that kept Stanford from taking a bigger lead into halftime. Still, Fugue was down. As a team, Oregon hadn’t run into this kind of trouble all weekend long – perhaps in their first half against Notre Dame during pool play, but they responded with a second half that completely blew their opponent out of the water. The Fugue offense had looked largely unstoppable through pool play and bracket play, leading them to the finals. For trouble to be hitting now could be a cause for concern, especially for a team that lost in this very same game the season before to a red-hot Ohio State Fever. But not much had changed between the past and present Fugue.

Sure, as Lou Burruss recognized after the game, personnel was different, “But the overall philosophy of the team was the same,” he said. This philosophy, he stated, strived to let every player be themselves and play their game to achieve their desired outcome. Which, of course, in this game was to win. “They were really deliberate in saying, ‘We want to win [the championship]; we are going to do what it takes to get out there and win.’ And you know, that helped us develop depth, and I think that was a huge edge in this game, in the stretch of the second half, our depth. We were able to get almost everyone in the game, which I thought was great, and it helped win us this game.”

“ W E KNEW WE HAD THE TOOLS, WE BOUGHT IN, AND WE MADE A PATH” –Jesse Shofner, Oregon Fugue For Burruss, and the entire Fugue team, that started with how deliberate they were with their approach, all season long, but especially in this game. “We knew we had the tools, we bought in, and we made a path,” said Shofner. That path led them to this game, this moment. Despite their lead, Stanford adjusted their offense during the break. Oregon knew Stanford was looking to put the disc deep, and for the most part, that is how Stanford worked their offense in the first half. In the second half, Stanford moved to a dominator set, where the handlers sought to move the disc in the short spaces of the field, as multiple cutters stretched deep and

brought their defenders with them. Oregon responded to the dominator offense with defense to match. Fresh out of the halftime break, the new-look Stanford offense gave Fugue some difficulty. But their responses came when the field got shorter, when Superfly was on the doorstep of scoring. Defensive blocks came from Olivia Bartruff, Ashley Young, Jesse Shofner, Bethany Kaylor and other members of Fugue. Stanford also had trouble connecting, trouble getting each cutter involved. Nuwer thought their lack of practice in this particular set helped caused some of their turnovers and the subsequent frustration.

“ I THINK EACH TEAM LEFT IT ALL ON THE FIELD, AND THEY CAME OUT ON TOP THIS TIME” – Jamie Nuwer, Coach, Stanford Superfly “[The offense] worked, it became really effective upwind,” she said, “but we had red-zone turnovers.” It was these turnovers that left Stanford wanting more. Ultimately, Stanford’s inability to score from the red zone – be it from their difficultly connecting or Oregon’s tight defense – cost them. With the score 11-10 in Oregon’s favor and soft cap on, Stanford was able to march down the field and sit within five or 10 yards of a goal, but blocks by Fugue’s star players, or miscommunications from Stanford’s, took away the threat. On the turn, Fugue senior Olivia Bartruff cut away from her defender for the 12-10 score, putting Oregon a single point from victory. Stanford steamed

downfield to bring the game within one, and the pressure was on. When Oregon turned the disc over, Superfly had a chance to tie the game but missed out as they again struggled in the red zone. With the pressure mounting, Oregon’s Jesse Shofner, in particular, stood out. She was a large part of the reason Fugue was able to beat Stanford, and every other team that crossed their path in Milwaukee. Shofner’s production on both sides of the disc had a large impact on Fugue’s weekend. Her cutting ability, creating space with a defender tight on her hip, was on full display throughout the tournament, giving opposing players and coaches fits. Talking with Shofner, she made it clear she really enjoys doing this. “I love using my quick change of direction and purely being aware of when my defender has committed or I have them on their heels – then, boom! Just take the angle best for the thrower, poaches, etc. I set up my cuts, yes, but with every piece of the setup being viable as well. That makes my defender respect each threat and keep me from being too predictable. Chop steps, hip jukes and the crazy give-me-the-disc eyes are my most useful weapons.” The freedom Shofner is given within the offense may seem problematic to other coaches or teams, but in the context of Fugue, it works to perfection. With the throwing skills of Oregon on display all weekend long, Shofner took control again and again. Even in the wind, the game was an exciting test of the two best college women’s ultimate teams in the country that gave fans everywhere a memorable conclusion to the season. It was just all the better that it was on that national stage. “I think each team left it all on the field, and they came out on top this time,” said Nuwer.

Fugue (Oregon) and Superfly (Stanford) reach for the disc during finals at the 2015 D-I College Championships in Milwaukee, Wis. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

Fugue senior Jesse Shofner bids for the disc and the score during the women’s semifinals against the British Columbia Thunderbirds. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos

U S A U LT I M AT E

WOMEN’S D-I

FINAL STANDINGS 1

Oregon

Stanford

3T British Columbia 3T Carleton College

Michela Meister of Superfly goes for the disc during pool play against University of Washington Element. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos

5T Colorado 5T Dartmouth 5T Virginia 5T Whitman 9T Florida State 9T Ohio State 9T Texas

INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS

9T Victoria

British Columbia – Esther Au

13T Central Florida

Carleton College – Clara Hazlett-Norman

13T Princeton

Central Florida – Shayna Brock

13T UCLA

Colorado – Celeste Havener

13T Washington

Dartmouth – Eva Petzinger

17T Kansas

Florida State – Lisa Fitton

17T Middlebury

Kansas – Jenni Corcoran

17T Notre Dame

Middlebury – Rebecca Berry

17T Pittsburgh

Notre Dame – Kelsey Fink Ohio State – Catelen Ramsey

TEAM SPIRIT AWARD WINNER

Oregon – Emily Loo

Princeton

Texas – Kelly LaVine

Pittsburgh – Katelyn Loughery Princeton – Lyra Olson Stanford – Michelle McGhee UCLA – Jamie Lam Victoria – Monica Whitney-Brown Virginia – Nada Tramonte Washington – Nora Landri Whitman – Melanie Jochheim-Atkins

Colorado’s Megan Cousins bids for the disc during pre-quarters. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos SUMMER 2015

CALLAHAN SPOTLIGHT

Q&A with Alika Johnston

Alika Johnston, a senior with the University of Virginia Hydra, won the 2015 Callahan Award. The award, voted on by her peers, seeks to recognize not only the most valuable player in each division, but a player who can be seen as an ambassador for the sport throughout future seasons, no matter where life takes them. Johnston is that type of player. A member of Hydra since 2011, she has worked to elevate her game and her teammates’ games tirelessly. In 2012, the hard work paid off in the form of a spot on the elite Washington, D.C., women’s club team Scandal, with whom she has already won two national championships. Johnston and her Hydra teammates finished tied for fifth for a third consecutive year at the College Championships.

Q: Jimmy Leppert A: Alika Johnston does it mean to you to join names Q: What such as Dominique Fontenette, Miranda Roth, Georgia Bosscher and others as Callahan winners? an honor. I am so moved. And to A: Itseeis such their lasting impact on the club circuit, their contributions to their community, and then especially in developing girls’ and women’s ultimate…I hope I can live up to the tenets of the award and what past winners have shaped it into. It is a very special opportunity I have been given. you and your Virginia Hydra Q: While teammates were unable to make it past quarterfinals, how do you feel about your season? outcomes go, 2015 was a great A: AsyearfarforasHydra. We won a few tournaments, traveled out west and won the pool at Nationals for the first time in program history. More importantly, I think, we were successful in developing complete players. That’s really what this UVA program is about: giving each individual all the tools they need to be successful with Hydra but then also in future ultimate endeavors. And of course, we had some amazing times together. I will always cherish my time here with my teammates.

What has driven you, and your Virginia team, to greater success since your freshman season? The other players in my rookie class and I all decided together that we wanted to work hard all the time, so we needed to change the culture of our team, in a way. We wanted to leave it all out there on the field for ourselves and

for each other – to make that standard, what’s expected from every individual at every practice. So here we are! And I’m confident the upward trajectory will continue. and when did you start Q: How playing ultimate?

Virginia senior Alika Johnston won the 2015 Callahan Award in the women’s division. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

high school, H-B Woodlawn, offers A: My exclusively ultimate in the way of sports. I had been playing club soccer at the time, but after substantial pressure from friends and the program director, I caved and gave ultimate a try. Spring of 2009 was my first real season with YHB. are some influential people in your Q: Who ultimate career? Fey and Katie Klein coached me at A: Jenny YHB. I owe them everything for teaching me how to play and guiding me toward a deeper understanding of the game. Alicia White – I learned so much from watching Alicia play. Her field sense is frankly unrivaled: She sees everything that’s happening, and she’s always one step ahead of the other team on both sides of the disc. I strive to be as explosive and hard working as Opi [Payne] and Allison Maddux are. I loved handling with Anne Mercier. She is so methodical; she has perfected the art of throwing. Playing with her for two club seasons has been invaluable to my development as a handler. She reads defenses so well and her creativity with the disc is truly special. Coaches: David Allison, Manu [Argilli] and Dutchy [Alex Ghesquiere] have each molded me into the player I am by giving me systems to work in, teaching me how to think about the game both physically and emotionally, and really demonstrating what it means to commit to a team. Through their coaching, they have pushed me to become the best player, teammate and leader I can be. In sum, it’s all just serendipity: being at the right place at the right time, finding myself in the hands of the most inspiring, knowledgeable and loving teammates and coaches. you’ve just won the Callahan Award; Q: So you’re going to become that role model, that mentor, to a whole bunch of female ultimate players. How do you feel about that?

Perhaps there’s added pressure, but on the whole, I simply feel privileged to have that little extra reminder to always be my best self, to represent myself and my team as well as I possibly can. It is a challenge I look forward to greeting each time I step on the field.

Johnston has been known as one of the most dangerous throwers in the college game for years. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

While she’s known as a handler, Johnston is also an explosive defender. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos next for you after winning the Q: What’s Callahan Award?

A: You’ll be the first to know when I know! Alika will be back with D.C. Scandal this season for the Triple Crown Tour, as they look to defend their championship crown. And next March, she’ll start a new adventure by joining the Peace Corps. U S A U LT I M AT E

Editor’s Note: Jimmy Mickle led Colorado Mamabird to a college championship title in 2014 and was the recipient of the 2014 Callahan Award. He attended his first College Championships as a spectator in 2015.

College Championships: e v i t c e p s r e P A New

Words by Jimmy Mickle

I was fortunate enough to attend the College Championships for the sixth consecutive year this May, but it was my first trip as a spectator. What follows is a collection of random thoughts as I experienced the tournament from a new perspective.

On the Field

I arrived Sunday morning, chai latte in hand, feeling refreshed from my three hours of sleep on a redeye the previous night. As I searched the field complex for the Colorado men’s team, Mamabird, nostalgia washed over me as I reentered the world of college ultimate for the first time in a full year. I arrived just as quarterfinals were beginning. The complex was quieter than I expected, a bit of nervous energy was in the air. There’s something really special about College Nationals that makes it different from any other tournament in the world; it’s unique in its passion and the opportunity it presents. As a college player, you have a very limited amount of time – four years for most, five if you can find an excuse to warrant an extra year of expensive tuition. Players don’t come out of retirement for one more season, no extensions. Along with that, college teams are more tight-knit than other ultimate teams. They don’t just play together; they live together and grow up together, and that was evident throughout the weekend.

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There are more emotional peaks and valleys, and those manifest themselves with momentum swings during a game. One break quickly becomes three as the moment appears to get bigger and doubt creeps into a team’s head. It’s easier for teams to get flustered – they have less experience in big games, and there is more on the line. By the time a team is ready to compete for a college championship, their roster is full of seniors whose time is running out. The older and more experienced a team is, the higher the expectations and pressure. There is also an aura of finality at College Nationals. At least, there was for me. I had focused so much energy and time on my five years of college ultimate that when it was over, one way or another, I had to figure out what I was going to do next. Almost all club players treat ultimate as a hobby, an enjoyable activity they can partake in outside of their families and jobs. College ultimate is essentially a career, with a little schoolwork on the side when there is some extra time. A rare event with teams of tight-knit players who are playing together for perhaps the last time, it doesn’t get more thrilling than that – that’s the College Championships. Expectations can be daunting, but fortunately for them, Oregon Fugue and North Carolina Darkside had no problem executing what was expected of them. As a player, it’s easy to discount game experience and believe your team has a shot no matter what, but as an observer, it was obvious how hard it is to

win if you haven’t been on the national stage before. Fugue and Darkside were perhaps the most talented teams in Milwaukee, but more importantly, their rosters were full of players with big-game experience. While other teams seemed to struggle on a roller coaster of emotions, getting multiple breaks just to give

Fugue and Darkside were constant, level-headed aggressors. them right back, both Fugue and Darkside were constant, level-headed aggressors. After getting broken, they would calmly score the next offensive point, then rattle off a couple breaks of their own. Both champions played like they had been there before, which is a lot easier to do when it’s true.

Behind the Scenes

As a player, I was somewhat oblivious to all the work that goes on before and during the tournament for it to be a success. As a spectator, it was easier to see the effort and resulting professionalism which yield farreaching rewards.

At the University of Colorado, ultimate is held in high regard by club sports. We were in the top tier of nonvarsity sports which meant we had reliable access to field space, decent funding and just a general appreciation that doesn’t go unnoticed. We were given field time equal to other more-established sports such as lacrosse or soccer. A large portion of this respect resulted from multiple University of Colorado board members and athletic directors attending the College Championships when they were held in Boulder in 2008, 2011 and 2012. I was reminded of this as I walked the fields in Milwaukee. This is an event I would be proud to show off to anyone. The sort of respect and recognition Mamabird has found is only achieved when high-quality events are put on, and now College Nationals has gotten to the point where it can be viewed in a professional way, in person or online. In my time in Milwaukee, I was afforded some insight into the media production that USA Ultimate and ESPN3 put on. Although it’s expensive and labor intensive, this sort of broadcast does wonders for the legitimacy of ultimate. It allows family members to watch high-quality live broadcasts, players to share the archived games with friends to explain that they don’t spend all their time throwing to dogs, and of course, it reaches the masses with SportsCenter Top 10 highlights. Take advantage of these resources, show friends and family these professionally filmed games. Then the next time they talk about ultimate, they might pass on their opinion of the legitimacy of the sport.

Takeaways

Finally, after a weekend of watching, I believe the College Championships is the sport’s most exciting tournament to watch. Club players are more experienced which results in fewer risky decisions and often fewer spectacular plays. College Nationals might not be the viewing experience with the most fundamental and clean play, but it is wildly entertaining. Although not quite as fun as actually playing, the risky style mixed with emotion and importance creates a wonderful spectator experience. Special thanks to USA Ultimate for making it all possible, and congrats to all the teams that earned their attendance. Don’t take it for granted.

FROM TOP: Colorado Mamabird alum Jimmy Mickle took over USA Ultimate’s social media accounts at the 2015 USA Ultimate D-I College Championships, sharing his new perspective as a spectator. Photo: USA Ultimate Mickle behind the scenes in the press box with USA Ultimate and ESPN3 taking a selfie with University of Oregon women’s coach, Lou Burruss. Photo: Jimmy Mickle 2014 Callahan Award winner Jimmy Mickle standing beside the 2015 Callahan Award finalists, waiting to pass on the award to this year’s winner, Jonathan Nethercutt. Photo: Jolie L Lang/Ultiphotos U S A U LT I M AT E

MEN’S D-III

Fatal Attraction

Words by Jimmy Leppert

Ben Marolf of the St. Olaf College Berzerkers gets horizontal for the disc during the 2015 D-III College Championships. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos

fter going 28-0 over the entire season and winning the 2015 Division III College Championship in his team’s second season, only one thing was on the mind of Franciscan team captain Tony Bort. “The biggest thing for us is what we play for, who we play for,” said Bort. “We play for our beloved brother Neal Albert Rylatt, a founder of this team who passed away from cancer. That completely motivated us beyond any other team.” In the team’s description in the D-III Championships event guide, they detail the story. Neal Albert Rylatt, or as his friends nicknamed him, “Fat Al,” helped inspire the founding of the team, all the way down to their team name: Franciscan Fatal. Rylatt was friends with many of the players who make up today’s Franciscan team. Before the club team was even officially formed, the

SUMMER 2015

leukemia he had fought during high school returned. Soon after, he was forced to leave school and return home, where he would continue to battle the disease. Neal Albert Rylatt passed away on May 4, 2012. His initials graced the jersey of each member of Fatal when they competed at the D-III College Championships this year, and he was never far from their thoughts. Even the location of the tournament helped motivate the team over the course of the competition. Rockford, Ill., was Neal’s hometown. For several Fatal members, their last trip to Rockford had been for Neal’s funeral in 2012. Much like they had all season long, Franciscan played extremely well in Rockford. It was a windy weekend, and while that seemed to faze some of the other teams in attendance, Fatal plowed full-steam ahead. Freshmen Dominic Schuster and Stephen Babcock, along with junior Tommy

Koch and senior Patrick Flanagan, combined for many of the team’s goals, often off of long throws that stretched out opposing defenses not expecting the deep shot. Even in the finals against Brandeis, Fatal was able to continue this trend. Up-wind points did not stop them from moving the disc between handlers or cutters, generating early breaks and continuing to break the Brandeis offense to close out the game.

