RHS Frisbee ‘Bullets’ Past Opposition
January 10, 2018
Ultimate Frisbee is quickly growing in popularity among kids and teens, including students at RHS, who for the past six years could join the ultimate frisbee club to enjoy a laid-back yet competitive game.
Ultimate Frisbee was developed in 1968 by students at Columbia HS in Maplewood, N.J., and the club first started at RHS in 2011 when a group of juniors approached English teacher Sean Pang to be a potential sponsor.
“I agreed [to be the sponsor] because it’s rare to see such commitment and bonding in a student group that I wanted to support them to the best of my abilities,” Pang said. “There’s always a ton of laughing and joking around, but the most impressive aspect is
the organization. There’s good leadership on the team and despite the goofballs on the team, everybody wants to contribute.”
Ultimate Frisbee combines many different aspects of a variety of sports and is usually played on soccer or football fields. The goal is to score by completing passes with a disc in the defense’s end zone. The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass, however, players may not run with it. Instead, they have 10 seconds to throw to a teammate.
At RHS, the ultimate frisbee club practices every Tuesday and Thursday for two hours at the Bauer Recreational Center behind Wood MS. Students get to break a sweat while enjoying a casual and relaxed atmosphere of camaraderie and team bonding.
“I joined the club because I thought it would be a fun activity to participate in with my friends after school,” sophomore Joey Leon said. “I absolutely love the club. All the people in it are funny guys who I’ve become [sic] friends with over the past two years[…] we are all a family just like any other sport.”
“There’s good leadership on the team and despite the goofballs on the team, everybody wants to contribute.” – Sean Pang
The club participates in scrimmages and tournaments against other schools’ ultimate frisbee teams. Junior captain Connor Shields is part of a Maryland High School Ultimate Frisbee Facebook group that posts tournaments, in which Shields signs the teams up for.
“We’ll reach out to other schools and see if we can arrange scrimmages, and I’m always on the lookout for a tournament to sign the team up for,” Shields said. “For games what happens is we’ll show up where we’re supposed to be, do some warmups, and then start playing.”
The team has played multiple scrimmages against Whitman HS and competed in two tournaments. While the team lost all the games against Whitman, went 1-4 in the first tournament and 1-1 in the second, Shields still has high hopes for the future.
“They were narrow, competitive losses. I think we’re capable of doing better…the skill is pretty much there in my opinion,” Shields said. “To join these tournaments, I’m part of a Maryland High School
Ultimate Frisbee Facebook group that will post tournaments and say who to contact to sign up a team, and I’ll sign the team up as soon as I can confirm enough people will be able to play for us.”
