Justin M. Jones
Triangle Reporter
Sixteen people showed up to tryout for the new Frisbee club November 11, and freshman Wesley Sanders is taking the initiative to organize the new campus sport.
“I had always been a part of school athletic teams, and I loved playing sports in school. I played several different sports while in high school, and it was strange to me to come to Bryan and start my school year and not be part of a team,” Sanders said. “I have always loved to play Ultimate, and I found it so strange that Bryan did not have a team, especially since Ultimate is becoming so popular.
“I also knew there were so many good Ultimate players, and I thought, ‘Why in the world don’t we have a team….’ So I started asking around and found out that older students at Bryan have attempted to start a team before, but it never worked out.”
According to Sanders, who has been thoroughly researching the college rules of Ultimate, the games previously played at Bryan have been more relaxed and have not followed the official college guidelines of Ultimate.
“So many people do not understand the rules of the game for the real sport of Ultimate,” Sanders said. “This year we will be spending a lot of time learning the game of Ultimate. I have later goals, but my mind is focused on this year. This year will be a big learning year.”
In tryouts Sanders tested the men on throwing, catching, jumping, speed and the ability to read a disc.
“When you have people that can throw and catch real well it comes down to speed and jumping,” Sanders said. “Speed and jumping are very important in the athletic side of Ultimate.”
Some students found it odd to try out for a college Ultimate team, but Sanders said that tryouts are common.
“It was weird [to have to try out for a Frisbee club] considering most of the guys I knew on the team were pretty consistent players, and we already know the rules of Frisbee, or so we thought,” Sophomore Corey Heartlidge said. “So it was kind of weird, but then again this is going to be so serious as an actual club team. I thought it was cool to have actual tryouts, being a little more official.”
Sanders seems to be pretty confident in the team so far.
“I fully believe that our team can do great against other teams,” Sanders said. “It’ll just take some time for us to learn the real game of Ultimate. But we got it!”
Heartlidge believes after the team learns the official rules the team will be very successful.
“If we’re not familiar with [the new rules], we’re really going to suffer playing other teams who are more structured as far as [organization], and so we’re definitely going to have to get acquainted with the rules,” Heartlidge said. “But I think talent-wise we’ve got a shot. So, I’m really excited about it.”
Two of the major teams Bryan will be competing against are Lee University and Covenant College (Chattanooga, Tenn.).
Tryout results were released earlier today revealing a 20 member team with Sanders as the president and Tim Shetter as the Faculty Sponsor.
The club team “will not be doing too much for the rest of the semester” except practicing, according to the email announcement released this afternoon.
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