Ultimate Buzz

            It’s a gray, muggy day for the Ultimate Buzz’s annual Red Versus White Game, held on Davis fields, where the Buzz split themselves up and play against each other.  The game is set for 3:30 in the afternoon but as 3:30 passes, the Buzz players are still spread across the field tossing around frisbees.  “We’re starting late in regular Buzz fashion,” states Sam Brennan, a Senior Captain of the Buzz.  About ten minutes later, the Buzz finally assembles into their red or white packs and the first frisbee of the game is thrown from one end of the field all the way down to the other.

            The Red Team quickly starts to dominate the field and tensions run high as the White Team tries to make up points.  Ultimate Frisbee is a unique sport in terms of rules.  Players call their own fouls, there are no referees, it is a self regulated sport.  It makes players more honest, more straightforward.  “When you’re working with the person you fouled, or who fouled you, you need to have some sort of understanding between you or a compromise.  That helps people come together more and have to be more easy going than say another sports team where you hate the other team, and you blame it on the ref,” Junior Ian Powell, one of next year’s captains, explains, “it takes that blame game away from [Ultimate Frisbee].”  In high stakes games, a referee-like role is present but they are called Observers.  While they are present on the field, they do not make active calls.  If there is a disagreement between players, Observers will come in to help make a call if the players can’t work it out.  No Observers are present at the Red Versus White Game, it is simply the players’ calls.

            The concept of players making their own calls generates a certain “spirit of the game,” as Powell puts it.  It’s about being a good sportsman and playing very hard.  Players aren’t as nasty on the field, they aren’t trying to hide fouls from refs.  In this game, each player has a say. “It forces you to work together with the opposite team and there’s more freedom in thinking about your opponent,” says Powell.  Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any explosions on the field.  As Adam Smith, player for The White Team, gets a good position on the frisbee coming into the end zone to score, Red Team player Trey Baughman jumps up to defend and in doing so fouls Smith.  Smith immediately erupts into an argument with Baughman about how Baughman had knocked Smith’s arm down resulting in Smith unable to make a catch.  The rest of the team observes and most agree with Smith, no matter what color their jerseys are.  Baughman quickly lets it go, agrees with Smith, and they are back to playing.

            The Buzz attracts a certain kind of athlete: former high school athletes who don’t want to play a varsity sport or maybe they didn’t make the cut for a Kalamazoo College varsity sport.  A lot of these players are competitive and need some kind of outlet.  While the Buzz definitely has a competitive edge, Senior Captain Ben Ayres believes that they also have a “well earned reputation of being a fun group of people.”  The Buzz knows when to turn their competitiveness on and off.  Powell believes they “work hard, play hard.”  For him, his experience on the field “leaks over into what we do personally,” especially in terms of terminology.  He believes the language used on the field sounds like a different language and that this language binds them together.  “Chilly” is a term used when a player gets the disc to remind them to chill and not make a hasty decision of who to throw to next.  Powell finds this word especially weaving into his everyday life, even when there isn’t anyone around that’s on the team.  “The Buzz in terms of non-playing Frisbee, is a group of guys coming together doing something that is kind of alternative,” he states.

            During the Red Versus White Game, Ayres recalls that “it was really intense, people were getting angry, but at the same time, as soon we finished that game, we’re all still friends, we’re all still just helping each other get better, just trying to press each other.”  On the sidelines, there is trash talk all over the place but there is also a mutual respect for one another.  Players make jokes with each other, often teasing each other for not making a catch or making a bad read on the disc.  Compliments can also be heard on the sidelines and they don’t limit themselves from complimenting players who are on the opposing team for the day.  Towards the end of the game, as White still struggles to get points against Red, Senior Ben Dilley on the Red Team stops cheering for Red and simply cheers “Go Buzz!”  He mentions how they should all be cheering for each other because after all they’re all each other’s teammates.

Intended Publication: The Index