College Ultimate Frisbee tournament this weekend at Munson Park

Emma Scznsny played varsity soccer and basketball at Monroe High School.

She wanted to continue her athletic career at the University of Michigan, and she found Ultimate Frisbee.

“I’ve played some intramural soccer and sand volleyball, but it’s mostly just Ultimate,” Scznsny said.

This Saturday and Sunday, Scznsny's college team and other male and female Ultimate Frisbee teams are competing in the Eastern Great Lakes sectional tournament at Monroe’s Munson Park.

Scznsny, a 2021 graduate of MHS, is a sophomore at U-M and the daughter of Mike and Terri Scznsny of Monroe. She plays on U-M’s Flywheel team.

“Flywheel, along with the other three Michigan Ultimate teams, will be playing at the Division 1 Eastern Great Lakes Conferences in Monroe,” Scznsny said. “The schedule is not set yet, but tournaments typically run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Flywheel will be playing about four games each day, and they go back-to-back throughout the whole day. I am excited for the team to be playing in Monroe, so we can show everyone I know what we do and how much fun I've been having.”

The public is welcome to attend the games.

“It will be pretty interesting to watch,” Amy Mason, recreation programmer for the city of Monroe’s Parks and Recreation department, said.

The tournament, which has games in several states, is the first step in the college series.

“It is similar to playoffs or the postseason in other sports. After our fall regular season, there is the college series. It goes conferences (which is the tournament being held in Monroe), then regionals (which will be in Holland, Michigan), then nationals (which is in Cincinnati, Ohio, this year),” Scznsny said. “Every team that is registered within USAU goes to conferences. Flywheel's conference consists of six teams: Michigan (this is us), Purdue, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Kentucky and Indiana. The top teams qualify for regionals, and the winner of regionals goes on to play at the national tournament.”

Scznsny didn’t play Ultimate Frisbee until she got to U-M.

“I became interested in Ultimate Frisbee at the beginning of freshman year last year. I was looking to continue my sports career in college, and the Ultimate Frisbee team was the perfect balance of intense competition and a great community of supportive and fun people that I was looking for in my college sports experience,” Scznsny said. “It was my first time ever playing Ultimate Frisbee. Lots of people do not play Ultimate until college, though, so the program is set up to accommodate this.”

For the first few weeks last fall, Scznsny and the others learned the sport during open practice.

“They teach you how to play and throw,” Scznsny said.

Tryouts were a month later.

“Even though I had never played before, I made Flywheel, the A team. Michigan has four Ultimate Frisbee teams: Women's A and B teams and men's A and B teams,” Scznsny said.

This year, 23 women are on the Flywheel team. No one else is from Monroe County.

“There are only five people on the team from Michigan,” Scznsny said. “We have two coaches who are both from Michigan. Our coach, T-Lo, was a former Flywheel player on the most nationally competitive iteration of the team. She is a current professional Ultimate player, playing for Indy Red in the Premier Ultimate League."

The Flywheels have two players who are professionals in the PUL, Scznsny said, and one player, Kat McGuire, who is on the U.S. national team and will be playing in the world tournament this summer in London.

Scznsny says Flywheel and Ultimate Frisbee have made her college experience great.

“Flywheel is a great community of like-minded people. Everyone is very supportive, smart, kind, fun and competitive. This creates a great team environment," she said. "I am happy to spend so much time playing, practicing and improving with and for everyone."

For a schedule of this weekend’s tournament games, visit usaultimate.org/college/schedule/.

To learn more about the Flywheel team, visit www.flywheelultimate.com, @flywheelultimate on Instagram and @UMichFlywheel on Twitter.