PRIYA COOPER / SPORTS EDITOR

USD club frisbee took to the field this past weekend on Sunday, Dec. 7 at Manchester Field and competed against local collegiate teams. The participating teams were USD, UCSD, UCI, Point Loma and California Polytech State University – Pomona. 

USD senior Nick Crozat makes an impressive catch. Photo courtesy of @jenniwebberphotography/Instagram

   The  frisbee team, who officially go by The Flat Tax Ballers,  played four games total. The team placed fourth overall and scored 28 points across all the games.

   Frisbee, technically known as ultimate frisbee, is a non-contact team sport where players score points by passing the disc  from athlete to athlete to the  opposite  end zone. Athletes cannot move while holding the frisbee and must maneuver to get open and play defense. Games are won by being the first team to thirteen points or the team with the most points when the time runs out. One point is  scored each time a team makes it into the other end zone. 

   Frisbee is unique from other sports in  a  few  ways.  Nicknames are a large part of ultimate frisbee culture. They are funny and tend to stick harder than a player’s real name at times. 

  USD sophomore Gabriel Ambrose, his nickname Blade, explained the significance of the nicknames and how you get one part of the team. 

   “When you come on to this field, there is a kind of unified ideology that this is a space for everyone to be included,” Ambrose said. “We are a team of boys and girls, a mixed gender team playing together, and that’s very rare. So being able to have our unique traditions, like naming, is something special to the Flat Tax Ballers. Every player is given a name about a story that another player, an older player, has of them. And then after that, we have, like a naming party to kind of decide who gets what name, and then it gets  revealed at their first game.”

 Ambrose explained how the names create instant camaraderie and are special because a player does not discover the meaning behind their name till their final year.

   “It’s chosen for you by the frisbee gods,”Ambrose said. “And then, you don’t get to find out why that’s your name, until four years later, when you graduate, you’re just kind of always wondering why. And you come to practice every day to partially figure out your own identity. It’s actually really cool.”

 USD sophomore Liam Edwards, who  goes by Camo on the turf, also commented on what he thought sets the frisbee team apart from other club teams at USD. 

    “I  think  what sets frisbee apart is the welcoming culture that has been built and regardless of previous experience or background in any sport you will feel welcomed and like you belong,” Edwards said. “It creates a community of people that otherwise wouldn’t find themselves interacting with each other but since we share this team and sport we can build friendships on that one shared interest.”

  USD  senior Nick Crozat, whose frisbee name is  Chef, shared similar thoughts to Edwards on the frisbee team culture and what is embodied for the Flat Tax Ballers. 

  “I think that frisbee team culture  is  like, it’s still athletic, but it’s kind of like a different take on athletics, because we try to make it a lot more casual,” Crozat said. “We try to make it a lot more inclusive for anybody, all skill levels. So I think that it’s unique  from other sports on campus. We like to prioritize what’s called the spirit of the game. So, like, we like to play kind of like this idea that the other team are friends and not like our enemies, basically. So we play a lot of cool teams.”

 USD sophomore Rebecca Demonteverde, who goes by Rain, is  also the assistant general manager for the team. She explained some of the goals for  the  team in their tournament.

 “For this Sunday, I really just want to play well,” DeMonteverde exclaimed. “For us, it’s less about winning in total. As long as we make some good plays then we’re pretty happy at the end of the day, and I’d consider that a win for us.” 

 Demonteverde’s mindset reflects how the team measures progress, but players also recognize how far they’ve come. Crozat noted that early in the season the focus was simply getting comfortable together on the field.

  “We spent a lot of the season kind  of  getting into a place where everybody feels comfortable in the field, because we have a lot of new people,” Crozat explained. “I think now we can focus a little more on winning since we’re, like, capable  of winning games now. It would definitely be super  cool  to start to win against some of these teams that we’ve played so well again. So we just need to tighten up some screws and I think we will do great.”

USD first-year Parker Brown slides for a catch. Photo courtesy of @jenniwebberphotography/Instagram

  Although the team finished fourth  out  of  the  five  competing teams in the tournament they had a lot of success as a team playing their final games on their home turf.  Despite being a lesser-known sport to many students, the team has steadily grown in numbers and competitiveness, bringing a fast-paced and inclusive energy to campus athletics.

USD sophomore Rebecca Demonteverde jumps up to catch the frisbee. Photo courtesy of @jenniwebberphotography/Instagram