Joey Merly – Copy Editor
John Pisano – Contributor
The university’s ultimate frisbee team is kicking off the new year. Frequently an underrated sport, the ultimate frisbee team has a new lineup and has just begun starting practices.
In lots of colleges around the country, ultimate frisbee is a lesser-known sport. It is similar to football, where there are several players on each team on a field about the size of a football field attempting to score a touchdown.
However, there is no tackling. When passing the frisbee to one another, you catch it then stay where you are to pass it to the next player. It requires a lot of energy with a high amount of running, jumping and catching.
The team has players with a high amount of experience, very little or none at all.
Christian Cavanagh, senior team captain of the club ultimate frisbee team played ultimate in high school.
He never expected his hobby to play a significant role in his life though.
“I played Ultimate frisbee in high school actually,” said Cavanagh. “When I had the opportunity in high school to branch out and try something new, I decided to take the time and effort to try it.”
Psychology Major Ivan Teplyakov, a freshman, has never played ultimate before.
“The whole point was to jump up, catch the frisbee, see if you can. After you do it, you would get approached by Dom, the team captain, and he told me that I should join,” Teplyakov said. “I never played the sport, but I heard about it a lot. So, I thought minus well join; give it a shot.”
Since joining the team, Teplyakov says his skills in ultimate have improved “astronomically.”
“So far, it’s been better than anything,” Teplyakov said.
He said it is a great opportunity to bond and make friends with people. Similar to many clubs as an activity on the university campus, Teplyakov expresses this club as a great way to make friends.
Physical Education Major Dominic D’Aurio, a sophomore and captain of the team, expresses that the team has been successful so far with new members.
“We have a lot of new faces showing up. It’s always great to see new people,” D’Aurio said. “We’re preparing for some upcoming tournaments, and I think we’ll do quite well at them.”
’Aurio, also, spoke about how new the team is as they have lost seniors since last year. He believes that new members have “a lot of potential.” He expressed confidence in the new team as a whole for this upcoming season.
The frisbee coach, Michael Schriefer, said a lot of players “had never touched the disc before, which is totally fine, but… in teaching them ultimate, it’s a little quicker when they know the basics of the game.”
Schriefer is the most experienced person on the ultimate frisbee team.
D’Aurio said,“If you go on Owl Connect, you can find our club there. Reach out to us and learn when our practice dates are and come out and meet the team.”
