AUDL Preseason: Mega Scrimmage 2016

More AUDL preseason is scheduled for tonight. Unlike last week's game, this game play of 3 Midwest Division teams and 1 East Division will not be streamed.

The 5-hour scrimmage hosted at Cool Springs Sports Complex in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is scheduled to start at 9pm and ends at 2am in the morning.

In the 2015 American Ultimate Disc League season, the Revolution(2-12), Phoenix (1-13) and Mechanix (0-14) posted a combined (3-39) record. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds went (12-2), won their first playoff game, but lost in the Midwest Division championship game.

A similar assemblage (AUDL teams: Cincinnati Revolution, Indianapolis AlleyCats, Nashville NightWatch and Pittsburgh Thunderbirds) was organized in the 2015 preseason.

Washington DC Current 2016 Roster

The Washington, D.C. Current published their 27-player roster for the Major League Ultimate 2016 season. D.C. Current had one of the lowest (# & %) of rookies in the league in 2015. Out of the 27 players on the 2016 roster, 15 are MLU "rookies" + 12 are returners. A similar ratio can be found with players with nicknames — over half (15, 56%) of the total roster have one.

2016 DC Current (alphabetically)
#34 Matthew "Cam" Barnhardt*
#12 Brent Bellinger
#14 Lloyd Blake
#31 Collier "Chip" Cobb
#80 Antoine Davis*
#24 Joe "Tree" DiPaula*
#15 Andrew "Peanut" Ferraro*
#28 John "Jack" Field*
#73 Mark "Flo" Flores*
#47 Joe Freund*
#42 Dominique "Dom" Gibson
#0 Andrew "Lemon" Gravunder*
#16 Trevor Griesman*
#18 Kevin "Heals" Healey
#11 Tim "Action" Jackson
#4 Delrico "Rico" Johnson
#1 John Kerr*
#21 Kyle Khalifa*
#52 Raymond Mendoza*
#17 Eric "Astro" Miner
#5 Keven Moldenhauer
#3 Michael "Mikey" Moses*
#10 Zachary Norrbom
#6 Aaron "A-Ron" Richards*
#61 Erik Salmi
#41 Justin "Woo" Solis*
#23 Gabe Webster

* = 1st time playing in the MLU, "rookie"

CHART: Breakdown of DC Current Roster with Nicknames

Interesting Questions on Interest Forms

Spring is in the air, which means it's time for club ultimate teams to host tryouts and find talent for their roster.

Below are some interesting items found on club ultimate teams' online "interest" forms for prospective players:

Boston Darkwing

Washington, D.C. Scandal

Atlanta Chain Lightning

Pittsburgh Mixed Team

Philadelphia Green Means Go

DC/VA-based Ant Madness

Chicago Machine

Philadelphia Bitmap

New York PONY

BONUS: New York Empire

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good luck playing U'Ltimate today!

Pittsburgh Mixed Ultimate Team Produces New Name

Pittsburgh's mixed club ultimate team recently chose a new team name after being forced by USA Ultimate to name change in August 2015.

During the month of February 2016, they hosted a bracket challenge with 16 potential names like Alchemy, Confluence, Muffin Mix, Iron City, and the eventual winner of the popular vote was Jaggerbush. The finals included a disclaimer "NOTE: This does NOT mean that we have our new team name. Team leaders will be taking these results into consideration when determining a final team name!"

The team from the Steel City did not choose The Washington Redskins as their team's new name, but instead selected Alloy which is defined as "a metal made by combining two or more metallic elements, especially to give greater strength or resistance to corrosion." The name is a comparable theme to the Pittsburgh men's club team, Temper.

Their current Twitter avatar [@pghalloy] holds onto their roots with the familiar Muff 'n Men logo and red FKA (formerly known as) initials. This logo is assumed to be a temporary placeholder until Alloy forms a new tam logo.

[image via Twitter]

New 2016 DC Breeze Jerseys

The D.C. Breeze unveiled an updated jersey for their 2016 American Ultimate Disc League season. In contrast to past year's jerseys, the dark and light tops will be cut from the same design. The 2016 dark will be blue and grey, while the 2016 light jersey - mostly white with a blue sleeve and side  - will have a similar stars and stripes look to past years.

Judging by the provided image, the star pattern will be less muted and possibly out from bottom to top.  The shirt collar will now match the primary color of the short; dark: blue, light: white. The right sleeve has the Breeze's sponsor - Papa John's Pizza, which extended a discount when the Breeze won. The AUDL will again appear on the left sleeve, but with clutter (stars) on the sleeves. The 3 red stars from the D.C. flag are now on both jerseys, and the S-curve returns but with thinner red lines (possible connection to the Breeze's home field near the Metro's red line?).

The Breeze logo is predominantly red with blue accents, yet their unis are more blue & grey (darks) and white & blue (lights). Some D.C. sports purists might argue there's not enough red (or too much blue) to fit in with other Washington D.C. sports teams.

[Images via DCBreeze, Facebook 1, 2]