Courtesy of WUWUA small group of guys and girls casually tossing a Frisbee on the Swamp is the experience that most students have with the game of Ultimate Frisbee. They play every once in a while with friends for some fun and a little bit of exercise. But for the Washington University Women’s Ultimate team (WUWU), playing Ultimate Frisbee is so much more.
Besides having one of the coolest acronyms, WUWU is also one of the hardest-working teams in all of WU sports. Although the team is technically a club sport, it practices three times a week and spends as much time working on its craft as many varsity sports. The type of Ultimate that WUWU plays should not be mistaken for the casual weekend game that many enjoy.
“Competitive Ultimate is very different,” said senior co-captain Suzanne Wikle. “It’s more organized. With all the strategy, and different offenses and defenses such as person-to-person and zone, it’s much more complicated.”
Some other features of competitive Ultimate include specific field dimensions and seven players per team in the game at one time. Unlike most sports, however, there are no referees. Players do everything possible to avoid contact and intentional fouls against the other team. Amazingly, this wrinkle does not detract from the intensity of the game at all, and it allows the game to be truly about the players involved and their abilities, including those dozens of diving catches and leaping blocks.
The competitive element of WUWU is evident in the team’s practices, which begin with light jogging to warm up. The practice intensity quickly escalates, as the team will usually work hard on its throwing skills and then proceed to hone some other segment of its game that needs improvement. WUWU even has a coach, further proving that this is no ordinary club team. Kamile Yu, a medical student who played Ultimate at Stanford, comes to most of the team’s practices to help out. Another source of leadership is Wikle and her co-captain, fellow senior Cat Cheng. “It’s hard to put her contribution into words,” said Wikle. “Cat is just so uplifting and encouraging.”
The team’s strong work ethic starts at the top, and it serves WUWU well when it heads off to a tournament. “We travel quite a lot, usually three weekends per semester,” said Wikle. “Fortunately we don’t miss any class, but it takes up a whole weekend.”
Normally WUWU brings about 12 people along to tournaments, but around 17 are expected to trek to Arkansas for this weekend’s tournament, which will be the largest team the club has ever taken on the road. Its first tournament this year took place in Madison, Wisconsin in early October. The team spends most of its time on the road together, including the customary parties on Saturday nights.
Regardless of skill, all members of WUWU share one common trait: a love for Ultimate. “Most people don’t realize that everyone who joins the team is clueless at first,” Wikle said. “Even though we’re competitive, we’re still a club sport. We spend a lot of time teaching and recruiting members. Everyone is welcome to join, especially if you love to play.”