Jack Goes to Nationals

Everybody knows Jack plays ultimate at UNC-W. I have posted it on here, on Facebook, and I tell pretty much everybody I meet. Well, his team qualified for college nationals and went to Madison, WI over the long Memorial Day weekend to compete.

I have been trying to get it into Jack's head how big a deal College Nationals is....really Ultimate in general. If he didn't want to play, that was OK with me, but I really wanted him to understand that those people who do play competitively, take it VERY seriously.  Making it to College Nationals is a huge deal. It's kind of like making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA college basketball tournament.

I think Jack finally gets it :) He got to go and play this past weekend. Most college players do not make it to Nationals. Only the top 20 teams in the Nation make it each year. I never went and Derrick went one year. It really is an honor to go and I am so excited that Jack got to experience it.

The cool thing about Nationals this year is that Ultimate is finally getting some attention! Several of the games were live streamed and the Semi Final games and the Finals were actually televised on ESPN. That is so huge for the sport of ultimate! Two of Jack's games got live streamed: his pre-quarters game against Colorado and his quarters game against Carleton.   When you go to Nationals as a freshman you can expect to be a bench warmer and a water-bottle-filler-upper.  Jack got three points in the Carleton game and tore it up!! The commentators called him out for playing great defense, he caught a bail out huck and he had an incredible layout for a huge goal to bring them within 1 of Carleton.  The announcers said "And a huge catch by Jack Williams!"

They ended up losing in the Quarter Finals game to Carleton but they went so much farther then they were expected to. They were also called out for having excellent offense and really being a team that relied on everybody and not just a few stars. I think that's something to be proud of.

I got to talk to him tonight about it and it was so cool to hear how fired up he was. It was such a cool experience for him and I know that he is only going to get better and better. He is one of only two freshman that made the A team this year and I think he will be a vital part of their team in the next three years at Wilmington.  Who knows...maybe we'll get him so hooked he'll even play club one day!

Congrats Jack! I'm so happy for you and I'm glad you finally got the chance to experience the craze Derrick and I have been telling you about :)