Loriana and Shannon at PAUC 2011

The inaugural Pan American Ultimate Championships (PAUC) just concluded in Medellin, Colombia.  The event combined an Ultimate Peace clinic (November 19-23) with a high level tournament with open and women's teams from all over the western hemisphere (November 23-27).  Loriana Berman was one of the main instructors for Ultimate Peace's educational sessions on spirit of the game and promoting non-violence through sport.  Bermi then played with the Colombian team Revolution.  Shannon O'Malley also made the trip to Colobmia to compete with Mamajuana, a team from the Dominican Republic.

Bermi has been a coach for Ultimate Peace's program in Israel and was able to apply the experiences she has had in the Middle East to teaching ultimate to young players in Colombia.  She was a key facilitator among the UP coaching crew from Seattle, San Francisco and Israel that partnered with more local coaches from Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Colombia. In total, there were 4 days of clinics for 35 coaches and 250 players, all focused on promoting the 5 core values of Ultimate Peace: Mutual Respect, Integrity, Fun, Non-Violence, and Friendship. Bermi wrote a brief update of one of the camp days on the UP Facebook wall:

"We are surprising the kids this morning, and going with the buses to pick them up in their villages! The director thought it would be so meaningful for them to have us to see where they live. We are all excited to visit the communities, and come to camp today with the campers. Yesterday was amazing. We had the help of their local coaches, many volunteers, and coaches from other teams, other regions in Colombia, and other countries who are very excited to be involved. The kids were enthusiastic and impressive players. Today they will get to practice the UP principles they learned yesterday to play in a tournament with their teams, which are mixes of kids from all the different communities. The tournament is designed to focus on spirit of the game, and the 5 UP principles. One of the best parts of yesterday were the performances of their team cheers. We took this idea from UP camp in Israel, and it went over great!"

For the PAUC tournament, Bermi already knew many of the players on Revolution from Riot's previous trip to Colombia in 2009 to play at TEP. Additionally, former Riot player Aleja Torres is a main leader on the Revo squad and helped Bermi integrate onto the team for the competition. The tournament opened for Revolution with an exciting showcase game against Fury where Revo kept the game close through 5-6 until Fury expanded its lead and won 14-7. This was the predicted match-up for the finals, but Revolution was upset on double-game point by another Colombian team, Bamboo, in the semifinals. Revo ended up finishing in 3rd place.

Shannon also picked up with a familiar team. After a coaching session in the Dominican Republic earlier this summer, Shannon was welcomed with open arms onto Mamajuana for the tournament. Adding Shannon's experience and skills to the team was a great way to help the squad meet its goals of improving the caliber of play among women from the DR.

Congratulations to Fury for winning the women's division and to Seattle Sockeye for taking the open title. Look for a blog post here on the Riot website for more insights from Bermi and Shannon on their experiences at PAUC 2011.

[Photos by Ultimate Peace and PAUC2011]