Club members encourage interested students to get involved and ‘enjoy the game’
By: CHRISTIAN HARGAS
Sports Editor
STLCC-Meramec offers Ultimate Frisbee to any interested students on campus. The club was founded in the spring 2015 semester, Meramec student and club President Rusty McDonald said.
“We made this club last spring and we played unofficially,” McDonald said. “We did not meet as a club technically because we did not have our sponsor all set up and we did not have everything going. The fall 2015 semester is when our club actually started and we had probably about 10-15 members show up to each meeting, which is great.”
The club is looking to join the St. Louis Ultimate Association which is a recreational league, McDonald said.
They also intend to join USA Ultimate which hosts a tournament beginning in March.
“We have wanted to join a league and play against other teams for a long time,” McDonald said. “We are joining that [SLUA] but we are not joining it as a team. The way it is going to be set up is we are going to have two to three people on each of the league teams; there are about eight league teams. That way, our members can get experience from other people, see their input and learn the game.”
USA Ultimate is the other league the club showed interest in joining, McDonald said.
“They [USA Ultimate] are sort of the official league coordinators,” McDonald said. “They do national tournaments and regional tournaments in different ways. We want to participate in a college league but we cannot do that this spring, unfortunately, because it started earlier. They have a tournament coming up in March that we want to do and that would be a really fun event for us.”
Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that should be recognized as something college students can do for fun, Godar said.
“They want to learn more about the game; they just want to play the game,” Godar said. A lot of these people are new; they are learning how to play and they really enjoy it. To me, that is what it is all about; getting people involved and having fun.”
McDonald agreed and said having fun is the key element.
“Ultimately, our club is about having fun,” McDonald said. “We want people to have fun and learn the rules and aspects of Ultimate Frisbee. I am a very competitive person, so I like the competitive factor along with a lot of the other members. We, however, also recognize that we do not have to be competitive to have fun. It is really a great group of kids out there that love the game of Ultimate.
The St. Louis Ultimate Association league in the spring requires a membership payment, Godar said.
“We are doing the [SLUA] league and you have to have a membership/account with USA Ultimate and that is about $30. The league starts on Mar. 9 and you have to pay for the league you play in which is about $50. It definitely has its costs but it is certainly worth it.”
Ultimate Frisbee is very similar to other sports with some exceptions, McDonald said.
“You have to communicate with teammates while moving the disk down the field,” McDonald said. “There is a lot of running so it is kind of hard to communicate while you are running so much; trying to make sure everybody knows which position they need to be in.
Having good communication and eye contact is instrumental in sustaining success while playing the game of Ultimate, Godar said.
“You have to always be on the same page,” Godar said. “There are set plays and you have to always be in the loop and be an equal member.”
With this Meramec team people are learning how to play the game, Godar said.
“It is just the matter of being on the same page, committing to how the game is played and trying to learn new things every day we practice,” Godar said.
The club encourages new students interested in playing the game of Ultimate to attend the weekly meetings each Thursday and Friday at 2 p.m., McDonald said.
“If you like throwing the disk, being outside and being somewhat sporty while enjoying the weather, come to our Thursday practice,” McDonald said. “For our Thursday practice, the atmosphere we are trying to create is not one that is competitive but rather trying to just have fun. You do not have to know how to throw the disk; there are even people that do not even know how to throw the disk or never even heard of Ultimate Frisbee. Sometimes that is how people get involved and enjoy the sport.”
