The Ultimate Team discusses strategy before playing Masconomet Ultimate.
4/16 – Andover: 14, Masconomet: 5
On Wednesday, All-Gender Ultimate Frisbee’s Open team played Masconomet at Home in a decisive victory. The victory marked its first win this season, with only one previous tie by the Girls and Non-Binary (GNB) team on Wednesday, April 9 against Cambridge Rindge and Latin.
The GNB team was also scheduled to play on Wednesday against Winchester. It was canceled due to a lack of healthy players, as explained by Ibu Hada ’25.
“There are a lot of people either sick or injured on our team right now so we had to tell the other team we couldn’t do it. We aren’t having practice or anything, but some girls went out to the field and did some throwing. It was a totally optional situation,” said Hada.
For the Open team, windy conditions were a focal point of its preparations for the game. Its warm up leading up facing Masconomet focused on acclimating players to the unusual conditions, according to Dean Yang ’27.
“Since [Tuesday] we knew [our game against Masconomet] was going to be a very windy game, which affects us a lot in Ultimate. So during warmups, we focused on short throws, especially in the upwind direction, helping us get an early lead because we could throw upwind and the other team really couldn’t. It’s really important to be able to throw everywhere in Ultimate,” said Yang.
The Open team has dramatically improved its gameplay from last season, mainly due to returning players’ experience. Eric Wang ’25 highlighted the team’s work at integrating strategic and efficient play.
“We’ve been working on improving our overall gameplay this season. Last season, most of our players were new, so we spent a lot of time learning the basics of the sport.This season, we are working on playing more as a team. For example, on defense, we are working on switches to be more efficient or poaching the throwing lanes,” said Wang.
Ultimate centers around strong sportsmanship. For his communication and leadership, Yang praised Co-Captain Fumi Kimura ’25 for exemplifying such ideals.
“For all of the on-field calls, [Kimura] was really level-headed and he made sure not to elevate the situation. He [is] a really great communicator and probably the reason why we didn’t have a lot of conflicts during the game… [a] great spirit of the game,” said Yang.
Wang explained that as Ultimate’s season continues, Seniors remain committed to amplifying the culture of Ultimate, specifically pertaining to Andover.
“I remember when I joined Ultimate all of the players were always happy to help me throw and kept the energy up throughout practice. I want to help maintain this positive environment and team culture so that future members of the program will have the same great experience that I did,” said Wang.
The open team will play St. Sebastian’s at Home next Friday; GMB will play in a tournament in Maine on Sunday, May 4.
