Homegrown Clowder, a local ultimate frisbee team, won a tournament in Anchorage recently.

The prestigious Great Alaska Jamboree, which features many advanced-level teams and players from Alaska, the Southern 48 and beyond, took place June 24-25.

This year, the lineup included teams from Los Angeles, Seattle and an international team comprised of players from around the globe.

Clowder was comprised of players from Whitehorse, the Kootenays and Washington State.

The Star spoke with team captain Callahan (Callie) McKenzie, who is originally from the Seattle area, Friday.

“My husband and I met playing ultimate frisbee and he ran a travel team out of Nelson (B.C.) and so he got a couple folks from there as well. It was a mix of players we’ve played with in the past.”

When asked how it felt to win the Great Alaska Jamboree, McKenzie replied, “Oh my gosh. Honestly, it was pretty hilarious.

“Everyone was very excited. On day two, it was so incredibly windy, which makes playing ultimate frisbee difficult. We were low on players, so everyone was gassed, really tired.

“We went into the quarterfinals kind of hoping we might lose and be able to drive back to Whitehorse. So we were kind of shocked when we won and then I think folks got into it and were able to really play.

“The Whitehorse folks in particular were really excited because when they would come in past years – one year they lost every game, another year they lost most games, so I think it was really fun to come and play for a while and win the thing.”

Players are encouraged to dress up at these tournaments. Despite the fun factor, the tourney draws some high-level teams.

“It’s competitive, but with a lot of fun thrown in,” related McKenzie.

Mckenzie described how the championships came about.

“The team that we expected to play in the finals got beat in the semis, so we ended up matching up against the Seattle team, which personally was very fun for me because these are all people I used to play with and against.”

McKenzie said it was the most fun game of the weekend.

“It was still a hard game, well-fought.”

Mckenzie said most games go up to 15, but since it was so late in the day, the teams decided to play up to seven only.

“Seattle still had a plane to catch and we had a long drive.”

Homegrown Clowder triumphed 7-3.

(For anyone who’s wondering, by the way, a clowder is a group of cats. Google it.)

The Seattle team they beat were the Green Leaves and Everything Chartreuse.

On a more serious note, McKenzie said two things were the keys to victory for the cats.

One, a really strong, young defence. Two, was playing conservative on offence.

“We had a bit of an older team, age wise, that’s where having experience paid off.”

McKenzie said that allowed them to conserve energy and have less turnovers.

She added a highlight of the tourney was “just playing with new folks.”

For those interested in playing, ultimate frisbee drop-in takes place at the Émilie-Tremblay school in Whitehorse Wednesdays at 6 p.m.