2001 UPA CHAMPIONSHIPS (CLUB NATIONALS)
MIXED

Written daily from Sarasota.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday Finals

THURSDAY

I peered around more than a few co-ed games. It's really quite a crazy division, it seemed as if anything could happen. Seeding is so difficult as these teams don't face other often during the year, save for sectionals and regionals. So figuring out which regions are better than others has proven an unenviable task for seeding.

This proved out almost immediately, as Pools B and C proved heinously difficult. In Pool B NE second seed Mayhem took out Donner Party and narrowly lost to Griffins and I think maybe they beat Gridlock, but can't be for certain. The highlight of the day for George Cooke's Mayhem squad (Boston) was the game against Donner Party when they registered 1 upwind point after it was scored 4 times, the first three called pack on pick calls. They extended the credit to a new player to the game, Simone Beaubien.

In Pool C, it was a bloodbath. The day began when Otis, a mostly New Mexico and Durango team with a few pickups across the region, including former Houndz captain Sandy Ganzell, took it to the much-touted Chaos, 15-8. Chaos proceeded to lose all their games. No one knows why exactly.

Red Fish Blue Fish, seeded quite low, used the seeding as motivation and they rocked the day, smoking number 2 seed Holes N Poles 15-8 to open. The then beat Chaos 15-11 and faced Otis at the end of the day. Otis narrowly lost to Holes N Poles 13-12 when they failed to score downwind with the disc 8 times before Holes scored Upwind and then got an insane huck catch out of Harriford to finish the game. They should have lost which would have been very interesting, sending them to the bottom bracket to fight for prequarters. But instead Otis will have to do that.

Trigger Hippy rolled. They looked very good. The bottom seed of the tournament, 3rd seed Central Fligenplatte, started the day by upsetting 8 seed Blue Ridge (when was the last time that happened?) but finished losing the rest of their games. Still, they ended Thursday with more wins than the top two central teams combined. Blue Ridge responded by getting their ass in gear, defeating Hang Time to finish second. The rumor on them however was that all they could do was rely on Kevin Kusy to throw and catch passes. We'll find out tomorrow what else they have in the bag.

New York's Tattoo Hottie limped into nationals with only 5 women but showed heart and grit and took out BST from Salt lake City and Minneapolis's Hot Action before falling to High Plains Drifters by 3 or 4. Hottie played well and courteously and were even serenaded by Hot Action's stellar rhyme squad, busting out the Ultimate lyrics to a familiar rap song.

The pool may have been the weakest, although all teams here appear more or less evenly matched, as evidence by the number of "upsets."

FRIDAY

Its all mixed-up.

Trigger looked tough. They are tough. I saw one of their women throw an air-bounce spike toward a New York player. Trigger Hippy is tough. Tattoo Hottie couldn't hang with the teams today. Their five women proved not enough and the rumor spread that they liked to huck and they didn't use their women too well. They took it on the chin 15-8 by both Trigger and BRU. Trigger beat High Plains Drifters 15-5. And North Carolina's Blue Ridge, sporting a couple of collegiate stars with Josh Cott and Kevin Kusy, played higher than seed and beat High Plains Drifters to finish second in the pool. All this despite BRU losing to the lowest ranked team at the tournament yesterday.

In the very hard-core Pool D, certainly the more difficult of the two, Holes N Poles "upset" Griffins to start the day. Some other stuff happened. Red Fish Whose Dish and all that. Mayhem finished last, as did Tattoo Hottie, so both NE reps went to pre-quarters.

Poor Mayhem. So many brutal games, first yesterday and then today. They had a chance to win apparently, and Neal Pallaver made a sick play at some point, but they lost by failing to score upwind and Dallas' Hang Time, with the ever-smiling Rex O'Quinn in the lineup (does that guy play on a million different teams that all somehow do well?) hucked it immediately to their tall guy who made the easy connection for the win at game point sudden death, 15-14.

Otis from Albuquerque and Durango mostly fought through a difficult consolation pool to earn pre-quarters and there they spanked Hottie to earn a fresh bid to play… say it ain't so for this horribly under-seeded SW team... Trigger Hippy? I think so. Otherwise I don't know who they play. Its all so mixed-up ya see.

SATURDAY

Blue Ridge Ultimate (BRU), seeded 8th, found themselves in quarters facing an old foe. Well, not much is "old" in the four-year old Mixed division, but these two teams had faced each other during the season with a 15-5 BRU win early on and a 16-14 Griffins win in the Regionals finals.

In this match Blue Ridge wasted no time in claiming bragging rights for the region. In the first game Thursday morning they were upset by the bottom seed because they could not figure out the zone and could not connect on upwind throws. But by the time they played their way to Saturday they were quite comfortable with the gusts and when I saw them playing the Griffins they were stroking 50 yarders against the wind without worries, like Josh Cott's rip to Kevin Kusy to make it 5-4. They scored the downwind to 6-4 and it was all over when BRU scored upwind again. The Griffins sidelines looked hurt and confused and meekly tried to generate enthusiasm but Blue Ridge had their number and went on to win 15-9.