“ The biggest thing for us is what we play for, who we play for.”

ften in ultimate, talk of one team’s willingness to throw their bodies around to generate momentum and defensive blocks is synonymous with intimidation, demoralization and domination. That was all true of Franciscan. It helped, no doubt, that their blocks were often followed up with a long throw past an unsuspecting mark to a wide-open cutter. To set the tone in the finals, Peter Norton got a huge early layout block. While Franciscan did not break on that point, they did two points later off of a similar play from captain Tommy Koch. After their championship victory, freshman Dominic Schuster pointed to the ability of several players who came to Franciscan from Holy Family Catholic in Cincinnati, Ohio, to teach every Fatal player not only how to play the sport, but how to compete at the level the D-III Championships has grown to showcase. “Those players were the base of our team,” he said. “That was really the key to our success.” He added that many of the players who could be seen fearlessly making any throw they liked, both upwind and downwind, were most likely those same players, but their ability to utilize not only their talents but also those of their teammates helped lead them to the championship. “That is how we could compete at this level, the way we have.” As Tony Bort said, “We were playing for something bigger than ourselves, and that’s really what won these games.”

Fatal defeats Carleton College GOP during pre-quarters. Photo: Mark Olsen/Ultiphotos

Fatal - named after “Fat Al,” a former team member who passed away after a fight with leukemia — celebrates their first college championship in Rockford, Ill., Al’s hometown. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos

U S A U LT I M AT E

s an event, the D-III College Championships just finished its sixth year. The event started in 2010 and was the last major event held by the Ultimate Players Association before it became USA Ultimate. Ultimate itself has changed immensely since then. Much of the sport can now be found online: whole tournaments; up-to-theminute scores and stats; conferences on coaching, playing or organizing; and how-to videos. All together, it has helped make the sport more competitive and more connected. Players seek to improve, and teams to further achieve. Watching the sport at all levels and divisions, the change is evident. In Rockford, the changes were just as clear as at any other top-level tournament. Matthew Rushing, a fourth-year coach of Elon University Big Fat Bomb, has noticed how teams across Division III have started to develop a system within their teams – a system that allows A and B teams to co-exist and help feed each other. A system that allows for the creation and sustainability of top-level tournaments catered exclusively to D-III teams that may not have been possible when the division began. “As ultimate has been getting bigger, and more importantly deeper in terms of player development,” Rushing added, “it has helped to make this division more competitive as a whole.” He also thinks that high school programs help with the continued growth, particularly in Division III. “With a lot more youth programs around the country, I think that can help the small D-III schools, especially with most schools being small, private, liberal-arts based schools...that kind of helps feed kids into the system.”

Franciscan University’s Fatal, just founded in 2013, attends and wins the 2015 D-III College Championships. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos

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“ more and more teams are making [this tournament] a goal” Pat Stegemoeller, a fifth-year D-III player, noticed a different change in the division during his tenure with SUNYGeneseo Snail. “You look at the kinds of throws people were making this weekend, even in really windy conditions, [they] are not the kind of throws I saw when I was a freshman,” he said. Looking back to his team’s semi-final game against Franciscan Fatal, where Geneseo fell, despite staging a late-game comeback, Stegemoeller could identify specific inside-break throws that he’s noticed as being impressive even at top-level club events. Even Steve Wang, at his fourth D-III Championships as an observer, noticed a bit

of a different atmosphere to the event this year. “It’s a great capstone to a lot of teams’ seasons...but more and more teams are making [this tournament] a goal,” he said. But still, some see room for more growth. Anders Berglund from Carleton College GOP commented, “Video footage or streamed games would be cool – then friends and family at home could see us play.” Stegemoeller believes change can begin with coaching. While not all teams in Rockford had a coach, most did, and he sees that as a potential improvement to the level of game play. “I think that just from our experience, having a really good coach not only helps us be more productive at practice, but just on the field, our team leaders can worry less about being a coach and more about being a player.” Tim Boit and Aidan French, freshmen from Bowdoin College Clown, finished playing their first-ever year of ultimate at the D-III Championships and look forward to the continued growth of the division. “Seniors have told us all that the level of play has grown substantially, and just to see that continue is going to be a real challenge,” said Boit.

MEN’S D-III

FINAL STANDINGS 1

Franciscan

Brandeis

TEAM SPIRIT AWARD WINNER John Brown

3T Bryant 3T SUNY-Geneseo 5T Carleton College-GOP 5T Georgia College 7T Claremont

INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS

7T Davidson 9T St. Olaf

Bowdoin – Aidan Penn

9T Truman State

Brandeis – Clarence Lee

11T Middlebury

Bryant – Harold Veilleux

11T North Park

Carleton College – David Goodell

13T Bowdoin

Claremont – Jordan Lim

13T John Brown

Davidson – Paul Brennan

15T Lewis & Clark

Elon – Devon LaFrance

15T Elon

Franciscan – Jay Ratajczak Georgia College – Robert Hunt John Brown – Jonnie Rothfus Lewis & Clark – Leland Rege-Colt Middlebury – Nick Tuta North Park – Brent Gustafson St. Olaf – Dominic Bower SUNY-Geneseo – Stephen Ruswick Truman State – Thomas Crocket

U S A U LT I M AT E

WOMENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S D-III

EVEN

TORQUE Words by Julie Doar ote: The author is a member of Rice Torque and competed N with the team at the 2015 Division III College Championships.

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t the beginning of the season, Torque was determined to prove that their victory at the 2014 Division III College Championships was not just the culmination of a good year, but the beginning of a dynasty. 2015 Rice captains Maya Stokes and Nichole Kwee fostered a welcoming but competitive environment. In the fall, they exemplified their commitment to the team by making time to work with rookies on fundamentals. At Big D in Little D in February, we faced Truman State, who would turn out to be our biggest rivals. We lost to Truman State on the first day but beat them in the finals on day two. Our victory, however, was a narrow one. We won by one point in the hard cap after a long, grueling game. We had recently started to develop our horizontal stack, but it was so flimsy that we abandoned it in favor of vertical stack. Vert stack had served us well in 2014, but our coaches sensed that if we could perfect ho stack as well, we would be unstoppable. A successful ho stack requires three solid handlers and four proficient and harmonious cutters. Coaches Sharon Tsao and Ashley Shelor, both Texas grads, knew Torque had the depth for that style of play – we had a legion of highly skilled seniors. Between Nichole Kwee and Lauren Gernon’s handling, Maya Stokes’ efficient cutting, Erika Danckers’ long runs and Kara Van Schilfgaarde’s ferocious defense, the seniors alone could almost compose an entire line. Torque benefited from having such a talented senior class, but our vitality extended beyond them. Juniors Angela Aie and Angela Yang were crucial parts of our handling core. Yang’s pin-point precision is uncanny. Aie’s composure and poise under pressure not only make her a formidable enemy, they also earned her next year’s captaincy. Her co-captain will be rising

Torque’s Nichole Kwee reaches in for the D over Bowdoin Chaos Theory’s Ana Leon. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos junior Kelsey Nanneman, a spirited and speedy cutter. By the time we traveled to Atlanta for the Music City Mash-Up and then to Austin for Centex, we were coming together. Junior Valerie Pinillos was shaping up to be as much of a threat in our downfield offense as she was a part of our four-man cup zone defense. Graduate student Samantha Paulsen was capitalizing on her pure athleticism and mastering the art of leaving her defenders in the dust. And when in doubt, we could always fall back on Kwee’s signature hucks that inevitably ended up within reach of Danckers’ long limbs. However, our opponents at both tournaments were not easy. In addition, due to inclement weather, Centex had us playing in what was essentially a mud pit. But even when we were getting crushed by Central Florida at Music City or when we could barely lift our mud-laden cleats, our captains pushed us to fight. During one huddle in the mud, Stokes told us that maybe we would lose, but we weren’t going to make it easy for our opponents. We did lose, but we also pulled out some big wins. And after those tournaments, we were a team that knew how

“ Height is 75 percent attitude.” helped us come from behind and beat them not once, but twice on the weekend. We arrived in Illinois for the 2015 Division III College Championships with a burning desire to defend our title. Before games started, we all passed around a Sharpie and wrote “power statements” on our forearms. The power statements might be easily mocked off the field, but no one we played at Nationals made fun of our motivation on the field. Our mental game rarely falters. When asked where she gets the on-field confidence that allows her to sky any opponent, Nichole Kwee simply answers, “Height is 75 percent attitude.” With a leader like that, team confidence is inevitable.

to take a hit. When the time came to play Truman State again at regionals, our resilience

U S A U LT I M AT E

n the first day of Nationals, all three of our games started out with close scores. It is during such games that Torque’s greatest strength is revealed: our fitness. Our players can run and run, long after exhaustion gets to our opponents. This is in large part due to the legacy of our former leadership. I have fond memories of 2014 graduate and Torque legend Monica Matsumoto showing me how to hop the fence around the track in order to do an early morning sprint workout. Even though Matsumoto graduated, her tenacious insistence on physical fitness lived on. And after the first day of Nationals, the entire team was grateful for it. As we headed into the quarterfinals against Williams, it was looking like the wind was going to be the 15th player on the field. Over the past couple of seasons, we have developed a strong zone defense, thanks to the meticulous teachings of 2014 coach and Torque alumna Edith Teng. Due to our air-tight four-man cup, the wind worked in our favor against Williams and then against Carleton College in the semifinals. Things took a surprising turn right before the finals. We had expected to face Truman State again, given their performance at the tournament and their second overall seed. However, Bowdoin upset Truman State in the semifinals and presented us with an unknown entity. And as the championship game commenced, the wind picked up with a vengeance. The wind was so strong that for the majority of the championship game, no team

Valparaiso University defeats Luther College during prequarters on Sunday during the D-III College Championships. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos scored an up-wind point. We would score downwind, often with a huck from Kwee to Danckers, then Bowdoin would respond with their own downwind score. On those up-wind opportunities, we would maintain as much control as we could until the wind or Bowdoin’s defense eventually thwarted us. We then fought back with hard defense. The only encouragement and source of hope was that it took Bowdoin longer to score downwind than it took us. Soft cap went on when we were up 6-5. Bowdoin scored downwind to tie it up, and then we scored downwind to make it 7-6. As we got on the line for one last upwind point, Stokes yelled that she wanted to win Nationals by scoring upwind. That declaration was followed by 25 minutes of battling up-field at a gruesomely slow pace. We would gain 10 yards, then turn the disc over, fight to get it back and lose 15 yards in the process, then begin the seemingly impossible task of inching it back up the field all over again. During that final point, I thought of past practices. Not the good, easy practices, but

“ When we win, it’s easy to be united. But it’s more important to be united when things aren’t going well.” the practices when things had gone wrong, when teammates had gotten frustrated. Some days, we would try to run our endzone play over and over and find a new way to mess it up each time. When we dropped a disc or made the wrong throw, we ran a 40-yard sprint. As rough as those end-zone practices were, not one Torque member ever took out her frustration on a teammate. No one ever placed blame. When we win, it’s easy to be united. But it’s more important to be united when things aren’t going well. It was a fully united Torque that refused to give up on the final point. After 25 minutes of being battered by the wind, we got that up-wind goal on a miraculous throw from Yang to Stokes. Shortly after we had won the final game, I asked my teammate Val Pinillos what she thought was going to happen next year. “Next year,” she said, “we’re going to be chanting ‘Three-peat!’” Fellow D-III teams, consider this your formal challenge.

Rice University Torque celebrating their second college championship in Rockford, Ill. Photo: Mark Olsen/Ultiphotos SUMMER 2015

WOMEN’S D-III

FINAL STANDINGS 1 Rice

TEAM SPIRIT AWARD WINNER Rice

2 Bowdoin 3T

Carleton College-Eclipse

Truman State

St. Olaf

5T Williams 7T

Puget Sound

INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS

7T Valparaiso 9T Claremont

Bowdoin – Vivian Yang

9T Lehigh

Carleton College – Katie Blise

11T Grinnell

Claremont – Laurel Estes

11T

Georgia College – Katie Pulliam

Wake Forest

13T Hamilton

Grinnell – Bethany Clarke

13T

St. Benedict

Hamilton – Kateri Boucher

15T

Georgia College

Lehigh – Christina DiNapoli

15T Luther

Luther – Luci Holte Puget Sound – Ellie Engel Rice – Kelsey Nanneman St. Benedict – Meghan Harder St. Olaf – Lauren Halac Truman State – Callie Federer Valparaiso – Miranda Sprenger-Mahal Wake Forest – Amanda Murphy Williams – Chelsea Zhu

2014 was Torque’s first year competing in the D-III College Championships, and they left with the championship title. In 2015, they were able to rise to the top again, defeating Bowdoin Chaos Theory in the finals. Photo: Nick Lindeke/Ultiphotos

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Liam Searles-Bohs, a sophomore at Carolina Friends School, gets ahead to grab the disc in the finals. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

SOUTHERNS - BOYS

CAROLINA FRIENDS CLAIMS SECOND STRAIGHT TITLE WORDS BY JASON PIERCE

ropical Storm Ana had tournament organizers nervously monitoring the weather in the days leading up to the 2015 High School Southern Championships, but other than a brief downpour during the boysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; final, the weather was nearly perfect all weekend at BB&T Soccer Park in Advance, N.C. Teams from all over the South showed how far youth ultimate has come in the past half-decade with several players showing club-level ability on the fields.

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30 Senior Josh McClain gets the D against Paideia. The Fighting Quakers (Carolina Friends) defeated Gruel (Paideia) in the finals. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

Pool B

Pool A It didn’t take long for a shakeup to happen as overall one seed Lakeside had close matches against the three and four seeds in their pool, Woodside and Catholic, respectively, and then lost to the pool’s two seed, Apex. With Catholic’s only loss coming against Lakeside by just one point at 8-9, Catholic won the tiebreak and jumped all the way from the bottom of the pool to the top. Lakeside slid to the third spot and had to face Blackman in the crossover game to get into the championship bracket. Led by seniors Beau Waldron and Tanner Niles, along with junior handler Grant Waldron, Blackman ended Lakeside’s title bid with a 13-5 win. Meanwhile, Catholic took their momentum from pool play with them into Sunday. A season-long philosophy of playing everyone in every tournament meant that Catholic had 18 players with fresh legs for bracket play. As a result, senior standout Johnny Sims had lots of help from his teammates, and a 10-7 victory over Woodside earned them a shot at Paideia in the semifinals. The 13-8 Paideia victory in that game was a lot closer than the score indicated, with Gruel having to earn every break. Catholic will be a school to watch – the entire team has big-game experience and can only get better.

Carolina Friends continued their winning ways from 2014 by cruising through pool play on Saturday and earning a rest for the final round of the day. Chapel Hill and Yorktown swapped positions in the pool when Chapel Hill won the headto-head 10-7. Neither team fared well in the Saturday crossover round, losing to Grady and East Chapel Hill and leaving Carolina Friends as the sole representative from Pool B in the championship bracket.

Pool C Pool C was full of close matches on Saturday, but everyone held seed. East Chapel Hill, despite missing some key players due to illness and injury, rode solid play from senior cutter Ethan Mikhail and sophomore Tyler French that kept them in every game, losing only to top-seeded Carrboro 7-9. They dispatched Yorktown in the crossover game to get into the quarterfinals on Sunday, where they nearly upset Paideia. East Chapel Hill lost on double-game point 12-13 in one of the best games of the weekend. Grady used contributions from across their roster to win their Saturday crossover game against Chapel Hill 10-9 and reach Sunday’s quarterfinals. Once there, Catholic proved too much for them in a close game that saw sophomore Mack Hodges keep things close in a 10-12 loss.

“ The outstanding quality of play is a testament to the dedicated coaches.” SUMMER 2015

Carrboro seniors Marc Rovner and Chathan Driehuys kept their team undefeated in pool play and through the quarterfinals, but they had to face the formidable Carolina Friends Fighting Quakers in the semifinals. The Clams would not go quietly; they gave the Fighting Quakers their toughest game of the weekend. Points were traded in the first half, but Carolina Friends got ahead near the cap and advanced to the finals with a 10-7 win.

Pool D Paideia did not have an easy run to the finals, barely edging Blackman 8-7 in their first game of the weekend and then having to come back against East Chapel Hill in the quarterfinals. Seniors Jack Smith and Zachary Karsch helped keep the team undefeated until the finals. Blackman had a solid tournament, making it to the quarterfinals after winning their crossover game against Lakeside. Bottomseeded North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics made an impression on Saturday, putting up some points against Independence and Paideia, but despite strong play by standouts Andrew Gavin and Austin von Alten, their small squad ran out of legs as the weekend progressed.

Finals After facing tough challenges in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Carolina Friends and Paideia were primed for a shootout in the championship finals on Sunday afternoon. Both teams came out with zone defenses as the weather had

SOUTHERNS BOYS FINAL STANDINGS

The Fighting Quakers of Carolina Friends School took first place at the 2015 High School Southern Championships for the second year in a row. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos been unpredictable for most of the morning. Neither offense seemed fazed early; each team patiently worked the disc down the field for scores on their first possession. On the next possession, a poorly aimed scoober from the Fighting Quakers fell incomplete, and Paideia got the first break of the game to go up 2-1. The wind and storm that had been threatening died down, so Carolina Friends abandoned their zone on their next defensive possession and got a turnover and converted to get the break back. Paideia missed on hucks on each of their next two possessions, and the relentless Fighting Quaker defensive offense converted both break chances. Add in a huge Fighting Quaker D on a dump pass

possession. Despite solid work from seniors Jack Smith and Zachary Karsch and a tenacious man defense in the second half, Paideia had no answer for Lanier and SearlesBohs. Any small mistake from Gruel, and Carolina Friends converted the break. The inclement weather finally made an appearance in the second half with a downpour and a gusty wind. Unfortunately for Paideia, the weather made no difference to the Fighting Quakers, and they continued to score every time they touched the disc, finally ending the game 13-7. The scary part for the rest of the South is that nearly the entire Fighting Quaker squad is underclassmen, so there is little reason to think a repeat next year is out of the question.

