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Ultimate Frisbee club reaches new heights |
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 |
 Marshall Hicks, a senior music industry major, has been on the ASU Ultimate team for several years. He says the team has a very tight camaraderie between team members. Bryan Tarnowski
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by ERIK RHYNE
Sports Reporter
When thinking about the game of Frisbee many imagine a low-key game on the beach or in the park.
However, today, it can be found on the Appalachian State University campus, as well as other campuses across the United States, as a tough, competitive sport.
The sport of Ultimate Frisbee has grown drastically in the last 10 years, so much that the Olympic
committee has considered introducing it in the Olympic games.
“Ultimate is becoming a bigger sport,” Men’s Ultimate Club President Devin C. Donnelly said. “…It’s
just getting more publicity and there’s tons of high school teams starting all across the country. We
have more and more kids coming up to college who have already played on teams and really want to
play. I think it’s going to keep growing.”
As exposure for ultimate increases, more people become interested in playing and wanting to improve their skills.
“More people are getting interested in the sport and you’re getting
more exposure by the media,” Vice President Kevin W. Peters said. “I
think most college students have it in their head that Ultimate is
something everyone does - everyone throws around the Frisbee somewhere
around the campus.”
If a student has ever seen a group of guys tossing a disc on Sanford Mall, it is likely that many of
those players are on the club team.
Everyday after lunch, Peters said team members often toss a disc between classes on campus.
Sometimes, Donnelly said, this is where a future team member is found.
“Sometimes on Sanford Mall, we’ll just be throwing the disc around,” he said. “If one of my guys sees
someone who can make good throws, they’ll ask if they’ve ever played Ultimate before. We just want
to try to get them out to the team, just a basic form of recruitment.”
When someone joins the team, by just overall interest or through recruitment, there is usually a
learning curve in learning the flow of the game, freshman team member Adam T. Morgan said.
“Some players have played an off-beat type of Ultimate - for them it’s easier to pick up,” he said. “For
those that have never picked up a disc, it could take a semester…and a lot don’t come along for a
year. We don’t turn anyone away. They generally turn themselves away if they don’t feel like they’re
catching on.”
Sanford Mall is not the only place members of the team will play. Members of the team are usually on
the lookout for when they can toss the disc around or play, Morgan said
“I think most of the guys carry a disc around in their backpack just waiting to find somebody else to
throw with, whether or not they’re on the team,” he said. “A lot of the goals of people out here are to get
more people out here to play ultimate. I don’t think we can ever have enough people on the team.”
Nowadays, Peters said the older members of the team do not carry a disc around as much because
the younger members always have one on them.
When on Sanford Mall, the team tends to have more fun playing around, but they do know when it’s
time to get to business.
“At practice is when we’ll run drills and scrimmages,” Donnelly said. “Out on Sanford Mall, we pretty
much just get in a circle and throw to each other. It’s a chance for people to work on throws because at
practice it’s about working on conditioning and skills.”
While the team works to improve themselves as athletes, more effort is also going into increasing the
team’s overall knowledge of Ultimate.
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