Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
Print
E-Mail
tool name
closeSunday, Nov. 01, 2009
10th annual Hanford Howl mixes Frisbee, costumes
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
RICHLAND -- Alice in Wonderland and the folks she met down the rabbit hole were no match for Michael Jackson -- in seven incarnations from round-faced boy to the gloved one -- Saturday in Richland.
The 10th Hanford Howl, an ultimate Frisbee competition, is being played in costume this weekend on the fields of Hanford High. Competition continues today from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The goal is to raise money for Special Olympics. The Desert Lorax, the primary Ultimate Frisbee club in the Tri-Cities, hopes that the tournament it organized will raise as much as $6,000 with the help of donations from businesses such as the Uptown Deli in Richland, Second Harvest and Waste Management.
Twenty-four co-ed teams competed Saturday. From Seattle came Pee Wee's Big Adventure, heavy with costumes that included bikes that stayed on the sidelines. Another Seattle team came as Infamous Inebriates, sending Judy Garland, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe and Hunter S. Thompson onto the field.
The Desert Lorax, dressed as Alice in Wonderland characters, overpowered the superheroes from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. But they were little competition for the Michael Jacksons, a Whitman College team from Walla Walla.
The game is similar to both soccer and football but played with a Frisbee, said Nat Beagley, the Mad Hatter, and a player for the Desert Lorax.
Players who catch the Frisbee can't travel before throwing it to someone else. A point is scored when a player catches the Frisbee in the end zone.
There are no referees. Players call fouls on themselves. And when both a player dressed as a bottle that said "Drink me" and a Michael Jackson got their hands on a flying Frisbee at the same time, the Jacksons gave it to the Wonderland team after a brief discussion.
They could afford to be magnanimous. They won 14-3.
They played "like they're young and don't have jobs," said one person watching the game.
About half of the Desert Lorax work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.
But the event's not over when the team leaves the field. There's still the post-game celebration.
For the Washington State University-Pullman team, that meant an eating relay with each competitor.
Players lifted coverings to find pudding, bananas, doughnuts and sodas to scarf down as quickly as they could to cries of "Eat the puke" and "Squeeze it, squeeze the can."
The match-up between Alice in Wonderland and the Michael Jacksons ended with a table carried over to the other team for a tea party served with china and a dance performance to Thriller.
For more on the local team, go to www.desertlorax.com.
-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com.
@Nyx.CommentBody@