1 Carolina Friends 2 Paideia 3T Catholic 3T Carrboro 5T Independence 5T East Chapel Hill 7T Grady 7T Blackman 9 Brookwood 10 Yorktown 11T Chapel Hill 11T HB Woodlawn 13T NCSSM 13T Lakeside 15T Woodside 15T Apex

Team Spirit Rankings 4.8 Chapel Hill 4.7 Yorktown 4.6 NCSSM 4.5 East Chapel Hill 4.4 HB Woodlawn 4.3 Carolina Friends 4.3 Grady 4.2 Paideia 4.1 Brookwood 4.1 Lakeside 4.0 Carrboro 3.8 Blackman 3.8 Independence 3.8 Woodside 2.9 Apex 2.6 Catholic

on Paideia’s next possession and suddenly Carolina Friends was up 6-3. Led by junior Dillon Lanier and sophomore Liam Searles-Bohs (who, between the two of them, got the assist or the score on every goal), the Fighting Quakers would not relinquish the disc once they got a turn. Patient work up the field mixed with well-timed (and well-aimed) hucks kept the hard-working Paideia defense on their heels. Carolina Friends took half 7-3. Gruel came out firing in the second half and scored with a nice huck on their first

The outstanding quality of play in this tournament is a testament to the dedicated coaches who work to develop their players’ skills and team strategies. As impressive as some of the athleticism was throughout the weekend, the poise and patience exhibited across the board by the players was an even better indicator of solid coaching and will serve these young players well as they take on future challenges on and off the ultimate field.

Individual Spirit Award Winners Apex – Aidan Todd Blackman – Miguel Hector Brookwood – Reuben Rivas Carolina Friends – Nick Tansey Carrboro – Dean Merritt Catholic - Brandon Magazine Chapel Hill – Kevin Zhang East Chapel Hill – Amos Pomp Grady – Trent Lopata HB Woodlawn – Joe Sanz Independence – Nick Baldwin Lakeside – Conor Brownell NCSSM – Edward Zhuang Paideia – Gabriel Eisen Woodside – Reggie McClellan Yorktown – Johnny Malks U S A U LT I M AT E

Paideia Groove played the Green Hope High School Titans of Mischief in the semifinals. Groove advanced to the finals. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

SOUTHERNS - GIRLS

PAIDEIA DOMINATES THE FIELD WORDS BY JASON PIERCE

n the girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; division at the 2015 High School Southern Championships, overall one seed Paideia Groove cruised to the final, but it was a dominant Carrboro squad that rose from their original seventh seed to face them. The rest of the field saw some close matches and showed a lot to look forward to in the coming years. The biggest difference between the two finals teams and the rest of the field was roster depth, but given the talent of the underclassmen on all the rosters, that should start to balance out over the next few seasons.

SUMMER 2015

Paideia Groove defeated Carrboro High School Koi in the finals, 12-3. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

Pool A Paideia had only three points scored on them during pool play, two by Blackman and one by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), but it was the meeting between the latter two squads that showed the real excitement of championshiplevel ultimate. Blackman, led by senior Sofia Lima, took control early, going up 5-1. But senior Jackie Hausle and freshman Sydney Rehder brought NCSSM’s SMUG back to a 7-7 tie only for Blackman to take the W on double-game point 8-7. Blackman had to play eventual runner-up Carrboro in the quarterfinals, and they fared as well as any team against them – they fell 3-13 – but they played close in their other matches. Sunday saw them face Grady in an exciting back-and-forth battle that again went to double-game point, this time with Grady taking the final point. Meanwhile, SMUG, in their first year as a team, fought hard in every game but could not quite get into the win column over the weekend.

Pool B HB Woodlawn came into the weekend ranked second overall, but true to form, the two finals teams made short work of

“ Paideia had only three points scored on them during pool play.” Carrboro, initially ranked seventh in the field, started strong on Saturday and did not look back until the finals on Sunday. They got convincing wins over HB Woodlawn, Brookwood, Blackman and East Chapel Hill over the course of the weekend. Brookwood brought only 12 players to Winston-Salem yet managed to finally get in the win column twice on Sunday, long after you would have expected them to run out of legs. Senior Emily Ruengvivatpant and junior Emma DeJarnette helped Inferno win close games against Paideia JV and YorktownWashington Lee to end the weekend, allowing them to break seed, moving up a spot from 10th to ninth.

Paideia Groove senior Madison Smith reaches for the disc during the 2015 High School Southern Championships in WinstonSalem, N.C. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

holding seed. Yorktown-Washington Lee alternated between winning and losing games all weekend. They slid from the sixth spot to 10th by the time the tournament was over, but with only two seniors on their roster, the Y-Lee Coyotes can hopefully use the experience gained at Southerns to make a stronger push next year. Sophomore Rachel Hess was a standout, but she had lots of help from her fellow underclassmen throughout the weekend. Paideia JV didn’t nab a win until their final game on Sunday, but they fought hard in every contest. Asha Evans and Allison Levitas led the way for DemiGroove and showed why this still-young JV squad will be a team to watch going forward.

Pool D Pool D had another shakeup in seeding, with 12th-seeded Grady riding several close wins to a sixth-place finish. The coaches did a great job of spreading around playing time which should be a huge boost to the team next year. Sunday saw them get by

them on Saturday, Carrboro during pool play and Paideia in the quarterfinals. HB

Pool C

Blackman on double-game point, with

Woodlawn fared better against every other

Teams held seed in this pool, though every game was close. East Chapel Hill had three narrow victories on Saturday and then ran into Carrboro in the semifinals on Sunday. Senior Katie Cubrilovic got them back on track in the third-place game where they beat Green Hope to finish the weekend by

freshman Liliana Chanler looking nearly

team they faced, winning convincingly against Brookwood in pool play and SMUG in the pre-quarterfinals. The contributions by underclassmen like Maya Nir and Ella Juengst have to have Woodlawn feeling good about the next few years.

unstoppable when she was on the field. They ended the weekend with a blowout loss to HB Woodlawn but should make some noise next season. University School of Nashville held seed Saturday, led by senior handler Metta

U S A U LT I M AT E

Paideia Groove wins the 2015 High School Southern Championships. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

SOUTHERNS GIRLS FINAL STANDINGS 1 Paideia 2 Carrboro 3 East Chapel Hill 4 Green Hope 5 HB Woodlawn 6 Grady 7 University School of Nashville 8 Blackman 9 Brookwood 10 Yorktown-Washington Lee 11 Paideia JV 12 NCSSM

Team Spirit Rankings Devine-Qin. Sunday saw them lose a close one to HB Woodlawn 6-8 in the fifth-place bracket, only to lock up seventh place with a big win over Blackman 13-1. Green Hope had two close losses in Saturday’s pool play games but made it to the semifinals with wins over YorktownWashington Lee and University School of Nashville in bracket play later in the day. Competing with only 13 girls, they had solid play across the roster with juniors Tiffany Wei and Karen Ehrhardt setting the tone for the team. The Titans of Mischief were no match for Paideia in the semifinals, however, and then ran out of legs against East Chapel Hill in the third-place game, losing both 3-13.

Finals Neither Paideia nor Carrboro was seriously challenged until they faced each other in the finals on Sunday afternoon. The game started out as expected, with both squads scoring on their first possession. Carrboro had an unfortunate drop that led to the first break of the game for Paideia, and then the Groove zone defense took over. A good zone aims to make the offense throw one time too many. Paideia’s zone did just that; Carrboro would work nicely downfield only to have one errant throw, and then Paideia would take it the other way.

SUMMER 2015

When the score got to 4-1, Carrboro called a timeout to regroup, but the damage was done. After the timeout, Carrboro made Paideia earn every point, but Groove took half 7-2. The final score of the game was 12-3, but it really was a much closer game than the score indicated. Carrboro had several uncharacteristic drops, and Paideia caught every jump ball they threw. Neither team let up until the final horn sounded. Paideia senior Helen Samuel came up with huge Ds and catches for Groove, and senior Danielle Sawyer was all over the field for Carrboro. The match up to watch, however, was the battle of number 17s. Carrboro freshman Kate Lanier and Paideia sophomore Isabel Arevalo covered each other the entire game and constantly came up with huge plays for their respective squads. Both players led her team in assists and anchored the offenses, and then still played tough defense against the other. It’s exciting for the region and sport that they are so young and will likely face each other again before they graduate, and hopefully further down the road as well. The girls’ division at the High School Southern Championships continues to grow, and each year more incredible athletes join the ranks of the ultimate teams that travel to the event. Things look like they will continue trending up in the coming years, which is great news for fans of ultimate everywhere.

4.8 Carrboro 4.6 Brookwood 4.6 Paideia JV 4.5 East Chapel Hill 4.4 Yorktown-Washington Lee 4.1 Green Hope 4.0 NCSSM 4.0 Paideia Varsity 3.8 Grady 3.8 HB Woodlawn 3.8 University School of Nashville 3.7 Blackman

Individual Spirit Award Winners Blackman – Christine Monchecourt Brookwood – Liz Reeves Carrboro – Bhairavy Puviindran East Chapel Hill – Jane Carsey Grady – Ludovica Longo Green Hope – Tiffany Wei HB Woodlawn – Christine DeRieux NCSSM – Rachel Milkereit Paideia – Sylvia Snyderman Paideia JV – Katie Radulovacki University School of Nashville – Metta Devine-Qin Yorktown-Washington Lee – Marlee Cobb

The Naperville Central High School Redhawks and Hopkins High School HUrt compete at the 2015 High School Central Championships in Ames, Iowa. Photo: Alex Fraser/ Ultiphotos

CENTRALS - BOYS

PROGRAMS THAT BUILD CHAMPIONS WORDS BY BAILEY FREESTONE AND BRIANNA GERKE

he 2015 High School Central Championships once again proved to be a great weekend full of exciting and nerve-wracking ultimate. The boys’ division showed great skill throughout the weekend, despite the ever-changing weather. The championship game couldn’t have been a more perfect match up, a meeting of two ultimate giants in Hopkins HUrt and Neuqua Valley A. The game

U S A U LT I M AT E

was close, but the eventual champions of Hopkins HUrt from Minnetonka, Minn., were more disciplined with the disc and made some amazing plays.

boys’ team head coach, says that some years they even have enough players for a boys’ C team, but those numbers can be inconsistent. The youngest players allowed to try out for this program are in seventh grade which is a great benefit for the Hopkins ultimate community. Having players who have an interest in the game at such a young age gives the coaches more time to train the players to the best of their abilities.

The 2015 finalists have a history of making it deep into the championship bracket. Both also have well-established ultimate programs at their schools which allow players to start honing their disc-handling and decisionmaking skills at a young age. HUrt A is the top team in the Hopkins program and included 22 players this year. 2015 was the second consecutive year that HUrt has won the Central Championships and also managed to win without a single loss on the weekend. This remarkable feat is a tribute to their competitive spirit and drive. Ultimate has been a part of the Hopkins community since 2002. The program has been strong since the beginning; they finished third at their first state championship tournament 13 years ago. Their program currently consists of boys’ A and B teams, as well as a girls’ team. Erin Mirocha, the

This can also benefit the team as a whole by showing them the opportunities of growing, working together and competing as an entire team versus as an individual. “We use our JV team [B team] as an arena to develop talent, to build leadership and specific role development. It is more of an indication that we have developed our program than a way to develop a program,” said Mirocha. It’s no surprise that the Hopkins boys are put through tryouts in order to be placed on one of their elite teams each year. Tryouts for HUrt start in the fall and determine the teams that will last throughout the year. But even though players are placed on teams in the fall, they still have the opportunity to advance as each season passes. “We invite all 10th – 12th graders to try out for our A team, but we are willing to invite

“ We have learned to prepare for the worst weather imaginable.” any player who exhibits excellence. Seniority and age is never a guarantee,” Mirocha said. Throughout the weekend in Ames, it was made very clear that Hopkins is a very competitive team and was definitely the one to beat. HUrt is a team full of players who are willing to do absolutely anything to get the disc into the end zone. It was hard for any team to come close to beating them. Neuqua Valley A was one exception. Neuqua Valley A from Naperville, Ill., displayed outstanding sportsmanship throughout the entire tournament which ended up earning them the team spirit award in addition to their silver medals. The spirit award is evidence that their program produces players with skills valuable both on and off the field. The Neuqua Valley ultimate program started eight years ago, in 2007, and has always had a large number of kids who want to take part. “Right from the beginning, we had too many players sign up for the club for just one team,” said Arnoush Javaherian, Neuqua Valley A’s head coach who is affectionately known as “Java.” “It got to the point where we had to make divisions in our teams due to numbers and skills. One of the other main reasons we chose to split up teams is because we had players that wanted to play

Hopkins HUrt (Minnetonka, Minn.) defeats Holy Family Catholic Revolution (Cincinnati, Ohio) 11-8 in the semifinals. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

CENTRALS BOYS FINAL STANDINGS

Hopkins High School HUrt wins the 2015 High School Central Championships in Ames, Iowa. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos at a high, competitive level and others that only want to do this for fun.” The Neuqua Valley ultimate program is known for their willingness to help develop the skills of any youth with an interest in the sport. They have teams that compete at an elite level, alongside teams like Hopkins, as well as several teams playing on a more recreational level. At this year’s Central Championships, Neuqua Valley A had 14 players. They are the top team in their program, which consists of 10 total teams in three separate divisions: high school boys, high school girls and youth. The youth division has players starting as young as fourth grade. Just like Coach Mirocha, Coach Javaherian agrees that having players begin at such a young age can absolutely improve the players’ skills. “The more throws they can get in at a young age, the better they can be,” Javaherian says. Sunday’s championship game was a tight one, all the way up to the hard cap. Families, coaches and players for both teams

showed great dedication and stayed focused throughout, despite the uncertain weather. The afternoon was a mix of sunshine, rain and a whole lot of wind. Despite almost being blown away by the 25-30 mph winds, both teams played well, but Hopkins was able to better adjust to the tough conditions. “As a sports team that makes their home in Minnesota, we have learned to prepare for the worst weather imaginable,” Mirocha said about Hopkins’ 9-8 win. Ultimate is a great way to learn skills that are not only good for the game, but also

1 Hopkins 2 Neuqua Valley A 3T Edina 3T Holy Family Catholic 5T James Madison Memorial 5T Neuqua Valley B 7T Center Grove 7T Minneapolis South 9 Cathedral 10 Ames 11 Robbinsdale-Armstrong 12 St. Paul Charter 13T Geneva 13T Naperville

Team Spirit Rankings 4.7 Neuqua Valley A 4.6 James Madison Memorial 4.5 Geneva 4.5 Naperville 4.5 Neuqua Valley B 4.3 Robbinsdale-Armstrong 4.3 St. Paul Charter 4.2 Minneapolis South 4.0 Cathedral 4.0 Holy Family Catholic 4.0 Hopkins 3.8 Edina 3.6 Ames 3.2 Center Grove

applicable in everyday life. Leadership, determination, hard work and sportsmanship were only a few of the positive traits all the participating boys’ teams showed throughout the tournament. As far as competition results go, the programs from Neuqua Valley and Hopkins proved that developing these skills at a young age pays off.

Individual Spirit Award Winners Ames – Aaron Marner Cathedral – Jacob Schwitalla Center Grove – Phillip Simcox Edina – Wystan Duhn Geneva – Michael Wagner Holy Family Catholic – John Beatrice Hopkins – Sam Kaminsky James Madison Memorial – Ryan Menninga Minneapolis South – Jojo Baldus Naperville – John Trowbridge Neuqua Valley A – Jake Marrapode Neuqua Valley B – Phuoc Vo Robbinsdale-Armstrong – Thomas Norman St. Paul Charter – Aidan Clements

U S A U LT I M AT E

38 Neuqua Valley High School eNVy players get their teammates pumped up during pool play at the 2015 High School Central Championships. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

CENTRALS - GIRLS

ROAD TO CHAMPION WORDS BY RACHEL DERSCHEID

hird place. With Neuqua Valley eNVy down 3-7 at halftime of their semifinal against the St. Paul Charter Stars at the 2015 High School Central Championships, it looked like they would be playing for third, for the third year in a row at Centrals. The Stars came out of the gate rolling, scoring the first up-wind point and following it up with three consecutive breaks to go up 4-0. But

SUMMER 2015

eNVy senior Stephany Stumphauzer goes up for the disc against Omega. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

with six seniors wanting to end on a high note and a wide open rotation of girls hungry for plastic, eNVy didn’t want to settle. They wanted to face Holy Family Catholic in the finals. They wanted the opportunity to win. With supreme effort and focus, they clawed their way back into the game, scoring the first three points out of halftime and not allowing any additional up-winders by the Stars. When the hard cap went on just after the Stars scored downwind to go up by one, Neuqua had to answer with a down-wind score to tie it up and follow it up with an up-wind break to win. They accomplished the first part without the Stars threatening the end zone. Doublegame point was a marathon, with the Stars hucking downwind for position and Neuqua Valley grinding it out up-wind over and over. At last, eNVy made the big up-wind play to win the game and bring a ton of energy with them into the finals. Neuqua Valley has had a program for about seven years, but three years ago, the team acquired coaches Jody Kissane and Carol Li who have guided the team to higher aspirations. Last year, the team stepped up their intensity and increased the structure of

practice, developing skills both as individuals and as a team. With only three seniors graduating after the 2014 season, the time was ripe for picking up a Centrals win in 2015. From early in the season, that was the team’s goal. The foundation was already in place, but this season added to it. The team competed in their first college tournament this year and broke seed by nine spots. More importantly, the program expanded enough to start taking A and B squads to tournaments this season. Tryouts were not required as anyone was welcome to play and practice with the team. Ever-evolving A and B squads were decided for each tournament, based on players’ recent performances. This method generated healthy competition and prevented complacency, driving players to improve. Of this season’s preparation, captain Stephany Stumphauzer said, “We ran more and worked on more intense drills, so we would be more conditioned come tournament season. I would attribute most of our conditioned play to our coach, Jody. She pushed us a lot during practices, and she took no excuses.”

