Chapter 1 - The Losers

The Losers were born out of frustration by the Brothers Richards who played ultimate with a University of Washington IMA frat team. Not being members of the fraternaty in question, or any other fraternaty for that matter, the Brothers Richards felt a bit outcast, a bit dirty, so they formed their own team.

The brothers picked up a couple of their friends from their hometown of Spokane. Many people would question this move. Spokane? Beers, steers and queers? Yes it was true, but these Spokane boys would turn out to be the most loyal of players. A practice at 9:30 on a Sunday in the cold rain of November? Not a problem.

In order to round out the team and give it a local flair, the Brothers Richards picked up several strays from Seattle. A few of them would be vital in developing strong leadership roles, bringing players closer together and helping to form the Washington Ultimate team the following year...and the other was just a warm body on a cold winter night.

Chapter 2 - The Salad Years

Out of bordem of winning the IMA every quarter, Eric Richards, John Richards and Jason Johnson decided to form a club team at the U-dub so we could travel over 1000 miles to get our asses kicked by the likes of Stanford, Santa Cruz and Colorado. The plan worked. The Univerisity of Washington Ultimate Club was formed in 1996, and we traveled to the Stanford Tournament with 9 guys in 2 cars and got our asses kicked. But it was great fun and we were hooked.

After going 0-9 our first year, but ranked the highest of all the teams without a win at #69, we decided to recruit hard for next year's team. The numbers were getting better and we picked up key players and leaders in James Musick and Dave Weitzenhoffer. We continued to get our asses kicked, but still had a great time and managed to pickup a few wins here and there.

Then we got really ambitious and decided to throw our own tournament. It was a local success, caterting to the Oregon, BC, and Washington schools. We also managed to coax UCSD, Humboldt and Santa Cruz up here as well. The tournaments were played in the mud and the quality was mediocre, but our party's became infamous. Nothing could ever top the first year party, which went down as the greatest ulimate party Seattle has ever seen. Mostly thanks to the UCSD boys... and no thanks to the Canadian bastards (smirk).

Chapter 3 - Gravy

In just 2 short years we were the biggest club sport on campus with 50+ members, thanks to heavy recruiting in the dorms, frats and around campus.

The 3rd year got even more serious with Musick and Weisenhoffer as co-captains. We aquired the Sockeye playbook, recruited some great players and set a lofty goal of top 3 at Regionals. Practices got intense. We took over Husky Stadium at night and got help for some good local club players.

We had a winning record n 1998 and were a top 20 team, finishing the year ranked 18th in the nation. The team peaked at Regionals - specifically in the first half of the quarterfinals against a very good UCSD team. We were up 7-2 until SD came up with 9 unanswered points and a 11-7 win. I guess we peaked a little early. All in all, a good run.

Chapter 4 - The Arrival

This season, and in fact the next three, were defined by the acquisition of ultimate guru Chris Van Holmes as our coach. The return of most of the members of the 1998 team, as well as the arrival of some talented rookies, Greg Martin in particular, gave CVH much to work with during this, his first venture into College Open coaching.

A rough start at the Presidents' Day Tournament in San Diego left the team a little discouraged. But CVH helped us rebound and led us to a very impressive tournament at Stanford, ending with a solid performance in the pre-quarters against a strong Santa Cruz team. Dave "Tasty" Weitzenhoffer returned from Russia just in time for the Sundodger Tournament with about 10 lbs of alcohol floating about his mid-section but still proved to be a valuable team asset. Alas we lost to UVic for the second time in the tournament in the Semi-finals. Many believe Maxwell's "Uvic is our dirty whore" cheer to be the karmonic reason for the losses....

The high for the 1999 season was travelling up to Vancouver, BC to beat the Canadians on their field. Washington won the NW Sectionals with two very close games against UVic and UBC. Maxwell Croy sacrificed his body in the UVic game by stopping Tibult on a huck from James Misick. Nice catch Ryan Peterson. The UBC game was won on a cross field hammer from Giora Proskurowski, another key offseason acquisition, and it was followed by a characteristic "how do you like that, bitch?" No Spirit points go to Giora.

