My experience with St. Louis Park Ultimate Frisbee began this year. I had played other sports as a freshman and sophomore, but this year I decided to try something new. The first thing I noticed was how welcoming the community is. Everyone encourages new players in a way different to any other sport I have played. 

Frisbee can be as intense as the player makes it, be it through the fall or spring league. The spring league is much more competitive, whereas the fall league doesn’t split up into multiple teams and only has games on Saturdays. Commitment to the fall league is encouraged but not required, so it is very easy to try the sport without having to fully commit right away. This makes it easy for new players to get involved with the team and see if they like Ultimate before making a full commitment. 

Ultimate, despite having its many benefits, has a very notable downside: it is limited to only the fall and spring seasons. A large problem that arises is what athletes can do once the season is over. In most sports, this problem is left up to the individual players to solve. During the offseason, it is a must for many to figure out a way to keep playing or training for their sports. Continuing to be active and improve during the offseason gives any athlete a huge advantage. The problem is, winter activities for a summer or spring sport are especially hard to find as you need to find a large enough space inside, away from the cold.

Fortunately for Park Frisbee players, a Park Ultimate team parent, Jim Shope, created a solution. Shope, a notable member of the Ultimate community and coach of the Park middle school team, sponsors “Friday Frisbee” weekly in the indoor dome at Champions Hall in Chanhassen. Students and others (of a wide range of ages) can show up to play in the turf-covered dome each Friday.

While the games are kept competitive, there are multiple levels of play for new and experienced players alike. Many people bring or borrow Frisbees and take several minutes at the beginning to warm up. Then, at some point, players get into teams and begin scrimmaging. The scrimmaging is split up into two games, one more competitive than the other but generally anyone is free to try playing in either. 

Not only is “Friday Frisbee” a convenient opportunity for players to keep playing over the winter, it’s also a fun activity to socialize and exercise on a Friday night. Anyone can come with friends, or just come and meet new people. Shope requires a safety waiver from all participants before they can play, and requests $10 each Friday from everyone who shows up and participates to help cover the cost of rental. 

“Friday Frisbee” plays every Friday night from 9:30 – 11 p.m. at the Champions Hall in Chanhassen.