You've Never Seen Frisbee Played Quite Like This

There's frisbee, and then there's ultimate frisbee. And the latter is not for the faint of heart.

While most people think of frisbee as a leisurely game to be played at a family barbecue or a relaxing day at the beach, the two co-ed groups of athletes that gathered in the field outside Orange Avenue School last week proved that ultimate frisbee takes speed, agility, teamwork and quite a bit of coordination to master. That's what the Cranford Ultimate Frisbee League is all about.

Minutes before the match began, the players stretched, wrapped previously injured ankles and hands and practiced throwing to each other before taking the field - which was soaked due to heavy rain that swept through Cranford earlier in the day.

Almost immediately after the frisbee began to fly, members of the "Red Team" and "Blue Team" began shouting encouragement from the sidelines to the players on the field. Chants of "let's go blue" and "go red" filed the humid air. Players yelled out instructions and encouragement to other team members as well, shouting "smart throw," "hook it" and "go long." And then there was the good-natured teasing between the two teams, which kept the atmosphere light, yet competitive.

Anastasia Mark, 23, a member of the Blue Team, which is also known as "Blue Steel," said one of the things she loves most about the game is the ability of the players to resolve their own conflicts on the field, since there are no referees. She also enjoys the camaraderie among the players.

"I've never played with a group of people I didn't like," said Mark, who began playing ultimate frisbee while attending Dartmouth College.
Evan Feeney, the organizer of the Cranford Ultimate Frisbee League, explained that, like all sports, the teams have structure and positions and formulate strategies.

"This summer league has six teams with about 30 people on each team. There are three main positions: handler, cutter and defender," Feeney said.

A handler is an offensive player who is responsible for moving the disc upfield and ensuring a smooth offense. He or she is similar in nature to being a quarterback on a football team or a point guard in basketball.

"That player must know the offense perfectly and have excellent throws," Feeney said.

Cutters are "downfield receivers." Their job is to gain "chunks" of yards and continue the offensive flow, or "take off deep for a big score." Defenders must be able to play hard defense and be decent offensive players as well. Since ultimate frisbee flows much like soccer or basketball, when the defense takes possession they are then on the offensive.

Although the teams were made up of players of every shape, size, age, race and athletic ability, Feeney said the average age of the players in the Cranford league is 22 years old. Each team plays once a week over an eight-week period.

"Our games are usually played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays over at Orange Avenue School. As this is a summer league, we only play early June through early August. However, most of our players play on the local high school teams or on their College teams and some even play with elite level club teams. For people preparing for the college or club season, they train with rigorous schedules that include weight lifting, track workouts, agility-speed workouts and throwing routines," Feeney said.

Although it doesn't much much publicity, the Cranford Ultimate Frisbee League has actually been around for a few years.

"We started playing ragtag pick-up in the summer of 2005. After some of us went away to college and got exposed to organized ultimate we decided to set up an organized summer league with the idea of further developing our skills and promoting the sport locally. The league started in 2008 with no solidified structure," Feeney explained.

He said that 2009 was the league's first organized year with a player draft and about 80 players. In 2010 they grew to about 120 people and began moving toward being one of the more competitive leagues in the state. This year was the league's largest year, with more than 160 players. The league is now sanctioned by USA Ultimate, the national governing body of the sport. They don't have logos or team jerseys, but Feeney said part of the league's growth and development strategy is to keep it a free league. USA Ultimate, however, is sponsored by major brands such as Warheads and Patagonia, as well as the handful apparel companies that cater specifically to ultimate
Feeney served as the captain of the White Team this year, which was mainly a Cranford team.

"But we unfortunately lost to Red in the semi-finals," he said. "I think what makes ultimate a great sport is that it has a low initial learning curve. Anyone can begin playing and become a decent player in a relatively short time period. But what I love most about it is the flow of the game coupled with great athleticism."

In last week's final face-off, Feeney said, "the Blue Team, mostly Cranford players, took half 9-4, but Red, mostly Westfield, came roaring back with three straight goals out of halftime. Red eventually tied it at 13-13 and proceed to win the game 17-15. There was alot of athletic plays from Connor Doyle on Blue, and Ryan Belline and Jibron Mieser on Red."