Abby Webster, Special to The Denisonian—
The Denison Ladies Ultimate Club, was the name of the women’s ultimate frisbee team on campus that was made up of those who shared a love for the sport. This was until the pandemic hit in 2020 and the team fell apart, as did most things at the time.
However, DLUC was able to build itself back up and join forces with the men’s ultimate frisbee team, to come back to campus as the Frisbee Frogs. Collectively, they are known as Denison Frisbee Ultimate Club, or DFUC.
Mia Fischel, a junior from Barrington, Illinois, has been a member of DFUC since her freshman year. She played ultimate frisbee in high school and was eager to continue the sport in college as well as use it as an outlet to make new friends.
Fischel joined the team, and even though she wasn’t new to the sport, she found it hard to continue to grow being on a mixed team. With DFUC playing in open tournaments, tournaments where anyone of any gender can play, they ended up playing against men’s teams as a mixed gendered team themselves.
“[The tournaments] tend to be aggressive, especially for new players. You’re scared of getting trampled and go for the disc,” Fischel said. “When I was playing my freshman year this one team was like ‘Oh a woman is beating me.’”
Despite this, the women’s team is very close. They are very bonded as a team and usually hang out together outside of practice and tournaments, and because of their shared experiences of being on a mixed frisbee team, they rely on one another often. Overall, the bond the team has is very strong.
“I love the support of the team— my biggest hype people on campus are on the team with me and I love being able to celebrate my success on and off the field,” says Caroline Chaze, a junior from Virginia.
The women’s team gets together a lot outside of practice, so much so that they are more often together than not. Some things they would do consist of a near daily lunch at Curtis, weekend get togethers, and celebrations for members birthdays and holidays. They are very connected as a group.
“Some of my favorite memories are of side-questing or hanging out in someone’s apartment. Not just of frisbee, but of college,” Chaze said.
Maybe it’s because they all have that shared experience of being around men who are less than kind in frisbee, or that they are just a group of people who unapologetically accept anyone and everyone that makes them so bonded.
Regardless of all the external challenges the DFUC has had to face over the years, they are always able to come together and have one another’s back, which is extremely valuable when playing a team sport. This team continues to defy the odds they’re given, and have formed life-long friendships because of it.