While many of the club teams around the University of Maine campus only compete in one season, the Club Ultimate Frisbee team plays nearly year-round.
The club, divided into male and female teams, publicly appears as one unified organization for fundraising and other events. The two separate clubs have their own elected officers, with a president for the men’s club and a president for the women’s club. The two cabinets of officers work together to coordinate fundraising events, tournaments and the team’s massive tournament that runs the duration of spring break, called the High Tide Competition. The competition is hosted in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina every year and is a gathering for club ultimate frisbee teams at colleges across the nation.
This past weekend the team headed to Lemony Spring, Rhode Island, for a tournament. The club often finds they have to register multiple teams, considering the amount of people currently active in the club.To put that into perspective, the men’s club consists of 30 active members, but only 22 people can go to an average size tournament such as the one held in Lemony Spring.
This is a typical open tournament, which for the University of Maine club that they would only send an all men team to the tournament. The two divisions of the club often don’t compete at the same tournaments outside of High Tide, instead equally splitting their funding to ensure both clubs are able to play at a similar number of tournaments.
Elected as the secretary of the men’s club this past school year, second-year Stefen Reese fondly remarked about his first-year as a member of the organization.
“High Tide is a lot of fun,” Reese said. “The whole team goes and it is a great bonding experience between the two clubs, and the older members are able to bond with a lot of the new younger members. The trip cost $200 out of pocket for me last year, and we’re working to lower the price point even further this year.”
Reese encouraged anyone interested in ultimate to attend practice. Practices are held Mondays and Wednesdays on the The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) fields from 4-6 p.m. and Fridays on Lengyl Field from 4-6 p.m.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, ultimate requires a good attitude, a willingness to run and a desire to learn a variety of throws. Typically, there are two kinds of players: cutters, who are receivers that run the field in an attempt to shake their defenders to get open so a handler can throw them the disc, and handlers, who are players that are particularly good at completing the different kinds of throws with accuracy. The combination of the two allow the team to move down the field.
For those interested in the sport but don’t believe they’re ready for the club team, there is an intramural league on campus, with the possibility of joining a team or creating a team with other players.
