Club sports continue to make their mark on high school athletics as students look to participate in sporting activities other than the usual baseball, football, basketball and hockey.
Ultimate is a sport that involves a frisbee and players and is is a limited-contact team field sport played with a flying disc. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone.
Other basic rules imply that players must not take steps while holding the disc (that is, a player holding the disc must maintain a pivot), and interceptions and incomplete passes are turnovers. A prominent feature of the modern game is the "lay out," a horizontal dive to catch or block the disc.
The Becker Ultimate team is comprised of Cody Lee, Brody Hed, Peter Piazza, Olsen Pancoast, Jeremy South, “King” Dan Zimmerman, Andy Johnson, Caleb Foster, Jonah Kollman, Ashley Voltz, Becky Free, Lexi Kappel, Andrew Aleckson, Kate Bernig, Joey Kimmerly, Joey Perry, Adam Metzger and Conner Thomas. The team is coached by Tim Johnson.
What is Ultimate?
Ultimate was developed in 1968 by a group of students at Columbia H.S. in Maplewood, NJ. Although Ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its athletic requirements, it is unlike most sports due to its focus on self-officiating, even at the highest levels of competition.
This concept, called Spirit of the Game, is integrated into the basic philosophy of the sport, written into the rules, and practiced at all levels of the game from local leagues to the World Games.
“Sportsmanship is emphasized above winning,” said Coach Johnson. “Players are taught not to look at the person defending you as your enemy, but another kid out there having a fun time.”
Play is initiated when the defense throws ("pulls") the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.
The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc ("thrower") has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower ("marker") counts out the stall count.
When a pass is not completed (out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.
Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense's end zone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.
The sport is growing exponentially throughout the United States and according to the World Flying Disc Federation, there are more than 5 million players in the U.S., and 20 states with high school teams. Minnesota, in fact, leads the nation in youth playing Ultimate.
Let’s Play
Becker’s Ultimate team formed in November and they had their first game April 16 against Minnetonka. They lost a close match, 16-15.
The Spirit of the Game became evident during the game against Minnetonka and had an impact on the players and Coach Johnson as they realized the opposing team cheered them when they scored.
“ After the game we had an ice breaker to get to know the other team,” said Johnson, “and went out to eat at Chipotle with many members from the other team. It still doesn’t feel good to lose, but as I told the kids our first practice after our loss, ‘we didn’t set out to have an undefeated Ultimate team this season. We started this to have a great time. And that’s what we are doing.’”
The next week, the Becker Ultimate team rebounded with a victory over St. Louis Park April 23 by a score of 13-11. This weekend they are playing in the Granite City Classis Tournament in St. Cloud.
Coaching consists of skills and strategy.
“The skills part is cardio, working on frisbee throwing accuracy and making a good ‘cut’ to get separation from the guy covering you,” said Johnson. “The strategy part revolves around your plan for moving the frisbee down the field and how you're going to prevent the other team from doing the same.”
Coach Johnson says he likes the sport of Ultimate for lots of reasons.
“ It appeals to me because it appeals to kids that may not be in any other sport,” he said. “It is a great cardiovascular workout, it’s a noncontact sport and it’s a low-cost sport.”
