Weekend of Legends

Do you know the names Scott Mag Hughes, Dave Robinson, Tricia George, Ken Shults, and - uh - John Stalberger?  The US Open is simply over-flowing with footbag legends.  Many of them just stop by to make a cameo appearance, while others are still playing at the highest level and directing footbag events.  Make no mistake � there are probably more legends of the game showing up at the US Open than any other tournament in the world, except perhaps the Beaver Open.  Not too surprising I guess since Portland is real close to where it all started.  Again I must say - US Open rocks!  Considering it?  Get here next year.

Unless of course, you are forced to choose between The Green Cup Presented by Chaos or this event. 

Doubles Semis:
The doubles semis between John/Eric VS Jake/Dave featured a fast start from Jake and Dave in game one jumping out to a 12-5 lead before John and Eric came back.

3rd seed Ken Shults and PT Lovern over 2nd seed Chris Siebert and Steve Dusablon
(2 - 0)

4th seed John Leys and Eric Wulff over 1st seed Jake Leong and David Bernard
(18-16, 15-12)

Doubles Final:
#3 seed Ken Shults and PT Lovern over #4 seed John Leys and Eric Wulff
(15-7, 11-15, 15-11)

The opening game of the final was not pretty and taken handily by Ken and PT, 15 � 7.  Just to give you an idea, game one was highlighted by the lob serve of Mr. Ken Shults upon which he and PT quickly built a 9-3 lead.  ouch!

The final two games featured a much higher level of play with numerous memorable rallies anchored by impressive defense from both sides.  John and Eric took game two 15�11.  Game 3 featured a dramatic comeback by John and Eric to tie it at 11 after Ken and PT jumped out to a 10-3 lead.  However, the momentum would shift yet again.  The score remained tied at 11 for several rallies when John and Eric earned a side out in dramatic fashion on a thunderous roll spike from #5.  But, low and behold, this seemingly assured momentum shift was not meant to be.  It was Ken �Order on the Court� Shults who finally broke the 11 all tie with a dink serve and, with that, opened the flood gates to finish out the match winning game three 15-11.

Mixed Doubles:
#1 seed Tricia George and Chris Siebert over #3 seed Jody Welch and Eric Wulff
(15-13, 15-7)

Game one was the match.  The play from both sides was stellar in game one and the score was tight throughout.  In the end, Chris and Tricia put together a 3 point run to close out game one 15-13 on an impressive crush from Siebert which Jody just could not dig.

Unfortunately Eric did not show up for the first half of game 2 and Chris and Tricia jumped all over that as any Champions would.  Jody and Eric perhaps made a respectable effort at recovering from a 9-0 deficit in game 2 but, in the end, Chris and Tricia closed it out at 15-7.

Singles:
#1 seed Ken Shults over #? seed Jake Leong
(15-7, 15-1)

Ken Shults dominated everybody.  Like a sharp knife through warm butter - Shults was.

Intermediate:
Tall Paul - Need I say more?  I only ask that you, Paul, try not to scare any more freestyle convert intermediate net finalists away from our great sport.

Freestyle:
All I have to say is � there is too much to say.  I�m thankful Team Chaos focuses mostly on net because there was just as much going on at this traditionally net only event in freestyle.  So, check the results at footbag.org.  I will say this, it looks to me that Ethan �Red� Husted ran a tremendous freestyle event.  He drew 26 competitors and many more shredders including the top in all North America, and they battled all weekend.  The likes of Jordan Moyer, David Clavens, and Jim Penske were here - nuff said.

Chaos Report:
There were 24 players, 12 teams, in the open doubles net division at the 2006 US Open.  Team Chaos had 7 members on 5 of those 12 teams, not to mention 2 more honorary members for the weekend in Jody Welch and Jarno Terho.  This is how we finished.

1ST Kenny Shults/PT Lovern(chaos #3)
2ND Eric Wulff(chaos #5)/John Leys(chaos #4)
6TH Alexis Deschenes/Patrick Keehan(chaos #0)
8TH Chris Ott(chaos #9)/Jack Harris(chaos #13)
10TH Tuan Vu (chaos #7)/Jarno Terho(chaos #8)

mixed doubles:
2ND Jolene Welch(honorary #7)/Eric Wulff
6th Julie Symons/Jack Harris

open singles:
6TH Tuan Vu

I feel I must remind the reader(s) that I am a player first, Eric Wulff is Chaos #5 , and while I am very interested in all the goings on at every footbag event which I attend, I can only provide you with my limited perspective .  So, while I have solicited the input of several, in the end � this is mostly my take on it.

Thanks to everyone who shared results, photos, etc in such a timely manner.

also check out PT’s Adventures
Ted Huff’s US Open Photos

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