Author: Shea Gunther

Schedule for Saturday’s Southern Maine Invitational Middle School Tournament

Just a reminder—we’re playing in the Southern Maine Invitational Tournament on Saturday at the Wainright fields in South Portland. Here’s a map of Wainright.

Our first game starts at 8:45am and we’ll be done by 1pm. Here is the schedule for the two teams:

4/5/6 Team: All games played on the middle strip of fields
Game 1, 8:45-10:00 vs. Cumberland 1 on field 3
Game 2, 10:15 – 11:30 vs South Portland 1 on field 4
Game 3, 11:45 – 1:00 vs Portland 1 on field 4

7/8 Team: All games played on the last strip of fields
Game 1, 8:45-10:00 vs. South Portland 2 on field 9
Game 2, 10:15 – 11:30 vs Cape Elizabeth 3 on field 8
Game 3, 11:45 – 1:00 vs TBD on field 8

Please have your players at Wainright by 8am on Saturday so that we can get organized and warmed up before our first game. Remember that it’s about a five minute walk from the car to the field.

The organizers of the tournament are bringing in a number of Food Trucks for lunch that will be rolling in just after the first game. It’s probably not a bad idea to think strategically about getting in line for the food trucks; last year there were quite a long wait for food at peak lunchtime.

Roll Falmouth!

Amherst 2015 was a success!

FMS Ultimate at the 2015 Amherst Tournament

From left to right: Teddy, Ash, Coach Shea, Jameson, Jake, Ayla, Julia with baby Anders on her lap, and Caitlyn, Anders’ big sister. Missing from the photo are Liam and Michael.

An intrepid band of nine FMS Ultimate players journeyed deep into the heart of Massachusetts yesterday to battle against some of the best middle school ultimate teams in New England. The sun was beating down upon their heads like so many fiery raindrops but the players pushed through it like it was a cool spring day.

In our first game we were pitted against the Four Rivers Boys team, a program with a rich 20+ year history that has reliably turned out top notch squads ever since. It was a great view of the future of our own program, though a view that was seen on the losing end of a 13-1 score. Still though, we did score one point and kept up high spirits throughout.

Our second game came against the evenly matched co-ed Ottoson team. We jumped out to an early lead that held all the way through to a 9-7 victory (our game was capped, due to time, at nine points). And our final game of the day was against another co-ed team, PVPA, a small team that had just one sub. We won our last game 13-4. Two wins, one loss on the day.

FMS Ultimate played like champs this weekend. They scored with long hucks and with short smart passes. They got wily D blocks. They ran their offensive formation and started to feel how smoothly the disc can flow around the field when everything comes together. It was great to watch.

And we can’t wait to get back next year!

Thank you to our host family the Zobels for their generosity and hospitality. Thank you to the parents who made the three hour trek down to Amherst to cheer us on. Thanks to the players for giving everything in the 88 degree heat. Thanks to Cumberland Ultimate coach Gregg Novick for giving us lots of helpful tournament beta. And thanks to Jim Pistrang, the Amherst tournament director and middle school coaching ultimate legend.

Amherst Middle School Tournament information

We will be traveling down to Amherst, Massachusetts in less than two weeks to play in the Amherst Middle School Invitational Tournament. We will leave Falmouth on Saturday, May 16th and will spend the night with a local host family. Players are welcome to stay with the host family or can stay nearby with any friends or family you might have in the area. We’ll be going into town on Saturday evening to eat dinner as a team, so anyone staying elsewhere can join in.

Here is the website for the tournament.

We’ll be organizing carpools this week as I get a better idea of attendance.

I will publish more details on this post as I get them as updates below.

Updates:

Game-day information:

Sunday, May 17:==========================

Captain’s Meeting: 9am

Game 1: 9:30 – 10:45: Field 5 vs. Four Rivers Boys

Game 2: 11:00 – 12:15: Field 4 vs Ottoson

Game 3:  2:00 – 3:15: Field 5 vs Hartsbrook

Fields are at the Amherst Regional High School  |  Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/UgRgy

Departure information:

We will gather at the parking lot behind the high school where we normally practice on Saturday, May 16th for a 2pm departure. Please have your players at the drop off no later than 1:45 to ensure our timeliness.

If you are driving down to Amherst on Saturday with us and have spots in your car for players to ride, please contact me to let me know the number of open seats. Here are the known available spots:

• Shea’s car: 1 available seat

It’s perfectly fine if players aren’t able to come down on Saturday but want to play in the games on Sunday. It would mean an early morning on Sunday (Amherst is ~3 hours away, so you’d need to leave by 5:30am), but would be just fine.

When we get down to Amherst on Saturday evening, we will go into town to have a meal as a team, so players who are traveling down but staying with friends or family should plan on joining us.

Host Family:

We are staying with a local host family who are involved in the local ultimate community. I will send on their address and contact location to all parents in an email to the Parents Google Group.

Arriving back in Falmouth:

Our last game on Sunday finishes at 3:15, so we will be leaving Amherst anywhere from 3:15 (if we finish early) to 3:30+ (if we finish right on time), so we will be back in Falmouth no later than 7pm. Please plan on picking up your players back at the Falmouth High school parking lot sometime between 6 and 7pm. We’ll update parents from the road as to our exact arrival time.

Packing List for Tournament:

– Sleeping bag & pillow (if you are staying with the host family)

– Toothbrush & other nighttime necessities

– Money for dinner on Saturday night and late lunch on Sunday

– Packed snacks for during the day on Sunday and the drive down and back.

– Backup socks for Sunday (it’s always a good idea to change socks between games on tournament day)

– Folding chair

– Water bottle (super important)

– Sunscreen

– Light jacket (the forecast is looking warm on Sunday right now, but it’s maybe not a bad idea to pack a light wind breaking in case of rain).