Haverford High School Ultimate Frisbee team wins Pa. State tournament

Playing teams from across Pennsylvania, the Ultimate Frisbee boys’ team from Haverford High School captured its first state championship this past weekend. Haverford, known as the Haverford Ultimate Disc Alliance (HUDA) won their first state title in the Pennsylvania State Ultimate Championship tournament. Hosted at Norwin Soccer Club’s Turner Valley Soccer Complex in North Huntington outside of Pittsburgh, they defeated close rival Radnor 15-8 and were the winners of the spirit award.

This has been a stellar season for the players from HUDA who won four of the six tournaments they attended and finished third at Easterns in Buffalo on May 15-16. Easterns is the highest level tournament in high school Ultimate Frisbee on the East Coast where the sixteen best teams from East of the Mississippi River compete.
HUDA saved their best tournament for last with the state championship. Led by Coach Benjamin Ditzler, HUDA managed to outplay Radnor in a hard-fought game from start to finish. In the winning game, senior team captains Tyler Kunsa, Simon Feeman, and Eric Shaw as well as junior captain Nathan Jack provided inspired defense and solid offense. Other major contributions were made by senior Sam Peezick and junior Connor Lynch who excelled in speed and high jumps to catch the disc.
Ultimate is a sport that is a mixture of football and soccer and played with seven on a side. It values speed, intelligence, and the ability to dive at a moment’s notice.

HUDA was established as a club sport at Haverford High School five years ago and has since grown into one of the top programs on the East Coast. They went from finishing sixth at States in 2007, to third two years ago, going on to take second last year. The girls' HUDA squad also placed highly at States, taking third place.

Their faculty sponsor at Haverford is Dr. Vicki Pollard who is heavily involved with everything about the team. They are also greatly helped by parents Dan Kunsa, Karen Kunsa, and team treasurer Amy Besser.
Hosted by the Ultimate Players Association (UPA), the Community for Pittsburgh Ultimate, and the Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League (PHUL), the State Championships included 16 open teams which are comprised of mostly guys with some girls on certain teams, and 12 girls team. It was a two day tournament organized by Darren Shultz and Nicole Shannon.

The Haverford Ultimate Disc Alliance team (above) is (top row, from left to right) Armen Berberian, Tyler Kunsa (Captain), Ian Robinson, Sam Peezick, Simon Feeman (Captain), Jeff Mogavero, Samson Hennessy-Strahs, Tom Maio, Ben Ditzler (Coach), Nate Gosweiler. In the bottom row (from left to right) are Kevin Cook, Connor Lynch, Jack Hoeksema, Eric Shaw (Captain), Nathan Jack (Captain). Not pictured are Eddie Mulhern, Casey Michaelis, Adam Callaghan, and Johnny Bistline.