The Whistler Ultimate Disc Society is looking for a few good men and women, no experience necessary, to come out and play Ultimate this summer.
There will be a free drop-in every Monday at the Myrtle Philip Community Centre lower fields from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. through the month of the May until June 13, thanks to a donation of four field nights by the municipality.
The nine-week co-ed recreational league will get underway on June 20, at a cost of just $25 per player. League nights are Monday and Wednesday, and there will be a drop-in field on Wednesday’s as well.
If you’ve never played before or it’s been a while, there will be a free beginner clinic running alongside the drop-in game. The only equipment you’ll need is a pair of field cleats, and two T-shirts, one dark and one light.
The rec league will continue through the summer with games every Monday night, wrapping up with playoffs at the end of the season.
Whistler also fields a competitive team, the Whistler Frostbite, that takes part in tournaments around the province. Frostbite and WUDS also host the Alpenglow co-ed tournament each year, inviting teams from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
If you’ve never played Ultimate, it’s fairly simple. Two co-ed teams of seven players take the field, and team members throw a special ultimate disc (Frisbee) to each other as they advance up the field. You stop running once you catch the disc, keeping one foot planted while a member of the opposite counts "stalls". If a disc is dropped, blocked, intercepted, passed out of bounds, or held onto longer than 10 stalls, the disc turns over to the other team. Points are scored when the disc is caught in the other team’s end zone, and the game is won by the first team with 17 points.
There are thriving Ultimate leagues in most urban areas across Canada, and hundreds of thousands of players from coast to coast. Internationally, Canada is one of the top Ultimate nations, winning the 2004 world championships in Turku, Finland.
For more information about WUDS contact WUDS@shaw.ca or 604-902-DISC (3472).
