Ultimate Frisbee Team gets ready for an exciting season
Photo Credit: Google.Images.com
By Julia Rentsch, Contributing Writer
On Saturday, Sept. 14, Gettysburg College welcomed to their fields six women’s Ultimate Frisbee teams for an annual round robin tournament. The all-day event is designed to be both an opportunity for local teams to orient their first-years to the game, and just an excuse to have some fun playing Frisbee. Gettysburg’s own Ferocious Chickpeas had a very promising day, winning their first three matches and losing only to Princeton, who did not bring any of their freshmen.
Collectively known as the Pan Fried Funk, men’s and women’s Ultimate teams have existed at Gettysburg since 1998. This year has yielded an impressive array of new players, notably the unprecedented nine women who have joined the ranks of the Chickpeas.
A relatively small Ultimate team, the Chickpeas (also alternatively known as the Garbage Girls) is a close-knit group that allows each team member to have considerable playing time, due to the few number of subs. Energetic and welcoming, captain Sara Putnam said she is “massively proud” of the first-years and their ability to quickly acclimate to learning different field tactics. According to Putnam, the freshmen are the team’s “lifeblood.”
“Frisbee is fun, and the people are fun,” said Rachael Pruitt, a freshman and first-time Ultimate player. “And it’s a great break from school!”
“It is nice to have such a close group of friends, where everyone is working toward a common goal,” added Kyla Schneider, another first-year. “Never was there a day of track that I looked forward to [in high school], but yeah, I look forward to going to Frisbee every day.”
The majority of newcomers to the team, under and upperclassmen alike, begin with no prior experience with the game. Both the men’s and women’s teams, however, possess a tight framework of supportive and talented upperclassmen willing to teach what they know. Liz Grimes, a sophomore, said “I joined [last year] because I was immediately welcomed by the upperclassmen.”
Throughout the year, the team travels to various local tournaments and has developed very strong bonds, shown by “all the butt slaps, high fives, and smiles,” said Daniel Horton. “People should know more about those.”
“I started playing Frisbee because I wanted a sport where there was lots of team bonding and a reason to run and work hard,” continued Putnam. “I honestly wish people knew how much strategy and athleticism that Frisbee can entail. Both the men’s team and women’s team here run at least two different sets of offense and defense regularly and have set ‘end-zone’ plays that we run in order to help us score.” Katie Gittings, another senior, added, “It’s actually something you need to devote brainpower to in order to fully understand, especially when you’re learning [plays] like ‘zone’. It also involves a ton of running; it’s more effort than simply tossing a disk.”
This upcoming weekend the team is travelling to a tournament in Princeton, New Jersey, and in two weeks Gettysburg will host a home tournament. Last year, the Chickpeas had a perfect fall season, winning five tournaments and going 29-0.
According to Putnam, Ultimate can be a “love it” or “hate it” game, and the first tournament is usually when new players find out which it is for them. “After my first tournament, I fell in love with Frisbee because it was the first sport I had played that was totally competitive and was self-officiated with rules built in to help players talk out disagreements,” she said. “I really honestly couldn’t dream of giving up Ultimate.”
Practices are held daily Monday through Friday on the college’s intramural fields, and the team declares that anyone can join, regardless of experience.
