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All text copyright 1999 Tony
Leonardo and the Ultimate Players Assoication.
Photos: copyright 1999 Chuck Figur, Margo Hasselman and Keith Borsheim.
FINALS
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"Thursday nite we have a team meeting and Kris Bass has his jerseys from the past four years. N.C. State 1983 Phys Ed t-shirt, from when the basketball team won the Championship. Then the jersey from our first trip to Nationlas, a jersey from our trip last year, and some other jersey. The team was all gathered around. ‘Here we are —this is what we’ve come to do. This first jersey, we played in semis last year but right now it doesn’t mean that much’ and he took a match and threw it down—it was soaked in kerosene. ‘Burn it.’ And he went to the next, and he told a story about each jersey...torched it. Went down the line, all four of them, and no one said a word. We watched all the jerseys burn and we knew what we had to do."
You have to want to beat UCSB with all your guts. Anything less will not work.
The finals was a story of little big men versus big big men. Quick speedsters Kris Bass, Brian Bolduc, Patrick Hard and Brian Lang would have to sneak under the UCSB radar broadcast by beefy backs Greg Husak, Adam Glimme, Ernie Aubin and Tommy Hellyer.
Jinx received the disc to start and scored, Hinkle to Kusy. UCSB scored right back. N.C. State scored again, UCSB responded. No turnovers so far.
The game was played in a sort of natural stadium. Grassy berms rose up on three sides of the field, giving everyone a good seat for the match. In the beginning the fans were evenly spread out, but towards the end a large group of anti-Black Tide congregated on the North Carolina side of the field while a similar group of pro-Black Tide/pro-California resided on the other. Fortunately the walls of grass were thirty feet from the lines, preventing any uncalled-for abuses.
State got the first defensive block of the tournament when Brian Bolduc stopped a huck from completion, allowing N.C. to score.
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On the next point both teams tested the limits of the game, measuring out the opponent and feeling what type of offensive groove was going to work best. We knew State’s was ‘fire up the cavalry and charge! Send the troops deep and fire ‘em in there if you got the chance. If not, pull back and bait the deep to work the underneath. Just keep Hinkle around the disc.’
For UCSB it was a matter of James finding out the right amount of touch necessary for his throws to land in stride with the receiver. After many turnovers by both teams, mostly on hucks, Black Tide scored to tie.
Already N.C. State had an edge. Although they typically blew out opponents in the first three or four possessions, UCSB was a different ball of wax.
Snyder reponded for Jinx with a crowd-raising layout grab in the endzone from an overthrown Bolduc forehand.
UCSB returned the score with an impossible to defend high-release lefty backhand to Brandon Steets. A State huckaway turned into another Santa Barbara score, this one Hollywood to Schneider. UCSBturned to the zone for some help defensively.
N.C. State moved patiently through the defense and scored after 10 or so passes to tie the game at 5s.
Hmmm. Something was a little fishy. N.C. State was not scared and whatever weird offense they were playing was working to perfection. Santa Barbara might have been a little disoriented. There are used to an opponent providing a thread of slack for them to exploit. N.C. State seemed unflappable. The only mistakes they were making were overthrown hucks and they didn’t seem to care.
UCSB dropped the disc and turned to zone. Snyder sent a questionable hammer to the endzone, got the foul call, and N.C. State scored again. UCSB retaliated and scored to Brandon Steets.
Again N.C’s offense was unaffected. They moved effectively down the field before Pat Hard felt it was righteous enough to send a deep hammer to Snyder in the corner. 7–6 N.C. State. Had UCSB been down before at this late in the game?
The anti–Black Tide crowd didn’t think they had, but they weren’t taking any chances. Chants of "Holllllywoood" echoed across the field trying to find a way into Husak’s pride.
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Meanwhile, a very uncharacteristic and rare endzone turnover for UCSB gave the disc back to State. They flipped a few passes before getting it to Hinkle who wisely called timeout at about midfield. Hinkle with disc in hand after timeout = disc will be in endzone within 10 seconds.
Sure enough, some sort of play was set up, Hinkle checked the disc in, and immediately sent a madly hooking forehand to the middle of the field. No one was there. What the hell was that?
But Kris Bass was on rails after the damn thing. Suddenly he leapt into the air with his back arched and his hand out straight, matching the trajectory of the disc, flying upwards and sideways in a most unusual manner. The disc stuck to his hand like a dart in cork and he came down on his side, in the endzone, for the half. Electrifying.
