<m, there have been several important changes made to the structure of women’s frisbee teams at Carleton. Eclipse, traditionally a team for students learning to play frisbee, held try-outs for the first time. But Carleton’s continued overwhelming interest in the sport prompted Casey Markenson ’12 to start a new women’s Frisbee team, open to anyone who wants to play.
In the past, Eclipse practices have also been open to all players. However, the team began making “invites” to spring tournaments three years ago, when their numbers got too high to bring the entire roster. “The invites were a way to limit the number of players at the tournaments but not change the overall team,” said Eclipse captain, Libbie Weimer ’10. “In the next few years, as the team became interested in competing at a higher level, we started having closed practices for the ‘invite’ team as well.”
This year, changes in the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) regulations forced Eclipse to make real cuts. The UPA now requires every player on a team to pay a $30 fee and for the team to play in 10 official UPA games before the beginning of the spring tournament season.
“As a team, we didn’t think that it would be fair to roster members to make them pay for the UPA fees, but then not guarantee that they would play on the ‘invite’ team,” said Weimer.
Though the move to a closed team has worked well for Eclipse so far, the change has left many enthusiastic frisbee players without a team to play on. They were only able to take 8 new players, a third of the 24 rookies, at try-outs.
“The Frisbee community as a whole is exceptionally welcoming and inclusive, so I think it’s essential for Carleton to have a women’s team that is open to anyone interested in learning how to play and improving their skills,” said Markenson. To fill this need, Markenson has founded a new team, bringing the count of women’s Frisbee teams to 3.
The new team will focus on learning fundamentals, though Markenson said there is a chance they will compete in tournaments this spring.
The new team has received encouragement from both existing women’s teams. “We were very excited to hear that Casey was organizing a third women’s team because we want to encourage as many women at Carleton as possible to play Frisbee.”
Markenson has experience in starting a new sports team, as she was captain of her high school’s first women’s ultimate team. “[Already] members of both Syzygy and Eclipse have been incredibly supportive to this new addition to the Carleton Frisbee community,” said Markenson. “It’s pretty amazing that with a student body of 1900, there’s enough interest and involvement for 6 ultimate teams, not including IMs.”
Carleton students love Frisbee because it is “simply infectiously fun,” said Weimer, a sentiment seconded by Markenson. “It is such a fun sport and attracts really wonderful people,” she said.
This new team will be an opportunity for all interested students to play this wildly popular sport, regardless of previous experience or technical skill. Furthermore, in a continued effort to encourage players to try-out for the team next year, Eclipse will still hold open practices once a week.