Whether people realize it or not, UNC Wilmington has an ultimate club team that represents the schools in tournaments played around the country. For about 30 years, UNCW has had the program that even won back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993. But, most students are unaware.

“I don’t think ultimate is recognized as a sport as it should be,” member Gabe Fuller said. “People know we exist, but they don’t know that we have an ultimate club team. Most people think that we’re just a bunch of guys that play ultimate.

“The reason why ultimate is not known as a real sport is because there are not a lot of professional leagues out there. You don’t see televised ultimate games and people publicizing ultimate like they do with other sports such as football or basketball. You can’t even hear about it on the radio.”

A common misconception calls the game “Ultimate Frisbee” and not the correct “ultimate” term. “There’s a company called Wham-O that creates Frisbees that are bad quality and they trademarked the name Frisbee, so our sport should be called Ultimate Frisbee, but since it’s trademarked and there are legal issues involved, we are just called ultimate,” Fuller explained. “Quite frankly, just the name ultimate sounds better, in my opinion.”

Practices for the club team are held three times a week: Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. At the beginning of practice, the team practices throwing the disc for 30 minutes. Then, they either jog around the field once or twice, which is equivalent to about one-half mile.

Afterward, the team usually does sprints or run drills. Some of the drills consist of practicing throwing and catching the disc or learning how to evaluate a team’s defense. They end practices with a scrimmage game.

However, for the first time in school history, the ultimate club team has been split into an A team and a B team to accommodate for growing membership. Last year, the team only had about 30 members. This year, they have somewhere between 40-50 players.

“Having a B team really helps in the maturing process for our younger players so by the time the people on the A team graduate, we’ll be ready for next year,” said Fuller.

The club team is financed by former alumni, university itself, and also through fundraisers that the Ultimate club team members hold, according to Fuller. They use this money to travel to play tournaments held by other schools. Last January 28th and 29th, the UNCW club team went to Clemson for a tournament appearance, and finished fifth of 15 schools.

“Usually how tournaments work, you play against four or five teams in a group stage, and then you play a crossover match with the winning team of another group stage,” said Fuller. “Those determine what seed you get in the actual tournament the next day, and then you just keep playing until first place.”

The club team has also been to NC State and played in Raleigh during the fall semester. They have also played North Carolina, Penn State and Ohio State. The next tournament being held at UNCW will be February 18-19 at the intramural fields.