I'm from Muskego, WI. I love macaroni and cheese and sweet potato fries. Also, chocolate milk. I have really long arms, and I love economics. I love college basketball and the Milwaukee Brewers.
I started playing ultimate in Spring 2007 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, for a team called SOL, after weeks/months of Hannah Jones bugging me to come to a practice. My love of the game flourished under SOL co-captains Jaime Glader, Katelyn Mater, and Nicole Heiman. After spring semester wrapped up and SOL took home a 4th place finish at Central Regionals, I returned to Milwaukee, WI where I played on a club team called Seiche. Mindy Slattery (co-captain, UW-Milwaukee) and John Reynolds (UW-Stevens Point, Madison Club) spent a great deal of one-on-one time with me before and after practices to teach me everything they knew about the game. I owe so much to them and their patience with me.
I returned to Eau Claire to play with SOL for three more full seasons, co-captaining for two of them. I learned so much about the women's college ultimate and the ultimate community as a whole. Besides meeting new people and picking up with every team I possibly could (Cornell B, UW-Milwaukee, random mixed teams, a few open teams, some women's pick up teams), I got the chance to work with some kids and teach ultimate to people who never heard of the game at all.
One thing I love about ultimate is the community. I've participated in all sorts of sports at all levels (youth, club, high school varsity, competitive traveling teams, college, intramural, recreational, etc) and none of them even come close to comparing to what I am fortunate enough to experience in ultimate. It's pretty awesome to be part of that. Ultimate players are competitive, yet collaborative and supportive at the same time. It's like, no matter where you go, you can find an community of ultimate players to become your secondary family. If you travel half-way across the country, you can find a team to play with and a house to stay at. I try to reciprocate that whenever possible. It's the feeling of giving back when you take from the community. It really doesn't exist in the same way in other sports.
Currently, I'm attending grad school at the University of Iowa. Despite what you might think, I made the decision to attend the University of Iowa without considering ultimate. It did pan out well, since Saucy Nancy did qualify for the 2011 Division 1 College Championships in Bouder, CO, taking 5th place (losing to Oregon in quarter-finals). I am finishing up my Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning, with a concentration in Land Use and Environmental Planning. I am really interested in hazard mitigation planning, emergency management, and floodplain management. If you're interested in the program, let me know.
I love talking ultimate. If you want to do that, shoot me an e-mail.
