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2004 College Championships: Open Division – Sunday 30 May

by Craig 'Roga' Remillard

Day One Coverage
Day Two Coverage

The sun is peeking through the Seattle clouds as UC Berkeley and the University of Colorado try to somehow prepare for a game that affords no preparation. A half hour before the 10 o’clock game time, both teams are scrimmaging on their respective ends of the field, trying to get into a flow before the first pull. George Mittendorf dives into the wet grass, as Cal’s O line sees how many goals in a row it can get. Colorado’s Parker Krug and Beau Kittredge wrestle playfully in the stack. Colorado’s attitude is loose, they’re acting like they’ve been in a game like this before.

This tournament started out on Friday with no consensus of a top team, or really any form in the top 12 seeds. But through pool play and Saturday’s elimination rounds, the top two seeds have proven to be a step above the rest of the competition. They both have teams full of amazing athletes, and they both have superstars that are happier letting their teammates make the plays, but willing and able to step up when necessary. The team leaders even finished one-two in Callahan Award voting, Josh “Richter” Ackley of Mamabird winning it, Dan Hodges coming in second, less than 12 hours before the first pull.

The game promises excitement with the combination of talent and adrenaline on the field. Colorado coach Catt Wilson acknowledges this. “Big plays all game,” he says, “Cal’s gonna throw up some exciting throws, even if we try to clamp it down.” Cal coach John “Shelty” Shelton agrees, but he knows that these things can get out of hand. “I hope it’s not exciting,” he laughs, “Our talent is putting it deep, sure, but I would rather bore our way to the win.”

Jitters may be a problem, as both teams are new to the college championship final. “We’ve got a lot of winners on this team.” He points out Furious George club titleist Gabe Saunkeah, former college champion Bart Watson, high school champion Dan Hodges. “The team feeds off that.” Saunkeah takes over the pre-game huddle. “Look around. We’ve been here before. These 18 guys have gotten together and played ultimate. And we’ve been successful at it. And we’re good at it.” His teammates respond, shouting the same thing they do before every other game. “Ugmo. You know.”

Wilson is trying to keep the Colorado huddle to its usual cerebral strategy talk. “We need our poppers playing off each other in the zone. We can go over them if necessary, but we should be able to go through them,” he says in a calm, steady voice. Colorado draws defense first. Showing no fear, California’s Adam Scow throws up a goal line to goal line jack, right into the soaring defense of Beau Kittredge. Ugmo gets it back despite some layouts by Colin “JV” Gottlieb to keep overthrown swings alive, and tests it again with a Bart Watson put to George Mittendorf that gets called back, and another one by Watson that floats to no one. Both sides air it out early with no success, as Ackley shows early nerves with a misread. On a stoppage, Watson and Richter exchange tension-filled pleasantries, they know that they are the matchup everyone is watching. Watson draws first blood, getting over both Ackley and Kittredge to haul down a diving forehand, then flipping to Scow for the 1-0 lead.

California’s intense emotional leader Gabe Saunkeah puts up the first of several floaty hucks. Watson elicits cheers from the crowd, trailing the play and nearly getting his fingertips on the disc after Kittredge bats it out of the air. Ryo Kawaoka gets hold of another Kittredge D in a nearly identical play. Colorado’s Parker Krug gets a ridiculous block, then turns over the throw. The first few points of this game are messy but exciting, as everyone is trying to make the huge play, but neither team seems to be able to get enough of them in a row to actually score. Finally, Watson finds Saunkeah to take the point, 2-0 Ugmo.

The next point, Gottlieb can’t hold on to a wavering pass, and it looks like Colorado’s turnovers may be their unraveling. But Cal turns it over, and Mamabird junior Keith Huntzinger tracks a huck with hawkish focus, winning perfect position over 3 other players. Hoping to stop the inconsistent play, he calls a timeout. Gottlieb is amped up, “It’s time we start getting our swagger back!” he pushes his teammates. Huntzinger, dialed into this game, throws a falling-over backhand break to Kittredge to put Colorado on the board. Gottlieb finds the rhythm himself the next point, getting a five-foot high layout D on an in cut and finding Richter in the goal to tie the game at 2’s. Gottlieb is keeping Mamabird in it early on, simply being everywhere he needs to be.

