Having won tournaments in both Palo Alto, Calif., and Austin, Texas, back in March, Oregon’s club men’s ultimate team will compete in the conference championships later this month and attempt to secure a spot in this year’s national championship.
The sport of ultimate has a strong and rich history in Eugene, and their success on the field proves just that. In the last six years, the club team has had three national appearances and two regional championships. This year, the team has retained many of its first-string players and many members of the team think that this year will provide insight into the years to come.
“In the last two years, we’ve only had about 10 people leave,” said Topher Davis, a senior on the team. “This year could be the start of something new.” @@http://pages.uoregon.edu/frisbee/@@
Unlike many other club teams that compete in the spring, the season for collegiate ultimate begins much earlier. During fall term, the team hosts open practices that give the coach an opportunity to get a feel for each individual player’s style and technique. As open practices commence, the team participates in a few low-key tournaments. Before winter break, the coach selects the A team. According to coach Jay Janin, “After the A team is selected, some people stop playing, but others step down and play for the B team.”
Since the competitive season has begun, the team has had great success. Early on, Oregon traveled to Stanford and Texas, where it swept the playing field. Its record currently stands at 16-1, only one win behind No. 1 Pittsburgh at 17-3. Oregon’s only loss of the season was to Michigan State by a score of 13-9. During the Stanford Invitational, the Ducks won all of their games while facing opponents such as Florida, Whitman, Wisconsin, and current No. 1 Pittsburgh. As the playing field stand right now, Oregon is sitting at a secure No. 2 in the nation. @@http://stanford2012.weebly.com/teams.html@@
Some players think that the tournaments give them an ability to increase their strength and playing abilities.
“Both tournaments provided an opportunity for the us to expand both our skills and abilities,” senior Sam Brickwedde said.
The reason for this is that the level of intensity during games is unbelievable. Oregon almost always faces opponents that play with a very quick offense and defense, which causes Oregon to always have an expectation to play at such a high level.
As the season stands, the team is only one week away from the conference championships, which will be held in Corvallis. Janin thinks Oregon is in exactly the right place to go to nationals.
“We’re relatively optimistic about going to nationals,” he said. “We have a really wide range of players. Some of them have played ultimate during high school, and the ones who didn’t usually played other sports, like basketball, and just have great athleticism.”
One of the reasons the ultimate team has had great success is due to the rising number of high school ultimate teams in the surrounding areas.
“We have a lot of local talent,” Janin said. “About a third of our team is from local high schools. The growth of high school ultimate has been phenomenal.”
For nationals, the Ducks have a plan that they think will hoist them all the way to the coveted trophy. They want to experiment with the current way they play until they find something that can make their system work. Whether they will keep their current styles of offense or defense has yet to be determined.
As for next year, Janin doesn’t see any reason why the team can’t return and be in the top 10 once again.