Welcome Message

Welcome to the new face of Austin Ultimate. Brought to you by UPLA!

Welcome

The August Austin Scoober

  • Ageless Ultimate
  • Setting Goals
  • Player Profile: Rob Seidenberg
  • Greetings People of the Northern Territories
  • Play Wall2Wall Ultimate!

    • The Special Worlds Edition Austin Scoober

  • Doublewide Worlds Recap
  • An Out of this World Experience...
  • Worlds vs. USA 11th Edition Rules: How it actually played out
  • You, Too, Can Have a Chad Larson Experience

    • Home

    Age Before Beauty

    See photo: Wild-haired Gary Breaux makes the D

    by Paul Normandin

    Rusty arms never sleep. As proof positive, the UPA hosted the first-ever Open Grand Masters (40 or older) and Women’s Masters (30 or older) National Championships in Denver July 11-12. There are no such stats, but it’s doubtful that any city sent more players to this momentous event than ours: Central Texans made up the bulk of three (3!) Grand Masters teams and one Women’s Masters squad, and Austinites played key roles on yet another Women’s team.

    In Women’s Masters, Extended Warranty, led by Harper Ray, placed 10th. In Grand Masters, Southern Comfort, led by expatriate Byron Hicks, tied for 7th; Sick Hammers, with second year team captain Rob Seidenberg, took 9th; and the Austin Antique Roadshow Players (AARP), led by yours truly, found 18th.

    UT alum and current UPA Championship Director Hicks pulled together so many Austin fossils for Southern Comfort (including Brad Kaylor, Greg "GC" Clark, Walter Passmore, Sean “I Am Riverside” Douglas, Chris Cosgrove and Calvin Lin) that a UT Paleontology team is still up in Denver excavating. They had a great day on Saturday, playing to seed with a 3 and 1 record. But day two found Idaho’s Big Sky slipping past the discomforted Southern team 11-10. Having given it their all in that game, they fell to the Ozark Hillbillys to finish the weekend with a 3-3 record.

    Seidenberg took the Sick Hammers crew into the Rocky Mountains on their second Grand Masters road trip. The team had such Austin luminaries as Mark "Newt" Newton, Jack Chen, Dwight “Monty” Monteith, Daniel “Big Daddy” Benson and UPLA bigwig Gary Breaux. Every game on Saturday was a close one, but a heartbreaking 1-point loss to New York knocked them out of the championship bracket. On Sunday, however, the Hammers went undefeated, to win the beer bracket with a 4-3 record. In their final game, the Hammers prevailed 14-12 over arch nemesis Old Glory from Philadelphia, avenging a bitter 1-point quarter finals loss last fall at the 4th Annual North American Grand Masters Tournament in Montreal.

    The Austin Antique Roadshow Players or AARP--with a combined age of the planet Mercury--was so old that Congress actually asked the Social Security Administration to consider sponsorship. AARP starred such Austin notables as Steve “Oh My God That Guy Still Plays” Milan, Greg Sitz, David Armstrong and Thad Barnes. AARP fought valiantly in pool play against tourney champions Death or Glory (DoG) out of Boston and eventual runners-up Yomo Fog Oho, from Denver. After a winless Saturday, AARP found solace in a Sunday morning win over DC’s Duck Pond to grab an 18th place finish. Tom Harbuck received the team’s spirit award.

    What Extended Warranty lacked in age they made up for in close games. Harper Ray assembled her team around such Austin icons as Leigh Gorman, Rebecca “I Love WIC” Turnbow, Laney Bevill, Molly Sandel, Dawn “The Muse” Skonieczny and Luisa “Fluffy Kitten” Silva. Starting in a pool of three (including themselves), Extended Warranty quickly realized that the other two pool teams were destined to finish the tournament number 1 (Colorado’s Well Done) and 2 (Philly's The Team Formerly Known as the Peppers). After very close games with Colorado’s Hot Flash and Pittsburgh’s Prowl, the Warranty finally found an extension on Sunday with an 11-9 victory over Dallas’ That’s What She Said. They ended up 1-4 for the weekend.

    Austinites Barbara “Bubba” Dennison, Cindy Armstrong and Irene Garnett played with a southern/northern hybrid called SXNE that was led by Texas A&M graduate Sue Farquharson. They were never able to squeak out a victory, though their closest game on Saturday was against Prowl. One event that will surprise no one in Austin is that Bubba won the SXNE spirit award Sunday afternoon.

    With the inaugural Open Grand Masters and Women’s Masters National Championship tourney behind us, the sport now offers the young of Ultimate (i.e., men under 39 and women 29 and younger) something we veterans never had: the idea that one can continue to play into one’s fifth decade competitively and on a National stage. This brand of Ultimate may look a bit slower from the sidelines, but the desire of the players is as intense as ever­, matched only by our (supposed) wisdom and veteran craftiness. With these additions to the ultimate canon, we can now all sincerely say “Life for Ultimate, Ultimate for Life.”

    (picture from Elizabeth Henry Hooker photography)

    P1020950PB232449PB210205