La Canada High School: State Championship for Ultimate Frisbee

This year the La Canada Ultimate Frisbee Team traveled for their first time to Santa Cruz over Mother’s Day weekend to compete in a tournament held by the US Ultimate Frisbee Association called California State Championship. Ultimate Frisbee teams from all over the state, but mostly from Northern California, compete in this quickly growing team sport.

Competing in the division 2 championships against Bay Area Teams such as 2 Berkeley High School teams, El Cerrito, and Napa New Tech, La Canada found themselves in their toughest game against 2nd place team Kirby High School in the pouring rain on Saturday. After many dropped discs, some sloppy throws with wet discs, and a couple minor injuries, La Canada was ready to admit that the competition was above their level. Then, in a burst of energy, Mehran Rahman got a layout block on defense. La Canada scored. Still down 3 points, coach Peter Van Pelt assured the team that they were still in it and that serious attitude adjustments were needed. Diligently, handlers Daniel Landesman (9), Rudra Menon(12), and Titan Burl(12) continued to battle back throwing to receivers Brain Soto(12), Hudson Harbolt(9), and Alex St. Hippolyte(12).

Meanwhile, defensive blocks from Suren Krikorian(12) and Marco Rubottini(12) kept Kirby from scoring more leading La Canada to a 13-11 victory at cap. The next day, Assistant Coach, Laura Wheeler, led the team in various stretching exercises to start another grueling day of competition against the only other undefeated team Napa Valley New Tech High School. La Canada scrambling for every point while a number of fast soccer players from New Tech kept scoring on La Canada’s turn overs. Vowing to stop the turnovers, La Canada battled back second half by laying out and catch all throws, good or not so good, winning 13-9.

La Canada remained undefeated this weekend and placed first in Division 2 High School State Championship. Next year, the freshman hope to return to states with a new bunch of Ultimate Frisbee converts while the seniors on the team move on to play in college. To find out more about this growing sport, contact Laura Wheeler at lwheeler@lcusd.net.

La Cañada High School, 4463 Oak Grove Drive, La Cañada, (818) 952-4200 or visit www.lcusd.net.