Sitting behind the table waiting for the Involvement Fair to begin, I glanced over to see a group of people staring at our table for our sport’s club team. As most people do when looking over, they laughed, rolled their eyes, and began to walk away. My heart slowly began to sink into my chest. For a second, I did not want to be sitting behind the table. But then, I look over to my teammates next to me, and see them shrug their shoulders and look forward to the next group of people. We were sitting behind the table labeled “West Chester Ultimate Frisbee Club” and I could not be more proud to be a part of this family.
Let me ask you this: What is the first thought that jumps into your head when you hear the words “Ultimate Frisbee?” Most likely, it is along the lines of, “Ultimate Frisbee? That’s what dorks do in their free time.” Or, “that’s what those annoying people do in the quad between classes.” Ironically, that was also my first response before I started playing.
West Chester Ultimate is one of the greatest opportunities I have received here at this university. Aside from class, it has been a big part of my life. Before you stop reading and hold your opinion on this column, I want you to do something for me. Open your perspectives to something new!
The game is pretty easy to pick up. Christina Lammey another member of the club describes it, “A mixture of any great sports combined.”
To explain the rules briefly, each team has seven people on the field at a time, starting on opposite sides. You can play on a regular soccer field, or football field with two end zones set up with cones. The goal is to try and work it down the field until you reach the end zone (like American football).
Unlike football when catching the disc, you may not run with it, but stop where you are. You have 10 seconds to make a pass to the next player who is open on the field. If the disc is not caught or if the defender guarding gets to 10, it is a turnover to the other team.
This is just a basic idea, but there are more rules once you learn more about the game. The best part about this sport is the aspect of spirit of the game. Sounds corny, yeah, but it is what we all respect most. Since we have no referees to tell us what to do, we have observers on the sidelines. So in result it is your duty to play fair and contest or no contest a call that you agree, or not agree with.
Playing ultimate is not just fun, but also the people are phenomenal. Along with many other people on my team, I was between playing club soccer and ultimate frisbee. I really loved soccer; I played it all of my life, but was interested in trying something new.
The first practice I attended I was pretty intimidated; I had no idea that this was an actual sport or how to play. We started a drill and I started to panic. I have only thrown a Frisbee once in my entire life, what will they say? The disc was thrown to me, I stared at it and watched it inch closer as I prepared to make the catch. I dropped it.
Thankfully, the whole team taught me how to laugh at my mistakes in the beginning, because it takes time to learn this unusual sport.
The first day, I had already received the nickname “Potts” (my last name) and others called me “midge” because I am pretty short compared to everyone else on the team.
As weeks went on, I began to learn to love the sport. It was exhilarating. My favorite thing to do in ultimate is “layout” for a disc, where you dive in order to catch it. Leaping off the ground with your body totally horizontal to the ground arm out for the catch, everyone pauses and watches. It is the best feeling to stand proud after catching a pass that looked totally uncatchable. It really puts excitement in the game.
Since my first year was mixed ultimate we played with both guys and girls, I got to know the whole team as an entire unit and they became more than family to me.
I have learned that being on the field is not always about winning; it is about teamwork and fun. Unlike soccer, and any other sport I have been involved with. I felt as if I had to always be serious about getting better at those sports physically and mentally for the game. While at an ultimate game or tournament, there is absolutely no stress. The goal is to play your best, but leave the negative thoughts at home. In ultimate, it comes naturally to people, and is such a down to earth sport.
Along with practices, we have tournaments just like any other club sport here at West Chester. This is not like any other tournament you will ever attend. It is full of fun goofy people who are there to play some ultimate and have a blast.
Some people even dress up for tournaments, (which I am totally guilty of doing) wearing weird attire such as ridiculous hats, sparkly spandex, and sometimes if you are lucky you will see a leopard onesie or two.
My first experience when going to my first tournament was pretty insane. I had no idea how much fun it was going to be. I thought only my team was just this nice and friendly, but I was wrong; every team has their own insane group of people who are always looking to make new friends.
West Chester Ultimate goes to many tournaments during the year; it is a year-round sport, which you can play inside or outside. We have gone as far as California for a tournament, our favorite one was High Tide in Georgia.
By the end of the weekend you will have made many memories with the people on your team, most likely because we all share one hotel room.
Along with college ultimate there is also a professional team, which is even more mind blowing to people new to the sport. It is called the AUDL, (American Ultimate Disc League), in which our own coach from West Chester won the championship on the team Philadelphia Spinners!
This year Ultimate has even been added even on ESPN to watch college, club, and professional teams play. I can not express enough how exciting it is that ultimate is growing popularity around the states.
In all honesty, ultimate is really hard to put into words. It is something that you yourself have to experience firsthand to understand the addiction of the sport.
I hope next year when you walk past our table you will think about what ultimate frisbee truly is, and the pride people have in the sport.
We encourage all of you to come out to any of our practices on South Campus, 7-10 p.m. Monday and Thursday. If you come by yourself, I will love you even more! Girls and guys are BOTH needed to start out our season, the more new people the better. I guarantee you will want to keep coming to practices after the first one; it is the best sport that no one has ever heard of.
Courtney Potts is a third-year student majoring in psychology. She can be reached at CP763356@wcupa.edu.
Sun. Apr 28th, 2024
