UBC Women: 2008 Women's UPA College Champions

Nation,

To steal a phrase from a 1992 World Series game, The UPA Women's Title "will fly north of the border!".

UBC Lady Thunderbirds are UPA college champions. It is good for Canadian ultimate, and it is good for college ultimate as a whole.

Why?

Because this was a great spring series in which none of the many fans and players sitting at home could not predict the outcome. Many teams that made the trip to Boulder could have taken home the title. Alas, only one did, and was able to win in fashion fitting of a deserving champion.

The 2008 Womens UPA Champ didn't even win their sectionals. A sign of how great north west ultimate is at this time, and of how much UBC and their coach developed this spring. That is awesome.

Hopefully we will get a breakdown from the team itself, but we can tell you this
-The team allowed no more than 9 points in any game
-The team beat the very best on the way to the title
-UBC was able to beat the very same teams that tripped up Ottawa in pool play (Santa Barbara) and in the playoffs (Washington).

Congratulations to the champions. I think that the significance of this victory will be understood much better in the future.
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Quick condolences to the Lady Gees of Ottawa. As the UPA reporter stated, they have a lot of future stars who already excel at the women's club level, and they wanted nothing more than to win.

I won't make any excuses for a great team. I would like to say congrats to all the team members who helped build the Lady Gee Gees into the powerhouse they now are. Players like Shannon Becker, who suffered through the performances at Canadian nationals when the team wasn't very good at the national level, can be proud at the system they have built.

Great job gals.
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Just to show I'm not sexist, there was also a men's tournament and it proved to be a great championship as well.

Wisconsin, the flavor of the year for much of the college season, suffered a heartbreaking Centex tournament in March. Losing games to Michigan, Pittsburgh and Florida at that tournament, fair weather fans jumped off their bandwagon at a broken ankle speed. Suddenly their cool documentary of the season seemed sophomoric, and the focus turned to Florida as the next UPA champion.

Fast forward through an undefeated sectionals and regionals, and the Hodags were poised to redeem themselves at national finals. They did, going undefeated and besting Florida 15-9 in the championship game. Except for that Centex tournament, the team didn't lose a game all year. The crowd loves a hammer, but they also always love schools from small states who battle some adversity to win it all.

Let's just hope they kept the cameras rolling, and we can all see how they managed such a great comeback.

Best Canadian Rivalry?

Nation,

One of the best things about team continuity through the open landscape in Canada is the rivalries between cities and teams. The players change each year, but beating certain teams (even if it is just a jersey) means more.

The poll question for those of you stuck at work this Friday is:

What two teams/cities in Canadian Ultimate have the best rivalry?

-Furious/Goat?
-Goat/Invictus?
-Goat/Phoenix?
-Phoenix/Mephisto?
-Firebird/Roy?
-Other?

I feel guilty for not including General Strike, Mangina, and Red Circus in the list, but wasn't sure who they played/ matched up against the most.

Things to consider before selecting your best rivalry

-History
-Geographic Location
-Parity of talent between the rivals
-Key Games
-Key Players

Good Luck!

Nation,

Good luck to our UBC and Ottawa ladies this weekend in Boulder.

It would be so awesome to see both of you in the finals. Historic even.

UPA Women's College Championships 2008: T minus 1 Days

Nation,

Listed below are the women's teams. Tell me

-Who will make quarter finals
-Who will be in the semis
-Who will win.

Atlantic Coast

1) Wake Forest (Winston-Salem, NC)

2) North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)

Central

1) Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

2) Carleton College (Northfield, MN)

Great Lakes

1) Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)

2) Michigan State (East Lansing, MI)

Metro East

1) Ottawa (Ottawa, ON)

2) Maryland (College Park, MD)

New England

1) Northeastern (Boston, MA)

2) MIT (Cambridge, MA)

Northwest

1) British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)

2) Washington (Seattle, WA)

3) Oregon (Eugene, OR)

South

1) Texas (Austin, TX)

Southwest

1) UCLA (Los Angeles, CA)

2) California-Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara ,CA )

UPA Open College Championships 2008: T minus 1 Days

Nation,

Listed below are the men's teams. Tell me

-Who will make quarter finals
-Who will be in the semis
-Who will win.

Atlantic Coast

1) Florida (Gainesville, FL)

2) Georgia (Athens, GA)

Central

1) Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

2) Carleton College (Northfield, MN)

Great Lakes

1) Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)

2) Illinois (Champaign, IL)

Metro East

1) Delaware (Newark, DE)

2) Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)

New England

1) Dartmouth (Hanover, NH)

2) Harvard (Cambridge, MA)

Northwest

1) California-Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA)

2) Stanford (Stanford, CA)

South

1) Texas (Austin, TX)

2) North Texas (Denton, TX)

Southwest

1) Colorado (Boulder, CO)

2) Arizona (Tucson, AZ)

More College Coverage

Nation,

Just wanted to post a link that gives a lot more info on upa college ultimate than I can.

http://mssui.com/

The MSSUI site probably has the worst name in ultimate website/blog history, but what they lack in brand equity, they make up for in post quantity and sport cliches.

