When Edward Guo, Nicholas Lin and Veronica Ng signed up for their high school ultimate team, little did they know the doors it would open in the years ahead.
The McRoberts graduates were named last week by Ultimate Canada to national teams that will be competing in this summer’s World U23 Championships in London, England.
Guo and Lin are members of the Team Canada open squad while Ng will be suiting up for the mixed team.
“Ultimate was my first-ever team sport,” recalled Guo. “A couple of friends older than us said we should come out and play. It wasn’t difficult to make the team and it was really nothing more than a friend thing at the time.”
Their participation coincided with ultimate’s popularity beginning to take flight in the Lower Mainland.
Played with a frisbee, the non-contact sport is a best described as a mixture of soccer, basketball and football. The frisbee only can be advanced by passing and catching it. Points are scored by completions into an end zone.
Teams play seven aside on a field that is 70x40 yards, with 25 yard end zones. Like volleyball, there is no running clock. The game’s duration is determined by reaching a point total. A typical match is played to 15 points with each score worth one point.
“It could be really fast or take 15 to 20 minutes to score a point,” said Guo. “A lot of people have their specialties and like other team sports there are offensive and defensive players. Everyone needs the basic skills to play like throwing, making decisions and making cuts.
“All you need is a frisbee and cleats and you are good to go.”
Another unique feature of ultimate is there are no officials.
If a foul has occurred, he will indicate it to the player who initiated it and the disc will be advanced to that spot. The call can be contested which leads to a discussion between the two players involved and sometimes others on the field.
“It’s usually resolved really fast,” continued Guo. “A lot of it has to do with the spirit of the game which is a big factor in ultimate. “ It’s something we also teach to all the younger kids we coach too.”
Guo and Ng typically play the striker position. Their strengths are cutting (equivalent to running pass routes in football) and scoring which usually requires making catches in tight spaces.
Lin thrives as a thrower which can be far more difficult than it looks — especially at the sport’s highest level where everything is done at a high speed.
“I am practicing all the time,” he said “When you are dealing with a 175 gram disc you have to test out the weather every time you play. Some days if there are 40 km/h winds, there is no way you are going to get the long throws down. It will just blow the disc over.
“That’s when you need to focus on the short throws with a lot of spin on them. Really, there is so much practice involved.”
When the trio graduated from high school, there were three Lower Mainland club teams. Now there are 10 and the sport even offers a semi-pro level with two Vancouver-based clubs.
While Ng plays for a Vancouver team in a women’s league, Guo and Lin suit up for the Vancouver Riptide and Vancouver Nighthawks respectively.
The Riptide play out of Swangard Stadium in Burnaby and are part of the 26-team American Ultimate Disc League that features franchises across the continent. Vancouver opens its season this weekend at San Francisco and plays its home opener April 25 when the Seattle Cascades comes to town.
“Every week we are travelling or a team comes to us,” said Guo. “ESPN3 also televises a lot of the games. It’s a pretty cool experience to be part of it. “
Lin was recently signed by the Nighthawks which are part of the 16-team Major Ultimate League. The Nighthawks play out of UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium and will open their season on the road against the San Francisco Dogfish April 19 before hosting the Seattle Rainmakers April 25.
Guo, Ng and Lin earned their national team spots after coming up little short during the selection process two years earlier. A recent college tournament in Las Vegas served as the final evaluation for the Canadian teams.
“We will be training with the Vancouver based players and try to build some chemistry with them,” added Guo. “There is also a mandatory tournament in Vancouver where the entire Canadian team will come together before we go to London.
“The United States is usually the team to beat every year and it always seems to come down to a U.S. and Canada final. Japan is extremely strong too.”
