This upcoming weekend (August 27-28) Madison Club travels to Poolesville, Maryland for the premier East coast ultimate tournament of the 2011 season, The Chesapeake Open. Traditionally viewed as 'midterms' for the top East coast club teams, Chesapeake serves as a proving ground for all teams involved as they finally have a chance to gauge themselves against Nationals level talent, however, this years story line is not the strength of the tournament nor the teams in attendance, but instead, stealing the thunder and threatening to rain on the parade, is the festering hurricane steaming up the Atlantic coast, Irene.
Prior to the emergence of Irene, Madison Club had an exciting pool featuring 2009 National Champions Chain Lightning from Atlanta and surprising 2010 quarterfinalist Philadelphia Southpaw. As of Thursday
morning things look different with the tournament still on, but everything turned upside down and
all eyes on the path of the hurricane. Travel plans are tenuous, teams are dropping, scheduling
is vague, field reservations are in question and the tournament organizers are
scrambling to adjust to circumstances beyond their control. If anything is certain, it’s that this
weekend should be quite an adventure for Madison Club!
Stay tuned to the USAU score reporter and our Twitter account for any updates on the tournament
including rescheduling and reseeding of attending teams and where Madison fits
into the reshuffling. We fully anticipate playing this weekend and thankfully
we’ve practiced our zone defense sets for weeks, though if everything
gets cancelled, we can all look forward to a two-day cultural tour led by
Seth Meyer highlighting all things Smithsonian in the DC area. Thanks Seth!