TCU Club Ultimate Frisbee off to a hot start

The TCU Men’s Club Ultimate Frisbee team participated in their first tournament since COVID-19 hit over the weekend, leaving with an undefeated record.

The club Ultimate Frisbee team, also known as High Noon, hit the road early to LeTourneau University where they would compete in the Halloween themed “Scoober Screamfest” tournament.

Why “High Noon” you ask? Well, no one really knows, but that’s half the fun.

Continuing with the Halloween theme, I wouldn’t be surprised if High Noon gave their opponents some nightmares after a dominant outing. The final scores read as follows:

• TCU vs DBU 8-5 W
• TCU vs LeTourneau B-team 11-2 W
• Chili Poppers 8-5 W
• The Disciples 11-8 W
• LeTourneau A-team 7-5 W

That’s a lot of W’s.

For those who may not be familiar with Ultimate Frisbee compared to regular ol’ backyard frisbee, it’s a rather simple game. Each team has 7 players on the field at a time, when the disc is in your hand you can’t move, only pivot, and players without the disc make strategic runs/cuts in an attempt to catch the disc and move it up the field. Endzones and out of bounds work similar to football, and players are only substituted between every point scored. Typically at the college level, games are played until one team reaches 15 points (halftime at 7) or they reach a time cap of an hour and a half.

“If you are into athletics and into social activities, Ultimate Frisbee is a great community,” said tournament MVP Reagan McMann. “Everyone out there is competing but at the end of the day everyone is friends.”

High Noon’s captains, JT Riley and Trey Hudson, showed praise to the team’s veterans for really stepping up to the plate in the team’s first official outing of the year.

“A lot of our returning players have improved a bunch since last season, and that raises the ceiling a whole lot as to how good the team can be going forward,” said High Noon co-captain Trey Hudson.

Not only we’re the veteran players performing at a high level, the younger players had some heavy contributions to the team’s success as well.

In fact, High Noon’s top five scorers from the tournament are all players that are returning next year — two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior.

Sophomores John Brannon and Daniel Walker lead the team in goals scored. Brannon had 9 goals on 23 catches with a 92% catch rate while Walker had 7 goals on 37 catches with a 90% catch rate. These two accounted for roughly one-third of High Noon’s goals over the weekend, not too shabby.

On defense, High Noon was led by senior co-captain JT Riley, Michael Hellmer, and Trey Hudson. Riley led the team with 8 defensive break ups followed by Hellmer and Hudson each with 6.

Riley also led the team in assists with 15 on an impressive 87 completed throws.

Starting the year undefeated is always a positive, but heading into the weekend the team’s goal was simply to get everyone as much in-game experience as possible while also figuring out what needs to be polished in practice.

“The mindset heading into the tournament was that we were excited to be playing against teams other than ourselves and to see how much we have improved over the year,” said Hudson.

Even though this was High Noon’s first time competing this semester, the team has been practicing twice a week as per usual to prepare for any opportunities that come along — like Scoober Screamfest.

Going 5-0 was a big boost to the team’s morale going forward. The rookies got in-game experience, the veterans got a first real look at this years team, and the coaches we’re able to figure out where the team can improve; a weekend full of wins for everyone.

Things were going smooth for High Noon until their last game of the day against LeTourneau University’s A-team. The Frogs went down 1-4 early, but after some strategic line adjustments from coaches Cam Albin and Willy Goal, the team was able to rally for a 7-5 victory to top off the day.

After a solid day of frisbee, the captains and coaches decided upon Reagan McMann as High Noon’s tournament MVP. McMann managed to throw an assist on nearly ¼ of the points he played, and maintained a 100% catch rate on 42 touches. Probably the most impressive aspect of Mcmann’s performance is the fact that all five of his assists were thrown to unique cutters.

As of now, no one is sure as to when we will see High Noon in action next. Until then the team will continue their regular practice routine patiently waiting for the next opportunity to come along.