Victorious in Mud Bowl 09 aka Canadian Ultimate Championships
The ‘Peg was angry that week, my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli…
Southern Manitoba got hailstones the size of baseballs the week of the 2009 Canadian Ultimate Championships. So large that if they had hit the Maple Grove Rugby Grounds in Winnipeg, frisbee players would have been strewn across the fields like downed bowling pins. In addition to the icy barrage to the south, the city got roughly 50mm of rain over the first 3 days of games. The result was muddy. And wet. And as challenging as it was entertaining to play in.
Kudos to the tournament directors for cancelling all but the championship elimination games on Saturday — a very difficult call, no doubt, but the right one. I can’t imagine how long it will take for those fields to recover.
For GLUM, though, this tournament was less about the competition and more about taking an opportunity to grow stronger as a team in preparation for the UPA Championship Series that begins in September. The Canadian Masters division has been slow to grow, much slower than the same division in the United States. Our main competitors this year were the same as last year: Figjam from Calgary. The other 6 teams competing at Nationals were a step below the two top teams. GLUM had a fairly easy road again, as in 2008, with the closest pool play game a 12-6 victory over the Calgary boys.
Our 7-0 record in pool play led to a semi-final (no quarters in Masters) against Toronto’s Fossil. A great group of guys, including GaLUMnus Danny Jose, Fossil was admittedly gearing for the bronze medal game, and although they put up a good fight early, were unable to mount a sustained attack. Final score, 15-6.
The final pitted us against the usual suspect, Figjam. Amid rumours that they had benched a few of their top players against us in our pool play matchup in an effort to rest them and hopefully surprise us, the game got off to a tight start. We jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Calgary answered quickly and we proceeded to trade points to half, with GLUM leading 8-5. We started on offense in the second half with a chance to put the game away, but as had been our habit all week, we couldn’t score and were broken for an 8-6 score. Gut check time. By this time, the 11 or so guys who had been playing every point for Figjam appeared to be fatiguing. Our O scored quickly (9-6) and the D took the field again. Our ability to run 21 deep without a production dropoff was taking its toll, and we locked it down entirely for the rest of the game, breaking our opponents 6 straight times for a 15-6 final score.
Despite the relative ease with which we dispatched our competition, there was a lot of value to be gained from the tournament. All 21 players contributed to every win, we came out relatively unscathed from a health standpoint, and it was a big confidence-builder — for players 1-21 who now know how strong this team can be, as well as for the leadership, who now have a solid sense of how to use each guy — as we head into the Fall Series.
GLUM has now secured its place as the #1 Masters team in Canada and with that, an invitation to compete in the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, next July.
There’s photos of us at CUC 2009 (aka Mud Bowl Manitoba) here:
Final vs. Figjam (courtesy Corry Berghout)
Pool play vs. Fossil (courtesy Corry Berghout)
Pool play vs. Figjam (courtesy Corry Berghout)