Explain Ultimate Frisbee to someone who has never played the game before.IE: It combines set plays with a flow you would see in soccer. Seven people play on what is essentially a football field. You can't run with the Frisbee, so you just throw the disc to your teammates who are running to get open. In the end, they move it down to field until you reach the end zone and score a goal. You play to 15 goals.
What type of national presence does Dartmouth have?SR: The Dartmouth teams are national-caliber squads, but what sets us apart from the top 10 in the country is that those schools usually have thousands of people to choose from as opposed to us. We're probably one of the best schools for our size. We've gone to nationals four out of the six past years, and four years ago we placed fifth nationally. It was before my time, but it was fun to have played alongside the same players my freshman year. IE: Sectionals involves teams from just New Hampshire and Vermont. The men have won sectionals for the past 11 years. The regional event covers all of New England and only two teams go on to nationals. Men won that two years ago and placed 13th at nationals in 2008. We also go to tournaments across the country. In the winter last year both teams went to Las Vegas, Nev., and the year before we went to a tournament called Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge, Lous. Every spring we drive down and play two tournaments in Georgia or North Carolina.
Who coaches the team?SR: For the women, we had a Dartmouth alumnae coach us consistently up until two years ago. This year we'll have two [members of the Class of 2009] coaching us. IE: Two or three senior captains run day-to-day practices. This year the men are getting a coach Brook Martin who just moved here from Seattle. Seattle is a real hot bed for Ultimate and he won a national collegiate title with University of Oregon and a few club national titles as well. Now he just moved out here and is willing to coach us on his own time.
So what's your style of play?IE: The men's team has a gritty-touch [man-to-man] defense. There's a good bit more running and it's you against the other guy. We might move away from that with our new coach, but that's what has worked well for us. The men might transition to a more fast-paced, West-Coast' style, where the emphasis is on moving the disc quickly so the other team can't keep up. SR: Our style of play changes with the captains each year. We try to be dynamic and react quickly to the other team's actions. We've also done a lot of vertical, stack and zone defense.
How does the team train during the summer?SR: Usually we have a men's and a women's team and an A and B team within each of those. During the summer we join together and form a coed team. So this term, we hosted a tournament, called White Mountain Mixed, at Sachem Field against other club teams in the area. And also, another team member Kate Desrochers '12 recently organized a hat tournament,' called Mike's Hat, where players just sign up and are told what team they're on.
Some can't see Ultimate as anything more than an activity. What makes it a real sport for you?SR: One thing that has held us back from being considered a serious sport is that we do not have referees. That is because the Ultimate community has a spirit of the game' mentality where players make their own calls, complicating things at higher levels. The Ultimate community is moving towards some sort of refereeing though. We have observers' at high-level games that make decisions on disputed calls.IE: It also obviously requires immense athleticism. It's constant running, down the entire field. The way I think of it is that you have the opportunity of glory every moment. There are few feelings in sports from what I've played that are as great as when someone throws a huck to you and they throw it really far and you're sprinting to catch it. It's just you and the disc and you're running as quickly as possible to catch up with it and you lay out to grab it. You're just flying through that air. No pads or anything, you are just hitting the ground. I feel like the laid back attitude off the field turns people away, maybe makes them think we are not competitive. But we're just good at balancing the competitive side with the fun, silly side.