Dark Mark Summons!
Is the baby blue the most inked team in ultimate?


1) Nate Franz
2) Ben "Jamin" Cohen
3) Jonathan "Opie" O'Connell
4) Bert Kang (x2)
5) Bryan Paradise
6) Tyler Splinder
7) Hector Valdivia

8) Dean Bolton
9) Tyson Park
10) Brian Frederick
11) Nate Hurst
12) Matt Scallet
13) Dan Heijmen
14) Tom Burkly
15) Bobby Lau
16) Dan Miller
17) Shane Hohenstein
18) Will Lokke
19) Kevin Riley
20) Brandon "Muffin" Malecek
21) Jimmy Foster
22) Matt Rebholz (x2)

23) Andrew Mahowald
24) Tom Annen
25) Jonathan Masler
26) Cullen Geppert (x2)
27) Zach "Turtle" Ehler
28) Alex Simmons
29) Dayu Liu
30) Ben Feldman
31)

Unsure:
1) Pete Rank
2) Jimmy McMurray
3) Matt Ley
4) Matt Pankratz
5) Andy Pohl
6) Jacob Spiro
7) Brad Wendt
8) Grant Zukowski
9) Jason Ludden
10) Ron Kubalanza
11) Mike Lang
12) Will Henry
13) Matt D'Amour

The Hodags have become a premiere college team over the past decade. The team is now looking to amplify its impact on the sport that has allowed it to succeed and to remain an elite competitive presence for the foreseeable future. The team wishes to accelerate this impact on the ultimate community by soliciting the help of its strong Hodag heritage. We request from our dedicated alumni to play a larger role in the team and to protect the long-term vision of the program. A Hodag Alumni Board of Directors is being created in order to provide an opportunity for alumni to maintain involvement with the team and to play a valuable role in the sustainable success of the Hodags.

The Captains, Coaches, and Players are primarily focused on the immediate needs of being competitive in the season they are playing, and that means that some of the long term goals of the team fall by the wayside. We are looking to for this Board of Directors, consisting of alumni, to manage those long term interests of the team so that the current players can stay focused on the Series. The Board provides a voice to the entire Hodag community on how the program is run.

The board members will be voting and executing functions for the long term interest of the team such as:

- Selecting and Evaluating the performance of a Coach(s)

- Equipment that carries over from year to year

- Recruiting

- Sponsorships

- Budgeting

- Endowment

- Alumni presence/relations

- etc

We are looking for 4 Alumni to volunteer for this year. Two will serve 2-year terms and two will serve 1-year terms. Board Members are expected to have one meet per month and to spend the necessary time outside of board meetings to achieve the long-term strategic goals of the program.

Interested alumni should email Jake Smart so we can begin organizing the selection process. Board Members will be voted in by the Hodag community (both new and old). If there are any alumni not on this mailing list that you think would be interested, please forward this email along to them.

HL,

Jake Smart and Chris Scotto Divetta

Potlatch -- THE BIG MUCKAMUCK

The Idea
What would happen if the best college programs from the past decade put together all-star teams and battled it out for College Ultimate supremacy?

We want to find out who is the the big boss -- the best of the past ten years.

When & Where
The right way to do this is a part of a huge celebration of Ultimate: Potlatch. We plan to play Muckamuck as a tournament-within-a-tournament-within-a-party, during the first two days of Potlatch 2011 (July 2nd and 3rd in Redmond, Washington). The Potlatch directors are on board with our ideas, and we think this is a unique environment for a one-time-only event.

The Format
The top Men's and Women's College All-star teams will organize during Spring of this year. They'll descend on Potlatch -- some with super-fun Potlatch teams, and some coming solely to play in competitive Muckamuck games.

Day 1 of competition will see the teams drawn into Power Pools. They will play three games to determine seedings for the championship bracket, and a likely Friday night Showcase game in each division.

Day 2 of competition will see quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals played, with the finals being Saturday night's showcase event.

Each team is guaranteed four games (three pool play games Saturday and a quarterfinal game Sunday).

Teams
Eligibility and seedings are based on Nationals performance between 2000 and 2010.

Open
1. Wisconsin
2. Colorado
3. Carleton
4. Florida
5. Brown
6. Stanford
7. Oregon
8. Texas

Giving us Power Pools of:
Pool A - Wisconsin, Florida, Brown, Texas
Pool B - Colorado, Carleton, Stanford, Oregon

Rosters
Teams will decide their own rosters and are encouraged to elect three captains to organize the selection process and make final decisions about roster composition. To be eligible to be selected to a roster, a player must have played the College Series during one season between 2000 and 2010.

This is a once in a lifetime tournament that we think no one should pass up. Get in touch with old teammates and fellow alums.

Hodags,
We’ve accepted the bid and are in the process of fielding a team.

It’s essentially an 8-Team College All-Star Tournament.

