Regiment wins top spirit honour at nationals
Regiment recently claimed a top spirit title, and the Teams best-ever finish this month at a national club tournament!
The Open Club Ultimate Team, based in St. John’s, recently traveled to compete in the 2021 Ultimate Canada Invitational (UCI) held Oct. 2-3 in Ottawa. During the two-day tournament, Regiment finished tenth overall with a solid 3-3 record. The squad was also named the most spirited team in the open division.
Regiment co-captain, Nick House says winning the spirit award is the culmination of years of culture-building within the team.
“When we founded Regiment, we wanted to create a team that other teams want to play against — a team that’s competitive, fun and respectful, and has a shared love of ultimate,” House said.
“Winning this spirit award is one of the things I’m most proud of in everything I’ve done in ultimate,” he added. “This achievement being part of the ultimate story in Newfoundland and Labrador now is a big source of pride for me.”
Regiment went to nationals with a large component of rookies on the squad. Six of the 20 players had never played in a national club tournament before.
Michael Walsh, Regiment’s spirit captain, says in preparing for the tournament our main focus was to develop creative skills in all the players, set individual and team goals, and ensure that everyone on the team were motivated to make Spirit of the Game an essential part of its culture.
“Regiment doesn’t just focus on spirit as we prepare for a tournament. We’ve been intentional about making spirit a priority all season long, at practices, scrimmages and during our team discussions,” he said.
For the team, entering the tournament with this mindset played a big part on the field and it showed. The teams top 10 finish is also the best result achieved at a national club tournament for any team from Newfoundland and Labrador since 2012.
The Ultimate Canada Invitational provided the opportunity to play competitively against some great teams from across Canada. On day one, Regiment finished with a 1-3 record, with losses against the Montréal-based team Mephisto (4-13) and the Ottawa-based team Phoenix (5-13), who would both go on to finish in the top four of the tournament. Regiment ended pool play on day one with a 13-8 win over the Calgary-based team Whiskeyjacks to finish third in their Pool G games.
Regiment ended day one of the tournament with a 12-11 win over Shrike, an Ottawa based team with which they’ve battled in the past. In 2019 Regiment lost to Shrike on universe point at nationals, after beating the team at the Boston Invitational earlier that same year. This time, the game against Shrike resulted in Regiment winning on universe point with player, and co-captain, Nick House scoring the winning point off a flick huck from teammate Craig Stoyles.
After ending day one on a high note, the second day of the tournament got off to an exciting start against Toronto-based team Grand Trunk when a layout block by player Cameron Penney gave Regiment an 11-10 win on universe point. The team then moved on to the ninth-place game against Montréal-based team Club M – Manic, losing 13-6 to finish in tenth place overall in the national tournament.
There were no expectations around competing at the national level when we started the season. “We just hoped to offer something fun and competitive for the team,” said Nick House, Regiment co-captain. “It’s funny that this turned out to be the season where we achieved our highest results and realized one of our long-term goals.”
“We are exceptionally proud of our performance and the support each player showed towards each other” said House. “This was an excellent result for Regiment, and I know our athletes will continue to demonstrate the same level of spirit because we can’t wait to try to match the same result at next year’s nationals.”