Team 5’s Ross Dewit, Adam Hardwicke, Scott Hayden, Peter Houk, Hee Jae Lee, Aaron Mar, and Rachel Zuercher not only pushed past Team 4 in the one-sided final game, but also buried them six feet under the ground with a final score of 7-1. Peter Houk caught the game-winning point bagging the trophy home.
Scott Hayden was selected most valuable player in the men’s division, while Team 2’s Natalie Hill won the MVP honors in the women’s division.
Zuercher was awarded the Best Offensive Female and her teammate Lee was cited Best Female Handler. Team 1’s Melody Matson bagged the Best Female Defense and Best Hammer Throw awards. Team 4’s Rob Epley won the Most Passes to a Female award and Team 3’s Amber Guegan took the Best End Zone Drop or Most Drops in a game award. Each game lasted for 25 minutes and teams followed a round robin format.
Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact sport played on a field with end zones, whereby the team with the disc attempts to pass the disc down the field and a catch in the end zones which yields a point.
Typical play has a maximum of 7 players a side and in a tournament usually 4 guys and 3 girls. Each point starts with the team who just scored ‘pulling’ or ‘hucking’ the disc to the other team. Often players with similar speed or skill levels pair up and ‘check’ each other.
The game flows the other direction any time the disc is intercepted, dropped, or goes out of bounds. Any player catching the disc is allowed a few courtesy steps to stop; the player must then plant a pivot foot before throwing.
A defensive player then gives the player with the disc a ten count before the disc must be thrown. This sport has frequent fast ‘turn-arounds’ and teams change from offense to defense with no break in play other than that drop or interception. So there are no whistles, no referees, and no substitutions until a point is scored.
Most importantly the game is ruled by the “spirit of the game”. This means that besides the promotion of friendly and fair play, any field dispute is decided quickly between the players involved in the play or who best saw what happened.
Sportsmanship is key, and often you hear people compliment the other team members play. After all, “What can be more fun than throwing a piece of plastic around in a tropical paradise for fun and exercise?”
The independently organized group, Saipan Ultimate, regularly meets for Ultimate Frisbee activities on Wednesdays and Fridays at 5pm at the Oleai Sports Complex Field. The Hat Tournament is a special feature annual event held for both bragging rights and the coveted Dale Roberts trophy.
The first ever Dale Roberts Cup was awarded in August 2003 and the event has since then been scheduled to coincide with Halloween, hence the new title.
This year, in the spirit of Halloween, every single time a player scores a point they must wear a costume piece designed to slow them down and to put a little humor and more fun into the tournament.
Saipan Ultimate is open for interested players, especially women players, to compliment their team for future off island co-ed competitions. Members of the group competed in Bali back in 2008 and would like to compete in Manila some time in the future. For more information, please contact league organizers at [email protected].
Special thanks are extended out to Smile Marianas Dental, Pacific Islands Club, Brabu, and Coca Cola for sponsoring the event and provided gift certificates, lunch and spa passes, water park passes, drinks and energy bars.