“Team of the Decade (2000-2010)” sort of competition. But there will be spots open to guys who graduated before 2000 and also for current or recent college grads, meaning guys who are graduating in 2011 or later. The event is being run in conjunction with Potlatch meaning that people could/should still compete in Potlatch games – but would play a few rounds a day with their college alum teams.

We agreed that the Hodags will compete. We want this to be open to any Hodag who has played a season with the team and who wants to be included. With that said we wanted to share a few things about the event and some items that we talked about.

#1 We are going to win. We want this event to represent the best of Hodag Ultimate, and when we are at our best – we win. Many of us have competed in Ice_Hole events, which are ridiculously fun, yet slightly lacking in the quality of play or an overall competitive mindset. If you decide to play you are saying that your priority is WINNING. Obviously fun will be had but once the games start it is time to Dominate and have a blast doing it.

#2 As said earlier, this tournament takes place in conjunction with Potlatch (July 2-4) and I imagine many of the guys reading this email already have vague plans of attending already. Everyone is free to join a team if they want – but would also be competing with the College Alum team and therefore would probably have to miss a few games with their Potlatch team.

#3 This is going to be seriously awesome. We don’t get the opportunity to play as Hodags very often and I know that I would absolutely love to wear that Baby Blue alongside all of you Hodags out there and kill some of our old rivals. Hodags who choose to compete are committing themselves to represent our Program with effort, grit, skill and balls. They are also committing to be physically and mentally ready to bring it against top-level competition.

Roster:
Dan Heijmen - Captain
Andrew Brown
Jim Foster

Do Work.

I just got back from a planning meeting for College Nationals. There are a couple roles that still need filling. As we were trying to think of people to fill the roles, I couldn't help but think some of the alumni would do a good job.

Comment with more nominations, or nomination acceptance.

Twitter point person

Hector

Bert

Dean

Alice

Announcer-Finals

Scallet

Brown

Burkly

Announcer-Showcase game (Central Region vs the World)

Shutkin

Riley

Shane

Pank

Jaydon (Bob Wilcox' suggestion)

2010 Alumni Game and Party: April 24th

Likely UBay fields.
Young 'Dags talking shit already.
Also will be tethered to my 30th Birthday Party.
Guaranteed to be wilder than last year, which killed several handles of Jameson & Bailey's and a couple kegs of Guiness.

Get here to help ready the kids for Regionals in Carleton and Natties in Madison, and to preview the shitshow that will be College Championships: Madtown 'Oh Ten.

Contact me with questions, I guess.

Hh

Alright so the plan is to get a little bit of a network in place for recruiting. Here is what everyone needs to provide me with ASAP (bryanparadise@hotmail.com):

1. Degrees earned and dates
2. Years as a Hodag (# and years played)
3. Current Location
4. Where you grew up
5. Current Profession/Job with Employer (if recognizable)-for example Burkley works for Lehman Brothers
6. If you are comfortable your family situation

We are going to try and basically put together a sweet graphic on the website to allow people to basically see where Hodags are now. Our focus in providing this information is two fold. One give kids a person they may reach out to in an area they live if they have questions. Two to give parents a sense of the fact that many Hodags are successful/normal people. Obviously this is voluntary, but we are specifically targeting those that are out of school a few years.

If you want to save me time put it in bio form as follows:

Bryan Paradise, was raised in a small town in Wisconsin. Having discovered Ultimate as a Junior, Bryan played Ultimate at Wisconsin from 1999-2003. Bryan graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry in 2001 and then attended Law School and recieved a J.D. in 2004. After living and practicing in Milwaukee for 3 years he moved with his current wife to Minneapolis where he works as a staff legal attorney for Zurich. Bryan and his wife are expecting their first child in February, 2010.

I just spent an hour catching up on ultimate. It appears as though:

Muffin is coaching Bella Dona
Hector is coaching the Hodags
Madison is hosting College Nationals

Although there are a million things rushing through my head as I consider these facts, the overwhelming feeling that this "sounds like a party" is on the marquee in my mind's eye.

My next question, regarding nationals in Madison, is: how can I contribute? Aside from dropping drinks in other drinks and dry heaving the next day? The answer, at least one of them, is to contact Kate Arnold, the TD. She wants to get in touch with alumni that are interested in helping host the tourney. Reach her at:

")">'KATE ELIZABETH ARNOLD' , or upa_college_td@upa.org.

I would be remiss to not invite you all to stay with me. Becasue I still live in Madison (for-ev-er), my house is open to any and all that want to stay with me and my family. Although our apartment is only a 1 bedroom, we do have sleeping space in the living room, and people can probably pitch tents in the back yard of our apartment complex. However, my house is no longer lawless--the days of Fossum stabbing the fridge with a chef's knife are behind us. Maybe. But I do have a child who is learning to speak, so plan your actions and vocabulary accordingly.

So I'll just say this in passing and we'll see what happens... Wisconsin Alumni vs Team USA?

Mufabot. Word.

Hodag Love, Freddy