“Flying disc” tournament will be a big barnyard hootenanny

Who’s ready for Ultimate?

The Crested Butte Hat Tournament returns to the fields of Crested Butte Friday through Sunday, August 22-24.

 
This year’s theme is Barnyard Hootenanny.
Hat tournaments are ultimate Frisbee tournaments, with a twist. All players throw their names into a hat with their gender and ability rank. The names are then drawn and teams are put together in an effort to maintain equal play with a slightly competitive edge.
“Hat tournaments are known to be a little more relaxed and fun than ultimate tournaments,” says tournament organizer Jeff Scott. “The goal is to get the teams even. Last year, we had good success with it.”
This year, Scott has 130 players already pre-registered, several of whom are from out of town. His hope is to have enough players to form 10 coed teams of 14 players.
But there’s more to the Crested Butte Hat than just the tournament.
The weekend opens on Friday evening at dusk at Tommy V Field with, says Scott, “an odd assortment of games.”
The “odd assortment” includes a night ultimate exhibition game complete with Flashflight light-up discs, lights for players and lit-up cones to mark the fields.
In addition there will be a lit-up oversized croquet course open to players, lit-up disc golf baskets and games of frickets, a “beer-in-hand kind of game.”
The tournament starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning at the town soccer field next to the Center for the Arts and will continue all day long, concluding at approximately 6 p.m.
Following the tournament, Scott will host a dinner at the town pavilion for all participants behind the Center for the Arts.
Saturday night, hat participants will then mount their townies for a group ride to the Eldo to shake out the aches from the day of ultimate to the sweet sounds of Solar Junkyard.
The weekend will conclude with a disc golf tournament on Sunday at the Crested Butte course starting at the Nordic Center at approximately 10:30 a.m.
The entry fee is $25, and includes entry to all events, prizes, gifts of a Frisbee and camping utensils and the Saturday night dinner.
Scott asks that all participants bring their own “drinking vessels” for use in an effort to maintain a low impact/no impact philosophy throughout the entire weekend.
“The idea is that we’re not going to throw anything away,” says Scott.
Camping is available next to Tommy V Field all weekend long. For more information or to sign up check out the tournament website at www.cbhat.com. Serious latecomers can get in on tournament play by showing up at the field Saturday morning before 9 a.m. to throw their names in the hat.
It’s a Barnyard Hootenanny.