Beyond the tournament..

From the time I last gave an update on the growth of the Chennai Ultimate Frisbee club things have sure come a long way. The club has now grown to have about 75 members in the Yahoo groups which we use to communicate. On any day, about 25-30 people turn up to play. The number of days we are playing has gone up from 1 to 3. I no longer have to poll for interest for Saturday and Sunday games, and then declare if we're playing or not. I don't even have to send out emails declaring time and venues of the game. The club is starting to become self sustaining.
And of course, the whole tournament deal helped us a lot. 40 people participated. Everyone practiced hard, played harder, and supported the game even harder! The spirit was infectious. We had split up the club into 4 teams more or less of equal strength, and let the 4 most experienced players lead the teams. Some of the earliest members of CUF who had improved their game by leaps and bounds provided support as Vice Captains. The 4 teams went their ways and trained a lot. Finally on Nov 17th, 18th, and 24th the tournament was held in a league fashion followed by loosers Finals and then the Finals. We had a few spectators (mostly friends and family) to watch the game. Some members of the Chennai Photography Club turned up to shoot pictures, Red Bull provided us with refreshments, Bench Mark Systems with the trophy and medals, and The Internet Disc Shop. Overall a fairly decent success.

I am posed with the question as to what to do now? For those familiar with MBA lingo, I can see the Chasm coming up. Crossing the chasm.. we'll see what happens. I have an invite from a nearby school for less-privilidged kids to come and teach 7th/8th grade kids to play UF so that they can be inculcated with the spirit of the game, and hence be better human beings in life. Lets see how this goes! Overall, a wonderful 2007. No regrets. Let us see what 2008 has in store.