Last weekend may end up one of the busiest for Plant City’s three largest parks of 2019.
The city hosted two sports tournaments at Ellis-Methvin Park, Mike E. Sansone Park and the Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex on Jan. 19 and 20: Tampa Bay Ultimate’s 2019 Janus XXVI tournament and Greater USSSA Baseball’s Battle for the Rings. Athletes young and old took to the city’s top sports fields for the events.
The Janus XXVI tournament brought 37 teams in four divisions to the Ellis-Methvin and Otis M. Andrews fields for two afternoons of Ultimate. Most of the teams hailed from Florida — specifically central Florida — but teams also came from as far as Georgia and South Carolina to play.
Also known as “ultimate frisbee,” the sport tasks players with advancing a disc downfield until it’s either caught in the end zone or intercepted. The non-contact game is like a cross between rugby and basketball (once a disc is caught, the holder can only pivot on one foot until they choose to pass to an open teammate). Ultimate was invented in America in the mid-1960s and has since become sanctioned and played worldwide at the amateur and professional levels.
Meanwhile, the USSSA’s Battle for the Rings brought 26 teams from around Florida to Ellis-Methvin and Mike Sansone parks. The travel ball tournament featured five divisions from 10U up to the high school level and included 12 of the organization’s top 100-ranked teams in the state. Each team got to play at least four games.