American Ultimate Disc League Adds Teams, Holds Local Tryouts

The second season of the St. Clair Shores-based American Ultimate Disc League will get underway this weekend with tryouts for the Detroit team.

The Detroit Mechanix will hold tryouts at the team's new home, Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac. This is a smaller, more intimate, facility than Pontiac Silverdome which was the home field for the Mechanix's first season and home to the league's championship game.

"It is very difficult to make an 83,000 seat facility feel alive," said Brent Steepe, owner of the Mechanix, vice president of the AUDL and St. Clair Shores-based Advanced Training Techniques. "Here we are looking at about 2,000 people as your maximum occupancy ... it is going to allow friends and parents, cousins, team players and non-team players to come together and do something special."

Tryouts will be held Friday and Saturday for the Mechanix for the 2013 season, which runs from April-August and will include 12 teams this year.

Ultimate disc, which was invented in 1968 and is played by nearly 5 million people in the United States, is like soccer and lacrosse, which are also played on a 100-yard field, but is higher scoring.

Games feature 12 players, with seven players on the field per team, with four 12-minute quarters.  Teams pass the disc between the players, and once a player catches the disc, they can pivot but must throw the disc to move the play forward.

Play continues until a player catches the disc in the 20-yard end zone.

Steppe hopes to build on the momentum of the first season, which only featured eight teams.

"Professional ultimate has been tried before, but lasted one or two games. We are the first organization to ever take it through an entire season including a championship game," Steepe said. "We know that although we haven't figured out the exact formula, we've got a really good head start and we are going to keep refining day in and day out."

Tryout information:

Registration: www.DetMechanix.com or 855- DET-ULTI  (855-338-8584).Pre-register for $60, or at the door for $75. Fees include spot-sub jersey and light refreshments.

Friday

• 6 – 8:30 p.m. Registration and reception at the Embassy Suites of Troy, 850 Tower Dr., Troy.
  
  • Meet the owner, back office, referees, sponsors and previous players
  • Formal registration and test/tune for Saturday morning
  • Schedule and expectations discussed 
• 9 – 11 p.m. tour of the Ultimate Soccer Arena and scrimmage

Saturday

• 9:30 am – 2 p.m. Tryouts at Ultimate Soccer Arenas, 867 South Blvd., Pontiac.
  • Try-outs will include: 40-yard dash,vertical jump, 80-yard dash and agility.

2013 AUDL teams:

• Detroit Mechanix
• Bluegrass Revolution
• Indianapolis AlleyCats
• DC Breeze
• Windy City Wildfire
• New York Empire
• Minnesota Wind Chill
• Madison Radicals
• Toronto Rush
• Rochester Dragons
• New Jersey Hammerheads
• Philadelphia Phoenix

Local members of the 2012 Detroit Mechanix

• Brendan Schwalm, Farmington Hills
• John-Michael Guest, Grosse Pointe Woods
• Dominic Conti, Rochester Hills