No. 2 having fun trying harder
The Mars Ultimate Frisbee club team recently took second place in the Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League (PHUL) Division II Championships, falling to Seneca Valley in the championship game in mid-June.
Competing is always priority No. 1 in any sport, but at the end of the day for a club team, the experience players have can be just as satisfying.
“We just like having fun out there,” former team captain Ryan Grove said. “We worked well together as a team and I think that's what got us second place.
“We just had fun and it worked out.”
“The experience was great,” first-year player Christian Kay said. “From what everybody was telling me, we didn't exactly get the results we wanted from earlier years, but to come in basically undefeated and finish second place, it was exhilarating.”
Mars played its home games at the Mars Athletic Complex and was part of a 12-team field in the tournament.
Other teams included Chartiers Valley, Mount Lebanon and Central Catholic among others.
Grove, now graduated, was not only the team's captain, but also its coach.
“It said captain, coach, player on the back of my jersey,” Grove said with a laugh. “Usually the teams have a coach, but our team didn't really have a set coach. And since I was a captain the year before, I kind of just stepped in and ran everything.”
Kay, an incoming junior, is hopeful for next year's group, but there is still more the team needs to do in order to get to the next level.
“I think we still have a good set of boys,” Kay said. “We're trying to recruit more players, so next year should be interesting.”
Kay was brought onto the team the same way as most, as his friends pushed him toward joining the team last season.
He has not regretted that decision.
“I really like the camaraderie between all our teammates,” Kay said. “Especially since we are always winning and the teams we play against are always nice, it's just a great experience.”
At the start of his freshman year, Grove decided to make the switch to ultimate frisbee after years of playing basketball, but this wasn't his first go at the sport.
“I had played before and I was decent at it,” Grove said. “But when I joined the club team, that's when I actually got into it.”
Ultimate Frisbee has been at Mars for roughly 10 years, Grove said, and the team plays two seasons each year: Awinter indoor season and an outdoor spring campaign.
Grove says he has seen the sport grow a lot recently in Western Pa. and is hopeful for future players in the area.
“The league as a whole has been growing the four years I played,” Grove said. “More schools keep joining in, which has helped.”
Grove will attend Cedarville (Ohio) University in the fall to study industrial design and marketing.
Grove plans to check out the school's intramural ultimate frisbee team, but said he will definitely miss the time he spent at Mars.
“I just liked how casual everything was,” Grove said. “It didn't take up our whole lives, we could still do other things. There really wasn't anything bad, it was just a good time all around.”
