Who: Beginners & recreational (non-club) players are welcome to register. Absolutely no experience is required! Just bring an enthusiasm to play a VERY fun sport!
When: Each team will play one 2-hour game per week, either on Wednesday evening (7-9pm) or on Saturday morning (10am-noon), beginning on Sept. 1 & running through Oct. 27, 2010
Where: Green Road Park (at 4201 Green Road) in Raleigh, NC
Cost: $50 per person (includes 1 player jersey, 1 regulation-sized disc, 8 weekly games & a season-ending tournament)
Details: Get more details here!

Registration & payment: www.tfda.org/store. Deadline is Friday, Aug. 20.

It took a little convincing and some threatening, but NC was able to pull a squad together to compete in the 2010 Women’s Masters Nationals tournament on July 10–11, in Boulder, CO. We called ourselves RETRO and despite the loss of a few “younger” Backhoe ladies to the Worlds team, we were able to field a very competitive team, which included the likes of Val Kelly, Denice Cunningham, Tammy Moose, and LT!

Our first game on Saturday morning was to the #1 seed and defending champs from Boulder. RETRO tried to hang with them, but the combination of altitude and unfamiliarity with each other was too hard to overcome. As the day progressed and our lungs adjusted to the thin air, we were able to beat the rest of the teams in our 5-team pool—including a tough Atlanta team—and we’re able to break seed.

The next day, we had a fairly easy quarters, and than a tough semis matchup against the Safari-tarians, from CA. RETRO went up at half, but could not hold onto the lead and traded points for the rest of the game. The game was tied at 11s when the cap sounded, and it was now a win-by-2 game to 13, hardcap 16. The Sarari-tarians ended up winning 16-14. RETRO played a great game and everyone had a hand in the effort. We ended the weekend by playing Philly for 3rd place. RETRO was still fired up from our semis loss and took it out on Philly, beating them soundly, 15-6.

Overall it was a great weekend! We travelled to Boulder with a small group of awesome women and came away with plans to do even better next year, preferably at sea level!

Two weeks ago, the Triangle’s 13-year-old elite womens team finished 9th in the World at the end of a six day competition in Prague, Czech Republic. Backhoe also finished 4th of 6 teams from the USA, besting their 7th place finish at US Nationals last year by beating rivals Showdown from Texas and Zeitgeist from San Francisco.

Backhoe competed in 10 games for 6 straight days against a pool of 32 womens teams from 16 countries. With summer weather full-on (a consistent 87 degrees), games to 17, strange WFDF rules, and having the smallest roster in the womens division (14 players), we surely had our challenges. Affectionately labeled by competitors as a “scrappy” team, Backhoe easily pushed past the European teams but had trouble against the Japanese before holding our own against higher ranked teams from the USA.

Our one bittersweet moment was a loss against Huck from Japan after gaining a 13-9 lead in a game capped at 15. Huck went on to win 6th place.

At the end of the championship the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) surprised the crowd by honoring one player from each division for outstanding achievements. Touting her as one of the most “effective” offensive players, our very own Becky LeDonne received an award for having the most combined assists (32) and goals scored (28) of any female in the entire womens division. Go Becky! We are so proud of you!!

All in all, we played excellent and well-spirited games against Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the USA. WFDF put on a great tournament and the womens final was one of the best we’ve ever seen!!! Thank you TFDA for supporting us at this tournament!