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Fatal Swoop was formed in 1989 when two 5-man teams merged. One of these teams was called the Rebels. Even though the Rebels were a talented group of players, the team had a lot of internal problems. Hard to imagine that huh, with only having five players, but it's true. This was mainly due to the fact that it was run as a democracy, meaning no captain, where every one had an equal say. At one tournament, the members of the teams started blaming each other when something went wrong, and tempers really flared up. It came to the point where fists were almost flying. The team finished the tournament in second place, but it still didn't change the fact that something was fundamently wrong with the team. The night after the tournament was over, Mark House called up the other members of the team, to let them know that he was going to be leaving the team to start another one where he was the captain. He then offered each person a chance to be on the team, and as luck would have it, everyone agreed. One key ingriedent in getting everyone to agree was the fact that another member of the Rebels was Marks cousin Mike House. Mike was the first person that Mark called for this new team. At the first team practice, after the tournament, Mark and the rest of the team met another group of guys who had put together a 5-man speedball team. This other team, which didn't have a team name, was captained by John Riggs. The members of both teams liked each other from the get go. Mark and John started talking about combining the two teams to form a more dominate local team. Now, the four people who were fundamental in putting together this merger were Mark House, Mike House, John Riggs, and Ray Wong. It was decided that Mark would be the team captain, with John as the assistant captain. The name Fatal Swoop was decided upon at the first team meeting after the merger. The team soon became one of the dominate teams in the L.A. area, and they decided to try their hands at the tournament scene. The team has had its ups and downs over the years. After turning Pro in 1991, the team returned to amatuer status in 1993. In 1993 the team was barely able to stay together. In 1994, Mark decided it was time to turn things around, and get the team back on track. To accomplish this he started recruiting more players, and entered the team in more tournaments. To understand this turn around, just look at the difference in number of tournaments the team entered in 94' compared to 93'. In 1993, the team entered only two tournaments, however, in 1994, Swoop entered six tournaments. After the 94' season, Mark House choose to step down as team captain and turned it over to Jed Burns. With Jed as the new captain, the team set its sights on the Great Western Series. The team went on to become the 10-man Grand Champions of the Great Western in 95'. After the 95' season, the team now turned it's eyes towards the N.P.P.L. circuit. The team attended all but one of the N.P.P.L. events during the 96' season, and although it didn't do to well in terms of standings, the team learned a lot. In 1997, Swoop attended all of the N.P.P.L. events and made the finals, and semi-finals in several of the tournaments. The team will attend all of the N.P.P.L. events in 1998. Here is a list of the people who have been on the team in the past and/or are on the team currently. It is because of these people that Swoop has been able to continue to excel. Emory Abo, Mike Bailey, Vanar B., Braheem, Robert Burns aka "Jed", Dan Dobson aka "Dano", Scott Douglas, Manny Fernandez, Freewind, Craig Fronsoe, Raul Garcia, Steve Garcia & his brother, Dave Horwitze, Mark House aka "Utah", Michael House aka "PaPa", Mike Hull aka "Tex", Kevin Ing, Reed Ishimoto, Mike Janow, Keebler, Teddy Kenuwa, Dennis Kost, Jeff Kost, Donny Miser, Jason Montenegro, Matt Mascol, Yoshi Nakatani, Brandon Parsinski, Dan Reynolds, John Riggs, Mike Riley, Jon Robinson, Oscar Rodriguez, Chris Savas, Tomo Shikami, Ethan Silva, Ralph Sotelo, Erik Ward, and Ray Wong.
Fatal Swoop thanks each and every one of you for paving the way for the future. |
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