White backs blazed under the dawn sun at Merriam Park on May 1 as St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s new Ultimate team walked out onto the makeshift field. While there were varying degrees of enthusiasm for the team’s whiteout clothing protocol that day, ranging from white shin guard sleeves, shorts, shirts, and headbands, to just a plain white-T, the team of over twenty players present bubbled with unmatched spirit.

Due to late registration, this year’s new team cannot participate in league games. However, they are able to play in tournaments on the weekends. On this evening, they had coordinated a scrimmage against St. Paul Central’s more experienced ultimate team. The SPA team lost 11-10. The team played hard and subbed in and out frequently with a few central handlers, senior Eli Zelle and freshman Ezra Cohen, staying in the game for longer periods of time. The Blazers from SPA managed to come back from a large three point deficit early on in the game led by senior captain Sam Suzuki who made several highlight reel plays on the offensive and defensive end. Seniors Ikey Forsgren and Dozie Nwaneri made significant contributions at the offensive end scoring a high percentage of SPA’s 10 points, with senior Eli Zelle assisting on most of them.

The team performed better than most on the team expected in their first game this year. Senior Jordan Moradian said after the game, “Nobody thought that we would win, except for me, I thought we’d win, but it was a strong showing that we can build on,”. Despite late practice times on the SPA fields after baseball, the team consistently has about 15 players at each practice, with some playing an additional sport as well. Anyone is welcome to join the co-ed ultimate team: they just need cleats and enthusiasm for disc.