Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Toronto Ultimate Festival 2010 Preview

Nation,

The first major outdoor tournament of the season in the Upper/Lower Canada region takes place this weekend. It's used as either a tune up tournament for teams recently formulated, or as a final tryout out for players looking to make a team/program.


The 2010 version of the Toronto Ultimate Festival (TUF) promises to be one of the stronger editions in recent years.

Open


8 of the 14 teams in the division will be from Toronto. The open program in Toronto, GOAT/Grand Trunk/ROY, will be entering 5 teams. Other local teams include Too Bad, Fuel, and Fossil.

Ottawa, Montreal, and Waterloo have decided to participate this year, and as such add some great teams to the pool.

National champion Mephisto from Montreal begins its title defense this weekend, and will be joined by affiliate Demon.

Ottawa will be sending two Phoenix squads and Firebird, which makes its return after a one year hiatus.

Maverick is a new open team from Kitchener-Waterloo. The new team played well as an open team (Medicare) at both Jazzfest and No Borders last year, and will be a strong opponent this weekend.

Womens

There are three local teams from Toronto, with one Lotus team (defending national champions) and two Lily squads.

Ottawa is sending both their A and B squads to the event, and Montreal is sending Storm as a representative.

PPF from K-W should also be a very strong entry this season, benefiting from the folding of coed powerhouse Liquid from the same city.

A team from Peterbourough is listed. No team name is given, but I hope this team is the start of a regular women's team from this city. It's ultimate, so maybe it's just a ringer team from somewhere else.

Mixed

Usually the strength of the TUF tournament, the division has 27 teams this year but is missing some of the key coed teams in the region. (Gecko, RIP, etc)

Monster, Bytown Flatball Club, Mayhem, Big Fish and Big Hammers will be introducing their 2010 squads. Tundra will be continuing their tryouts with split squads entered.

After a great experience last year, Saint John's (Newfoundland) will be sending two squads this year. Currently, there is no word on whether the team will employ the services of Gavin "Zone Buster" Thompson this year.

2010 Junior National Teams

Nation,

Ultimate Canada released the rosters of the open and women's 2010 Junior National Teams.

These players will represent Canada in Germany at the WFDF World Junior Ultimate Championships August 2-7, 2010.


Junior OpenJunior Women's

Head Coach: Kirk Nylen
Assistant Coach: Patrick Mooney
Head Coach: Stephanie Chow
Assistant Coach: Dan Byma
Ben Mussell
Ethan Kovacs
Evan Cole
Fred Lam
Greg Moore
Hollis Maradyn-Jowsey
Isaiah Masek-Kelly
Joel Ruelens-Lepoutre
Keanen Grant
Kevin Greer
Marc-Andre Perreault
Myles Sinclair
Nick Boucher
Nima Mostaghimi
Quin Rusnak
Robert Schmidt
Ryan Kremsater
Tim Tsang
Willem Konrad
Chantal Africa
Jessica Chen
Mira Donaldson
Laura Hatch
Katherine Ho
Lauren Kimura
Jacqueline Kwok
Amira Maddison
Kayla Pangos
Aya Peloquin
Dominique Rioux
Adrianna Rowe
Katie Scarth
Kaylee Sparks
Gera Stancheva
Erica Tucker
Nicole Vidal
Olana Wach
Claire Williams
Lisa Wong
Alternates
Gregory Loscin
Jackson Byrne
Kyle Patrick
Thomas Canale
Alternates
Sara Lawlor
Emily Lublow
Rebecca Saaltink
Helen Thompson
Jo-Hannah Yeo
Team Manager: A.J. Sainsbury