Ultimate disc season has begun competition, and WSU’s club sport continues to grow in membership while more members are still wanted. Recently, the team competed in the Big Sky Gun Show tournament, but they were unable to get enough players to bring the women’s team.

However, they have seen a rise in membership among women in the club.

“This is our first year with enough ladies to have our own, sort-of separate group,” sophomore and co-captain Hannah Cole said.

WSU Ultimate Disc now has enough women on the team to practice and compete separately. The Club has three total teams — men’s, women’s and a co-ed team, which is composed of members from the other two.

“This is the first year that we decided we’re going to have women’s practices, so we can get more ladies out, which we have,” Coach Cory Foss said. “We’ve gotten up to like 12 people at practice, which is almost double last years.”

The men’s and women’s team each practice twice a week separately and once together. This is to encourage bonding between the teams and as a whole club. The co-captain also spoke about activities the club does to bond outside of practice.

“We’ll go out and get bubble tea sometimes after practice. Last week, we went to Dutch Bros at like 11 p.m., that was super fun,” Cole said, “or we’ll go to the rec, pretend to do other sports …  sit in the hot tub.”

Practices are held at night, making warm clothing necessary as the weather turns colder in Pullman. At Grimes Way Playfield for a women’s practice on Monday, the cold air was in full force, and practice starting at 9 p.m. didn’t make it any easier. But, the team kept warm by playing hard.

“It’s a lot more running than people think it is,” sophomore and co-captain Austin Cornell said.

“It’s not disc golf,” Foss added with a laugh.

Ultimate also has a governing body at the world level called World Flying Disc Federation. The sport was developed in 1968 and is rapidly growing, according to the USA Ultimate website.

“There’s even a pro league. People get paid to play Frisbee now,” Foss said. “I mean it’s not much, it’s like $25 a game. But, all their travel expenses [and] stuff like that is taken care of.”

The rise in membership follows a trend as Ultimate disc gains popularity and recognition. Ultimate is a non-contact team sport that functions like a football-basketball-soccer hybrid of sorts. The sport now has a professional league called the American Ultimate Disc League and is self-officiated. Even at the professional level, the concept is known as spirit of the game.

That concept is one thing Cole said she admires about Ultimate.

“If there’s a dispute on the rules, or a question on whether or not something was called properly, play can just stop and all the players can discuss what they thought they saw during the play,” Cole said. “They call it spirit of the game. You have to stay true to the spirit of Ultimate and be honest.”