After several beers…
Like most Ultimate teams, Polar Vortex was started in a bar. Andy “Delo” Delorenzo and Frank Menendez met on the coldest night of 2014 to come up with 10 guys we could depend on to sign up with USAU and roster with us. We were prepared to cajole, bribe, and browbeat to get this done by the USAU deadline. We divided the list in to 5 guys a piece that we could count on and decided to start emailing and calling them the very next day. We knew there was a vacuum of Masters Ultimate, as there were no current Masters teams in Chicago. We decided to start one Masters team as opposed both a Masters team and a Grand Masters team as we didn’t know if we would be successful in starting one team, much less two. We launched Polar Vortex Masters team after several beers.
Our vision was to start an Ultimate team made up of good solid men and Ultimate players. Men who would run hard, play Ultimate hard and hang out and have a few beers after practice. Humble men who would want to keep learning about Ultimate, the game we all love. In late April of 2014, we held our first practice. We went on to roster 29 noble men on the PV roster for USAU Masters Regionals. PV came in second at Regionals and qualified for a bid to USAU Masters Nationals. PV were co-winners of the USAU Masters Nationals Team Spirit Award. We then went on to participate in Cooler, coming in second in our pool.
At Men’s Sectionals, we then qualified for USAU Men’s Regionals, by beating our friends Bear Jordan, but allowing them to go in our place, to Regionals, on the condition that they watch the Regional Finals game. We told our friends Bear Jordan that we participated at Sectionals to increase the number of bids to Regionals from our Section, not to deny a bid to Regionals to a young team with a bright ultimate future ahead. We are Masters for a reason. We then ended our 2014 season with a team BBQ and drunken Goaltimate game. Our friends and families joined us for the BBQ feast and kid-friendly time.
In 2015, in order to make PV more competitive, we launched a Grand Masters team, Old Man Winter. We realized that about half our PV team was 40 and older, and that given the great vibe that PV had we could easily fill the remaining PV roster spots. Both PV and OMW successfully rostered for USAU Regionals. We are also hosting a friendly Masters Cinco de Mayo for our Ultimate brothers. We plan on qualifying both teams for USAU Nationals. After Nationals, we will combine teams again to compete at Cooler, Heavy Weights, and Sectionals again.
Andy and Frank met in the Summer of 2000, playing against each other in Summer League. After discussing some of the plays, we found we had very similar ultimate philosophies. Andy and Frank have been good friends since then. Frank loves Andy. Andy is not so sure about Frank….In all seriousness, we would like to thank our team mates for all their unflagging energy and commitment. Our friends, family, and loved ones for their continued support and encouragement. Our Ultimate brothers for helping us along the road to success. We literally could not have done this without all of you, thank you!!!
We look forward to the new season.