Cal finally finds its long-bomb efficiently, Brian Garcia throwing 60 yards to George Mittendorf, who makes tremendous play to lay out and get a toe down inbounds. Catt tells his troops, “They’re overplaying our hucks. Work the ball underneath.” They try to take his advice, but the adrenaline washing their muscles and brains is affecting their throws, leading to many turnovers the next point. Finally, Krug puts a faith throw to Kittredge, who beats two Cal defenders in footrace for the 3-3 tie. Kittredge, who looked unsure of his instincts early on, reads a Gottlieb put perfectly to take the lead on the next point. Then he tosses a short goal to Martin Cochran after Pokey Hunt somehow gets under Brian Garcia and jumps just in time for a deep D for ‘Bird. Beau’s game is on now, this is bad news for Berkeley.

Ugmo tries to work it down the field with a Saunkeah, Watson, and Jake Cooper backfield weave. Saunkeah lofts a throw with a bit too much touch for the gusting wind to turnover in the Colorado endzone. But Cal has a lot of guys who can make big plays, and Brian Garcia flies through a Mamabird swing pass for a big Callahan goal. California is determined to grit it out until they can get their deep game working. They’re within one, 5-4.

Now that their short game is starting to flow and Kittredge is drawing the attention of help defenders, talented Colorado freshman Jolian Dahl is able to get open for a 50 yard huck down the right sideline from Jay Buckinham. But here’s Brian Garcia, streaking to the deep right corner with Dahl in pursuit. Dahl takes out his legs, uncontested foul, and Dan Hodges runs downfield for the score.

Callahan winner Richter has been quiet for most of the half, with Bart Watson doing a good job of guarding him deep, as well as a few misreads on long throws. But with the score at 6-5, the Colorado zone gets a D well inside its own goal. Ackley is already streaking long as Parker Krug picks up the disc and sends the prettiest throw of the game, an 85 yard backhand fast and low past Watson’s flying leap. In a now-common sight, Krug lets out a “Whoooo!” at the top of his lungs.

That was a big one, and Mamabird is just getting warmed up. Jolian Dahl finds plastic with his fingertips over Gabe Saunkeah’s shoulder on what looked like a perfect put from Adam Scow. Richter finds his way to the disc, and sends a diving forehand to Keith Huntzinger, who can’t reach it. But here comes Kittredge, trailing the play and cleaning up the trash to take it to half 8-5. Richter sprints down the field to join his team in the endzone, yelling almost in defiance at the raucous crowd.

John Shelton is a little shaken in the huddle. “I haven’t seen us so jittery in a long time. We have a few minutes just to chill out now.” His team puts all hands in and takes a collective deep breath.

Catt Wilson, usually as calm as a preacher addressing his flock in the huddle, is trying to dispense with advice in a voice that is quavering. He’s excited by what he sees, but he knows this is a dangerous position to be in. It’s too easy to say later, “We took half in the finals of Nationals.” Colorado wants it all.

After a hit or miss first half, Colorado’s Krug, Ackley, and Kittredge virtually monopolize the first point of the second, marching it down the field with big in cuts and break-mark swings against a 1-3-3 California zone. Krug to Richter, Richter to Kittredge, Kittredge to Krug to Kittredge to Krug, back to Kittredge for the 5-yard score. Bread ‘n butter finally.

Colorado comes back the other way with suffocating marks that force first an overthrown huck, then a hammer that Dahl tips out of the air. Gottlieb finds grad student Eric Hutton with an acrobatic falling-over backhand just past Nat Kinsky’s elastic layout.

Berkeley tests its deep game again, but two long downwind hucks lead to two Bart Watson greatest attempts and two turnovers. The wind has picked up, and is now gusting between 5 and 15 mph. Richter is returning Watson’s first-half favor and putting the clamp down on him, and no one else on Cal is consistently making plays to compensate. Mittendorf and Hodges combine for a double-D on their own goal line.

