June 2014 saw the return of the Australian Youth Ultimate Championships since its return to the national calendar of events in 2013.

WA were very keen to be a part of the AYUC this year again after a dominant performance at last year’s championship, the write up can be found here.

The Girls U18 WA campaign started with the announcement of the team being formed, expressions of interest for coaches and managers and expressions of interest for players were released. Unfortunately no EOI’s for coaches or managers came in for the Girls WA team.

Four girls registered their interest to play for WA at the 2014 AYUC, 1 of these 4 girls attended a training/selection session on the May 5^th. After consultation with the Youth Officer for AFDA and Tournament director, Matt Hill, and the AFDA Youth Subcommittee it was decided that the Girls Division at AYUC 2014 will NOT be going ahead, as many of the other states are having the same problem as WA. With not enough States able to enter teams in the Girls division this year the division had to be cancelled.

The Boys U18 WA campaign started with the announcement of the team being formed, expressions of interest for coaches and managers, expressions of interest for players, followed by the announcement of the Head Coach, then the announcement of the team. The representative team was chosen from two selection events. The 21^st and 28^th of April 2014.

A total of 17 athletes registered their interest in the team. Following selections 13 players from WA were selected. With South Australia unable to enter a team again this year, we added an extra player from Adelaide allowing us to enter a team of 14 players.

WA Boys U18 team list:

Coach: Kyal Oh

Assistant Coach: Ash Evans

Manager: Anna Haynes

The team competed at the 2014 AYUC on June 7th and 8th in Melbourne, Australia.
The U18 boys division had 5 teams enter including ACT, NSW, QLD, VIC and our very own WA team. Our WA boys, with a very dominant performance throughout the weekend, took home the GOLD!!

Day 1:

Game 1- WA v ACT 12-9

It was a tough first game with a close battle with ACT. WA came out strong taking half 8-4, but ACT had the skill to keep on pressing and peg it back. WA holding on to take their first win with an excellent warm up to the tournament.

Game 2 – WA v VIC 11-6

WA knew they had to come out strong as VIC were a tight outfit and our new ‘rivals’ from last year’s AYUC. VIC came out hard taking the lead 3-1. WA managed to get 2 in a row to tie it all up until VIC took it to 6-4. After a timeout WA came out absolutely firing putting 4 on the board taking half 8-6. After half, it just got better, putting on another 3 points. WA running away with the game on a 7 point streak and taking their second win 11-6.

Game 3 – WA v QLD 9-6

After the lunch break the WA boys were a little sluggish. QLD come out strong putting the first 2 points on the board. The WA boys were working hard to tie it all up at 6-6. The hard work continued as they managed to hold QLD scoreless and take the game 9-6 on another 6 point streak.

Day 2:

Game 4 – WA v NSW 3-9

Early morning with a few sore legs, wind was picking up and there was a very tough game ahead of WA. Which ever team won this game, their straight through to the gold medal match. NSW had a large roster, WA knew they had to work hard. NSW came out very strong taking the lead 7-2. There were some very long points in the tough conditions but the WA boys never gave up. Losing their first (and only) game of the tournament 3-9. This meant NSW finished top of the ladder and would go straight through to the grand final and WA would face semi final match against VIC.

Semi Final – WA v VIC 8-7

Big semi final against a familiar rival with the Victorian boys, we had beaten them the day before and it was time to do it again. WA knew they had to come out strong this time and started the game on fire, taking the first 4 breaks to go up 4-0. VIC weren’t going away that easily though fighting back to make it 4-3. WA kept battling the tough conditions taking the lead to 7-5 and upon time cap it was a game to 8. As the VIC boys had demonstrated over the weekend in their other matches there were a second half comeback team and bought the score back to 7 all. Universe point with WA on offense, they hold strong putting away the point taking the win and going through to the gold medal match against NSW.

Grand Final – WA v NSW 10-6

Here it was round 2 for WA, this time knowing what they were up against. Both teams came out fighting trading points before WA took the first up wind break, after some epic zone D and long points WA extend their lead to 6-2. Incredible patience with the disc helped WA take half 8-5. Time cap goes and it’s a game to 10! WA on defence getting tonnes of blocks but unable to convert. Their patient offence finally slots in the winning goal and WA take the GOLD MEDAL with a win 10-6 over NSW.

WA finished 1^st at the 2014 AYUC an amazing effort from everyone involved. The team won 5 of their 6 games. At the end of the tournament there was a Green and Gold merit team picked.
3 WA team members were chosen in the team to represent Australia; Ainesh Ritschny, Sean Davis and Alex O’Neil. Our captain, Ainesh Ritschny, took out runner up in the MVP votes for the entire tournament.

With 3 All - Australian representatives chosen, runner up tournament MVP and taking out first place, the 2014 Australian Youth Ultimate Championships was a huge success for Western Australia and a promising look into the future of youth Ultimate within this state.

Thank you to all the parents for their amazing support for this event! HUGE Thank you to Matt Hill from Ultimate Victoria for organising this awesome tournament, we can't wait to do it again next year.

Photos from the event can be found on the Youth Ultimate WA Facebook page.