Stacked Cats, OU’s women’s ultimate frisbee team, and TROUT, the men’s ultimate frisbee team, are made up of about sixteen players each and play with a “profound love to work hard and compete at every tournament,” according to the Stacked Cats website.
The ongoing fall season is considered the preseason, while the official season begins in the spring semester. The official season starts with sectionals and regionals. Jennie Koomar, a junior studying hearing, speech and language science, is the vice president of Stacked Cats and hopes the ultimate frisbee team reaches nationals eventually.
“I think we're just gonna get better and better, we have really good players,” Koomar said. "People get really passionate about it. Hopefully we go to nationals and that's a trend that continues. We keep beating OSU.”
Three years ago, Stacked Cats went to nationals. TROUT, the men’s team, hasn’t been to nationals for over ten years. Peter Haverland, a second-year master’s student studying English, is the president of TROUT. He said the only difficulty of learning ultimate frisbee is that •the skill ceiling can be “really high,” as new recruits try to become more well-versed in all types of frisbee throws.
“It's probably learning the rules and the nuances of a brand new sport and sort of an unconventional sport because it's not something that is really taught competitively in American elementary schools, middle school to high school,” Haverland said.
Haverland says there are interesting concepts of the game that often take new players time to understand. Koomar agreed, as she went into the game her freshman year “totally blind.”
“I had never heard of the sport,” Koomar said. “I thought it was frisbee golf. Actually, it's very different.”
But it didn’t deter her with how new she was to the game. Party at Ping and the Involvement Fair are ways that both teams drive up their recruitment for the year, along with active posts on the Instagram accounts ou_stackedcats and trout.ultimate.
Koomar recalled first meeting the ultimate frisbee team her freshman year.
“They just had a really good energy at the Involvement Fair,” Koomar said. “I actually had no intention at all and I didn't know what it was. They seemed really welcoming, they seemed really excited. So I was like, all right, this seems like my size. I went to the first practice. I just dragged my roommate with me, and it worked out.”
One of Haverland’s reasons for joining ultimate frisbee was the idea of being active with a group of people.
“I ended up going to the practices because I also wanted to keep my fitness up, I wanted to be active,” Haverland said. “I like being active, so ultimately, it seemed like a good place to be physical or just be in an active lifestyle.”
Another reason Koomar and Haverland listed is the element of becoming a part of the group and gaining friends. A potential player, Koomar promised, is guaranteed to make “great friends.”
Nick Kaiser, a senior studying graphic design and one of TROUT’s captains, has been playing for the team for three years and believes TROUT facilitates an “incredible environment.”
“The community is incredible,” Kaiser said. “As a team, we hang out all the time. It’s a great environment at practices and outside of practices.”
For Kaiser, Haverland and Koomar, this love of the sport eventually led them to take on executive positions for their respective teams.
“I can be a positive influence on the team, especially younger players who are just getting to the sport, and I enjoy some degree of responsibility,” Haverland said. “I wanted to be involved in that sense, and sort of give back to the club that has given me so many friends, so many good memories and an amazing community.”
Koomar enjoys having a say in practices and tournaments, while also running things such as paperwork behind the scenes. Kaiser was originally a captain for his youth team in school and feels like his experience can help to “grow the team” and answer questions.
The playing of the game, while new to many, is like a mix of “soccer and basketball,” according to Kaiser, but also has an extra element that is different from many other sports. This element could be considered to help aid in the creation of friends and a close-knit group, Haverland said.
“Ultimate (frisbee) has this sportsmanship concept that's built into the game, it's called ‘spirit of the game,’ and basically it just prioritizes and emphasizes integrity and respect as a part of the game itself,” Haverland said.
Haverland references the self-accountability of the sport.
“All of ultimate (frisbee) is self-officiated … there are no refs, it's on you,“ he said. "There's just a lot of good spirit and good attitudes, I think, for people who play because of that aspect.”
Between tournaments, practices, hanging out and experiencing the “spirit of the game,” at the end of the day, Koomar said the teams are incredibly strong.
“We’re Bobcats that are stacked,” Koomar said. “Like a stacked team. We’re really good.”
