Science teacher Clarissa Buchholz has been teaching science for six years, and this is her fourth year teaching at Centennial High School. Similarly to many other teachers, Buchholz has many hobbies and interests that she takes part in outside of school. In particular, ultimate frisbee has become a sport that she has enjoyed and grown to have much respect for.

For those who don’t know, ultimate frisbee is a typically, mixed-gender team sport where you’re attempting to get the frisbee disc from one end of the field to an end zone on the other side (without dropping it on the ground or the other team getting a hold of the disc). Running with the disc is not allowed, so it needs to be progressively moved down the field from player-to-player. There are also a total of 14 people on the field at once (7 per team), and there isn’t really a timed element to the game, but there is usually when a team reaches a certain score, that’s why the game would typically end. Games also last about an hour and a half. Buchholz also said that there are two main positions throughout the game.

“It’s usually the Handler… and they’re the person that’s usually throwing and so they stay back on the field and they are people who can usually throw really far out in the field. The people who are out downfield are called Cutters because they’re cutting in and out to get open for the Disc,” said Buchholz

Buchholz has been playing ultimate frisbee for about 11 to 12 years now and she has really enjoyed the environment surrounding the sport.

“I thought it was really fun to play with a big group [of people] and then [it] was just an alternative sport that they didn’t have at my high school,” said Buchholz. “….It felt like a sport that I could try out even though I hadn’t really had a lot of experience [with it] because usually I feel [that] with sports, if you hadn’t played it for a long time, there’s not like an entry point.”

One of the main reasons why Buchholz has found great appreciation for the sport of ultimate frisbee is because of the spirit and community of people within the sport itself. She said that there are a lot of ultimate frisbee community-based traditions that they have during games. They take things like tournaments as an opportunity to dress up in fun costumes, come up with chants, and assign fun team names as well.

“A big part of the sport is called Spirit of the Game, I think I mentioned before, it’s really spirited and [there’s] this concept in ultimate [frisbee] that’s to make sure everybody is having a good time and so it discourages people from being bad sports.” said Buchholz.

Another aspect that drew Buchholz to participate in ultimate frisbee was how non-serious it was compared to other competitive sports. “It’s not as serious as other sports where it’s just kind of like we’re gonna win and that’s the goal, we’re just gonna have fun,” said Buchholz.

In addition to playing recreationally, Buchholz has also played with a number of teams in the Portland area. “I’m actually on a team right now, that’s a new team in Portland… It’s called Night Cap. I actually am injured this year, I just tore my ACL, so I won’t be playing with them this year,” said Buchholz. “But I’m going to help them develop… systems and just be a part of the cheering squad.”

Because ultimate frisbee is a less known sport, Buchholz said that one of the things she would change about the sport is the perception of it. Though the sport typically doesn’t get taken as seriously, ultimate frisbee tends to become a very intense and competitive sport, just as much as other sports.

For those who have thought about playing ultimate frisbee, Buchholz said that she has found it to be a very welcoming sport when receiving new players.

“I think getting into anything new can be really intimidating, so with ultimate [frisbee] because it’s so unique and interesting, the people who are running it and playing it are usually really excited to have new people come in and play,” said Buchholz. “Especially at the younger age level, [it’s] not as much established [that] we’re the people who play the sport and so it’s a lot easier to get in and try something new because that’s how most people get into…. You don’t have to start playing when you’re 6 years old.”

For those interested, Buchholz mentioned that, if she were to have enough student support, she hopes to one day create an ultimate frisbee team at CHS.