The Ultimate Sport For Powers’ Father-Son Duo… Is Frisbee

By Andy Hutchison

Many student-athletes spend parts of their summers working out, practicing and preparing for the school sports season. This applies to players in soccer, football, field hockey ... and even Ultimate Frisbee.

Newtown’s Luke Powers, 19, junior at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., is not your everyday student-athlete. Powers plays Ultimate Frisbee on Carleton’s club team — one of the not-so-mainstream sports, but a popular one out in the Midwest. Like other teams, the school’s Ultimate Frisbee squad competes in championship tournaments. The top teams advance through sectional, regional and eventually — if they are good enough — national tourneys.

Powers, who made the team (yes, there are tryouts) as a freshman, is an international relations major.

He will study abroad in Ireland this fall, but rejoin his teammates after the first of the school’s trimesters. Each fall begins with tryouts and local tournaments. As the school year unfolds, the team travels to compete in bigger tourneys and eventually the sectional tourney. The Carleton squad practices five or six days each week, with two of those days generally spent on conditioning drills.

Frisbee may be a game most people associate with a leisurely day at the beach (or in the park with the dog) but it is very competitive among Ultimate Frisbee enthusiasts. Powers competed in tournaments and participated a local league — the Westchester Summer League — throughout the past couple of months. He played in the White Nights Tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with is father, Daniel, who got him interested in the game of Frisbee at a young age.

“We were on the same summer league team, which is really nice,” said Powers, adding that not many athletes have the opportunity to play a game with their father or son.

“My dad’s played for 25 years now,” Powers said. “He started teaching me how to throw when I was 2 years old.”

Daniel Powers, 44, competes on a New York City Masters Team, called Above & Beyond. The team, comprising players 33 and older, recently competed in the Ultimate Frisbee Nationals in Sarasota, Fla.

Luke Powers began playing competitively at the age of 12 when he went to his first tournament, in Washington, D.C., and he has been a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player since.

Each year the Carleton team goes to tourneys in Nevada, California, and Texas. The top six teams from the region (Carleton competes in the central region that includes schools from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas) advance to the Regional Tourney. In each of the last two years, Carleton lost to arch-rival Wisconsin in the regionals. Carleton is a small liberal arts school, but has tremendous success along with the bigger schools because of the fact Ultimate Frisbee has been played there for about two decades. Luke Powers says it is part of the school’s culture. In fact, during freshman orientation, all students are given a Frisbee and a ceremonial toss begins their collegiate life.

The Ultimate Players Association is the governing body for the teams, each of which has 15 to 25 participants. Opposing players cross paths at annual tourneys and get to know each other. “I think that’s one of the best parts of the sport,” the younger Powers said.

Games are played on a 40x70-yard field with 25-yard end zones and generally last approximately two hours. Substitutes are used to give the players breathers. “It’s still very taxing on the body,” Luke Powers said.

“It’s very fast-paced — a ton of running,” his father added.

The games start with what is called a “pull.” It is similar to a kickoff in football in which a player from one team throws the Frisbee down field to allow the opponent to start with possession. Each team has seven players on a side and a designated thrower (like the quarterback only he cannot run downfield). The thrower must remain stationary, but can use a pivot foot, much like in basketball, and throw to any of his six teammates. Possession changes occur when the Frisbee hits the ground, goes out of bounds, or is intercepted. Teams earn one point by getting into the end zone and games are typically played to 15 points (sometimes 11 or 13, depending on the tournament).

“It’s like a combination of football, basketball, and soccer,” Luke Powers said.

And Ultimate Frisbee gets the same sort of devotion from its athletes as you find those sports. In fact, Daniel Powers says, he used to play those sports and Ultimate Frisbee is the most demanding when it comes to physical exertion.

“The competition’s great. It keeps you in unbelievable shape,” he said.