Passing the Frozen Torch
by Gary Breaux
Austin Winter League is, without question, the most awesome league ever in the history of leagues. Yup, I said it. As evidence I submit: food and drink every week...at no extra charge; a custom-designed disc and (for the first time) a dry-fit jersey...at no extra charge; two weekly games of Ultimate on lined fields within the city limits...at no extra charge; showcase games, parties, player packets, updated webpages, plus bedazzle in your badonka-donk, all at... (say it with me, people) ...NO EXTRA CHARGE! I know; get the eff outta here, right?
AWL is so action-packed, that it would surely take a great and/or foolish person to grab the reins of such mayhem. Cue the spotlight….drum roll, please...ladies and gentlemen, into the pit I throw the new man in charge of Austin Winter League 2009-2010; give it up for- Paul Hanna!
[Slow clap, anyone? Lone party horn? Maybe a golf clap? Anyone?]
Allow me to back up for just a moment so I can share with you a brief story of how Austin Winter League came to be. It’s a tale that begins some 11 years ago when I was living in Dallas and playing in my very first league, called (not so coincidentally) Dallas Winter League. Back then, I was new to Ultimate and years away from getting involved in any organizing junk, but I was, frankly, blown away. The biggest novelty of that extraordinary league was that food and drinks were served at the end of each week’s games. It was usually homemade food brought by some of the players—big pots of hot stew or soup—but whatever, it still made quite an impression.
Shortly after that experience I moved to Austin and played a couple more years before cautiously running my first Ultimate league--Spring League 2003, I think it was. But it would be an additional three years before I had the vision to bring a winter league to Austin. Spring and Summer Leagues were already well-established, but there was nothing happening during the winter. I emailed some of the more prominent characters from the Austin Ultimate scene and arranged a planning meeting.
The vision I presented at that meeting was not just about recreating what I remembered from Dallas Winter League, but to take it a step further. I wanted this league to be so over-the-top it would blow people out of their cleats. Fortunately, I got lots of help from folks like Matteo, Ray Kong, Leah Treadwell, Hollywood and a smattering of others.
Still, starting a brand new league takes a leap of faith. We were worried. What if no one signs up? What if we lose money? After all, I didn’t even have a clue how much to charge, since this was all uncharted territory. [FYI, the league lost about $12 its first year.]
Once the first Austin Winter League was over and done with, it was clear we had a winner. For the next two years, I ran the league and was excited to see more and more folks pitching in to make the league so successful. That’s when it became clear to me that (just like for Oprah after 25 years) the time had arrived for me to pass on the frozen Winter League torch.
Like manna from heaven, enter Paul Hanna. Arriving to Austin just this past summer, Paul made an almost immediate contribution to the local scene by writing an article for the June Austin Scoober. It’s a great article and I hope you’ll take a fresh look at it even if you’ve read it before. The article is called, To Bluer Skies
Running Austin Winter League for the past three years has been enormously rewarding. Of course, I want to thank all those that assisted so greatly in making my AWL vision come to life. And I’m especially grateful to all those that simply signed up and played. It’s really the energy of the masses that makes a league successful.
This year you’ll still see me at all the Austin Winter League games and events, only this time I will enjoy being one of the masses. Although I am hanging up my organizer’s hat, you might still catch me wearing my organizer’s t-shirt, but this one will say, Ask Paul.
