Ultimate Frisbee practices one more time before tournament

by Ryan McCombs and Ian Melewski

The practice on Thursday evening had a different energy for the Ultimate Frisbee team. Their first match of the spring season was in just two days.

“We have to do our best to make sure everything is crisp before the tournament Saturday,” Doug Quinn said while he waited to be subbed in during practice on Thursday evening in the bubble.

At the start of practice, the team warmed up by running three laps around the field and stretched before a scrimmage. Before they did that, they got together to breakdown their game plan.

“It’s more serious this time. We like to have fun, but today we have to work out the kinks and take it more seriously. We want to have fun, but we want to win too,” said Gregory Perez, a sophomore who joined the team this semester. The players made this evident when they made multiple stops on defense and then huddled up to discuss what worked and didn’t work for both sides. The defense was the key in this practice, according to Quinn.

They mix it up on defense, switching between man-to-man and zone defense. One player yells “fire” to alert the rest of the defense to switch to zone defense.

“Defense wins championships,” Quinn laughed, but he was serious about it. The team has a set call during play, when things are not going well, if people are getting open too often on the opposing team, a captain will yell a call, and everyone would know to adjust. The switch from a regular zone coverage defense to man-to-man makes throws harder for the other team. The defense showed their ability to get stops throughout practice.

The players also worked on offensive formations as well. “Short passes are important. It’s less risky too. A deeper pass has a higher chance of being turned over” Quinn said. Quinn and Perez, among others, worked on this formation well, staying close to the passer making it easier to keep possession.

As practice wrapped up, everything looked crisp.