By Rachel Levy

Shenandoah University freshman Joey Lisko made an impact in his first year at SU by starting an Ultimate Frisbee team. This spring, Lisko got the team up to ten by talking to more people and having a table in the student center to help spread the word.  Although he “didn’t know what to expect” when starting the team, he now has a full team and they have started competing across the east coast.

This semester, the team went to four different tournaments and won three games, including against big name teams like Towson and Averett University. They most recently went down to The University of Virginia to play six games and finished in sixth out of seventh place, but that is not so bad for a first year team playing against bigger schools at sectionals.

The team is not a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team and is instead registered with a third party called USA Ultimate. Since SU’s team is a new, developmental program, they play other young teams and they also play the “B” teams of big schools.

The downside to being outside the NCAA is that there is no budget provided for the team. The Office of Student Engagement, however, does have a policy helping fund first year clubs at the school. OSE is able to pay tournament fees for the players, but everything else the club does is funded by the players including uniforms, housing, and transportation.

The team only had a few wins this season but they are still growing and learning.  Sophomore Matt Poell talked about how they are a family and said “we play together, we fight together, we do everything together. Take random people on a campus that want to play frisbee and they become a family.”

Having such a strong bond will help the team push forward and become better in seasons to come. The dynamic of a team has a huge impact on the outcome of playing and this team is definitely headed in the right direction.

Feature photo courtesy of Matt Poell