April is really when the disc golf season begins. Spring theoretically begins, weekly leagues start back up, and the tournament scene starts coming out of its slumber. We have lots to unpack from Disc Golf’s busiest month so let’s dive riiiiiiight in!

Team Challenge Takeaways

The Winter Team Challenge season came to an end early for the Owls, who stumbled down the stretch. The Owls had multiple chances to punch their ticket to finals, but fell to both Barre and Stonykill away from Dacey to end the season 3-4 despite having an above .500 point percentage. “It was tough to miss out on finals, especially given the talent we had on our roster, wrote Captain Alex Sakash, “we put ourselves in a tough position blowing a match at home, and by starting slow in singles a few times. Sometimes you dig yourself a hole that you can’t climb out of.” Although the Owls missed finals, they remain in E pool, doing enough to finish above the relegation line. “The season obviously didn’t live up to expectations with not making finals,” added Captain Chuck Edman,  “but it’s hard to feel too down when so many matches were decided by such a close margin. I feel good about next season.”

The Ents on the other hand earned a second seeded finals berth in Play in Pool. With a record of 5-1 the Ents looked like a favorite heading into Pyramids. Unfortunately, the Ents fell short losing by a single match to Team Send It from West Thompson in the first round. The Ents will remain in the play in pool for next year- but should be a favorite to come out of PiP South next year. “For a first year team, we had an amazing group of individuals who played their hearts out this season,” wrote captain Nick Berry, “while winning the division would have been an excellent way to end the season, this squad is now hungry for a chance at redemption.” Captain Paul Sales added “We are proud of the team and how everyone pulled together, and while the finals results were unfortunate, we are looking forward to bouncing back next year and achieving our ultimate goal.”

Both teams are looking to add talent to their rosters next year. If you are interested in playing for Teams Dacey- please do not hesitate to reach out to Owl Captains Alex Sakash or Chuck Edman, and/or Nick Berry and Paul Sales for the Ents!

United States Amateur Match Play Championships Play Out

For the second year, Dacey has hosted the United States Amateur Match Play Championship regional qualifier bracket. 16 players competed over the course of the month to earn a trip to the state finals, and ultimately to Emporia Kansas for a chance to win baskets, and discs for life. We expanded this year to have 2 brackets- one for Teams Dacey, and one Public Bracket.

The Teams Dacey bracket featured some of the strongest match play players from each teams- including some of the higher point earners from both rosters during the TC season. Jason Boucher of the Ents ran through the top half of the bracket, besting two captains (Nick Berry and Chuck Edman) and one of the biggest arms of Dacey in Anthony Stewart on his way to the finals. In the lower half of the bracket, James Barron clipped 3 fellow Owls in Scott Groome, Dave Leger and Jeremiah Libby to earn his spot in the finals. James punctuated his match against Libby with an ace on hole 4- a hole win that ultimately gave him the 1up victory.

In the finals, James edged Jason 3 and 1 to take the championship and punch his ticket to states!

This handsome devil is heading to states!

In the public bracket, returning finalists Mike Hladick and Pete Violet both returned, and by random generation were again in separate halves of the bracket potentially setting the stage for a rematch. However neither would ultimately survive the second round. In the top half, Roger Gagnon of Team Borderland ran through Todd Leitao of Team RI, Pete Violet of The Borderland Billy Goats, and then put up a personal best in the final four to decisively down Greg Peterson en route to the finals.

In the lower half, Corey Robitaille of the Owls did double duty playing in both brackets. Corey rattled off wins vs Gargi Mosiashvili of Team Maple Hill, Mike Potruzski of Team RI, and John P. Smith of Team Borderland on his way to finals. One of those matches required a playoff, with another going all 18 holes. Between taking out two A Pool players, as well as playing those extra frames, Corey certainly had to work for his finals berth.