“ Our coach pushed us a lot during practices, and she took no excuses.” All of this preparation was building toward the windy finals and a chance to accomplish their season-long goal on Sunday at Centrals. With wind speeds of 20-30 miles per hour, howling from the south end zone to the north, the final was a battle for the elusive up-wind score. eNVy came into the match up with four losses on the season to Holy Family Catholic, but all of them were losses of one or two points. Holy Family struck first with an effortless and turnover-free downwind score and made eNVy work for a response. After their first

U S A U LT I M AT E

40 down-winder, Neuqua Valley focused their adrenaline from the semifinals win, putting on a stifling zone defense and moving the disc well

and say their goodbyes. It was an incredible showing of spirit and all this sport is about.” Neuqua Valley graduates six players

up-wind, often through Kelley Crowley, but with

this year, including superstar captains

touches from a lot of players. On the eNVy down-winders, Allie Swiatek, the team’s youngest player, demonstrated why she made the A team with sticky-hand grabs on some tailing hucks. eNVy was able to tally an up-wind goal in the first half and follow it up with a down-wind break, putting them up 7-5 at half. Holy Family Catholic knocked on the door of the up-wind end zone a number of times at the end of the first half and into the second but couldn’t break through. Final score: Neuqua Valley 9, Holy Family Catholic 6. eNVy got their win for their seniors and their first win over Holy Family Catholic in the program’s history. Of this spirited rivalry and unique Centrals moment, Coach Jody Kissane said, “It was an incredible season with them, and we will miss them terribly. Our spirit circle with Holy Family after the finals game was the best one we’ve ever experienced. The seniors even came into the middle of the spirit circle to hug

Kelley Crowley and Stephany “Stumpy” Stumphauzer. Additionally, Jody Kissane, a driving force behind the rise of this program, will not be coaching next season due to a move. What does this mean for eNVy? Will they be able to maintain the program’s success? Captain Stephany Stumphauzer says yes, due to a large core of sophomores who are dedicated to the sport and the team and will maintain their ultimate involvement throughout the summer and into next season. In comparison to Holy Family Catholic who played a rotation of nine players during the finals, Neuqua Valley played 13. Sophomore

CENTRALS GIRLS FINAL STANDINGS 1 Neuqua Valley 2 Holy Family Catholic 3 St. Paul Charter 4 Edina 5 Cathedral 6 Robbinsdale Armstrong 7 Hopkins 8 Minneapolis South 9 James Madison Memorial 10 Walter Payton 11 Center Grove

impact players included Annie Wells, who had an amazing grab to keep their up-wind scoring chance alive in the final, Molly Frank and Mindy Radike. The seniors and coaches can rest assured that they have positioned eNVy to succeed in the future, having instilled the best of spirit, determination and ultimate skills at Neuqua Valley.

Team Spirit Rankings 4.3* - Center Grove 4.3 - Minneapolis South 4.1 - Neuqua Valley 4.0 - Robbinsdale Armstrong 3.8 - Holy Family Catholic 3.8 - James Madison Memorial 3.8 - Walter Payton 3.8 - St. Paul Charter 3.7 - Cathedral 3.5 - Edina 3.4 - Hopkins *won tiebreaker

Individual Spirit Award Winners Cathedral – Carmen Ebel Center Grove – Delaney Johnson Edina – Mara Stephan Holy Family Catholic – Emily Dorsey Hopkins – Maddie Ansel James Madison Memorial – Maddy Green Minneapolis South – Sofie Everetts Neuqua Valley – Rachel Lindsey Robbinsdale-Armstrong – Zoe Bakken-Heck St. Paul Charter – Jian Kettunen Walter Payton – Hindeke Tewodros

Neuqua Valley High School eNVy wins the 2015 High School Central Championships in Ames, Iowa. Photo: Alex Fraser/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

NORTHEASTERNS - BOYS

FALCONS WEATHER THE STORM WORDS BY ISAAC SAUL

Senior Alec Hunziker comes in with the D over Amherst Regional High School in the finals. Photo: Jason Honyotski/Ultiphotos

he last time Pennsbury High School won a regional championship, at the 2009 Eastern Championships, Casey Startzell was a junior in high school. Six years later, for their first-ever Northeasterns victory, he was on the sidelines as Pennsbury’s head coach. Behind standout performances from a trio of seniors — Cole Drummond, Alec Hunziker and

U S A U LT I M AT E

42 Pennsbury High School and Lexington High School players go up for the disc at the 2015 High School Northeastern Championships in Portland, Maine. Photo: Jason Honyotski/Ultiphotos

Christian Duess — Startzell saw his group of young men climb back from a 5-7 halftime deficit to defeat an experienced Amherst Regional High School (ARHS) team 13-10. For Pennsbury, who had finished in third place in 2013 and second place in 2014, the victory was a much-needed relief from two straight years of heartbreaking defeat. “We really thought we had a chance to take the region in 2013,” Startzell said. “The next year we came out and took second place, and that was almost worse than not even making the bracket. These kids all wanted that win so badly, and it was amazing to see them finally get their championship.” Pennsbury had cruised through their first day of play, notching dominant 13-3, 13-6 and 13-4 victories over Sharon High School, Cape Elizabeth and Stuyvesant High School, respectively. They picked up where they left off on Sunday against Longmeadow in the quarterfinals, flexing in a dominant 13-5 victory. But that’s about where the fun stopped and the mountain to climb arrived.

SUMMER 2015

In their semifinal game, Pennsbury faced off against a Lexington team they hadn’t lost to since 2013, which meant a Lexington team that was out for revenge. “I knew we would be riding a lot of momentum if we beat Lexington,” senior handler and captain Cole Drummond said. “There was an attitude in the air that this might be the final,” Startzell added. “One coach even came up to me and said if we could get through them we’d roll over Amherst, though we knew that wasn’t true.” What Pennsbury did know was that in order to beat Lexington, they needed to find a way to stop Tannor Johnson. After Pennsbury jumped out to a 4-2 lead, and fell into more of a team-game, the Falcons became focused on trying to stop Johnson from taking over. While the 6’3” junior was giving them fits, Pennsbury had junior Mac Rushing either throw or catch seven of their first eight goals, on their way to an 8-4 lead. Lexington eventually pulled the game to 11-9, but Pennsbury found a way to close it out. “The score was close, but it felt like the whole time we had the upper hand, especially after going up 11-9,” Drummond said. “It was so important for us to have a good win like that before going into the finals.” And the confidence they had from that game would come back to save them. Pennsbury and Amherst have a storied history, particularly at regional championships. In 2006, Amherst eliminated Pennsbury in the semifinals at their first ever Easterns Championship. In 2007, Pennsbury returned the favor when they

won the finals of Easterns over Amherst. In 2009, Pennsbury lost to Amherst at Born 2 Dive, their own tournament. The following weekend, they beat Amherst at the Amherst Invitational, and then took the rubber match in the finals of Easterns for their second championship in three years. Since then, the teams have been battling it out at national tournaments every year. Startzell, who played on the 2009 team, understood the history of this rivalry. “Playing Amherst always brings out something special for this program,” Startzell said. “They have had the kind of long-term success we strive for, and I know seeing those colors still fires me up.” As opposed to Lexington, where Johnson drew much of the attention, Pennsbury knew this game would require a game plan for a team that would use every player on the field. Drummond mentioned wanting to take Oliver Webb and Luke Wells out of the game, but after Amherst jumped out to an early lead, it became clear they’d need to focus on themselves, first. “There were only a couple turns in the first half of the ARHS game,” Startzell said. “I was real impressed with how they were looking. It was going to come down to every o-point, every opportunity to get a break that put us ahead.” Those opportunities didn’t come until the second half when Pennsbury found themselves down by one break, 8-6. That’s when Drummond remembered the Lexington game and the confidence they all had only hours before.

43 “Having our coaches there was so important,” Drummond said. “Especially [assistant coach] Jake [Doyle], because there was still part of that teammate sense from when we played together. He was really good at triggering the things deep down inside of us that could get the best out of us.” After Startzell spoke to the team briefly, he left them to their captains, so they could talk amongst themselves before the second half. In just a few minutes, the team went from hanging their heads, feeling a sense of defeat, to quickly grabbing control of the game once more.

“ The team went from hanging their heads, to quickly grabbing control of the game once more.” Out of half, Pennsbury broke and traded to bring it to 9-9, before slowly pulling away and extending their lead to 12-10. As you might

expect, the last point didn’t come easily. It took a Duess D, and then a stall-nine throw on the goal line from Drummond to Pat Ward for the dramatic 13-10 win. I asked Drummond and Startzell to name one player that really stood out to them. For such a balanced team, I was surprised when they both had the same answer: Alec Hunziker. “Alec Hunziker was being a horse out there,” Startzell said. “Running the full 70 yards back and forth and making a bid on his man every time he got a chance. He showed he wanted it more than anyone.” And Drummond noticed it, too. “It was a real group effort, but if I had to say anyone, it would definitely be Alec,” Drummond said. Hunziker — the younger brother of Quinn Hunziker, who has played for New York PoNY — made a name for himself the same way his brother did: with defense. When it was all said and done, it was that defense that helped Pennsbury overcome two offensive behemoths on their way to their first-ever Northeasterns Championship. “It was a great journey on the field and off the field with a team that became brothers to me,” Hunziker said. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Pennsbury players celebrate their win over Amherst, their first High School Northeasterns championship title. Photo: Jason Honyotski/Ultiphotos

NORTHEASTERNS BOYS FINAL STANDINGS 1 Pennsbury 2 Amherst 3T Lexington 3T Columbia 5T Middletown 5T Longmeadow 7T Needham 7T Stuyvesant 9 Masconomet 10 Falmouth 11T Xavier 11T West Windsor-Plainsboro South 13T Sharon 13T Cape Elizabeth 15T Montpelier 15T Watchung Hills

Team Spirit Rankings 5.0 Falmouth 5.0 Montpelier 4.8 Longmeadow 4.8 Stuyvesant 4.8 Amherst 4.8 Cape Elizabeth 4.7 Needham 4.5 Xavier 4.4 Masconomet 4.3 Middletown 4.3 Pennsbury 4.2 Lexington 4.2 West-Windsor Plainsboro South 4.0 Sharon 3.8 Columbia 3.8 Watchung Hills

Individual Spirit Award Winners Amherst – Jorden van Emmerick Cape Elizabeth – Daniel Menz Columbia – Harry McNamara Falmouth – Matt Edmonds Lexington – Mark Rosenberg Longmeadow – Nicky Taylor Masconomet – Mitch Hebert Middletown – Kennie Vaughan Montpelier – Aidan Casner Needham – Ethan Nash Pennsbury – Lee Farrell Sharon – Noah Kurland Stuyvesant – Benjamin Zhang Watchung Hills – Anthony Rodrigues West Windsor-Plainsboro South – Randy Tang Xavier – Kevin Lewis U S A U LT I M AT E

NORTHEASTERNS - GIRLS

FOOLIGALS: DEDICATION, GROWTH, FUN Lexington High School senior Leanne Go grabs the disc during the 2015 High School Northeastern Championships. Photo: Jason Honyotski/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

hree years ago, there was no such team as the Fooligals. The girls who wanted to play ultimate at Lexington High School in Lexington, Mass., played with the JV mixed team or with the varsity boys’ team, the Fooligans. That’s the way it worked for years, and it worked out pretty well – the boys’ team won the High School Northeastern Championships in 2013 – but only one girl made that trip to the championships with the boys’ team.

45 Amherst Regional High School goes for the D against the Fooligals. Amherst defeated the Fooligals 8-4 in the finals. Photo: Jason Honyotski/ Ultiphotos

But in the spring of 2013, the Fooligals came to be. They didn’t travel to Northeasterns that year, but they did compete at the St. Johnsbury Invitational, a stalwart youth tournament in the Northeast, and at the Massachusetts High School Championships. They even won the tournament at St. Johnsbury, in their first-ever tournament appearance. Later that spring, they finished fourth at the state championships; their momentum was building. Fast forward a little to spring 2014 – the first time a girls’ team from Lexington High School was in the competition field at the Northeastern Championships. In just their second season, they were able to field a team of 23 at the championships in Portland, Maine. Not only that, they finished in seventh place, amongst a field of teams that hail from some of the most well-established girls’ high school programs in the country. They followed up their performance at Northeasterns with another strong showing at the state championships, where they just missed out on the semifinals. The Fooligals’ great start was continuing. Fast forward one more time, again to the High School Northeastern Championships in Portland, Maine, but this time in spring 2015.

The Fooligals brought the biggest squad in the competition field to Maine with a roster of 25 girls. And they finished second. After entering the weekend as the sixth seed, they fought their way to the finals with a double-game point upset of Watchung Hills in the semifinals, only to face girls’ ultimate powerhouse Amherst Regional High School for the second time that weekend, this time in the championship game. Lexington first had to face Amherst in pool play. They lost that game by a score of 9-4. Four points was the most scored by any team against Amherst during the course of the tournament, and Lexington managed to do it twice. The final score of the championship game was 8-4 in Amherst’s favor, but the Fooligals were still the toughest competition they faced all weekend. Fun fact: Only one other team has managed to score four or more points against Amherst since the high school regional championship structure expanded to include Northeasterns in 2012 – Watchung Hills, the team Lexington upset in the semifinals this year. So how did the girls of Lexington High School create a team with such great momentum and growth so quickly? According to their coaches, Lizzy Cook and Larry David, it was largely behind the great

leadership of a handful of girls who worked hard to make the team grow and become competitive. The support of the school’s athletic director, who fast-tracked the team to varsity status which gave them easier access to fields and buses, was also crucial. The addition of Cook as the full-time girls’ team coach was just as important and timely. Cook started working with the JV mixed team as a volunteer in 2013 and became an official coach in 2014, just in time to help the girls’ team with their expansion. By the time spring 2013 rolled around, the girls on the mixed team had done such a good job of recruiting their friends, many of them teammates from fall sports they also participated in like soccer and swimming, that there were enough girls playing that it made sense to send a girls’ team to the state championships. When 2014 rolled around, there were enough players and strong enough leadership from the new captains that it was possible to create an entirely separate girls’ team. And after their taste of success in the 2014 season, captains Marissa Lerner, Leanne Go and Eva McDermott were anxious to keep the program building and the momentum growing. So they started early. They met with Cook at the beginning of the year, made it clear that they wanted to become a competitive team in the state and started the work they knew it would take to get them there. They held pre-season workouts and throwing practices and implemented check-in systems that kept the level of intensity and focus at practice high.

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NORTHEASTERNS GIRLS FINAL STANDINGS

The Fooligals went from taking seventh place at the 2014 High School Northeastern Championships to taking second in 2015. Photo: Jason Honyotski/Ultiphotos The captains’ commitment rubbed off on the rest of the team. “I would describe this team using the word dedicated,” said Cook. “They are dedicated to their teammates and to the sport of ultimate. On multiple occasions, the team has met to discuss what type of team they want to be, and the consensus was that they wanted to be competitive but in a way that would contribute to the growth of the program and their teammates as people and ultimate players.” But they also know how to balance the seriousness with fun. According to Coach David, they are serious and competitive on the field but fun and light-hearted off of it. That helps them keep those girls who were recruited from other sports. It’s a story familiar to many who try ultimate for the first time: go for your friend, stay for the community and the fun of the sport.

Eva McDermott is now in her senior year at Lexington and is the lone returning captain. She’s joined in the leadership role this year by Bonnie Nguyen and Maggie Zhang who are both juniors. But even after this early group of leaders graduates, the coaches are confident the team will continue to be in good hands. They’ve already noticed some budding leaders in their current crop of sophomores. As for their competitive future, the Fooligals hope to stay in the upper echelon of Massachusetts high school teams. They’ll work hard to continue growing the program and developing strong all-around players. And maybe one day they’ll be the team that finally topples the mighty Amherst Regional High School Hurricanes. For now, as David says, “All we can do is keep working and hustling and trying and improving, and good things will result.”

