Furious George from Vancouver has the reputation of being one of the best Canadian Ultimate frisbee teams.
Since the team was founded in 1995, Furious George has won eight Canadian Ultimate Championships, three world titles and three club championships.
Furious George, defending Canadian champions, are making another strong case to add more hardware as the team was 6-0 after the round-robin portion of the 2012 Canadian championships at Lansdowne Middle School, Topaz Park, St. Michaels University School and Royal Athletic Park
.
There are 70 teams taking part in the championships in open, women's, mixed, junior and masters divisions.
The game is non-stop action and interesting to watch with some elements of basketball and football in it.
At the urging of his brother Blair, Kevin Underhill started a co-ed ultimate team at Lord Byng Secondary in Vancouver.
"My brother is three years old than me and he was the one who got me involved,'' said the 22-yearold Kevin Underhill, who plays for Furious George. "I then played on the University of Victoria men's team as it was a better fit for me.
I liked the pace of the men's game and the physicality.''
Underhill now runs the intra-mural ultimate program at UVic and he also helps out by coaching and teaching the game.
"In this sport, there are all levels of play from recreational to the open category. It is the most tiring sport that I have played although I never did make it to the highest level of other sports. There is a lot of running.
"I kept playing this because it was something that I was good at and it was special to be part of a fledging sport. I have decided to keep sinking my money into it because it is worthwhile to me.''
Furious George will be involved in the open quarter-finals today starting at 8: 30 a.m. at Lansdowne.
"A lot of teams are intimidated by us,'' said Underhill. "We have the reputation of being a strong, physical team. Teams really get pumped up to play us and that makes it more challenging for us.''
Another aspect of this ultimate championship is that there are no referees. There are observers assigned to some roundrobin games, plus the semifinals and finals.
The code for ultimate sports is to play by the rules (spirit of the game).
"I like to play hard and enjoy my opponents,'' said Underhill. "I treat the game with respect and if you don't, you are out of the sport fast.''
Furious George formed the nucleus for Team Canada at the recent world championships in Japan.
Team Canada came home with a third-place finish.
"Our team plays in the U.S. Ultimate Championship Series [club championship] against teams from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Boston and Colorado,'' said Underhill. "We work out in the gym so we are ready to play in events like this.''
The junior open final is today, 3: 30 p.m. at Lansdowne, while the junior women's final and masters final are both at 5: 15 p.m. at Lansdowne. The other three finals are Sunday at Royal Athletic Park. The open final is 9: 30 a.m., followed by the mixed final at noon. The women's final ends the competition at 2: 30 p.m.