Give it a read!

Tournament One of 2008: "TUF" but Fair

Nation,

First tourney for most teams in Upper (Ontario) and Lower (Quebec) Canada. I always love a good 19th century reference.

Let me start by saying
-I'm not going to bring up the nasty incident involvoing a certain GOAT player. Enough was said on the field and afterwards, and I hope if people want to beef thet go directly to the source.

We had a division champ from Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Tourney results can be found here. As I stated before, I believe the object of almost every team and every city was evaluation and development, so the results have to be looked at with that in mind:

• A GOAT league squad won the open title over Tombstone.
• Seven from Barrie won the B title, beating us in the final.
• Stella won the women's title, losing one game on Saturday but looked strong in victory Saturday.
• Scarlett, who had a very hard Saturday (scoring only 5 points all day) apparently won the B women' s title pool on Sunday.
• RIP from Montreal, a team that has existed for several years now, managed to take the A title in co-ed.

As for personal experience, I played with Firebird this weekend and had a great experience. I haven't gone 1-2 on a Saturday and been so positive. I personally have to give a thanks to my o line. Whether it is my wunderkid handler partners (Rey Rey and Colin) or my cutters, I have a lot to work with this year.

Saturday

Despite still being a very tall and fast team, we were missing a few of the very key tall and fast guys this weekend. Sadly, these players missed out on a very good schedule for Saturday teams- Two games against GOAT squads, and one versus Magma.

FB versus Goat 3- 12-6 loss? (?)

A good first game that started off very close. The GOAT squads were full of veteran GOAT and GT players, and that definitely made the game more exciting for me. We had a couple of rookies that dropped and threw away a lot. They were defintiely rattled, but I'm sure when they are stars for years to come in the near future, they won't remember this one.

I personally played so-so, but saw a lot of good things from teammates. Our defence, setting the tone for the weekend, is very good at forcing turns, and less good at scoring on said turns.

Another thing people learned: Throwing deep on a zone with an very good deep player like Andy O is risky business.

FB versus Magma- 13-7 win

Magma is not the same team that crushed us at No Borders last year and beat us 12-10 at nationals last year. This was an excellent game for us where we learned no wins are easy, but that we can put away teams when needed.

Magma defintiely fought hard, and I expect a bigger squad for future tournies. Ahmad El Sidani, a pickup from Ottawa, played well for Magma.

FB versus GOAT 4- 12-7 loss

I really enjoyed this game. It featured us playing against Ottawa native Colin "Kid" Green.

It was obvious that this team had a strategy both in how they played and what they said. I personally want to thank the guys that chirped me early and often. It made me play much better defence (I still need work) and I was very active on offence. I could have done without the constant fouling, but maybe that was their way of saying I can throw. I will suck it up.

More importantly, the team played very well on defence. Had we played this well versus our first GOAT opponent, we go 2-1 on the day. Even our O line can get it back.

A very valuable lesson from this game: Punch it in when you take it away. Good players will score if you let them have it seven times per point.

Sunday

We knew Saturday night we were playing ROY, our rival since the genesis of time. It made it worth getting up in the morning.

The weather was so windy, it was a crapshoot really. Good experience to throw in those conditions, but not the most enjoyable ultimate

FB verus ROY- 13-7

This was not the final squad for ROY and they will be better.

Our first five points were great. We got some nice upwind breaks. Then we slacked off and realized we can't get away with it.

FB versus Seven- Too Much to Not Enough

Instead of telling you how we struggled agaisnt the zone and made a lot of unforced errors, let me tell you what I liked about Seven from Barrie

-They have strong leadership now with Jesse Robertson and Curtis Kile. Jesse is a very smart player who looks and plays very tough. He also has moved around the last few years (North Bay, Calgary) and always seems to make his team and city program stronger.
-The job Curtis Kile, Pam Chadbourn and others have done with the juniors has been awesome. Worlds 2008 viewers will see one of the Barrie products (Shaw Dungate), but there are more great prospects getting better on every point.
-Despite on chubby red head guy who talks way more than he should, they are very good to play against. Very exciting team.

That's the weekend. Got to meet lots of friends from other cities, but did not get to watch other teams as I had hoped. If anyone has team updates or division updates, let me know.