Summer Guide - Toss up
For Mira Walker, summer of ultimate competition hangs in the air
Besides being the hottest cult sport in Atlanta, ultimate – better known as ultimate Frisbee – appears to be the only one with a sense of humor.
“It really is like one big party,” says Mira Walker, one of the few women who attend the weekly pickup games Wednesdays on the Georgia Tech turf fields.
The Atlanta Flying Disc Club, which organizes many of the pickup games around Atlanta and an extremely popular summer league, has an entire section on its website devoted to photos of the parties that go on after the games are over, along with great tips for beginners (“Don’t freak out. We’re nice people.”).
Walker agrees, insisting that even when games get intense, everyone is still having a good time.
“It’s not competitive in the way that other sports can be. It’s all about fun,” she says.
She should know. A lifelong athlete, Walker ran cross-country and played basketball in high school, but after her first year at Agnes Scott College she realized she wanted to pursue a different kind of athletic activity.
“I had played ultimate Frisbee since high school, but never on a team, and I had always really liked it,” she says. After going with some friends to check out the pickup game at Georgia Tech, Walker knew she had found her niche. “Even though the game itself is really fast-paced, it’s a much more laid-back atmosphere, and everyone is really nice and just there to play.”
Ultimate includes elements of soccer and football. It features two teams of seven, each trying to score by tossing the Frisbee into the other team’s end zone. Players have to throw the disc instead of running with it.
“Part of the fun is learning and mastering different ways to toss the disc,” Walker says.
This summer, Walker plans to participate in the summer league: “About 700 people come out and play, and it’s not just college kids. Everyone plays.”
An active member of the Agnes Scott community, she’s the vice president of communications on the programs board, Agnes Scott’s social-planning committee. As a math major, she participates in Infinity Club, the campus group for mathematics enthusiasts. “Even though I really like being involved on campus, ultimate presented a really great opportunity for me to get off campus and do something different,” she says.
“Something different” easily could be code for “meeting guys” – Agnes Scott being a women’s college, after all – and ultimate is ideal for that. “I’m usually the only woman who plays. I think it makes it a little more challenging being the only girl, but I am dating one of them now,” Walker says, laughing.
Not that being a woman on a coed league intimidates her on the field: “Most of the guys can run a little faster and jump a little higher, but I get my fair share of plays, too.
“I didn’t even realize how big the ultimate Frisbee community in Atlanta is,” she adds, “but more women play here than anywhere else and the numbers are really growing.”
Walker looks forward to an exciting summer tournament – and playing in parks all over Atlanta. “Piedmont Park is such a beautiful place, and it’ll be a nice change from the turf fields – playing hard on turf can give you some nasty scrapes.”
Despite the possibility of bumps and bruises, Walker enthusiastically advises anyone looking for a new summer sport to take up ultimate Frisbee: “You know a sport is great when you actually feel like you’re playing a game.”
For more information, check out the Atlanta Flying Disc Club website at www.afdc.com.