Toronto Ultimate Festival - Season Start Up

With the start of May comes the unofficial beginning of the summer touring season: the Toronto Ultimate Festival (TUF). One of the rare tournaments that caters to the big three divisions (Open, Womens and Co-Ed), it's an opportunity for nearby teams to finalize rosters and see friends in other divisions before the summer splits off into single-gender/Co-Ed tournaments.

After last weekend's agonizing decision making process, the leadership is looking forward to the opportunity to match or beat last year's third place finish. Expectations are much higher this year, especially since the team is now seeded first overall in the Co-Ed division. Changes to Bytown Flatball Club (last year's second best team in Canada according to Nationals) mean a shift in the eastern powers. The Quebec teams are (in)famous for their ability to run all day, Waterloo will field the hardest working team in Ultimate and Big Hammers and Tundra will look to become Toronto's "number one" team. It will be an exciting first look at what to expect from other teams for the rest of the year, as well as test out possible line-ups, plays and strategies. It will also be a chance for Monster to change its winless streaks against both Mayhem (Hamilton) and RIP (Montreal-area), all games last year being decided by one or two points.

The biggest problem with sustaining a competitive touring team is not being complacent after a good year. With most of Monster returning, there's a strong core and the addition of a few new players should solidify the team. After our first practice, people seemed to get in tune with the team's philosophy and began the process of learning each other's tendencies. Hopefully this translates into a strong result at Sunnybrook this weekend, but in the big picture, it's not wins early in the season that matter so much as the ones in July and August. Come this weekend, let the games begin.