Top Girls Team

The girls division seems a bit closer, maybe its just me, but if the top 4 teams from last year's Westerns and Easterns were to meet, who would end up winning a national title?

Who do you think would win knowing what you know?

Top Open Team

Lets just assume that both Northwest and Amherst are going to both apply for bids at this year's Westerns and Easterns (I hope so), be accepted (better be), keep seed Saturday (more than likely), win the whole thing on Sunday (pretty probable), then what would happen if they met together lets say somewhere in middle america to play for a national title at the end of May 2007?

Who do you think would win knowing what you know?

HS Spring Tournaments Poll

So, I'm not sure how excited you are for the spring season as it is only just about to turn to December, but I'm curious what tournament people are most looking forward to come this spring.

The following 2 polls have been compiled by taking what the UPA Score Reporter and UPA Tournament listing currently has scheduled for the upcoming season. Only solid dated tournaments are listed in the below polls.

Vote for the tournament you or your team is most looking forward to attending or would attend if had the chance.

1) Early Spring (January to April):



2) Late Spring (April & May)

TBO: Turkeybowl 3 HL Videos

The tournament is well over, but the first of two highlight videos is ready for your viewing pleasure.

International Community School, PHAT Turkey for the weekend, ended up taking the tournament 15-09 over Churchill's JV1 team. The tournament was a raging amount of fun even though it did not turn out to be as big a tournament as I had hoped. The weather held for us, but the rain that dumped every day leading up to the tournament provided for some rather soft and muddy conditions...

HL Video 01: PHAT TURKEY - link: http://www.youtube.com/v/pZWdl8aZa-w
(embedding the video isn't working at the moment)

Happy Thanksgiving

Its almost time to gather round the table with friends and family, cut the turkey, eat stuffing and pie and all those other good things that come around this time of year. So near this holiday we'd just like to say thank you for stopping by the site, either religiously or occasionally, the discussion that has begun to grow here is awesome and we can only hope for more in the future.

Its also the time of year for high school ultimate alumni games, i know in the Philly area Cheltenham, Wissahickon, Pennsbury and St. Joe's are all having their alumni games over the holiday break. Does this tradition exist elsewhere around the country? We'd love to hear about your turkey day ultimate-related traditions.

Have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you for stopping by.

PlayUltimate.

weekend tournament open thread - 11/18-19 - your wish is our command edition

enjoy, sorry this wasnt up sooner.

the only tournament on the upa site is the Triangle Area Classic
[website]

but feel free to talk about whatever ya want.

sychronized vertical

I know this is pretty stupid, but it is what happens when a few ultimate players stay a little too late after a MS banquet night...

Open Thread for 11/11-12/06 Tournaments

There are a few tournaments happening this weekend that many people are very interested in.

There is Tidewater Tune-UP in Williamsburg, Va - featuring Pennsbury, Mt. Lebanon, North Hills, HB Woodlawn, LC Bird, Woodside, Cardinal Gibbons, and Magruder; with up and coming Godwin and Grafton High Schools.
[Tournament site]

Turkey Bowl 3 in Eugene, Or - with some of the top Mixed teams in the west, this should be an exciting tournment.
[Tournament Site | PlayUltimate Preview]

Phall Phuel in Cheltenham, Pa - featuring most of the best from Philadelphia, it will be interesting to see what happens with Pennsbury playing in Tidewater.
[Tournament Site| PlayUltimate Preview]

the 1st Annual Quiznos FHS Invitational will be held in Franklin, Tennessee
[Tournament Site | PlayUltimate Preview]

Post if you have updates or more information.


[Editor's note - links and FHS tournament added Nov 10 6:35pm]

Phall PHUEL Cities

Philadelphia's league will, for the most part, come to a close this weekend. And with Pennsbury down south for the Tidewater Tuneup, the rest of PHUEL is given a perfect chance to prove that they are the favorite after the Peyote. There are 5 teams with legitimate shots at the championship this time, which should make for a very exciting tournament!

Pool A
St. Joe's
Cheltenham
Lower Merion
Cardinal O'Hara

St. Joe's didn't graduate much from last year, but Cheltenham didn't graduate anyone, and LM brings a completely different A team from last year, as last year's team was all seniors besides their one girl. Cardinal O'Hara isn't too far off the pack, either.

