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REGIONAL INTEREST


convince larger numbers of out-of-town teams that the drive to Winnipeg is a small price to pay for the can’t-miss frisbee festival of the summer. And - who knows? - with any luck, maybe we’ll even be able to convince the mosquitoes to take the weekend off.


TORO: The new brand of Toronto Junior Ultimate


Ontario Written by: Carla Difilippo


Since 2010 the Toronto juniors program, as OverDrive, had seen success with numerous top three finishes at Nationals. We are very proud of these successes and what was started with former manager, Gary Wang. After a year of gaining feedback from coaches, athletes and parents, a group of dedicated coaches decided to re-brand the club to attract more players from the large Toronto area high school leagues. Our goal is to create an even greater connection between high school players and the touring scene as well as provide a positive learning experience for the athletes.


Evan Phillips and I worked with John Child (2000 Olympic bronze medalist in beach volleyball) who recently started a volleyball club in Toronto called Leaside Volleyball. Our aim was to mirror other mainstream sports and create an organized and professional club specifically for junior aged Ultimate players only. From these meetings came Toronto Elites Ultimate and our first club teams for both boys and girls called TORO. Our first task was to create a user-friendly website and use social media to connect to potential players. The focus of the website was to educate parents about the sport of Ultimate and to provide them with all the necessary information about the sport and the season. There is still a need in Toronto to show parents that Ultimate is fun, competitive and a “REAL” sport. Our mission is to provide opportunities to learn, play and teach spirited Ultimate in the GTA.


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To give athletes the best possible learning experience we felt it was extremely important to have dedicated and talented coaches who have a wide range of ultimate playing and coaching experience. We are lucky that in Toronto we have a great deal of high level players and coaches. Combined, our coaches have played for GOAT, Capitals + Lotus, they have experience coaching the professional AUDL team (Toronto RUSH), they have played on Canada’s junior and senior national teams and have coached our U23 and U19 National teams.


This year we had over 100 athletes registered for our tryouts. We are running three teams (2 boys and 1 girls) and we have attended more tournaments than ever in the past. We are very pleased with the support thus far. We have an amazing group of athletes and parents who believe in our mission and support the club. Our athletes train hard and are excited to compete at CUC in Waterloo this August. We hope that with the success we have experienced this year we will have even more teams next summer and can provide learning experiences throughout the winter season for our athletes.


TORO Ultimate - Toronto Elites


Photo: Carla Difilippo Ultimate Canada Magazine - www.canadianultimate.com


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