Co-Captain Fumi Kimura ’25 leads Ultimate Frisbee (Ultimate) through encouragement and inspiration. Kimura takes charge of practices, focusing on the development and improvement of his teammates. In this approach, he emphasizes having fun and building community.
As a new Lower, Kimura chose to participate in Indoor Track and Field during the Winter, but decided to explore Ultimate throughout the Spring.
“I started Lower year and that was my first year here. I was thinking of doing track but because I did indoor track, my friend was like, ‘you should hop in and play ultimate.’ I tried it out and it was pretty fun,” said Kimura
Kimura has stuck with Ultimate since, and specifically, he enjoys the action of passing and receiving the disc. Additionally, he described the sport’s spirit.
“The act of throwing and catching the disc is really satisfying to me. And the other thing is the spirit of the game — Ultimate really values spirit a lot. We’re supposed to know the rules, we’re supposed to have sportsmanship, we’re supposed to be inclusive and fun. So, that’s what keeps me coming back.”
Kimura’s leadership can be felt across both the practice and playing fields. Co-Captain Paxton Auguste ’28 praised his team-oriented spirit during practices.
“He does a really good job at getting everyone organized and motivating everyone when we’re at games and during practice. Everett [Woo ‘25] and him usually lead warm-ups, and [Kimura]’s really good at making sure everyone knows what they’re doing. Sometimes we go through and say what we’re gonna work on during practice, and he lifts everyone up when they mention what they want to work on because he really cares about us and about our improvement.”
Kai Obata ’28 corroborated Auguste’s sentiment, praising Kimura for his sociability and connection with his teammates, felt across the team.
“His best quality is his willingness to reach out to every player on the team. Obviously, a captain needs to address a group, but he is always talking to everyone on the team — he’s checking in with everyone. He’s very relatable, and he’s a friend to all of us on the team.”
Kimura places a heavy focus on practice, as he deeply cares about the growth of his teammates. Auguste highlighted how Fumihiko operates during practice to ensure the presence of a strong community among his teammates.
“During drills, we make sure that each of us aren’t with the same people every time on the same team, so everyone gets to be on a team with him at some point. And when we rotate through drills, he’s always cheering for them and making sure they know what the drill is about. So, everyone gets to have an interaction with Fumi at some point during the practice, and that’s when he gets to build a connection with them and have some one-on-one time,” said Auguste.
As he begins college in the fall, Fumihiko is still weighing whether or not to play Ultimate at the University of Chicago. He mentioned how difficult the transition from high school to college is.
“At the college level, Ultimate becomes a completely different sport. That’s my image. And I think one thing that’s really lost in that transition is the spirit of the game and good sportsmanship and the fun of playing it, because college level gets really serious and the level of competition rises. So, I think bringing the fun that Andover Ultimate harbors every day — every practice, every game — would be the best for me if I were to play in college, which I think I will.”
