By: Edir Coronado
The game of Ultimate Frisbee was conceived in Maplewood, NJ by Joel Silver in 1968. He presented his idea to the Columbia High School student council and the following year a group of students played a game of Ultimate Frisbee using the Wham-O-Master disc.
By 1970 high school teams were created and Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jon Hines created a set of rules. With these rules Columbia High School faced off against Milburn High School in the first ever Ultimate Frisbee Interscholastic game, Columbia High School emerged as the winner with a score of 43 to 10, according to the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) website Some 20 minutes west on the I-78 a group of young women are continuing the upward trend of Ultimate Frisbee.
With six straight championships added to their repertoire, it is important to have this group of athletes to represent all that Ultimate Frisbee has to offer, and at its core, the team captains lead the way impressing the younger athletes, with their dedication to the sport and superior physical abilities.
While these young athletes are currently committed to the sport, they were hesitant at first. “My first impressions of the sport were similar to many other people’s first impressions, that the sport was for weaker athletes and didn’t require much effort,” stated Megan Ma, team captain. She learned about the sport from her brother who played Ultimate Frisbee as well.
Jessie Sun, a graduating senior, former captain, who is now on the national team expressed, “It wasn’t really my intention to fully commit to it,” and while most players never intended to join, once involved in the sport they felt a connection to the game.
Ultimate Frisbee is a sport like no other and within the sport, amongst team members and opponents, respect is stressed. While it is true that football, basketball, and baseball all stress sportsmanship, few sports hold sportsmanship to such a high standard. At the end of every game both opposing teams gather on the field in a circle to discuss conflicts that occurred during the game. According to the WFDF, teams have designated spirit captains and at any moment if the spirit captains feel that the spirit of the game is being violated it is addressed during the game.
Part of the spirit of the game is the self-governing role that players are responsible for when calls are made on the field. There are no referees in the game at the high school level, but increasingly observers and referees are being implemented at the collegiate and professional level. Ma doesn’t necessarily agree with an outside person mediating the game, but feels if she continues it wouldn’t affect the spirit of the game for her.
Most of the athletes on the team are multi-sport players that decided to dedicate more time to Ultimate Frisbee, while they fell in love with game and now have 20 plus competitors on the lineup, they are still struggling to advertise the attractive aspect of the game.
One way they have made a breakthrough is by inviting middle school children to the summer practices, which has shown great promise. “Ultimate Frisbee is an amazing sport,” expressed 6th grader Chloe Tu “It is really nice having the high schoolers guide my friends and I through this amazing sport.”
Currently the team is undergoing conditioning training. Practices for these competitors consist of running up to four miles, quad and core exercises. This group never has an offseason and this is reflected in their championship success, which they plan on achieving again this year.
