OU’s Ultimate Club began its fall league with a total of 90 people signed up to play the unique sport. Ultimate Frisbee has drawn in a new group of students, accentuating the growth of the club in the past few years. The group of 90 Ultimate players is the largest the OU Apes of Wrath have seen.

“My freshman year, it was real big. There were a lot of old guys who were around for a while, and it was super competitive,” said Rice, environmental engineering graduate student. “Once they all graduated, we had a down year and not a whole lot of people were coming out.”

After that year, the team started to recruit students to give Ultimate a try, Rice said. That season, current conditioning captain and industrial engineering junior Nolan Randolph joined as a freshman.

“My freshman year was a rebuilding year with almost entirely freshmen and sophomores,” Randolph said.

Now, the Apes of Wrath are able to field an A and B team, and have strong leadership from veteran players such as Rice and himself, Randolph said.

Faculty adviser and coach Danny Haynor also provides experience to the team.

Haynor attended the University of Georgia for his undergraduate degree, and said he played there for three years.

“I came here for graduate school and already knew about the sport, so I joined and played two years,” Haynor said.

Many of the players were drawn to Ultimate for its uniqueness as a sport, Haynor said.

“A lot of the sports that people traditionally play in high school, I wasn’t really good enough, but [Ultimate is] something that I excelled at so I was drawn toward it,” Haynor said.

The sport is self-officiated, causing players to appreciate the integrity and spirit of the game, Haynor said.

“You call your own fouls, and you try and be as fair as possible,” Haynor said. “It’s something I really like about it, and it draws me to it.”

This aspect creates a community between teams and players unique to Ultimate in which on-field rivalries don’t translate into off-field hatreds, University College freshman Nick Crossley said.

“It has so much more of a community feel to it as opposed to other sports,” Crossley said. “In football you never see two rival teams play each other and then go out to Buffalo Wild Wings and share a rack.”

The OU Ultimate fall league is a testament to student interest in Ultimate, fielding five teams of 15 to 20 players. Although the club has seen some of its highest interest in years, students are still welcome to come and play in the fall league this semester, said Rice.

“We always start out at the beginning of the semester with a lot of people, but it kind of dwindles. So I think this is a good recruitment tool with a lot of guys being able to come out,” Haynor said.

Still, the Apes of Wrath know it is not good enough to have a team now; they also must build for the future, said Rice.

“I’m one of the few old guys right now and one of my goals is to make sure that the team is on sound footing and has a foundation for the future to be a lot better once I’m gone,” Rice said.

Those who come out to play for the Apes of Wrath may be part of something even bigger as the sport of Ultimate grows throughout the country, Randolph said.

“People playing Ultimate now are building a sport and making it a legitimate national game,” he said.

2010 Fall League

The Ultimate team plays:
» 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays
» 2 p.m. Sundays

South end of Intramural Fields

Links:
• OU Apes of Wrath official website
• Official rules of Ultimate