“ The captains’ commitment rubbed off on the rest of the team.”

SUMMER 2015

1 Amherst Varsity 2 Lexington 3T Amherst JV 3T Watchung Hills 5T Cape Elizabeth 5T Pioneer Valley 7T Greely 7T Pennsbury 9 Andover 10 Falmouth 11 Columbia 12 West Windsor-Plainsboro 13 Stuyvesant

Team Spirit Rankings 4.8 Pioneer Valley 4.7 Lexington 4.5 Columbia 4.0 Cape Elizabeth 3.7 West Windsor-Plainsboro 3.7 Falmouth 3.6 Greely 3.6 Stuyvesant 3.5 Amherst JV 3.4 Watchung Hills 3.2 Andover 3.2 Pennsbury 3.1 Amherst Varsity

Individual Spirit Award Winners Amherst Varsity – Jackie Mathers Amherst JV – Manali Rege-Colt Andover – Jackie Dean Cape Elizabeth – Sierra Bates Columbia – Shannon Bryan Falmouth – Callie McMahon Greely – Emma Massey Lexington – Marissa Lerner Pennsbury – Olivia Alongi Pioneer Valley – Maddie Silverman Stuyvesant – Sofia Collins Watchung Hills – Kim Chao West Windsor-Plainsboro – Poorna Dutta

Nathan Hale played Cleveland High School in the ninth-place semis and advanced to the game for ninth place with a 13-9 win. Photo: John King/Ultiphotos

WESTERNS - BOYS

STARS SHINE IN CORVALLIS WORDS BY PATRICK BUERMEYER

t an event like the High School Western Championships held May 30-31 on the Crystal Lake Sports Park fields in Corvallis, Ore., you expect to see top-notch high school athletes, but this year was a doozy. As ultimate continues to grow as a sport and with the focus on development in the youth arena, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that the kids competing at Westerns keeping upping the ante every year. I am continually impressed by the level of excellence achieved by youth players. This

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48 year was no exception. With players like Kai Marcus and Nicholas Hirning playing for Roosevelt and the Northwest School’s U-19 National Team veteran Sam Cook out on the fields in Corvallis, the level of skill and athleticism was higher both individually and team-wide than I have seen before. In addition to the Seattle-area standouts, I saw some great players representing other states, too. California’s Berkeley and Atascadero High Schools sported some truly high-caliber players. Atascadero had the brothers Mort – senior Isaac and his younger brother Ryan, who as just a sophomore had a huge impact as a thrower. And Berkeley brought some muscle of their own; junior Jeremy Dolezal-Ng had about the best cut I saw all weekend, juking a Northwest defender out of his socks to get wide open up the open sideline. Filling out Berkeley’s roster of all stars are two more juniors, flashy thrower Colby Chuck and rock-solid receiver and defender Efejon Ustenci. The Colorado state champions, Monarch, were not to be out gunned. They brought their own studs in their senior line up of Timmy King, Ryan Bennett and Cody Kershner. Despite all the truly impressive young ultimate players, after the first two rounds, I thought one team stood out among the rest: 2014 Washington state champions and the tournament’s number one seed – the Nathan Hale Raiders. Nathan Hale has always had strong showings at both the highly competitive Washington state level and at the regional level, but never have they looked this strong, appearing poised from the get-go to follow up their state title with a Westerns one. In the first two rounds, Hale faced off against two other Seattle contributions to the pool of Westerns

competitors: Ballard and Ingraham. Despite good showings from both teams, they were each handled by Nathan Hale, 10-6 and 11-6, respectively. Even though both opponents were able to put points on the board, Hale seemed in control. The first game against Ballard remained close until the second half when, according to Nathan Hale Coach Julian Peterson, “[they] stopped playing zone and switched to man.” Ballard had been able to wrestle in goals against Hale’s zone defense on the relatively calm spring morning, but the adjustment to man put on just the right amount of pressure for Hale to pull away. After being up just one break before half, Hale rattled off three more in the second half after their defensive retooling. On offense, senior Manny Eckert and his freshman counterpart Ben Perkel possessed the disc in the backfield, advancing it to any combination of seniors Zach Johnson and John Dan George or to another freshman standout in Gabe Port. Nathan Hale’s commanding offense marched the disc up and down the field, seemingly unable to miss a shot. But what initially looked like smooth sailing for the Raiders quickly turned rocky when, in the third round, they came up against Dolezal-Ng and co. from Berkeley. Coming off a finals loss to the Northwest School at last year’s Western Championships, Berkeley, who came in seeded eighth overall this year,

was not backing down against this year’s top seed. Meanwhile, Nathan Hale found themselves short-handed for this last pool play game. Westerns weekend this year was also the weekend of Nathan Hale’s prom, so Hale was without seniors Jackson, George, Mah, Bateman, Vidmar and Eldridge for both the game against Berkeley and the later all-important crossover round which would determine berths to Sunday’s championship bracket.

“ The kids competing at Westerns keep upping the ante every year.” Despite their now 11-man roster, Hale stole a break early and went up off a dropped Berkeley pull by Chuck. He made up for the drop sooner rather than later, though, firing a huge outside-in backhand that curved out of bounds and dropped into his receiver’s hand. Even with the early break against them, Berkeley kept fighting and pushing the pace

The Nathan Hale High School Raiders played Ballard High School BUF in pool play at the 2015 High School Western Championships in Corvallis, Ore. Photo: John King/Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

U S A U LT I M AT E

49 of the game. With Hale missing some of their key players, they were unable to generate the same kind of turns they had forced in the earlier rounds. They had to be content to mostly trade offensive holds with Berkeley. The offensively centered game made it all the way to cap, but Berkeley came away with the double-game point win, 10-9. Ironically, Berkeley’s prom was the one in conflict with Western’s last year, and many of their seniors arrived late for the first round, nearly causing them to drop a game to South Eugene in what would have been a huge upset. Berkeley took the pool with a 3-0 record, forcing Nathan Hale into a must-win crossover game against Monarch. Their long, doublegame point loss against Berkeley caused the Raiders to come out flat and give up a firstpoint break to Monarch. Monarch had been backed into a corner in pool play, having gone 0-2, so they were hungry and unwilling to let their last chance at the championship bracket slip through their fingers. Hale’s increasingly haggard crew managed to trade points with Monarch and keep it close in the first half, but as the heat of the day grew, nothing seemed to go right for Nathan Hale. Tipped discs and break chances were picked up by Monarch, and despite great play from Eckert, Perkel and Port, Hale could barely get on the board in the

second half. They eventually fell 6-11. With the new day and fresh legs, Sunday looked brighter for Nathan Hale as they started off with a win over cross-town rival and first-time Westerns attender, Cleveland High School. With their full squad back in rotation post-prom, the Raiders found the spring in their step they had lost the previous afternoon and took the game 13-9. With their eyes now set on ninth place, there was only one more game on the horizon – a battle against California state champions Atascadero. Atascadero had also struggled with their roster after suffering several injuries, but they weren’t done. They won their first game on Sunday 13-9 against another Seattle-area team, Garfield, and were ready to fight Nathan Hale for ninth. 13-9 seemed to be a prophetic score, with the Nathan Hale Raiders storming their way to the win, claiming ninth place as their prize. Hale’s future continues to look bright even amidst

WESTERNS BOYS FINAL STANDINGS 1 Roosevelt 2 Northwest School 3T Monarch 3T Berkeley 5T Summit 5T South Eugene 7T Ballard 7T Franklin 9 Nathan Hale 10 Atascadero 11 Cleveland 12 Garfield 13 Ingraham 14 Corvallis 15 Gunn

the sea of incoming high-caliber players in the Western region. With young athletes like Perkel and Port returning as sophomores for the Raiders next year, Hale may not have seen their last top seed and definitely haven’t made their last appearance in the championship bracket at Westerns.

Nathan Hale takes ninth place after defeating Atascadero High School 13-9. Photo: John King/Ultiphotos

Team Spirit Rankings 4.6 Summit 4.5 Atascadero 4.4 Franklin 4.3 Ballard 4.2 Corvallis 4.2 Gunn 4.2 Nathan Hale 4.0 Berkeley 4.0 Ingraham 4.0 Monarch 4.0 Northwest School 3.8 Garfield 3.7 Cleveland 3.5 South Eugene 3.2 Roosevelt

Individual Spirit Award Winners Atascadero – Christian Baker Ballard – Axel Anderson Berkeley – Ari Ball-Burrack Cleveland – Ronnie Estoque Corvallis – Carson Boggess Franklin – Yu Wen Chen Garfield – Khoi Nguyen Gunn – Victor Kao Ingraham – Julien Butwin Monarch – Reed Forman Nathan Hale – Will McDonald Northwest School – Sam Packard Roosevelt - Michael Boyco South Eugene – Brooks Mikkelsen Summit – Chad Rogers

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50 The Ingraham High School Rams fielded a girls’ team for the first year at the 2015 High School Western Championships. Photo: John King/ Ultiphotos

WESTERNS - GIRLS

HOW THE WEST WAS (OR WILL BE) WON WORDS BY BOB LEWIS

pioneering spirit, disciplined hard work and a confident vision of the future. They say this is how the West was won. For the girls’ ultimate team from Ingraham High School, this may be the way the West will be won. In Seattle, Wash., at a school known more for its academics than its athletics, a group of young women is gathering to take on the ultimate world. After a number of years fielding only a mixed team, 2015 was the first year Ingraham fielded an

SUMMER 2015

51 all-girls team: a team that placed second at the Washington State Championships and tied for fifth at the 2015 High School Western Championships. And they’re a team, by the way, made up of 17 freshmen, one sophomore and one senior. Yes, you read that right – 17 freshmen. Team captain Kaia Roast, herself one of those 17 freshmen, remembers thinking last summer, “Having a girls’ team at Ingraham would be a challenge to make, but the outcome would be awesome – an all-girls team with more than 50 percent being freshman.” Her prediction was a bit understated. As it turned out, Ingraham’s roster at Westerns was 88 percent freshmen. Ingraham High School is known as an IB school. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, IB stands for International Baccalaureate. Earning an International Baccalaureate diploma requires completing a rigorous educational program, and successful graduates are accepted internationally as being qualified for entry into higher education. IB schools typically attract the top students in a given

geographical area. For education, this creates a challenge by offering a diverse student body and a wide variety of academic subjects. For an ultimate team, it creates a challenge because few, if any, of the girls knew each other prior to the beginning of the school year. But thanks to their pioneering spirit, they took on the challenge anyway. It started with informal “captains practices” in the fall of 2014. Only a handful of girls regularly attended, but as the year continued, the numbers grew, and the hard work increased. In early competition, they struggled. Some of the girls had handled a disc for a number of years while others had played for only a few weeks. This inauspicious beginning led to what Evelyn Reding called “a real amount of solid losses.” But she went on to say that there was a turning point for the team. “It was during our second game of our second tournament...We were getting thrashed by our opponent’s zone. Turning it over on our own end-zone line, repeatedly... HA [Coach Heather Ann Brauer] calls a time out and huddles us up. She is visibly

frustrated with us and tells us that we absolutely need to huck the disc, that we cannot even begin to play this game until we get the disc off our end-zone line. We cheer and step back out there. A minute later, I am in the same situation I have been in all game, surrounded by a cup and frightened. Our own end-zone line is feet behind me, and I am looking towards my fellow handlers. I hear HA screaming “Mexico” from the sideline, which has got to be a code word for something. Mexico is pretty far from Seattle, and these code words are usually relatively logical, so I step around to my backhand pivot and sling one downfield. We get field position and ultimately score the point.” From that point, Ingraham starts to gain momentum. As the year progressed, the Ingraham girls’ team continued to improve those necessary ultimate skills: fundamental throws, patience, teamwork, a strong sideline presence and solid coaching. True to the Spirit of the Game, Ingraham not only

“ I have come to love the sport and the tightly knit family that I have found in the ultimate community.”

The Rams played the Franklin High School Quakers, also from Seattle, in the firstplace quarters. Photo: John King/ Ultiphotos

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WESTERNS GIRLS FINAL STANDINGS

A Berkeley High School California Roll player lays out for the disc at the 2015 High School Western Championships. Photo: John King/Ultiphotos developed their skills throughout the year, but also their camaraderie. Cameron Jewett tells it this way, “This year, I learned how important spirit and community [are]...It is one of the many reasons that I have come to love the sport and the tightly knit family that I have found in the ultimate community.” After only nine months of playing together, they stepped onto the fields in Corvallis, Ore., for the 2015 High School Western Championships. Their first day at Westerns was a microcosm of their entire season. At the outset, they struggled. The first game was a tight contest, and Ingraham eventually fell to Roosevelt High 5-9. In their second game, they were clearly outmatched by the top-seeded and veteran team from Lakeside High School. But in the afternoon, they rallied. In a tightly contested third game, they topped Garfield High School, 6-4, and then capped off the afternoon with a victory over Summit High

At the outset on Sunday, shades of the team’s “Mexico” turning point showed themselves again. In their quarterfinal match against Franklin, both teams employed hucking strategies throughout the first half. Unfortunately for the Ingraham girls, most of their hucks went nowhere. After seeing the strategy fail, their opponent, Franklin, shortened up their game, took some Ingraham turnovers and parlayed them into quick scores. This strategy led to Franklin’s 7-2 halftime advantage. In the second half, Franklin’s team speed and tenacious defense proved too much for Ingraham to overcome. However, the girls from Ingraham offered a comeback bid, with particular help from Evelyn Reding. And although they weren’t able to complete the comeback in the game, it is clear they have the ingredients to mount a comeback in the years ahead. One might speculate that their hard work,

School 10-6. Their day-one performance was

determination and optimism will lead to a

good enough to earn them a spot in Sunday’s

comeback in 2016 or 2017. Or, as captain Kaia

championship bracket.

Roast says, “I’m telling you – 2018 is our year!”

SUMMER 2015

1 2 3T 3T 5T 5T 7T 7T 9 10 11 12 13

Lakeside Northwest School Franklin Nathan Hale Corvallis Roosevelt Ingraham Berkeley Crescent Valley South Eugene Summit Cleveland Garfield

Team Spirit Rankings 4.3 Northwest School 4.2 Berkeley 4.2 Nathan Hale 4.2 Roosevelt 4.2 Garfield 4.0 Corvallis 3.9 Lakeside 3.7 South Eugene 3.7 Ingraham 3.7 Cleveland 3.6 Summit 3.0 Franklin 2.8 Crescent Valley

Individual Spirit Award Winners Berkeley – Emmy Curtiss Cleveland – Ashley Escobar Corvallis – Makayla Wahaus Crescent Valley – Maddy Otto Franklin – Kennadi Hairston Garfield – Ella Wood Ingraham – Juliette Green Lakeside – Julia Lober Nathan Hale – Ruby Cassidy Northwest School – Rowan Foote Roosevelt – Francis Gellert South Eugene – Raina Kamrat Summit – Sarah Schwiebert

There is nothing quite like seeing your new team gear for the first time. All of the experiences you’ve had together, the effort you’ve put in, the fun you plan to have, the road trips, spirit games, even the packed and smelly hotel rooms. All of it crystalizes when that jersey first slips over your head. There’s just no feeling like it, and you can’t help but grin. Looking around, you can tell that your teammates are right there with you, smiling like kids and thinking about how great this season will be. We live for that feeling, that incomparable moment together as a team, and those big, silly grins.

start an order: agility.fiveultimate.com questions: team@fiveultimate.com

U S A U LT I M AT E

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#HEFORSHE

Lessons Learned Words by Josh Hartzog

ost of us have heard it. Some of us have participated in it. “Women’s ultimate isn’t entertaining enough to watch.” “Women’s ultimate is boring.” “Women can’t play ultimate as well as men.” Sideline and online comments about the women’s game persist, despite the ultimate community’s insistence that we are an open-minded, progressive people. The malecentric culture we live in often still holds us back, preventing us from being able to enjoy the women’s game as a separate entity. I admit that I have, at times, been swept up in this culture, wanting to fit in with the group of the players around me. This year marked my third coaching girls, and over the past few seasons, I feel like I have learned more from them than they have learned from me. This year in particular was an enlightening experience, as we started a new team at East Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina, where I am a science teacher. As a male, I can at times have a myopic view of the world, a view clouded by the wealth of opportunities and lack of obstacles I face en route to achieving my dreams and desires. Coaching girls has helped widen my view of the world and given me a more informed perspective on the struggles women face, particularly in gaining appreciation for the game they play.

As far as ultimate goes, perhaps the most important lesson I have learned so far is that girls really want to play. The experiences gained from being a part of a team – the camaraderie, sacrifice, fun and growth – are not just good for young boys. I have witnessed tremendous transformations of my players, and I believe that providing opportunities for girls to play ultimate, or any sport, is essential to their personal development, in addition to any athletic gains they make. Ultimate is a pretty great sport, and we have clearly seen tremendous growth since the sport’s inception. Recently, that growth has come mostly at the youth level, with the number of boys playing and boys’ teams competing increasing rapidly. In North Carolina, our state championship has expanded every year I have been coaching to include more and more teams. However, growth in the number of girls playing has really only expanded in the past three years. Why? Opportunities for girls to play single-gender ultimate have finally become a reality in several different cities across the state, and we have now hosted girls’ state championships for the past two years. Providing opportunities for girls to play is imperative. Provide an opportunity, and they will play. I have seen this concept play itself out several times over the past few years, starting with the very first girls’ team I coached which consisted of

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#HEFORSHE Jane Carsey, a senior at East Chapel Hill High School, got to compete with East Eclipse in team’s first appearance at Southerns. Photo: Christina Schmidt/ Ultiphotos

" PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR GIRLS TO PLAY IS IMPERATIVE. PROVIDE AN OPPORTUNITY, AND THEY WILL PLAY."

