6 minute read
Ultimate Frisbee Vanessa Cannaday
Ultimate Frisbee
By Vanessa Cannaday
Ultimate Frisbee is probably closest to a mix between soccer and football – minus the heavy pads and with faster paced scoring. Like soccer, it involves a lot of running, and you’ll find some similarities in how players might position themselves on defense. Like football, teams advance towards an endzone by throwing and catching – you just can’t run with the disc when you catch it. Unlike either sport though, ultimate is self-refereed – players resolve conflict on their own, abiding by what is called “Spirit of the Game.”
I think the most appealing part of ultimate is that the concept of Spirit of the Game develops a certain kind of individual – someone who can be self-reflective enough to resolve conflict in the heat of the moment while continuing to compete at a high level. But also, ultimate is fun, a great way to stay active, and doesn’t take a lot of start-up equipment to play: cleats are ideal, but not required, so really you just need a field and a disc! At higher levels of the sport, there is a specified field size (it’s the same length as a football field, but slightly narrower), but for pick-up, you just need some friends and markers for whatever size field you want. Formal games require seven players on each team, but there are variations for smaller fields that work for games of 3 v 3.
When I moved to Madison, WI, after college, I didn’t know much about Ultimate Frisbee, having only played intramurals in college. I got started by joining a local women’s coached league, and had the fortunate luck to be coached by two phenomenal (and nationally recognized) players – Robyn Fennig and Anna Williams. I had no idea at that point in time their guidance would lead me to join a local women’s club team, and go on to play with and eventually captain a mixed team competing at USA Ultimate’s Club National Championships a few years later. Seven seasons of club and local league later, I’m embarking on a new adventure as a co-founder of a professional women’s ultimate team in Wisconsin – the Milwaukee Monarchs.
Playing ultimate can take all different forms: there are local disc organizations across the country that organize leagues - Albuquerque Ultimate and Santa Fe Ultimate organize leagues in their cities, and around the country there are Facebook groups for pickup games. Frequently high schoolers might be introduced to ultimate in gym class, but there are more and more schools with teams competing in tournaments, and the USA Ultimate Youth Club Championship series. Colleges around the country have club teams (in Madison I have overheard parents talking about their children considering the quality of the ultimate team when choosing their college)! The University of New Mexico has both women’s (the Bombshells) and men’s teams (Hanta Virus). One of the unique features of ultimate is that the club level also features a mixed division, where women and men compete together on teams, which is often found in local leagues as well.
One of the defining features of ultimate for me is the community – many of the players I have met have become like a second family. When I travel, I often seek out members of the local ultimate community either to play, or just meet up – one time this even led to a pick-up game in Cambodia, where someone casually reminded me that I should look out for scorpions in the middle of a point! Ultimate creates a particular sense of camaraderie and belonging, almost from the instant you take the field with a new set of players. Last year I had the opportunity to play professionally for the first time with the L.A. 99’s – a professional women’s ultimate team based in L.A. now known as Astra – and even though I hadn’t played with them before, I was welcomed and instantly had 20 new friends in California. The opportunity to take the field with so many amazing women athletes was so validating and empowering as a woman (men have been able to play professionally for several years now), which is why I’m part of the Milwaukee Monarchs organization now.
That’s the other neat thing about ultimate – there are so many different levels of opportunity – and in recent years there has been a focus on growing opportunities for youth and women athletes. The Premier Ultimate League (PUL) is a professional women’s ultimate league, formed in 2019 with 8 teams, and our Milwaukee team is part of a 4 team expansion for 2020. The league’s mission is to increase the accessibility and visibility of women in high quality, competitive ultimate. The league was joined this year by the Western Ultimate League (WUL), which consists of seven teams from the West Coast and includes the team I played for last year, Astra. I highly encourage you to check out the leagues on the web (and the teams!) – many of the games are available to be watched online during the season too!
I hope that you’ll consider checking out some of the local disc orgs in New Mexico – often there are players who will come and help other players learn more about the game (or, maybe I can come visit my aunt and uncle and run a youth clinic!). Alternatively, there are lots of resources available on USA Ultimate’s website about opportunities to play and the rules of the game. Both the PUL (www.premierultimateleague.com) and WUL (www.westernultimateleague.com) websites have information about the women’s professional leagues, and there is also a men’s league called the AUDL. If you have questions about ultimate, where to get started, or my team, the Milwaukee Monarchs (www. milwaukeemonarchs.com), you can email me at milwaukeemonarchs@gmail.com!
Info about Disc Orgs in New Mexico: Albuquerque Albuquerque Ultimate abqultimate@gmail.com abqultimate.com/ Santa Fe Santa Fe Ultimate nmaudi-discinfo@yahoo.com nm-ufo.org/santafe/index.html#
Press Highlights about the PUL:
Born of a Boycott, a Women’s Ultimate Frisbee League Charts Its Own Path - New York Times, 06/28/2019
Professional women’s Ultimate is coming to Minnesota - Twin Cities Pioneer Press, 12/16/2019
PUL Podcast, Season 2, episode 1 [23:00]
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