They've been soaked in sweat from nonstop sprinting, smeared with dirt while laying out for passes and sidelined by injuries. This isn't your typical backyard Frisbee toss - MSU's Ultimate players say Ultimate Frisbee is a serious sport.
"It's a really emotional game," supply chain management junior and team member T.J. Johnson said. "You have to be really fired up and really intense because every single thing counts."
But team members have the casual atmosphere of summer league to look forward to after playing in the national tournament for the second consecutive year. They dropped all three of their tournament games on May 29, including a nail-biter to Ontario's Carleton University.
"It was just two teams going at each other," team member Tom Worsfold said of the final moments of the Carleton game. "It was a tough one."
After MSU won the next day's games to finish in a tie for ninth with University of Michigan, Worsfold, an interdisciplinary studies in social science senior, was resting last week and gearing up to participate in the 2005 East Lansing Summer League.
The league, which is in its third year and is open to anyone, begins Tuesday evening at the East Lansing Soccer and Softball Complex, 378 Abbott Road, with pickup games designed to get new players acquainted with the sport.
Johnson, who is organizing the league, said this will be the biggest year yet, with 91 people registered as of last Wednesday. He said he hopes to field at least eight full teams.
"We try to encourage people of all skill levels," Johnson said. "It's a release - you get outside, get some exercise, maybe get in shape."
For those who haven't lived on a college campus in the past few decades, Ultimate is a fast-paced game that blends rules from football and soccer into a high-endurance competition of sudden shifts and big plays.
A point is scored each time a player on one of the seven-person teams catches the disc in the opponent's end zone. Players may not run with the disc, and dropped passes and interceptions result in turnovers. Casual Ultimate games can spring up on any open grassy area, but official games are played on a 70-yard field with end zones 25 yards deep.
Officials say the sport has grown in popularity across the country in recent years. College and youth divisions are continuing to expand, said Will Deaver, championship director for the Ultimate Players Association, the official governing body of the sport.
"There's so many kids playing right now; there's going to be so many more," Deaver said. "It's just a sport that's so easy to pick up."
Johnson and Worsfold said they look at the summer league as an opportunity to introduce more people to the sport.
"We have an emphasis on teaching the skills," Johnson said. "A lot of people, as soon as they start playing Ultimate, they just get hooked."
Worsfold said he loves the challenge of competing against the best teams in the country in environments like the national tournament.
"Really, that's when Ultimate is the most fun," he said.
But he added that he enjoyed the laid-back fun of summer league, which affords experienced players the opportunity to work on individual skills, recruit and take on their teammates.
"That's the great thing about Ultimate: There's so many levels," Worsfold said. "Everybody can get what they want out of it."
