The Shenendehowa-Saratoga rivalry was taken to the ultimate level last Wednesday.
The ultimate frisbee level, that is.
The Shen and Saratoga ultimate frisbee clubs met for the first time at Clifton Common in a game that was well, days in the making.
I asked my mom about this team because she works (at Saratoga Springs High School), and she gave me the contact number, said Shen team captain Stephen Ehrlich.
`We heard that they had a team, so we kind of expected a game,` said Saratoga team captain Travis McGrath. `I was going to call anyway.`
You see, with ultimate frisbee at the high school level, there are no referees to contact, no leagues or school administrators to work with and no coaches to supervise. It’s just two teams of teenagers throwing a Frisbee around in a field. It’s a sport that does not require a lot of planning ` just a large, open space and good weather.
`Pretty much, anyone can play,` said Ehrlich. `It’s one of those sports that are effort based. Anyone can pass, and anyone can catch.`
It was hard for either team to catch the disc on this day, though. A stiff wind made it difficult to control the Frisbee’s flight, especially when a team had to throw it into the breeze. Still, the players were leaping and diving for every wayward pass.
`It’s just fun,` said Shen sophomore Albert Nieh. `We care about who wins, but we really want to have fun in this game.`
`We only take it as seriously as everyone wants it to be,` added McGrath.
Shen and Saratoga are two of the latest high schools nationwide that have established ultimate frisbee programs, though the game is not quite the same as what is played at the collegiate and adult levels. When they played last Wednesday, they ddin’t use a regulation 125-yard field that includes two 25-yard end zones. Instead, they used the Common’s soccer fields and made the goaltender boxes their end zone lines.
Still, the basic rules applied. Series started with one team throwing the disc to the other team, which was stationed at midfield. Teams advanced by completing passes to each other. Any dropped, trapped or batted-down discs resulted in a turnover. A point was scored for every touchdown, and the game was played till one team reached 15 points.
`The pace of the game is pretty fast, and you have to use some strategy,` said Saratoga player Travis Frey.
Frey played soccer at Saratoga in the fall, but he’s one of the few exceptions of high school ultimate frisbee players.
`A lot of these people have played football and basketball, but they don’t play on (school) teams,` said Nieh. `So, we can get together and play on Mondays and Fridays.`
`We have people who don’t play any other sports competitively that come to play for us,` said McGrath.
The level of competition is higher beyond high school. Bethlehem Central High School graduate Seth Reinhardt is captain of Cornell University’s nationally-ranked A team, and he said the sport is taken more seriously than back in the days when he played for Bethlehem’s club, Guild of Disc.
`It’s not happy-go-lucky. It gets pretty intense at the highest levels,` said Reinhardt. `But at the end of the day, there is that sense of friendship that brings people to the sport.`
To that end, Reinhardt and his Cornell teammates train like any other varsity sport at the Ivy League school. He said the team practices three hours a day five days a week and participates in weekend tournaments.
`There’s drills and plays, and different offensive and defensive sets,` Reinhardt said. `But the difference between a good ultimate player and a great ultimate player is mental. You know how in football a quarterback has to make good decisions for the team? In ultimate, 20 guys have to all make good decisions for the team to succeed.`
Cornell’s A team is among the top three in the Metro East region and ranked 30th out of more than 500 programs in the United States and Canada as chosen by the Ultimate Players Association (UPA), the governing body for ultimate frisbee. The UPA also sanctions national championship tournaments for college and youth levels, which are televised.
All of this has led to a more serious approach to the sport at the collegiate level to the point where some schools are now recruiting high school players.
`A lot of high school kids are using ultimate as a factor in deciding on colleges,` said Reinhardt. `There’s a small group of schools that get the best high school players.`
An ultimate frisbee player’s career doesn’t end in college, either. Many cities have ultimate frisbee clubs, including Albany Ultimate in the Capital District, and numerous tournaments take place in the summer. Albany Ultimate will be hosting its annual Ow My Knee! Tournament July 21 and 22 at Scotia’s Maalwyck Park and Glenville’s Polo Fields, which are behind the Beukendaal Fire Department.
`This is definitely something I plan on pursuing after college,` said Reinhardt. `I’m already playing on clubs in Boston this summer, and I know the rest of my teammates at Cornell are looking to keep playing after college.`
Reinhardt said the best part about club ultimate frisbee is that nearly anyone can play.
`It crosses age boundaries,` he said. `I’m playing on this one team during the summer where there’s a person who is closer to my parents’ age than mine. There’s also two people on this team ` one who is a teacher, and another who I think is one of his students, and they work together as peers.`
It’s that kind of atmosphere that draws people to ultimate frisbee and keeps them going in the sport.
`I am looking forward to playing this in college,` said McGrath. `This is a sport that can be played by anybody who’s never played before.“