Reporter’s Note: I am a player for the Lafayette Ultimate team, and wanted to share more about the sport. -Gwyneth Knight

Over the past few years, Ultimate Frisbee, the sport of high skies, hard sprints, and crazy catches has reached new heights at both Centaurus High School and the world. That’s right, the lazily played game by college students at campuses all over the country has spread to becoming one of the fastest growing sports in the nation (The Sports & Fitness Industry Association).

Ultimate Frisbee is played all over the globe, from middle school leagues to world championships. Competitively, over 118 countries are National Members of the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), which also includes sports like beach ultimate and disc golf. To show the range of the sport, out of the 118, there are 42 in Europe, 31 in Asia, 25 in Africa, and 21 in the Americas. There are many professional and college teams around the U.S., including Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA), which has over 24 men’s teams over the country and Canada, the Premier Ultimate League (PUL), and the Western Ultimate League (WUL). Competitions range from all ages, taught through youth leagues, schools, boys and girls clubs and more, with events around small communities wrapping youth into the sport. That doesn’t mean you have to join the sport young, though.

While interviewing a few players who play on the Lafayette Ultimate Frisbee team, their responses regarding when and how they started couldn’t have been more different. On one hand, Griffin Knight, a senior and an A Team captain last spring, explained that he has been playing frisbee, “Since I was in sixth grade. It’s because there wasn’t really an opportunity to play before then. And I had two close friends that were both going to be playing it, so I joined to play with them.” Now, Griffin hasn’t missed a single season, all because his friends talked him into it. On the other hand, Daphne Schweiger, a senior at Peak to Peak and a captain for the A Mixed Team says, “This is my third year playing, I started sophomore year…and really enjoyed it, I have decided to actually quit volleyball to keep playing frisbee in as many seasons as possible.” Even though these two players both started at different ages and levels, they enjoyed and committed to the sport all the way to reach a captain position.

Through his four years, Griffin described the spirit and growth of the team. Primarily, how now as a senior, he and his teammates have grown to embody a winning team that can hopefully dominate for years to come. “We’re a lot stronger this year than we were last year because we had very few seniors graduate.” He described how the growth of the team contributed to beating the Fairview A Team last month, who have had no competition within the state for years. “Fairview had a bunch of their seniors graduate, so they’re a lot weaker. So Fairview got a lot weaker from last year and we got a lot stronger, that’s why we were able to beat them.” Beating this strong team was vital in making another first-time occurrence for the seniors come to life, winning the Monarch Invitational Tournament. “We’ve never won a tournament,” Griffin says, noting how it took four years for the team to reach new heights.

The game of Ultimate Frisbee is played in an odd mix of football and basketball, where you must score in an endzone, yet you can’t move with the disc. Griffin explains, “The way you move the frisbee is by throwing it from one person to another. You can’t run while you have it and then to score, you catch it in the endzone.” The endzone is a rectangle about 10 yards lengthwise on each side of the field. If the frisbee hits the ground, called a turnover, from a drop or defense maneuver, the offense and defense switch, now gaining their opportunity to score.

In the game, there are various plays and dozens of strategies that you can use in order to win. Ultimate Frisbee isn’t all about winning, though. A key element that makes Ultimate Frisbee stand out is that it’s self-officiated and reffed based on the Spirit of the Game. “My favorite part of the game is that it’s self-reffed, and instead of seeing the other team as opponents, we see it as like a “let’s play each other to get better”, along with the spirit circle at the end of the game.” Daphne Schweiger says. Besides the simple skills you can gain from playing the sport, like teamwork and communication, the key piece of calling your own fouls can help build confidence, conflict resolution, and integrity. Spirit of the Game is a fundamental of the game to prioritize good sportsmanship and player responsibility. Besides the final game score, teams award other teams with Spirit Scores during prior tournaments. Depending whether these are good or not, teams can win an award or be kept from going to the State Tournament if the score is low enough. It continues to not just be something the players strive for, but Spirit of the Game shows the positivity and spirit that they intend to be.

The Lafayette Ultimate Frisbee team, although keeping winning important in their heart, continues to focus on having fun. Griffin also adds that, “That’s one of the things that I really love about our program is just how we’re really spirited. We’re friendly with other teams. We’re friendly with ourselves. We’re all genuinely good people. That’s something that really stood out to me is that everyone in our program is like a legitimate, really good person. Even outside of frisbee.” Brynley Steele, a sophomore handler, said that something special about the Lafayette team is, “How connected the team feels. I personally feel everyone has a place on the team and belongs, and I genuinely look forward to every practice.” Over and over again these players mention how the team is unique for its chemistry and community.

Another thing the players want to mention is that they want you! They are always looking for recruits, no matter the experience level. The Lafayette Ultimate Frisbee team is a combination of players from both Centaurus High School and Peak to Peak. Yet, they include players from the surrounding area, who may not have a school team, or are even homeschooled. In the fall, the team plays co-ed, where both boy-matching players and girl-matching players are on the same field together. In the spring, the teams are separate. To join, in February, when the next season starts, look for posters and additional advertisements or look at the website: Lafayette HS Ultimate Frisbee Team. A last piece of advice for up-and-coming players comes from Brynley, “I’d say just keep getting involved in programs, you keep meeting so many amazing people.”