A large crowd was on hand to cheer on the home teamSome estimates as high as 1.000
The fast paced and lively sport of Ultimate Frisbee came to Lane Tech on Thursday evening. Ultimate Frisbee combines elements of soccer, basketball, and football into an exciting up and down game. It was first created in the 1970′s and according to officials it now boasts more than ten thousand players nationwide and enjoys ten percent growth yearly. The game is played with seven players on each side. Each team attempts to move the frisbee up the field to the other team’s goal. If the frisbee is dropped, hits the ground, or is intercepted, the other team takes over. Every time a player catches the frisbee, they must establish position and then can only pivot, a la a basketball player. There is no contact allowed, and one nuance of Ultimate Frisbee is the lack of referees. Much like golf, players are expected to make calls themselves.
Lane Tech hosted a robust crowd of more than one thousand people on Thursday. The top men’s team in Chicago, the Chicago Machine, hosted a group of College all stars knows as Next Generation (Nex Gen). The collegiates have joined from colleges all over the country including Georgia Tech, Colorado, and Harvard. The event included sponsorship from two of the biggest suppliers of Ultimate Frisbee equipment: Panagratia and VC Ultimate.
The game began with a sputter as each offense made miscues and there was no score after each side had several attempts. Finally, the Machine started the scoring. Their best player on this evening, Rory Gallagher #2, was in the middle of it. He caught a long pass down the field, a la Randy Moss. Then, he found Kevin Cho for a score. The Machine scored again minutes later and it appeared the rout was on. In fact, there was a rout but counter to the play in the opening minutes. Nex Gen ran off the next five goals to make it 5-2 before Gallagher made another nice play to stop the bleeding and make it Nex Gen 5 Machine 3. Gallagher was all over the field all day and had three goals. It wasn’t enough. Nex Gen never trailed again. They took an 8-6 lead at half time. Half time occurs when one of the teams gets just over half the goals necessary to win.
The two teams traded goals capped off by a nice catch in the goal area by Taylor Kramer #29 for the Machine. That made the score 12-8. The Machine never got any closer. Ollie Gordon, #14, scored a goal to make it 13-8. Meanwhile, Nex Gen’s best player was Dylan Freechild, #5, from the University of Colorado, as he accounted for three goals.
The game ended mercifully at 15-9. Nex Gen continues on a whirlwind multi city tour. Meanwhile, fans in Chicago got a glimpse of an up and coming sport.
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