Courtesy of Men’s Ultimate FrisbeeAs senior captain George Hughes-Strange leaped over a University of Arkansas defender on Sunday, April 9, to pull down the winning touchdown catch, it only meant one thing for the men’s club Ultimate Frisbee team: a 2006 Sectionals Championship. For the first time since 2002, the 34th-ranked team in the nation (out of 392 teams) walked away from the Ozark Sectional Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., with a win, upending perennial powerhouses Kansas University and the University of Arkansas.
“We were absolutely pumped with the Sectionals win,” said junior Stan Parker. “To go in there and take it home is huge, especially heading into Regionals.”
The Sectional Championships are the first of a three-part series of tournaments leading to the National Championships, whereby each team plays against other teams in their given Section, then the top six teams in the Section compete in the Regional Championships, and the top two teams of Regionals are invited to the National Championships. The Contrabears, as they are called, belong to the Ozark Section and South Region.
“When we’re playing against Division I schools like Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma we’re definitely at a disadvantage coming from a D-III school,” said Parker. “It’s tough sometimes, but we don’t let it get to us. We just need to keep on doing what we do.”
As it stands now, there is no break up between schools based on size of school, Division, or level (varsity or junior varsity, or, ‘A’ and ‘B’). So, the Contrabears play with a number of large Division I schools, such as University of Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Michigan, and the list goes on.
“There’s been a lot of talk in the past couple of years about splitting them into different divisions based on school size,” explained Parker. “I mean, Texas, for example, is huge. They have four legitimate teams – A, B, C, and D – that all have tryouts and everything. And then we have to go up against these guys – we’ve done pretty well against them in the past. I think that after winning Sectionals it’s really showing the critics what’s what and that the little guy can play with the big boys.”
Despite all these odds against them, the squad was able to head into last weekend’s Sectionals with confidence.
“We knew it’d be tough, but we knew we could do it. We just had to play smart and stick to our game,” said Parker.
They stuck to their game alright, and their stellar play gave them three convincing wins in Saturday’s pool play. Winning all three of their games on Saturday, the team upended Missouri State 15-7, Missouri-Rolla 15-7, and Arkansas B 15-4.
Their commanding play on Saturday earned the Contrabears a No. 4 seed for Sunday’s bracket play, out of 19 competing teams. They had a fierce adversary in their first game in Kansas University, arguably the best team in the Section. Kansas was ranked No. 1 in the UPA Section Poll and No. 2 in the UPA South Region Poll.
“We haven’t beaten Kansas in three years, so we came out hungry,” said Parker.
To gear up for a pair of tough Sunday match-ups, some players dug down deep and brought out all the tricks in the book, especially junior Brian Stowe, who completely shaved off his golden locks.
“I did it so I’d be more intimidating,” said Stowe. “Clearly it worked because teams were running for their lives away from me. The next step is Regionals and I’m trying to get the whole team to join me in my hairless escapade.”
The Kansas match was a hard fought one that witnessed a number of flip-flops and lead changes leading up to an incredibly exciting finish.
“There were a number of momentum shifts during the game,” explained Parker. “At first both of us were playing even, then we scored five straight points, then they scored six. The next thing we knew it was tied 11-11 and time had run out, which meant next point wins. It was killer.” According to UPA rules, each game is either to 15 points or two hours.
With the disc in their possession to start the semi-final overtime, the team couldn’t capitalize on their advantage and turned it over on a dropped pass. Kansas barreled their way down the field and threw a hammer that sailed just out of the end zone, turning it back over to the Contrabears. Another dropped pass gave Kansas the disc back, and it looked like they had the win sealed until junior Jake Levitas came up with a monster leaping D (defensive stop to turn it over) at the 10-yard line to get it back. They scored on the ensuring possession and upset their biggest rivals 12-11.
“We were going nuts. Jake’s play totally saved us the game,” said Parker.
With the win against Kansas, the Contrabears moved into the Sectional Finals against the home squad in the Arkansas Razorbacks. In the end, through a string of critical plays and solid defense, the Contrabears squeaked out the close victory by a 12-11 margin once again.
“Both Kansas and Arkansas were running a special defense throughout the whole game to stop George [Hughes-Strange]. We called it an ‘Iso-George’ defense and a bunch of teams do it to shut him down and keep him out of the game. In this ‘Iso-George’ defense six people play the zone, with three defenders around the disc while another person plays George man-to-man. He’s considered one of the best players in the Region and without a doubt the backbone of our team. It was hard for us because we were losing a big weapon, so we had to get the young players to really step up and play their game,” said Parker.
Early on in the season, an Ultimate player from another school made a post to a well-known Ultimate message board saying, “The first team to shut down George Hughes-Strange shuts down Wash U.” From that grew the ‘Iso-George’ defense.
Despite this, however, it was none other than Hughes-Strange that came down with the disc in the endzone for the Sectionals-clinching touchdown. Trailing 8-4 at one point, the team held on and persevered to catch back up and tie it at 11 apiece. Senior co-captain Ian Orland sent a downfield huck into the endzone where Hughes-Strange, and his 6-foot 6-inch build leaped over an Arkansas defender to pull it in.
With the Sectionals Championship in their pocket, the team will head to Regionals in Tulsa, Okl., on April 29 and 30 as one of the top three seeds for a chance to earn their place in the 16-team National Championships.
For now, the team is focusing on Nationals and preparing for fierce competition.
“We just need to keep on doing what we do,” said Parker. “Our big weakness is that we’re not as naturally athletic as all these other guys at big schools, so we have to overcome that with smart playing and playing with heart. That’s really what we do best – give it our all and never give up. We bust ourselves for the team and really put a lot into it. We’ve been the comeback kids all season long and we don’t plan on stopping.”
Regardless of what happens at Regionals and Nationals, the team’s future is looking bright.
“We’re losing George [Hughes-Strange] and Ian [Orland], who are two big leaders to the team. George has been captain for two years now, and it will be hard to get by without them, but we have a bunch of returning players and we’ll have a whole bunch of new guys ready to step up. We’re getting more and more freshman recruits every year so the future’s looking pretty damn good.”