Taking it to the air
Teams take bid for UPA championship in Florida in upcoming weeks
By Matt “It’s MillerTime” Miller
When it comes to physical activity, Mike Terpstra likes a challenge. It was back in September 2003 when the then University of Northern Iowa freshman was introduced to Ultimate Frisbee. A novice at the time, today, Terpstra has taken his skills to a new level in sport that is taking off.
“What I enjoy so much about Ultimate Frisbee is that it’s highly competitive and highly athletic,” said Terpstra, a West Des Moines resident and member of Gnarwal, a club team within the Ultimate Players Association (UPA). “There’s something about the sport — it’s kind of hard to explain, but once you make like a sweet layout catch or something like that, you’ll be hooked.”
Just as Terpstra describes, there will be plenty of athleticism and action on the field in Ames on Saturday, Sept. 26 and Sunday, Sept. 27 as his team and others compete in the 2009 West Plains Club Mixed Sectionals within the Club Series of the UPA. From sectionals, two teams will then move onto one of the six regional destinations with the ultimate goal of winning the UPA Club Championships in Sarasota, Fla., from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.
Ultimate Frisbee was invented in 1968 in Maplewood, N.J., and over the past 10 years has become of the world’s fastest-growing sports. The sport is played in 42 countries and nationally the UPA has nearly 30,000 members. The governing body is made up of three divisions — youth, college and club. Traditionally, college and youth divisions are played in the spring, while the club division is run in the fall. The seven-on-seven game has dramatically gained popularity since 2003 — increasing 168 percent since 2003 when the association began analyzing membership by gender. Surprisingly, women compose a third of the total membership as participation among females nearly doubled from 2003 to 2008. Ultimate Frisbee combines the endurance and speed of soccer with aerial passing and end-zone scoring of football. Once a player receives the frisbee (disc), he or she stops running and has 10 seconds to pass the frisbee to a teammate. A team scores by completing a pass in the opposing team’s end zone.
“I played sports my whole life, so when I attended college I was looking for a competitive outlet, and Ultimate Frisbee was it,” said Dustin McConnell, a teammate of Terpstra who began playing Ultimate Frisbee three years ago while attending Drake University. “It’s a great way to meet people and a great way to stay in shape.”
One of the unique aspects of Ultimate Frisbee compared to other sports is that is often self-officiated by players during games. Terpstra say most of the time players agree on calls, but disagreements happen, too.
“Self-officiating is more of a democratic way of working through problems on the field,” he said. “A lot of disagreements happen during the game, but you work them out. But I have heard of fistfights happening in extreme cases. With officiating, you have to live with your decision at the end of the day. Hopefully handshakes happen when the game is over.”
Another aspect of club teams is that many give up large amounts of free time to compete in UPA tournaments, which are often held on weekends. Already in season, team Gnarwal has competed in St. Louis, Kansas City, Council Bluffs, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. At club level, players must work around job schedules and pay out-of-pocket for all travel expenses.
“I recently started a new job and made sure that my work schedule and Ultimate Frisbee schedule didn’t clash,” McConnell said. “It’s definitely a big time commitment, but definitely worth it. The games and friendships will last a lifetime.” CV
Ames will host the West Plains Division of the Central Region in Ultimate Frisbee this weekend.
