Ultimate frisbee is a sport on the rise among SEMO students, combining soccer with throwing a frisbee and a little bit of football. While playing the game, a team of seven people tries to catch the frisbee in their opponent’s end-zone for a point. The Ultimate Frisbee Club at Southeast meets at the Intramural Turf Fields every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. and Thursday at 6:20 p.m. Any SEMO student is eligible to join the club by signing up on SE Link. The club gives members an opportunity to be physically active without a lot of physical demand.

The Ultimate Frisbee Club had been inactive for a year before Club President Zachary Locke restarted it this past fall. Locke posted on the Facebook page Living at Southeast to find potential new members. A common reason for joining the club is that ultimate frisbee is a great form of exercise, and it gets members outside. Although the club just began last fall, it is already seeing growth.

“It’s a new community of people who share a common interest in ultimate frisbee that you can reach out to, so I think that’s the biggest part,” Locke said.

The team atmosphere is also a big reason people have joined the Ultimate Frisbee Club.

“I’ve always enjoyed team sports because it gives me a chance to be there for the team, as well as them being there to help me, to work off of each other and to perform better,” Club member Lance Bohnert said.

Just like with other club sports during 2021, masks and social distancing are required. Normally, the team travels to different colleges and universities to compete in the sport, but competition has been at a standstill since the pandemic began. In compliance with pandemic-related restrictions, USAUltimate canceled all competition for the fall semester, keeping the club from traveling.

“We didn’t compete outside of SEMO which was definitely a big hit to us, because we want to compete,” Locke said.

The USAU has canceled all competition for the spring semester, as well, so the club is confined to Southeast again. Despite USAU cancellations, Locke and other club presidents from other universities have discussed competing against each other.

“Myself and club presidents from other schools have been in talks about potentially setting up a COVID-compliant non-USAU event,” Locke said.

For more information on the Ultimate Frisbee Club, visit their page on SE Link or contact Locke directly at zllocke@semo.edu.