The High Plains Drifters, ranging far and wide across the deserts of the southwest, eclipsed their 5 seed on Thursday, validated it on Friday, and extended their Florida vacation to semis on Saturday, outlasting Hole N Poles in quarters. Holes N Poles certainly had a disappointing weekend. They should have lost to Otis on Thursday in pool play and got quashed by Red Fish Blue Fish. They recovered well enough by Friday but may have been unprepared Saturday morning for the Drifters.

In other quarters action, Red Fish Blue Fish handled the Otis contingent again, this time 15-10 and knocked them to the fight for fifth. Otis proceeded to take out the tournament's #2 seed Griffins and the #3 seed Holes n Poles. Later in the day I caught Joe Kerbleski's attention as he was walking towards the cars, "Hey Tony, we're going to Hawaii!" was all he needed to say. Seeded 14th they played their way to fifth.

"We kind of figured we were underseeded, and we had something to prove coming here," said one member of the RFBF team. Losing a few close matches in the highly competitive NW Regionals hurt them in seeding, which is still an inexact science in this still-developing division.

But Red Fish Blue Fish has played together for a long time, and their zone, "one of the best I've seen," was going to be a factor in their favor at Nationals. Perhaps it wasn't such a surprise that they made semifinals.

They won the toss against BRU and chose to take the wind. BRU took the disc meaning they started facing the wind. Not a problem. They registered the upwinder, but the Fish then scored the return upwinder, but when BRU came right back and did it again -- well, already that was 3 times as many upwinders as the Open champs could muster. But the streak of scoring upwind took a pause with BRU staking a 4-1 lead, up a break and a half. That stayed the course, with half-time going to BRU 8-5, I believe. RFBF would receive facing the wind.

"They are really solid with these short IO throws," explained BRU's senior advisor Woody and playmaker Josh Cott after the game, "and their downwind zone was very good."

But still it was BRU that prevailed, breaking the zone with "more movement, and we ran it faster." The final score was recorded from Greg Lewin to Dawn Kusy. Blue Ridge is a young team and their fresh legs helped them take out the Fish veterans.

Red Fish Blue Fish, for their part, had a great tournament, only losing one game. They clearly worked harder than most teams at Nationals and deserved their semifinals birth.

Quickly, back to quarterfinals, where the upstarts from Dallas, Hang Time, spiritually led by Rex O'Quinn among others, started quarters right where they left off on Friday, by winning. They were able to score repeatedly upwind, which surprised the heavily favored Hippies. Hang Time took half and held a late 10-8 advantage before Trigger pulled together and started to come up with scores.

"I just tried to get this team to have as much faith in themselves and their teammates as possible. The comeback against Hang Time was slow in coming and they kept scoring upwind. Our odds were dwindling, but no one got down on themselves or their teammates. Eventually, with that faith, it worked out on the field and we won," says Trigger founder Mike Faris.

Trigger won 15-12 and moved on to face the High Plains Drifters. One of the leaders of the drifters, Jim Nolte, used to live in Missoula and was the Trigger's MVP at their first-ever tournament in 1999. Since then he had moved to Colorado and joined the Drifters team, providing an X factor that confounded the Hippies at first.

"He was killing us in semis, getting D-blocks left and right." Explained Faris.

But two big upwind plays helped Trigger keep the lead throughout. The first was a no-look leading pass from Scott 'Kid" Runkel to Dana Green. Superstar Green made the catch as the Drifters' Nolte attempted to make the play, landing instead on her head. Of course Dana Green held on to the disc to record the upwind score.

Later in the game, this Runkel fellow (whom had been pointed out to me as a player to watch by mercurial spiritual Ambassador Benjy Usadi) again decided that a no-look throw was the way to go, cranking an upwind hammer to Dana Green for a score that put the game out of reach.

But there was something else that Faris credits for his team's victory, "We just beat them by scoring a few more upwinders and then playing four women when we were going downwind, forcing them to score upwind with four women, a strategy that I was surprised other teams didn't use. Of course, we had a deep and talented female bench and that certainly made the strategy work too."

Trigger Hippy won 13-8 to advance to the finals, a place they knew they belonged.

In the consolation pools, all I really know is that BST avenged their pool play loss to Tattoo Hottie. The demoralized New Yorkers then forfeited their match against Regional rival Mayhem, probably knowing that Mayhem was hot under the collar to beat them after losing in Regionals. Mayhem for their part had a tough-luck tournament and lost to several very good teams in several very close games.

When the day ended I drove a couple of Hotties back home to Siesta key. Da'vid Goldemberg, a 20 year ultimate veteran with Championship titles from New York New York and the masters team Cigar was bummed about Hottie's play.

Da'vid spoke earnestly, "I feel bad. I don't think I played so well. Can we get some ice cream? It'll make me feel better."

