The Ultimate team will participate in its first tournament of the year Oct. 10-11 at the Penberthy Recreation Sports Complex in College Station Texas. The players have been practicing for seven weeks and said they want to put their hard work into practice, to gain more experience, and put up some wins against these competitive teams.
“Honestly this tournament is going to be really difficult,” said Mark Campbell, coach of the Cavalry and spring 2015 graduate in mass communication. “We are playing against some stacked teams this weekend. The A teams from both A&M and UT will be there and they have gone to Nationals the last three consecutive years. They are that good.”
The Cavalry have an uphill battle to start this season off with. The tournament this weekend is by no means easy. The teams from two of the Division 1 schools have groups that contend for Nationals every year. The Cavs have a tough match-up to look forward to this weekend. They will be facing off against high levels of competition.
Winning however isn’t really what is on the coach’s mind or even the players minds at this tournament. It being the first tournament of the semester there are a lot of other aspects of the game for the team to focus on this weekend other than getting W’s.
“In terms of record, wins and losses aren’t really that important,” Darin Young, marketing junior and captain of the Ultimate team said. “Our expectation is really for everyone to learn something. Most importantly we are focusing on having a good attitude and to have an open mind when it comes to figuring out the game.”
It’s tournaments like this one that draw out and set up opportunities to learn. Having a difficult first tournament like this to start the season off with might seem like a burden, but it provides a realistic experience for the players learn from and grow in.
Young said ”The best time to learn, any time, is when you’re playing at a high competitive level and that’s what this tournament is going to be for us.”
The main focus for the Cavs and for many of the other teams in the tournament, lies in their rookies. Texas A&M, the host of this tournament have even specified that they want this weekend to be geared toward the rookies.
“A&M has made it clear that they want the rookies to be our focus,” Young said. “They want them to have a chance to get a lot of touches and to learn more about the sport and how it’s played. What they don’t want is a lot of veterans to come in and dominate the field.”
Not only are rookies the focus for this specific tournament but they are also the focus of the Cavalry and it’s coach and leadership as well. There are seven rookies on the team this year. Therefore the leadership of the team has an important task of getting rookies in the game and giving them the best chance at learning the sport and gaining a lot of experience and knowledge.
“I’m really hoping we come across situations where we are able to put our rookies on the line,” Campbell said. “We want to see how they will perform under pressure. What will they bring to the table when the game is on the line? We want the rookies to understand that they are essential to our team.”
