AHHHHH PAGANELLO!
2002 PAGA VERSION

Months later the memories are still fresh, like a pleasant afterimage from a great film. Only in this case you lived it, you were there in that movie, on that beach, eating that cake, dancing in that club, drinking those beers on the beach and generally living the damn good life.

Paga 02 was more and more than Paga 01 and that's all I can tell you. Its fresh to me but just as fresh to Jumpi after 12 years and Mir San Mir, and all of Cota Rica, and KUPA, and Shoot From the Hip, Catch 22 Ñ all these teams and all these people keep coming back for a reason, right?

This year I met the famed Giulio Colavolpe, an Italian newscaster for RAI. Last year he won a television news journalist award for his coverage of Paganello. It was for a program called "Custom & Society" which takes a look at the pageantry of different events across the country. This year he returned to Paganello for a follow-up.

I asked him why he was coming back to Paganello. He told me this (paraphrasing): "Last year, Paganello was off on the common sands, the free beach area. It was accepted, but it wasn't necessarily acknowledged. But now! They have moved to the beach of the Grand Hotel, and this is a grand move indeed. The Grand Hotel needs to get with a new hip crowd. They realize that they are getting old and not as important as they once were. It's wonderful!"

Paganello is a premier international Ultimate tournament, but it is also so much more. It has become the event of the Easter season for the area. It has become part of the fabric of the beach and of Rimini. Paganello has grown up.

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"Some flash, revenge, the time is now over." Still these words may echo in your memories. It is Jumpi's voice of course, and you can hear its spirit, its cool nonchalance over the lively music. It says: "here in Rimini, the world stops revolving and we move to another concept of time."

Here's a good memory I give to you. When that voice echoed across the speakers of the main field, my teammate called a timeout when we were down by two points in an important game. We had already used a timeout, and according to the rules, weren't allowed another until overtime. There was immediately controversy: did Jumpi's voice signify the beginning of overtime, or was it required that the point be completed?

As my team was mostly Americans and our opponents likewise, there was instantly a disagreement and a prolonged argument. It was decided that we had to ask Jumpi for the answer. Out of nowhere, he appeared on the field. He seemed confused. Why was there a problem? He said "the timeout rule was made so that teams that were winning could not stall out the remaining time and win the game. Spirit would say that therefore this should not be a turnover." Everyone agreed.

This I remember: Jumpi, wearing his sunglasses, appearing on the field, nervous a little, maybe you could say he was a little jumpy, and in the middle of two American teams. He had to decide a very tricky conundrum. But all he saw was spirit. You play by the spirit in Rimini. This I remember.

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I have covered many U.S. tournaments and watched exciting teams, cocky teams, cool teams: but never had I seen a squad as talented and coolly collected as Poughkeepsie. Down by 3 to a very strong Swiss Fingers team, I watched them calmly score four in a row to win by one at the cap. I watched them in the finals huck it away three times in a point, only to get the defensive stop and huck it again for the score. I watched them sit their top-notch men in favor of their top-notch women. I never saw them get upset, or unnerved, or play unspirited. For me, this team is and will always be one of the greats. Such a joy to watch.

Then there was the Flying Angels. I noticed them right away last year, saw them running hard and figured them to be very similar to 2001 champs UTI. But they always seemed to falter. Finally, in 2002 the Flying Angels defeat Feldrenner for the first time on the beach and advance to semifinals. One of their players kneels on the sand and his long hair is cut to the quick by players from both teams in celebration. He vowed two years ago that if FAB ever beat Feldrenner he would do this, and here he is, happy as can be, and the sand full of hair.

In the finals we saw a strange American man playing for the Collard Greens with bushy black hair peppered gray. He looked very odd because we saw him in the finals without his quirky handlebar mustache. He had shaved it the night before. Stu Downs has been playing Ultimate in the U.S. for close to 20 years. He is a legend of the game and Paganello was blessed to have such a lively character (he was the man to moon the crowd with the hairs of his shorn mustache arranged to read "Get Ho" on his boxer shorts, to which the Mir San Mir team responded by mooning the team with 'C O L L A R D' spelled on their bare asses.)

On Sunday my Mixed team awoke half-heartedly. We were scheduled to play at 8:50 am for 13th place. Considering we had lost two games by 1 point that would have advanced us further, and having a pretty talented team, we were very blasŽ in regards to our final game. Who cares about the difference between 13th and 14th and who were we playing anyway? We didn't seem to care. At least not as much as our opponent, Voladora, from nearby Parma (the city where ÒParmigianoÓ is from).