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eight players. We took that squad and built it up to include over 20 girls. Eventually, we split into several different teams. The team I coach now, East Eclipse, started this year, again with about eight girls, but eventually grew to about 16 players. Players brought friends to practice and got them hooked on the sport, which helped with the team’s growth and created an environment where the girls felt comfortable. The comfortable environment was especially important since many of the girls were trying the sport for the first time. Other schools were even more successful than East this year. The North Carolina School of Science and Math started their team with just one player and was able to reach soar past 20 in a single year. This kind of growth is phenomenal, but it does not happen automatically. Another important lesson I have learned from coaching girls is how to foster the development of my players’ leadership skills. Part of my motivation for coaching girls was seeing the potential impact a separate girls’ team can have on the confidence, assertiveness and leadership of young women. I got excited about helping provide that opportunity,

and as such, I have sought out ways to include my athletes in the decision-making process of the teams I have coached. In my first coaching position with Saga, the club team that has sparked our subsequent girls’ division growth in North Carolina, I don’t think I did a good enough job of providing opportunities for the girls to be involved in the team’s leadership. I ran almost every aspect of the program, using a very top-down leadership approach. While we experienced success on the field, issues arose as we split into separate, school-based teams. Learning from those lessons and borrowing ideas from others, I have since sought to provide more opportunities for the girls to learn and develop leadership skills. For example, this year, I had the captains run one practice each week. It was an opportunity for them to truly lead the team and learn how to accomplish tasks on their own. I provided a bit of basic structure in terms of what concepts the team should be working on, but the captains determined what drills they would like to do in order to achieve our goals. The benefits of this system have been tremendous, and when coupled with our local Take the Field initiative, our players are

developing strong leadership skills which they can use to help continue the growth of girls’ ultimate programs. One of the key components in providing the ever-important opportunities for girls to play is to have a driving force behind the formation and leadership of a team, strong leaders who are willing to put in the time and effort necessary to see the team grow. I was blessed to have two amazing seniors this year who helped lead our team and were willing to endure practices with only four players in attendance, so we could eventually reach our goal of having a girls’ team at our school. Providing girls with motivating forces that will help drive the development and formation of opportunities for girls to play is one of the most important things that we as ultimate

communities can do. It takes time, effort and commitment, but the results are well worth it. Coaching girls has helped give me a better perspective on the women’s game and has helped me be able to stand up for women when derogatory comments arise. Rather than ignoring women’s games at tournaments, I seek opportunities to become a spectator. I encourage everyone else to make similar efforts. When games are streamed at college or club nationals, we should watch both the men’s and women’s games. When articles are written online, we should read about both the women’s and men’s divisions. I hope you will join me in supporting women’s ultimate whenever and however you can.

" PART OF MY MOTIVATION FOR COACHING GIRLS WAS SEEING THE POTENTIAL IMPACT A SEPARATE GIRLS’ TEAM CAN HAVE ON THE CONFIDENCE, ASSERTIVENESS AND LEADERSHIP OF YOUNG WOMEN."

East Eclipse coaches Diana Lam and Josh Hartzog talk to their players during 2015 High School Southern Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. Photo: Christina Schmidt/Ultiphotos

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On Change in Ultimate Words by Eric Brach

“THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE.” The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said this first, and while it’s pretty unlikely he was thinking about ultimate at the time – he died about 2,400 years before the sport was invented – he may as well have been. Ultimate is unique in many ways, not least of which in the manner it consistently reinvents itself. The sport changes as the years go by – can you remember the last time anyone played a game to 21? – and the people and teams who play it change as well. Captains come and go. Team names become transmuted. Geographic power dynamics evolve. Everyone expects youth and college squads to face turnover as players graduate or age out, but club teams face those same shifts in personnel and in identity, too, even at the top level. An example: in 2008, San Francisco Jam were the kings of men’s ultimate, fresh off their first national championship. But by the next year, Revolver – formed explicitly to be an alternative to the established team in the Bay Area – had taken Jam’s spot in the finals, and by 2010, Revolver had earned their own crown, and Jam had ceased to exist. The lesson? The game evolves as fast as the disc revolves.

As ultimate players, we take all this dynamism for granted...but do we ever ask why? What makes team rosters fluctuate? In pro sports, money provides an easy answer, but ultimate is not the NBA – at least, not yet. So what makes club ultimate undergo these sea changes that we see take place time and again? Why do key players move from one team to another, and why is it that cities will boast one dominant club for years...and then one day, after countless pretenders to the throne have come and gone, a young, hungry squad manages to merge with – or outright surpass – that established team that previously seemed so unbeatable? For this article, we spoke with captains of championship teams past and present in all three club divisions: men’s, mixed and women’s. We tried to understand how teams and cities have weathered change and what has brought about both assimilations and outright mergers amongst clubs. The goal? To glean from the past lessons for the future. As the Triple Crown Tour and USA Ultimate’s team flight system continue to add new structure and meaning to regular-season tournament play, understanding how dynamics shift will be crucial to pro and elite teams that want to stay on top – and to young squads looking to take down the giants.

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60 MEN’S For men’s ultimate, we started with the division’s biggest dynasty of all time: Death or Glory, better known as DoG. Boston’s DoG won six straight championships in the 1990s and made semifinals the next three years after that. And yet, the team chose to dissolve shortly thereafter. No one could have foreseen the end of the DoG dynasty, but it happened – and all the same, ultimate is still alive and well in Boston. The team that rose from the ashes in Boston, Ironside, just capped off a remarkable seventh straight year of making the semifinals or better at the USA Ultimate National Championships. What made DoG dissolve, and how did the team that came in its wake pick up the winning tradition right where it had been left off? Ultimate Hall of Famer and DoG founder Jim Parinella1 weighed in on how the Boston men’s ultimate scene was defined by the top-tier teams. “I’ve come to believe that the way things have happened in Boston Ultimate is a natural chain of events that is almost inescapable,” he said. “The short story is that two equal teams in an area will not exist. There will be a top team, and a second team will form and may stay together for a while, but eventually its top players will join up with the top team. The second team then has a few lean years before it all starts over again.” For years, this played out just as Parinella described, as DoG absorbed the top players from second-tier teams in Boston. (In fact, it’s been a quarter of a century since the second-best Boston men’s team has beaten the top club in the city.) It wasn’t until 2004, at the end of DoG’s heroic run that, as Parinella put it, “Twisted Metal formed, not out of the remnants [of other teams], but out of something completely different.” Twisted Metal was a team of northeastern college all-stars, and, “Twisted Metal was philosophically different,” Parinella said. They didn’t want to play the DoG way – they wanted to play how they liked. DoG was mature and ran a conservative game, while Twisted was athletic and huck-happy, so top Boston players necessarily found themselves attracted to one team or the other – not to both. It wasn’t possible for DoG to take the best players Twisted had to offer, so the two teams shed their old identities and formed as one, choosing to put aside their old names and form something new, settling after one season on their current moniker: Ironside. Players, coaches and captains in a number of divisions noted that this, more than anything, makes new teams have legs – giving young, hungry squads the chance to be something more than just feeder teams: a clear sense of identity that’s different from that of an already-established club.

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North Carolina Darkside quickly became known for a loud sideline and team unity. Here the team crouches with arms clasped around adjacent teammates before the championship finals at 2014 College D-I National Championships in Mason, Ohio. Photo: CBMT Creative

MIXED Captain An-Chi Tsou helped found the Polar Bears in 2010, and since then, the team has been one of the most stable and dominant squads in the otherwise highly fluid world of mixed ultimate. Playing in a division where no other team before or since has made it to more than two championship games, the team reached the finals in each of the first four years of its existence. As rosters tend to be especially variable in the mixed division – and teams, even among the upper echelons, have a tendency to be less long-lived than dominant single-gender clubs – we asked Tsou what causes players to move between club teams and causes inter-squad power balances to shift. “In club,” An-Chi noted, “[individual] shifts are caused by a wide variety of factors: retirement, moving, switching teams or even switching divisions. Also, you generally get an even wider array of people on a coed team. There is more variation in dedication, ability and what players are looking for from the sport. There’s also the relationship factor: people in relationships with other ultimate players of the opposite gender often decide to play co-ed for at least a portion of their relationship, so they can play together. “It is rarely one thing that causes a team to change, but a variety of factors that affect each individual,” Tsou continued – and it’s the sum of these individual roster changes that affects a young team’s

61 ability to stick together and compete with established teams, just as it affects an existing team’s ability to maintain its high level of performance year-in and year-out. The Polar Bears are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, an urban center known not only for the popularity of ultimate in general, but the huge proliferation of teams – mixed teams, especially. Many cities boast a few coed teams to choose from; the Bay Area is home to nearly 20, four of whom qualified for last year’s National Championships. That creates opportunities for players to experiment season to season and find the right team for their comportment, which surely helps explain the variance in mixed clubs’ rosters. Is all that turnover good? “It’s generally good [for individuals] but not always good for an individual team,” said Tsou. “Every season for every team is different, and while it is good to have some flexibility in organizing a team identity and culture that works... constant turnover can make fielding a consistently competitive team difficult.” Given the huge variance in year-to-year finish among mixed teams across the nation, that notion certainly bears out.

Players, coaches and support staff for the U.S. National Team at the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia listen to coach Alex “Dutchy” Ghesquiere during a team discussion. Photo: CBMT Creative

WOMEN’S If any division right now needs to solve the question of what makes teams stick together – particularly when there are multiple strong teams in the same city – it’s women’s. San Francisco boasts not one but two teams in the Pro Flight: the established ninetime champions Fury, as well as the up-and-coming Nightlock, a team founded at the tail end of Fury’s seven-straight-championships run that also happened to take Fury to double-game point not once but twice in last year’s postseason. We spoke to a number of influential representatives from the women’s ultimate scene and posed the same questions: What gives teams their identity? What makes players shift from one squad to another? And what happens when there are two strong teams in the same town? The first player to answer was Dominique Fontenette. In addition to having won five national championships and two world titles and having played on both Fury and Seattle Riot, Fontenette enjoyed a first-hand view of a two-teams-one-town rivalry in her early days of playing club ultimate over a decade ago. “When I first got to Boston, Lady Godiva was the team to beat, and they were led by a core of great women,” said Fontenette. “But after the team won the championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002, a lot of the core decided to retire. Right about then, Brute Squad formed, and it was at first all the younger kids – the ones who either couldn’t make Godiva, didn’t want to practice as hard, or just didn’t like the established team culture. “I played on Godiva at that time, and there were a few younger players like me and Victoria ‘VY’ Chow who tried to keep it together, but all the young studs – Lakshmi Narayan, Rohre Titcomb and others – started going out for Brute Squad instead. “I think the two teams did at one point try to formally merge – the captains met. But it didn’t work because both teams wanted to keep their own culture. That didn’t work, and eventually, Lady Godiva dissolved.” For reference, Brute Squad is still going strong; these days, Brute Squad’s the best game in Beantown, and the team won the regular-season title in 2014. Not too shabby for a team who once played (as their website puts it), “like someone had given the Bad News Bears a Frisbee.” But Fontenette’s point is very true – they didn’t form just to beat Lady Godiva; their ethos was explicitly to be different and play ultimate differently from how the champions did it. That’s a hard thing to do.

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62 Rohre Titcomb, former ‘young stud’ on Brute Squad and now Fontenette’s teammate and captain on Seattle Riot – as well as a multi-time U.S. National Team selectee and world champion herself – had this to add: “When a team isn’t just a ‘B’ team, but is rather a separate team in its own right, it’s often because it has its own identity. Being intentionally different makes a team its own, and that’s absolutely necessary if it plans to be able to stand alone and succeed.” It surely seems that both Fury and Nightlock have managed to accomplish that goal. So what does that mean for women’s ultimate in the year ahead, particularly in the San Francisco Bay? Fury captain Ness Fajardo weighed in.

Nightlock has successfully created their own team identity in a city known for women’s ultimate powerhouses, starting with their connection to the Hunger Games franchise. Photo: CBMT Creative “In areas like San Francisco where players have the luxury to choose, a lot of it is about what players want. Nightlock and Fury have pretty different cultures – we strive for different things, even though winning is part of it for both teams.” Ness’s counterpart on Nightlock, captain Abby Van Muijen, also offered quite a bit of insight on the matter. Much of what she said in many ways confirmed what we’d heard from captains across divisions: that player movement in ultimate is often defined by looking for fit, and for a new team to be able to succeed in the face of established competition, it has to have an ethic all its own. “There’s something now that’s a little bit different from in the past. In my experience in the Bay Area, there had always been a clear hierarchy, with Fury at the top and then whatever second team under them. And I think for the most part, there had always been

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fluidity going up that ladder. Players would try out for Fury, and if they didn’t make it, they’d try out for the next team. But that’s not what it’s like now. With the development of the Pro Flight, it makes sense that there can be two elite level teams: USA Ultimate offers a structured way that those two teams can exist, independently. And we as captains are trying to make sure that we make those two programs sustainable so that we can have two distinct, independent teams. “We actually did a culture workshop last year, to specifically direct what we want our culture to look like. It helped us define: What is our team identity? What are our goals? Why do we all pay so much money and time to play this sport, and with this team in particular – what do we want to get out of it? “We do have a very different identity from Fury, but it’s not about talent. There’s no shortage of talent. There may be an experience-level difference, but there’s skill in both squads and a different culture, and that allows players to pick for themselves which team they think fits best. Last year, a former Fury player came over and played for us instead, choosing a team that was lower in ranking, and I think that’s the first time that’s happened.” Perhaps what has happened so regularly in the past when multiple strong teams coexist in the same area – rapid player movement, followed by mergers or outright dissolutions – will become less likely in the future as the Triple Crown structure offers a framework for keeping teams together year after year. But that begs its own question: Does decreasing player movement in the name of team stability help or hurt the sport overall? Nightlock coach Peri Kurshan – also a past president of the UPA/USA Ultimate Board of Directors – answered as follows: “In terms of ability to compete at the highest level, it’s advantageous for a team to have low turnover. There’s a definite advantage to playing together over many years. But in terms of the sport as a whole, more intermixing may be better because players can see more different styles of play, as well as differences in culture and team building, which helps them grow as players. The sport as a whole probably benefits more from a lot of people moving around and playing on different teams and from teams evolving, shifting and embracing change.” She ought to know. A decade earlier, Kurshan herself played for Lady Godiva – and later captained Brute Squad. NOTE: Eric Brach made it to five Club Championships playing for nine different teams in his 11-year club career. Endnotes 1 – Jim Parinella reprised some of his prior written statements in comments for this article.

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Following the Sport: From College Rankings to Score Reporter and Beyond Words by Baker Pratt

“I As a fan, I thought there should be rankings. I thought there’d be a utility for it. It was a good way to get publicity.

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left the answering machine in the closet because we would get calls at all times of night,” Sholom Simon laughs. “People always love the answering machine story.” This is Sholom Simon, the inventor of ultimate’s college rankings, describing his original system for collecting scores from college tournaments around the United States. In 1986, it was not easy to follow the sport. The first college national championships had been held in 1984, but the only centralized place for finding out results of the series was the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) newsletter which was printed on newsprint and sent out months after the fact. And for other tournaments? There were the beginnings of email and the usenet group rec.sport.disc, but everything was fragmented. Simon enjoyed following basketball and college football, but realized he had no way to follow his passion, ultimate. So he developed a ranking system for college ultimate that was modified from the chess ranking system, a game he played and was ranked in regularly during junior high. The method for gathering results was brute force. “At that time, we collected scores by phone calls. Or if I knew where tournaments were, I’d call on Sunday and get the scores.” Then Simon would hand enter the scores into his algorithm. He disseminated the rankings on rec.sport.disc,

through press releases to the AP Wire and, eventually, on the UPA website. He updated the rankings weekly, a process he continued to manage for 20 years and through numerous iterations. As for what drove him to volunteer countless hours for all of these years? “Part of it was being a geek, and part of it was being a sports fan.”

The method for gathering results was brute force. One of the benefits of the rankings, beyond Simon’s personal interest, was his recognition that rankings could help promote the college division, both to other ultimate players and to outside media. “As a fan, I thought there should be rankings. I thought there’d be a utility for it. It was a good way to get publicity.” And it worked well. According to Simon, in the late 1980s, the Carnegie Mellon men’s team was ranked in the top 10. A Pittsburgh newspaper heard about it and published an article on the front page of the local sports section. Armed with this coverage, the team was able to successfully lobby the student government for more funds for their program. By the early 2000s, the college rankings system had grown increasingly robust, with the internet allowing scores to be submitted more easily, more schools reporting scores and more games than ever being played. But Simon noted that the whole process became overwhelming with the increase in sheer number of games being played during the college season. On top of that, non-championship series results were still not being collected and displayed in a central area, which meant following the story of the college season relied upon a mix of rankings, rec.sport. disc updates, UPA newsletters and word of mouth.

