Kat in the Hat 2006!

As the fall begins in the east, Mark Rosser will host every year's premier event for high school teams in the mid-atlantic region: Kat in the Hat.

This year looks good (and hopefully will be decidedly less wet and windy than last year), but expect to see a rematch of last year's final, between the two clear class teams of the east, Pennsbury and Columbia.

The other semi-final spots will be more interesting, with Beacon and Yorktown, two teams from outside Philly, but always coming in strong, fighting for one, and Princeton and Wissahickon, two teams graduating plenty of seniors from last year's Easterns squads, fighting against the Pterodactyls, Pennsbury's other team, which graduated only one senior (just like Peyote), for the other in the highly competitive D pool.

See the full pools below the fold:

Pool A:
Pennsbury
Cardinal O'Hara
Stuyvesant

Pool B:
Cheltenham
Neshaminy
Columbia

Pool C:
Beacon
Yorktown
Council Rock

Pool D:
Wissahickon
Pterodactyls
Princeton

Semifinals:
A1 vs. D1
B1 vs. C1


And in the B-division, just one pool:
Lower Merion X
Penn Charter
Germantown Friends
Lower Merion Y

Lower Merion graduated their entire A team last year, save a couple juniors who spent some time playing up. Now they have a deluge of underclassmen and will be looking to build up.

VA Tournaments this fall

Tidewater Tune-UP will be Nov 11-12, near Williamsburg, VA. Woodside HS are hosting the tournament for the second year. Teams from NC, VA, and PA have already shown interest, and I believe that there are still a couple of spots available. There are four or five teams that competed in Easterns or Westerns last year that have shown interest in coming. The cost is $200/team.


Also, on December 9 the LC Bird team will be hosting the 3rd Annual Sue Inge Memorial Tournament. We donate all of the money to the leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Mrs. Inge's memory (mother of one of the former players). We have donated close to $2000 in the past two years. The tournament will be played at LC Bird High School this year in Chesterfield, VA and I try to keep the cost at or below $100 (generally around $75). We only have room for 8 teams and in the past we have had teams from VA, PA, and NC.

If you would like more information on either of these tournaments please send me an email at nkchl (at) yahoo.com.

High Schoolers playing in regionals?

Last week posts and comments were made earlier about high schoolers playing in the club series, now that a little bit of that dust has cleared anyone know of high schoolers who will be going with club teams to regionals?

Feel free to leave em in the comments section. I believe there are a few high school guys from PHUL who are playing with Burgh this year who will be attending Mid-Atlantic regionals, other than that i dont know of any. Any Amherst guys on DoG or Metal? How about Paideia on Vicious Cycle? Northwest guys on any of the plethora of good Seattle teams?

This question goes for the ladies too - are the Suver girls still playing for Riot? are they still in high school?

For those of you interested this question will extend again when nationals roll around, have no fear.

Happy Birthday to us!!

Well as you may or may not have noticed its been a full year of PlayUltimate covering all the high school ultimate action like no one else can. So happy birthday to us, looking forward to the next year we have a lot of awesome stuff planned.

Starting with some new contributors who will be announced later in this week expanding PlayUltimate's coverage.

Also from me personally you'll have a preview of Pennsbury and Columbia's upcoming fall seasons, after seeing them both play at Club Sectionals last weekend. That'll be up in the next week or so, depending on time permits.

So thank you, on behalf of all the contributors for PlayUltimate, for sticking with us through the past year, we truly appreciate your company here on the site and look forward to talking about all the latest news in high school ultimate for years to come.

ps - wanna give us a little birthday present? how about a link - if you scroll down on the right hand side of the page click any of the links in the "promote the site" box... clicking on the ads is always a nice show of support as well.

Football & Ultimate...