John Shelton yells at his team from the sideline, “Why not just keep working it up?” And they do, for a while, but the temptation to go with what has worked in the past is too much for Matt Pasienski, who sends a 30-yard flick straight to Adam Scow, and straight into the horizontal layout D of Beau Kittredge. Kittredge rolls over in pain, staggering to the sideline holding his shoulder. He is out for the game. After a turnover, Bart Watson finally arcs a backhand to Garcia, who gets up over Adam Simon and teammate Ryo Kawaoka to take the marathon point for the 10-6 score. If this is the only way Cal can score, they aren’t going to win this game.

The next point, Colorado’s D forces Kinsky to punt the disc at high stall. Gottlieb anchors the handlers as they work it through, over, and around the Berkeley cup. Then he somehow zips a low backhand to Huntzinger past Kinsky, Kawaoka, and Daniel Benor, who dive like a row of dominoes but find nothing but air. Gottlieb, who pulled his team from their early jitters, is intent on pulling them up to another level altogether now, and he threads an inside-out forehand after a drop from ten yards out for his second straight assist.

Boulder leads 12-6, and a shellshocked Berkeley team takes a timeout to make some sense of it all. “Just have fun!” says Watson, trying to get his team to loosen up. Coincidentally, Gottlieb is tackling the same topic. “I’m having fun!” he says to his team in a giddy voice.

Maybe a little too loose, as Gottlieb pulls short and Cal starts at midfield. Watson snatches down a Jake Cooper throw over Sugar Sean Foreman, another of UC Boulder’s remarkable freshmen. It’s 12-7, but Berkeley looks set to make another run. The Ugmo zone makes a stand in the its own endzone, getting a block on Krug when he can’t find any help at a high stall. But Jolian Dahl has something to say about it, getting yet another deep block, this time on fellow freshman Kyle Parry, and finding enough space for a high-speed crossfield Keith Huntzinger hammer to get one goal closer.

On the next point Foreman D’s a pretty inside-out forehand huck from Watson, intended for George Mittendorf. The Cal throwers aren’t finding Mittendorf like in the semifinal against Brown. Colorado marches upwind on the arm of Colin Gottlieb, who jams a short pass to Zach Freeman from a yard out. Game point, 14-7 Colorado.

California is feeling the pressure, and Jason Buckingham forces a Dan Benor drop 20 yards out of the Cal endzone. In a play that both is a fitting cap on the game that he took control of, Gottlieb sends a bladey hammer to Keith Huntzinger for game point, 15-7. University of Colorado Mamabird are your 2004 UPA College Champions.

The California Ugmo team shakes hands and walks to its end of the field. Saunkeah breaks the stillness of a solemn circle of gray shirts and gray faces. “You’ve got a lot of faith, and I’m glad you’re here,” he tells them with an earnest look.

Colin Gottlieb is goofing around, continuing the que sera sera attitude he carried the entire game and infected his team with. He sprints off in front of the victory lap, then runs in circles to let his teammates catch up. In the huddle, he sums up the feeling as best as he can. “Hundreds of people end their seasons here. You’re one of the lucky few who gets to end it with a win.” He looks down thoughtfully. “I’ve fallen asleep dreaming about what this feels like. This is what it feels like.”

John Shelton offers up what little explanation he can conjure. “We were worn down from the first two days. They just had the extra step on the cuts and on defense.” Callahan Award runner-up and California captain Dan Hodges forces a couple smiles after the game, but he is clearly still in shock. “I’m disappointed … disappointed that we didn’t bring it. Impressed that they did.”

Colorado’s Parker Krug comes off the field, happy and hyper with a mix of relief and pride. When asked how his team pulled it together after the slow start, he says, “When we come out jittery, it’s because we’re looking to put it deep. Richter and Beau are big targets. But our handlers are unstoppable, and we won by working it.” Catt Wilson would surely agree.

As for Richter, he just looks up incredulously when asked what’s better, the Callahan Award or the championship. “Clearly – the championship.” Well, he’s got both.

Congratulations to all the teams that competed in the UPA College Championships this weekend. The tournament was intense, unpredictable, and fun to watch. And, of course, special congratulations to Colorado Mamabird, who brings home the first ever title for a venerable program. Enjoy the feeling.