Battling the weather seemed to be the biggest of the Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team’s worries when it traveled down to Charlotte, N.C. for the Queen City Tune-Up.
The team – also known as Magnum – dealt with low temperatures, rain and snow flurries through nine games, but came out on top, winning the tournament. This marked Magnum’s best finish in the tournament’s history.
“We had a really good weekend, our seniors really played well,” coach Ricky Eikstadt said. “The weather was really bad, and, the last time we played in bad weather, we didn’t do so well. But they just took a lot of the things we worked on in the past six weeks and applied it this past weekend and everything came together.”
The tournament, founded and run by a former Magnum player, works as a primer for the beginning of the Ultimate spring season. Teams from around the country travel to Charlotte to compete in the two-day competition. Michigan matched up against North Carolina, Delaware, North Carolina State and Tennessee, along with five other schools.
Ultimate Frisbee is the combination or “bastardization” of three different sports, according to assistant coach Jason Barnes. Taking rules from basketball, football and soccer, the sport requires seven players on the field at once. Players throw the frisbee to each other, but, when one is in control of the frisbee, he cannot move – only pivot and toss. The field setup is similar to football, and each team tries to score points by moving the frisbee down the field into its opponent’s end zone. Games typically last between an hour and half to two hours and go to either 13 or 15 points. Stamina is important, considering the excessive amount of running up and down the field that Ultimate requires.
“It is (exhausting),” Eikstadt said. “That’s one of the reasons we carry a big roster. We brought 22 (players) down to that tournament out of 27 (possible players), and it’s really good to have that kind of depth. I feel like there’s been two occasions where we went to nationals because we had a really big roster that was able to withstand a really long weekend.”
Magnum has a strong history. The team has qualified for nationals six of the past seven years – more than any other team in the nation – and has finished in the top 10 all six times. The sport has grown since the team’s birth in the late 1980s.
“Ultimate in general has really exploded in popularity, so I feel like the past 10 years has really been a golden age for Ultimate,” Eikstadt said. “It is more established, and there are more than 350 teams in the U.S. and Canada.”
The sport’s popularity has attracted more and more players. The team had more than 100 men try out in the fall – the highest turnout ever. Many of the players become hooked on the sport after playing on club or high school teams, and their love of the sport continues on into college.
“It definitely makes it a lot more fun to go out and win,” senior Armand Conti said. “But right now, we’re just trying to get better. The most important part of our season comes in April. So basically, we’re just going out there to practice and get better every week. That’s all we’re hoping for.”