The Quarterly Pull
April 1998

SAVE LIVES: REGISTER TO BE A BONE MARROW DONOR!

Neil Norton, 33, is a 14 year veteran of competitive Ultimate in California, Louisiana and Georgia. Neil has played four summer league seasons in Atlanta.

Last summer, Neil noticed his back was bothering him and his muscles ached for days after a game. Neil finally went to the doctor and after a number of tests found out that it wasn't the aging process affecting his back but that he had chronic mylogenous leukemia, or CML.

Leukemia is a disease of the bone marrow, the organ that produces the body's blood cells. Neil is now in Emory University Hospital and has just had a bone marrow transplant, the only current durable cure for leukemia. His wife Lynne is on family leave to care for him.

Neil is receiving his transplant from an anonymous matched unrelated donor. The donor is one of the 2.8 million generous people that have registered with the National Marrow Donor Program. The people on the bone marrow registry have saved thousands of lives.

To avoid germ problems, Neil cannot accept plants, flowers or fresh fruit and vegetables. The most important thing that you, your family, close friends, or business associates can do for Neil is to register with the National Marrow Donor Program. If it were not for the generosity of Neil's donor, he would not have his present life saving opportunity. Yet many leukemia patients cannot find a matching donor. The registry base needs to be increased to give them a fighting chance.

You can call your local Red Cross or 1-800- MARROW-2 to find out where to register and to receive detailed information on the program.

Usually, there is a fee of $45 to cover testing but it can be waived if you donate much-needed platelets for leukemia patients. The platelet procedure takes about 90 minutes and is quite simple. Thousands of people have donated platelets with no ill effects and the procedure can be repeated every six weeks.

You can arrange to donate platelets for Neil by calling Sylvia Robinson at Emory, (404) 712-7025. You can donate platelets even if you don't qualify for the registry.

Neil and Lynne would be pleased to hear that you or your family or friends have registered or donated platelets. e-mail them at nilo@aol.com - Thank you!

Spring League 1998

The first AFDC Spring League is over halfway complete. The league has a total of 12 teams participating in two divisions: six teams are in division A, and six are in division B.

The league plays every Saturday afternoon at Sequoyah Middle School, with games beginning at 11, 1, or 3. The complete schedule, directions to the fields, and up-to-the-minute standings can be found on the AFDC web site.

The league held a midseason Hat Tournament on Saturday May 2nd, and the Final Tournament will be held on Saturday, May 30th. League standings as of May 1st were as follows:

Division A


1. Shrubbery
2. Wicked
3. Draught
4. V Street
5. Zevon
6. Retek

Division B


1. Newcomb-Boyd
2. The Beans
3. Blue-Footed Boobies
4. Omega
5. Traer!
6. Legumbres

Summer League 1998

The AFDC anticipates having 30 teams in Summer League this year. Games will be played at various locations around Atlanta every Tuesday and Thursday night throughout the summer.

Players can join the league in one of two ways- they can be part of a Core, a group of five men and two women (one of which is a captain), or by registering as an individual to be picked up by a core in the draft. The first organizational meeting for those people interested in submitting a core was held Wednesday, April 29th. Other important upcoming dates are listed below:

Core Ranking meeting (all Cores due at this time): 7 PM, Wed May 13

Individual sign-up forms must be postmarked by: Wed May 20

Draft: 6 PM, Wed May 27

League Representative meeting: 7 PM, June 3

First night of play: Tue June 9

Supplemental Draft: 7 PM, Wed June 17

Midseason tournament: Sat and Sun July 18-19

Final Tournament: Sat and Sun August 15-16

All meetings will be held at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center on Peachtree Street in Midtown. All players on a team core need to be paid in full by the Core Ranking Meeting. All other players need to have their forms postmarked by May 20th to avoid the late fees. Questions? Check the AFDC web site, or call the Summer League Commissioner, Hale Brown, 404-233-1245, e-mail hale.brown@retek.com

The Georgia State Games

For the first time ever, ultimate will be a sport in the Georgia State Games this summer. Instead of our normal mid-season tournament, this year we will be opening up the event to teams from around the state. Players have the opportunity to march in the parade during the opening ceremonies at the Georgia Dome the Friday night before the tournament, and gold, silver, and bronze medals will be awarded to all players on the top three teams. All participants will receive Georgia State Games T-shirts. The player fee for the Games is included in the Summer League dues.

Etc...

• The AFDC’s Wednesday night pick-up play is now at Piedmont Park along 10th Street. All members are invited to come out and play. Games begin around 6:30 PM.
• Some players have mentioned attendance at the Sunday afternoon Chattahoochee River Park pick-up game has been erratic. This is not an official AFDC function, but we thought we’d give it a mention here. If you’d like to see this regular game continue, show your support by going out to play this week!
• Congratulations to the Atlanta players who made the trip to Rimini, Italy to participate in the 8th annual Paganeollo, The World Beach Ultimate Cup. Six area men played on The Hilbilly Huckers, a combo team that included several Israeli players. The Huckers took 19th place in the Open division. Three are women were on the Eyelash Vipers, the only womens team from the US. The Vipers placed third. The tournament featured 64 teams from 15 different countries.

BACK to News Main Page