Marc Zarefsky
Posted: Thursday, January 8, 2009 12:13 am

Ben Sullender, left, and Patrick Roberts, watch as Sullender’s pass goes to a teammate Wednesday during the Carleton Ultimate Team’s practice at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. The team is one of three frisbee teams at Carleton College. (Marc Zarefsky/Daily Ne

FARIBAULT — Six young hockey players at Shattuck-St. Mary’s stood in awe Wednesday night at the Dane Family Field House, almost stunned at what they were watching.

It wasn’t an elite hockey team or a highly-ranked soccer team playing in front of them. It was 17 college students playing a kids’ game.

“They’re playing frisbee,” one said in amazement.

Technically, that is correct. But the Carleton Ultimate Team, who was having their first practice of the winter season, were not just tossing a frisbee back-and-forth. They were playing a high-speed scrimmage as fast and intense as any traditional sport.

“There’s action all the time,” said junior Sam Kanner, one of two captains on the team. “It’s really fast. It’s a cool combination I think of soccer and football.”

Like football, the object of the game is to get the frisbee into the endzone, an achievement that earns one point as opposed to six. And like soccer, there are virtually no stoppages in play.

Each team has seven players, with the ultimate goal to be the first to score 15 points. Once a player has possession of the frisbee he can not run with it. Instead, he has 10 seconds to pass it to a teammate before turning it over to the other team.

Wednesday was the first indoor practice of the winter season for the team, one of three at Carleton. Ultimate has been a staple at the Northfield college for more than 20 years, and the school is regarded as one of the sport’s best in the country, winning the 2001 national championship. But since the program began, Carleton had one major disadvantage to many of the country’s other top teams.

The weather.

While schools like Stanford and the University of Florida can practice year round, it is considerably harder for a school like Carleton. That is why the team was inside the SSM dome Wednesday.

“Getting to use this is nice,” Kanner said as he looked across the dome’s field. “We’re just stuck on the track and in the weight room in the winter. We love this.”

To understand the endurance needed to excel at the sport, one needs only to look at the other sports previously or currently played by CUT’s members. There is an All-American soccer player, a defensive back from the Carleton football team, basketball players, cross country runners and tennis players. There are also plenty of former ultimate players.

Although their school is significantly smaller than most of their competition, the players from the Carleton Ultimate Team find a way to win.

“We compare ourselves to the Duke basketball (team) — a bunch of short dudes who don’t look very athletic, but somehow we compete against 6-foot-4 athletes,” senior Jerome Potter said.

The team’s season began back at the beginning of the school year with tryouts and several fall tournaments, but the regular season does not begin until the spring.

CUT will travel to Las Vegas next month to take part in a preseason tournament that will feature some of the nation’s best talent. Carleton will likely be the smallest school at the competition, but the players are not worried. They’re used to it.


“The cool thing is that at Carleton there’s a tradition there that’s not really like other schools,” Potter said. “We’re the only small, liberal arts school that competes at a high level.”



— Sports Editor Marc Zarefsky may be reached at 333-3119.