Explained straight-talking Bass, "That one was a set play. We just kind of set it up to have the endzone open. They didn’t really match up the way we wanted it to, but Hinkle made a great throw. Landed right in my hand."
Hell no! You had to jump up two feet and to the side two feet to get your hand anywhere near that badly thrown disc!
Bass smiled and responded, "Naw—did it just for looks."
It was pretty clear to most game watchers that UCSB was not getting its deep looks at the end of the first half. They were making unforced errors in their handle positions. Some kind of defense N.C. was playing had taken away their deep game.
Burfiend determined that the outcome of the game rested in defense, "They’re getting themselves inside way too easily, getting the discs at will. Defense is going to win this game."
State was holding on to a thin two-goal margin over the three-time defending Champions. Was coach Brian Dobyns a little nervous?
"You bet your ass," replied Dobyns.
The half couldn’t have started out any better for Jinx. Mild-mannered Snyder got a huge layout block coming back to the disc to halt the Tide’s advance. Four passes later Kevin Kusy fed him dessert, sending a sky-hammer deep to the back of the endzone for Snyder to track down.
The score gave N.C. State the fuel to power the buzzsaw for another half of play. UCSB felt the sting immediately, trudging back to the line with calls of "time to fire up Tide!" coming from worried teammates.
On the next possession Studarus overthrew Hollywood on the second pass. State scored easily. 10–6.
Both teams sensed a turning point in the game. Instead, the next point featured a rash of turnovers. Santa Barbara was trying to regain their concentration while State anteed up for all the amazing catches they had made earlier by missing connections, including a goalline turnover after a timeout.
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After a few more misses, Studarus finally found Burfiend wide open in the endzone for a much-needed Tide score. Hinkle got back on track and State scored easily to keep the four-point lead at 11–7.
Santa Barbara was still rattled. They drove the length of the field only to turf an easy score. Burfiend got the disc back for S.B. on a misguided huck to Kusy. Tide had an opportunity to drive and score.
But Brian Bolduc put a stop to that and provided State with their biggest play yet. On a comeback pass, Bolduc made a sweet layout fingertip block on the heels of the Tide player. State dropped a score in the endzone and Bolduc amazingly made the exact same block three passes later. State punched it in.
Now it looked like the Jinx defense was clicking just as their offense had gone south. They had a 12–7 lead and Santa Barbara was looking more and more vulnerable every possession.
"We expected them to make a run, we didn’t expect to help them quite as much. We knew it was going to come, and when it did come I was a little worried," spoke Chris Hinkle after the game.
N.C. State continued to make defensive stops but their confidence in the offense began to wilt. The huge Bolduc blocks had drained the team mentally and physically. Their energy level had dipped, like coming down off a thirty-minute Ginseng buzz. They were a step too slow to respond to Santa Barbara on defense, while on offense they were sadly imprecise and recklessly adventuresome with their throws.
Hollywood sprung back to life. He and James were having off games. It finally hit him that the time was now to get the shit in check. He got his fire back on defense, reading N.C. State’s throws and jumping in for poach blocks. James took off his hat. He too was ready to play inspired D and get Tide back on top where they belonged.
Black Tide scored three straight points to close to 12–10. N.C. State got lucky on the next possession as Glimme took one away and then gave it back after a phantom block from Pat Hard. State scored, 13–10.
Time was running out on UCSB for a change. Someone called out, "Don’t the fans want to see a game to 21!?" Too late now.
James untracked and sent a backhand huck to Tommy in the endzone. 13–11. N.C. State threw it away on the next possession and Hollywood makes the knockdown in a crowd. They moved upwind 10 yards from the goalline and called time. When play resumed, it’s James’ lefty backhand high-release to Hollywood that does the trick, 13–12.
The lineups had really tightened for both teams as subbing became infrequent. Both teams were starting to wear down. First Hinkle drops a pass up high. Then Glimme throws a pass to James too deep in the endzone. Next, Hinkle throws it away after failing to get good looks from his deep men. Then S.B. turfs a throw. Hinkle, going for the trifecta, finally makes the connection to Rhett Nichols and Jinx is in the catbird seat, 14–12.
Jinx subbed in some new faces to keep legs fresh. Studarus marches through on offense, puts it to Steets for an easy score, 14–13.
