It’s the first day of class in a new semester at Elon University. The professor has every student go around and say his or her name, hometown and one interesting fact.
Junior Helen Peplowski says she’s on Elon’s Ultimate Frisbee team, and a series of “oohs” and “ahhs” comes from the rest of the class.
“Everyone’s usually pretty interested when you tell them,” Peplowski said. “They’re like, ‘Oh man, that’s really cool.’”
Peplowski is one of three captains on the Elon women’s club Ultimate Frisbee team. For the third consecutive year, the team has earned a bid at the national tournament, to be played May 17-18 in Westerville, Ohio.
“It’s cool seeing how far our team has come since [the first year],” said Maureen Dougherty, a senior and captain. “Making it last year was a surreal experience. Making it again this year was icing on the cake.”
Elon’s team is composed of 25 players, the largest in program history. They compete at tournaments around North Carolina and nearby states during the fall and spring, playing against rivals such as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Appalachian State University, Davidson College and Wake Forest University.
Seven players per team are on the field at any given time during Ultimate Frisbee: three handlers and four cutters. Handlers do much of the passing, while cutters move down the field and try to score. Games are either played to a certain point cap — typically 13, but sometimes 15 — or to a one hour and 30 minute time limit.
Tournaments are divided into two days. The first day is pool play, where everyone is matched up against three or four other teams. Pending the results on the first day, the teams are reseeded and put into brackets for the second day, when they play for the championship.
Most of the girls on the team played one sport or another at the high school level and wanted to try something new in college. Elon’s annual Organization Fair is where most people find out about the team.
“It’s very rare to have an experience of learning a new sport when you’re 18 and, eight months later, be able to compete at a national level — at the highest level you can,” Dougherty said. “We’re a club sport at Elon, but to us, it’s so much more than that.”
Senior captain Hannah Matthews, who played soccer in high school, acknowledged how some people pick up the sport quicker than others, but girls from athletic backgrounds typically excel.
“Once you get the basics down of throwing and catching, and you have at least a little bit of athleticism and run well, you’re going to be able to learn the skills that make you a great player,” Matthews said.
The team is coached by Brian Dobyns, who has been instrumental over the last year and a half in helping Elon succeed. They practice four days a week for two hours a day, doing conditioning, throwing drills and scrimmaging.
But the team has its fair share of fun, too. Elon has an annual returners vs. rookies scrimmage where the returners dress in all black and the first-year players wear ridiculous costumes.
In addition to that, the team has a most valuable player award it gives out after each tournament to the player who did especially well in her role that weekend. The prize is “Oliver,” a hobby horse that the MVP takes home — and adds a new piece of flair.
“He has a gold mustache, a bowtie,” Matthews said. “He’s very flamboyant.”
The sport of Ultimate is very cultured, according to the captains, and requires a high level of mutual respect between teams. At nationals, each team ranks the others in terms of spirit, and one team earns the spirit award, a highly coveted prize.
“Ultimate has a very high level of sportsmanship,” Dougherty said. “After games, we have a booklet of songs we’ve written where we rewrite the words of normal songs to be about ultimate and sing to the other team.”
That doesn’t mean Elon can’t have some fun and get pumped up, though. The team has a red boom box at each game and has been known to blast Beyonce and songs from the movie “Frozen” to get excited.
Off the field, the team has its own “Frisbee Formal,” akin to a traditional sorority formal, where the team dresses up and eats at one player’s residence before going to a party at someone else’s.
The men’s team has been very successful, as well, and will be making its first trip to nationals this year with the women’s team.
“They’re the people we hang out with the most,” Matthews said. “We’re so close with them, so it’s exciting to have this come to fruition for them. It’s nice to have their support and show them ours.”
When the teams head to Ohio next weekend, they’ll be playing for more than just a championship. They want the Elon community to realize the long hours of work that have gone into becoming high-caliber teams.
“They know of frisbee parties,” Dougherty said. “They don’t know the level of success we’ve had.”
That success has gone beyond a table at the Org Fair or an interesting fact in class. Sure, Ultimate Frisbee is not a varsity sport, but it has been one of the most successful teams at Elon.