IN THE BEGINNING . . .
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.
LET'S DO IT AGAIN!
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.
MOVIN'
ON UP . . .
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.
YEAR THREE
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.
IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BIGGER!
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 marked the 5-year anniversary of this little
league that started in a hayfield. The first session 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.
MAKE IT EIGHT!
Session 1 of 2010 brought 15 teams to the fields to battle once again for
Ultimate supremacy and the coveted WUFL Cup. During the regular season the divisional format once again was used to
create even match-ups nearly every night. The Cavs rolled to a 9-1 record in the B Division, but it seemed as though
Robert Frost & the Morning Beats would run the table and claim their franchise's second championship. They entered
the tournament as the #1 seed after an undefeated 10-0 campaign. But once again in the playoffs the Founding Fathers
hit their stride and rolled into the championship match. There they jumped out to a 7-0 lead that they would not relinquish
en route to a 15-8 victory and their eighth championship.
Session 2 also featured 15 teams, and the usual
suspects were at it again. The Founding Fathers bounced back from two early-session losses to finish 8-2 and atop the
standings in Division A. The Gala rolled through the B Division undefeated and were out to prove that a B-league team
could win it all. In the second session tournament, newly-named STURDY WINGS (the latest installment of the Lozzagurth
franchise) capitalized on pool play perfection to take the #1 seed in the elimination bracket and the easy road the the championship
match. There they jumped on the Founding Fathers early and opened up an 8-2 halftime lead. That would prove too
big a deficit for the defending champions as Sturdy Wings took home the session 2 title and the WUFL Cup.