Pool B
The Pterodactyls
Wissahickon
Council Rock South
Lower Merion B

The Dactyls already beat Wissahickon at KitKat, and it's easy to write off Wissahickon after graduating Aman, Kyle, and Dave Kelley from last year, but that's what we thought last year... and the year before that. They can always surprise.

The Pterodactyls and Cheltenham tied 8-8 last weekend; the 'Dactyls have a semifinal appearance at KitKat, and Cheltenham won Fall Brawl's JV division

St. Joe's hasn't done much this fall, but they're also a strong favorite. LM was missing players due to PSATs at Fall Brawl, and won't be trying to play their B-level players.

This should be an exciting tournament that helps shape the PHUEL picture for the year.

Editor's Note [Nov 10 6:33pm] -
RRI Rankings
Tournament web site

Something Positive with the Sport

Tim Donegan and Blaize Pennington were faced with a very tough situation last fall. On November 10th their good friend, Pat Wood, committed suicide. They had a choice, as most people do when faced with a tough circumstance, to either cave under the pressure and overwhelming emotions of losing a close friend or doing something positive with the situation.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, they decided to do something positive. Both Tim and Blaize are members of the Franklin High School Ultimate team, as was Pat. As a result, they decided to hold a tournament in Pat's honor to raise awareness for the issue of teen suicide. "We decided that we would have a tournament to raise awareness about the situation because not many people know how much it effects them," said Tim.

Dubbed the Franklin High School Ultimate Invitational, they decided that the proceeds from the tournament would go raising awareness about teen suicide, according to Blaize. The charity decided upon was Tennessee Voices for Children. According to their website the organization has as its mission to "speak out as active advocates for the emotional and behavioral well-being of children and their families."

Blaize and Tim have been planning the tournament for since March and have secured a corporate sponsor in Quiznos, who also sponsors their team through their regular season. The tournament will feature 7 teams from around the state and one team traveling from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Franklin High School team, which took 3rd in the state last year, and the tournament itself are not directly sponsored by the school, according to Tim. In fact some within the school share the same opinion of many around the country: skepticism about ultimate as a sport. However, "[the tournament] has opened the school up to the sport," said Tim.

When asked what they wanted to accomplish through the tournament, they both had similar responses, "We hope to get out the message that suicide solves nothing, and express that even when you think no one loves you, you'd be suprised how many people do," said Blaize.

They hope to raise $1,000 for Tennessee Voices for Children through the tournament, which will be held this weekend, exactly one year since Pat passed away.

"We need to realize that no matter how bad we think it is that there is allways something better than suicide. there is allways a way out and we all can just ask for help with our problems," said Tim.



If you would like to go out and watch the tournament...
Cheek Park
Claude Yates Dr.
Franklin, TN 37064
Off of Hillsboro Rd.
website - http://www.freewebs.com/fhsultimate/

If you would like to send a donation...
Tennessee Voices for Children
1315 8th Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
website - http://www.tnvoices.org/

'Off Season'

For many out there it is already winter and maybe even snow has been seen and felt. For others you have never seen snow...

Regardless of what the climate in your particular area holds, some teams have introduced strategies to develop skills in the 'off-season'. Most would agree that there simply are not that many opportunities to play at tournaments during the months of Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb (Our Turkeybowl 3 is one of the last published HS tourney of the fall and the next one probably won't be until late February with Slopfest VI). (It should be noted that there is the Sue Inge Memorial Tourney for 8 youth open teams on Dec 9th in Chesterfield, VA but that is the last tourney scheduled on score reporter until Spring Reign).

So, with virtually no tournaments in the next couple months, what is your team going to be up to? Do your players play other sports like basketball that should be starting sometime in the next few weeks if it hasn't already? Do you do indoor ultimate? Do you weight lift or run or maybe even do some hill climbs like Alameda did this last spring? Or do you just go into hibernation? Discs and cleats get shoved into an old shelf or thrown behind the door to not be seen or touched until February or March...

For us in Eugene, OR, the rainy season is now upon our Churchill (and South Eugene & Sheldon squads). Though the temperatures don't dive into the teens here, the rain prevents us from using grass fields (we'd ruin them) and thus we are again looking for ways to keep skills up. This winter we hope to use a bit of the program that Aaron Bell developed for the UofO team back in 2002 (available on RSD) and maybe even partner with them on a few of their 'off-season' work outs.

