On April 29^th, St. Tim’s Ultimate Frisbee, or Great STUF as they’ve come to be called, sent ten brave heroines on an epic journey to Fairfax, Virginia. With only ten ladies, we had just three subs to give rest to our players in need.

 

In our first battle, we faced off against Wilson High School. While our girls were incredibly tough, Wilson was vastly more experienced and was able to use their knowledge of the game against us. Tomisin Akanbi made great defensive plays, followed up by Alayna Tillman’s heads-up playing and Ronelle William’s extraordinary cuts on offense. These efforts led to Amanda Hamlet’s assist to Alayna for a point. As their first game, our players performed admirably and no point was easy for our opponents. Despite 10-1 loss, our girls were extremely impressive for their first game – so much so that Wilson awarded Tomisin the spirit award for the game! In the end, we were able to learn much about running a great offense as well as how to defend against one.

 

We used our new found knowledge of the game in an incredible faceoff against Coffee (Woodson).  We started the game by scoring the first two points (Tomisin to Alayna and Alayna to Amanda). We began trading points with Coffee - Amanda threw an assist to Ronelle for a score and Ronelle threw another to Alayna for our fourth point to give us a 4-2 lead. However, our efforts and struggles from the last game began wearing on us, and Coffee managed three points in a row. In the final 15 minutes of our clash, Tomisin threw another pass to Alayna for our fifth point. Coffee scored another point, but we answered back with another score from Alayna to Ronelle to tie the game at 6-6. In our final minutes of the game, at universe point, we were worn out and Coffee was able to score their final point to win the game. It was a tremendous game and the amount of growth by our players were astounding! At the end of the game, Saleema Ibrahim earned the spirit award for her efforts and contagious positivity!

 

Our last game was our most grueling battle. We lost two players due to exhaustion and a minor injury, leaving our team to play with only one substitute. The Fairfax Flyers had a team of fresh legs and were able to run up the score 7-0 to take half. I cannot emphasize the level of effort that our ladies put forth in order to keep playing for each point, especially Ronelle, who was on the field for practically the entire game. Ronelle managed to continue to make strong cuts to get open and Alayna made two remarkable hand blocks against the Flyers. Prior to half time, we discussed a zone defense, a completely new strategy to most of our players. It allowed for our players to see the field from a new perspective and better understand the game, while conserving their energy with much less running. Denisse Caguana adopted this strategy with ease, despite this being her first tournament. We weren’t able to pull off this plan prior to the end of the half, but we did so in the last two points so well that we forced the Flyers into a frenzy! For the final point of the game, we pushed them back to the endzone, where Alayna threw a pass to Amanda for the score! We lost the game 8-2, but managed to ensure at least one point each game. The Flyers continuously commented on our astounding level of play and ability to adjust; and for the second time that day, Saleema earned the other team’s spirit award!

 

I wanted to give a special shout out to Saleema for her great spirit throughout the day, smiling and high-fiving players on all teams for great plays, to Sana Muhammad for her great play-making and coaching of other players, and to Noor Nabulsi for her stamina, her great defense, and despite rolling her ankle, wanting to still play in order to help the team.

 

Although we didn’t win any of our games, each of the teams acknowledge our great efforts, our eagerness to learn more about the game, and our great positivity. With those attributes in mind, the teams voted and the tournament director awarded St. Tim’s Spirit Award for the entire tournament! The entire team has shown tremendous growth this season, and I wanted to give recognition to that point because ultimate is a very difficult game to pick up in a mere six weeks. The majority of our players started without knowing how to play or even throw the disc. Now, they can throw from different positions, set up formations, make and dispute their own calls – they can play an entire game on their own!

 

Scores:

Alayna T. – 4

Amanda H. – 2

Ronelle W. – 2

 

Assists:

                Alayna T. – 3

                Amanda H. – 2

                Tomisin A. – 2

                Ronelle W. – 1