USA Ultimate

Event Website U-19X Scoreboard

[PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire UltiPhotos.com]

DiscNW battled especially hard to get to the finals, beating the scrappy Bay Area Disc Happy Cows by a mere one point—10-9—in the semis. While the Happy Cows relied heavily on the work of Kainoa Chun-Moy (#5), Benjamin Souvey (#7), Jonathan Gonzalez (#31), and Remy Smith (#44) to score, Pandamonium used their large roster to their advantage, supplying fresh legs in the place of exhausted starters. 

The championship game between BUDA and DiscNW’s Pandamonium was certainly exciting to watch, despite the fact that the Boston team maintained a strong lead throughout. teams were stacked with dominant, but not aggressively showy, players: BUDA’s Vincent DeFelice (#11), a tall, graceful 17-year old with the unbelievable ability to horizontally outbid everyone and catch every single disc over his head, no matter who he was up against; Emmet Blau (#25), a New York handler with an extremely strong arm; Tulsa Douglas (#14), a rising junior who runs and throws just as fast and well as her male counterparts; and Anna Kaplan (#1), a calm, accurate handler with great defensive positioning. On DiscNW’s team, leaders included Grant Mitchell (#29), a Mohawk-sporting 15-year old who was a constant threat in and deep; Jonathan Collins (#28), a guy with unparalleled explosive speed and fiery defense; and Rose Soiffer-Kosins (#35), a dominant receiver. 

The game began with a bang as both teams consistently played their strongest, most energetic lines. From the start, the game was supremely athletic: DeFelice began the game by getting a flying layout D, while Seattle’s Collins sprinted down almost the entire length of the field in order to lay out for a massive deep look. DiscNW did an impressive job of halting BUDA’s offensive flow, causing the Boston team to force deep throws up the line as their cutters and handlers struggled to get open and move the disc. DiscNW’s girls gave BUDA’s all-star female lineup a better game than anyone else did: Seattle’s tight defense forced players like Kaplan to work hard at getting open, while all of the Pandamonium girls existed as real in and deep threats (and frequently turned one exhausting cut into another with little pause). 

BUDA’s supremely polished game, however, proved too dominant for DiscNW to overcome. With a small error margin, a measured team temperament, sizzling defense, and an offensive flow that comes paired with absolute trust in the abilities of everyone on the team, BUDA overcame DiscNW 13-7, the girls dominating many of the points scored in the second half of the game. The game ended with a deep look from Blau to DeFelice in their endzone after DiscNW had a small comeback, Sarah Gunderson (#17) and Collins both turning the disc in Seattle’s favor to score. 

Although Seattle didn’t win the championship game, they were still extremely happy with their final results. As Pandamonium’s coach, Frank Nam, explained, "Our strategy was to have fun, do what worked, and play good defense. We knew this was going to be our first medal ever in the mixed division no matter what, and the fact that we were even in this game at all felt awesome." As the YCC program states, the DiscNW Mixed team aimed to medal for the first time in its history, which they achieved.

How, then, did BUDA prepare to win against the formidable Seattle team? When asked about their mentality going into the championship game, BUDA’s coach, Josh Seamon, replied, "Before the game began, I told them to start the game in the way that they wanted to end the game—it should be a table top. Because many YCC teams haven’t played much together, getting up really early on other teams is important. Our momentum could have ebbed, but we never let down." And never let down they did—BUDA went undefeated this weekend and came away with their first mixed championship. 

Congratulations to BUDA, the 2012 Youth Club Mixed Champions! 

Final Standings: 1 - BUDA 2 - DiscNW 3 - Maine 4 - Bay Area Disc 5 - Minnesota 6 - Chicago 7 - DiscNY 8 - Madison  Full Results		Spirit Scores: 5.00 - Minnesota 4.83 - DiscNY 4.67 - Bay Area Disc 4.67 - Chicago 4.50 - BUDA 4.33 - DiscNW 4.00 - Maine 3.33 - Madison
2012 YCC U-19X Champions: BUDA  [PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire UltiPhotos.com] 2012 YCC U-19X Finalists: DiscNW [PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire UltiPhotos.com]		Team Spirit Award: Minnesota [PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire UltiPhotos.com]    Individual Spirit Award Winners [PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire UltiPhotos.com]