With Lakeville South’s Ultimate Frisbee fall season coming to a close, we decided to review it and ask players what they thought about it.

The fall season is much more relaxed and less intense than the spring. The team has one day of practice during the week during the fall and games on Saturday mornings. This is much more laid back compared to the spring season, which has practice Monday through Wednesday with games on Thursdays and sometimes tournaments over the weekend. With that being said, let’s look at what one of the Ultimate captains, Yunha Hur (Grade 12), said about the team’s improvement. He said, “We’ve had strong performances in key games, and several players have stepped up, which has made a big difference in our overall results. Team morale is high, and we’re building momentum as we head deeper into the season.” Yunha Hur is a first-year captain after being elected last year. He is one of three captains along with Josh Sarych and Wyatt Coffing, who are both seniors this year. We also wondered how he has adapted to his role as a captain, and he said that “being a captain is both rewarding and challenging. It’s an honor to lead by example, whether in practice or games, but it also comes with the responsibility of keeping the team motivated and focused. Balancing my performance, along with helping others grow, has been a valuable learning experience.” Yunha, who has been with the program for four years, clearly embraces his role as captain.

We also decided to interview a first-year player, Aaron Maust, a senior at Lakeville South. We asked him how much improvement he has shown, and he said, “I have improved tremendously since the start of practice. I didn’t know any of the rules of the game, like how to throw a forehand or how to do basic cuts.” When asked about his favorite memory so far, he said it was “scoring my first assist in my first game. I slid backward to catch a pass that fell short and picked it up just before it hit the ground. I then decided that instead of passing backward, I would attempt to throw forward to Collin for the point. Even though I scored three points in the game, I think having the confidence to throw it forward and make a great throw was incredibly rewarding and is the reason why my first assist is my favorite memory so far.” Aaron also plans to stay with the team for the upcoming spring season.

We decided to ask one of our veteran players, Bode Benson (grade 12), about how the program has changed. He explained, “We originally had a coach and an assistant. Both no longer work with the program. Slowly over time, we’ve added younger coaches to help us out, starting with Yunsuh, Zac, and then Kody. I’ve had a lot of people teach me how to play their way, and it helped me create my way of playing the sport.” Lakeville South has had a coaching change in the program recently with Kody Castaungray, who graduated from Lakeville South in 2016, and he replaced Coach Ken, who was the first and one of the founders of the program but had to step away due to other commitments. If you wanted to join Ultimate but had questions about how the first year could go and how long it could take to develop skills, Bode had this to say: “The first season of Ultimate can be frustrating for freshmen. Getting open is not exactly easy, and it takes a while to learn how. So this year may not be super exciting for new people, but every year after will be more and more fun. They just need to take time and learn the sport.” Just like with everything, it takes time to learn.

We hope to see new faces this spring!- Captains Yunha, Wyatt, and Josh