Come finals, Corey was ultimately unable to down his third A pool player, falling to Roger Gagnon 3&2. Roger put together a dominant run, featuring a 4&3 and 7&6 victory in addition to his 1up nail biter vs last years champion. Roger and James will be representing Daceys brackets in the state finals in mid May, coordinated by Bob Kulchuk.

Corey (left) and Roger (right) after their championship round.

Hoot and Scoot IV on Patriots Day Weekend

With the 3 day weekend in April meant another PDGA Flex Start Hoot and Scoot! Chuck Edman got his first taste of PDGA TDing and took the reigns, manning the booth all day as 44 players filtered through to play their rounds. With weather much better than Hoot and Scoot III’s blistering cold and gusting wind- IV featured calm conditions and comfortable temperatures- meaning the scores were much better!

Congratulations to the winners…

MPO: Alex Sakash: 55 (-7)

FPO: Cheneille Young: 71 (+9)

MA1: Alex Vigeant*/Dan McWilliams*: 61 (-1)

MA2: Corey Robitaille*/Jason Boucher*: 65 (+3)

FA2: Caley Allen: 71 (+9)

MA3: Fletcher Ross*: 69 (+7)

FA3: Nicki Broderick: 105 (+43)

*: Indicates first career win

It always awesome to see such good turn outs for our flex events, it is also fantastic to see first time winners at our events! Congratulations to all of our first time champs!

League Begins Again

It is that time again- weekly league! Chuck Edman is back at it on Tuesdays, kicking off at 5pm for one round of singles from blues. Check in begins at 430. Cost break down is $10 to play, with 5 going to payouts, 1 to the course, 1 to the ace pot, and 3 dollars each going to a ctp. That ace pot did not really get a chance to be built up, as Alex Mahnken already drained it acing hole 16 yet again.

We are looking forward to another year of robust league play! “It’s been an awesome start to the season,” writes Chuck Edman,  “finally getting familiar with some new faces who started showing up last season, plus even more new players this year.” Each year our league has grown and we still see plenty of new faces each week. “Nothing makes me happier than selling tags to people I’ve never met. We’ve already hit 30+ players on 3 occasions. I cant wait to see what summer brings!”

Do not as daylight increases, we will be pushing league’s start time back to allow for more players to get there after work!

Looking Ahead…

Can’t stop won’t stop- Dacey has a busy month ahead of us!

May will be a busy month as we are looking to take advantage of less events going on at the course to get some course maintenance done. Jeremiah Libby, Dean Slowey, and Marc Duquette already put in some work installing a french drain in hole 18s green, and the ground has been much less squishy as a result. However we still have other areas of the course that need similar work done. We will be holding a weekday work day on Monday May 6th at 10am to continue such work on hole 1.

Freshly completed drain on 18

Further, we will be scheduling a weekend work day ahead of the inaugural Daceyland Open! We are excited to be partnering with Raivis Markons-Craig to bring you all a PDGA event that will utilize both Borderland and Dacey. Long awaited and much anticipated, registration will be live on Infinite Discs HERE on May 1st, at 8pm!

In a sadder note, we are wishing Jeremiah Libby well as he moves to Pittsburgh at some point this month. In his time on the admin team he has held a number of popular and well attended doubles events, ran winter devotional in 2017, and has been instrumental in maintaining the course. His vision of hole 3s redesign, and his idea for a change to hole 9 will be a lasting imprint on the course for years to come. We will miss all of his contributions, large and small.

But fear not – the admin team will continue to the guide the course without missing a beat. We are pleased to announce the promotion of Dean Slowey to an official role! Dean has been always eager to help with course work, often being someone who came to aid us in the past at odd hours to get limbs cleared, woodchips spread, or signs printed. He has also often lended a hand in getting league going- writing out cards, taking tags, and counting scores. We are excited to have Dean join the team and are confident that will be able to continue progress the course forward.

See you all around!

(Sign up for Daceyland quick- it’s gonna fill!)