Who are we?
We're just a group of friends from Portland who love to play ultimate! Some of us have become regulars at Kaimana and Hopu, and for some this will be their first opportunity to experience the amazing Hawaiian ultimate community. The male-matching side of our team will largely consist of the Trailbladezers from Kaimana 2019 and 2020, but the core of our team has been playing together in various Portland city leagues and Pacific Northwest party tournaments for years.
Our goal is to create a team that shows up hard for every part of the tournament, from the field to the dance floor. We believe spirit and competitiveness are NOT mutually exclusive, and we want to win the party as much as we want to win every point we play. We believe in big hucks, big bids, and big skies.
What don't we believe in?
Birds.
Spirit
We believe that spirit goes beyond high-five lines and spirit games. On the field we want to emphasize sportsmanship and fair-mindedness, so that both teams can play the game we love and showcase the best of their abilities. Off the field, we see these tournaments that bring people from all over the world as an opportunity to meet new people and learn from other communities, and we want to be as intentional about making those connections as we are about the way we play.
We strive to avoid associated aspects of "spirit" that can be exclusionary or uncomfortable - we won't force participation in activities and we consider drinking to be a strictly opt-in activity. We want everyone to have an experience they are excited about, not one that they feel obligated to participate in.
While this team does have a strong focus on competitiveness, many of us also have a long history of playing on teams known for their spirit:
We have many players who have won or been fan favorites for spirit at Kaimana in the past on teams like the Diva Cup Dragons, The Pastriarchy, and Gothic Wonderland. A few of us have also won spirit at some other large tournaments, like Sunbreak (Emergency Bourbon).
Competitiveness
While this team hasn't existed in this exact incarnation, our core group of players have played together at a lot of tournaments:
- Kaimana 2020 (won in the open division, 2nd in women's)
- Kaimana 2019 (2nd in the open division)
- Sunbreak 2019 (mixed, 3rd place)
- Log Jam 2018, 2019, 2022 (mixed, won all three years)
- Gandy Goose 2019 (mixed, 3rd place)
Volunteerism
At past Kaimanas we've taken a variety of different volunteer shifts - trash collection, water, serving dinner in full goth regalia - but we are always eager to help out more. For many of us, Kaimana has been one of the most important events of the year and we would do almost anything to help keep it running. We don't know the best ways to contribute, but would be happy to step up however we can. We've also taken on volunteer duties at other tournaments, like serving drinks and cleaning up after meals at Log Jam and even scorekeeping at Nationals. Additionally, a number of our players are coaches in Portland at the youth and/or college level.
History
Our team is largely built around giving people opportunities to play together that they don't get during the club season. Many of our players play on competitive men's or women's teams, but we love getting to play all together and to that end we try to put together teams for fun tournaments a couple times a year.