Regionals were held in Eugene and Washington was seeded 4th; unfortunately, good play was again interupted by karma, and we lost our upset bid against Oregon to take second in the pool. Washington wound up taking 5th after a loss to a UC Davis bitter about the ass-whooping they got earlier in the day.

Chapter 5 - A New Beginning

The last year of the millenium marked a mass exodus from the team. On the list of casualties (all sorely missed) were James Musick, Dave "Tasty" Weizenhoffer, Ryan Pederson, Chad Martin, Dave Tashima, Dave Tran, Travis Norsen, and Pat Solari. The void left by their departure afforded many young players the opportunity to make the A-team and gain some valuable experience. Under the leadership of Eric Mattson, Greg Martin, and Ryan Seguine, continued guidance from CVH, and help from veterans such as Giora Proskurowski and Stephan Stohler, the team began to rebuild itself: bigger, stronger, faster....

Many strides forward were made but the youth and inexperience of the team eventually led to a somewhat disappointing season plagued by injuries. A player was lost to an injury at every tournament. Such is the nature of the beast.

This was the last year for long-time stalwart Stephan Stohler. A chilly handler and great guy, Stephan brought a humor to the team that can not be replaced. Giora Proskurowski also ran out of eligibility, and his fire and light-hearted approach to practice will also be missed.

Chapter 6 - The Clone Wars

With a sizable group of returning players, a plethora of young talent, the leadership of captains Jason Fuller and Mike Rode, and the guidance of veteran coach Chris Van Holmes, Washington planned to take the 2000-2001 season by storm.

Intense fall and winter practices led to high expectations and some early tournament successes. Unfortunately, as the spring progressed, the injury bug once again bit the Washington team hard. In addition, a number of poorly managed personality conflicts, controversies over field space, and more A-team-caliber players than spots on the A-team led to an unprecedented level of animosity between the members of the A-team (Ragnarok) and the members of the B-team (PCS). While this schism did lead to some breakthrough individual performances and a best-ever finish by the UW-B squad (#78), it only seemed to hurt the A-team, who got beat up and banged up at Sectionals and eventually self-destructed at Regionals in a pre-quarters loss to UC-Berkeley.

However, there were still plenty of good moments, the usual number of spectacular plays, and also a considerable volume of alcohol consumed over the course of the season. Graduating this year were Mychael Richardson, T.J. Neth, Jason Fuller, and Greg Martin. After three years guiding the team, coach Chris Van Holmes also elected to hang up his clipboard after the 2001 season. Those of us who had the opportunity to play for CVH will forever be indebted to him for his tireless devotion to the team and to the sport of ultimate, and for clarifying the difference between lagers and ales (not to mention heiser and mung). Thanks and best wishes, CVH.

Chapter 7 - The Comeback

After the dissapointing and difficult 2000-2001 season, new captains Chris Haugen, Albert Wu, and James Evans were given the task of healing the wounds of the team and returning the program to prominence.

This didn't prove to be an easy task initially, as many of our bids were either rejected outright by tournament directors or we were asked to sit on a waiting list. However, Haugen's superior negotiating skills and Albert's charm eventually won most of them over, and the UW wound up sending teams to an unprecedented number of tournaments (ten, with nine over the final 14 weeks of the season). The captains were also somehow able to persuade/cojole/bribe Sockeye stalwart Barney Ahouse into coaching the A-team, which led to a considerable increase in both the amount of practice time devoted to conditioning and the number of "Who's House? A-HOUSE!" cheers heard coming from rental vehicles up and down the west coast.

The results of this grand experiment seem to speak for themselves--the A-team met or exceeded expectations at every tournament and wound up finishing the season ranked 21st in the nation despite playing in the most competitive region in the country. It is hard to recognize every great moment of the season in this short space (so be sure to read Mike Rode's tournament summaries), but the highlight of the season was probably a backdoor-quarterfinals victory over Davis at Regionals, followed by a gritty but losing effort against eventual Nationals qualifier UC Santa Cruz in the backdoor semis.

