Money main concern for ultimate frisbee

By Mike Hensch

Daily Sports Writer

Ultimate Frisbee is not a normal sport. Unlike conventional sports, there are no referees rather the players are responsible for making their own calls, much like pick up basketball.

"We have a code between each other that is, "I"m not going to try to cheat you and you aren"t going to try to cheat me" because we don"t have referees," said coach Ricky Eikstadt.

Ultimate Frisbee teams are unique in that their nicknames tend not to be the mascot of their respective university. The men"s club team, known as MagnUM beat out TUMULT (The University of Michigan Ultimate Team) in 1997 in which supporters of both names played a game against each other to decide the team name.

MagnUM is unique in the world of ultimate as well. Angus "Gus" Mairs is the oldest player in college ultimate and according to the team, was discovered in an archaeological dig.

The governing body is the Ultimate Players Association, which grants five years of eligibility starting with your first UPA sanctioned event. "Gus", who is 37 years old, did not play as an undergrad and is presently in the school of education as a graduate student.

As a club sport, the team is given a mere $2,500.00 a year to cover expenses. Yet, for MagnUM to play against the best in the nation, it is drawn to the east and west coasts, where the game is more popular. With distances too far to cover by bus or van, the team is forced to fly to tournaments.

"In the Midwest, there"s not that many good teams so we have to travel a lot," co-captain Tim Murray said. "This season, we"ve traveled to Stanford, North Carolina and this weekend we went to Madison to play in a tournament."

With much of the money coming from MagnUM team member" pockets, the team attempts to save as much money on the road.

"Our shortest amount of time spent in a hotel before being kicked out was about seven minutes," team co-captain Mike Haley said. "In order to save money on hotel rooms, we got three rooms and told the front desk that eight people would be staying there, but we really had 28."

Insufficient funds also leaves MagnUM at a disadvantage when playing in tournaments.

"We don"t travel all the time with our whole team, which is obviously a hindrance when playing the best teams in the nation," Murray said.

MagnUM will travel to Madison this weekend to tune up for the regional and national tournaments where they have finished in ninth place at nationals for the last two years.

This year, nationals will be held at the end of May in Boston. Although the cost of traveling will put a dent into each player"s wallet, the shot at a national title keeps MagnUM paying to play.

Tennis club aims to have fun in the sun

By Elizabeth Edelstein

For the Daily

The theme of this year"s Tennis Club is to combine the best of competition and fun. Started by seniors Sharon Reske and Ryan Wisweeser, this is only the second year for the team. Until now, the only option had been a non-competitive club team or the varsity level.

Things have changed.

The club team now practices twice a week and competes against other schools. Their practices are held year round, Monday and Thursday from nine to 11 p.m. Players have to pay to use court-space at the Varsity Tennis Center. Practices are about five dollars a night. On top of that, home games cost from 15-20 dollars each, and away games are around 60-100 dollars each.

So far the team has played against Harvard, Michigan State, Ferris State and Miami of Ohio. One more game is scheduled for this season against Miami (Ohio), which is away on April 7.

While the team is becoming more competitive, the goal is also to have fun and accommodate academic needs.

Reske said that the team has a "social focus" and gives people the opportunity to play tennis and meet people at the same time.

"People are out there to have a good time," Reske said.

The team consists of 60 people 45 of these are active members of the team. Among the players, senior Anne Williams is the top female and the top male is sophomore Nnamudi Amobi.

If it had not been for Reskes initiative, these people never wouldn"t have had this opportunity to play tennis and make friends because the club would have never started. A lot of organization was needed to get it going, and members of the club hope to continue on and only get better as the years go on.

Jim Weber contributed to this article