The First Boracay Dragons Habagat League

11:40 PM All About U 0 Comments





On our fourth gig for the month of October (Covering Cabalen Ultimate Open, Sugar Ultimate and Tarsier 5 was a lot of fun!), we're heading back to the place that gave us the biggest break in Ultimate photography. Since Cabalen 2016, we had some of the worse rain condition that the AAU crew had ever encountered this year. I never had the chance to offer an egg to the Ultimate gods, but I sure did pray for clear skies for hours while I was on the bus heading for Caticlan. The weather was not too promising the moment I arrived on the island last Friday, but I was glad that my prayers were answered last Sunday. We had a very short high tide delay, but the sun was up, clear skies, and the teams are ready to play. It's time for the First Boracay Dragons Habagat League Championship weekend!






The league started last October 8 2016 , with six teams for Open division and three teams playing for the youth division. Participating teams were sponsored by Bars and beach resorts namely, Beach Bum Bar Boracay, Pat's Creek Bar, Coco Mangas, Boradise Beach Resort and one team was sponsored by SB member, Honorable Datu Yap. With nine total teams participating, it only shows that the local Beach Ultimate scene in Boracay is growing rapidly. The league was designed and created by The Boracay Dragons Frisbee Team. One reason why they created the league for the next generations of beach ultimate players in Boracay was to sustain the regular games of the kids. They were mixed with some of the seasoned players like, Jeffrey Rodriguez, Joebert Buenaventura, Jude Lee, the Sacapano siblings, Pat, Nok and Sophie to name a few, to challenge themselves to push harder in playing against experienced players. A few guest foreigners who happened to be on the island during the scheduled league games like Bert Abbott, Brad Houser, Samantha Gomez, Nathan Scott from the US and Dave Trovell of Australia also participated in the league games.





I am not over exaggerating when I say that the improvement of these kids from two years ago and from the last time that I saw them play at last Boracay Open was off the charts. They evolved from all about layouts on the endzone to perfect spacing and patiently running the right play kind of young athletes. I was really impressed with how they patiently moved the disc from one end to another, looking for the right man to pass on for the score. They're beginning to realize how important perfect execution is rather than showboating and creating highlights. And that makes them more dangerous on sand.






If these young Boracaynons continue to evolve from good players to great, and have the Dragons keeping them in check and let them continue to keep on learning the rules of the game, I have no doubt in my mind that in the coming years, maybe we can have another group of Beach Ultimate players that will dominate the sands around the world..... In the Olympics maybe?


Congratulations to Team Pat's Creek Gray for winning the Open Division, and Team Beach Bum Bar for winning the Youth division. Big thanks to all the sponsors who made this league a success and most of all to Boboy Famorcan and Karen Cabrera. Without these two amazing souls, we will never have the chance to witness and discover such amazing young talents who has the potential to be great that will make us all proud in the coming years.

Until then. More images to share... More stories to tell... It's All About U!


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