Ben Eckman
What made you start playing ultimate frisbee?
I came to Andover and I didn’t have a spring sport, but I had always thrown frisbee with my dad on the beach or in my backyard. I wasn’t terrible, but I thought it was an interesting thing to learn to get better at in Andover with a team, so I decided to try it out.
What do you most enjoy about ultimate frisbee?
I think something that really makes it different from all other sports that I really like is the spirit of the game and the fact that there isn’t a referee. It is actually administered by the players on the field. All the players have to know the rules and understand the rules, so that they can make the best judgement. Everything relies on trust between both teams.
Jeffrey Kao
What is your favorite aspect of the team?
What I really like about ultimate is that everyone plays hard, but we also don’t take ourselves too seriously. By that I mean people still play hard for each other. They know that teammates have expectation of us, and we want to work together to make our team goals happen. However, at the same time, no one is too harsh on each other, and I think the way people start to interact in every single day on and off the field fosters a sense of belonging. That’s really just makes it fun to play, even when we’re doing conditioning. It is nice to do it with people that you’re close with.
Ekan Belo-Osagie
What made you start playing ultimate
frisbee?
At my old middle school, they didn’t really have sports, so every day at recess we had one teacher who played ultimate, and he taught me the game along with other people at my school. So naturally, I just started playing the sport and I liked how the game worked.
What was your favorite memory of this sport?
My favorite memory was definitely the last game last year. At the stadium, we played against Andover High. It was definitely a really fun game and also a really emotional game, because it was the last game that the seniors were playing. Also, the fact that we won was really nice too. It was also one of the games where I got more playing time, so it was definitely more fun.
Is there any ideas or lessons you learned from this sport?
A person that my coach really admires is John Wooden. During practice, he would always quote John Wooden. The quotes are really inspirational. he talks about how hard work is the best thing to get from a sport. Those quotes that I heard from coach is something that I can apply to my whole life. Ultimately, it has taught me how hard work pays off and that the events that led up to the game are what matters.
