As senior Gavin Charpentier contemplates the upcoming Madison Mudbath ultimate tournament, he said he is looking forward to getting closer with the team.

“I think since (the tournament is) early in the season, it’s going to be a great way for the team to bond together closer since we’re going to be stuck with each other for two days in Madison,” Charpentier said.

According to head coach Eric Andersen, he sees the tournament as an opportunity for the players to build a stronger community.

“I think that in years past this tournament is really where you bond with the team,” Andersen said. “I’m excited to see both how we play but then also for the team to come away with a new sense of comradery. I think that’s a really a wonderful thing that happens (in Madison).”

Charpentier said the weather could have an effect on the team as the tournament will be one of its first chances to play outdoors.

“It’s going to be outside, which for us this year is the first (tournament outside). We’ve only had one other one and it was an inside tournament so the weather is definitely going to take effect differently than it has all season. We’ve only had one practice outside all season too,” Charpentier said.

According to Charpentier, the players want to focus on improving their basic ultimate skills for the tournament.

“(A) goal would probably be to just fix the little things we’ve noticed have been off in our games so far,” Charpentier said. “Just the small mistakes we’ve been making, like not fully being there or not trying our hardest. As long as we fix those things I think the coaches will be happy and I think we’ll be happy.”

Andersen said the team is striving to be more purposeful with its deep throws in order to get the outcome it wants from the tournament and rest of the season.

“We have a bunch of athletes and people that just love the game and so what we are really trying to focus on is: How do we take smart deep shots?” Andersen said. “Because that’s really what I think is going to be our bread and butter. How do we do that in a really successful way versus just throwing it up and hoping that (our) athletes can be athletic (is going to be a focus).”

According to Andersen, the team is training through specific drills to achieve its goals.

“We have something that we call two-twelve throwing, which is going to be making it so that we can throw both our forehands and backhands and all of our windows,” Andersen said. “We do that for 20 minutes every single practice and then we go through and we have specific drills for cutting and movement on the field.”

The Madison Mudbath ultimate tournament will occur April 27-28 at James Madison Memorial High School.