Scobel Wiggins Photography

Coming in to this season, my team had more new players than we knew what to do with. Just two years ago, we were plagued with injury and disinterest and played every game we were able to attend with barely seven players. Then our team doubled, twice. This transition left the few returners with a completely different type of team, based on diversity and numbers rather than chemistry. While this upswing was great, we didn't have the experience to fully take advantage of all the new talent and athletic ability we suddenly had access to.

Our area has a small, transient Ultimate scene, and finding good tournaments in a drivable distance can be difficult.  So, when I heard about a fantastic opportunity (the Midwest Throwdown Roundup Division) for us to not only play tons of different teams around our level but to also get advice and feedback from amazing women's players from all over the country, we immediately jumped on it.

The coach we got paired with for the weekend was Jamie Nuwer. Jamie was so great and seriously exceeded any expectations I had set for the weekend. She was able to get through to our newbies the fundamentals that we had trouble explaining. She was so clear and charismatic — we got so much more out of our drills, and everyone had a ton of fun. She also had a lot of experience running younger teams, so the two other upperclassmen and I got a lot of insight into how to successfully continue on and grow with the new direction our team has taken, rather than continuing to hang back and focus on how our past teams had worked.

Midwest Throwdown was the biggest and one of the most successful tournaments we've participated in over the last couple of years. We usually play the same few teams over and over every year until Regionals, but at MWTD, we saw different teams from everywhere. It was also great to get to meet so many people that are a part of this community, and my entire team felt much more connected with it by attending this tournament. Hopefully, as our school's enrollment continues to increase post-Katrina, our player pool will move in the same direction. With what we've gained from this tournament I believe we can become a real threat in our Section (and possibly Region) as we grow into a more experienced team.

My thanks and appreciation go out to all those involved in planning Midwest Throwdown, especially Michelle Ng. It was extremely well run and a fantastic experience that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone.

Ashley Daniels, current Tulane University captain