SPORTS
Page 15 Friday, June 13, 1986 The Michigan Daily
Nothing is quite like Ultimate Frisbee
By EMILY BRIDGHAM players for substitutes, we all played
It's simply "Ultimate" for the hard for six games and then too many
frisbee players that play the game, players were injured to compete in
and they have discovered the title the finals - a first in the history of
defines the experience as well. Ultimate."
"People just get hooked," explained The men's team missed qualifying
Michigan Ultimate Fisbee Club member for the quarterfinals in the more com-
Anne Fitzpatrick. "There is really no petitive pool, which included some of
other sport like it. Ultimate attracts the top teams from the East.
a lot of athletes from different Since its initiation around 1978, the
sports who are looking for something Michigan teams have fluctuated a
fast, exciting, and competitive, and great deal depending on the general
Ultimate provides it all. attitude on the teams.
"Ultimate changes so much," said
"WHEN YOU'RE in the endzone Fitzpatrick, who has been with the
and they bomb it to you and you lay team four years. "Sometimes we just
out and grab it, there is no way to ex- practice and have fun, but around
plain it. It's just great." tournaments it get more regimented.
The game is a combination of foot- But the support and enthusiasm are
ball, soccer, and basketball but mixed t, always there."
with an element of "free style." "''Fitzpartrick emphasized the balan-
The seven players' object is to move ce of sport and fun in the game, which
the disc down the football-sized field, Daily Photo by CHRIS TWIGs .without question is what attracts the
passing and cutting until a goal is Utmt rse lbmme n ilg ecigassatRc ae ae wide variety of players. From
acored when the disc is caught in the Ultimate Frisbee Club member and Biology teaching assistant Rick Zabel takes a dive during practice Wed- professors to tennis players to geology
endzone. Turnovers only occur when a nesday majors, the team hosts a virtual meca
pass is intercepted or dropped, and all of diverse athletic talent.
the officiating is done by the players down the field, things begin to hap- road-trip to several tournaments in ago, the women's team took second, "And they all love to dance," joked
involved. pen." both the seasons, and usually make it pulling out of the finals due to injuries. Fitzpatrick, who encouraged anyone
"THE THING to remember is that Practicing and playing from fall to to two or three big tournaments a "IN THE semi-finals, our 13-9 victory interested to join the team every
you need to be constantly moving so spring, the Michigan men's and year. over the hot NYC team was quite an Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
you don't clog the field," said Fit- women's teams have out-tossed both In the Central Ultimate Champion- upset," said Liz Joffee from the at 6:30 at Fuller Field near North
zpatrick. "When you get a flow going area and national teams. The teams ships in East Lansing just a few weeks women's team. "With no extra Campus.
pgo Michigan's women athletes
seek professional opportunities
By JULIE LANGER women on her team get in touch with abroad. sport. Both women are currently playing
Michigan has always been proud of such services but very few actually In a letter to Michigan's women's However, women's softball may be for local summer teams and have a
its male athletes, and rightly so. They make it.' basketball head coach, Bud Van an exhibition sport in the 1988 Olym- goed chance of reaching the finals.
NAb dr dy the N FLte m r "The European teams take the All- DeWege, a spokesman from the pics, and there are two Michigan sof- There. they may be picked for the
NBA, the NHL, and the mave Americans before they even think NWBA stated, "There are thousands tball players that are hoping it will be. national team, which plays in the
leagues. These talented athletes have Aout anyone else," said Norman of women athletes in our country who Alicia Seegert and Vicki Morrow will world championships.
in hands "After that, it's a free market." graduate or leave our universities beth be seniors next year, and plan on
Yet women athletes ave not been The players must send in statistics, each year and their talents are going continuing to play softball through If softball becomes an exhibition
so lucky. pictures, and recommendations. It is to waste. These talented athletes various regional teams after sport at the 1988 Olympics, it may get
WoOMEaN HAVE yet to be offered a difficult process with few positive enoughhastbtenior to spark gidterest. snra
ix-figure contracts for an athletic results,aerta a ee ao oto professional women's softball league.
of their lives. Some of these women In her junior year, Seegert was -This league, like the new basketball
career, simply because there aren't are forced to go to Europe and play on named to the first-team All-American ' bl ldn't offer
any women's leagues that generate HOWEVER, there may be hope for teams that are not their equal." squad. Seegert is the first softball fgue'
the kind of revenue needed to pay its these women after all, as a newyg sgure contracts, but at least it would
players. Professional women's women's basketball league has been player in Michigan history to be be a start.
basketball leagues have existed, but created. The National Women's FOR WOMEN basketball players, named an All-American.
due to lack of fans, they've died early Basketball Association has just been the NWBA will give some of them the
deaths. formed and will consist of eight teams chance to continue with a career in
Many women basketball players to begin play in November. Tryouts theirsport.
have responded by taking their talent will be held later this summer. Moat other sports leave female
abroad. Women's basketball in The purpose of the new league is to college athletes without the oppor- Learn about the Alternative computers
Europe draws enough of a crowd to give the young women athletes of tunity to play professionally. Even
keep the teams playing. America an opportunity to compete softball, the women's counterpartntonA TA R I1 4 0 S T
Finding a sport on a European baseball, remains purely an amateur
team, though, is not easy.dFormer Commodore AMIGA
Michigan star Wendy Bradetich, a
1988 graduate, is currently searching
for sucha spot. rH Commodore 64 & 128
"First you have to find an agent, PASSPO T*PH*T8
then they just decide who they want," at
Bradetich said. "There are no FOR $4.99
tryouts. If they hear that you are CHELSEA COM PUTER
good, they will be interested. HT
WORLDWIDE Sports, an agency_334 State St. Ann Arbor
working out of Lawrence, Kansas,
helps graduating female athletes find Michigan Union 994-0433 (above Bivouac)
a place on a European team. s t -
Michigan assistant women's basket- .
ball coach Debbie Norman helps the