posted Oct 13th, 2007 - The NSL News story on October 2 covered the AAA Class "amateur teams" competing at the USPA Nationals 2007, including Optic Nerve. The article mentioned at the end that Dr. Joel Shugar, Scott Keeler and Solly Williams were looking for a 4th member to complete the line-up at the NSL Championship 2007. Robbie Spencer had competed for Optic Nerve in Ottawa.

Team founder and sponsor Dr. Joel Shugar went through the colorful list of current and former Optic Nerve members and was able to recruit Doug Park to fill the open slot for Optic's third meet of the 2007 season. Dr. Shugar added mostly celebrities of the 4-way community to the "membership list" ever since the team was founded in 1997:

Dawn English, Joey Jones, Sally Stewart, Arturo Arroya, Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Carlos Curti, Kyle Collins, Craig Buxton, Shannon Pilcher, Toby Stafford, Doug Park, Lise Aune, Arianna de Benedetti, Eliana Rodriguez, Robbie Spencer, Bob Byrne, Marco Arrigo, Thiago Murradas.

The line-up for the NSL Championship 2007 is not a new one. Dr. Joel Shugar, Scott Keeler, Solly Williams and Doug Park competed for Optic Nerve at two meets in 2001. The 2001 season was the peak for the team with a lot of training and attendance at a total of nine meets.

The 15.8 average after the four rounds at the FSL April meet in Lake Wales is still the highest team average. However, this year's 15.7 average at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 is the highest 10-round average for Optic Nerve in team history. Solly Williams, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo competed with Dr. Joel Shugar in March this year.

The best average of the line-up that will compete for Optic Nerve at the NSL Championship 2007 is only one single point behind this year's result at the Shamrock Showdown. Dr. Joel Shugar, Scott Keeler, Solly Williams and Doug Park posted a 15.6 average at SkyQuest 2001.

It was the second meet for this line-up in 2001. Optic Nerve had just missed the gold medals of USPA's Advanced Class competition to Identity Crisis with a 14.8 average in Eloy.

Six years later, the 2001 line-up will try to beat this year's scores of 15.7 (Shamrock Showdown) and 13.5 (USPA Nationals).

Optic Nerve had competed with several different line-ups throughout the 2001 season (15.7 - 14.7 - 14.5 - 15.8 - 14.8 - 13.6 - 14.3), including Dr. Joel Shugar, Scott Keeler, Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Carlos Curti, Kyle Collins, Craig Buxton and Joey Jones. Doug Park joined the team for the last two meets of the year.

Solly Williams and Doug Park had already formed DeLand Majik together with Gary Smith and Joey Jones when they competed for Optic Nerve at the NSL Championship 2001. DeLand Majik competed at SkyQuest 2001 as a guest team, as well, and beat Sinapsi PD, DeLand PD Blue and the Golden Knights with a 21.7 average. The Golden Knights won the NSL Shugar Cup that year.

Both top teams continued, and the Golden Knights beat DeLand Majik at the USPA Nationals 2002 to become the US national team for the World Meet 2003 in France. DeLand Majik then won the USPA Nationals in 2003 and the gold medals at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia.

Solly Williams continued with DeLand Majik for another year, and Doug Park joined Team Fastrax a year later. They both joined forces again at this year's USPA Nationals in 8-way and won the silver medals with Knight Trax. Now they will compete for the USA at the World Meet 2008 in France since Arizona Airspeed withdrew.

Optic Nerve of 2001 went through some serious scrambling when it came to the slots. Dr. Joel owned and still owns his Tail slot, while Scott Keeler is the Point. Doug Park had the Center Inside position, and Solly Williams was the Tail for DeLand Majik. Optic Nerve had Solly Williams move to the Center Inside position and Doug Park taking the Center Outside slot. The team's continuity plan also required memory and slot switchers only for the center positions, as the video of Round 1 at the NSL Championship 2001 shows.

Solly Williams and Doug Park were challenged at the NSL Championship 2001. Solly was Tail for DeLand Majik and Center Inside for Optic Nerve. Doug was Center Inside for DeLand Majik and Center Outside for Optic Nerve. There was not a lot of time for jump preparations since they had double team duties. It still turned out well for both teams.

The Optic Nerve 2001 reunion at the NSL Championship 2007 does not have the same problem with the slots. Doug has been the Center Outside for Team Fastrax for a while, and Solly is used to be Center Inside for Optic's rear piece. Both former 4-way world champions also compete only with one team this time. However, the Optic Nerve continuity plan is still the same as in 2001, and it still challenges the center positions.