2022 Summer Down Under Season Patch

Description

2022 Summer Down Under Season

Dog: Sailor (2015 – )
Belgian Shepherd Malinois of Greenville Captain Lucas Croft

Champ: Phoenix, Arizona

# of Clubs: 103

# of Teams: 1,940

Complete Season Results

2022 Summer Down Under Season Toss & Fetch League Commemorative Patch

Let’s hear it for Sailor and all the Belgians!

A strong, fearless dog bred in ancient days to herd cattle, Belgian Laekinois, Tervuren, Groenendael, and Malinois Shepherds found a second career in the Middle Ages when trained as the world’s first official Police Dogs in Antwerp.

Flash forward a couple hundred years to today where these high drive, high flying, hard biting canines not only still corral cows, sheep, and bad guys, they excel in modern dog sports, especially K9 Frisbee.

The commemorative patch for the 2022 Summer Down Under Season, which begins January 8, pays tribute to Sailor, one of League’s All Star Malinois, and a shining example of all Belgian Frisbee Shepherds who play our game.

Earlier this year, Lucas Croft, the Yankee Captain of the Greenville, North Carolina K9 Frisbee Club, announced the retirement of Sailor, his sleek, muscular Belgian Malinois teammate who catapulted Lucas to world class heights, making him a leader in our sport.

In addition to their World Championship resume, Lucas & Sailor were a dominant Team in the League for 13 seasons, stretching back 4 years to when Lucas founded the Greenville Club in the Fall 2017 Season.

Sailor’s impressive All-Time League stats are here:
https://public.tableau.com/shared/MWR93GZPC?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link

Here’s the announcement from Lucas:

“Sailor is officially retired from disc.

My Monster, my World Champion, Van Wijn Tuins Girl in the Water, call name Sailor, is done. She is only 8 years old. She suffers from severe hip dysplasia. This is not the product of an injury, but of genetics.

It’s been over a year since Sailor was herself.

I never would have thought my 7-year-old dog, who was still in her prime, would be perfectly fine one day, and then never the same again.

We didn’t start playing disc until 2017, so our time on the field together was brief.

Thankfully, through rehab and medication, she is able to be comfortable on a day-to-day basis.
Sailor ends her career having appeared in World Championships for Skyhoundz, USDDN, AWI, and UpDog. She has multiple top 10 finishes at Worlds and is the 2019 Skyhoundz Classic Plastic Xtreme Distance World Champion. In 2018, we finished 13th at the Skyhoundz Classic World Championship in the Open Division, our best freestyle finish.

Sailor brought a passion and intensity to the sport that cannot be taught. Playing disc is all she ever wanted to do, and it’s been strange to lose that piece of our relationship.

On the field she had an amazing combination of power and grace. She was thoughtful, calculating, and always under control. Sailor played the game the right way, and it was my job to keep up with her.

Sailor loves people, so if you see her, pet her. She’ll appreciate that.”