The Game Known as Ultimate Frisbee

The game of Ultimate Frisbee is a combination of football, soccer, and basketball. With seven players on each team made up of either cutters or handlers, the goal is to score points as fast as possible [Up to 13] on a field shaped like a football field.

“In the beginning, one team throws the disc to the other side of the end zone like a kick-off, while the other team catches the disc and tries to bring it to the other end zone,” Senior Aaron Schwieterman said.

The rules for Ultimate Frisbee resemble that of basketball and football with plays including turnovers, out of bounds, and fumbles.

“If you step out of bounds the disc is turned over [to the other team], if you drop the disc, it’s turned over and if you catch the opponents disc, it’s turned over,” Schwieterman said.

Schwieterman plays on a local team named Airstrike, which represents Wright State University in a collegiate conference.

“There is about 22 of us on the team [all WSU students],” Schwieterman said.

After being invited to regionals to represent the Raiders, Airstrike will have to win at regionals to compete in nationals, which are held in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“At sectionals we were six out of 13 teams, which qualified us for regionals. So at regionals there are going to be 16 teams, mostly from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the winner from that tournament moves on to nationals,” Schwieterman said.

To prepare for regionals the Ultimate Frisbee players run drills and practice technique at practices leading up to the tournament.

“At practice, we start with a simple warm-up, do some drills and then we practice on catching the disc, throwing the disc better as well as timing between people throwing the disc and catching the disc…so we can get that power play deep into the end zone for the point,” Schwieterman said.

At the upcoming tournament, Airstrike will face tough competition coming from Case Western Reserve and The University of Cincinnati.

“Our motto is to upset a bunch of teams in the region, if we have the opportunity to play UC or Case Western again and win, that would be fantastic so we could pull off a huge upset,” Schweiterman said.

With some opponents from the Horizon League conference including Cleveland State and Youngstown State, Airstrike will compete against some of the best teams in the conference at the regionals tournament this coming weekend. The regionals tournament will take place in Toledo, Ohio on Sat. April 26 and Sun. April 27.