For the first time, there was a centralized place to find results for tournaments around the country.

In 2003, Rodney Jacobsen, the coach of Hanover High School in New Hampshire and a programmer, felt frustrated that events like college regionals were happening, and there was no way to find out which teams won or see the tournament formats. Will Deaver, the then-UPA director of championships and now managing director of competition and athletes programs at USA Ultimate, described the landscape similarly. “Rec.sport.disc was happening at the time. Community updates were happening. A lot of times people just didn’t know [the results of a tournament]…That was not the expectation then. You’d know because you were there.” Later in 2003, Jacobsen launched Score Reporter, the result of months of work. As he described it, adoption was quick, despite spreading entirely through word of mouth and rec.sport.disc. President’s Day became the first tournament to use the system in February. For the first time, tournament organizers, players and fans could see individual tournament results, all within days of the tournament ending. But the impact of Score Reporter went beyond just being able to follow the college division. High school game results and club results were displayed alongside the

college division results. Jacobsen developed a ranking system for high school and college teams that, while not official, built on Simon’s idea that rankings helped fans follow the sport. Even more, Score Reporter’s centralized tournament display improved the communication around events, creating standardization of non-series formats and allowing those formats to be communicated earlier than ever to traveling teams. And for the first time, there was a centralized place to find results for tournaments around the country, both recreational and competitive, and in different divisions of play. By 2004, Score Reporter was integrated with the UPA website. Jacobsen approached the UPA about using his platform and flew out to Colorado to meet with the board of directors and staff. He agreed to manage the platform as a volunteer and worked with the UPA and Simon to build the college rankings into the system. As Deaver recalls, “He basically said he wanted to be the volunteer coordinator, and he wanted people to use it because…it was helpful.” What started as a helpful project became a pivotal part of the UPA (and then USA Ultimate) website, continuing as the centralized place for thousands of tournament and game results

for players around the country. Deaver acknowledged, “That system changed the way that information was accessed.” Today, we can follow along with tournaments around the U.S. and the world, thanks to real-time score updates via social media, multiple websites reporting game and tournament results, new startup companies focused on providing an architecture for leagues to report and track scores, and endemic and corporate video and live-streaming companies providing unprecedented video coverage. But it is also a good time to look back at the past three decades to acknowledge the impact that the college rankings and Score Reporter had in improving tournament structures and disseminating tournament results, and how they moved ultimate forward by creating the ability to follow the sport as a fan. Acknowledgements: Thanks to Rodney Jacobsen, Sholom Simon and Will Deaver for sharing their knowledge of tournament and score reporting.

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Above the Competition SPEED DEVELOPMENT ROUTINE By: Tim Morrill

M.A., CSCS, HFS, Owner of Morrill Performance

he purpose of this workout is to develop hip extensor power for acceleration.

THE EXERCISES Extension Push

• P urpose: to attain a position of thigh separation and explosive, glute-driven hip extension. • Beginning in a staggered-start position, you should have your core engaged, chin tucked and weight shifted onto the heel of the front leg (figure 1). This is your “loaded” position. Prioritizing only the front leg, roll from your heel to toe. Explosively push your hip into extension while driving the back leg into flexion. Attempt to reach a position of full extension on the back leg and full flexion on the front leg (figure 2). Perform this movement explosively enough that you create a “hanging” effect during the moment your hip reaches full extension. If executed properly, you should feel your glutes engage during the same moment you experience the hanging effect.

FIGURE 1 : STAGGERED START

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Tall Fall Drill • Purpose: to teach the athlete to generate explosive horizontal forces by creating a steep body angle. • Partner #1 (coach role): Begin by ensuring your athlete is organized in attaining a rigid torso and straight line from head to toe. Do this by cueing the athlete: “chin tucked,” “belly tight,” “glutes engaged.” Ask them to maintain this position as they fall forward, and catch them by placing both your hands on their shoulders. Bring your athlete to an angle of approximately 45 degrees. Ensure they are comfortable and feel safe before speaking “ready, set, go.” Upon release of their shoulders, step out of the way and cue them to “drive, drive, drive.” • Partner #2 (athlete role): Begin in a plank position with your chin tucked, core and glutes engaged. Lean into your partner without comprising the rigidity of your torso. Upon your partner’s release of your shoulders, drive your hips behind you and cue yourself to “push the ground away” while aggressively hammering your arms back, keeping your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Note: It is wise to start beginners at approximately 60 degrees of body lean. As the athlete beings to feel more comfortable, work to an angle as steep as 40 degrees. The steeper the angle, the more horizontal-force-producing effect.

FIGURE 2: EXTENSION PUSH

Staggered Acceleration

FIGURE 3: TALL FALL STARTING POSITION

• Using the extension cue from the extension push, along with the steep body angle cue from the tall fall drill, attempt to accelerate as rapidly as possible through 10- and 20-yard increments. Maintain a steep body angle and aggressively drive your hips behind you while forcefully hammering your elbows behind you.

SETTING UP • Place three cones, one each at 0, 10, and 20 yards.

THE ROUTINE • Extension Push x 4 (alternating right and left legs) • Tall Fall: 10 yards x 2 (alternating right and left legs) • Tall Fall: 20 yards x 2 (alternating right and left legs) • Staggered Start: 20 yards x 4 (alternating right and left legs) • Rest three minutes and repeat circuit x 3 rounds

NOTES • This workout can be done with a partner or with a full team. If applied with a full team, the ideal time is just after the cone–to-cone warm up and preceding practice. • Speed development is a function of performing quality and explosive repetitions. Perform this workout with a partner and ensure a brief rest period (approximately 20 seconds) between each repetition. If one cannot maintain movement quality and explosiveness with 20 seconds of rest, increase the rest to as long as 40 seconds between reps.

FIGURE 4: TALL FALL LOADED POSITION

REFERENCE To see video instruction of each drill, reference Module 5: Linear Speed in the Morrill Performance Functional Performance Training system, available at mpfpt.com. Featured MP Athlete: Jordan Queckboerner of Boston Ironside and Ocean City Humiliswag

FIGURE 5: TALL FALL BLAST OUT POSITION

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Nutrition Matters WHAT TO EAT WHEN – A QUICK REFERENCE FOR ULTIMATE ATHLETES By: Katy Harris

MSPH, CSCS, Owner of WellLife Consulting, LLC

re you constantly wondering what to eat before and after games, workouts and tournaments? Some people have nailed it – they know what they like and when they can and cannot eat. But for most of us, it is not that easy. What

works for other people is not necessarily going to work for you, so sometimes it takes effort to get it right. To make it even more difficult, there is a new fad coming out every day that advertises directly to you to get you to buy their product, and there are mixed messages all over the media. In general, it is usually best to go with what you know, and to not change what you are doing just because you hear something may be bad for you. Instead, avoid following the fads by gradually changing what you are doing once you’ve done your research on any new product or habit It is important to take care of your body the way you know works for you, not based on what someone else is telling you. The balance between nutrition, eating habits and performance is very delicate and is different for everyone. It can be easily disrupted at the most critical times. If you are starving and the whole team needs to go eat a sit-down meal with 20 people after a game or practice and it could be an hour before you eat, make sure you are prepared with a small meal for right after your game or practice, or go take care of yourself and then reconvene with the team when you are ready. Athletes need to think like athletes: plan for food options, snacks, liquids, etc., on a regular basis, especially during travel. Social considerations should take a back seat to getting your body what it needs to stay healthy and recover from intense exercise.

Below is a chart of all three energy sources and how many hours of energy each gives you. Use this guide to work backwards from your workout or event to decide what to eat. When choosing meals, the basic rule of thumb is to choose your energy (food) sources based on what activity you will be doing. Supporting a more intense activity like playing ultimate requires ingesting all three major energy sources before, sometimes during and after the activity. A long endurance run requires mainly carbohydrates and fat, and a speed or jumping workout requires mainly carbohydrates and protein. Fat is burned from a speed or power workout later, rather than during the workout. See Table 1 below for the energy sources needed based on activity and Table 2 for the number of hours of energy in each type of food. As indicated in the table, carbs give you energy for only one hour of non-active time, and you need to eat approximately every four hours. You should eat approximately four handfuls of carbs with every meal as a starting point. If it is four hours before a game or workout, you can eat all the servings of carbs, but if it is only three hours before a game or workout, you should only eat three handfuls of carbs; eat two handfuls two hours before, etc. For protein, since you need approximately two handfuls per meal or every four hours, then half a handful of protein = energy for one hour. For good fat, which can take up to nine hours to digest, you typically need approximately 2 tablespoons every meal. So for protein, half a tablespoon equals one hour.)

Table 1: Energy Sources Used During Activity Activity

Primary Energy Sources

Examples

Endurance

Carbs, fat

Long run, bike, swim, etc., at sub-max intensity (40-70% of max heart rate)

Speed or Power

Carbs, protein

Sprinting or jumping workout; sports like baseball, golf (high power but minimal cardiovascular component)

Endurance and Speed/Power

Carbs, protein, fat

Sprinting, power or agility and running workout; sports like ultimate, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, football, etc., cardiovascular and power components

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69 Table 2: Hours of Energy Based on Source Energy Source

Hours of Energy

Handfuls/Meal

Handfuls/ Hour

Carbs

4 hours

4 handfuls

1 handful/hour

Protein

4 hours

2 handfuls

1/2 handful/hour

Good Fat

4-9 hours

2 tablespoons

1/2 tablespoonv/hour

To review the major nutrient and food groups, carbohydrates = (in order of energy, least to most) fruits and veggies, starchy veggies, quinoa, beans and hummus, dairy, grains/bread/pasta, cake/cookies, sweets and sugary snacks. Complete protein sources = meat, fish or eggs. Good fat = olives, olive oil, nuts, nut butters, avocados, butter and cottage cheese. Some carbohydrate sources also have protein, and if you are at your goal weight, you should be ingesting these sources of carbohydrates for additional complete protein on a regular basis (e.g., hummus and pita, corn and pinto beans, black beans and wheat flour, beans and rice, quinoa and green leafy veggies like spinach and broccoli). For best overall health, rely on quality nutrients and multiple sources of protein. Another important guiding principle is that you want to have most of your food completely digested by the time you get to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. So if you are starting warm-up at 5:30 p.m. and you will be almost to full speed by 5:45 p.m., work backwards from there. If your heart rate will not reach 70 percent during the workout, digestion is likely to be able to continue through the workout, although the principle of one handful of carbs one hour prior to exercise, two handfuls two hours before, etc., is still a good guide for most athletes in preworkout meals. Use the steps below to choose what foods to eat and what foods to avoid before a game, workout or tournament. Eat three regular meals on a daily basis, and time your meals every three to four hours, regardless of the time of competition. Sometimes you

may need snacks in liquid calories and carbs between meals. But eat snacks only when needed. If you eat what you should and stay away from fried foods, foods high in saturated fats and sugar and sweet drinks, your body will tell you what you need and when, so just stay disciplined and listen!

DECIDING WHEN TO EAT IN TWO EASY STEPS: 1. Define start time of workout (when you will be at 70 percent of your max heart rate). 2. D efine intensity of activity (endurance, power or both).

CHOOSING WHAT TO EAT IN THREE EASY STEPS: 1. Choose carbs based on how many hours it will be before you reach 70 percent of your max heart rate (approximately four handfuls of carbs = approximately four hours of energy when eaten with a meal). To avoid a crash, DO NOT eat high-sugar foods, especially within 30 minutes of a workout. 2. Choose protein based on activity and personal preference (approximately two handfuls of protein = approximately four hours of energy with a meal). DO NOT choose high-fat protein sources within three to six hours of competition. 3. Choose good fat based on activity and digestibility (approximately two tablespoons = approximately four hours of energy when eaten with a meal).

AVOID: 1. High-fat or high-sugar foods within 30 minutes and two hours of a workout or competition. As blood leaves the center of the body to go to the muscles during exercise, these foods take longer to digest and could just sit in the stomach. This can lead to gastrointestinal distress during exercise, stomach pains, etc. Focus on quick-digesting (higher energy) carbohydrates, like crackers or bread, during exercise rather than fiberand protein-dense veggies and beans. 2. Avoid most fats on the day of an intense competition. Instead, continue ingesting calories mainly from easily digested carbohydrates and liquids, as well as protein in small amounts, as tolerated throughout a tournament day. After a long day of competition, eat a normal meal as soon as possible, and then eat again every two to four hours when awake to replenish energy stores. 3. A void fried foods, especially those fried in vegetable oil at high temperatures, as they will release a high amount of free radicals on top of those released during exercise. Excess free radicals can cause cell damage, excessive breakdown and inflammation, as well as other harmful long-term health effects.

U S A U LT I M AT E

Presented by:

Coaches’ Playbook

x x

WINNING THE SIDELINE

By: Christie Lawry

n previous editions of Coaches’ Playbook, we reflected on ourselves and our teams. What kind of coach am I? And what kind of team are we? Now that we have our goals and a vision for the season, we need to perform. There are a lot of things that go into putting together a good team: having the right leadership, forming strong offenses and putting together a smart defense. When two good teams face each other, however, it’s going to be all the little stuff that pushes one team that little bit ahead of their opponent. Coaches often use catch phrases to remind their teams about previously decided goals. “Win every half” or “win the point” are often heard on the sidelines, forcing players to live in the present and not the moments ahead. If it makes sense to win more than the game – breaking it down into halves and points – then why stop there? Let’s win everything: the sidelines, the timeout, the halftime, the bye round, the week up to the tournament, the bus ride.

Executive Director, Pittsburgh Ultimate When I mention the idea of having a sideline captain, a lot of eyes roll. It takes a special teammate to want to be the guy who leads every cheer. When I say sideline captain, however, I am talking about WAY more than reciting team chants after every point. “Winning the Sideline” is the catch phrase I use to remind myself and my players that we can do more than just win on the field.

BE EFFICIENT Start the season with some rules. Not rules about ultimate; rules about the team. How do we treat each other? How do we structure practice? What do we do between drills? Make easy decisions first. Get a player to be in charge of the warm up from day one. When do we start our warm up? Have an answer – “3 p.m.” What do we do if we get to practice early? “Throw around. Be ready for the warm up at 3 p.m.” Teach your players to make a pile of discs. Make it silly, make it serious – it doesn’t

The Towel Squad was one of the most talked about things at the 2015 D-I College Championships. No one questioned whether Darkside was doing the work needed to win the sidelines. Photo: Jolie L Lang/Ultiphotos

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matter. A pile of discs is when all the discs are on top of each other, upside down. The team should make a pile before and after every drill and scrimmage, to save time between each activity. If the team knows this on day one, you will save hours of time over a season and spare yourself some sore hamstrings. This will also be beneficial on game day – keeping your sidelines tidy and reducing the chance of an off-the-field sprained ankle. Show them what a drink break looks like after a drill is complete. “Grab the cones and discs. Grab a drink. Bring it to the huddle.” This keeps everyone focused – limiting phone checking and blade throwing. You can even give them a number: 30 seconds. They start to get a feel for how long 30 seconds is and how much time they have before the huddle starts. High-five your teammates. All the time.

BE HEALTHY Share information with the team EARLY ON about what is going to be best for them.

71 Are you coaching young kids who don’t care about their bodies yet? Talk about it with regards to results if that hits them harder: “This will help you run hard for the entire game.” Or give them an example of a really successful team who eats/rests/etc. well. Discuss sports nutrition. Discuss hydration. Discuss weather. If you discuss these things early in the season, you won’t need to spend almost any time during the season (or during a game) talking about them. They’ll understand and value the importance of eating/drinking/ resting properly, and a quick reminder should do the trick.

BE LOUD So many coaches come back from games and tournaments without a voice. I used to be one of those coaches. You scream and you scream and you try to help everyone on defense every point. Well, I began to better teach my players how to be useful on the sidelines, and my voice started lasting quite a bit longer. The team needs to have a common language. A player marking needs to know exactly what “no inside” means. Choose your terms and stick to them. Drill sideline talk. Create drills where your mark is listening to a single teammate. Force every player to HAVE to talk by himself or herself. It’s too easy for individuals to hide in a group of voices. Create a buddy system. Or a point-bypoint pairing system. Make sure every person on the sideline knows who he or she is talking to on that specific defensive point.

KEEP TRACK Create a structure for yourself to keep track of things. Rules, scores, playtime, stats. Figure out what’s best for you, and keep it consistent all season. Make a spreadsheet and use the same one every game. Find a phone app, and use the same one every game. There are some important things to track. Be sure you know the rules. What’s the time cap? What’s the score cap? How many timeouts do we have? Where is the wind? Who won the flip, and which side are we starting on? Keep all that info in front of you. When you need it, you’ll be thankful it’s there. Is there a rule that your team always confuses? Have that on the bottom of your sheet.

University of Colorado’s women’s team Kali stays loud between points at the 2015 D-I College Championships, keeping the energy up for their teammates on the field. Photo: Jolie L Lang/Ultiphotos Make sure you know who has played, who hasn’t and who has been out for a while. Even if you are subbing to win and all your players might not get in that game, you should certainly be aware of playtime v. sideline time. You’ll be much more prepared for questions and complaints and understanding of fatigue, errors, etc. Curious about goals, assists, turns, Ds? Want to know which line plays best together? Who is most effective on defense? Track it. Don’t have a good score sheet? Borrow one.

