WVU Ultimate attained Club status in the 1980s, but functioned almost solely as a community organization. About the time of the turn of the century, the team, known as the Huckineers began to host a tournament known as the Hillbilly Hoedown at the Laural Point Soccer Fields. The tournament was held twice, and was not only an excellent tournament, but it began to get West Virginia noticed in the outside Ultimate Community. The WVU Faculty advisor at the time was Ryan Finkenbine. He played a major role in the creation and development of Ultimate in Morgantown. He, along with other administrators, often lead the way to becoming a true team, by registering Morgantown's Huckineers for tournaments throughout Western Pennsylvania. Additionally, Jason Stalnaker, another community player known as "Dirty", often took the initiative to get new players involved in the sport, registering the community members and Club players for teams that would compete in Pittsburgh's PUFF tournament. In the Spring of 2004, WVU Ultimate competed in its first college Sectional tournament. The team took only seven members, many of whom were still learning to throw forehand. They played hard and performed well in their first year. In 2005, team member Zachary Rice started a yearly Ultimate P.E. Unit at University High School in Morgantown. Club players volunteered anywhere from one class period, to an entire day (sometimes many days in one week) in order to allow the Ultimate Club to teach every P.E. class at the school for two consecutive weeks.  The following years led to a more competitive tone amongst the college players. College membership grew, and community membership declined. By the Spring of 2006, the college Open team became the Spring focus. Pick-up turned to true practices, and the men's team improved. Unfortunately, the low number of female players were left much on their own as they could not form a team of their own, but were not given a place on the men's team. During 2006, the Open team enlisted the help of community member (and Pittsburgh Master's Player) Scott Miller to coach the team. The Open team improved quickly, learning new offenses and methodologies. Before the Spring of the following year, Scott moved to Chicago, and the team created a coach position from within its membership. The team competed at Sectionals in 2007 sporting new jerseys labeled with the new team name "Sugit," a name based upon an inside joke, that to a few of the older players was analogous to camaraderie and playful friendship amongst team members. This was the first year that the Club now sponsored a Women's team, composed of eight players, who competed at Sectional, despite limited practice time and space. They were named "W.H.U.T.?," acronymically the Women's Her's-Only Ultimate Team. It was likely created in this way to mimic team member and Co-Captain Amelia Martin's elongated use of the word "what" when someone said something unbelievable. In 2008, the team started late-night training sessions during the fall semester. This was the first time that WVU Ultimate offered anything other than pick-up during the fall semester. Classroom sessions were added during the spring semester. The Open team bought its second set of jerseys labeled "Sugit," that now hosted the flying WV. These jerseys were much more conducive to ultimate playing than the prior year's jerseys. In addition to the "WV", the jerseys were now blue and gold (and the reverse) as opposed to the prior year's grey. 2009 brought massive restructuring to the Club. The Women's Team attained Club status and split from the Men's Team. Advisor Ryan Finkenbine moved, and was replaced by James Lewis, Assistant Professor of Physiology. The Open team reinstated dues with specific due dates, which allowed team members to know ahead of time what the season would cost them. A new web site was created with linked forums and photo galleries, which allowed for greater ease of informational access. Communication with the team was done through the forum administration, which eliminated spammed and excess emails. Additionally, it guaranteed that all members were accessing information. The team constitution was updated and modified to fit competitive goals. The new constitution eliminated the Secretary office, and added Directors of Fundraising and Recruiting. This was also the first year that WVU hosted other teams for single-day scrimmages, bringing Carnegie Melon University to Morgantown's indoor ProPerformance Rx facility.  The team decided to purchase jerseys in what they hope to be a final design for many years. This new design keeps the blue and gold color scheme, but dropped the flying WV. The team reverted to it's pre-2007 name "Huckineers," and sported a logo of a laying-out Mountaineer. In 2010, however, there were many changes to be made. With a mere 6 returning players, and a new president and coach, the team was going to make a shift in a new direction. The team's new logo and name, Octopodes, is based on a tale which few are privileged enough to know. The colors adopted are purple and white, new colors to reflect new ways on the team. The team's numbers grew from 6 returning players to an impressive 19 people attending sectionals. The team's improvement in numbers was reflected poorly as the team failed to do well at sectionals. The team grew and began to bond though, and there is a very optimistic outlook for the 2011-2012 season.  |
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Team History |