There are plenty of reasons that scholarships are awarded to UNC Wilmington students. Many different scholarships, both need-based and merit-based, provide great opportunities each year. However, a new opportunity will start next semester—a scholarship for ultimate Frisbee.

The UNCW men’s ultimate team, the Seamen, is proud to announce that a student from the Durham area will receive a scholarship next year. The scholarship will be a big step forward for the program, as it will only increase their recruiting potential. UNC Chapel Hill’s team, which has enjoyed plenty of success recently, is one of the schools that already have a scholarship program in place. Having a scholarship on hand will allow the Seamen to stay competitive in the future.

“I think it’s great,” team president Ross Anthony said. “Ultimate’s getting to the point where really good teams are reaching out to high school teams, just like in baseball and basketball.”

Anthony, who graduates in May, is the product of recruiting himself. Having never played organized ultimate before, he was simply tossing the Frisbee on campus his freshman year when two teammates came up to talk with him.

Recruiting in club sports is more common than one might think. Though they do not always offer the traditional glamour of a varsity sport, they also don’t come with the hassle. Unlike in varsity sports, club sports have little scholarship restrictions. According to Vice Chancellor of University Advancement Eddie Stuart, the criteria are up to the donor.

 “I think that’s one of the great things about a privately funded scholarship—the donor has the opportunity to set up a scholarship exactly the way they want it,” Stuart said.

Though this is the first scholarship the ultimate team has given out, head coach Greg Vassar has reached out to students in the past about coming to UNCW with the club as the selling point. It may seem unorthodox—coming to school to play a club sport—but Vassar has done a good job of pitching it.

Parents are supportive, too. When Anthony told his parents he was attending graduate school at UNCW to play ultimate, they were happy for him. Next fall, he will begin to pursue a master’s degree in computer science and information systems and play his fifth and final year of ultimate. In his words, it’s a “win-win.”

“My parents have missed three tournaments in my four years here; they come to everything. They’re fully okay with me coming back to play another year,” said Anthony.

When talking with a potential recruit, Vassar has an arsenal of reasons why the student should play for the Seamen. He does his best to assure them that UNC-Wilmington is a great place to play ultimate as well as get an education. “I graduated here, and so did my other coach…we’re gainfully employed. We talk about some of the benefits to play here—obviously, we have nice weather. We have great fields to play on. We have a history of success, as well as a very strong team currently.”

Zach Gilbert, who serves as Associate Director of Competitive Sports, is part of the team that helps to allocate funds to each program. After each club sport submits a budget to Campus Recreation, they come back with a number for the upcoming year.

“We tell the clubs: tell us, in a perfect world, what you would like to have,” said Gilbert. “But they understand that they are not fully-funded entities of the university.”

Because club sports are registered student organizations, their allocations are determined by the Student Government Association. Unfortunately for the Seamen, the allocations aren’t always enough.

That’s part of the reason Vassar started Wilmington Ultimate—an organization applying for non-profit status that seeks to support ultimate in the Wilmington area. Currently, most donations made to the club team are not tax-deductible. However, if Wilmington Ultimate does become non-profit, all donations will become tax exempt. Ideally, this will only increase the support the donors and alumni have given in the past.

Because of the potential issues with funding, after next year the team will evaluate how the funds were distributed. Vassar says that there is a possibility of multiple scholarships in the future, though nothing is concrete yet. With or without scholarships, the Seamen will have look for ways to stay competitive at a time where they are becoming more and more common.

But as important as recruiting is, it’s only half the battle. Once the players sign, keeping them happy is just as vital. If Ross Anthony is any indication, the team looks to be doing just that. Anthony says he never seriously considered going to graduate school somewhere other than UNCW.  “Once you play for this team,” he said, “It’d be really hard to play for anyone else.”