From 1987 to 1990 I played collegiate Ultimate for Humboldt State University. I was born and raised in Santa Barbara and every summer I played Ultimate by the Condors. My last year at Humboldt we were knocked out of the Regionals by the Tide after leading 7-0 and losing 15-13. The winning play was a questionable stall count, blind, forty yard blade thrown by ‘Texas.’ I think I scored seven times on ‘Cones.’

The next year I went to graduate school at UCSB, and I still had one year of eligibility left. That year I think our record was 12-9 going into Regionals. Regionals were in Santa Barbara that year. Going into Regionals we had never beat Stanford, Humboldt or Santa Cruz. To make matters worse Humboldt was currently ranked number one in the nation. Regionals were double elimination with 16 teams. We won our first two games and lost our third to Santa Cruz on Saturday. That pitted us against Humboldt in the losers bracket who had lost to Stanford in the other semifinal.

Sunday morning was tense facing my old team who had throttled us all year. I led the opening speech in the huddle that morning, and I think everyone could sense how much I wanted to win. We rolled over Humboldt easily, and you could feel the Tide begin to roll. The next game against Stanford was one of the toughest games I have ever played. We barely squeezed out a 19-18 win at the cap.

The whole team was exhausted. Santa Cruz beat Oregon in the winners bracket. That sent Santa Cruz to Nationals as the number one seed. Oregon had the luxury of watching us play Stanford and remain rested. Oregon jumped on us early and led throughout the whole game by three and four points. There was a pretty good crowd on hand. In the back of the one of the endzones was the whole Humboldt team. I remember scoring with a diving catch from a throw from Zippy in the back of that endzone and the Humboldt players giving me a bunch of @#$% because we were still down by four. The game was to 17. I remember the score being 16-12 and Oregon pulling to us for a D and a win. We marched down the field to make the score 16-13. We ended up winning 19-18 at the cap with another pass from Zippy in the back of that same endzone. I jumped up and grabbed the pass right before going out of bounds and falling right into some Humboldt players. It was a very sweet victory for me.

After the game Jim Mallon asked me if I realized the fact that we pulled to Oregon seven times where all they had to do was to score and win. I told him, "Hell yes I did! Because last year it happened to me!"

At Nationals we went 5-1 and won our pool by point differentials. Santa Cruz lost to UNC Wilmington and placed second in their pool. We had to play UCSC in the semis and lost. UCSC went on to defeat Wilmington in the finals. So our record was 12-9, 5-1, 5-2 for a total of 22-12. Not a great record, but the win against Oregon was the greatest game I ever played in with so much on the line.

The 1991 season will be one I will never forget. I stopped playing after that season. I now teach eighth grade science in Moraga.

The tide cometh from the west…

1991 UCSB Game Scores:

02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? ??? ?
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? ??? ?
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? ?? ?
02/xx/91 Oregon ?? U.C.Santa Barbara ? Semis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? Occidental ?
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? UCSC-B ?
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? Pitzer College ?
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? UCLA ? Quarters
02/xx/91 U.C.Santa Cruz 19 U.C.Santa Barbara 14 Semis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03/09/91
03/09/91
03/09/91
03/10/91
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SECTIONALS:
04/xx/91
04/xx/91
04/xx/91
04/xx/91
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REGIONALS:
05/09/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 CSU Northridge 7
05/09/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Cal Poly SLO 11
05/09/91 U.C.Santa Cruz 17 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 - (Semis)
05/10/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Humboldt 6 - (BD)
05/10/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Stanford 13 - (BD-semis)
05/10/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 19 Oregon 18 - (BD-finals)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NATIONALS:
05/24/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 ECU 11
05/24/91 Carleton 14 U.C.Santa Barbara 13
05/24/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Georgia Tech 11
05/25/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Cornell 11
05/25/91 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U Penn 9
05/26/91 U.C.Santa Cruz 19 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 - (Semis)