Amity Trident Amity's Student Newspaper

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The Amity Ultimate team won four out of five games on May 2 to take third place out of ten teams at the Middletown Invitational Tournament. It was the best finish at a tournament in the team’s history, breaking the record of fourth out of eight set a week earlier at the Hotchkiss Invitational Tournament.

Because Amity fielded two teams at the tournament (both a varsity and junior varsity team), they did not have many substitutes. The junior varsity team had to play ‘savage,’ or with no substitutes, and the varsity team only had two subs. As the forecast was over eighty degrees and humid, endurance appeared to be a problem early on.

The ten teams were divided into two pools of five for the first four games, and in the afternoon each team played one team from the other pool to determine placement.

Amity’s first game of the day was against Hotchkiss. Having lost twice to Hotchkiss already this season, Amity was a clear underdog but also very thirsty for revenge. Although Hotchkiss scored a quick first point, Amity responded quickly. Senior Pete Kossar was a huge deep threat, and Amity was able to trade points until the score was 5 - 4 Amity.

Because the game was played to eleven points, Amity was looking to reach the halftime (six points) ahead by two. However, Hotchkiss had different ideas. They took the half and, with very efficient handling, began the second half on a run to take a three-point lead.

Losing 7 - 9 in a game to 11, Amity stuck to its gameplan. Several deep moves by Kossar led Amity on a 3-point run to take the lead 10 - 9: a play called “pwn.” When Hotchkiss scored the next point, the game was tied at ten, meaning that the next score would win – a situation known as “universe point” in Ultimate, which is not win-by-two.

With Hotchkiss threatening to score right in front of the Amity endzone, Senior captain Dave Steinmetz made a diving defensive stop on an off-target ‘dump’ throw. However, a foul called by Hotchkiss Senior Ben Smith negated the stop, and the Bearcats retained possession.

With their backs to the endzone, Junior Colin McNulty came up with the winning stop, and Amity quickly capitalized on the turnover. The team did not look back, patiently working the disc down the field with several short throws to score the winning point: a sure-handed grab by Sophomore Kevin Walton.

The win in the first round was a marquee win for the team as it was the first ever against Hotchkiss in team history. It was also a great victory because Amity had lost twice to Hotchkiss in the past eight days. They lost to Hotchkiss by a score of 11 - 9 in the first round of the Hotchkiss Tournament, and lost again in windy conditions that Wednesday.

According to the Hotchkiss website, the loss, “left Hotchkiss stunned and frustrated.”

Amity did not have much time to celebrate, as the second round of the tournament was fast approaching. The next game was against the lowest seed in the bracket: Middletown’s junior varsity team. Although Amity was a clear favorite, the game was not to be taken lightly. Middletown’s varsity team is at an elite national level, and even a team composed mostly of Middletown freshmen is formidable.

Amity was able to control the tempo from the beginning. Middletown’s man defense was easily overtaken by Amity’s superior athleticism. Coach Zawacki’s strategy at the half was to finish off Middletown as quickly as possible to allow a long rest before the next game.

Although Amity got the win with little resistance, there were a few points where Amity’s defense got overconfident and broke down, resulting in a final score of 11 - 4 in Amity’s favor.

Although Hotchkiss was a huge win – the fourth-seeded Spartans took down the second-seeded Bearcats – the toughest game was yet to come. Amity’s next game was against the top seed in their pool, Stuyvesant.

Because Stuyvesant came in from New York for the tournament, they were a new team that Amity had never before faced. Stuy was predicted to crush Amity in pool play, but Amity rode into the game on two spectacular wins that brought confidence.

In warm-ups for the game, Amity could see why Stuy was ranked so high: the entire team had outstanding agility and throws. But the Spartans had a huge size advantage over their relatively short opponents.

After the first few points, Stuyvesant showed that they were clearly a competitive team. They were very aggressive in their self-officiating and made several controversial calls that created some friction between the two teams.

Although Amity had no answer for Stuy’s depth on offense, they were able to keep pace and traded points until the score was 5 - 5: the next point would be halftime.

