By Emily Bahena ’17, Michelle Perez ’17, and Gabriela Salas ’17
The Alumni Ultimate Frisbee team won their game on Nov. 29, 2014 against the current students on the Pritzker Ultimate Frisbee team.
The Alumni Ultimate Frisbee game has been a tradition for the past three years. Games are always held in Humboldt Park. This year, eight alumni came and played against the current Pritzker students.
According to sophomore Ricardo Angel, “It was a very intense game. The alumni did the impossible to stop us from making a point. It was good to see how good the alums are at this game. The game went for a while because the alums were unstoppable.” The final score was 11-2, with the Alumni team winning.
The alumni were home for Thanksgiving from their colleges such as Luther College, Dayton College, and the University of Illinois.
Alum Joshua Sanera shared his reasons for being on the Alumni team for the past three years: “I’ve been on the team because of brotherhood, and I learned a lot about the alumni night.”
Jacqueline Luna, another alum, said, “I wanted to be fit and keep my body in shape.” For the Ultimate Frisbee team, their true win is team spirit.
Ultimate Frisbee was started at Pritzker in 2011 by Alumni Coordinator Matthew McCabe. He first began playing Ultimate in college, and he wanted to share his love for the sport with the 12 Pritzker students who started off the team.
McCabe said, “We went to our first tournament, and we got spanked, crushed. Everybody beat us really bad.” That is how the team began.
The current Ultimate team does not consist of many players. According to Angel, “Only about 20 people could be on the team. Only seven players [per team] get to be on the field” at a time.
McCabe explained how Ultimate Frisbee is played. “It’s a team sport played seven-on-seven […] a mix of a lot of sports. It’s like football, you have to score in the other end zone. Just like basketball, you can’t move when you’re holding the frisbee.” The winner is the first team who gets 15 points.
McCabe gave out interesting facts about Ultimate Frisbee: There are professional leagues, Ultimate is “very gender progressive” and co-ed. The team had once gone to a tournament where they played teams from other countries.
The Pritzker Ultimate Frisbee team has won second place in the state championship, and they are hoping to go back again this year.
