Big Muckamuck: Washington Sundodgers

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 Washington’s Gabe Pedersen to find out more about the Sundoger’s Sockeye heavy roster.

Roster:
Name – Grad Year – Current/Recent Club Team
Michael “Ofro” Capaleto- 2012 – N/A
Duncan Linn – 2012 – N/A
Gordon Sewart – 2012 – N/A
Sean Bucy – 2011 – N/A
David Hultengren – 2011 – N/A
Philip Murray – 2011 – Sockeye
Donnie Clark – 2010 – Rainier Rupture
Sean Rohan – 2010 – N/A
Edward “Eddie” Feeley – 2009 – Sockeye
Joseph “BJ” Sefton – 2009 – Sockeye
Dutch Hixenbaugh – 2008 – N/A
Anthony Cacallori – 2005 – D’oh!/Voodoo
Ray Illian – 2005 – Sockeye
Jon Ladd – 2005 – Shazam
Gabriel Pedersen – 2005 – D’oh!/Voodoo
Ryan Winklemen – 2005 – Sockeye
Josh Lang – 2004 – Swagger
Pat McCarthy – 2003 – Sockeye

Briefly share the history of your school’s Ultimate program. How did it start/develop into a competitive program?

UW qualifies for nationals against CAL in 2005.

Washington Ultimate began its current existence in 1994 with a small group of young men known as the Huckin’ Fuskies (Actually, the program was originally founded by Jude Stoller in 1989, but only lasted one season). Washington Ultimate wasn’t the Sundodgers until 2002 (we were Ragnarok in 2001) when we adopted the team name. The name ‘Sundodgers’ stems from the University of Washington’s original mascot, Sunny the Sun Dodger. The Sundodger name was replaced in favor of the Huskies in 1923. In 2005, Washington first qualified for nationals with the core group of players who branded the team under the Sundodger name. Led by current Sockeye captain Ray Illian, Washington made quarters, losing to eventual champion, Brown University. Before our final defeat, we did have the pleasure of beating and knocking out our rivals, British Columbia, in pre-quarters.

The Sundodgers would struggle for a few years before blasting back onto the national scene in 2009. Led by current Sockeye player Joe “BJ” Sefton, Washington lost in the game-to-go to UC-Berkeley in Corvallis. During the 2009 season UW took down many of the top teams in the nation, including 2 of the National semifinalists. 2011 marks Washington Ultimate’s second appearance at Nationals. Current coach, Pat McCarthy, took over the team in 2007 from former Sockeye captain, Brook Martin. Pat has worked tirelessly trying to re-establish Washington as one of the quality college Ultimate programs on the west coast, while also preparing his players to compete and succeed in Club Ultimate. Many thanks go out to him!

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

UW in Boulder at Nationals in 2011

2004: President’s Day – beating Santa Barbara 11-10 after being down 8-1 at half.
2005: Centex: beating then #1 Wisconsin 15-12 in the first game of pool play.
2005: beating Cal to secure our first nationals bid – 15-12 in the backdoor game to go.
2005: beating Michigan 15-12 in the first round at Nationals. The program’s first nationals win.
2005: beating UBC at Nationals 17-16, eliminating them from nationals in pre-quarters.
2009: beating Western Washington to win our first Sectional title since 1999, 15-11.
2011: Nationals: knocked out defending champ Florida 15-12 from nationals.

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

Look for our gingers to dominate down field with Joe Sefton, Phil Murray and Jon Ladd handling a huge load of the cutting responsibility for the weekend. Ray Illian has also been known to dye his hair red to match the young Sockeye cutters. We also have Sockeye cutter and nice guy Eddie Feeley down field and handling, too.

Also, look for Sean Rohan to put some big hucks to Sefton, Murray, Illian and Co.

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

Gabe Pedersen, Ray Illian and Matt Bauman share a beverage in 2001.

Look at our pool…CUT, Wisco and Stanford. We are pumped to be playing all three of those teams. I hate to think what the CUT roster is going to look like…

With all the talent that will be on the field, we are just ecstatic to be able to play in this tournament after being a last minute addition.

Why is your team going to win the BM?

Because UBC isn’t there. Also, UW doesn’t know how to party, so we’ll be a bit more fresh and focused for the earlier games. ;)