Mogwai

Never Feed After Midnight: Mogwai Origins

Mogwai has been in the planning stages for many years before its debut appearance in the Club Championship Series in 2008. Inspired by the strong chemistry that helps hold the University of Maine at Farmington ultimate team together year after year, college players in Farmington began thinking about their future in ultimate and how to continue to feed off of that chemistry after their college eligibility ran out. The idea to combine the strong Farmington core with the talent in and around Portland to form a competitive mixed club team began circulating around UMF alums.

The goal was to form a focused, competitive mixed team that had the ability to compete with the top teams in the region. In the summer of 2008, Mogwai attended its first UPA sanctioned tournament, Mixed Easterns. With low in numbers and dressed in various shades of red and orange, Mogwai was excited to see how they stood up to established teams in the east. The new team began the tournament simply hoping to play well all weekend, and hopefully turn some heads. By the end of the weekend, they did just that. Despite the cloudless sky and a temperature that flirted with 100 degrees and above, Mogwai was able to catch unsuspecting teams off guard and advance multiple seeds. The young team showed tremendous ability and potential, scoring fourteen points on day two against Bashing Piñatas, the team to finish second in the tournament. Mixed Easterns ’08 confirmed that Mogwai had what it took to compete against elite teams. However, it also made clear the amount of thought and work needed if the teams goals were to be met.

Since 2008, Mogwai has added to its roster and competed in several other tournaments including 2008 Sectionals and Regionals. Sectionals was the highlight of Mogwai’s debut season; earning a bid to Regionals, winning on universe point against season rival Chinstrap, and forcing every team to play their A-lines the entire game. At New England Regionals, Mogwai hoped to feed off the fire left over from Sectionals and show the region what this new team from Portland could do. However, the month between tournaments proved to be too much of a gap to keep that fire alive. Despite continuing efforts to get their offense going and play to their full potential, Mogwai was unable to pull it together, losing in the first and second round and being knocked out of the tournament.

Despite the disappointing end to the 2008 season, Mogwai walked away having learned from their mistakes and ready to remedy them before the upcoming seasons. The 2009 season saw immediate improvements. The captains are in constant communication with each other discussing plans for practice, goals for the season, and ways to both improve the team overall, as well as individual players. Mogwai broke seed again at 2009 Easterns, finishing fifth and really played to their full ability. Practices including drills and several short, intense scrimmages are held weekly throughout the summer as the team prepares for the Club championship series.

The members of Mogwai are individuals who do not just play ultimate as a way to satisfy a hobby. Ultimate is a huge part of their lives, and they are constantly looking for a way to improve their game and the way they contribute to the team. Being a new team with a lot of young players, Mogwai is looking to attract other players with the same mentality and compete as the best Mixed team Portland can offer.