Everyone in the car welcomed the suggestion. We picked up three pints for the four of us and drove to Siesta Key to watch the sunset over the white sand and eat our ice cream. Not so bad after all.

SUNDAY – FINALS

Well again we seem to have a Mid Atlantic team squaring off against the Northwest. Blue Ridge versus Big Sky. BRU versus Trigger Hippy.

In many ways the teams couldn't have been any different. Most of BRU's players are a few years out of college or even still attending school, as the team is from Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia. Trigger Hippy's players are much more experienced and they come from cities and towns across a swath of six states. Rich Franck, Ultimate gypsy, cobbled this team together just this year while this is Trigger's third playing together. Hippy came here to win. Blue Ridge came here to gain respect.

Both teams got what they wanted, although I am sure Blue Ridge was certainly aiming for the title.

Throughout the weekend BRU learned how to get through the zones and score upwind, having come from a region where there often wasn't such conditions. Facing Trigger Hippy, however, was much more than just a difficult time with the wind, they had on their hands a deep, talented and driven team with just the right amount of trust, faith and fun to keep them from toppling over.

In fact, I remember asking a Hippy player before the game if he was having fun this weekend. He immediately looked over and said, "Oh god yeah!" They were ready.

Anyway, they played some disc and all and I chatted with some of those Open players that just finished their final. And then it was 8-6 half-time, I think, with Trigger ahead. They scored on a controversial catch that was ruled in. Trigger then inched up to 10-6 to start the second half and that spelled trouble for B-R-U.

And so then after that, all I see are these women in camo shorts for Trigger. Like a bunch of them, all making crazy sick layout catches. And then some monster, the one that Jeff Jones called a "brick outhouse" but who also resembles Merlin Olson when he was a 6'6" beardless defensive lineman for the 1969 Los Angeles Rams. They called this guy Krog but his name is Kraig and I heard he was a ski instructor. That guy seemed like he could own the field if he wanted, or at least quash a few players like that giant furry orange thing quashed Bugs Bunny during the acid years at Warner Brothers.

Then a few sneaky fast dudes like Andy Neill and Kid Kunkel roved the field making poach blocks. Toby Johnson and Pat Benson were always in the right place at the right time.

I saw a whole rift of quick-moving kids zipping across the field for BRU, these folks like Eugene Ryang and Kevin Kusy and Josh Cott, and Soren Deniord I saw stealthily moving into position, and that Woody fellow handling the disc, and Greg Lewin making plays. And BRU's women were even more skillful, I don't know all the names, but Dawn Kusy and Susan Redding and Sarah King and Susan Bradley and Jen Miller were there.

But let's not forget those Trigger Molls! It was Julie Keck I saw hit the ground the most, but everyone knows that Dana Green lives to floss her teeth with blades of grass. Their lineup was so deep though, so I'd imagine they all communed with the Earth goddess at some point. But again, I distinctly remember Julie Keck, first for a toss "spike" towards a Tattoo male during their game Saturday, and then for several mean layout snags in the finals. I wouldn't cross her path, no sirree!

After that, it just seemed like BRU tried to score upwind but just couldn't do it as often as they should have. Sometimes they looked a little like the Condors in the Finals, just gunning it. At one point after Cott cooked a forehand over everybody upwind, I heard his team responding, "we got to stop hucking upwind!" Never imagine you'd hear that, I bet.

Oh, Trigger won the game with that four-point advantage they gained midway through. It was meant to be. That was a fine Trigger team you saw out there.

Here's some comments from the people in the know.

Michael Faris, Trigger spokesman: "We played BRU in out last game on the first day...and you could tell they were tired and a bit overwhelmed since it was their first day of their first nationals. But they were already on my radar as a team to beat just because of their regional performance. Then once I heard they had battled through RFBF in semi's I knew they had gelled and were playing a tight game. I was just hoping and relying on the fact that our team had more experience in big games then they did. They had one player that was just ripping everything out of the sky and was really hot [this would be Kevin Kusy]....so it became a matter of trying to minimize how effective he was. Luckily we were able to score a few upwinders and then protect the upwind goal enough to trade downwinders for the final points."

There has to be some controversy however, and the one that rises to the front here revolves around Trigger's standing as the whore team of all whore teams, stripping talented players from teams that wouldn't be able to compete without them. Personally, I find that talented players will naturally gravitate towards wanting to play on talented teams and will travel excessive distances to do so. The formation of Trigger Hippy seems an inevitable, natural production. But I don't live in Boise or Butte though. Here's what Faris has to say on that subject.

"The Big Sky section is a pretty inbred/close knit section and for me to form this team over the years has strained the family relations at times. But nonetheless people have been incredibly supportive and loving in all regards. Without the local love this team wouldn't have been possible so I've got to thank all the teams in the Big Sky for helping Trigger to become as good as we could be."

Next year? Faris says that some form of Trigger Hippy will be around, and I suspect you'll see a fresh cup of BRU at next year's Big Show too.

This was written for UltyLife.com.

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