2001 marked the final year for a number of UW veterans: Eric Mattson, Sean Delfel, Eric Laughlin, James Evans, Stephen Bramwell, Kevin Carlin, and Ian Shafer. All were outstanding players and fine individuals who will be sorely missed. After two short but highly successful seasons, Barney Ahouse also decided to retire from his UW coaching position in order to pursue other interests in Sacramento.

Chapter 8 - The Contenders

Expectations were high for the 2002-2003 season. Fall practices were the most heavily attended on record, and we became the largest club sport on campus. There was also a sense of urgency, with no fewer than seven players using their final year of eligibility, including captains Josh Lovseth, Mike Rode, Pat McCarthy, and Albert Wu. Sockeye veteran (and former college national champion) Brook Martin agreed to coach the A-team, and in just a few short months managed to install a new flow offense, developed our defensive squad into one of the most feared units in college ultimate, and demonstrated an unhealthy attachment to his "PBRs". Brook is also the best heckler that any of us has ever heard.

The addition of Carleton alum Matt Hahn and rookies Ryan "Wink" Winkelman and Anthony "Cac" Cacallori to a strong group of veteran players gave us the most competitive A-team in the history of UW ultimate. We reached the semifinals of the President's Day tournament in San Diego, won the consolation bracket after a slow start at the Stanford Qualifier, won the PLU BBQ, and also had strong showings at the Santa Barbara Invitational and Fools West. The B-team, led by coach Eric Goetz and captains Rusty Brown and Jason Tabert, also made big strides in 2003, probably practicing more than any other B-team in the nation, and even travelling to two California tournaments, in addition to some local venues.

Our performance in the UPA college series was quite a rollercoaster. Our seaon-long goal was a trip to Nationals, but we knew that it would take a tremendous effort to capture the sole bid from a region featuring seven of the top twelve teams in the UPA national rankings. After losing two-time Callahan nominee Albert Wu to eligibility issues, and then a 12-11 heartbreaker to UBC in the WA/BC sectional tournament, we wound up seeded eighth at the Northwest Regional tournament in Vancouer BC. After winning our first two games handily, we had a showdown with the defending national champion Stanford Bloodthirsty to win our pool. Despite outstanding individual performances, big plays from just about every player on the roster, and dozens of supporters on the sidelines, we came up a little short at the end, losing 15-14 at double-game-point. This left us with a pre-quarters matchup against our nemesis, UBC, that we would be forced to play with Matt "so hot right now" Hahn hobbled by a knee injury suffered during the Stanford game. A strong first-half performance by UBC, combined with lingering dissapointment over the loss to Stanford, a large number of UBC supporters on the sideline, and a moderate wind, left us reeling at 10-6 shortly after halftime. However, we got two lucky breaks (and quickly capitolized) when UBC dropped a pull on a downwind point and then got stalled on the goal line on the following pull. This energized our defensive squad, and we started making play after play, including a spectacular tip-and- catch by Gabe Pedersen in the endzone. Ryan Seguine, who had struggled maintaining his compusure under similar circumstances during previous years, absolutely took over the game in the second half, playing every point, burning every defender that UBC tried to cover him with, and throwing a half-dozen perfect forehand hucks for scores. An upwind offensive score iced the biggest comeback in UW history.

Unfortunately, the second day of Regionals was not as bright for the hungry Sundodgers. Usually wind and rain give us an advantage, but in our quarterfinal matchup with UC Davis this was offset by the presense of our former coach, Barney Ahouse, on the opposing sideline. Davis took advantage of the conditions, and their potent deep game, to build a sizable lead, and were unable to mount another huge comeback. Although this was a dissapointing way to end the season, especially for the eight players making their final appearance at the college level (Ryan Seguine, Michael Rode, Josh Lovseth, Albert Wu, Ian Kraucunas, Pat McCarthy, Matt Hahn, and Marcus Lee), we know that we left it all on the field, and that we had put Washington Ultimate on the national map.