In the past year or so, I've been asked several times by different people just why I play ultimate. The answer is always the same - the spirit of the game and the great people who play it. It's the spirit of the game that attract the people who play, and the excellent people who play that carry that tradition out. The dresses, the cheers, the beers, the laughter, the heckling, the fantasy and the nightmare, the thrift store trophies, the parties, the motor home road trips, the bbqs...I could go on. Being part of the ultimate community makes me feel like I could go anywhere and find an instant group of excellent people. It's a sport for everyone, young and old and fast and slow, and the general respect, admiration and welcoming I've see from my fellow ultimate players make me want to play more and more and always.

I remember when my dad came to see me play and I was wearing a pink floor length dress and a scuba mask. He didn't really get it till I layed out and got D in it. He later bought me a little black skirt I sometimes wear.

Or when I once spiked it on Shiv. Norm, seeing this, before he knew me, said "Oh, who is that asshole, he's got a problem" and Shiv said "yeah, I live with him".

Spirit to me is Fantasy/Nightmare--being able to make your friend throw away the game winner using a swilly hammer when a backhand would have done it, then getting your other friends to drink for it.

Spirit to me is watching Silam shotgun. Or Doug Oetter lay out with knees the size of grapefruits. Or Michelle Punke get that "I'm gonna rip yer tits off" glazed look before she throws her body around. Or JP do a mid-air backflip to grab a disc. Or Tom Frisbie throw anything.

It's about GRRR, baby. Attitiude with love love love. I'd give up just about anything for it.

Our first year, we had a game at Willamette B against Fishheads and Disc O' Inferno was playing at A against the Popsicle Leeches. We hadn't won a game yet, but were doing OK against the Fishheads (A great crew, BTW). While on the field, walking back after a 'Heads point, I heard "Shake Shake Shake" come on Infernos' Stereo. Soon after came a scream of "HEY SPOON, GET DOWN WITH YOUR BAD SELVES!!!" When I looked over, I saw a row of Disc O' players doing a disco jive on the sidelines of their own game! This is the type of spirit I model my own game and team after, and I won't ever forget that sight as long as I play.

Our second season, playing against die Toten Hosen, Doug [Oetter]and I collided in (or near, I don't remember) the endzone when I was going for a point. I lost my footing and fell. I was laughing at myself. He looked down at me and asked "Are you alright?" I said yes. He said "Do you want to call foul?" I said "No, It's cool" He insisted he impeded my ability to catch the disc. I said don't worry about it. He tossed the disc back downfield and said "Foul". It really wasn't necessary, but I thought it was cool of him nonetheless.

To me, what makes ultimate different from other sports is the general comraderie of the entire league. Not every sport permits opposing teams to cheer hot plays. And in what other sport is cross dressing not only permitted, but encouraged?

Things I've seen that strike me as good spirit:1) A player fouls another player and calls the infraction themselves.2) Sharing water with the other team 3)Cheering for the other team's good plays.

Stuff I've seen that I definitely think is bad spirit: (maybe this is my petpeeve list ;-)1) Contesting all fouls, even ones that were pretty much obvious.2) Playing out-of-control, trying for disks at the risk of other people's limbs.3) Holding the game up to explain to a player (on the other team) why the call he just made wasn't right. I guess this could also be summarized as 'openly questioning the integrity of the other player'. Leave it for after the game over beers or something.4) Experienced players holding inexperienced players to the 'letter of the law' when it's inconsequential to the game progressing, and often has no effect either way on the outcome. (I notice this with picks a lot)

It's all about respect.....enough respect for your opponents to take care not to hurt them, enough to run hard to stay on the D, enough to cut hard and clever 'cause you believe the defense is trying hard to stick to you like glue. It's about not doing things too..... Not running into a crowd helter-skelter, not losing your cool when the foul is contested, not contesting the foul call when you think you DID foul, not calling yourself IN when your not quite sure, and never breaking the rules on purpose. It's a respect for this game, it's a respect for these playmates; your opponents, it's a respect for yourself playing a good game as hard and as clean as you can.

Corvallis has a really good reputation for spirited Ultimate through out the Northwest and in many other parts of the world. It's hard to pinpoint any one facet of our ultimate community which demonstrates the basis of this reputation, but at least part of it is that we are from a small town, where we not only play together, but live, work, study, drink, and sleep together. Because most of us are good friends, we play each other, and play the game, for fun. It's not so much about winning as it is about living.

A long while back, Blake, one of the Rhino Slam! captains, asked me when we were going to have another party in Corvallis. Even though he went to school in Arcata and lived in Portland, he wanted to come to Corvallis to party, because he said we have the best parties.

At the tournaments where we've taken distinctively Corvallis teams, everyone knows the "What's the Best thing about This Place?? CORVALLIS!!" cheer because we're the ones who came to have fun and play hard, both on and off the field. People love and respect that, and when it comes time to pick up with a team, they want to play with us.

I think it's really cool that people from other places ask to play with Corvallis because they know we'll have fun. We have a long legacy of ultimate players from Corvallis who have established themselves in other places, and I'm please to know that they have carried some of our community spirit with them.