The 2016 St. George’s Invitational ultimate tournament took place on the weekend of April 9th and 10th and was host to 12 teams hailing from secondary schools across the lower mainland. This year’s edition of the tournament had Tight (a team made up of boys from St. George’s and girls from York House) finishing in first place with their first invitational win in over 5 years!

Tight began their weekend with their first game of pool play against Churchill. After a hard fought game the two teams were tied at 8s. With the hard cap timer going on that meant this game was going to universe (next point wins). Unfortunately for Tight, it was Churchill that would score that point and take the game 9-8. Tight played their next pool play game against Kwantlen Park. They bounced back nicely from their earlier loss and came away with 15-4 victory. Tight played their final game of the day against Saint Thomas Moore Collegiate (STMC). Tired legs were evident in this game for Tight as the team fell 15-8.

The struggles from day 1 didn’t faze the seasoned players. On Sunday, the second day of play, Tight came into its first two games with unmatched ferocity to close out both by a comfortable amount. This included defeating rivals, and last years Saints Invite Champions, Sutherland, in the semi-finals.

Next on the agenda would be a finals matchup against STMC, the same team that had defeated Tight just 24 hours earlier, and just like the day before, the coaches would take advantage of Tight’s lack of female players leaving them without subs for most of the game. In the first 6 points, Tight would fall behind 5-1, but with an impressive push by the team’s veterans, would go on a 7-0 run to close out the half-time and eventually, the game 15-13.

Yorkhouse Grad Jyoti Dhawan had this to say about STMC’s exhaustion technique: “Playing our only 4 girls on the line was of course an exceptional challenge, both physically and mentally. We came onto the field dreading the exhaustion and expecting a loss, but the team as a whole surprised ourselves with our determination to win. For the girls, this was an amazing learning opportunity and challenge – for the guys, this was the moment to pick up the pace and give 100%. As a team, we faced this challenge by playing smart and never giving up, and it got us the big win!”

Congratulations to all our teams who competed out there this weekend and thank you to all the volunteers involved.

Best of luck to Tight as they head off to Washington this weekend to compete in Spring Reign, the largest youth ultimate tournament in North America.