Alex Kling Guest Writer Lesson number one when asked to write a guest article on Ultimate[1] for the Forum: If they ask to have it in on Monday but say you can get it in by Wednesday if necessary, don’t write it at 5:30 Thursday afternoon. Seriously. They tend to get mad. It’s like they have a deadline or something. Anyway, here we go. I was told to write about how Ultimate moved from a Latin club to a sport, but frankly, I don’t know that much about it and it’s a pretty boring story. James, Sam, and Ben[2] decided they wanted to get more serious about the sport, found a league[3], got a coach (Ms. Warren’s sister), and talked to Mr. Bower about officially creating a new Latin sport. He said no, so now we’re stuck in ISP no-man’s land. Oh, well. But anyway, a few members of the club joined up, and thus it began. For those of you who don’t know, Ultimate is in fact a real sport, unlike, say, golf[4]. Similar to soccer in a way, when you’re playing Ultimate you’re running constantly[5].  It’s a sport dependent on its continuity. Kind of like life[6]. But I digress… Our team last year had about ten people. With seven playing at one time, that got to be a little much – like I said, everyone’s working like crazy out there[7], so you get tired quickly. When playing a team of twice our size, as we did against Lane Tech in the championship last year, that can be (and was) killer. This year we’ve got about fifteen, enough for two lines. Our opening game was against Lane. We won by about ten. I’ve got to say, from an unbiased perspective[8], the team looks good. We picked up a few new Juniors like Mark Yellon and Matt Lucas[9], stole track from Kunal[10], and kept some strong Seniors like Ben Manis[11]. We’re undefeated so far this season, but we’ve got games against some good teams coming up. It’ll be a test. We’ll let you know how it goes (Ultimate doesn’t have a post-test Honor Code). Anyway, I’ve got to send this to Rachel now and I’ve got a Spanish presentation to prepare. Happy Friday, everyone!

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[1] Technically, it’s just Ultimate, not Ultimate Frisbee. Way back when in the seventies, when commies still scared us and when Fript was 63, the Frisbee company got mad and sued the sport – apparently they’ve got the word “Frisbee” copyrighted. The lesson is that too much Frisbee makes you kind of irritating. [2] Why I’m the one writing this, God only knows. [3] Ultimate isn’t an IHSA sport, so we play in CUJO, the Chicago Ultimate Juniors Organization. At least I think that’s what it stands for. I don’t want Rachel to get more upset. Then she might come after me with her ballet shoes or something. [4] Don’t even try to convince me otherwise. [5] Unless you’re Pongpak. [6] What does that even mean? [7] Except for Pongpak. [8] Because I’m clearly unbiased. [9] And Ben Sullivan and Dexter Canright. Sorry about putting you guys in the footnote, it just felt monotonous to have four people up there. [10] I mean stole Kunal from track. [11] You know, assuming Ben ever puts down his damn cello to come to practice and stop being a musical prodigy.]]>