Sectionals -- Middlbury VT

As the last post discussed, we did not reach VT until 7:00AM and our first game was at 10:00AM. With little to no sleep we played three games in the 30* weather on Saturday. Thinking that we were away from Maine and the weather should actually be warmer, this only made our trip more depressing. We ended up not winning any games on Saturday or Sunday, but considering this was our first legal sectionals tournament ever, we enjoyed our trip because of the experience. Our ending record does not do us justice because how we played does not reflect how we did. On Sunday, the weather was not only cold, but also it was like you were playing in giant mud puddles. With this being said, it was hard to concentrate on playing your best when you could barely run.

The Drive -- Sectionals 11'

I feel like there are always complications driving to tournaments. So remember in a previous post I discussed seeing two accidents, similar situation h happened when driving to my sectionals tournament in Middlebury, VT this past weekednd. Due to sorority events and a member of my team who had to work on Friday night, 5 of us ended up leaving for our sectionals tournament at 9:00PM. Two of our fellow players from our mens team came along for the journey too. Six and half hours into our trip (3:30AM), my teammate that was driving noticed the "check battery light" turned on. She proceeded to drive until we reached a 24 hour gas station (we were on route 2 headed to Vermont and there are limited gas stations) to take a bathroom break. About a mile after leaving the gas station, our headlights turned off. Knowing this probably isn't a good sign, we turned around and headed back to the station. This must have been a good idea because when we got there our car completely died due to a bad alternator. Luckily we were in University Vehicles, Motor Pool, so they had to help us with this issue. After spending over an our on the phone contacting teammates and people at Motor Pool, we finally got our car towed to VT and had one of our teammates come got us from Middlebury. Considering we were an hour away, my teammates did not get to us until 6:00 so we did not arrive to our destination until 7:00AM.

Steakfest 11'

We had to arrive at the field at 8:30 for the captains meeting and play started at 9:00AM. Not only after getting 3 hours of sleep we did not expect to do well, we also only had 1 sub the entire tournament. On Saturday we played in around 30MPH winds, meaning that it was pretty much impossible to throw the disc upwind. We ended up going 3-3 for the whole tournament, we were satisfied with this because before playing at Steakfest we had never won any games as a women's team. We are now preparing for (probably) our last tournament of the semester, sectionals. Sectionals is going to be held at Middlebury College.
Sectionals is different this year because teams are split up up into conferences instead of regions. Before this semester, teams would play teams in their area. For example, last year we played teams like Colby, Farmingtion, UMPI, and UNH. This year we are divided into sectionals by the amount of people in each school. This makes sense because bigger schools obviously have an advantage, but for schools like UMO where ultimate is not very popular, it is hard to try and compare to schools like Middlebury, Dartmouth, and UVM.

The Drive -- Steakfest 11'

Considering the University of Maine it not really near any big ultimate cities, it is necessary to drive from 3+ hours to go to most tournaments. Most recently, UMaine's women's ultimate club went to Manheim, Pennsylvania to the tournament, "Steakfest". Knowing we had a long drive ahead of us, we all packed in a University Van and were on our way at approximately 3:30PM on March 18th. The drive was supposed to take around 11 hours; little did we know we would encounter numerous complications on our way. During our travels through Maine, NH, Massachusetts, and Connecticut we did not have any problems. In New York we got lost twice and got stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident. This accident was a caused by a drunk driver that “fell asleep and fan off the road to the left, hit and damaged 50 feet of guardrail, then crossed the highway and stopped facing east in the right lane”. The people in this accident were medevaced to the nearest hospital. After traffic about 45 minutes we were finally on our way once again.
Of course our night was not over yet, we got off the final exit to our hotel and saw an actual car accident happen. The vehicle went up an embankment and overturned. When this first happened we were a little confused as to why there were lights facing towards us that were directly on top of each other, we soon realized shortly that the car was on its side. A teammate and I ran out of our vehicle, helped the two individuals out of their car, and called 911. Likely, there were no injuries and the two were pain free.

Ultimate at the Univeristy of Maine

At the University of Maine, there are women, men, and co-ed practices for ultimate. We generally have 3 practices a week, splitting up days between practicing together and separately. Before last year UMaine did not have enough women to field a team, this fall we went to our first women's tournament EVER. This tournament, Danse Macabre, is an annual Halloween costume tournament held in Rochester, NY. Both UMaine women's and men's teams attended dressed as Furn Gully and Mainers. Although the results of the tournament were not in our favor, it gave us the opportunity to play as a team and see how see how we compared to other college teams.

Something that people don't realize is there are actual club ultimate teams in the area. Most people who play for the University of Maine are also on a team called BlackFly. BlackFly is composed of people from Orono and all over Maine ranging from the ages of 19 to 42. Yes, there is no age barrier in ultimate, once you start playing, you never have to stop.

BlackFly normally goes to numerous tournaments in the summer and a couple during the school year. Most recently, we went to Fredricton, NB. This indoor tournament, Fruitbowl, normally takes place in the end of January and lasts for a weekend. Our next tournament is called "Get the Led Out" at the end of April.

As spring comes around the corner, the University of Maine men's and women's teams go separate ways in preparation for sectionals. Each region is divided into sections, within these sections there is a tournament that is played with 8-10 teams. The top 3 in each bracket advance to something called regionals. The top three in this bracket advance to nationals, and the top 3 in this bracket advance to worlds.

10 rules to ulitmate!

For those of you who didn't know, there is an actual rulebook to ultimate! Considering this is a book, it would be hard to go over all the rules with you. When looking at the USA ultimate website I found 10 simple rules to ultimate!
(http://www.usaultimate.org/resources/officiating/rules/default.aspx#10simplerules)

10 Simple Rules to Ultimate!

1. The Field: A rectangular shape with end zones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with end zones 25 yards deep.

2. Initiate Play: Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective end zone line. The defense throws ("pulls") the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.

3. Scoring: Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense's end zone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.

4. Movement of the Disc: The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc ("thrower") has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower ("marker") counts out the stall count.

5. Change of Possession: When a pass is not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.

6. Substitutions: Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.

7. Non-contact: No physical contact is allowed between players. Picks and screens are also prohibited. A foul occurs when contact is made.

8. Fouls: When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

9. Self-Officiating: Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes.

10. Spirit of the Game: Ultimate stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.

What is Ultimate?

Ultimate is a non-contact sport that stresses the spirit of the game. Unlike other sports, this game is self-refereed, players are responsible for understanding and overseeing the rules themselves. In my mind there is no question why this is the fastest growing sport in the nation, the combination of aerial throws of football, the athletic endurance of soccer, the intricate structure of offense and defense relating to lacrosse, and the unbelievable diving catches comparing to baseball are just a few supporting answers. Have you ever wanted to be involved in something combines all your favorite sports into one? (USAUltimate.org)

This is exactly my thought process, I can play year long and never get tired of it. I have been playing since Fall 2010 and plan on staying involved the rest of my life.

The purpose for this blog is to introduce Eastern Maine to Ultimate. In this region the only form of "frisbee" that you hear of is something called pickup, a form of frisbee that has no structure, ultimate is serious to some extent. I will introduce the rule book, how the game is played, upcoming tournaments, pictures from tournaments, UMaine Ultimate history, offensive, and defensive strategies.