Editors: hazard/luke
Interviewer: hazard
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| UCL celebrate being Mixed Outdoor National champions! Photo Credit: UCL |
Firstly, tell us who you are?
Angie: Hi I’m Angelica Kristen Yeo, UCL Women’s captain! I’m in my 3rd (and final) year in UCL, played Chaos Ultimate last year and GBW U24 this year.
Jessie: Jessie Low, one of the Women’s captains. Started playing Ultimate in my first year at UCL and am currently in my third year of playing ulti 😀
Luke: Yo, I'm Luke Roberts, Men's Captain alongside Kit. Also started in my first year at UCL, 4th year now. Playing Ka-Pow! this summer.
Kit: Loh Chung Kit, one of the Men's Captains for UCL. I started Ultimate in my first year at UCL, and really enjoyed the experience of playing for the Silverbacks and growing as a player 🙂
After being so close at Mixed Indoors, how good does it feel to finally come away with a Gold this year?
Angie: (Men’s Indoors too 😢)
Luke: It feels absolutely amazing, especially after getting so close with the Men's Indoor final going to universe. Although, I would have liked another shot at Strath, after our disappointing result in our opening match.
#GoldenbacksBaby
What was the secret to your success?
Angie: Definitely loads of training and buy in from the team - everyone showed up and put in effort every single time, and that helped us a lot this season. Also huge shoutout to our coach Glen Newell who’s been with us the past two seasons - having a coach has been really good for our player and team development!
Kit: I think during the weekend itself, the reason we could gel so well together was because of the many trainings that allowed us to get to know how each other plays and our likes and dislikes. Our trainings also let us try out some new stuff with regard to how we wanted to make best use of our women and ultimately, I think we just adapted to the weather conditions well and played our best Ultimate.
Luke: It'd also be unfair if I didn't give a nod to Axel Ahmala, who really gave the team the push it needed to become competitive at the higher levels of uni Ultimate. He's really bought into the team from day 1 and has helped push us in almost every way (and obviously having him on the field is alright too).
Apologies for further inflating his ridiculous ego.
Strategy wise, I think most of the teams this weekend had problems working through our D and the few that figured it out had no answer for our deep threat. Between Claire Huibonhoa and CJ Colicchio, we have some of the best deep receivers in uni Ultimate.
How much time to you guys spend training for Mixed, as opposed to single gender trainings?
Angie: We run 2 outdoor trainings a week, and both are Mixed! We only run single gender trainings the week of single gender tourneys (usually because one of the teams can’t make it, ie men are playing UMIR that weekend so the women get training all to ourselves! Yay!)
Will that change in the run up to UMWON, or do you think the Mixed training will help you prepare for single-gendered tournaments too?
Jessie: Over the Easter break, we’ll be having single gender trainings twice a week in the lead up for UMWON. So around 3 weeks worth of focused training 😀
Let's focus back on UXON. How surprised were you to not to see Strathclyde in the final, and do you think you would have beaten them second time around?
Luke: We'd just finished our game against Sheffield on Sunday morning as Strathclyde were also finishing up and delayed our spirit circle to watch the end of their match. I think everyone there was surprised, but credit to Newcastle, in the little of the match I watched they looked good.
Kit: Honestly, I was quite looking forward to a UCL Strathy rematch, and I think we would have put up quite a close match. Facing off against them in the first match of the pool play, we put up a good first half, trading points until 4-4. Unfortunately, we kinda forgot how to play frisbee in the second half, and they just destroyed us. So seeing them again in the finals would have been a great chance to prove ourselves.
Luke: I don't know how the game would have gone, but I can speak for our whole team, when I say that we were hungry for that win. We will be seeing them in Nottingham soon enough 😉
Without Strathclyde in the knockout stages, which teams (or players) do you think pushed your team the hardest?
Luke: Obviously, the final against Birmingham was our closest match. All their players were really solid and came out really strong taking us down 0-2. I think this fuelled our fire to bring it back for the win.
Kit: Honestly, I nearly pissed myself when we went down 2-0 to start, but knowing that it was a 60 min match with no hard cap, I think we all knew that a comeback was well within reach. Just a matter of running hard and getting those Ds :)))
Eddie Mason gave me a difficult time hahaha I was marking him most of the time. He ran me hard, to say the least 😅
Is there any player on your team that you think particularly stepped up this weekend?
Kit: While there wasn't a particular girl who stood out far above the rest on our team, I think that's because they played together so well in our triangle defence. It was something new that we had learnt, and I think all the girls played their roles amazingly well, getting us those blocks and forcing turns! #thefutureisfemale
Luke: I could easily write a paragraph on how everyone of our players stepped up, but the key standouts for me.
