Franklin’s athletes have a new team sport to play.
For the past decade-plus, ultimate frisbee has exploded in popularity across the country, attracting players with fast-paced excitement and accessible rules/equipment. For the past several months, a new local club has been gathering steam.
“I want to say it was around September or October when we started it, and it’s been growing steadily ever since,” said organizer Grace Wright of the Appalachian Ultimate Frisbee Club. “Me and my husband actually started in high school when we were dating. There was like a local pickup group back then, and it was only a few friends that got together – it was nothing official. … My husband and I went to college at Western Carolina University, and they had an ultimate frisbee competition team there that we joined, and we kind of toured around for a while and went to competitions in Charlotte. And then once we graduated, we were like, ‘Man, we don’t want to stop doing what we love.’”
Since graduating from WCU, Grace and her husband, Dominic, have revitalized the sport in Franklin, attracting players to Parker Meadows every Sunday. Loosely modeled after football but without the physical contact, ultimate is the perfect game for new players to hit the ground running.
“In ultimate, there’s obviously two teams. It’s similar to football where there’s two end zones, and the goal is to get the frisbee in the opposite end zone of your opponent,” said Wright. “And so the team that’s on defense is defending and trying to stop the disc from being thrown into [their own] goal, and the way to score is having somebody catch the frisbee inside of the end zone. And then when you’re guarding a person to try and defend for your team you do stalls, so you count to 10 and the offensive team has 10 seconds to throw the disc. If they don’t throw the disc in 10 seconds, it turns over and it becomes the other team’s disc.”
Able to be played by nearly any athlete, the sport has attracted a wide range of athletes to the club’s gatherings. With players of all ages and sexes, the club takes pains to keep the game on a level playing field.
“It’s pretty evenly-mixed with both men and women, and we have a very wide range of ages as well – I think our youngest player is in middle school, and our oldest player is probably in his 70s,” said Wright. “Usually, my husband kind of divides everybody into two teams, just trying to give everybody an even chance. … Of course, there’s more rules if you play competitively.”
She said competitive play is a little different than what they are doing. “We just kind of play with the most basic rules just to make everybody comfortable.”
While the club’s attendance varies by the week, Wright says they’ve had as many as 18 to 20 players, including a dedicated core of roughly 10 regulars and counting. The club’s membership has even grown fast enough that they’re considering meeting twice per week. While their current sessions involve casual pickup games, Wright says they might consider playing competitively in the future.
“I know there’s a few clubs in Asheville … but as far as I know, I think the only ultimate frisbee club close to here is the competitive one at WCU, which, we’re thinking in the fall of doing maybe a hat tournament with them,” she said. “Every year WCU has like an open tournament where they just invite all the clubs in the area – whoever wants to commute and go to WCU to play. We’re thinking about seeing which of our members would like to go and just do like a more relaxed tournament at WCU and see how everybody likes that. … It’s just kind of a free sign-up where any clubs in the area can just come, no matter if they’re sanctioned or if they’re official.”
The Appalachian Ultimate Frisbee Club meets at Parker Meadows every Sunday at 2 p.m., behind the pickleball courts near the river access area. To join, search “Franklin Appalachian Ultimate Frisbee Group” on Facebook or call Grace Wright at 828-347-0515.