The Importance of Possession
By roving reporter M.D.Vance

The Toronto Ultimate Festival (TUF), renowned for driving winds, torrential downpours and frigid temperatures, was Stella’s first tournament of the 2006 summer season.  Stella came fully prepared for the worst conditions, packing her bags with umbrellas, rain coats and layers….lots of layers.  But who the hell brought sunscreen?  The weather turned out to be anything but nasty.  Sure there was wind, but that just meant more practice for the conditions she expects to see in Halifax for nationals.  Besides, the wind always makes games just a little more interesting.

Stella’s first game of the 2006 season was against Sassafrazz, a brand new team from Barrie, Ontario.  Stella won this game handily at 13-0.  In a show of good Ultimate spirit, both teams joined together at the end of the game to run through a few drills.  Sassafraz were more than happy to absorb the throwing and cutting pointers that all the Stella ladies offered. 

Next, Stella faced the Black Mambas from Toronto who, in the gusty afternoon winds, tested Stella’s ability to play against a zone defence.  With only one practice under her belt, Stella had to rely on communication and gut instinct to break the zone.  Great dumping and swinging by Elliot, Lugg, Nettlefold and Benedict, combined with the well-timed popping of Shaddick and Collins, did just that.  Stella’s second line also found success against the zone defence.  One particularly memorable play involved a couple of short passes through the cup and out to the side before Cavallaro launched a long huck to Fortin, who laid out in the back of the endzone for a point.  In the end, the deadly venom of the Black Mamba proved no match for Stella as she cut and threw her way to her second 13-0 win of the day.

Saturday’s third and final game was a cross-over against Snatch, a team composed of several wily vets from Toronto.  This was Stella’s most challenging game of the tournament.  And Stella thrives on challenge.  During this match, Stella started to get a feel for her long game and was rewarded with several quick points.  In a bold move, superstar offensive handler Elliot caught her defender off guard by striking for a long pass from Robichaud before coolly tossing a short pass to Crump for a point.  Stella took the half at 7-3.  In the second half, Robichaud, Mercier and Elliot showed why they got game by putting up some beautiful long bombs to speedsters Collins, Love, Pickard and Crump to capitalize with several quick points.  Snatch then started to pick up steam, scoring three straight points, before Stella readjusted and took the next three points, and the game, at 13-7.

Sunday brought sun and even more wind than Saturday.  Stella’s semi-final match-up was against Eve from Toronto.  Despite the difficult conditions, and several brutally long points, Stella took the half at 8-0.  The second half saw a few more turnovers, as Stella tried unsuccessfully to pump one too many passes up the sideline in very windy conditions.  This led to a Stella time-out called by Captain Elliot that went something like this:

Elliot: “Can anyone tell me the importance of keeping possession?”

Chen: “You can’t score on defence”!

This timeout chat about possession was just what Stella needed to readjust her play by getting the disc off of the sideline and taking a breath before throws.  Stella re-grouped and won her third shutout game (15-0) of the tournament in fine style, as Duhaime used her towering height to score a Callahan point on an Eve dump pass gone awry.  Note to Em Chen: I guess you CAN score on D.

Rochester’s Rivet was Stella’s opponent in Sunday afternoon’s final.  Stella came out firing and, despite some great speed and athleticism on Rivet, took the half easily at 8-2.  Sunday’s heavy winds gave Stella the opportunity to practice her zone defence and, thanks to quick and lanky cuppers such as Pickard, Shaddick and Collins, she was very successful at forcing several turnovers on the Rivet endzone.  Despite a sometimes cluttered endzone, Stella managed to work things out and take the game handily at 15-3.  But not before Vance scored Stella’s second Callahan of the day.

Stella definitely learned the importance of possession, but she also learned that you can indeed score on D!

Missing in action were Amanda “Danger” Sage, Marie-Andrée “Magoo” Imbeault and Shannon Becker.