Between blistering winds, torrential thunderstorms, and tornado warnings throughout the St. Louis region, the weather was beautiful the first weekend of May, which meant Ultimate Frisbee was on.
The 2010 Missouri State High School Championships were held in Cottleville at the “Soccer Pitch” sport complex, west of Clayton, on May 1 and 2. For Ultimate players from CHS, this meant a 40-minute drive both ways and an exhausting day in the heat.
CHS won the first game of the day against Ladue, a huge win for the team. It became clear over the next nine hours that one of the main reasons for the win was the energy everyone had in the morning which began to evaporate as the sun came out.
“With how few subs we had, it was impressive that we beat Ladue,” senior Jack Harned said. “We were super tired after a few games, and with five throughout the day, it was tough to keep playing with strength.”
Junior Scott Jeffery, who had been at the state tournament all day, pointed out that hustling and hard work in the first game was a reasonable expectation but after that, with so few people, fatigue was inevitable.
“Each point exhausted half of our team and we didn’t have fresh legs going out on the field while the other teams did,” Jeffery said. “Our team couldn’t compete with that after the first game.”
The next three games spanned five hours; with only 12 people, some trickling in and out, CHS players were fighting to keep up with the other teams. Said games were all lost but that didn’t mean people gave up. The team was there to have a good time, and that’s exactly what they did in the fifth game of the day, as senior and team captain Julian Katz pointed out.
“As the team began to tire during the day, we focused more on having fun, which resulted in our hilarious antics against Marquette in the final game,” Katz said, referring to the general fooling around and lack of defense.
In retrospect, with a few power bars and an extremely determined mindset, the team could have taken down Marquette. However, as Clayton frisbee has shown over the years, the team is more about having a good time and enjoying the hysterically funny moments than vigorous, stubborn winning. That being said, one could argue that it’s no wonder that hippies are famous for frisbee, but senior Orion Wilkinson thinks otherwise.
“I think Ultimate sneaks under a lot of peoples’ radars because they think its just a bunch of stinky, lazy hippies,” Wilkinson said. “It’s actually very physically demanding and a great game on many levels.”
Katz expanded this idea.
“Frisbee is a great sport because of the combination of athleticism, skill, and teamwork that is essential to any successful team,” Katz said.
The entire team agrees that more people are definitely going to be necessary in the upcoming year. With many seniors leaving, including Katz, who has done a great deal of organizing to the benefit of everyone, even fewer people will be available and new recruits as well as current team members will need to step up their game to fill in for those who will be lost.
Senior Jacob Grady said that he has been to all the games and it is disappointing occasionally to see few people showing up and very little support from the freshman and sophomore classes.
“We definitely need more people to show up. When you have only three subs, people just get tired fast,” Grady said.
Wilkinson reiterated this necessity for more people and the overall effect it has on the team.
“More people should play on the team because there’s power in numbers,” Wilkinson said. “If there are more subs, everyone plays better; they have time to rest and go back out on the field, ready to perform.”
Although it is never too late to join the team, those considering frisbee should look into the sport and CHS team, which will be in great need of support next year. It is easy to learn, enjoyable exercise, and a great way to get a wonderful tan every weekend.