Words from our American Dragon.

I am sitting here in the Dubai Airport heading home to the US after 2 months abroad. I left my home of Ocean City, Maryland on January 23 to live and train in Boracay, Phillipines with the Dragons for an epic campaign leading up to the World Championships of Beach Ultimate.

This all started in March 2014 when I was on the Morrill Performance Asia tour in the winter of 2014. We gave our Functional Performance clinics in Singapore, Australia, Manila, and concluded in Boracay. During our stop in Manila we were hosted by Towie Vazquez, an amazing human being who works his ass off to get young people playing ultimate. We had a speed and agility clinic which takes place in cleats on the pitch, and a strength and power clinic which took place at a 360 Fitness. On our way to each event we would pickup all the necessary gear and a van FULL of young players who needed rides, and sit in glorious Manila traffic. It was worth every second and the number of players positively affected by Towie’s efforts are countless. If you see this dude at any ultimate tournament say thank you and give him a hug.

We landed on Boracay and Tim and I immediately clicked with the Dragons team. Much like the Dragons, Tim and I live and work on the beach in the US and run Ocean City Beach Ultimate, home of pickup games, summer league, and our August tournament the OC Beach Classic. Just like in Manila we were embraced as brothers, not only from the bond ultimate players share, but also our love of the beach and ocean. We have since hosted the team in our home in OC during the Drgaons US tour and they got to play with and against our OCBU players. I also played with them at Wildwood, and Tim joined them for the whole tour.

Karen Cabrera does so much behind the scenes work it seems impossible and more than 1 person can do. Her hard work for the Dragons helped assemble this years Team Phillipines as the country was represented in 4 divisions at Beach Worlds: Open, Mixed, Masters, and Women’s Masters. Even though we wore the name “Boracay Dragons” I came to realize this was, in fact, a collection of the best players from the nation. Eight different club teams were represented from Manila and the Provinces: Dragons, Sunken Pleasure, Extreme Dumaguete, Mulatto, Sid Vicious, Ultimate Green Archers, Red Horses, and team J Lo.

Our challenge for the 6 week training block was to get in the best shape of our lives and develop chemistry with lots of talented players, not an easy task. With the legends of Dragons at Beach Worlds in the back of our minds, we were going with one goal: Gold. With the guidance of our head coach Wendall, assistant coach Akira, and Strength and Conditioning Coach Tim Morrill, I can honestly say this was the hardest thing I have ever done. We trained 2 times a day, 6 times per week. There were ups and downs physically and mentally. If you were having a rough day there was always a teammate there to pick you up, even if they were playing in another division. We ate together, ran together, sweat together, and recharged together. Since becoming a “pickup” in the 2014 Boracay Open, I felt that I was no longer an outsider. Through our intense training, travel, wins, and losses together, I was part of the team. We are the Dragons.

We eventually packed up and headed out to the unknown, the Middle East, and a 5-day World Championship tournament where legends were about to be written. We believed we had worked harder than any other team there and it was time to put ourselves to the test against the best in the world.

All 4 teams came out fit, focused, and flying. In the Mixed division, Kyra and Mai Mai were both in the top 10 players for scoring with +41 and +35 respectively. Wendell Go, JLo, and Nelson of Mulatto anchored this team and put out an extraordinary effort. This team was new group together and kept getting better throughout the tournament! Together they fought hard and fell in quarters to Portugal. They finished the tournament with a win over Sweden and a 5th place finish out of 20 teams.

The Open team cruised through pool play but lost to eventual silver medalist Great Britain by 2 points, which matched us up against Team USA in the Semis. We wanted revenge for the 2011 finals loss and knew for the last 2 months we would meet these guys. We battled in 30+ mph winds for a shot at finals and lost a heartbreaking game on universe, forcing us into the bronze medal game where we would meet Canada at 8am. The Dragons again pushed this one to the end. We started universe point on D, got the turn we needed and punched it in for a Bronze medal. Bolantoy finished as the Open division’s top scorer with +49 (28G, 21A)!

Masters beat some very good teams including Germany in pool play and Great Britain in the 3/4 match to earn themselves a Bronze medal. Seeing these lolos fearlessly layout was an inspiration and reassures me that I will be playing ultimate for a very long time. Our women’s masters team, after losing every game, came back and beat Currier Island on universe with a layout score! Every team gave their all and fought hard to the finish.

In the end, nobody reached the ultimate goal of gold, but the positive outcomes of this experience left not a single dry eye in our final huddles. Ultimate is about the journey; your personal journey, and the growth of the team through individual effort. We played for our teammates and for the country.

Thank you to the Dragons for the chance to represent your nation and The Man Don Laczi for the amazing coverage and photography. Phillipines I will miss your beautiful white beaches, swimming out to the big coral rock in front of Casa Pilar, and more magical fruit shakes than I can remember. The support we received from the Filipino community was inspiring every step of the way from our island training to the competition in Dubai. Food, hydration, and just loud positivity made this American feel a part of something special. This is the third time I have trained and played ultimate with the Dragons and saying goodbye was not sad. We casually parted ways and said “see you next time.” I cant wait to see my bros and Dragon ladies again for more ultimate action.

Maramang Salamat,

Laban Pilipinas!

AJ Jacoski

Thank you, AJ for this awesome write up. You will forever be a Dragon! We will see you soon!

More guest bloggers coming soon! (I hope…)

Until then… Tuloy Lang Ang Party!

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