The Watertown Ultimate Frisbee League was created in the summer of 2005 by Dane Street, a school teacher and coach in Watertown CT. At the time there was a growing interest in the sport and a great demand by his students at the time for a more formal league in which to play. The result was the WUFL.
Thanks to the extreme generosity of the Kuslis family, Street and Mykal Kuslis transformed a hay field into a makeshift playing field. Not quite regulation size, not quite level, and full of dangerous terrain, the original field on Barnes Road in Watertown was the home to the first year and a half of the WUFL.
There were just four teams during the first season (The Founding Fathers, Great Danes, Flying Beers, and Blind Beagles) and they played each other A LOT during the first summer. The 40 or so members of the league learned the basics and began to improve. The very first championship saw the Founding Fathers top the Great Danes.
In the second year the league went to a two-session format. Still at the Kuslis farm during the first session and with another team in the mix (Lozzagurth . . . many other names . . . Boys 2 Men), the league continued to grow as word spread. An additional hay field housed the second championship, with the result the same as the first . . . the Fathers topped the Danes, and a dynasty was born.
With the addition of Off A Hippo (now Wet?) and Watertown United (now Ed Nevins Forever) in the second session of 2006, WUFL was simply too big for the farm and moved to the fields at Veterans' Park. The league topped 100 people for the first time and any doubt about the health of the league vanished. The fields at Veterans' treated the Fathers just fine, as they extended their title streak to three, this time defeating Miss Veronica Vaughn in the title match.
In 2007 the Watertown Ultimate Frisbee League grew to 10 teams for both session one and session two. The Blind Beagles took a hiatus during session one while Team Secore, Franco's Fury, the Decepticons, and Ven Conmigo Tortuga all joined the league. Team Secore made the most of their brief stay in the league, capturing the session one title over the Great Danes.
After Secore's disappearing act, the session two title was up for grabs. The Blind Beagles returned to the league and the 10 teams battled for ultimate supremacy for six weeks. In the end just one was left standing . . . William Wallace. They topped the Founding Fathers for their first WUFL title.
After an exciting first session of 2008 that culminated with some great tournament games and a 4th title for the Founding Fathers (runners-up Flying Beers), the second session saw the expansion of the WUFL to an unprecedented 13 teams!!
With some of the best ultimate to date in the league and great competitions throughout the ability levels, the second session of '08 was phenomenal for the league. The Fathers pulled off the double, finishing undefeated during the regular season and winning the tournament as well, with Boys 2 Men the runners-up.
FIVE YEARS OF WUFL!
2009 marks the 5-year anniversary of this lettle league that started in a hayfield. The first session this summer featured 15 teams and nearly 200 players. For the first time the league split into two divisions to help create more evenly matched contests. Without question it was a success as teams across the board improved their abilities and enjoyed the competitive games in the process. All 15 teams entered the championship tournament and at the end of 5 pools and an 8-team playoff the Founding Fathers remained standing. Their 15-11 victory over Slippery When Wet in a match that lasted nearly two hours earned them their 6th WUFL title.
In Session 2 Slippery When Wet rolled to a 9-1 record and entered the tournament as the team to beat. They seemed poised to claim their first championship, but losses to the Founding Fathers and Flying Beers sent them home earlier than they would have liked. The Fathers found their groove at just the right time, making it through the winners' bracket undefeated and (after losing 11-1 in the first final) topping Gordon Bombay in the championship to claim their 4th consecutive title and 7th overall.
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