Ottawa Black Bears Season Preview: A Tale of Two Ottawas (and Half a Season)
Author: Christian Barnes
Last Season:
The Ottawa Black Bears played 75% of their season over 3 weeks last season, meaning that their preparation was confined to their first practice through June 21. Having a late June SuperSeries into an early July matchup against eventual Division winners New York Titans was a tough schedule draw made no easier by the height of summer heat, low numbers and far travel. Despite this, Black Bears showed scrappy energy in every game, making every team work for their series victory until the final whistle. The continued growth of beater pair Zach Reiken and Emily “Em” Naftel was notably on display in multiple series against tough beater opponents, in addition to the breakout season of Ugochukwu “Ugo” Nwadike at seeker. While increasingly complex zones made completing on offensive drives difficult, Black Bears work half court strategies and a quick game sense to capitalize on any open looks to score all summer despite rosters of 13-16 people (knocked even lower by injuries at multiple series). They finished the season at 0-12, but the final results never seem to shake the energy and camaraderie the team had on the pitch.
Returners:
Adam Bleackley (uOttawa)
Alex Naftel (Carleton Ravens)
Alexander Rivoche (uOttawa)
Alexandra Fleck (uOttawa)
Emily Naftel (Carleton Ravens)
Gwen Naftel (Carleton Ravens)
Meg Howden (uOttawa)
Miranda Naftel (Carleton Ravens)
Naomi Hildebrand (Carleton Ravens)
Samay Patel (Carleton Ravens)
Sean Bairos (uOttawa)
Ugochukwu Nwadike (Carleton Ravens)
Zach Reiken (Carleton Ravens)'
Additions (R=Returner / N=New):
Darren Bell (R) (Carleton Ravens)
Hailey Yhap (R) (Carleton Ravens)
Misha Whittingham (N) (uOttawa)
Pavel Popov (R) (uOttawa)
Notable Losses:
André Labossiere
Antoine Bourassa
Aya Tessier
Lex Nakanishi
Max Geiler
Sebastian Chiriboga
The Season Ahead
As the 2025 season looms, Ottawa eyes mostly lay outside the realm of MLQ’s East Division. While the athletes will use any chance they can to continue their Quadball development, the political nature of the US has necessitated the decision to remain within Canadian borders for most of their summer competition. While this means that they will not face off against the New York Titans or Charlotte Aviators at what would’ve been the East SuperSeries, they’ll still host the Washington Admirals early season and the door is open for a potential late summer trip to Boston. The Black Bears have looked stronger year to year since the pandemic, elevating their teamwork and cohesion. Much of this can be attributed to the unity so many of these players have within their local NGB as well. The Black Bears are made up of two Canadian QC teams — uOttawa and Carleton Ravens — who won this year’s Canada nationals. With so much of this team competing together to win Canada regionals and gold medal this past March, they’ll keep working to a near telepathic cohesion on pitch, seeking to disrupt their cross border rivals when the Admirals come to visit. They’ll look to manage a feat they haven’t gotten since 2018: an upset victory over Washington. Whether the political tides shift in our favor to help them travel to Boston in late summer or not, about half this team will head to Belgium to compete with Team Canada in July, where they may face other MLQ athletes depending on who they pull in the WC competition.
Why They Won’t
The news of the Black Bears’ SuperSeries forfeit is most upsetting because we’re missing out on their continued rivalry with the Aviators. Already a team with low depth, the Black Bears remained scrappy and tough in every match they’ve faced the high flying Aviators in, leaving the narrowest gap in the 2025 season. This year, the return of Darren Bell and Hailey Yhap, two high scoring leaders in the chaser game for Canada QC and prior Black Bear seasons, could have closed that 100 point gap and made Charlotte the second team to fall to the Ottawa franchise.
Considering Washington is the only other East Division team they’ve remained close with since the pandemic, the Black Bears are preparing for a important series in Ottawa. The Admirals tend to push the pace in transition and make hits consistently, a tough match up against a team that even at full strength maxes out at 17 athletes. While Carleton Ravens was a team that maximized the minutes of their aces in the finals of Canada nationals, that same strategy might not work to their favor here. Contact tends to be a lot lighter from Canadian play (for all except Darren Bell), and Admirals are known for never letting a player leave their zone untouched.
Even with Washington's track record of crossing the border small rostered, the Black Bears will need to take this match just as seriously as they did Vanguard Clippers in March if they want to walk away making franchise history.
Why They Will
With the second smallest roster of MLQ (Curse notwithstanding), the Black Bears will still bring a competitive edge to their series against the Admirals. The Black Bears are a much more cohesive unit, mostly coming off their championship win, with the Carleton coaching minds of Naomi Hildebrand and Alex Naftel remembering what worked in the chaser game to bring them to a gold medal. Emily Naftel, Reiken, and Meg Howden will combine those into an overall strategy, using the beater plays that opened space against their Canadian opponents all year. Outside of the Carleton Ravens teammates, the rest of their team is made up of uOttawa players, all former Black Bears (Misha Whittingham has been non playing leadership), and members of the team that held Ravens closest day one to a 160-85 win that kept them from first seed of the day at Canada Nationals.
Ravens will look to use the physical defensive nature of Bell to make hits up top, causing turnovers when the ball stays stagnant, or trap to a poorly positioned wing chaser. With a likely Yhap or Hildebrand waiting in the wings, a steal or lockout to a well timed beat by this strategic beater core could cause a number of issues for the Admirals, who tend to move in transition more than using a slower half court. Ravens will be ready to run the transition themselves, and facing a team that knows each other almost telepathically could break up the newly forming Washington core. Outside of their Raven starters, AC Howden can shift to a black or white headband with veteran positioning to stymie whichever looks Washington throws at them, working with Misha Whittingham for one of their uOttawa chaser maneuvers or beating with well known veteran Sean Bairos — who has been beating as well as the top East Division beaters for as long as I can remember him playing. The question will be whether the gap can stay close to FROP (flag runner on pitch), which Nwadike will continue to show just how much fight he’s got in earning that 35 points for his team. Due to the Canadian ruleset and tiebreakers, Nwadike spent much of nationals waiting to catch until his team was maxed out in point differential, but MLQ will provide an out the gate ability that lends to his strengths, going right along with his almost pterodactyl like wingspan and explosive speed.
The Black Bears tend to be a team that remains vastly underrated, and I expect that pattern will continue. If the Admirals fail to travel with the right core and strategize as if they were playing the Titans again, they could be caught flat footed against a Black Bears ready to fight their last official competition to prep half their team for World Cup. With veteran coaching, full team cohesion, and the least film of them available pre-series, Ottawa will look to sink the ship of the invading Admirals on June 21 — and hopefully face Forge in late summer.
Prediction: 2-10
