Hey guys. Although it is nice now, it’s time to start being cold. We just finished our last disc tournament last weekend and today is the last practice. Yes disc (not ultimate frisbee; the world frisbee is a brand name owned by Whamo) is an actual club sport here at Alfred. We play against schools from all over the area as well as all over the United States. Last weekend’s tournament had students from Brockport, UB, Houghton, Roberts Westlyean, and other Buffalo/Rochester teams. In the spring we head down every year to Savannah Georgia for a national tornament.

Those of you who haven’t played before might be asking… what is this “disc” business he’s talking about? Well, imagine a game where you get on the field, start running/sprinting/juking/jumping/diving and don’t stop until someone scores a point. Now imagine doing that for an hour and a half. Now imagine doing that 6 times in one day. Sore is an understatement. The game is like doing chess on a treadmill. The offical rules of disc can be found at www.upa.org but to simplify: It’s played on a 70 yard by 40 yard field (15 yards extra on each side for endzones, so it’s a full football field) with two seven-player squads using a high-tech plastic disc. The object of the game is to score by catching a pass in the opponent’s end zone. A player must stop running while in possession of the disc, but may pivot and pass to any of the other receivers on the field. The job of the defenders is to hit the disc out of the air to gain possession of the disc. Anytime it hits the ground it turns over to the other team. With a team of over 20 people, 5 hours of practice per week and 2 hours of game time per week, you can tell this is more than a club. Shown here is Shane after a very nice winning point for our team. You can see the layer of ice over the turf.

This should just show how open we are to new things. Disc is still a relatively upcoming sport with only around 1,000 recognized college teams. It wasn’t all that popular until around the late 90s and has exploded in the recent years due it it’s fast pace and nonstop action. The same way that we were the first school to have men and women in the same classroom and one of the first to have people of all races studying together, Alfred is not afraid of change has has been on the cutting edge for new thought and technology.

Enough campus promotion… let’s hear from some disc players. Send a comment if you have played before or would like to play.