21. How has the game changed from when you started? When I started it was vertical stacks and zone in the wind. Much has changed....Or has it for you? I haven’t played as long as the others, so haven’t really been around long enough to see evolution. I would say that every year, more and more athletic players are playing making it that much more challenging each season.
22. How do you see the sport evolving. Back to v-stacks, or something else we haven’t seen yet? In the Northeast, I have seen more and more vertical over the past season as compared to a few years ago. In my opinion, this is more the natural pendulum of styles swinging back and forth rather than some kind of evolution of style. As teams practise more against certain offensive sets, they become more proficient at defending them, thus providing greater impact for teams to become proficient in multiple sets in order to keep opponents guessing. At the top end, increasingly key is for all 7 players on the field to be multiple threat players. Everyone needs to be a threat to break the mark, huck it long, get open in the bail, strike deep for a score and grind it underneath in the lanes. So, the elimination of the specialist player in favor of the proficient multi-dimensional player, I think is the future of the sport.
23. Is the Ultimate community doing enough to get the sport growing at the youth level? If not, do you have any ideas? If yes, great. Fully agree with Derek that the single best adjustment that could be made would be to make Juniors competitions at CUC boys vs boys and girls vs girls as opposed to co-ed.
24. Which are your favourite tournaments, and why? Am really excited about going to WUCC this year with Phoenix (http://phoenixprague. com/). My personal favourite tournament is Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament (CUT). It is an early season
Ultimate Canada Magazine —
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tourney with solid competition from the top Northeast teams, held in a very small college town in upstate New York. Fields are great, competition is great, Satuday Pizza/Pasta meal included, swimming in the lake nearby, and there’s a radar gun onsite to measure fastest throws (go ahead and ask my brothers who won that contest….hint – me).
25. Often Ulty players can remember big plays from years ago. Name a couple of plays you saw or were part of that really stick in your memory. I honestly don’t remember individual plays all that well over time – but I can say the single best play I ever made was in practice a few years ago against Ken when I made a catch-block D by jumping from behind and reaching blindly over his shoulder to get the disc. I’m not sure if that play sticks in my mind because it was a good D, or because Ken made an egregious strip call on the play….one of the two. In terms of personal satisfaction, the final point of No Borders in 2008 was memorable because I was able to make a couple of D’s and catch the winning point in traffic to clinch the game on Universe point.
26. Not counting your brothers, which male Ultimate player really impresses you from the younger ones? Which from the veterans.... And why to both. Phoenix has a number of great young players including Andy Corey, Reynaldo Arteaga, Bryce Ring and Scotty Westwell. In my opinion, Kielan Way really stands out though – he has all around skills, is a top athlete, has leadership qualities and is a real competitor on the field to top it off. John Hassell from GOAT is a nightmare to play against because of his size, field sense, and practically unstoppable variety of throws. Oscar Pottinger is also impressive with his ability to impact the game in so many ways despite being of relatively average size, speed, and strength.
27. Which female player really impresses you with her game, and why? Don’t really watch women’s Ulty that much – but I really think that Danielle Fortin from Capitals is one of the better all around women handlers I have seen play. She is athletic and has a variety of release points on her throws allowing her to break the mark when she chooses.
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