BROCK PAPKE
Special to The Leader
Photo by ALEXANDRA GILES | Asst. Photo Editor
For many athletes, a tournament is a testament to competition, athleticism and team bonding.
You drive an hour or more to other colleges, sometimes even another state, to play against 3-4 random teams to win, all while bonding closer to your teammates.
But what happens when you host your own tournament?
Well, that’s the challenge Fredonia’s very own club ultimate frisbee team, the Terrifying Turtles, faced four weeks ago.
For those who are unaware of what club ultimate frisbee is, captain and fifth year history and political science major Seth Porter describes the club as, “a 7V7 team sport in which each team tries to pass a disc between their members towards an endzone — basically like football.”
Fellow captain and psychology major Alex Staco also describes it as, “an opportunity to socialize and talk with other people but also grow as a group of individuals that have one common goal in mind…You can develop certain skills that you can probably use later on.”
It was the first Fredonia-based tournament in 10 years.
Fellow captain and double communication major in journalism and video production, Brandon Jeanotte, commented that, “There are some people [on] the team [who have] been here for five years, and they’ve never had the torment at home, so I think it was great to have that.”
Porter spoke on the achievement, “It’s our first tournament in 10 years-ish…something like that. It’s been a long time. So it was really cool to see it actually come to fruition, and it was a great experience to see a lot of people experience their first little taste of a tournament.”
Club secretary Asa Ostrowoski, a music education major and the former club president, said, “We had other people on the E-board that also helped set up this tournament and we had to get in contact with a lot of schools [to see] if they were interested. A lot of discussions [occurred between] the school, Athletics and SA to get the events going through.”
“We also had the grounds crew help us a lot [by] painting their fields.” Ostrowoski said.
It was definitely a unique experience for the team, who in previous tournaments had to drive to Fort Niagara and Edinboro, PA.
About the experience of having a tournament in Fredonia, Ostrowoski said, “Because we were hosting it, we’re able to sleep in our own beds. We were able to not have to worry about travel time. We were able to get up at a reasonable hour, walk in, warm up and just start playing.”
There were four schools, which included Cortland, Binghamton and University at Buffalo. Each school split up into seven A & B teams, where one would have veteran players and the other rookies.
You can tell that they aren’t just teammates and fellow students, but a family unit with no stopping in sight.
As they prepare for future and larger-scale tournaments, Jeanotte said, “Throughout that tournament, you were able to tell who was actually bonding with you, and how much it actually means to be able to synergize with one another.”
Not only did the home tournament allow for home field advantage, but it also made cheering on teammates and bonding with friends that much seamless.