On Tuesday, November 28th, the Garfield Boys Ultimate Frisbee team, Purple Haze, officially accepted a bid to the 2017 High School National Invite. The team, only the second to be offered a place in the high-profile tournament, went 10-0 in the regular season and tied for third place in the Washington State Championships.

The High School National Invite is the first national high school ultimate tournament in the country. Put on by USA Ultimate, the tournament takes the place of the annual regional high school championships, of which Garfield boys advanced to the championship bracket in 2016.

Taking place in Rockford, Illinois, this year, the tournament brings together the top sixteen boys and girls teams from across the country in what is claimed to be “an opportunity for the top teams to compete against each other,” according to the tournament’s website.

Purple Haze were certainly no underdog going into the season. While they graduated off a number of varsity players this past year, the team, led by seniors Anthony Goss and Cameron Crawford, scraped together their best season in recent memory. The team not only beat schools like Franklin and Nathan Hale, who have gained national recognition in the for their talent and consistency, but also finished second in the Seattle Invite tournament, losing only to the Lakeside School, who boasted a line of players competing on 2016’s USA Juniors team.

Earlier this week, Seattle’s Cleveland High School became the first team in the nation to accept a bid for the Invite. Cleveland, who handed Garfield their only loss of the season in the Seattle Public Schools championship game, have been in local news recently as well, as they have teamed up with rival team Roosevelt to help raise the $10,000 dollars needed to fund travel and other expenses for the tournament.

As for the girls team, rankings and bids will be determined during the official season, which takes place in the spring. While the girls lost a bulk of their talent with the graduation of the class of 2016, the team was ranked fifth in Seattle Public Schools last year and is slotted to be competitive once again this coming season.

While the boys team has not started fundraising for the tournament, the article will be updated with information as soon as possible. From all of us at the Messenger, congratulations, Purple Haze!