By Alicia Carr
On Saturday May 17th Drag’n Thrust hosted its first hat tournament. We had 138 participants register for the event. There were Ultimate players of all ages, skill levels and experience out for the fun. Everyone was split into 6 teams for a round robin play schedule.
Months ago members of the 2013 team got together to recap on the previous season and talk through some details for the coming year. This year Drag’n Thrust will be attending the 2014 Worlds Championship in Italy- http://www.worlds2014.org/. A hat tournament was one of the many ideas thrown out at our early season meeting to accomplish some fundraising for the big upcoming year.
Another established goal we wanted to create was something outside of what we can do on the field. Drag’n Thursts vision is to have a positive impact on Minneapolis Ultimate, not only in representing the city in our travels but by making an impact on the community. The outreach that we felt as a team and individuals during and after the Nation Championship Tournament was incredible. This sport has enriched all of our lives and it has become even more important to us to positively contribute to the same community that has done so much for us.
Drag’n Thrust members individually have been working towards that goal in many ways. Sarah Meckstroth highlights in an early blog post Why do you coach the positive effects that coaches can have on our youth. Sarah is one of many Drag’n Thrust members that are full time and part time coaches at all levels.
The hat tournament was a more collective way for us to contribute to the Minneapolis community for all age levels and implement our most important goal for the day…FUN!
- “So excited you guys put this on, I hope to see more hat tournaments in the Minneapolis area in the future.” -Liz Scheibel
- “I had a awesome time, great way to spend a Saturday” -Sam Torgerson
- “I flew up here from Lawrence Kansas and had the very best impression of how welcoming and competitive MN ultimate is” Daniel Gilroy – Member of the Tournament Champions- Team Yankee
- ”The food was the best food I have ever had at an ultimate tournament”. – A number of people.
The great food we had at the tournament was all made possible by some excellent sponsors. One of Drag’ns key sponsors KIND, shared with us some of their nutritious and delicious new granola bars. The Plymouth Kwik Trip hooked us up with a few boxes of fresh fruit. And last but not least we had baked goods from Panera. Sweet rolls, bread, cupcakes and cookies paired with our other goods made for an excellent spread.
Along with the great food, our wonderful sponsor VC Ultimate, helped provide awesome reversible jerseys that players wore throughout the day!
Lastly, thanks to TCUL (Minnesota Ultimate League) for helping us get the word out about the tournament!
The hat tournament committee felt Saturday was a success. Not only on our more obvious goals but on a few other levels as well. We are looking forward to organizing more of these in the future and hope to see you at the next one!
On behalf of Drag’n Thrust thank you! We are all are very thankful to those that made it out. Individually I expected to have a fun day playing ultimate and making new friends but what I didn’t expect was the exuberant amount of support I felt from so many that attended. My team, M-C- Kinnon, was awesome not only rocking it out on the field all day but also shared kind words of encouragement in our closing huddle for Drag’n Thrust and for each other. Additionally throughout the day old and new faces made it a point to extend a high five and say “best of luck at Worlds”. The community that resides within the sport of Ultimate is what makes it so special and it was extra strong on Saturday.
Full list of Photos will be posted to the Drag’n Thrust facebook page, so head on over and check them out!