Not that it is that crazy, but where I'm from the sport of Ultimate does not carry with it much respect within the actual high schools our player go to. At both Churchill and South Eugene, the few students who do know we have a team don't know anything about it or worse, they think they do and spread their lack of knowledge around as fact. (When I came on as the CHS coach in the fall of 2003, the description for Ultimate in the yearbook was, "Come watch our creative students' throw a Frisbee with amazing upside-down and under the leg catches") What?!?! So, one of the goals I have had since coming on is to generate a great respect and understanding of the sport within our school and community. This has been done through tireless communication with the school, getting our games and tournaments announced on the PA, being present at sports' meetings, creating an effective and pro-active parent team, and in general just having a positive influence within the school.

So, why do I tell you all this... Cause tonight I feel we have made a break-through. Tonight, during the annual cross-town rivalry Football game between South Eugene and Churchill HS (who are no longer in the same league but will continue to play once in the beginning of the season), the half-time show will belong to us. The South Eugene Axemen and the Churchill Lancer Ultimate teams will square off in a quick exhibition game to show the crowd what Ultimate really is. We do have to wait for the girls' dance team to do something, but we've got the field after them and hopefully we will be putting on a great show. Anyone else ever been able to swing something like this?

UPDATE (After The Game Post):
This was by far one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. We rushed the field as soon as the dance team was done. The moment the players hit the field the crowd erupted and cheered like mad for South and then not to be outdone, the CHS fans cheered for their players... South had earned the right before hand to be pulled to. We had also decided to keep the game moving fast, so no foul calls and 10-20seconds between pulls. South got the first point going up the wind and their crowd in the stands seriously made the most noise I've heard at a HS game since the finals of the Westerns game back in May...
CHS came back and scored. The wind made bidding difficult, but the crowd didn't seem to know the difference. At 1min till half-time was over the football refs walked into the field letting us know 'non-verbally' that we were done. CHS quickly got the last point making it a final score of 2-2, but the crowd loved it and cheered as the players met in the middle and slapped hands. Afterwards it was agreed that we would try and get South over to one of our games, but that this was something we had to arrange again.

Photographs were taken, but with the lighting conditions so bad and me only with an amateur set-up, the shots aren't that great. You can see them all here:
CHS vs. SEHS Exibition Game

UPDATED (10:40pm):
This is my first attempt at getting video out in an HD format and I've still got a lot of work to do on the exporting side of things... The video is a bit grainy due to the lighting conditions as well:
HD Video (mp4 - 720p) - 8.7MB - Recommended Format
iPod Video (m4v format) - 7.2MB
AVI Video (avi format) - 20.1MB

HS Players Playing in the Club Series

Much like the previous post, this one is about the Club Series that is already in full swing. Many locations have already had their sectional level tournaments...

Unfortunately, many HS teams are not able to get themselves up and running before the Club Series starts. All the HS teams in Oregon have only just started practicing this last week with their first week of school.

But, there are a few HS teams who have players with connections in the Club level. I'm curious how many schools have sent players into the Club Series with either an Open, Womens, or Mixed team?

Add your school and players in the comments section.

Fall Season West Coast Tournaments... (updated)

There are currently three tournaments this fall season on the West Coast that have either exclusive HS only teams or HS Divisions

10.28/29 - Cold Fusion
Tournament website
Description: Started around 5 years ago by Sheldon HS when it was the only Eugene HS team, Cold Fusion continues to be a location where teams from as far away as the California Bay area and northern Seattle meet for some great mixed ultimate. Last year had 16 teams with 2 Middle School teams. This year there is a call for more MS teams.
Location: Eugene, OR (Ascot Fields)
Cost: $175
Bid deadline: Around October 10th with deposit of $100
Contact: Jeremy Washburn - washburn_jeremy(at)hotmail.com


10.28/29 - UC Davis Junior Invite
Description: On behalf of the UC Davis team, we'd like to invite any juniors teams around the area to a Juniors tournament in Davis this October the same weekend as Cold Fusion. We can hold 16 teams, max, on our field. We have not decided Mixed or Open at this point in time.
Location: Davis, CA
Cost: $150-175
Bid Deadline: The bid window will close on Oct. 1st.
Contact: Taylor Lahey, x-CVHS Red Hand Captain and now UC Davis Freshman (email coming)


