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Guts Nationals back in action: Teams converge on Marquette’s Tourist Park, spectators admitted for free

O'Malley’s Alley’s Will Walden throws the frisbee during 2019’s US National Guts Frisbee Tournament at Tourist Park (Journal file photo)

MARQUETTE — Just like it did for sports all around the country last year, the COVID-19 pandemic had a big effect on the U.S. National Guts Frisbee Tournament and caused the popular event to be canceled, as well as any other Guts tournaments.

However, this year, the tournament is back at Marquette’s Tourist Park and will be held this weekend with 14 teams competing from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.

One of the teams is the defending champion and tournament host out of Marquette, O’Malley’s Alley.

“They’ll play in a round-robin bracket to determine bracket seeding on Saturday and then a double-elimination bracket tournament beginning Saturday at maybe 2 p.m. until the completion with the finals about 5 o’clock on Sunday,” Tournament Organizer Kurt Lahtinen said in an interview.

Guts has already had some action this year with the Wisconsin State Championships occurring back in June as well as the International Frisbee Tournament up in Hancock last month and Lahtinen said the game is growing with younger athletes.

“The sport is definitely in a rebuild mode,” Lahtinen said. “A lot of younger players now, which is great. Kind of filling the void of the players that are getting old and retiring from the sport.”

So if you’re interested in watching some fast-paced action with Frisbees being thrown at 85 mph by some of the best players around, Lahtinen encourages people to come out for the event.

“It’s gonna be a great tournament,” he said. “It’s free admission to the public. We’ll have the Coney Dog truck there all weekend. We expect 1,000 fans, that’s what we’re hoping for. You can bring your cooler, you can bring your lawn chairs. Like I said, there will be food on site, free admission, so we’re really hoping to get a great fan turnout.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.

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