Aaron Neal for Nexgen Tour 2013

I received an email from Richard, a buddy of Aaron’s, asking if I could share this video. Normally I will just share on Twitter or Facebook but after watching Aaron’s highlight reel, I felt like it deserved it’s own post. This guy has some serious potential (and is already realizing a lot of it now). Read more about why he wants to be a part of the 2013 Nexgen Tour:

My name is Aaron Neal and I am a 21 year old Ultimate Frisbee player from New Zealand.

I know from watching that there has been international players before and I would love to be that player for 2013.

I represented NZ in the NZ Open team at the 2012 World Championships in Japan and ended up being the top scoring male and being named the male MVP for the team for the tournament. I think the only Nexgen game recorded of our team was the opening game against Japan where our team was quite outplayed, however the commentators were positive about my play and I felt I could hold my own. I am also going to be attending WU23 in Toronto, Canada later this year.

The reason I would like to be a part of this tour is to:

1. Improve my own game. Coming from a small country like this I am a big fish in a small pond. I would like to have a chance to play against some higher quality opposition.
2. I am thinking of coming over to the states to play for a year or two anyway and would like a chance to see the kind of level that I would be playing against.
3. As well as this I have a Bachelors of Sport Coaching degree. This means I would not only love playing, but developing the next generation as well. Within Wellington, my home city, I am involved in my own club and city as a coach and mentor. I feel Nexgen would give me some skills to teach to the other players when I return and hopefully improve Wellington disc- and by extension, NZ disc as a whole.
4. I believe that from what I saw and experienced over in Japan at Worlds, I have the ability to foot it with the best of them and I would fit in well with the level of Ultimate required for Nexgen.
5. I’m the kind of guy that always seems to be in the right time and place to layout or do stuff that makes it on the highlight reel. Which usually makes good viewing.
6. Probably the most important thing is that is always fun to be able to play frisbee at a high level, especially when you are getting filmed and my mates at home can watch me play.

Anyway, it was an idea thrown around by a couple of the more senior team members from the NZ Open team and I thought I would apply.

Aaron Neal