HoosierMama dives into regional competition

Ed Wu is ready for Saturday.

Wu is a senior player and one of the captains of the Ultimate Frisbee team at IU, HoosierMama? On Saturday, the team will participate in the 2010 UPA Great Lakes College Open Regionals. The team has been a IU for decades.

“They have a good chance,” said graduate student Drew Hendrickson, the coach for the all-male team. “We are going to have to play really well. I think no one is counting them out.”

Hendrickson was a player for the team for a year and has been coaching the team for four years.

HoosierMama? could face teams from Ohio State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Northwestern at the regional tournament.

Ultimate Frisbee is a competitive sport that combines elements of traditional sports such as football and soccer. Unlike most competitive sports, Ultimate Frisbee is self-regulated and does not have referees.

Like many sports, Ultimate Frisbee has two end zones that the team tries to score points on. Since the sport does not use any referees, it depends on the spirit of the game so that everyone plays fair. Still, the game can get very competitive.

Wu said Ultimate Frisbee has grown and is played at most colleges. He had been involved in high school sports and wanted to stay active once he came to college.
Wu said he is confident the team has a good chance of going to Nationals. The team finished second out of 24 teams in the sectional, the best that they had for the past three years during this season, according to the team’s website.

At 8:30 a.m. on Saturday the team will face Kenyon College during the first round of the regional competition, which is taking place in Bloomington for the first time.

Their success has come as a result of their hard work. The team practices for most of the week.

“It’s like any other team sport,” Wu said. “In order to reach your high goal, you need to put in the time and effort.”

In addition, the team members usually cover most of the travel and lodging expenses out of their own pocket, he said.

Wu said during his freshman year the ultimate frisbee team went to Nationals but has not been able to since then.

“A lot of the people have the drive to go back to Nationals,” Wu said.

After making it to Nationals, a large number of the players graduated or decided to no longer play ultimate frisbee. Without some of its best players, the team had to rebuild itself.

Hendrickson said a couple years back the team made it to Nationals, which was then the first time in 10 years.

Wu said the members that did make it to Nationals a couple of years ago still have not forgotten about their experience there. The team hopes that after Saturday, HoosierMama? will make another appearance at the national competition.

“Ever since then,” he said, “we’ve had that craving to make it back to Nationals.”