On any bright sunny day at Dartmouth, if you look out on the Green you are bound to see a scattering of people playing that grand old game of frisbee. But once the snow and cold come, they are replaced by the true lovers of this sport -- the Ultimate Frisbee team.
The team is comprised of both men and women and lead by captains Jason Brady '96, Rob McLennan '95, Kirsten Doolittle '96 and Amanda Paulson '97. It has been a club sport at Dartmouth since 1977 when Mitch Arion '81 decided to form a team. The team was only men for the first few years but as time went by, more and more women joined.
The number of women players is always substantially lower than the number of men, causing the team to be unisex most years, including the past two.
The game is played as follows. Each team starts in its respective end zone. The team with the frisbee, or disc, throws it down the field as far as possible. This is called the pull. Once the opposing team members receive the disc, they attempt to pass it up the field to their opponents' end zone. Anytime the disc is dropped or knocked to the ground by the defense, there is a turnover and the defense becomes the offense, gaining control of the disc.
By far the most important part of the game is what is known as Spirit of the Game, which McLennan defined as "the mutual respect of players for each other on and off the field."
"Ultimate is alone in sports in allowing the players to make their own calls [of fouls]. In every level of Ultimate, from the local park pick-up to the finals of worlds, the players in the game decide on whether someone was in-bounds or not, if there was a foul or any other aspect of the rules," Brady said.
"Spirit of the Game is the most fundamental and vital asset to Ultimate," Doolittle said. "It should never be sacrificed, despite the competitive level some games reach."
The team travels to several schools to play in tournaments -- coed and single sex -- during both the fall and the spring. Middlebury, Williams, the University of Vermont and are all regulars.
There are also nationwide tournaments, which eventually lead up to Nationals. The men's team made it as far as regionals this fall.
"Collegiate Nationals are held every spring and only 16 teams in the country go. We hope to be one of them this spring, or more likely, next spring," Brady said.
More people have gotten involved in the sport this year than ever before, especially freshmen.
"In the past three years I'd guess we've had an average of about 10 freshmen (eight men, two women) play on a regular basis, whereas this year we have around 15 men and eight women," McLennan said.
"The big difference is that this year's freshmen class is much more committed, excited and hard-working than in previous years," Brady said.
One of the hardest things for the team is the lack of funding. Although it is a club sport and does receive some funding, there are so many club sports that there is not a lot of money to go around.
Ultimate, "being one of the longest-lived, most competitive, and largest (in terms of number of participants) received a budget of approximately $600 for the year," Brady said. "This means we must supply our own transportation, food, lodging, and equipment. The money we receive does not even pay for all the tournaments we go to." The tournaments cost between $75 and $100 each.
Ultimate is a sport that anyone can get involved in; no experience is necessary. Doolittle said, "A few friends were playing in a tournament in Wilmington, NC and I stopped to watch them play. After seeing the tournament, the teams, the atmosphere and the game, I decided I wanted to play Ultimate at Dartmouth."