But by the middle of the game our team was fired-up and excited. We were down by one or two, and we were playing well. We were running very hard. We tied the game. We wanted to win very badly, but this Voladora team would not give ground. We layed out for discs, we stalled them up to nine every time, we gave up no easy throws. But still they were patient and connected on tough passes. Still we fought as tough New Yorkers, as hard Americans bent on victory. We were better. But on this day, Voladora did not back down. They won 9-8 because they never gave in. Afterwards, as all the teams do, we circled and spoke highly of them. Then we all laughed, stripped, and ran into the ocean together. This team showed us what playing hard in Rimini is really all about.

I have rarely seen such strange animals playing ultimate as the Old Ones. Tall, incredibly tall, and with great throws. They moved slow at times and then would run down hucks with fleet feet. And there were only 7 of them for the whole tournament. They were exhausted nearly every game but they never gave up. Their will was strong. "We try to be as relaxed as possible. The team -- we are just a bunch of friends. We come together now just for Rimini, but this year we don't have three women here because they are pregnant, making the Young Ones," explained the tallest of them all, Nicolette Verheem.

They have rivals, believe it or not for these liberal-minded and oddly dressed Dutch women (Nicolette competed in a 1940's style one-piece bathing suit, another player wore Elvis shades and bell-bottom sweatpants). They have a rivalry now with the Coastal Tendencies, a group of mostly California women with friends from Denmark.

"We were kind of bummed about that last year, losing by one point to them," says Coastal founder Deganit Schecter. The Coastal Tendencies played the Old Ones twice this year, winning by one point during crossover pool play, and then meeting them in the finals where they eclipsed the Dutch team by two. "I was happy that we managed to shut them down some of the day. They are the strongest woman we know," says Deg.

For Bliss, they had a bad start in their semifinal against Coastal and dug a 5 point deficit that they were never able to recover from. It was a disappointing year for them, after winning three straight Paganellos. But they will be back, because everyone always comes back to Rimini.

The freestylers are coming back. We saw them at dinner on Saturday night. A group of them gathered, and they gave a toast to the restaurant: "to disc players everywhere, we salute!" The next night they put on a great show at the club and the following day, outside. Freestylers love the crowds at Paganello and they enjoy the great freestyle competition and international disc camaraderie.

There are so many teams and so many stories. There was a Russian team here, Ju-piter, and they were quite talented for being new to the beach. A group of European players, all originally from Liechtenstein, came together to represent their country and were seeded twenty-fourth in the Mixed division. They finished tenth. France continues to make improvements, as both Arsenic and Ultimate Vibration fared well in the Open division. How about those Yale University women? Selling t-shirts to afford the trip to Rimini and then showing the world why they love the beach. Flying BischÕ moved up 10 spots from last year's bottom-place finish. They are becoming a real team.

And those Americans from Houston, again coming in to claim the crown like they did in 2000. No Tsu Oh, gracious to competitors and dominant on the field and on the dance floor. There were upset because last year I ragged them for playing so poorly. This year they became the first team in ten years to win the Open division without losing a game. Before finals, Sean McCall gave me the team's roster on a slip of paper. When I turned it over there was a sticker that said "Don't Mess with Texas."

My co-ed team drank a lot of beer and stayed out late every night. So did most teams. On Monday after it was all over we decided to stay in town. We went to the Disco Bowling alley and knocked back some pins. The music was so loud we couldnÕt help but dancing up to the line to bowl.

Paganello gives you happy feet.

And who could forget the foot stomping for the Cota RicaÑCollard Greens semifinal? The home fans were everywhere. The stands were packed. The day was a beautiful one, and two awesome teams were giving everything they had on the field. Collard Greens had a two goal lead throughout, sometimes three, but Cota kept fighting, pushing, until they were within one point! The crowd was crazy, stomping on the bleachers, making a racket. It felt like Juventus versus Real Madrid. Juro makes a great play, then Steve Dugan for the Greens, and then Cota scores to tie the game at 10! Finally the Collard Greens, cool and collective, throw the disc to Stu Downs in the endzone for the winner. A complete game on both sides.

"That was just one of those gamesÉ its so hard for one team to lose, and one to win," say Collard Greens, "and mille grazie for this tournament!" Says Cota Rica, "We really love playing in front of this crowd, and you won against us and this crowd." Then they singÉ Cota Rica adesso eÕ finita, hai scazzato e hai perso la partita, ti sta bene, scazzare non conviene, lÕhai presa nel buco del cul, nel bus del cul! Non difendi, non tieni il tuo uomo, bibon, bibon, bibonÉ [the music is from ÒVaÕPensieroÓ by Giuseppe Verdi and the translation is: Cota Rica, it is over now, you made mistakes and you lost the game, you deserved it, as it is not advisable to make mistakes, youÕve been fucked, just fucked. You donÕt defend, you donÕt keep your man, bibon, bibon, bibonÉ]

Paganello. A song on the oceanside, a flying disc in the air, and a party everywhere inside and out.

This was written for the Paganello website post-tournament, commissioned by Jumpi and Paganello.

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