“‘Fight, fight, inner light, kill, Quakers, kill!’ If you hear this chant echo around campus on a brisk Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you know we are kicking butt and taking names,” said sophomore Solomon Weiner of the ultimate frisbee team.

The team, which calls itself “Biohazard,” consists of about 20 players. They practice three times a week and enjoy competing in tournaments in North Carolina and many other states along the East Coast.

Weiner, who played a little in high school, got serious about ultimate frisbee once he came to Guilford. He enjoys the sport’s unique mix of competition and friendliness.

“Coming from playing organized sports my whole life, it’s great to be in an atmosphere that promotes self-regulation—players make calls on themselves and each other rather than a referee—and friendly competition, rather than hyper-competitiveness and crazy overzealous parents in the stands trying to relive their own glory days through their children,” Weiener said.

Senior Sarah Stangl, who played soccer in high school and her first year at Guilford, also appreciates aspects of ultimate frisbee that organized sports lacked.

“I really like the horizontal decision-making structure (to ultimate frisbee),” Strangl said. “With soccer, I didn’t like the pettiness of the hierarchy and the cattiness of people being really competitive between each other on the team. So what attracted me to frisbee was the opportunity to play a sport where everyone was working to not only improve their own game, but to also make sure their teammates were improving and learning as well.”

Unlike most sports, the ultimate frisbee team does not have a coach and players depend on the honor system during matches since there are no referees.

“Our captains design practices for us, but it’s not authoritative,” Stangl said. “There’s this whole mindset in frisbee of, ‘We’re all here because we want to be playing together and we’re all going to be honest and do our best to have a good time.'”

While last year’s team consisted of a tight-knit group of upperclassmen, this year’s team is mostly underclassmen, which proves to be both a challenging and positive part of the team.

“We have a pretty young team this year and we have people coming in from all different sorts of backgrounds athletically,” said senior captain Benjamin Ardel. “We have a lot of players who have played other sports before and some who have never played a sport at all. Fall is about getting everyone on the same page and up to speed.” 

Stangl hopes that the team will continue to grow and thrive together. 

“I really hope that this season will get the younger people hooked so that they feel like they’re really a part of the team and dedicated to improving their own game and  the team as a whole,” said Stangl. 

“We try to make it welcoming to people who are brand new and still learning. My hope is that the new people will catch the ‘frisbee fever’ and that we can continue to grow close as a team.”

First year Nathan Secrest had played ultimate frisbee competitively before coming to Guilford and even practiced with the team before school started. Although he did not struggle much as a newcomer on the team, he wishes that there had been more socialization opportunities.

“It was weird getting to know everyone at first,” Secrest said. “I wish we had had more social get-togethers. I think some freshmen were a little weirded out because there were all these people who were really good (at frisbee) but they didn’t really understand that we all started out as beginners. We do a lot to keep people on the team, but we could have done a better job.”

Faith Krech, also a first year, felt welcomed by the team.

“There’s definitely a sense of community on the team,” Krech said. “We’re all pretty good friends. All of the people that I’ve met have been really friendly and helpful. Also, since I’m new on the team, I get confused a lot, but no on gets mad or yells at me. It’s a really friendly game.”