posted Mar 7th, 2006 - Two teams of the AAA/Open Class competition at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 have not been introduced yet, Arizona Divewerkz and Arizona ACSS. Arizona Divewerkz is not new to the NSL News audience at all though. The story on May 5th last year offered all the team information available at that point.

The Divewerkz story covered the time period between the forming of the team in May 2004 and the situation one year later, which was very promising according to the team information and the scoring records, as well. The NSL News followed up with several updates throughout the whole 2005 season after the meets of the Southwest Skydiving League.

The 2005 season ended for Arizona Divewerkz with AA/Intermediate Class bronze medals and the highest 2005 meet average at the USPA Nationals in September. The NSL News reported live from Perris and covered the exciting race in the AA/Intermediate Class in detail.

Arizona Divewerkz 2005 had the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2005 on the team agenda, as well. The 2005 line-up was eligible to use the SSL Grand Prize for the trip to Florida in November. Unfortunately, the team discontinued with the same line-up and decided to cancel the trip on a short notice:

"We regret not being able to participate in SkyQuest, but did not want to compete with an ill-prepared lineup. Right now we are negotiating with a recently, retired Airspeed member for a possible player/coach roster. Divewerkz will be competing next year in the SSL/NSL leagues."

The NSL News story on January 12 provided the next comprehensive update and introduced the Divewerkz 2006 line-up, including the new team member, Cindy Nieves. The team plans obviously changed, and the player coach position turned into a normal tail slot for the new team member. Arizona Divewerkz still planned to move up into the AAA/Open Class competition.

The SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 was the first meet for the new line-up and also the first test for the three 2004/2005 members, Murel Addison (Outside Center), Blane Boynton (Point) and Annie Peterson (Inside Center) in the AAA/Open Class competition of the 2006 season.

Arizona Divewerkz 2006 had a good start into the new season and began the scoring progression with an 11.2 average in February. The AAA/Open Class competition draw of the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 offered the first opportunity for the team to learn in competition how to deal with memory or mirror images.

Rounds 3 and 6 both required memory or mirror image sequences if the team wanted to use the most efficient engineering. The front piece mastered the memory of the slow Round 3 (J-18-O-10) for a 9-pointer, while the team voted for a mirror imaged sequence in Round 6 and scored 14 points.

The AA/Intermediate Class teams already know how 5-point sequences feel. However, rounds two, three and six also challenged Arizona Divewerkz for the first time with 6-point sequences.

Considering the challenges of the new and higher competition class and the new line-up, Arizona Divewerkz could probably not have done much better at the first meet of the 2006 season.

The distance to Thunder, the next AAA/Open Class team ahead of Divewerkz, was too big to make it a serious competition with the experienced members of the Thunder line-up at this point. However, Divewerkz had a very strong contender throughout the whole competition in Eloy.

Arizona ACSS included Kristina Bako (Point), Shauna Dorsett (Inside Center), Todd Hawkins (Outside Center), Doug Nintzel (Tail) and Ben Bressler (Video), and ACSS gave Divewerkz all the competition both teams could ask for. ACSS lost the meet to Divewerkz in the very first round by giving up five points (12 - 17) and then won the remaining four rounds by two points. The NSL News will offer more ACSS team information in a separate story.

Arizona Divewerkz and Arizona ACSS both have their home in Eloy, and the NSL News will probably have more opportunities this year to follow both teams' 2006 progression.