As UNC's Darkside hucks itself into yet another year of Ultimate, a changing of the guard comes. The old guard, those Darkside icons who founded the team half a decade ago, have clocked their fifth year of college eligibility. Mark Parris - the cat in the hat - is with Flatball. Can this be so? Other Darkside mainstays - Shane Greene, Alan Hoyle, Dave Hall, Dave Luebke and Chris Rodning (as well as Mitch Sally, a mainstay last year only) - have moved on.
But this year's reincarnation of Darkside Ultimate will have a familiar look to it. Two dozen returning players promise a team with solid defense and - at the bare minimum - an intense attempt at offense. The team may not have the huge throws of an Alan or a Dave or the entourage of capable handlers it has been able to take for granted in the recent past, but it will be the most athletic squad Darkside has pieced together in history. Seriously.
Carl returns. And he's not alone. His team has speed, hops, height, endurance and horizontal disregard for personal safety. Keeping with tradition, Darkside will absorb a few skilled veterans who have entered grad school here from other colleges in the cold, dark north (see Mitch Salley, paragraph 1). And the Charlotte contingent continues to spread through the team like a disease, meaning even more young guys who can run for days and days and days. The Darkside won't be taken lightly.
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During the summer of '97, Flatball Nation answered two back-of-the magazine ads. We began selling herb and flower seeds and hired ourselves out as mercenaries in a small Central-American country's internal skirmish. Flatball Nat(tm)n returns to the Triangle this fall with camouflage gear, superficial wounds, and more dill seed than we know what to do with. Our fall season's first tourney is Savannah's Toss in the Moss, September 13 & 14.
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"If you build it, they will come." That's the hackneyed, cardboard sentiment that guided the organization of the first ever (?) Triangle Area Corporate Ultimate Tournament. Before this event, rumors of local interest in organized inter-corporate Ultimate competition had risen to a fevered pitch.
Such rumors were confirmed to be fact after the distribution of an informal "What if..." internal IBM e-memo (which was leaked beyond the mighty IBM firewalls) drew a larger-than-expected response from area corporate players.
So, the planning began. Teams were formed, and teams were disbanded; fields were reserved, fields were taken away, and then better fields were reserved. And throughout it all, so much e-mail flew that a certain Lotus Notes Server Administrator offered a free copy of OS/2 Warp to anyone who could disable the LAN port through which all this traffic passed.
Mysteriously, the port remained unscathed.
Finally, on a warm, sunny May 30th, eight corporate teams met at Cedar Fork District Park in Morrisville for a day-long tournament. Those teams included Ganymede Software, two IBM teams, ISG, Mobius, two SAS teams, and a corporate "merger" team (aka, Corporate Alliance) which consisted of players from Nortel, Ericsson, InterLogics, and Geophex. Two pools of four teams each played in a round robin format, which was followed by a cross-over game between the matched seeds from the pool play. The championship game was played by SAS's Mighty Clouds of Joy, undefeated winner of their pool and captained by Freddie Wayne Hester, and the Corporate Alliance, organized and led by Sunny Lo, and winner of their pool by a three-way tie-breaker of points scored.
After sweeping their pool division, SAS looked like a favorite to take the day, but injuries, heat exhaustion, and the skill of the Corporate Alliance proved to be too much for SAS. The Corporate Alliance won the championship in a 10-6 capped contest. Many remarked that the Spirit Award should go to Steve Joyce's Ganymede team, who played well and with great spirit even though they fielded a large number of first-time players, and entered the tournament knowing that every other team had a high number of experienced players.
The tournament was enjoyed by most everyone there, except maybe for the players who either broke a collarbone, tore an ACL, or broke a nose blocking a disc (Get well soon!). Many participants said they'd like to see another corporate tournament scheduled. If you're interested as well (even if your company can't field a full squad), contact me. I'll be sure to let you know when the next one will happen.
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Another women's college team has appeared in the Triangle. It took us a little longer than NC State and UNC, but Duke University finally has a women's Ultimate team, also known as XENA.
We successfully completed our first spring season with Captain Samantha Wood leading our troops. With the much appreciated help of a few experienced Triangle players, we learned a few endzone plays, the give-and-go, and what to do when faced with a zone, which we even put on a few times. In the spring we decided to play as a solely Duke team (and not try to pick up other players just for tournaments). Meant as a bold statement of confidence and self-reliance, this may have been a death wish for back to back weekend tournaments with only savage sevens. Enthusiasm we didn't lack, numbers we did. Our motto this spring was, "The fewer the subs, the greater the glory." Glory was something we all earned; "subs" was a word we didn't know.
