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April 23, 2006

Ultimate thrill

Game adheres to ‘highly competitive play’ with ‘mutual respect between players’

By Shane Frederick

ST PETER — Whoever invented the game of ultimate must have had some nerve.

Ultimate?

To use such a superlative to describe a sport that requires little more than a Frisbee and an open field seems a bit brash.

To declare that a contest born out of peace, love and bare feet is the paramount of play sounds somewhat shameless.

Certainly, there must have been ball players of all kinds who, upon learning of such a sport, objected to its name.

But almost 40 years after it was conceived, ultimate appears quite comfortable in its own characterization.

“It’s so different than other sports,” said Peter Hughes, who plays for the Gustavus Adolphus College ultimate team, the Gustavus High.

Athletically, Hughes describes ultimate as a combination of football, soccer and basketball. Teams of seven try to move a flying disc into their opponents’ end zone by passing it between one another and keeping it off the ground.

At Gustavus’ Thrill on the Hill ultimate tournament Saturday, an odd duality was also obvious.

Games were as competitive as hockey but also as relaxed as slow-pich softball.

“Our game represents what Frisbee should be like,” Hughes said. “It’s the right mix. We take away from it what’s important to us.”

During the High’s game against a Minneapolis-based men’s club team called TBA, Led Zeppelin blasted away on a boom box while a group of Gustavus students crashed on and around a couch along the sidelines.

A couple of grills cooked burgers and brats near the end zone, and the Red Bull girls showed up to hand out free samples to players and spectators.

On the field, the game was intense, though.

Players got dirty, diving head-first for errant discs to maintain possession, and they got sweaty sprinting under soaring discs for scores.

“I got my hand right on that,” Hughes yelled, upset at himself for letting an opponent’s pass slip by him for a score. “I can’t believe I missed that.”

A few minutes later, however, Hughes was happy, leading his teammates in a rousing halftime chorus of “Stand by Your Man.”

Actually, ultimate players say they stand by a “Spirit of the Game” credo. According to the Ultimate Players Association Web site, “Highly competitive play is encouraged but never at the expense of the bond of mutual respect between players, adherence to the rules and the basic joy of play.”

Players self-officiate games, calling their own fouls and keeping score.

“It’s the basic tenet of the sport,” Gustavus’ David Garfunkel said. “Otherwise, the sport wouldn’t function.”

Said Hughes: “The big thing we rely on is the ‘Spirit of the Game.’ ... Games can get crazy, but it’s all on you.”

Both the Gustavus High and the Outskirtz, the college’s women’s team, qualified for regionals, which will be played at Iowa City, Iowa, next weekend. The winners will move on to nationals.

“This is fun,” Hughes said of the Thrill on the Hill. “But (regionals) will be very competitive.”

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