Keystone Classic

After a record-breaking winter in the Northeast, three feet of snow covered the fields two weeks before the inaugural year of Philly Classic.  With 44 teams expecting to play that weekend and many of them needing the games to meet the 10-game USA Ultimate regular season requirement, Michelle had her back against the wall, with no foreseeable solution.  Enter Carly Maconaghy and Melissa May, Penn State Isis captains.  Both were former teammates of one of Michelle’s teammates on Showdown, but neither had met Michelle before.  That didn’t seem to matter.  Carly and Melissa pulled together every resource available to them and somehow found enough turf fields in State College to pull Philly Classic off.  Horrendous weather, teams dropping out at the last second, and enough bad luck to last a lifetime aside, the tournament happened.  And believe us, that in and of itself was a miracle.

After the tournament, Michelle swore she was done with college ultimate.  But then Sara reminded her that she was still committed to Philly Fusion, which Brute Squad and Showdown had already started planning, and Michelle grudgingly agreed to delay her retirement another 6 months.  And as hard as she tried, Michelle couldn’t shake the feeling that the Metro East NEEDED a competitive tournament.  She emailed a few trusted friends on various Metro East teams, got an overwhelmingly positive response, and after a meeting at Philly Fusion with friends on Penn State, Pitt, UNC, Ottawa, and Maryland, we’re moving full steam ahead!  In an effort to give ourselves a fresh start this year, we’ve renamed the tournament Keystone Classic.

For more information about the tournament, please visit the tournament website at:
http://keystoneclassic.wordpress.com

You can reach the TDs at:
keystoneclassic.td (at) gmail dot com