Posted to rec.sport.disc on November 21, 1996:
Haven't seen anything on r.s.d about the co-ed tournament in Santa
Rosa, nor for that matter about co-ed ultimate in general.
Co-ed is big and getting bigger, at least out west: tournaments
include the truly massive Potlatch (Seattle) which has 56 teams
or so; Albequerque co-ed and a small but fun Los Alamos co-ed tournament;
Monterey California; Boulder co-ed; Humboldt Harvest in far northern
CA; and, recently, self-proclaimed "co-ed Nationals" in Santa Rosa,
CA.
Although many of the teams that go to these tournaments are assembled
ad hoc for the particular tourney, there are increasing numbers
of regular co-ed teams that travel to play in many of these tournaments.
I play on one such team, the long-standing Red Fish Blue Fish (which
also appears in some Open tournaments). (RFBF lost the Santa Rosa
tournament in a darkness-capped final, 11-9, to Magic Bus, a mix
of former and current S.F. Bay-Area male and female stars).
Co-ed Ultimate can be great fun, and people who think it is neither
as athletic nor as competitive as single-sex Ultimate should go
see a semi or finals game of a good co-ed tournament. Although it's
true that the bottom tier of co-ed teams plays at a pickup-team
level (not to say they don't have fun!) good teams can be very good
indeed. On the two teams in the Santa Rosa finals, at least 8 of
the men and 2 of the women have Nationals experience (some from
this year), and several more have appeared recently at College Nationals.
I'm a big fan of co-ed ultimate, and I hope it continues to grow.
(However, FWIW I am not one of the people who thinks that every
non-elite tournament should be co-ed.)
Here in the S.F. Bay Area, Drew Tulchin and EJ are long-time supporters
of co-ed Ultimate, and have been doing l
ots of tournament organizing and so on. Dave "Mo" Moscoe is also
a big influence. I'd like to thank these people, and others, for
going to the trouble of organizing tournaments and also for promoting
co-ed play, which I enjoy very much.
--Phil Price
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