Ultimate Frisbee keeps 'em moving
Distance runners always seem to be moving.
Warming up. Racing. Cooling down.
Perhaps that's why the sport of ultimate Frisbee, which combines principals of soccer and football with nonstop motion, holds an appeal to the long-distance runner.
"It's kind of a cultural thing," said Alake Kashyap, a 2006 Neuqua Valley graduate who with former Wildcats teammate Sean Parker are creators of the Naperville Ultimate Summer League. A Class AA state-qualifying 1,600-meter runner as a senior, Kashyap brings the endurance while 2006 all-state high jumper Parker brings the hops to snag those high discs on their Dirty Half Dozen ultimate team.
Spawned from humble beginnings - friendly, informal post-workout turf wars between Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central runners - the 2009 Naperville Ultimate tournament will bring 16 teams to Frontier Park, off 95th Street in Naperville behind Neuqua Valley, this Sunday from about 8:45 a.m.-3 p.m.
Actually an 18-team league, administrators Kashyap and Parker - who captains an ultimate team at the University of Iowa - arranged a play-in tourney for Friday at Asbury Park, just east of Frontier, to decide the 16th seed.
Undefeated Mustache Moonshine, loaded with University of Illinois ultimate players, and Hinsdale-based No Contest! enter as favorites, but there will be no repeat titlist. The defending champion Murmuring Alligator Babies didn't form this year when captain and Naperville Central graduate Jay Duffy was late returning from studying abroad in Spain.
Nutty names don't hurt, but the team sport concept is a big reason why the NUSL has expanded from eight teams in 2007, six alone from Neuqua Valley, to 18 teams representing 300 athletes. Teams field seven players a side, with the offense attempting to score points by advancing the disc into the end zone via passing and receiving. The opposing defense tries to take possession of the disc through man-to-man or zone alignments. The first to 15 points wins.
"When you're in cross country it's more of an individual thing," Kashyap said. "But in ultimate it's more team-oriented."
Following a 2005 Neuqua Valley cross country summer camp workout at Naperville's Knoch Knolls Park - Naperville Central turf - Redhawks athletes asked to schedule a game. Two years later the NUSL was born and through word-of-mouth it's grown.
This season male and female athletes representing 11 high schools and 55 colleges participated. Due to ultimate's essential non-contact nature, college athletes such as incoming freshmen Kyle Gibson (Naperville North/Oklahoma State) and Danny Pawola (Neuqua Valley/Penn State), Purdue's Stephen O'Donnell (Naperville Central), Illinois' Jimmy Riddle (Neuqua) and even former Neuqua national champion and current Stanford star Chris Derrick played this summer.
The three Naperville schools, Benet, Waubonsie Valley, Lake Park, Hinsdale Central, Downers Grove North and Downers South all have athletes in the league, which has an age range of about 15-23.
"Usually you don't have to worry about injuries," said Kashyap, who noted there have been no serious ones in the league's three seasons.
"I think the combination of running, soccer and football, all those things, kind of puts the thrill of the sport all together," Kashyap said.
Audacious debut: The DuPage Track Club, primarily a contingent of Lake Park High School athletes under the direction of Tom Kaberna, finished a successful first season with 10 qualifiers to the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, July 28-Aug. 2 in Greensboro, N.C.
"The whole time with the team was fun," said incoming Lancers junior Zachery Ziemek, who finished fourth in the Intermediate Boys decathlon. "It was a good time with the coaches and everything."
DuPage Track Club members also competing at the USATF Nationals included incoming freshmen Mike Amerlan and Kyle Shingoethe, sophomore Kevin Spejcher and juniors Greg Block and Jermaine Kline. Kline and Block finished third and fourth in shot put, sixth and 11th in discus in their divisions, respectively.
Lake Park graduated senior Pat Brambert, incoming senior Sarah Drozdowski and incoming freshman Scott Filip qualified for nationals but were unable to compete for "family things," Kaberna said. Recent graduate Dan Block, the Kentucky-bound state record-holder in discus, won that event in the Young Men's division at 188 feet, 8 inches, and took second in shot put at 61-51/2 competing unattached.
Other local athletes who participated included Glenbard West's Kinn Badger, Downers Grove South's Tyler Rocco, the Hinsdale South duo of Devin Lee and Uzo Okoro and West Chicago's Annette Eichenberger, who finished seventh in the 2,000-meter steeplechase and eighth in the 800 in her division.
For Ziemek it was his second decathlon following his first attempt - and first place - at the Region 7 qualifier.
"I think it's really cool," said Ziemek, a state-qualifier in pole vault this past spring.
"I like the diversity, all the throws," he said. "The throws are fun, some of the runs I like. You can't get one person that's perfect at one thing, you have to work real hard at all the stuff."
Interestingly, Ziemek placed only fifth in his premier event, the pole vault. But out of 19 competitors he was top-three in the 400-meter run, high jump, shot put and discus, taking first in the latter event.
His lone bottom-half finish came in the 1,500.
Ziemek had one word for that event: "Killer."
The busy junior also competed in individual events for long jump, triple jump and pole vault.
He said the DuPage Track Club's initial foray into national competition will benefit down the line, regardless of results.
"Coach (Kaberna) just said if some kids didn't do well it'll just make them hungrier for next year," Ziemek said. "If we did well, it'll just make us keep working to try to stay at the top."