Juno Sez

Juno Sez:

• Ger: First thing he says to me when I tell him were on the same flight over to Barca...."Yay! #earphones."

• Kev: Voted him for MVP at Yes but Nau so we could mafia toss him into the kiddies pool, it looked freezing but he needed to be punished for throwing for a lefty Callahan anyways.

• Perry: Why didn't someone tell me that our captain played the drums? I would of budgeted to bring a set of bongos.

• Phierce: I had front row seats for when he hurt himself at Mixed All Irelands. If he wasn't crying like a girl I would beaten him like a seal. Also captain of my fantasy wingman team.

• Tom: A fellow sallow skinned amigo. Known for indulging in a bit of J.ack D.aniels when he's south of Dublin.

• James: "Nice costume Jim!, Did Wolverine have that particular tattoo on the back of his neck in the film?"

• Al: Not going to lie I was pretty jealous about those ninja slippers so I burnt a hole in them when you weren't looking. 

• Bear: Care bear off the pitch, Grizzly bear playing.

• Eamonn: Known for going to strange internet cafés when he's lost

• Steven: Creator of one the best salad orientated puns I have heard. Looks like he won the best photo for the website competition too

• Eoghan: He was clever enough to miss the couple of winter training weekends in the snow and hail etc. to make it on the team for the sunny weather. I wish I thought of that

• Spot: The only other " Rebel" apart from myself on the squad. A Rebel is a person from the South right? So I don't think he'll mind me calling him that.

Profile - Martin Kelly

• Name: Martin Juno Kelly
• Age: 24
• Years Playing: 4 
• Current team(s): Rebel Ultimate
• Position: Handler
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: Partaking in the longest pull contest at Windmill wind '11 up with Ross Andreucetti or the first time playing against Ranelagh ultimate at Siege of Limerick '12.
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: I'm enjoying the training, there's lots of it but it's getting me excited for E.C.B.U. Getting to play with everyone at Yes but Nau in Nantes was tremendous and knowing everyone is getting excited to play in green again as I am is awesome.
• Personal Paragraph: I was lucky enough to represent Ireland once before with just a years experience under my belt at the Under 23 World Championships back in 2010. It was great, I made lots of new friends and was forced to learn how to throw a flick. I am a  better player now and I have been preparing for this tournament for months. It's only two and a half weeks til E.C.B.U and I can't wait to play along side the Open boys in green once again.

Profile - David Perry (Captain)

• Name: David Perry
• Age: 25
• Years Playing: 5 
• Current team(s): Ranelagh, Broc 
• Position: Perpetual identity crisis. I'm either a cutter, handler or both.
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: Playing Tour with Dublin Ultimate in 2010 was excellent -- it was my first real exposure to high-level ultimate and I really enjoyed it. Playing for Ireland with the U23 Mixed team in Florence in 2010 and the Open World Beach team in 2011 were hugely significant for me too. 
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: I'm really looking forward to that moment just before our first game in ECBU. Work has been underway towards ECBU since November of last year; after all that effort, having our full squad there and getting ready to step onto the pitch is going to be pretty exciting (even if preceded by a horribly off-key rendition of Ireland's Call). But I'm also looking forward to ECBU generally. The squad has developed a huge amount through training weekends and our trip to Nantes, and it certainly has the ability to compete and take a few scalps. It's going to be a very tough tournament, but I have confidence that every person on this team will fight his heart out every step of the way and that we'll grind out some excellent results. I can't wait to be part of that. 
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside: Always fun to play with Gearóid, who has the uncanny ability to read my mind on the pitch and throw accordingly. 
• Personal Paragraph: Started playing a little bit in Trinity towards the end of 2007 as a way to try to get friends in my class (in particular frisbee nobodies such as Ian French, Daragh Gleeson) to stop bothering me about "going for a throw" and hammers and Whacking Day and other nonsensical concepts.It was fun, surprisingly enough, but I then attempted to set a record for obtaining the most frisbee-related injuries imaginable. This was less fun and eventually put me out of action for the guts of a year (but thought me the valuable if seemingly self-evident lesson that you shouldn't run on a broken leg). I drank lots of milk and fixed my leg, just in time to start playing with Dublin Ultimate in 2010. This was a bit of a shock to system because everyone could throw hucks and ran quite fast, which were up until now quite rare attributes and neither of which I could do. I went to A Tour for the first time that year and followed it up by playing on Florence's finest horsetrack with the Ireland U23 Mixed team where we won all of our games without incident. I started playing with Broc in 2011 which caused everyone else to leave the club, then played with the Ireland Open team at WCBU where I forgot what it was like to feel cool and hydrated. Enticed by the club's rhetoric about household plumbing, I joined Ranelagh in 2012 and played lots more Tour. I never travel with the disc and I shower before games because it wakes me up. 

