After coming off a point on the field, junior and captain Allison Feller said the event serves as a bonding activity for middle and high schoolers, coaches, parents and alumni. At the same time, the occasion also provides a training opportunity among various groups of people.

“This is a multi-generational team bonding. The boys’ and girls’ team(s) are bonding while getting to know all of the adults and alumni too,” Feller said. “We can work on our skills in different settings and with different types of people. You have the chance maybe this time if you’re a boy to be (defending) a girl or a girl to (defend) a guy.”

According to freshman Danny Shope, the game acts as a morale building event among different people at the end of a good season.

“This is just a fun end of the year thing. This is basically team bonding, just celebrating the season,” Shope said. “It’s a coaches and parents versus players game and then a potluck.”

According to coach Liz Bixler, throughout the season the new players’ improvement was gratifying to observe, as they slowly grew into true ultimate athletes.

“It was really awesome to see our newer players show off what they learned and really look like real ultimate players — which is what they are now,” Bixler said.

Feller said one of the highlights from the season was winning a game against the Blake Bears at the two-day State tournament because the win came from long-term cooperation.

“I liked beating the Bears at State on the second day because we all played really well that day,” Feller said. “That was probably the best we’ve played together as a team because we just all worked really well together.”

Shope said he enjoyed the Madison Mudbath tournament as a team building experience, particularly among upperclassmen.

“One of my favorite memories was the tournament in Madison, just because I got to bond with the team and really get to know all the seniors,” Shope said. “It was my first year, so a lot of the team bonding stuff was really nice.”

According to Bixler, her first year of coaching taught her what coaching truly represents, while showing her how impactful communication can be. Bixler said watching players develop from her coaching was valuable.

“I definitely learned what being a coach means and learned how to communicate with the team effectively,” Bixler said. “Teaching ultimate skills — it’s definitely harder than I thought, but it’s been really rewarding when it finally clicks for people. It’s been really awesome to see them grow.”

Looking into next season, Bixler said only a few talented seniors will be graduating, leaving the rest of the team to learn from this year’s successes in order to develop as a whole, while accepting new and inexperienced players.

“We’re losing definitely very solid talent, which is really a bummer, but we’re really only losing three people,” Bixler said. “I think it’s going (to) be a good growth year to build on last year and welcome some new people and continue to grow as a team and work on our skills.”