With Stuyvesant threatening to score, Steinmetz was able to capitalize on a throw that went a bit too high and floated over the offender. Amity was able to go the length of the field in two throws using their huge size advantage. Junior captain Phil Case hit Steinmetz just across midfield, who then hit Kossar in the corner of the endzone to put the half away with a 6-5 lead.

Unfortunately, Stuyvesant took control in the beginning of the second half and did not look back. Amity threw a zone on defense, which Stuy patiently picked apart. On the other side, Amity had a few unforced errors on offense that slanted the game in Stuyvesant’s favor.

Stuyvesant ended up winning by a score of 11 - 9. Although Amity was openly frustrated with Stuyvesant’s unspirited style of playing, they put on quite a show to keep the game that close against one of the country’s top teams.

Amity’s final game in pool play was against the Scarsdale Hellfish: a team that beat the Spartans 11 – 2 at the John Jay Fall Tournament in 2009. Scarsdale was a true Ultimate team. They were an incredibly talented group, but were also there to enjoy playing and have a good time.

Amity took the first half 6 - 2 relatively easily. Scarsdale had a well-run but predictable offense that Amity effectively shut down by tightening up the defense on Scarsdale’s top handler, Senior captain Mitch Uris.

Unfortunately, the game grew much too close in the second half as Amity began to show signs of playing shorthanded on such a hot day. Scarsdale went on a quick run out of the halftime break to bring the score to 9 - 7 in Amity’s favor. Luckily, the final horn ran in the middle of the next point, signifying that time ran out and no more points would be played after the current one. Amity was guaranteed the win but made the final count 10 - 7 with one last score by Kossar.

Following the Scarsdale victory, Amity finished in second out of the five-team pool. The top-seeded Stuyvesant was the lone undefeated team, and would face Middletown High School in the championship game.

Amity still had a chance for the podium as they would play the second-place team from the other pool in the third-place game. Amity had faced Xavier once before, losing 6 - 13 on the road. Similar to the Hotchkiss game, Amity was looking for revenge as well as the first victory against their opponent in school history.

Amity was off to a quick start in the battle for third place. Imitating Hotchkiss’s offense, Amity played with four handlers. That is, four players were in the ‘quarterback’ position and were primarily throwers, staying back for short passes. Using this strategy, Amity could easily swing the disc back and forth across the field, tiring out Xavier’s zone defense.

In this manner, Amity took the half 6 - 3. But Xavier was energized by this disappointing score and rallied to make the score 8 - 7 in Amity’s favor, capitalizing on several Spartan mistakes.

Time had just run out, meaning that if Amity scored the next point the game would end, and if Xavier scored it would be another universe point. Working the four-handler scheme to perfection, Seniors Steinmetz and Nikhil Shah, along with Juniors Case and McNulty managed to patiently find the endzone on an estimated forty consecutive completed passes to win the game.

Senior captain Carlos Loaiza was a huge factor in the Xavier win, playing zone offense in the middle of the field. Notably, Junior Ethan Tucker had a diving catch on Amity’s winning possession to preserve the game.

The 4 - 1 record was the best at any tournament in Amity’s history. Until this year, Amity had never even had a winning record at a tournament. The third place finish was especially spectacular as the Middletown Invitational Tournament attracts the more competitive teams in the region. Amity came into the tournament as the eighth overall seed.

The Junior Varsity team was winless on the day, playing only Varsity-level teams. They won the Spirit Award at the tournament for demonstrating the Spirit of the Game that Ultimate is based on. Steinmetz and Junior Cameron Simpson both received individual spirit awards, too.

The tournament brought the team’s overall record to 9 - 7. Amity added another win on May 4, when the visiting Cheshire Academy was crushed by a score of 12 - 3. On a windy day, Kossar and Steinmetz connected for eight of the scores as Amity easily controlled the game from the beginning.

Amity will host a tournament on May 9, which will include a heated rematch with Xavier, and a chance at taking down the undefeated Middletown Firestarters.

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