Updated 8th December 2009
HUC Farewells Mai!
In terms of losses to the services of ultimate frisbee in Hanoi, it doesn't get much bigger than Mai. On the 5th of December, 2009 Mai played her "final" game for HUC before she embarks on a new married adventure in the US. When news broke out earlier in the year that this would be Mai's last year, there was a definite sense of loss felt amongst her fellow HUCers which may have resulted in pleas of "Don't Go", "Take me with you!", perhaps not so many "Take me with you's" as embarking on her journey towards marriage to someone else would be, well, highly unusual. Nonetheless, people were distraught at the prospect and in our selfishness may have overlooked the fact that we should be congratulating Mai and wishing her all the best for her big move.
Mai joined the club in 2001 and has been the backbone of the club ever since; organising people, tournaments, smiling, playing amazing frisbee and being the first Vietnamese national to play overseas. Above all this, Mai encapsulates the "spirit" of the game, and by spirit i mean beyond the tree hugging manifesto of Ultimate, Mai is simply an individual that brings people together, is respected by everyone no matter where you came from or what you are capable of, Mai earned your respect, not through authority but through her own sense of humanity ( and her wicked disc skills). It is for this reason, the inaugural "Mai Trophy" was presented to Mai herself, this could be unprecendented whereby the person the award is named after is also the recipient, but well, Mai deserves it. The idea was that the player who displays the most "Mai-ness" in Hanoi's annual tournmanent would be awarded the trophy, however Mai decided she's going to take it with her... we'll have to make do with a replica.
On behalf of HUC, i'd like to say farewell and thank you Mai for all the years and service to HUC, you will be sorely missed, but we wish you all the very best in your new journey. No doubt you'll be back to claim your annual "Mai Trophy" anyway, you would be hard to beat when the criteria for winning is "Mai-ness". Tạm Biệt from all at HUC!
