Goosebowl 2007 Recap

Nation,

As requested here's a recap of the Goosebowl tournament in Kingston this past weekend.

The Weather

• Crap on day one. Wet with A LOT of wind
• Much better on day two. Sun, a little wind, typical fall day for this region.

The Teams

• A much smaller tournament this year, down to 16 teams from the regular 42-50 teams.
  
• It was really weird to play Goosebowl and see open fields.
  
• Costumes on the field were much less apparent then in past years.
• The quality of ultimate depended on the teams and the games. There were wind alerts for the region on The Weather Network, so as one can imagine handler heavy teams had an advantage on Saturday.

The Party

• Surprisingly awesome.
• Many great costumes
• John Haig and his brother rocking a Don Cherry/Ron Maclean look
• Many Richie Tenenbaum costumes, including yours truly
• J-Lo in a full on Cheerleader outfit... J Lo rocked the dance floor, enjoying his outfit far too much. :)
• Pope Benedict made an appearance
• Your usual plethora of guys dressing as girls, and women going in either the glamour or hooch avenues.
• Dance Floor Idol of the night was the Exotic Estonian, Ms Vail. Moves upon moves.. just give the woman space and watch out.

The Results

• Above the Law of Ottawa/Etc won the tournament with a 15-7 finals win, easily disposing of Bucketfish (Peterborough) and Slick Mittz (Barrie) in the quarters and semis respectively.
• Les Bouettes lost in the final. The won both their quarterfinal and semi final on universe point. This Montreal team was surprisingly intense and focused on the ultimate and not the party. The 80's all stars are mumbling somewhere.
• 3rd place was to be fought between Martha's Downstairs Kitchen (Toronto) and Slick Mittz of Barrie. Mittz were a summer junior team that made it to semis, showing some impressive skills from both their women and men. Curtis Kile and Pam Chadbourn should be commended for their work in Barrie with the juniors program.

• Other top 8 teams included MUPH, Tabasco, and Bucketfish
  
• MUPH had to be disappointed with their Sunday, after looking so impressive in their Saturday games and coming in as the #2 seed. This team, made mostly of former/current Guelph University players, were tripped up in the quarters. Those are the breaks.

UPA Finals Recap...

Nation,

Just like the Canadian Nationals, the West was best at UPA finals this past weekend. In both country's national tournaments, only the masters division saw an Eastern champion.

OPEN

Seattle's Sockeye won their second straight title, and 3rd in 4 years. They defeated Boulder's best (Johnny Bravo) 15-13 in the final.

GOAT from Toronto/Ottawa reached new heights and answered many critics with a fabulous tournament. They tied for 3rd with JAM. Both of these teams gave great challenges to their semi final opponents, but came up a little short this year.

Furious went undefeated on both Friday and Saturday, finishing 9th. It really says a lot of Furious and their leadership that they could rebound and refocus from an 0-3 day one to win out and finish as high as they possibly could. They should be commended for that, and there is no reason to think that they will be ready for Worlds 2008 and UPA glory next year.

Women's

Fury won the women's title again in convincing fashion, 15-5 over Riot of Seattle. The team's plus/minus in the goals for/goals against was +83. As the years go by, we will probably look back to this tournament as an example of a team that was truly dominant in their division.

Capitals from Ottawa/Toronto finished 5th. They lost in the quarters to runner up Riot by a score of 15-5, but then kept the intensity to finish strong. They beat Zeitgeist for the first time all season, taking their match 12-10. They then beat Backhoe 11-10 to claim the five spot.

Much like our Canadian men, our women should be proud of their results. Had they not had the misfortune of being kicked out of Friday power pools despite a 2-1 day one record, they most likely would have had a better quarterfinal spot and a chance to go higher than 5th.

Mixed

Shazam Returns capped off a nearly perfect season with a UPA crown. Suffering only two losses all season (One to Rival in this tourney), they won 15-8 over Boston's Slow White in the finals.

Of note, the number 1, 3, 4, and 5 pre tourney seeds made the semi finals. Every division director hopes for that kind of consistency!

Masters

Death or Glory. It's not just about the brand name and the sweet logo.

Death or Glory added another national crown to their trophy case, this time in the masters division with a win over Surly (Minnesota, pre ranked #7) in the finals.

Looking at the scores, DoG survived many tough games, winning many games by two points or less. I think it may be time to get a debrief from Jimmy P.