Profile - Stephen Hammond

• Name: Steve Hammond
• Age: 26
• Years Playing: 6
• Current Team: Belfast Ultimate
• Position: Cutter
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: First point against Belgium at WCBU 2011. The most perfect point of offence I've ever been a part of.
• What are you looking forward to most in the ECBU campaign? Honestly, seeing the new guys pick up their first scores and game wins in an Ireland jersey. Months of training, all those sessions puking your guts out running Tabatas, all boil down to those few perfect moments. You have to work your ass off to earn them but man, the buzz is unreal.
• Steve Sez: Steve gives a quick personal run down of his team mates! 

Steve Sez

As the token nordy, I think it's only right to give a fair and unbiased rundown of everyone on the team.

• Eamon Cassells: Building on his experience from worlds, he's pushed himself to the limit in training and got himself in fantastic shape. Especially impressive when you consider how old he is.

• Dave Perry: Dude takes a shower in the morning before game time. There's something odd and unsettling about that.

• Alan Breathnach: Thinks he's all that with his ninja slippers. Had to hide a sly smile when he put a hole in them.

• Tom O'Hora: He's always wearing his Antrim top and I'm pretty sure I heard him say, "Ulster is truly the greatest province."

• Colm Bowden: Is an annoyingly handsome man. That's why I hate him.

• Kevin Timoney: I thought Chris Linter could sleep for Ireland but Kev has taken nap time to another level. Expect an extensive album of 'Photos of Kev Sleeping' from ECBU.

• Eoghan Staunton: Not only will he throw you scoring passes, but he makes you look tall whilst doing it.

• Spot McCarthy: I think he was the one who dropped my flapjacks in the sand. Even if he didn't, I've still got my eye on him.

• Gearoid O'Fearghail: A fellow engineer who not only appreciates all the fine detail of how something works but also loves sharing that information with humanities graduates who aren't interested. What a guy!

• James Darcy: Had some blinding grabs at Yes But Nau. Seemed to enjoy shoving his grapes in people's mouths way too much though.

• Alan Phierce: Clearly needs to get some more milk in his diet. Seriously though, really hoping to see him back to fitness and pick up another lay-out D in Spain.

• Martin 'Juno' Kelly: Juno has been really quiet so far. Hoping he opens up and tells us a bit about himself at ECBU

Profile - Tom O Hora

• Name: Tom O'Hora
• Age: 23
• Years Playing: 5
• Current team(s): Hammertime
• Position: Cutter
• Favourite Ultimate Moment:  My last 'competitive' match for DIT were we Beat UCC 2 two years ago in intervarcities. We were behind by a good few points and we came back and won by a point or two so it was nice to finish off my college career on a high.
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: Probably playing against class players from all around Europe.
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside:  Getting the chance to play on the same team with guys that I have never played before with.
• Personal Paragraph:  Started five years ago with DIT, mainly because it was free to join and it didn't look too bad. I played the odd tournament with OCS in the beginning but have been playing with Hammertime now mostly for the past two years and thats about it really.
  
  
• Steve Sez: He's always wearing his Antrim top and I'm pretty sure I heard him say, "Ulster is truly the greatest province."

