By Jake Freudberg
Sports Reporter
Newton South sophomore Leoni Foster was first introduced to the game of ultimate frisbee in eighth grade, when one of her friends started Brown Middle School’s ultimate frisbee club.
After playing in the club and learning more about ultimate (the simple name many people call the sport) in middle school physical education class, Foster was hooked. When she came to South as a freshman, she was quick to join the school’s girls’ ultimate frisbee club, the Newton South Frisbeasts, along with many of her friends.
“I thought that it was a great sport,” Foster said.
Foster is one of many Newton South students that are starting to join team sports – like ultimate frisbee and rugby – that are competitive clubs, rather than the “traditional” MIAA-affiliated sports overseen by the Athletics Department.
The Sports & Fitness Industry Association reported a spike in participation in ultimate frisbee in 2013, reporting that participation was up 27 percent, to 5.1 million players.
USA Ultimate, the governing body for ultimate frisbee in the United States, reports that the number of its youth memberships – an indicator of high schooler’s interest in the sport – increased 11 percent between 2013 and 2014. USA Rugby, a similar organization to USA Ultimate, reports that participation in youth rugby, which includes high school students, has risen roughly 25 percent over the last three years.
The two sports are gaining ground with America’s youth, and Newton South is in no way an outlier. Foster’s observations, as well as those of other participants’ on South’s ultimate frisbee teams, coincide with the national-scale numbers.
Rugby has also seen growth, evident in its recent journey from non-affiliated club to school-affiliated club, and now a soon-to-be varsity sport.
“I would say that more people have joined in the past couple of years,” Foster said about the girls’ ultimate team.
Andrew D’Annolfo, a sophomore on the boys’ ultimate frisbee team, Angry Corn, has also seen participation in the team grow.
“We had a lot of freshmen join this year. I’m the only sophomore, but there are a couple seniors, a lot of juniors, and a lot of freshmen – overall, a lot bigger than last year,” he said. “Ultimate frisbee, last time I checked, [is] one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S., so [clearly] a lot of people are starting to like it more.”.
Chris Hardiman, Newton South’s Student Activity Coordinator and a Goldrick house guidance counselor, after two years overseeing all official, school-affiliated clubs, has seen a rise in popularity of sports clubs like ultimate and rugby.
“We have pretty diverse groups of active clubs. Since I’ve been coordinator – this has only been my second full year – I haven’t seen a huge increase in sports clubs, but there definitely has been an increase [in participation],” he said. “In fact, someone just got approved for flag football.”
Hardiman had a fairly simple explanation for the growth in these kinds of activities.
“My sense is that there’s more of a schoolwide effort to have students be interested in school spirit and be interesting in things besides just the official sports and newspaper and theatre program,” he said.
School spirit may not have been a factor for D’Annolfo, but he agrees that more students are looking to participate in more diverse activities, rather than the traditional ones.
“I think people are looking for something different,” D’Annolfo said. “It’s a change in scenery.”
This rationale also explains why sports like ultimate are only clubs right now, as most MIAA varsity sports – such as soccer, football, baseball, and track – are sports that have been around for decades and decades.
Foster agreed that ultimate, in her own words is “different and exciting to try out,” but also pointed towards one of Newton South’s students’ favorite topics – college – as a reason for the growth.
“Many colleges are starting to have ultimate teams, so many people may join since they want to play a sport in college instead of the traditional sports like soccer and football,” she said.
Though Foster only mentioned colleges having official teams, high schools are also starting to add official, school-sanctioned, varsity teams for rugby and ultimate Frisbee.
The MIAA recently voted to allow rugby to be an official sport, with South’s Athletics Department likely lined up to absorb it from Hardiman’s oversight.
D’Annolfo said that he, along with other ultimate Frisbee-ers, would love to see ultimate become a varsity sport, though it does not appear that it is close to happening.
“It’s definitely been interesting,” Hardiman said on the growth of club sports he has seen under his administrative role.
Foster encouraged anyone to join a club sport, even if they have no experience playing whatever sport interests them, reminding them that she at one point had no experience or skills.
“We will teach you!” she said enthusiastically.
