Most athletes and coaches will tell you that a team is a family. The Keene State College Ultimate Frisbee team is no different. During spring break, our family of 22 frisbee players drove down to Brunswick, Georgia, for seven days of team bonding, throwing the disk and learning about each other.
Some students use spring break mainly for relaxation purposes— they go on a cruise and get tan or crash on their couch and get stiff— and forget about any school-related beef getting to their nerves. On the other hand, athletic teams use spring break to get ready for their upcoming season.
The ultimate frisbee team at KSC took a 20-hour journey down to Georgia to play at High Tide, the largest college spring break ultimate tournament. This tournament attracts over 300 college ultimate teams, according to High Tide’s website.
The timing of High Tide could not be more ideal for KSC’s ultimate frisbee team. We had the chance to get a week of excitement and bonding under the sun; competing against colleges from all over the country and enjoying the spirit of the game before the competitive season begins.
Prior to High Tide, the KSC Ultimate Frisbee team put in a lot of effort this spring semester with the goal of attending regionals. Practices and conditioning five days a week benefitted the team while in Georgia as we competed in at least three games a day from Monday through Thursday.
For the tournament, the players split up in two teams, open (with just boys) and mixed gender. The team brought 17 boys and five girls down to Georgia. Both teams started playing around 9 a.m. Every day we were up a lot earlier than we would have wanted to be, considering the recreational connotation that surrounds every spring break activity.
Bright and early we were on the field, cleats on, warming up, cheering each other on, ready to go hard. Even when results did not look positive for our teams, there were always people to remind us that the spirit of the game is what matters the most. “We are a team that has fun, always remember that is the most important thing,” Dan Aune, one of the seniors on the team, said before almost every game we played. KSC competed against familiar teams such as the University of Massachusetts Lowell and unfamiliar teams from states as far as Kentucky.
Karina Barriga Albring / Senior Reporter: Dan Aune makes a catch during the High Tide tournament in Brunswick, Georgia.
Even though spring break in High Tide is meant to be fun, it was also a great opportunity for the team to challenge themselves against highly-skilled colleges, practice team dynamics and build stronger relationships between teammates that heighten the true meaning of teamwork.
Moreover, the days we spent at High Tide meant much more than just playing frisbee and testing our skills against different teams. For a week, we cooked our meals together, rotated beds and air mattresses and shared chores like doing laundry and the dishes. It was not always easy to combine playing time, beach chilling and house responsibilities. However, we learned about each other and had to apply social skills like patience and team work. For a week, we were a team and family that looked after each other throughout the good and the bad times.
On our last day in Georgia, we spent some hours at Driftwood Beach, a hidden spot of Jekyll Island that is considered one of the most romantic beaches in the word. There, we ran into frisbee players from Adelphi University in New York. An afternoon of throwing disk, playing spike ball and running around was followed by a multi-team photo session in the stunning tree trunks of Driftwood. After befriending each other on Facebook and exchanging pictures, we headed back home to get ready for another 20-hour drive back to New England.
However, the trip was not yet coming to an end, and Keene was not our next destination. Dedication and love for the game was clearly visible for KSC’s ultimate frisbee team when they played in a tournament at the University of Rhode Island directly after High Tide. When we say directly, we mean literally right after High Tide. The team travelled more than 18 hours with just a few stops to get food and gas, and arrived at Rhode Island at 8 a.m. The boys played the first game at 9 a.m. They played five games that day, and then three more games on Sunday. Some victories achieved at URI brought a special feeling. After driving 1,030 miles with barely a few hours of sleep, the boys team came back from being down 2-5 and defeated their opponents. Coming back to Keene after a week away gave us mixed feelings. Most of us were incredibly tired, but incredibly happy. We brought back great memories, sore muscles, big smiles and the certainty that during this season hard work and fun will be the key notes of our strategy.
Now that spring break is over, the season for the ultimate frisbee team is in full swing. On the weekend of March 29, 15 players drove four-and-a-half hours down to New Jersey to play in the Garden State tournament. The team is working to play as many games as possible to qualify for sectionals and secure a spot in the regional tournament.
Annelise Kloster and Karina Barriga Albring play for the KSC Ultimate Frisbee team.
Karina Barriga Albring can be contacted at kalbring@keene-equinox.com
Annelise Kloster can be contacted at akloster@keene-equinox.com