Frisbee Sectional Tournament at OU

by Lisa Laufik
For The Post

The family that plays together, stays together - or so the saying goes. But at Ohio University, the team that plays together also lives together, works together and hopes to win together.

"I have never lived with anyone who wasn't on the team," said Jonathan Cathers, OU junior and men's team president.

Cathers lives in a house on First Street with two members of the Frisbee team. Across the street, three teammates live together, and behind them lives a group of four Frisbee players.

"The girls' and guys' teams go to the same tournaments, and we go to parties together," Cathers said.

The men's and women's team captains also are dating each other.

This weekend, OU's Ultimate Frisbee team is preparing for its sectional tournament, and they're doing it together.

OU senior and Frisbee player Sutee Nitakorn described the club sport as a "mixture of basketball, football and soccer."

Each team has seven members on a football field. The Frisbee is passed from one player to another until it is received in the end zone to score a point. The game ends when a team has 15 points and a two-point lead.

"It's a pretty big sport," Nitakorn said. "Almost every college has a team. The biggest teams are on the East and West coasts, but OU is recognized as a decent school."

The men's team officially was started in the late 1970s. The women's team is about six or seven years old.

"It originally started with just a few girls playing on the men's team, but now there are consistently 10 to 12 girls playing," said Juliann Seward, OU senior and women's captain.

Many players on both the men's and women's teams participated in varsity sports in high school, mainly soccer and cross-country, she said.

"It's not a bunch of hippies or dogs throwing Frisbees around," Seward said. "I was looking for something to keep me active. When you play, it is a great workout."

Both teams will get a good workout this weekend when OU hosts the Ultimate Frisbee sectional tournament.

Sixteen men's teams and five women's teams will participate, including Miami University, Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, Kent State University, Oberlin College and the University of Dayton.

To prepare for the tournament, OU's teams have been practicing since Feb. 15, said Tim Mahoney, the men's head coach.

Mahoney has a long history with the team. Before graduating from OU in 1993, he played on the team for three years and was captain when he was a senior. He has helped coach the team for the past three years, but this is his first season as head coach.

"The team has started to get better in the past five years," Mahoney said. "This is the best team on the field now since 1993. There is great leadership."

Mahoney said he thinks the men's team has a great chance at winning sectionals. Last year, the men's team lost to sectional champions OSU by two points. The top team moves on to regionals, which are being held at OSU later this year.

This weekend's tournament is the first qualifier for the national championship, and at the end of two days of playing hard, OU players hope to go home together, one step closer to achieving that goal.