Big Muckamuck: UCSB Burning Skirts

16 college alumni teams representing the best Open and Women’s teams from the past decade square off for the title of the best of the best. The Big Muckamuck will find the likes of the Hodags, CUT, Superfly and Burning Skirts competing on July 2nd-3rd at the annual Potlatch tournament in Redmond, WA. As part of our ongoing coverage of the event, Skyd caught up with Carolyn Finney of UCSB to find out more about the Skirts’ Muckamuck squad.

Roster:
Name – Grad Year – Current/Recent Club Team
Arianne Johnson- Grad student 201….. – 7 figures
Marie Madaras-2012-BCBC
Carolyn Finney-2011- Lady Condors
Shannon Bubb-2011-Lady Condors
Kaela Jorgenson-2010-Fury
Emily Bass-2010-Zeitgeist
Andrea Romano-2009-Fury
Katie Barry-2009-
Kristie Bowen UG-2006 G 2009-Fury
Danelle Mangone-2007- N/A
Allison Maddux-2007-Scandal
Alden Fletcher-2007-Fury
Claire Fletcher-2007
Kristina Eastham-2007-On the Rocks

Briefly share the history of your school’s Ultimate program. How it started/developed into a competitive program.

The team was founded in 1984 under many different names such as “No food in the library” and “the flying nones” it was not until the team began to win that they chose to stick with the name Burning Skirts. The Skirts won their first title in 1988 and went on to win two more very quickly in 1990 and 1991. The team would make it to the finals in 1994 and then drifted away from the national seen for 13 years. It was not until 2007 that the team would make it to the finals again. We fell just short in Columbus in 2007 and Boulder in 2008 losing in the finals, but we were determined to take the title back to Santa Barbara in 2009 and we did. The team would again appear in the finals in 2010 and 2011 only winning it all in 2011. UCSB has had a very strong program over the years driven and run mostly by the players, and while we never have enough people for a B team the Skirts that hit the practice fields every day work hard enough year after year to fill the voids left by the previous year’s graduating class.

What are some of your school’s biggest victories/games in the past decade?

In the past decade we made it to the finals for 4 years in a row (5 if you count 2011). While the first half of he decade belonged to other teams the Skirts emerged late to show what a great program we have.

Who on your roster will be making some of the big plays at the BM?

On D and O Allison Maddux (currently of Scandal), Kaela Jorgenson (currently of Fury), ) and Marie Madaras (previously BCBC)

On D Kristie Bowen (currently of Fury)

On O Andrea Romano (currently of Fury) and Katie Barry (previously of Lady Condors)

Which match-ups are your team most looking forward to?

Probably the teams we have lost to in the finals in the past decade.

Why is your team going to win the BM?

Because we have been the strongest team at the end of the decade so we have fresh young legs still.