The second annual New Mars Ultimate Festival in Pittsburgh, PA, held July 5, 6,
and 7, was just that--a festival. Nineteen teams from the Northeast, Central,
Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions came out for three days of highly spirited
ultimate benefiting the Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia Chapter of the
Leukemia Society of America. An ultimate success this year, New Mars players,
vendors and organizers raised $600 for Leukemia, a fivefold increase over the
inaugural.
The weather was very cooperative, with evening lows in the upper 60s, which made
the bonfire a delightful treat for campers at the fields. Daytime ran sunny in
the high 80s to low 90s, making hydration a factor for the teams. With room for
14 ultimate fields (New Mars used eight) camping and running water, Turner
Valley Soccer Complex proved to be a nearly ideal location for New Mars.
Both play and spirit improved over last year's high standards, culminating in a
great final between two newcomers, Grover's Mill, a team made up mostly of
Chesapeake and Lucy players (with a couple of key pick-ups), and Go Away, a true
pick-up team boasting players from Chicago's Z, Philly Rage, Chesapeake and
Philly Peppers. Grover's Mill outlasted Go Away 17-15. North Coast (Cleveland)
repeated as B champs, defeating Throbbers (Pittsburgh Summer League Champs)
15-9. Blender (Cincinnati/Columbus) won a closely contested team spirit vote.
Media coverage improved this year as well. New Mars got mentions on radio
station 92.9, WLTJ, Health & Fitness Magazine helped promote the tourney with
free ads, The Norwin Star put New Mars on the full cover of its sports section
and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave it the top half cover of its east region
FYI section.
The field was mixed with players from Philadelphia, DC, Cleveland, Pittsburgh,
New York, Boston, Ann Arbor and Chicago. Handler Ann Baginski returned from
Hawaii to rejoin DuckXing (Carleton). The field began its unique scramble play
on Friday morning. Each team played three games on each of the first two days,
in an almost random draw. Teams were then ranked based on a power-ranking,
which factors in "who you play, and how well you do against them." After
scramble play, teams were ranked as follows: A bracket: (1) Go Away (2) Grover's
Mill (3) Poultry on Motrin (pick-up, formerly Chicken Coup) (4) Philly Peppers
with Seeds & Stems (Philadelphia) (5) DuckXing (6) Vulcan Death Grip
(Pittsburgh) (7) McBain (NJ) (8) Big Ass Truck (Michigan). B bracket: (9)
Throbbers (10) Skepy Boo (Kutztown/Allentown) (11) Havoc (NJ) (12) Blender (13)
bringITon (Pittsburgh) (14) Hegemony Cricket (pick-up) (15) North Coast (16)
Myron (Michigan, returning champs). The C Bracket comprised L.I.E. (Long
Island), Stone Soup (DC) and Gus Plus (Pittsburgh TA reunion). The two biggest
surprises of the final seedings were the improvement of DuckXing, who went from
the bottom of the B pool in `95 to the quaterfinals of the A pool in `96,
and the decline of Myron, last years overall champ losing in the first round of
the B-Bracket.
Unlike last year, when the tournament play followed the seeding exactly, there
were a couple of upsets this year. A very strong Vulcan Death Grip pulled out a
victory over Poultry on Motrin at the cap as Todd Leib, a member of Pittsburgh's
Three Rivers Flow brought down the winning goal on a huck to win 13-12. Holding
true to seed however, Go Away beat B.A.T. 13-7; Grover's Mill defeated McBain
13-10 and in a rematch from the previous day's match, Philly Peppers turned the
tables and outlasted DuckXing 13-11 in the final quarterfinal match. In
the semis, Grover's Mill dominated Vulcan 15-1 in a very lopsided contest while
Go Away handled Philly Peppers 15-10.
In the finals, it was the combined play of Jim Nesbitt and Sean Robinson (team
MVP) which helped bring the championship to Mill. The game was filled with
spectacular endzone plays, hucks and layouts by both the male and female
participants. Rich Farmer of Go Away thrilled the spectators with his
high-release flick and dynamic endzone play. But in the end, the number two seed
was too deep and too experienced for the scrappy Go Away players to pull it out.
Look for both these teams to be New Mars powerhouses in years to come.
Last year, as participants may recall, New Mars had custom rakku ceramic
trophies created by Karen Thorne for first and second place, and team spirit.
To continue with that theme of original art, local atelier Boris Bally was
commissioned to produce the awards, and presented three majestic actual-size
discs made of bronze, aluminum and copper, respectively, with matching display
stands.
A new and very successful feature to New Mars this year was sports photographer
Marty Murphy, who with his team photographed and taped play throughout the
weekend. They set up a board with over 200 proofs, allowing players to pick out
and order photographs of their team, or individual players in action. Many
players were excited about the opportunity, and plenty of orders were taken.
For a copy of the video of the finals ($20 plus s+h), call Marty at
412/920-4566.
Next year's New Mars will be better still. We already have many plans for
improvement, including moving to a two woman mandatory rule and improved water
and food distribution in our continuing effort to make New Mars the best co-ed
tournament on this planet or any other. On behalf of Steve Paul, Festival
Director, and myself, thanks to all the teams who participated, and I look
forward to seeing you all next year. Please feel free to contact me
412/268-1541; dl39+@andrew.cmu.edu) with any comments or suggestions.