GAME DAY If you set up structure ahead of time, game day runs much more smoothly. The warm-up routine should run as swiftly as it does at daily practice. Huddles should be efficient and focused. The physical sideline should be tidy and filled with coolers, sunscreen and one big pile of discs. Parents will know which snacks to bring for the players. Players will know the timeout

rule. Coaches will remember the time caps. Opponents will know you are keeping track and can count on you to discuss the current score. And you won’t walk to the wrong end zone at the start of the second half… Christie Lawry is a current a club player and is in her fifth year of coaching the Hampton High School boys’ ultimate team in Pittsburgh, Pa. Christie is the executive director of Pittsburgh Ultimate and has been running leagues and tournaments since 2006. She has also coached high school and youth club girls’ teams and captained for multiple years at both the college and club levels. Christie hopes to assist and inspire both new and veteran coaches to better themselves as leaders, competitors and mentors. Something you want to see next time? Shoot us an email: letters_to_editor@ usaultimate.org.

U S A U LT I M AT E

What’s the Call? By: Colin McIntyre

Chair, Standing Rules Committee

True or False: The rules are designed to penalize traveling. Therefore, whenever a travel occurs, the defense should stop play and require any completed pass to be returned to the thrower.

My college teammate told me that in order to play good handler defense, I should rest a forearm on my opponent, but I find opponents often brush my arm away or otherwise object. Is this defense legal?

FALSE. The preface of the rules indicates that the rules are designed to “resume play in a manner that simulates what most likely would have occurred absent the infraction.” Thus, in many instances, if a travel occurs but is inconsequential, it is appropriate to let play continue without making a call. See the Winter 2014 USA Ultimate What’s the Call column.

T or F: When a receiver catches a pass and there is a dispute regarding whether the receiver’s first point of contact was in bounds, the receiver’s perspective determines whether he was in or out of bounds. FALSE. Rule XV.E states, “The player with the best perspective makes the call.”

T or F: If an offensive player calls a foul and then the thrower completes a pass, play stops and the disc is returned to the thrower. TRUE. Rule XVI.C.2.a.1 states, “If the team that called the infraction has possession, if the offense called the infraction before the thrower began the act of throwing (II.T.3), play stops and possession reverts to the thrower.”

No, this is illegal. Under Rule XVI.H, “It is the responsibility of all players to avoid contact,” and initiating contact by resting a forearm (or hand) on an opponent is a clear violation of the rules. As a practical matter, this behavior often affects continued play, either by restricting an opponent’s movement or assisting the defender’s movement. There are two instances in which the Rules Committee has seen use of an arm or forearm that can be acceptable. The primary example is when a player anticipates a collision and uses his or her hands or arms in the interest of safety, to reduce or deflect the impact of the collision. In this instance, the player is preventing a significant collision out of regard for the safety of fellow players, which is appropriate behavior under Rule XVI.H.4. We consider this to be reducing the severity of inevitable contact, rather than illegally initiating contact with the hands or arms. Although the underlying inevitable contact could be a foul, this use of hands or arms in the interest of safety is appropriate. We also recognize that some offensive players find it acceptable for a defender to use light, non-restrictive hand or arm contact to sense the space occupied by an opponent. Many defenders find this advantageous in sensing the The observer system is designed to overlay a regular self-officiated ultimate game. The only change in player responsibility is that players are not permitted to make line calls or enforce time limits in observed games. Photo: Alex Fraser/ Ultiphotos

SUMMER 2015

73 of a contested “contact” call, it is treated in the same way as a contested foul call; there is no disadvantage for the defense. The international rules contain a similar “contact” call in WFDF Rule 18.1.1.7, though the stall does not reset completely. Although Rule III.A of the 11th edition

When playing in an observed game, players retain all of the same responsibilities as in a regular game. Players remain in control, recognizing infractions and making calls only when they have recognized an infraction. Photo: Jolie J Lang/Ultiphotos opponent and reacting more quickly and effectively, which could arguably mean that the contact affects continued play and is a foul under II.E and II.H. However, this extra awareness can also reduce the amount of contact occurring between a cutter and defender moving in close proximity – feet stepped on, legs tangled and bumping between adjacent players. Thus, the guidance of the rules committee is as follows: 1. I t is always illegal to initiate any type of restrictive contact with a hand or arm (for example, resting an arm or hand on an opponent and then applying or maintaining any force that resists or restricts the opponent’s motion). “My arm was here first” is not an acceptable defense to initiating arm contact and then restricting an opponent, and an arm or hand extended away from the body is not included in the “position on the field” that a player is entitled to occupy (XVII.A).

Is the “contact” call part of the rules? What about 20-yard end zones? Neither of these provisions is a part of the 11th edition rules, but they have been approved for use in the youth, high school, college and club divisions and are included in those competition guidelines. Many leagues and tournaments also choose to adopt these rules for their events. This approval is based on repeated experimentation at USA Ultimate events, collection of feedback and discussion at the committee level. Furthermore, some version of these changes is likely to be incorporated into the next update of the rules, for the reasons below. The USA Ultimate “contact” call essentially creates a method for resolving uncontested marking fouls without stopping play. The current rule reads: If contact occurs between the thrower and marker that would constitute a foul under XVI.H.3.a but the thrower does not release the

2. Light, non-restrictive hand or arm contact can be acceptable if the opponent agrees to it. If an opponent brushes your hand or arm away or otherwise objects to the contact, it is the defender’s responsibility to avoid any future instances of such contact. If the defender finds himself or herself applying force or otherwise restricting an opponent when both players begin moving, then the defender needs to avoid such contact.

disc, “contact” may be called. Play does not stop, and the marker resumes the stall count at “one.” Other than resetting the stall count to “one” after the first instance, the “contact” call is treated as any other marking violation. The marker may contest the “contact” call by calling “violation,” which stops play. If the thrower calls “contact” after beginning the throwing motion and subsequently releases the disc, it is treated as if the thrower called “foul.” Thus, the outcome of the uncontested contact call is the same as an uncontested foul call (reset stall count), but the game is allowed to continue to flow without interruption. The addition of the “contact” call provides another avenue for throwers to address an illegal mark, without having to decide whether to interrupt the flow of the offense. In the case

provides for 25-yard end-zone depth, for many years, USA Ultimate has used 20-yard end zones. This change aligns USA Ultimate’s field dimensions with the international standards defined in WFDF Rule 2.1. Equally important, a field with 20-yard end zones is only 110 yards long, which means it can fit more easily onto commonly available sports fields, while leaving appropriate buffer space adjacent to the playing field, to avoid obstacles like goals, goalposts, drainage fixtures, etc. See Rule III.D, F.

Under the rules, how do players’ responsibilities change when observers are used? Players’ responsibilities under the rules remain virtually unchanged with the addition of observers. The observer system is designed to overlay a regular self-officiated ultimate game. The only change in player responsibility is that players are not permitted to make line calls or enforce time limits in observed games. Observers make line calls (in or out of bounds/ end zone/offsides), track and enforce time limits, resolve disputed player calls when asked, and may “censure or eject players for sportsmanship infractions” under Rule XVIII.B.3, using the misconduct system. Players retain all of the same responsibilities as in a regular game, and players remain in control of many aspects of the game. For example, players largely control the pace of play, and they may choose to play faster than the time limits announced by the observers. Players also retain their function as referees, recognizing infractions and making calls only when they have recognized an infraction. Finally, players remain fully responsible for knowing the rules, adhering to the rules, and maintaining mutual respect with opponents. The rules, not the observers, define what conduct is legal or acceptable. The fact that an observer might not issue a misconduct foul in response to certain illegal behavior or sportsmanship infractions does not indicate Observer Program approval of the conduct, nor does it override the applicable rules.

U S A U LT I M AT E

LOCAL LEAGUE SPOTLIGHT

Columbus Ultimate Disc Association By: Karen Hines and Mike Sauter

olumbus Ultimate Disc Association (CUDA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. What an amazing journey! The flyer advertising the first annual CUDA Summer League in 1996 contained many pearls of wisdom, including these suggestions about what to bring to the fields: “ibuprofen (aka Vitamin I),”“a sense of humor,” “rhyme& meter (to help with writing cheers),” “your I.D. (you look so marvelous),” “some good stories for the bar,” and “SPIRIT.” As ultimate in Columbus was beginning to take shape, CUDA’s founders paved the way for its future as a fun-focused organization created to form a community of fierce friendships through competition, education, philanthropy and sportsmanship in ultimate. Many of CUDA’s customs and practices have remained the same over the years. For example, our summer league still begins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the same park where it all started 20 years ago. We still value ibuprofen, inspired cheers and after-league bar time. As the sport of ultimate has evolved, however, so

SUMMER 2015

too has CUDA. Our summer league has expanded into two separate 10-team leagues, a recreational league for learning and skill development and a competitive league geared towards players with some experience. Although we wish the price was still just $5 (as it was in 1996), our summer leagues now combine to feature more than 320 players of varying ultimate backgrounds from all across the city. Additionally, we hold leagues during every other season of the year that range in their levels of skill and competitiveness. This year we added a “Bring a Team” league for which captains recruited their own teams instead of hosting a draft, our typical format. Another recent development for CUDA is the organization’s involvement in Andy 24, a 24-hour ultimate event that raises money for local charities, in memory of a young Columbus ultimate player who passed away several years ago. At this unique event, at every point during the 24 hours, at least one ultimate game is in progress. Those who attend the event have the option to play for the entire 24 hours, if they so choose. The event, which has also expanded to include a disc golf tournament, draws players from across the state of Ohio and beyond.

CUDA is fortunate to have a constant influx of young ultimate players becoming involved in leagues. Our Columbus High School League, which began in 2010, has grown to 16 teams. There are also several colleges and universities in the Columbus area, including Ohio State University, home to Fever, the 2014 Women’s College Champions, and the university’s men’s team, Leadbelly. College players often turn to CUDA leagues for extra practice, leadership opportunities and a chance to play with non-collegiate members of the community. Columbus is a great ultimate city because it’s large enough that players are afforded the option to play ultimate at many different levels, from pickup and teaching leagues to elite club teams; however, it’s still a tightknit community of friendly, creative, spirited people. As the sport evolves and competition levels increase, CUDA is evolving as well, but the organization strives to ensure that competition is always balanced with fun, great spirit, learning and growth.

NEWS & NOTES

Summer 2015

WORLD FLYING DISC FEDERATION FULLY RECOGNIZED BY INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) was granted full recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the organization’s 128th Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in early August. WFDF was granted provisional recognition in May 2013 and, over the ensuing two years, worked with the IOC to implement best practices for international federations and develop flying disc sports around the world. Now in its 30th year, WFDF represents 65 member associations in 62 countries. WFDF’s full recognition is a major step in the continued road to making ultimate a part of the Olympic Games.

NEW STAFF MEMBERS AT USA ULTIMATE Over the course of the spring and summer, USA Ultimate headquarters has seen significant growth and change! Josh Murphy is the organization’s new Director of Member Services & Community Development, Leah Dolan-Kelley joined the team as Manager – Event Sanctioning, and Kristin Gallagher came on board as Manager – Community Services & Development. In addition, Dan Raabe joined the Competition & Athlete Programs Department as the new Manager of Youth & Education Programs. Murphy moved into his new role after two years with USA Ultimate as Manager – Membership & Sport Development. Dolan-Kelley oversees USA Ultimate’s event sanctioning program, working with event directors throughout the application

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process for and planning and execution of sanctioned events. Her responsibilities include overseeing the application process; advising event directors on how to manage and run a USA Ultimate event; collecting rosters, waivers and other materials from event directors; and assisting with the collection antd processing of accurate results. Dolan-Kelley began playing ultimate after moving to Los Angeles and quickly took on an organizational role in the local ultimate community, coaching youth teams and assisting in running local tournaments. She holds a degree in Writing for Television and Film from Emerson College in Boston. Professionally, she has worked for several television studios in the Los Angeles area as an assistant coordinator, story assistant and human resources assistant. Before moving to Colorado Springs, she worked as an administrative assistant with Goldberg Swedelson & Associates, a pension and profit sharing consulting firm in Encino, Calif. Gallagher holds a master’s degree in recreation and sports administration from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and health promotion from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She brings to USA Ultimate a wealth of community outreach experience from the University of Notre Dame Department of Athletics, National Wheelchair Basketball Association and Colorado Springs Sports Corporation. As USA Ultimate’s Manager of Community Services & Development, she supports the membership department’s league sanctioning and affiliate programs and assists in the development and support of local organizations. Raabe oversees USA Ultimate’s programs related to youth outreach, development and education. His responsibilities include the management and promotion of existing programs including the Learn to Play Program, Girls’ Ultimate Movement and USA Ultimate day camps, in addition to the development of new and innovative programs designed to expose the sport of ultimate to youth and inspire them to play.

Raabe is also responsible for USA Ultimate’s education programs including the Coaching Development Program, Observer Certification Program and Ultimate Long-Term Athlete Development Plan, in addition to outreach efforts and the continued development of strategic partnerships with groups such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs and Boy Scouts of America. Raabe was an educator for more than 20 years; before joining USA Ultimate, he was a teacher at James Madison Memorial High School in Madison, Wis., for 18 years, teaching U.S. history, economics, AP microeconomics and AP macroeconomics. During that time, he also started and developed the high school’s ultimate club. Raabe founded the Madison Fall Classic tournament which ran from 1999-2005 and launched what is now the longest-running high school tournament in the Midwest, Madison MudBath, in 2002. Raabe served as a member of the Madison Ultimate Frisbee Association Board of Directors for more than 10 years, has been a Youth Club Championships coach and the director of multiple local youth leagues in the Madison area. In addition, he has been a longtime volunteer with USA Ultimate, working as a CDP instructor since 2004, a member of the 2005 advisory committee that rewrote the CDP curriculum and a member of the 2002 advisory committee that created a strategic plan for developing youth ultimate nationwide. Raabe earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at Colgate University and holds a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on economics from Edgewood College.

TWO NEW DISCS APPROVED FOR CHAMPIONSHIP-LEVEL PLAY Athletes approved two additional discs for USA Ultimate championship-level competition this summer. The Discraft UltraStar, Web Mold II – Hot Stamp and the Yikun Sports UltiPro both

77 were granted championship-level approval

of grassroots programs and to serve local

by a 50-person Flight Test Pool comprised of geographically diverse male and female athletes in USA Ultimate’s college and club divisions. The comprehensive testing process is designed to evaluate submissions based on parameters determined by the Disc Standards Working Group. The approval of these two discs brings the total of USA Ultimate championship-

players. Affiliates benefit from various materials and programs that assist with education, instruction and training initiatives, as well as several streams of financial support. They receive access to USA Ultimate’s Learn to Play Program, as well as curricula designed for physical education in a classroom setting, coaching education and observer certification.

Rewards card raises awareness for the sport of ultimate and these crucial programs while simultaneously earning you rewards! Plus, UMB Bank will donate $50 for every newly activated account and USA Ultimate receives a percentage of all net retail transactions. Whether you’re one of USA Ultimate’s valued members, a part of the ultimate community or simply a general enthusiast of

approved discs to seven; Yikun is the newest manufacturer on the list, one championshipapproved disc is made by Daredevil, and the remaining five are manufactured by Discraft.

USA Ultimate also assists affiliates with the facilitation of community recreation programs, youth camps and college program outreach. Financial resources are also available to USA Ultimate-affiliated leagues in the form

the sport, this card is a must have. You can use your USA Ultimate Visa Rewards card anywhere Visa is accepted. Support the future of ultimate and apply today!

NEW LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS JOIN USA ULTIMATE AFFILIATE PROGRAM Over the course of the summer, four local leagues joined the USA Ultimate Affiliate Program.

of grants, discounts and rebate dollars, while leagues can also benefit from an insurance program covering events, players, directors and officers.

USA ULTIMATE VISA REWARDS CARD

The simple use of your USA Ultimate Visa

WORLD UNDER-23 ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIPS The United States U-23 National Teams brought home two gold medals and one silver medal from the World Flying Disc Federation’s 2015 World Under-23 Ultimate Championships. The 2015 event was held in

Every credit card sends you a statement. This lets you make one! With a USA Ultimate Visa Rewards card from UMB Bank you can proudly display your passion for the sport you love while

London, U.K., July 12-18. Seventy-six athletes, nine coaches, three staff and two trainers made the trip to London: three teams – one each for the event’s mixed, open and women’s divisions – representing

supporting many important programs.

the United States. The mixed and open

Your everyday purchases have the power to contribute to national youth outreach initiatives, including Play it Forward and the Girls’ Ultimate Movement (GUM), U.S.

teams each won gold, defeating Australia and Canada in their respective championship games. The women’s team claimed silver; they fell to Japan in a tightly contested

National Teams and grassroots development programs across the country.

championship game, but in addition to their silver medal, they took home the women’s division’s spirit award. In all, the U.S. tallied four medals in London: two gold, one silver, and one spirit award. More coverage of the U.S.A.’s trip to the Under-23 World Championships will appear in the fall 2015 issue of USA Ultimate.

Atlanta Flying Disc Federation Juniors; the Indiana Ultimate Federation; the Triangle Flying Disc Association and their youth arm, the Triangle Youth Ultimate League; and Valley Ultimate of western Massachusetts joined 10 other leagues in the Affiliate Program and now have access to additional resources and support from USA Ultimate designed to assist with the expansion and promotion

U S A U LT I M AT E