Introducing Competitive Summer League
by Gary Breaux
Competitive Summer League (Summer I)
UPLA presents an in your face first-time ever league event that will blow you away. Take that thumb out of your mouth, little baby, and get ready to MAN-UP!! Woosies, wimps and wannabees need not apply! DO NOT invite your newbie friends to play in this League. This league is exclusively designed for rock star club players! It will be called Competitive Summer League and promises to be like no other league that has come before it. (Yes, you will feel bad for your turnovers, but here's a hot tip for ya....suck it up!)
The league will be coed and sign-up begins in about 1 1/2 weeks. Everyone and their mother is welcome to sign-up, but here’s the deal, mon cheri, it may occur that not everyone who signs up gets drafted. Anyone not drafted will receive a 100% refund of their player fee. Your money is not at risk…only your pride.
The plan is to have 8 teams of just 7 players each (5 men and 2 women). These 8 “teams” will be called pods. Each week, pods will pair together to play against other pairs of pods. With the pod system schedule there will be greater diversity within the league. It’s a 4 week schedule, but even with two games each night, no two games will be alike throughout the season.
Games will be played every Tuesday evening from June 9 – June 30 on those heavenly-sweet Travis County East Metro fields in Manor; just 25 minutes away for most folks. This will be a no frills league with minimal perks and low cost. Watch your emails and retur n to www.austinultimate.org often for the sign-up announcement. In the meantime, you have a chance right NOW to apply to become a Competitive Summer League Captain. Ensure your own spot in the league and decide which bitches [gender undefined] you want on your team. Send an email to Soda at jkmillard@gmail.com and make the case that you are crunk-enough to be a Captain in this league.
Quick story (and mostly true): It was a lovely spring day back in 2007. The grass at the IM fields was as thick as Cous’ chest hair and (as usual) the little green parrots were being chased around the field-lights by a hawk. Spring League was in about its 5th week and (as usual) there were a couple of teams running short on players. Doublewide, Austin’s elite men’s team, was holding a practice that same day on one of the fields towards the back and therefore the D-Dub players had to walk past the Spring Leaguers on the way to their field. As Vigo and JDo sauntered passed, someone from Spring League asked them if perhaps they would like to jump-on to Spring League for a few points until more of their regular players showed up. At the time, no one knew that Vigo’s snarky response would provide the inspiration for 2009 Competitive Summer League, but alas, here you have it…he said, no thanks, adding, “We don’t play bad Ultimate.”
Don’t YOU play bad Ultimate, either. Bring what you got to Competitive Summer League and let the chips fall as they may.
Editor's Note: Don't panic if you're not quite this hardcore...yet. Summer I will be followed by regular Summer League (Summer II), which welcomes all players regardless of age or skill level.
