On Sunday April 28th, Silver Lake Ultimate won the Championship at the  2013 Spaghetti Western Middle School Ultimate Frisbee®  Tournament in Northern California. The players were from Discsports In Southern California's Summer League program with the Silver Lake Recreation Center and their after school program at Thomas Starr King Middle School. The win was important for this group of young athletes. Why? In part because of the history involved: seven of the ten players on this team were with Coaches Dave Ambrose and Cliff Towne when they took a 5th Grade team from Ivanhoe Elementary up to the big Spring Reign Ultimate event in Seattle in 2010. The kids and coaches had good times, good attitudes and resilient smiles — but....it was disappointing when they lost that championship — by ONE point!

Since then, Dave and Cliff have tried to get the kids to another big Ultimate event up North, but schedules interfered — one year they had to bail because three key players had a band performing in the Silver Lake Jubilee!

2013 looked to be the year for Silver Lake to have a shot at an important Western trophy, but the team suffered a huge setback when Coach Dave suffered a debilitating stroke in January. Undeterred, Coach Cliff garnered the support of Team Dad (Kevin Fraser) and Team Uncle (Tim Smith) and they took the team up to the 2013 Spaghetti Western Youth Ultimate tourney in Northern California. The Spaghetti Western event, under TD Valerio Iani of Italia, has become one of the most important youth Ultimate Frisbee®  events in California.

After four plus hours of hard running Ultimate in 90 degree heat, Silver Lake Ultimate won — by ONE point — over another King Middle School — the “Cobras” from Berkeley.  With the championship on the line, the team dedicated their effort to Coach Dave Ambrose and moved the disc downfield to score —  and win! The super cool Spaghetti Western traveling Trophy will stay with Coach Dave until next year. To top it off, the other teams voted SIlver Lake Ultimate the big prize at any Ultimate tournament — The Spirit Award!

Contact bdecter@gmail.com to donate to Dave’s Stroke Recovery Fund. Contact ctowne@pdga.com for info about Silver Lake Rec Center's Youth Ultimate Frisbee Summer League or other disc sports in the area.