Profile - Eoghan Staunton

• Name: Eoghan Staunton
• Age: 21
• Years Playing: 4 years
• Current team(s): NUIG, Snatch
• Position: Mainly handling at the moment
• Favourite Ultimate Moment:  Hard to pick one that stands out, possibly the catching the universe point goal at outdoor IV's to win our quarter final when I was in first year. 
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: As a team creating a few moments to seriously overshadow the one above. Playing against players at the top level.
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside: To be honest at the moment I'm excited to play alongside everyone. Other than Eamon who has picked up with Snatch a couple of times and is great fun to play with (pretty sure he scored a Callahan when playing with us at Siege), I had never played with anyone else on the squad until YBN. Loving to see that this is a team that bids on every disc though and hoping Alan recovers well to make some more spectacular bids at ECBU.
• Personal Paragraph: I'm really looking forward to getting in a few more hours of training with the lads integrating properly into my role on the team before heading off to Calafell and showing what we can do over there.
  
  
• Steve Sez: Not only will he throw you scoring passes, but he makes you look tall whilst doing it.

Profile - Colm Bowden

• Name: Colm Bowden
• Age: 26
• Years Playing: 8 (with a few long breaks)
• Current team(s):  I suppose only Tactical Nuclear Penguin at the moment
• Position: Handler/Cutter
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: There is so many but this year it would definitely have to be playing against UL in varsities with DCU. The last few points were very tight and hard fought.
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: I've played a good few beach tournaments before but never really at a high level so I'm really looking forward to taking on some of the better national teams and seeing what their made of.
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside: The whole team really, there's some fantastic players that I've only really had to chance to play against before and some others that I always enjoy playing with.
• Personal Paragraph: This team has the potential to do very well over in Calafell and I have no doubt that everyone will put every once of effort in on the pitch so I just hope that everyone comes away with a performance and a result that they are proud of.
  
  
• Steve Sez: Is an annoyingly handsome man. That's why I hate him.

Profile - Alan Breathnach

• Name: Alan Breathnach
• Age: 25
• Years Playing: 7 
• Current team(s): Jabba
• Position: D line cutter
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: Universe point in the last game of Burla 2010. Layout point block at the front of the endzone, Sprint the full length of the pitch with sand in my eyes and mouth to catch the layout score and win the game after being 5 points down. 
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: Improving on Worlds 2011
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside: Eamonn, David and Steve. Great to have the lads back from WCBU and to play with them again. And Colm, it'll be nice to play with him outside of the penguins. 
• Personal Paragraph: let's do this
  
  
• Steve Sez: Thinks he's all that with his ninja slippers. Had to hide a sly smile when he put a hole in them.

Profile - Eamon Cassells

• Name: Eamon Cassells
• Age: 28 (token old guy)
• Years Playing: 10 (on and off)
• Current team(s): Hammertime
• Position:  Handler for club cutter for ECBU
• Favourite Ultimate Moment: I can think of a few Singing Ireland call before our First match against the yanks at WCBU2011. Getting that first win against IndiaA 7 point comeback against OCS with Hammertime during Summer league was pretty special too
• What are you enjoying most/most looking forward to in the ECBU campaign: Taking on Portugal. We let that game slip through our fingers two years ago. I'm not letting that get away from us again.
• Anyone you're particularly excited to play alongside: I'm hoping myself, Kevin, Tom and James can have a couple of points together. We know how each other work at this stage and the one line we had together at Yes but Nau worked really well.Kev in particular is a special player. Not just his athleticism and disc work but his ability to bring other people into the game is a rare and beautiful skill. The only other player I've seen match him in that department is Ben Wiggins!Spot has an infectious enthusiasm for the game that you cant help but get caught up inGer is like the wise old sage of the team. When things go wrong he never raises his voice he just calmly points out what went wrong and what needs sorting.Ah here! I'm going to end up naming the whole team at this rate. Lets just say they all have lovely bottoms!
• Personal Paragraph: If we all play like we are capable of playing the results will come so my big wish is that every player comes home feeling that they played to the level that we all know we can play at.
  
  
• Steve Sez: Building on his experience from worlds, he's pushed himself to the limit in training and got himself in fantastic shape. Especially impressive when you consider how old he is.