Every week since the beginning of the school year, the ultimate frisbee club has been out on the football field from 2:45 pm to 4:00 pm each Friday. The club has many participants every time they play, with games often being 8 on 8 or 10 on 10.
The club was started by Evan Decker and Collin Smith during the 2016-2017 school year. Most of the club was juniors and seniors, with only a handful of freshmen and sophomores. In the ensuing years, however, more and more underclassmen began to join the club.
Now the club has many more sophomores and juniors that come to participate in the weekly fun. Nate Roethler, a senior at Pleasant Valley and co-captain of the club, said, “The club was based around inclusion and fun, unlike other sports where you are constantly competing for a spot. In frisbee, even if you are picked last, you are still going to play and be treated equally to everyone else in the club.” Everyone in the club has a good time and bonds through the simple act of throwing around a frisbee.
Ultimate frisbee is a very easy game to play. It is the exact same as ultimate football, having almost all the same rules. The only difference is that instead of using a football, one uses a frisbee. The simplicity of the game allows many people who normally wouldn’t understand more complicated sports to play and have a good time.
While the sport is not as well known in the Quad Cities, ultimate frisbee is a growing to be a huge sport across the country, with the official league, USA Ultimate having many divisions and leagues for people of all ages. They promote the sport all the time, saying “Ultimate is a legitimate sport with a national governing body. Ultimate is a real sport, with official rules, leagues, and competitions at all age levels.” This allows word to continue getting out and creates more interest in the sport even though it is still a relatively small sport.
However, the PV ultimate frisbee club has some big plans for the next year. This year, they will be trying to start an official A team and B team that will compete in games and tournaments around the Quad Cities. Isaac Bradford, a junior at Pleasant Valley, claimed, “Ms. Kroemer is going to send me a list of the other schools around the area that have ultimate frisbee clubs and teams.”
Although there will be tryouts for the A team and B team, the club will still be all inclusive for the weekly games of frisbee on Fridays. The new teams being chosen will practice and play more often than the club, but the central idea of inclusion and fun will remain constant in the Friday frisbee games.
After the tryouts this fall, there may not be time to compete much before winter, but the team will still be ready to continue and start competing again in the spring. Hopes are high for lots of competitive games, but more importantly, lots of fun.
Kevin Burke • Oct 19, 2018 at 8:54 am
this is a fantastic article. I love playing frisbee in my free time.