What are other teams up to? Do you have a plan?

Fall PHUL 2006

High school Ultimate is well under way in Pittsburgh. A fall youth league with roughly 10 teams has been created and the second annual Fall PHUL Tournament took place in early October that saw 7 teams kick off their fall season. The fall is also a great time to bring out some of the new players who may interested in playing in the spring.

All of the teams that attended the one day tournament were able to test their ability by playing all 6 of the other teams. With each team showing different strengths and all teams showing a lot of potential, especially among the newer recruits, intensity at the tournament was high. Things picked right back up where they left off in the spring with the exception of Montour (3rd in PHUL last season; 0-6 at Fall PHUL). North Hills (6-0) finished in first place and was followed by Hampton (5-1). Mt. Lebanon (4-2) finished third.

It can be hard to judge a team in the fall as hard work, conditioning and determination during the winter can drastically change a team, but an evaluation of how teams stand in the fall is not bad. Let's take a look at the 7 teams that showed up at Fall PHUL (in alphabetical order):
Below the fold action...
Bethel Park: With two players who were part of Pittsburgh Impulse's 4th place finish at YCC's this past summer, Zach Reinhardt and David Macurak look to continue Bethel Park's consistent play in PHUL. After finishing the 2006 regular season with a 6-2 record, the team is one of the underrated teams in PHUL. The only problem that the team seems to face is dedication and commitment as they forfeited games at Fall PHUL because some players did not wish to stay any longer.

Fox Chapel: What a difference a year can make; from PHUL champions in 2005 to a 2-6 finish in 2006. Of course the loss of some great players is cause for that, but Dan Berk and Ariel Altschuler hope to turn their '06 woes into a winning team this spring. The team carried a lot of potential into Fall PHUL, but tough losses to North Hills, Hampton and Mt. Lebanon did not sit well with the team who should use those losses as motivation over the winter and into spring.

Hampton: With a newly acquired coach, David Vatz, Hampton hopes to keep the consistency of being a legitimate contender to win PHUL. After an 8-0 record in the regular season in the spring and an appearance at Easterns, captain Lukas Truckenbrod should be able to work well with Perry Martin, Alex Lamers and Griffin Patterson (all three were part of Pittsburgh Impulse this past summer). Adequate handlers could be a problem with Hampton, but their coach should be able to help fix that problem.

Montour: A surprise team that had quick success in its first year this past spring, Montour learned the game quickly from their coach, Darren Shultz. Undefeated in the regular season this past spring, the team hopes to keep that going this season, but will need to learn the game as their play at Fall PHUL did not look solid. However, Montour is an excellent example to show that it is possible to teach athletic kids the game of Ultimate and they used that last season to carry them into semi-finals. If Darren Shultz is able to teach these kids the game just as he did last season, there is no reason that Montour should not be able to go deep into the playoffs.

Mt. Lebanon: With the play of Julian Hausman and Zach Ehler, Mt. Lebanon should be a serious threat to win PHUL 2007. The consistency of Peter Imler is unmatched in PHUL and only adds to an already strong team. With their 15-14 universe point loss in the last PHUL finals behind them, their improvement and determination to overcome that tough loss should motivate them throughout the season. Mt. Lebanon has always been a consistent team since the creation of PHUL in 2001; and 2007 should be no different.

North Hills: Possessing probably the best handling duo in all of PHUL with Alex Thorne and Ben Funk, North Hills has a legitimate chance to repeat in 2007. Over the summer, North Hills was able to get Nick Kaczmarek to coach them this upcoming season. He is already showing signs of utilizing playmakers Colin Conner and Jeff Olko to create a very tough team to play against. This team, whose players are all juniors, should run deep into the playoffs and qualify for a bid to Easterns.

North Hills Middle School: The second wave of players in North Hills, the middle school team shows you why it's good to start early. With Max Thorne - the younger brother of Alex Thorne - and his friends already grasping the game of Ultimate, North Hills is building quite a program. Their knowledge and skill of the game has already been seen with a 6-4 win over Montour.

This is just a small sampling of what PHUL is going to bring to the table in 2007. There were 18 Division I teams (yes, there is also a Junior Varsity/Girls division) last year and the league is always growing. It's hard to know what to expect from some teams in the spring, especially if they have kept themselves quiet over the fall and winter, but no matter the case, there is always going to be good competition when it comes down to it.