1993 marked the beginning and the end for two unique groups of players for the Black Tide. Entering the season the Tide was definitely one of the favorites to make it to the National Championship. The team had a wealth of experience along with five dedicated rookies who patiently observed and learned the system of the Black Tide. Led by captains Steve Dugan and Dave "Scooby" Shubert, the Tide marched through Sectionals without a loss.

The Regional Championships arrived with Stanford as the site of the battlefield. The semi-final game against Humboldt State turned out to be one of the wildest games of the season. In a capped game to 13 with Humboldt leading by 2, the Tide had four or five defensive plays that seemed to freeze the crowd. Humboldt was pretty much frozen themselves as they watched their lead disappear. The game was tied at 12. Steve Dugan pulled the disc to Humboldt. After five passes the Tide got it back on a huge defensive play and scored the final goal.

For many players this game marked the beginning of the future. The Ultimate players around the region were introduced to a player named Andy Crews. He played defense so intensely that he shut down one of the best players in college Ultimate for an entire game so the Tide could advance to the finals. Andy Crews became a dominant force in collegiate Ultimate after only playing one year. He tremendously helped the Black Tide program rebuild after the 1993 season ended and half of the 22 players graduated from college.

Back at Stanford, UC Santa Cruz was waiting for the Tide in the finals. Both teams were drained from their five previous games lasting over 10 hours, but that didn’t matter anymore. This game also represented one of the oldest rivalries in collegiate Ultimate. After almost three and a half hours of war on the Ultimate field, Santa Cruz was victorious. The Tide would then continue onward to face Stanford in the "Back Door Game." Consequently, this would be the last game of the season for the loser. The Tide was rolling in high on this late day and UCSB won their final game that gave them the bid to the National Championships.

Lehigh, Pennsylvania was the setting for three long days of Ultimate that eventually landed the Tide in the National Championship semi-final game against rival Santa Cruz. Following tradition, the Tide exacted revenge when it mattered most and conquered UC Santa Cruz to qualify for the National Championship game against UNCW. This is where my memories get fuzzy. We were winning the game at half time 11-8, but suddenly the planets must have become unaligned because the dark side, UNCW, mounted a comeback to win by three points.

This was a huge loss for the Tide because we knew we were better. We seemed to beat ourselves because we didn’t prepare for a big lead at half time followed by life or death desire from our opponent to come back to beat us. We played so hard all season, we deserved better than 2nd place. Fortunately, many of us realized powerful lessons at this early point of our Ultimate careers.

First, we will play the "most important game of our season" many times over an Ultimate player’s career, and second there is nothing but greatness surrounding a team who finishes second in North American collegiate Ultimate, or second in the world for that matter because currently the US has the most competitive Ultimate Frisbee teams in the world. So this marked an end to the great collegiate players of the early 90’s like Steve Dugan, Dave Shubert, J.D. Lobue Jr., Garthe Nelson and Mike Geary. However, as these legends were established with their departure, five young warriors arose in their images to keep the Black Tide tradition as strong as ever. Led by Andy Crews, Jason Seidler, Mike Namkung, Matthew Lefevre and John Shelton, the Black Tide would rise high again in 1994 with a few remaining veterans and a rookie named Gav.

1993 UCSB Game Scores:

02/06/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Colorado 8
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03/06/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Colorado 5
03/06/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Stanford 6
03/06/93 Humboldt State 13 U.C.Santa Barbara 12
03/06/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Sacramento State 5
03/07/93 Wisconsin 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 10
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SECTIONALS:
04/24/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Redlands 0
04/24/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Occidental 0
04/24/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.C.San Diego 1
04/24/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Cal Poly-SLO 9
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REGIONALS:
05/01/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C.Berkeley 4
05/01/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Colorado 3
05/01/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Los Positas 5
05/02/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.C.San Diego 5
05/02/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Humboldt 12 - (Semis)
05/02/93 U.C.Santa Cruz 19 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 - (Finals)
05/02/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 Stanford 9 - (BD Finals)
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NATIONALS:
05/28/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Wisconsin 13
05/28/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Kansas 11
05/29/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Texas 9
05/29/93 UNCW 14 U.C.Santa Barbara 10
05/29/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Wesleyan 7
05/30/93 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 U.C.Santa Cruz 15 - (Semis)
05/30/93 UNCW 21 U.C.Santa Barbara 18 - (Finals)