Time and confidence, throws and fitness seem to be the keys to Ultimate. We're young, we've got time, so the rest we'll just keep working on as we get back together again in the fall. So when you see us out there, come on over, give us some pointers, throw with us for a little while, and maybe then we will actually scrimmage with sevens!
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Given the ultimatum of either starting a womens' team or being the treasurer for Darkside (again), Emily Larson, our illustrious leader and Ultimate player extraordinaire, took on the collosal task of forming an entirely new team from scratch. So, in the fall of 1995, a group of women gathered on the fields at Carolina to play a game most had never played before and only a few more had actually seen. The enthusiasm was strong, especially considering that from our initial chaotic play, we could only get better!
We soon had a team name and were playing (and scoring!) in tournaments. Come springtime, we actually won a game - a shut-out no less! - and were accepted into Fools Fest on the basis of our spectacular bid: "Around the World in 80 Hucks". Since then, we have consistently moved up in the rankings, playing in tournaments all along the Atlantic seaboard. Over spring break we even went to Florida to play in Frostbreaker. A few of our past and present players played with a team in the first national coed championships in Chicago this past Labor Day weekend.
When everyone returns for classes we'll begin our semi-annual recruiting drive for new players watch out for us this fall!
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Five months ago a new club team, THOR, was formed. We are a Master's Division team, meaning we're all over 32 years old -- not that we're "masters" of the game! So far we've had four scrimmages, losing to UNC-Darkside 17-10; losing twice to Flatball, 17-11 and 17-12; and winning against Camel City, 17-1.
The next few months look busy for us; we hope to field a team for Savage Seven and the one-day tournament in Richmond, we're going to Toss in the Moss in Savannah in mid-September, we plan on playing in Sectionals when (if?) they happen, and we'll be playing in Regionals (automatic acceptance to Regionals for Master's Division) in October. Hopefully we'll represent Triangle Ultimate at Nationals!
Check out our Web site at http://www.mindspring.com/ ~thors/home.html. As soon as the Sectionals/ Regionals are over, we'd love to schedule a game against anyone. Really.
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This past summer was great for women's Ultimate in the Triangle, and this upcoming fall season will be even better. Thanks to the many women who participated in this summer's women's pick-up series, and special thanks to those who organized it.
Congratulations to the women playing Ultimate this fall series on either of the two, yes two, Triangle women's teams. Liz Mahanna and I are organizing one of these two exciting teams. We are looking forward to the team having a strong presence in the increasing competitive Mid Atlantic Region. The team is comprised of a myriad of women; women of different ages, different cities and different playing backgrounds. Our fall season will commence with the Cape Hendlopen Tournament on September 13-14, then NC Sectionals in late September, followed by Mid Atlantic Regionals in Philadelphia on October 3-4, and culminating with Nationals in Florida on October 23-25.
We appreciate everyone's support of Triangle women's Ultimate, and hope for your continued support as our season shifts into high gear.
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NC State Women's Ultimate Frisbee Club, otherwise known as Disc-O, can't wait for the season to begin. Even though the team is still young, they are looking forward to getting some new people out and having a good time. Disc-O's main goal for the fall season is to work on our skills as a team and playing as much Ultimate as possible. Sadly, captain and team founder Kari Naderman graduated and moved away; the team wishes her well. Leading the team this year are sophomore co-captains Dawn Martin and Lindsay Paul. Disc-O will be attending most area tournaments and scrimmaging other local teams. For more info, call 834-0600x504.
Flatball Nation
by Christian Schwoerke
[all-around guru and general disc god]
Going Corporate
By Patrick Cox... phcox@us.ibm.com
Go, Xena!
By Stacey Luoma...luoma@cs.duke.edu
and Frannie Goodrich...afg@acpub.duke.edu
Pleiades: 7 Sisters of UNC Ultimate (a brief history)
By Sarah Danninger...sdanning@email.unc.edu
Thor, Mastering the Masters
By Mark Britt...thors@mindspring.com
Triangle Women's Team "X"
By Beth Cates...catesba@raleigh-nc.org
Go, Disc-O!
By Lindsay Paul... lcpaul@eos.ncsu.edu