11.10/11/12 - TBO: TurkeyBowl 3
Tournament website
Description: Happening for the 3 year in a row, Turkeybowl will continue to be the premiere tourney for newer teams looking for a first experience. New this year will be the three day format and inclusion of a Varsity/A division. Churchill and South Eugene HS will be the tournament hosts. Housing will be provided for all teams who get on the ball early. The format will be extremely cool and suggestions are already being made in the comments section of this post.
Update: The UofO might be hosting their OFUDG tournament with us, meaning that HS and College teams will be together. It also means that HS Open & Girls teams will be able to enter into this tournament and play College teams. It also means that we might have 60+ teams if both OFUDG and TBO are in the same place!
Location: somewhere close to a Latitude of 44.1105 and Longitude of -123.2117. This will be different from where it has usually been (Churchill HS) as we will need to accomodate 32+ teams.
Bid: $0 if you are outside OR/CA/WA (otherwise it is $200/team)
Contact: Luke Johnson - luke(at)chsultimate.com

HS Teams Attending Club Series?

Ben, from CHS, posted a comment in the Eastern Tournament section that I think is pretty interesting. How many HS teams are attending this year's Club Series?

If your team is attending Club Sectionals, please list what division and how well you expect to do.

BREAKING: CSTV Releases entire 2006 UPA Champs online

CSTV has just released not only the finals of the 2006 UPA College Championships online, but also footage from the Open and womens Semis, and Quarterfinals, as well as Pre-Quarters!!!

While only the finals and a highlight show were aired on CSTV's cable station this coverage blows
away previous years' in terms of volume.

More expansive analysis after i have time to watch all of them? Definitely.

Check out all the videos here. Comments welcome - does this symbolize a more expansive future of coverage in the future from CSTV? Thoughts?

Upcoming East Coast Tournaments...

There are a few major east coast tournaments coming up, for your discussing pleasure...

9/16-17 - Founders Club Sectionals
Description: while not an exclusive high school tournament club sectionals is attracting the more seriously competitive teams in the Philadelphia areas. Look for Pennsbury, Cheltenham, and Columbia HS to start off their seasons with a leg up on the rest of their leagues because of strong preseason schedules.
Bid Deadline: already passed

10/1 - 11th Annual Kat in the Hat
Tournament website
Description: one of the oldest high school tournaments around, definitely one you want to get to if you can. Teams tend to come from the Philly area as that is where it is held but every year it seems teams come up from Virginia, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey to compete in one of the premier tournaments on the east coast.
Location: Brandywine Polo Fields
Cost: $100
Bid deadline: asap, this tournament always fills up - every single year, if you want to play you had better send in your bid quick

10/21-22 - Fall Brawl
Tournament website
Description: Hosted by Noah Saul and the Pennsbury Peyote this tournament promises to attract the better competition in the immediate area as well as more distant teams. One of the key factors in hosting an elite tournament is that the host team is itself solid competition - Pennsbury's performance at PA States and Easterns this past year leaves no doubt about that, now it just remains to be seen who will attempt to take Peyote down on their home turf. Needham from Mass. has already signed up, and one can expect Wissahickon and other Philly powerhouses to make appearances.
Location: Mercer County Park - Trenton, NJ
Cost: Varsity Div - $200, JV - $125
Bid Deadline: 10/6

early predictions? is your team planning on attending? lets hear it people...

Coming soon to PlayUltimate...

- Announcement of 2006-2007 PlayUltimate Contributors
- Fall tournament preview
- Guest blogging from selective tournament directors
- Podcasts?

and much much more.

Interested in contributing for the site? Send an email to PlayUltimateBlog@gmail.com with your name, location, why you think you should be able to contribute and anything else that would help you get the job, and we'll get back to you.

Specifically we are looking for contributors in the Minnesota, Georgia, Colorado, Iowa, New York and New Jersey markets, but please send an email even if you are interested and from another area.

Have suggestions for content? Features on the site? Any suggestions at all? Anything and everything is welcome, post a comment or send an email to the site.

Look for all that stuff coming in the next few weeks and of course stay tuned here for everything and anything regarding high school ultimate.