Editor’s note: This is part of a series in which The Athletic highlights unusual sports that you may not have known are held at the collegiate level. Follow the full series here.
PSlip on the shoes you wore in college. And think about running around campus, shuffling from building to building, going from class to class — every time the day’s trip passed an open meadow, you wouldn’t be at all stunned to see it: a flying Frisbee. You either participated or you saw others throw their wrists in the sun and sprint after the disc as it spun back down to earth.
The Frisbee has been a staple of the American college campus lifestyle since the 1970s. On a campus in particular, the ultimate sport of Frisbee has continued to reach new heights in recent years. Known for its legendary women’s soccer program, 22 national titles and the birth of Michael Jordan, the University of North Carolina is currently home to not one, but two active and healthy ultimate Frisbee dynasties.
The club sports UNC, Darkside (the men) and Pleiades (the women) have each won three consecutive national titles. And the rest of the esports collegiate universe doesn’t seem anywhere near able to close the gap anytime soon. Pleiades, for example, haven’t lost a single game in 1,227 days. The current winning streak is 112 and counting. Carleton College suffered its last defeat on February 9, 2020.
Since then, the ultimate world has been covered in Tar Heel blue.
“If I were in someone else’s position, I wouldn’t want the same team to keep winning,” said Ella Juengst, a former team captain who graduated from UNC this spring. “But we’ve just gotten used to it by now.”
The seven-a-side sport is played on a regular field that is 70 yards long and 40 yards wide with end zones 20 yards deep. As in football, the offense scores a goal every time they catch a pass in the defense’s end zone. However, the Frisbee may only be advanced in any direction after the completion of a pass. You can’t run with a frisbee.
If a pass attempt is aborted, blocked, or intercepted, the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes an offense.
Ultimate Frisbee is one of 50 non-NCAA affiliated club sports of the UNC. To keep the dynasties going, students have to pay for flights, jerseys and food out of their own pockets, but the school’s club sports organization covers the cost of hotels and car rentals. There are no scholarships, although in recent years one of Darkside’s founders has created an Accessibility Scholarship to help athletes who need assistance with travel and participation.
However, the combined rise of both programs has been fueled by a strong ultimate scene in the research triangle that includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. There are middle school and high school leagues that have become feeder programs.
“We keep winning without having to go through such recruiting efforts,” said Andrew Li, a team captain who will be in his sixth and final year as a graduate student next season. “At lower levels of college, a player can just win a game on their own. It can happen. Our program receives an embarrassment full of riches every year. We’re privileged not to have to think about not having enough talent, because we just do.”
Josh Singleton, a returnee sophomore, grew up in Chapel Hill and closely observed Darkside, which has won five national titles in the past nine years. He attended youth camps hosted by Darkside players. As he researched various schools he might want to attend, it all came down to how well their Ultimate Frisbee Club teams performed.
“I really wanted to go to a good school, but I’ve specifically approached schools where there’s an established ultimate scene,” he said. “Darkside is sort of the golden egg, but that was a differentiator from the sea of colleges.”
(Courtesy of Brian Whittier)
Jüngst’s older brother also played in Darkside. Just before she began applying to colleges as a middle school student, she attended the national college championship tournament with her parents. They positioned themselves in the stands behind this year’s Pleiades players cheering on Darkside. All these years later, Jüngst is leaving school as a cog in the ongoing winning streak, the hat-trick, and with the conviction that without the collegial interaction between both clubs, neither of them can celebrate their third consecutive national title spring.
In autumn, winter and spring, the clubs regularly organize joint training sessions. On free evenings they will find opportunities to play small three-on-three mixed matches together. As Pleiades prepares to take on the country’s best club sides ahead of the national teams, Darkside studies films about the opponents set to compete as a pseudo-scout team.
“I don’t think either program would be where it is today if it weren’t for that level of mutual respect and commitment to one another’s betterment that comes from nothing but the love of friends,” said Alli Reilly, Junior -Captain of the Pleiades. who only came to Chapel Hill a few years ago as a former high school basketball player and had never thrown a competitive Frisbee before.
“It’s very symbiotic,” Singleton said. “The biggest thing is how much we believe in each other’s goals. They are obviously different. You need to. But we help each other get there.”
The clubs also take on their role as villains. Sure, they’re heroes at Chapel Hill, but when they travel to big tournaments, players feel like everyone else is cheering for the teams playing UNC because the field is shrinking.
For Pleiades, Jüngst said, “We’re a very disciplined team with a disciplined approach, and our system isn’t just about giving viewers as many jump-ball scenarios as possible. We are, so to speak, a well-oiled machine. People aren’t always particularly excited when they see that.”
For Darkside, Singleton said, “I choose to take it as respect. In my sports fan base, the teams I hated the most are the ones I respect the most. The reason we hate Duke is because they’re really good.”
(Top photo courtesy of Brian Whittier)
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