VERO BEACH — Ultimate Frisbee, commonly referred to simply as, “Ultimate,” is not a leisurely game for the faint of heart. Rather, it takes extreme athleticism, endurance, precision, strategy, and all-around grit to really excel at the sport.
Ryan Hiser, a recent graduate of Vero Beach High School, has been playing Ultimate since middle school, but this July, he will showcase his skills on an international level.
Hiser will travel with Team USA to Lecco, Italy, for the World Junior Ultimate Championships and compete in the tournament with 40 other teams and 1,000 athletes. If Hiser and his teammates are successful, they will bring home the seventh straight gold medal for the US in this event.
“Ultimate is a mix of football, soccer, and lacrosse,” Hiser said.
Set up similarly to a football game, one team “kicks off” the disc with a long throw to the other team to begin game play. The receiving team then tries to relay the disc down the field for a player to catch in their own end zone. The opposite team plays defense in hopes that they can cause the offensive team to force a turnover.
When a disc drops, the defense switches to offense and play continues without skipping a beat.
“What’s great about Ultimate is, you never give up on the frisbee. It’s never an incomplete pass until it touches the ground. It can be an inch from the ground and someone can dive for it,” Hiser said.
The chance to lay-out for a frisbee and make really athletic moves is part of why Hiser says he loves the game. But the sport’s commitment to fair-play makes Ultimate stand out above all other sports, Hiser said.
“There are no referees in Ultimate,” Hiser said. “It’s called ‘spirit of the game.’”
Instead of officials, Ultimate players call their own fouls. Hiser said that players can and sometimes do challenge calls, but the players have to come to an agreement of some sort in order for play to resume.
“It makes it a really unique sport in that everyone is competitive with each other, but at the same time, there is a sense of camaraderie between the players,” Hiser said.
Hiser added that, unlike other popular sports like football and basketball where opponents frequently get in one another’s face or pick fights, Ultimate is the opposite.
Practicing good sportsmanship, Hiser said, is “one of the founding principals of the game,” and has so far stayed in tact all the way up to the highest levels of competition in college and professional Ultimate.
During the most competitive tournaments, neutral people called “observers” or “lookers” are selected to carefully watch game play. If the players have a dispute, they can agree to ask the observer for an official ruling. But the players always have the chance to make the first call.
Hiser was introduced to the game in middle school and began playing pick-up games in Vero Beach by the time he was in ninth grade. By the end of his sophomore year, he and his friends created a team and began playing competitively.
Though Ultimate had become his favorite sport, he never considered the opportunity to play internationally until a friend notified him of the application for the national team.
He filled it out along with hundreds of other applicants and was one of 100 who were invited to a tryout.
After nearly six months of intense physical training, the 24 teammates will make their way to New York for five days of practice together. From there, the team will head off to Italy for the chance to become world champs.
“I never dreamed I would be able to represent our country in any sport,” Hiser said. “I’m looking forward to the experience and the new friendships I’ll make. These players, they are just normal kids like me.”
Hiser is in the process of raising the $3,500 he will need to make the trip. Email Hiser at rhiser.7@aol.com or search his name on www.fundly.com for more information on his specific fundraisers.