Santa Barbara matched up their defensive team: Studarus, Husak, Glimme, Aubin, Hellyer, Ben Smith and Nick Fiske. Then, just as N.C. State is preparing a strategy for scoring the final point, James called timeout.
Wow, a timeout to ice the opponent. Brilliant idea and brilliant execution. As if on cue, UCSB pulled, Snyder took the disc and sailed a forehand past his diving receiver. Tide took the turnover and tied the game.
"Talk about heart-dropping," spoke Snyder about the throwaway, "I knew as soon as I let it go. I knew exactly who I was throwing to and I knew as soon as I released it it was going down."
"It seemed like we kinda crushed them to go 14s," related Husak, "But I think that’s the hardest point in Ultimate, when the team just breaks even."
"I never thought we’d give in. I knew it was going to be a battle to the very end," spoke Hinkle.
Brian Snyder never thought to hang his head after the demoralizing throwaway. Instead he followed it with the greatest play of the tournament.
State received a decent pull and got the disc to Snyder about 15 yards from their goalline. They had called a set play on the line, but suddenly Snyder wound up for a big backhand and...released! One of those classic sports moments that you see and can’t quite believe, can’t fathom what it takes to make that kind of throw in that situation.
Snyder had spotted Bass making a run for the border and he lofted a good one. Bass had a few steps on his defender but the disc kept going, and going, and then it slowed down and dropped down a bit near the back of the endzone. Still in full stride with Ben Smith now right on his tail, Bass went way up, snagged the disc and came down in-bounds. Whoa.
"For being 5’4 or 5’5, whatever Kris Bass is, he’s a helluva target. I knew as soon as I saw him cut that was the throw I wanted and its kind of like in basketball—if you’re missing your shots, keep taking them," explained Snyder.
But the game wasn’t over yet. It was overtime, 15–14 N.C. State. UCSB and James decided that they could do the same thing.
N.C. State was rapidly running out of energy. The pull sailed OB giving Santa Barbara a chance for a set offense. James called out a huck to Brandon Steets who had a few inches on his man, Kris Bass. The throw was perfect, catching Steets in stride in the endzone. Bass tried to get a piece of the disc but all he got was air. Instead, Steets, who had gotten turned around, could not clutch the plastic and the disc became the property of Jinx.
Jinx looked tired maneuvering up the field. They even threw the disc away on a tailing backhand to Patrick Hard. Hard and his defender were heading out of bounds rapidly and it looked like the disc was uncatchable. Somehow Hard reached up and grabbed it at the last second, still heading out of bounds. He landed out, but called a foul arguing that he was pushed out. It was an extremely difficult call to make, but it went to the observer Chris Van Holmes and he ruled ‘return to thrower.’
State moved to within 20 yards of the final score. Hinkle called timeout. Play resumed with a standard endzone stack. Hinkle appeared nervous and double-clutched a few throws. Finally he ill-advisedly sent a tricky backhand to the far corner for Kevin Kusy. Tommy Burfiend was practically standing in front of him.
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"Actually, I saw him with his hands in front of me. I couldnt even see the disc and then it kind of came around, I reached up and it stuck," revealed Kusy, "I was a little shocked because I didn’t really realize it was game point. Then everyone started tackling me and I knew it was game over."
A miracle catch. Somebody wanted them to win.
UCSB was in disbelief. They shook hands with N.C. State like shock victims and moved off the field very, very slowly.
"Since Freshman year we knew that they were the team to beat. We always wanted to have that final game against them because that way we really knew we were the best team," explained Kusy.
MVP of the Finals goes to Kris Bass. It was his spirit that guided this team, but it was his game-turning scores that won it.
"This is the whole reason why you practice three times a week, for the one opportunity to risk it all for the Ultimate game," says Bass. Words to live by.
"You just expect to win so much. It's almost like it hasn't even set in because you always just win. I don't even know what it feels like yet," spoke Husak afterwards.
"It feels great. I’ve wanted to stop that streak for a while, man. Especially since Snyder and I lost to Hollywood and James in club semifinasls last year," spoke Hinkle.
"Those are the guys we want to beat. Those are the guys that have taken it to the national title three years in a row—we want to replace them, we want to beat them, we want to stop them getting four in a row—and that was the talk pretty much all season," admitted Snyder.
Back in Raleigh one week later the team celebrated with much Pepe Lopez and frequent screenings of the finals, captured on videotape for future generations.
