1998 APRIL FOOLS FEST – WAFC Version

What is it that makes April Fools Fest one of the most memorable tournaments of the year?

It's playing on themed teams, like Plonkers (all Irish or Scottish), Flying Dwarves (all players under 5'6''), Rice Girls (all players of Asian heritage), and We Smoke Weed. It's playing on college re-union teams, like the UVA Flygirls, Drew University's Bovine Intervention, MIT's Geeks, and Dartmouth's Menagerie.

Fools is about getting Friday off to play frisbee. Fools is about seeing how many old friends and enemies you can recruit to your team. Fools is about finding out what lucky combination will win the tournament this time around.

"In the early days, competition was second," recalled First Fool Eric Knudsen, "just being able to spend a whole weekend playing frisbee was fabulous." Eric, along with friend Karl Cook, founded Fools in 1978 by announcing its inception at a Philadelphia convention of frisbee folk.

The tournament has stayed fun for 21 years, maintained by the selective nature of the bid process.

Competition is still second for many at Fools, but that doesn't mean the talent isn't there. Players from nearly every Nationals' team in every division hooked up for the opportunity to play in the three-day event. The eventual winners would have earned their victories.

There were plenty of local teams. The Banshees, Pink Ladies, Rice Girls, Carpe DisContinued, Grand Old Broads, Control Board, Flying Dwarves, I Never Liked That Guy (Steve Goodwin's Bachelor Party team), Old School, Ultimate Mothers, and Zymurgy High School all called the Washington DC area home. There were surely a dozen other teams with DC players as well, including Peggy Cronin's Lunar Ultimate featuring Fools co-director Rod Druckemiller.

The weather, traditionally running the gamut of conditions over the extended weekend, did not disappoint this year. Friday was beautiful, high 60's and sunny. Saturday brought a storm that soaked the first two rounds and continued hampering play with strong winds. The sun came back on Sunday but the wind remained.

The party featured a new event this year: cup tossing. Fools cups are always a valuable commodity, but perhaps their ready availability led to the plastic ballistics. All in all it was fun.

Friday Open play saw few surprises. But on Saturday three favorites were demoted to the Division II pool. Last year's finalists Señor Diablo and Flying Dwarves could not escape tough pool play competition, and always-strong WesWill fell to the BOMB collaboration.

In the women's division, the exuberant UVA Flygirls earned a birth in Division I with a tough victory over North Carolina's Grits Reheated. Mid-Atlantic Master's National Champion S—Prime also advanced along with last year's winners, Philadelphia's Spicy Peppers.

Perhaps the most dedicated team was the Grand Old Broads, ex-members of the long-time successful (and now broken up) DC team Satori. Featuring a camera crew documenting their race to the finals, the hometown heroes hoped to bring home the Fool Cup.

Winning Fools can be a matter of timing and luck. One Open team seem destined to win this year, and armed with considerable talent and a bunch of in-shape athletes (some may consider this cheating for a spring tournament) they made sure to capitalize on their good fortune.

Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon University re-union team Mr. Yuk featured prominent National talent from Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, New York and of course, Pittsburgh.

They advanced to finals with a one-point victory over Baltimore—Ohio—Michigan—Burlington (BOMB), then smoked We Smoke in semis. On the other side, the New England team formerly known as Force Majeure–now calling themselves FKA–defeated Lepus Gargantuous, then came from behind to defeat a disappointed Peggy Cronin to advance to the final game.

Mr. Yuk stayed true for finals. They never played tight and they never played beyond themselves. The Iron Men earned everything they got when Mike "Chuckie" Juster fired a Texas Leaguer off the pull to a streaking Mark Licata who came down with the disc and the victory, 17—10. It was quite a day for Juster, who celebrated his 26th birthday with the winning score and the right to drink from the excellent silver-plated Fool Cup.

The Spicy Peppers–S-Prime semifinal was a good one. Early in the first half S—Prime went up two upwinders and seemed to be in control. But Philly could not be kept down and they earned the win in the second half to advance to finals again.

The Grand Old Broads made sure not to look bad on tape in their semi against UVA. The Flygirls could not handle the Broads' veteran players. The ghost of Satori came together to record a 13—4 victory to face the saucy Pepper team.

The Peppers had to use 'P control' at halftime to keep from erupting too early without a victory. Leading by a narrow margin, Philly never let the Broads tie the game in the second half. Several strong upwind goals helped them keep their lead. Despite the Broads' best efforts they could not upset the tight—n—spicy squad, and Philly again walked off the field with the Fool Cup. For the Broads it was a tough loss, but they clearly enjoyed playing with each other again en route to making a strong run at the championship.

My goodness! Was the tournament over already! It seemed like forever playing disc Sunday in the sun. Although the Division One finals were the last games on Sunday, everyone got a chance to play. An excellent Division II final between Flying Dwarves and WesWill may have been the best game of the entire tournament, won by the determined Dwarves in overtime. They then led both sidelines on a spirited "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" march that everyone appreciated.

Other winners included [Div II Women], [Div III Women], [Div III men], [Div IV Women], [Div IV Men]. An oddity also included the first known sighting of an active Wall Street Journal reporter on Ultimate sidelines, seeking out the scoop on the IPO plans of future Fools.

Explains Eric Knudsen about the tournament, "This is the roots, the fun of Ultimate. Fools will be here in another 20 years." And without Wall Street, thank you!

Thanks to Dave Raflo, Eric Knudsen and Eric Simon.

This was written for Dave Raflo and the W.A.F.C. Newsletter.

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