The Ultimate Community

Skyd magazine had a poll a few months ago that asked what the biggest ultimate city in the US was. The options were cities like Austin, the Bay Area, Madison, and Seattle. Big cities with big name teams and often big name college teams. Ames was definitely not on there.

When I joined Woman Scorned a few years ago, I walked into a local community of ultimate that extended past the college team. I remember meeting Mikey Lun at one of my first practices, not really knowing who he was, and he was very friendly and excited about me joining the team. He wasn't coaching us, he wasn't on the men's team at the time, but he was welcome there and he contributed to our practices.

It wasn't just Mikey though, there were plenty of others. For example, Coach Derscheid would often mention a person named Tai when explaining how to play ultimate. It wasn't long until I met Tai, along with Lana and Kevin and many others who played in the area. Eventually, I began to learn what ultimate really was and I found out about a few club teams in

the area. Namely, Chad Larson Experience, but also Small Rackages, Small Packages, Van Buren Boys, Pop, and others. As I became more familiar with the sport, I began to realize the extent of what I was involved in, but also the inner circle that I had been "ultimate-raised" in.

I learned to play ultimate from world champions. These people are more than my coaches or teammates, but my friends and my family. Ultimate is a community in Ames and it extends from the high school to summer league, to college, all the way to the club teams. CLX won worlds this summer, and I (a crappy college player) was able to practice with them even in those last days before they left for Europe. There are few divisions in this community, it is based on the love of the game, and anyone who desires to learn and play is welcome.

This spring, Kevin and Lana Seiler agreed to coach Woman Scorned. While this was the first time officially coaching the team, it really only seemed like a formality to me. I have been learning from Lana since the first time I played her. She looked at me, told me she was really tired, and when I looked at the ground and replied about how I was kind of tired too, she cut deep and scored on me. I have looked up to Kevin as an ultimate player/mastermind since I heard Derscheid talk about him with CLX my rookie year. While they are now officially our coaches, it is not the first time either them have coached many of us.

At practice, it is anything but abnormal to see more experienced players attend to help out. Derscheid, Memo, Tai, Bob, Shellmen, and plenty of others come and to play ultimate and share their knowledge when they have time in their busy schedules.

This past weekend, Woman Scorned attended Centex. Like anything in ultimate, we were unsure of numbers until the day we left. Although we had about 5 roster players not able to make it, we were anything but short handed to fill the hotel spots. Along for the ride, in addition to our coaches, (only 30+ hours round trip) were Taiwo Misra (CLX, former WS coach, Small Rackages, ACS), John Misra (CLX, ACS, former Ames High coach), and Bob Liu (Polar Bears). Having this support system is absolutely amazing. Not only were they there to provide sideline support, one-on-one coaching, and extra eyes and ears, but they were there to hang out with, fill in on our dance when we had injuries, and just be part of the experience.

At Eastern's our mens team traveled with us (they had more people there than we even had playing!), cheered on our sidelines, video taped for us, and helped us with strategy. The following weekend, Scorned traveled to return the favor at Men's Centex in Austin. When we return from tournaments, I am rarely asked who we played or how we ended up because everyone already followed us online throughout the weekend. It is a community. We all have a hand in every win and every loss, no matter which team is playing.

All in all, I don't think Ames all is that unique of an ultimate community. Ultimate is a small world in of itself. With every tournament I play, I meet new, amazing people, and I realize how much I really love this sport and the people involved in it. The community runs from team to team as well. While teams in the same region tend to grow the strongest bonds, Scorned has developed relationships with teams from all over the nation. Whether it starts on the field, at a party, or from antics over the internet, each of these add to the strength of the ultimate community as a whole. If you play ultimate, I bet you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don't play, you should. It won't take long before you find that this is exactly where you belong with the people you will never want to leave.