Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
Occidental’s Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team has been beset by a season of injuries and low turnout.
The team is made up of mostly new players, a team that Coach Mark Hartford described as “a very green team, with most of the players first learning to throw a disc just last fall, and many others just learning the basic concepts this season.”
The team, Women’s Air Corps (WAC), was formed in fall 2007. “Before then the women who played Ultimate would play with Detox, which is now our Men’s team,” player Diana Birney (sophomore) said. WAC recently took part in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in which they played teams from around Southern California, including several nationally ranked teams.
“Unfortunately, injuries and a low turnout plagued us this tournament, resulting in a couple competitive first-halves against Claremont and UC Irvine, but the low number of subs prevented us from keeping in it for the second half,” Hartford said. “We notched a hard-fought win against Redlands, however.”
Players have remained optimistic about the team’s performance during the tournament despite their record. “Sectionals, just like any tournament, were a learning experience for us. We got to play the best teams in the area and even nationally ranked ones. While we only won one (against Redlands) of our seven games, for each point of our other games we played as hard as we could,” Birney said. “So even though we didn’t win, we still gave it our all, and we saw players shine in areas we hadn’t seen them in before.”
The team’s improvement was a topic of discussion for Hartford, who acknowledged the players’ dedication to practices and games throughout the year.
“Starting with very [few] experienced veterans on the team and a large core of new players we’ve improved drastically on both sides of the disc (offense and defense) since the beginning of the fall,” he said.
As the semester moves to an end, WAC is looking to the potential next year’s team holds, even though several girls are graduating this spring. “The team is losing a couple of key seniors, but with a strong freshmen and sophomore base I think we’ve got high hopes for next season-both in numbers and victories,” Hartford said.
He explained the team will continue to improve through practices and games, saying, “We’ve set up a couple of scrimmages against local teams for the spring.”
With WAC’s constant improvement and increasing competitive streak, Hartford is hopeful more people will focus their attention on Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, not only at Occidental, but as a sport in general. “With an average of 10 percent growth (www.upa.org) of new college women ultimate players across the nation, it’s one of the fastest growing club sports,” she said. “With just a field, some cleats and a disc anyone can play ultimate, come check us out next season if you’re interested!”
Birney echoed the sentiment. “Ultimate Frisbee isn’t what most people think it is,” she said. “We have a rule book, we have guidelines and we have very intense practices. I, personally, just want the student body to become aware that we are a functioning team on campus and that we aren’t some ragamuffin tag-team of assorted persons.”
She further expressed her excitement for the coming years. “I am intensely proud of our team and while some of our players are going to have to leave us this year, we know we’ll get more players next year, and continue to grow and get better,” Birney said.
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