An Ultimate tournament is made up of a dozen of individual stories. Here are just a few of the tales we know of:

• Players from Toronto, Rochester, Montreal, Pittsburgh, and a couple players from the west coast
• at least 5 players’ first tournament!
• 6 junior players (<18 years old)
• 8 great grand master players (>50 yrs old)
• All female captains – read below for a snippet from Taurus captain, Lisa Breton:
  • “I truly was hesitant to accept the role of captain. Even though I have played Ultimate Frisbee since the late 90s, I was always content letting others lead. Normally, those other leaders, in a coed situation, were mostly men, like 99% (at the exception of this touring year with Crux – huge push for gender equity on that team and female leadership). Had I not been gently encouraged into the role, I would not have accepted. I was afraid I could not remember the rules, or that I could not defend a decision or call on behalf of my team, or that (I know this sounds shitty) men would not respect or question my proposed strategies. The last one sounds harsh. But to explain, I noticed that women leaders tend to be outstanding and confident ultimate players. I rarely saw someone with my profile lead: mid-level club player, smaller in stature, goofy in nature, etc. However, we often see men with this profile take on leadership without a problem. In the same respect that men can turn over a disc more times than women before being corrected or told to “know your limits”. So, I was hesitant.BUT – I had no reason to worry so much prior to the tournament.  I had nothing but positive feedback and incredible support from my entire team. I stepped up and it turned out great. I surprised myself with my capability to defend decisions and calls (or get help from teammates when required) to identify issues on the field and propose strategies that actually worked! With time to reflect, I wonder if it was the fact that our TD informed everyone in advance that captains were to be all female.  So participants arrived ready. It allowed us to laugh at ourselves at times when you saw men wanting to speak first or speak on behalf of the team and they were gently told by others to wait for the captain. Lots of shoulder chuckling.

    Also, having the TD communicate that it will be an all female captain tournament touched on the point indirectly (or directly) of the gender equity dialogue in our sport.  We all understood why it was done. Besides having some nervous women “holly shitting” on Saturday morning, at our end, we did not need to talk about it at length. We all quietly understood.”