Archived Articles 2008 Illinois Indoor 2008 Illinois Indoor Guts Frisbee Open Recap The Boomtown Saints picked up right where they left off last season by winning the first guts frisbee tournament of the year. Boomtown went undefeated over the March 29-30 weekend (winning all twelve games) and topped Blame the Dog in the finals 21-7 and 21-13 to take the championship of the 2008 Illinois Indoor Guts Frisbee Open played at the Plainfield High School fieldhouse in Plainfield, Illinois. In the first indoor guts tournament in over a decade, the Saints were led by tournament MVP Mike Banghart. Mike featured his hard-breaking thumber and blazing backhand on offense and with assistance from his teammates, played dazzling defense. MVP runner-up, Ryan Scott threw absolutely smoking-fast, dipping backhands all weekend. Other members of Boomtown were team captain - Mark Banghart, Danny Banghart, Jeff Banghart, and Joe O’Connor – all of who played outstanding guts. With the exception of a few two point round-robin victories and one game in the winner’s bracket semis that went “overtime”, Boomtown was never in trouble. The Saints have quickly become ! the< /U> guts frisbee team to beat. Blame the Dog (BTD) earned a well-deserved spot in the finals after being sent to the loser’s bracket early on Sunday by Boomtown. BTD sent Projectile Disc Function (PDF) home. Next, they hammered out a 21-14 win, eliminating the Stateville Convicts, and then beat Ridin’ High 21-13 in the loser’s bracket final. Congratulations to BTD for playing tough team defense all tourney. Their roster included team captain - Mike Colden, Dave Bolyard, Dave Brown, Steve Buckley, Gary Ciaglski, Josh Tews, and Dave Trauger. The seven-team five-man tournament began with round-robin play on Saturday. Each team played the other a single game to determine seeding spots for bracket play. Boomtown went 6-0 earning the #1 seed. Ridin’ High was 4-2 (#2), Stateville Convicts were 4-2 (#3), Cracked Disc finished 3-3 (#4), Blame the Dog went 3-3 (#5), Air Aces were 1-5 (#6) and PDF (Dave Bradshaw’s former team) which fittingly played with only four members were 0-6 (#7). The first round of the winner’s bracket was played on Saturday night. Boomtown had earned a bye. Ridin’ High defeated PDF in two games, the Stateville Convicts beat Air Aces two games to one and Blame the Dog took two out of three from Cracked Disc. On Sunday, in the winner’s bracket semis, Boomtown defeated BTD in two games while Ridin’ High also took care of Stateville in two. After the semis, tournament play was stopped. All players and spectators gathered at one end of the fieldhouse to observe a moment of silence in honor of Dave Bradshaw, guts frisbee hall-of-famer, who had passed away early Sunday morning after a long battle with cancer. It was respectfully noted, “He made it to Sunday”. Further, an announcement was made that a new award was to be created by the USGPA, the Dave Bradshaw Memorial Award, to recognize individuals for their off-the-field contributions to the game of guts. The tourney was restarted and in the winner’s bracket finals, Boomtown beat Ridin’ High in two games. In the other loser’s bracket games not mentioned above, PDF topped the Air Aces in a close game, and Stateville beat Cracked Disc 21-10. Other team rosters (in order of finish) were as follows: Ridin’ High (3rd place): team captain – Bill Watt, Luke Colden, Dan Leach, Steve Taylor, and Dan Thornton. Stateville Convicts (4th): team captain – Ron Blau, Dave Agrusa, Al Beckman, Scott Brooks, Nick Marfise (his first guts tourney), and Tournament Director Dave Meyer. Cracked Disc (tied for 5th): team co-captains – Ben Trauger and Brian Vander Maazen, John Hopkins, Alex Tews, Brian Tews, and Tim Trauger. PDF (tied for 5th): team captain – John Fish, Dave O’Malley, Larry Scott (his first guts tourney), and Adam Swanson (his first guts tourney). Air Aces (7th) team captain – Bob Sharp, Ron Arndt,! Don Kl emmer, Gene Marsh, Bob McCartney and Keith Moher. Spectators included family and friends of the players and a group of Plainfield High School baseball players who took part in a little guts practice by facing some of the more challenging shots of several of the tournament guts players. Let’s hope we see more of these young ball/disc players in the future. Thanks to all players and spectators for making the tournament a huge success. The tournament went off without a hitch. Several spectators, who had never witnessed guts before, remarked about the high level of sportsmanship and professionalism of the players; games were started on time and pace of play was excellent. Special thanks to the following for their contributions: John Fish for assisting with tournament planning/preparation; Jan Meyer for hosting the player’s party; John and Mary Ann Holmes for taking care of registration; Dan Leach, Dan Thornton and Steve Taylor for providing tourney supplies and assistance; Dave Trauger for tourney assistance; Dave Leeds for brewing the player’s party beer; the Comfort Inn for providing discounted lodging and Plainfield High School for being a great tournament host. See you in New London, Wisconsin in June. View Brackets