Frisbee is the Ultimate teamwork sport
frisbee
By Steven Breazeale
Feb. 16, 2010 9:00 p.m.
It’s a cold winter night on UCLA’s intramural field, but the green is alive with activity.
There are players on the grass running drills. They dart around cones and dive for difficult catches. They make sharp cuts around their defenders and run sprints with all-out intensity.
But this is not a football practice. This is Smaug, the Ultimate Frisbee club team at UCLA, and to call this game an action sport is an understatement.
Named after a dragon from the J.R.R. Tolkien novel “The Hobbit” (and a pun on the air quality here in Los Angeles), Smaug at UCLA has been growing increasingly popular since its inaugural season back in 1996. Since then, Ultimate Frisbee has become the game of choice amongst many college students across the nation, and has made its home here in Westwood.
Ultimate, as it is affectionately called by those who play it, is a game unlike any other. Although it shares similarities with football and basketball, the pace and style in which the game is played makes it extremely unique.
“A lot of people confuse it with disc golf,” fourth-year student Mark Elbogen said. But after a few minutes of watching this fast-paced game, it is hard to see how someone could confuse it with anything else.
Ultimate consists of two opposing teams trying to strategically move a Frisbee disc downfield and score in the end zone.
While the idea of the game is straightforward, there is a complex nature to it, and intricate offensive and defensive strategies are a must. Players diving and laying out for a disc, or making cutting moves similar to off-the-ball screens in basketball, are regular occurrences in an Ultimate match.
In a sport that involves and rewards team chemistry, the members of Smaug seek to cultivate that kind of environment by designating each participant with unique monikers like “The Arbiter,” “Mayo” and “Kiosk.”
“There’s a real great team atmosphere here,” co-captain and third-year law student Dan Oettinger said.
On the field of competition, Smaug has been one of the most consistent teams in their region of the Ultimate Players Association in recent years. The UPA is the governing body of the sport and has regional and national championships held every year in which hundreds of schools compete from all across the country. Last year, Smaug only barely missed the cut to get to nationals and finished fifth overall in the southwest regional tournament.
This season, the final goal of the team is obvious, at least according to fourth-year mathematics/economics student Steven Chang, who vehemently declared that, “We are getting first this year!”
Chang went on to stress how unique playing for a collegiate Ultimate team is, and what sets it apart from the more cutthroat environment of NCAA sports.
“Competitiveness is encouraged,” he said. “But respect for other players is much more prevalent (in Ultimate).”That speaks volumes about the kind of athletes who play in this self-officiating sport.
“There have been maybe two or three games that I can remember there ever being any real conflicts while on the field, and those never really got out of hand,” said assistant coach Chris Graham, a fifth-year economics and political science student who has played on the team for four years.
“It’s a war when you’re out on the field, but after we all shake hands.” Graham added.
Having made the requisite cuts and allocated players to A and B teams, Smaug is now fully engaged in its pursuit of a title.
“We have top-level talent,” Graham said. “There’s no reason why we can’t be (an elite team), we have the potential.”
