As many Pepperdine Club sports begin their seasons with promise and vigor Pepperdine’s Frisbee team is prepping for a grueling “first” year.
Yes that’s a Frisbee team as in Ultimate Frisbee. Having been founded in the 2008-2009 school year the Pepperdine “Fightin’ Waves as they were formerly known, got off to a slow but steady start. After their first year on campus, many possible returning students had gone overseas on one of the International Programs.
After realizing that the team would be severely lacking in the current school year, captains Devon Walker and Morgan Poppe decided they needed to re-think the Pepperdine Ultimate team. Walker and Poppe started by renaming the team to Pepperdine Arson. Then they recruited a whole new roster of players to participate in their vision of creating a new Ultimate team.
While the captains are excited about their up-and-coming team, having so many fresh faces also means time lost in practice just going over the basics. In order to improve plays as well as basic skills on Pepperdine Arson, the current head coach, Steve McDonnell, was recruited.
McDonnell, a Pepperdine alum, has been able to bring order and purpose to the team. During their warm-ups for the recent scrimmage against Cal Tech, McDonnell led the Pepperdine Arson in a series of line drills focusing on their specific plays. McDonnell emphasized the stack” that they must be able to maintain while progressing up the field while the Cal Tech Tractors only seemed to run laps around the field while stretching.
Lucky for the Arson roster of eight players some experienced players still gave Pepperdine a slight advantage over the mass of the Cal Tech Tractors.
Pepperdine Arson competes in a number of tournaments in the academic school year. These competitions are all played at times spanning one day of games that lead to an ultimate winner. Along with these tournaments the team has invitationals that vary from year to year depending on eligibility and preference of the teams in the league.
The quality of the team can only be defined by its players and Poppe is an example of a true Frisbee player.
“I started playing the game as a warm-up for my cross-country team back in high school Poppe said. After joining the team at Pepperdine I really liked how everyone playing the game could be competitive and have fun without getting too hot-headed about the game.”
Fans may find the stereotypes of Ultimate Frisbee are cast aside as soon as the first throw is made. The intensity and energy required by each player shows nothing less than pure dedication for the sport. Many people downplay what Ultimate is really about and what it is like when played but in reality all of the same key emotions and efforts of any other sport are involved.
While the team looks promising this year it still has its challenges. Because of the freshness of the sport at Pepperdine not many students take it as seriously as other club sports such as lacrosse. Ultimate Frisbee is viewed as more of a backyard mess-around game rather than an organized disciplined collegiate sport.
The general rules of Ultimate at the club level are not much different from that of a normal pick-up game. Each team has a full roster of seven players on the field at one time with backups on the sidelines in case any substitutions need to be made. Each player must stand in place when in possession of the disc and can only pivot on one foot to throw to another player. Absolutely no contact is allowed.
The scoring system gives one point every time a player makes a successful catch in the end zone an area designated by cones.
While Ultimate Frisbee at Pepperdine busts most stereotypes it does hold one true: the idea portrayed in movies and television shows in recent years that show players being over the top with intensity. The Pepperdine Arson take the game very seriously and recognize that it is a skill that must be learned and perfected in order to play on the competitive level.
In a recent scrimmage the Cal Tech Tractors came to realize the Pepperdine Arson though small in number were not going to simply hand over the win. Though the Tractors had significantly more players than the Arson they kept switching out constantly and began to reveal itself as a tired and out of shape team. The conditioning of Pepperdine Arson was significantly better.
The scrimmage ended with the Tractors winning the two-hour game 17-10. The fast-paced nature of the game is a bit deceiving as they do not see how long it takes for each team to make a single point. The length of these matches could rival that of regular NFL games.
Pepperdine Arson has much room to grow and many goals have already been established.
“I hope that in the future we can grow in size and increase the amount of interest in the game.” Poppe said. “I also hope that a women’s team can be established in the next few years.”
Pepperdine Arson have come a long way and with a full year of tournaments and invitational events ahead of them the team expresses nothing but high hopes for the future.