President's Day Weekend marked a challenging yet promising opening of the season for both the men's and women's ultimate teams. While both teams faced adversity, the success found in the face of defeat during this first tournament is a sign that both Whitman Sweets teams are on the right track.
Don't get me wrong; I love Frisbee. I think it is a great game and one that should be enjoyed by the masses. The commercialization of the game and attempts to make the sport marketable through Major League Ultimate (MLU), for example, has pushed Ultimate toward something it is not: a big-market sport.
Whitman’s women’s ultimate frisbee team made a statement in Wisconsin the week after many of their seniors walked across stage wearing caps and gowns. By finishing 13th at the Division I national tournament, the team asserted themselves as a team worthy of greater recognition on a national scale, as well as on their own campus, where they have long been overshadowed by the men's team's success.
Last week, a team of world-renowned scholars met up to put an end to an ongoing linguistic debate. After days of discussion, they determined that adding adjectives to hobbies does not, in fact, make them sports. While the decision created uproar in the Ultimate Frisbee community, the Happy Quilting community has been incredibly welcoming to all 42 members.
Autumn is in the air, and the Sweets, Whitman's Ultimate Frisbee team, are off and running--a fact known by almost anyone who crosses Ankeny Field these days.
