Nation,
The world of ultimate is starting to buzz again as teams have already begin to announce final rosters for World Clubs and UPA College sectionals are mere weeks away
WUCC and U-19, U-23 and other Canadian Buzz
Teams are at various stages of organization for WUCC. Rumors about where certain Furious or GOAT players are headed for the Prague tourney are now being realized as fact (Andrew Lugsdin to Mephisto, various Furious players to Invictus, Blackfish players to GLUM) or fiction.
Kudos to Phoenix of Ottawa for being so early with naming their team. It would have been easy for them to delay naming their team in the hopes of landing some of the big names out there still available, but instead they went local and loyal to the players who helped them win their bid. And they spared themselves the ordeal of being "disc teased"by superstars.
U-19 tryouts will be starting soon in various cities, and men's coaches Kirk Nylen and Pat Mooney are in fact implementing some base testing measurements (40, shuttle drill, vertical, etc). These numbers will assist them in the tryout process and be very valuable to Ultimate Canada to compare to future years. Finally, we'll be able to quantify it when people say "Players are getting bigger/faster".
U-23 coaches and team manager will be selected this week. Tryout dates have already been tentatively set by Ultimate Canada.
There is also rumors that Furious George will attend Canadian Nationals in Sherbrooke this year, while Lotus will most likely not. Let the dominoes fall...
UPA College Sectionals
Is your college team representing Canada in the UPA college series. Send me an e-mail with your team preview!!!
College sectionals begin on April 10. After Roll Call this weekend, I will have a Canadian specific preview on both the men's and women's division.
Other News
It's been brought to my attention that Cultimate is taking over the running of the Emerald City Classic. I don't know the people of Cultimate personally, but they organize over 10 tournaments per year, and they are famous for trying to create a elite championship tournament series separate from the UPA before.
Most of the comments I have gotten about Cultimate is that of concern, and many question whether this group will be able to continue the reputation and standards of ECC.
Possibility that a very key member of North Carolina women's team Backhoe will be starting a new team, possibly sharing the same team name as Ottawa men's team Phoenix.
Backhoe has long been a UPA finals club trying to take the next step and challenge Fury and Riot. A new team and the loss of a key teammate might not be good news for the team.