CJ Colicchio with his dominance with the deep space.
Our power handling trio, Axel Ahmala, Oli Gaugler and Alicia Tan. Who've been building up chemistry all year, leading to some insane handler movement.
Pavel Stech with some incredible defensive plays.
I also have to mention the double footblock D from Oli Gaugler in the match against Oxford, but as far as I know this is pretty standard Oli…
Do you think you'll be able to add to this Gold in UMON or UWON?
Luke: The men's trophy, absolutely, that's what we're coming there to do. We'll also have some talented additions to the squad that didn't want to brave the journey to St Andrews.
Kit: I'd love for the guys to upseed again. 16th to 15th just wasn't enough to satisfy us last year 😂
Luke: Besides, someone needs to keep the Scottish teams away from the trophy.
Angie: Our women have been building up lots of chemistry over the year - we’ve had a couple of tough losses (against our rivals imperial, in indoor and outdoor regional finals, and our last game at UWIN) but we’ve been training hard to work out the kinks and to come together as a team. Wouldn’t wanna comment too much on how we’ll do at UWON - just gonna keep our heads down n hustle hard, see where things go!
So no commitment to a third consecutive Women’s Outdoor final?
Jessie: Our girls are definitely hungry and looking to cause some big upsets so we shall see😀
Angie: Ooh I’d love a third consecutive final - that’d be 3 out of 3 for Men this year too - a smashing way to end my time in UCL. I know our girls are capable of big things so we’ll see 😬
Jessie: We won’t go to UWON looking to lose that’s for sure 😬
Well, you've already managed 18th to 1st in one outdoor tournament, so it's not impossible to imagine. What were your thoughts on the tournament in general?
Kit: I pity the groundsman who had to go to work on Monday
Angie: Was weird not seeing any Scottish teams in the top 4, probably got messed up by the seedings
Luke: The fields were amazing, the weather not so much. The fields actually held up in the weather surprisingly well throughout the first day. I'm happy there was a 3G to bail everyone out. It was a nice change from needing a shower in between every game.
The seedings were pretty bad, to be fair to UKU they didn't have long to sort it out with the swiss draw website kicking the bucket. Swiss draw is great as long as you have a bracket at the end, otherwise the final sucks, so I’m happy it didn’t go that way in the end.
Time for the south to rise and take some bids back.
Do you think you'll be able to defend the title next year?
Angie: Oh yeah we’re ready to defend that title. We’re only losing more than half of our first team haha
Luke: We're obviously losing some key players, but I think the players who are sticking around have developed really well and will step up into these roles next year. Both Duncan Rowe (Ka-Pow!) and Darren Chan (Fire) are playing high level club this year, so they're going to come back next year stronger than ever.
We also don't know who we're going to pick-up next year!
What advice do you have for any other captains reading this?
Luke:
1) Get a good coach.
2) Get all your teammates playing club.
Angie: Lots of training, get to know your teammates well and encourage them to train/ throw outside of training... and also play club is poss, no matter what level!
Jessie: I think it’s really important to balance both first team and beginners development so that you have a constant crop of solid players (or once your first team players graduate and you face a drought, you’re in deep trouble)
Angie: Most importantly though, have fun! we play the best when we’re intense but having fun as a team 😉
Kit: Remember to manage your studies😅 Can't play uni Ultimate if you drop out of uni 🌚
Jessie: Recruit more Ph.D. students to play Ultimate
What are your thoughts on spirit at University level?
Angie: I think at Uni level there are quite a lot of different perceptions/ interpretations of spirit. Won’t comment too much, but you can’t go wrong with (learning and) knowing the rules well 😀
Luke: Angie summed it up quite nicely. Learn the rules, read the spirit examples. I think more teams could benefit from more communication between captains / spirit captains throughout the game. Let’s get any problems discussed out in the open, whilst they can still be fixed.
Any other final thoughts or things you'd like to say?
Luke: It's kind of fun being the villains.
That said, I think we've gotten a bit of a reputation for spirit over the course of the season. I'd urge everyone to come play us and form your own opinions, we're actually pretty friendly, I promise 🙂
See you at Nats!
Angie: Good weather next year for UXON plz
Luke: Oh, small advertisement - while we’re in the spotlight. UCL will be looking for a new coach for next season. We’re all really sad to say goodbye to Glen Newell, but life is taking him elsewhere. If you think you can fill the hole he’s left in our hearts. Please get in touch!
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