USU ultimate Frisbee club redefining “Mad Cows”
The USU Ultimate Frisbee club known as the Mad Cows are ready and prepared for the upcoming conference championship this weekend in Bozeman, Mont. The intramural club will be playing seven matches against other University teams from Utah, Idaho and Montana in the conference championship for chances to proceed to the regional tournament in Washington during the second week of May.
“We should do real good at the conference championship, last year we got second and moved on to the regional tournament,” said team captain and club president Sam Clyde, a junior in the biology department.
Practice for the conference championship has been focused on getting to know how each teammate plays in their assigned position.
“We have to practice hard and play competitively to give a good showing of who we are as USU’s Ultimate team,” said secondary education major Ian Blake, the only freshman on the team.
It has been a long road since the start of the fall term for the Mad Cows. Their first practices on the quad last September brought out 40-50 potential players. Clyde and other returning players then began the weeding-out process.
“This is an actual team, and it is a competitive sport, a lot of people did not realize that” Clyde said.
After narrowing the potentials down to a regular-sized team of 14 players, to be able to have a full line of substitutes for the seven players allowed on the field during game play, the line-up was solidified during the USU-hosted Big Sky tournament opener in October. This is one of the first times the USU Ultimate team has not been co-ed. Though, the women still do get the chance to play in official open games since other teams competing are still co-ed. The women do have their own team, called No Bull. This all-female team plays other female teams in the same conference in official matches, while still getting the opportunity to lend two or three of their players to the play for the Mad Cows’ team.
Practices have been held out on the quad Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 p.m.
“Rain or snow, we will we be out there with our cleats on,” Clyde said.
Only during the winter when daylight was an issue would they practice in the Fieldhouse.
“It is a very structured sport, with different styles for different teams and weather conditions, but its easy to pick up if you come out to practice,” said Clyde.
The team also gets some good competitive practice against a local Ultimate Frisbee group who are called the Dinosaurs by their college opponents. A few of the “Dinosaurs” are even members of the USU faculty, with professors Harold Ikerd and Terry Griswold from the biology department playing against their own students.
“We can run circles around them, but they can still put the Frisbee anywhere they want and beat us with their technical experience,” Blake said.
The constant practicing and competitive tournaments helped the Mad Cows perform very well in last month’s Las Vegas FFindr! Ultimate tournament. One of the largest Ultimate tournaments in the world, the Mad Cows played teams from universities such as USC and Colorado State and finished with a 4-4 record. They were not allowed to rank because they were disqualified for registration issues.
“We achieved the same record last year at the tournament and moved up 153 places nationally, so it was a really good performance both years,” Clyde said.
The Mad Cows will be traveling to the conference championship tournament this Friday. If they place in first or second they will advance to the regional tournament in Washington.
– mfiggat@gmail.com