7th Sugar Ultimate: A Taste Of Sugar
After a whole day of non-stop traveling from Iloilo to Cebu, a boat ride that will make you recite the Our Father twice and ten Hail Marys, top it off with zero sleep, with Optimus Prime-Bumblebee fight scene on the television, we are finally back in Ormoc city.
The city almost copied the same blueprint of last year’s weather. Last year was a zero visibility championship game and this year we haven’t even started the tournament, the tail of typhoon Paolo almost brought the house down during the U24 tryouts at the Ormoc City Central School Oval.
I am not gonna lie, I thought I will be experiencing a typhoon disaster in Ormoc. But It’s time to talk Ultimate with a few sprinkles of Sugar!
As part of the Ormoc City charter day, the 7th Sugar Ultimate Frisbee Tournament welcomed guests and athletes from all over the country in the city; as their beloved Mayor Hon. Richard Gomez says it, The City of Beautiful People. 20 teams graced the fields last October 21-22, 2017 with around 350 energetic Ultimate players (More or less) in attendance. It was indeed an exciting Day 1 as few of the games ended in universe point in the early stages of the tournament.
Sometimes, organizing a successful tournament would not be as exciting as you expect it to be without a few bumps and bruises along the way. (Especially if we talk about pack lunches). But, with a committee as passionate as these bunch, there’s no such thing as a tough mountain to climb. It wasn’t the organizer's fault, to be honest. They did their part to give the players what they need. It was the other party who didn’t keep the end of the bargain. But then again, the opening day of Sugar Ultimate was a blast as the teams came in not just to witness what Ormoc city has to offer but they all stepped on to the field to play their hearts out.
As expected, Day 2 games were off the hook as the top 4 teams (Vice Boss, Fasa Fuego, Blacklist and OrmocCannons) displayed their full potential in the pool A quarterfinals. Defending champions Fasa Fuego of Cebu city went on to defeat the home team Ormoc Cannons in an intense semifinal match, and a chance to win their second straight Sugar Ultimate championship trophy. Unfortunately, the 2016 first runner-up, Blacklist of Dumaguete came in short for a rematch with Fasa Fuego as super ringer team, Vice Boss handed them their only loss in the tournament, giving the Bosses a big chance to win it all this year.
Without any doubt, the pool A teams delivered some amazing plays and highlights, however the Pool C champions; First timers, Team Nirvana of Tacloban city together with Team Captain, Taboy Gaspay performed amazing ultimate all throughout the weekend. With great guidance, these young kids will go for the long haul in the future. And let's not forget the Pool B champions of this year's Sugar Ultimate -Breakfast Club(BC). BC has been around for quite awhile now in the Ultimate Scene in Manila, and it was nice to see one of the oldest teams in the country visiting provinces. They were battling it out with some of the younger teams and bringing home the championship trophy was an addition to BC’s Ultimate collection of success.
With players like Bruno, Oyok, the two Paloys, Ronan, Chuby, Jak-Jak, Alex, and Dongie, the Pool A finals of Sugar 2017 between Fasa Fuego and Vice Boss became a blueprint on what the provincial ultimate teams have to offer in this ever-growing ultimate community in the Philippines. It was exciting. It was fast, high-flying bids, risky plays, a few calls here and there (Like most other intense finals game), and fierce close games up to the last point. Vice Boss led the whole time in the finals, though Fasa Fuego did a few small runs of their own late in the game. The Noel, Franco, Russel, Chuby, Gaga, Ronan, Jessica, line was smooth as silk almost all throughout the game giving Vice Boss its very first championship and spoil Fasa Fuego’s Back to Back campaign.
Sugar Ultimate showed us the whole weekend not just how progressively developing Ormoc is (the newly opened Coast Resto Bar was cool and relaxing sitting by the bay with good food, music and friends), but also, it showed us how talented Ormocanons are in the field of music. Five performers including a local Rap Group rocked the house down of Bistro Bai during the Awarding/Socials night last Sunday. The players were entertained by 5 different genres of music to cap the weekend.
Ormoc is a fast-moving city. For the past three years that I have been covering Sugar, it seems like there are at least a couple commercial buildings being built every year. Congresswoman Lucy Torres, Mayor Richard Gomez, and Vice Mayor Toto Locsin are such a powerhouse team molding Ormoc to be one of the most beautiful cities in the country. And you know what that means for Sugar Ultimate. Sugar will just get bigger and bigger every year. Not in the number of teams participating per se, but for being one of the most successful and well-supported tournaments in the country. It’s amazing how the government of Ormoc supports Ultimate and the development of sports programs as a whole.
Congratulations Boss Edong Larrazabal , Ga Larrazabal and Voltaire Conejos for organizing yet another Sweet Sugar Ultimate weekend. To Mike Sabdao, and all the marshals who braved the weather all weekend long, and the rest of the unsung heroes of Sugar, hats off to you all as well.
This is just a taste of Sugar for you. There will be more sweetness in the coming years, no doubt about it
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