Ultimate Frisbee is as indelible to the college experience as all-nighters, Starbucks and final exams.
Consequently it’s probably unsurprising that, among the club sports ETSU offers, ultimate Frisbee is one of them.
In the fall season, they work on getting more people involved and learning the game. For players with a lot of experience, the winter is used for conditioning. The spring is when competition starts, where the team competes in tournaments sanctioned by United States Ultimate.
“At the end of the year we have sectionals and if you make it to regionals, next is nationals,” said club president Jason Nanney.
They have about 30 players on the team, but 15-20 players normally play. Nanney’s goal is to increase the roster this season. During the colder months is when the club tends to see players fall off the roster.
Since they are the competitive club at ETSU, they get the opportunity to travel five times a semester to tournaments and fly to sectionals at the very end.
“I always grow up playing low-level ultimate Frisbee,” Nanney said. “Not really that serious, but when I got here, I just looked up if they had a team. I just came out to practice, nothing special, actually as president I just get everyone organized.”
Randy Wittenhire is the club’s head coach. He’s not a student, but he voluntarily coaches the team. They also have people that have been playing a long time who are referred to as assistant coaches; these are mostly graduate students.
The best thing about the club is that they don’t have tryouts, so anyone can get involved — no matter their athletic skills. The level of commitment a player shows determines how much they play, however.
The club practices twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays; times vary. They host practices normally from 7-9 p.m. at the front field of the CPA. They also have Sunday pick up games at 2 p.m. where anyone can play.
Tournaments start with pool play on Saturdays which is a group of teams that play to see who plays in the finals on Sunday. Tournaments are usually an all weekend thing. The way to get in contact with the club is their Buc-Hub account as well as their Facebook page.
