A place in the final after a day of growth

Last Saturday, I got to coach a team alongside UFO at Het Vliegende Start Toernooi in Utrecht. For our new players, it was a fantastic chance to discover indoor Ultimate. In my view, a beginner tournament like this is the perfect stepping stone towards official competition.

It was a great experience for me personally, too. It was everyone’s first time playing indoors, so there was a lot of new information to take in. It was great to see how well they handled it. They put feedback into practice straight away, and you could see the team grow with every game.

It was especially great to see Ivan and Franco back in action. After making their debut last week, they were now playing their first indoor games too. They adapted incredibly quickly and both put in a fantastic performance.

Working with UFO felt natural from the start. As it happens, I already knew my co-captain from WAF, so it was easy to work together on coaching the team. With growing confidence and plenty of Schièf flair, we made it to the final, where we faced Force again.

It was a real thriller. Force got off to a strong start and had just a little more experience on average. In the end, we lost by just one point: 7–8. Of course it hurts to come so close to winning, but it was an incredible achievement for this group to show so much growth in a single day.

And the Schièf flair did not stop at the sideline. Afterwards, of course, we were also the team that stayed together for a few drinks in the canteen. 😉

An amazing day, so much progress, and we can’t wait for more opportunities like this!