Honey Bee, lets fight! Want that disc? Its ours tonight!

This last weekend, I went to the Australian Ultimate Championships in Perth (also known as nationals). The championships are a four day tournament, with two days of pool play, and two days of bracket play. There were 11 women's teams - including three from Victoria -Honey A, Honey Bee, and Team Box. The favorites for the women were Team Box and Wildcard (from Sidney). There were many more mens teams, but again three from Victoria - Heads of State A and B and Chilly.

Tournament logo on a disc. Black swans are native to Australia.

Honey Bee was the only "B" team at the womens tournament, and every team we played were impressed with both the fact that Honey had a development program, and by how hard we played. Honey Bee did, in fact, lose every single game we played, and our total points throughout the weekend would have won us one game. However, we were upbeat and positive every game - we knew going into this that we weren't going to do very well!

I missed the first day of the tournament - thursday- since I had tutorials I couldn't miss. I then managed to miss my flight (I never, ever want to go through that again); but I got into Perth at about 12:45 that night. One of my teammates drove to the airport to pick me up and bring me to the "villas" where we were staying. We stayed in Scarsborough, right off the beach. We had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath in our villa, and the other was just like it.

Honey Bee cheering before a game. Visible players are
(from left to right) Carolyn, Amanda, Annie, Pam, and Emma.

On Friday we played three games. One of them was against Honey A, and we scored twice against them. The first point we scored was a play-book perfect point - we did absolutely everything correctly. It was beautiful. One of the Honey A women - Mel Gange (who reminds me forcibly of Hart) told us that seeing us play that well brought a tear to her eye. Which, as corny as it may sound, was one of our biggest confidence boosters all weekend. We scored a grand total of three points that day, but we did (mostly) make the other teams fight for their points. We were in the "top" pool, and pretty much had no chance against any of the teams. (For all you stickies out there, it was like playing a pool made up of Luther, Carleton, and Madison). On Saturday, we played light-years better than Friday, scoring four points in a game, which was fantastic. Our flow was really good, and we looked like a different team. Bunker (a teammate) had a really bad ankle injury in our second game, and Mon got hit in the head, so while we were playing more aggressively, it was also much scarier - Bunker went to the hospital.

Honey Bee on the line in our game against Wildcard.
L-R: Annie, Me, Emma, and Jude (captain).

I was fresher than my teammates, since it was only my second day, and so I played a lot, particularly in the third game, when our rotations got messy, since we were down two players. I was really proud of myself on Saturday - I played really hard and really smart, which I don't always do. My throwing got a lot better, and I only threw five discs away all day (all time low). My defense was also some of the best I've played in a long time. I had several d's in zone defense, and didn't get broken once my mark was set, and kept up with the cutters. It was some of the best ultimate I've played, which was pretty awesome.

Me cutting in the game against Wildcard. Jude is in the corner.

On Sunday, Honey Bee didn't have any games, since we lost all eight of our games. We watched Honey Bee play Sugar Magnolias for 3-4, and they lost by one in hard cap, which was heart-breaking, particularly, since Honey had been ahead for most of the game, and had a turnover in the endzone in the last point. The women's final was between Team Box and Wildcard, and it was really, really close. The victorian teams were rooting for team box, the underdogs. Wildcard is composed of a lot of World's players - mixed, juniors, and womens. Team Box took the game to half, and then traded points with Wildcard, until Wildcard won in hard cap. It was really sad - Team Box played beautifully.

It was really amazing to watch ultimate of that caliber. With that many worlds players on the field, the game looks completely different from what I've come to expect. (For any frisbee players out there, both teams are of the caliber of Bella Donna). The mens championship was won by Chilly, the victorian men's team. It was a good game, but not as close as the women's game, and so not as interesting. Honey A won the spirit championship, and one of the Honey A women won MVP for the women's tournament, which was really cool. They also announced the worlds training team, and there is a Honey A woman on that as well.

Nationals was really, really fun. I finished the tournament wanting nothing more than to play more. I can't wait to get back to Stickies - I've said it before, but playing with another team makes me appreciate Stickies much, much more. I also have lots of new ideas for plays, as well as a new enthusiasm for Ultimate. The great thing about playing in Australia is that Nationals is smaller than regionals in the states, but it is still high quality Ultimate. To play at Nats was an experience I probably won't get again, and it was really amazing.