A plastic disc whizzes through the air, soaring high and landing on the fresh cut dark green grass. With every throw, people converse and relax with their friends, until the game starts and then there is no time for chatting. The game of frisbee might be a pastime for some, but for the members of the up and coming ultimate frisbee team, it is a sport.

According to junior captain Malcolm Clark, while the ultimate frisbee is a club this year, the team is working to become an official sport, but this might not happen this year because of the Brookline School Committee processes that they will need to go through. However, with forty-six signatures at the club fair and little to no cost for the sport to function, Clark said it almost seems inevitable that this team will be created some time in the near future. 

Junior Sam Skoler said that they currently play casually on the weekends, but are now hoping to be able to turn a passion into an official sport.

“It’s a really great sport, it’s really fun, and all of us really like it. We play so much anyways, that it feels sort of wrong not to have it be a sport,” Skoler said. “I know a lot of people that don’t already play sports, and are looking to do something fun after school for a sports credit. Ultimate frisbee is a fun way to do that.”

In ultimate frisbee, there are seven people on each team with no referees. According to Clark and Skoler, ultimate frisbee is fast-paced and reliant on sportsmanship. Players trust each other to make the calls, believing that their mutual love for the game will outweigh a petty lust to win.

The league that the team would be participating in is the same league that Needham and Newton each have a team in, Clark said.

 “We would be put into a group with four other schools and get to play against them, and if we are really good we could move onto something else,” Clark said.

Clark said that there is currently a proposed School Committee sport budget increase that would increase the likelihood of an official ultimate frisbee team.

 “They’re going to try and make a couple new sports teams, like fencing and other stuff, because there are so many new kids coming to the high school that they have to make more sports for people to play,” Clark said.

Captains Clark and junior Zachary Leonard still have many details to figure out about practice times and game scheduling. According to Clark, games will most likely be once every week or every other week, and they will probably practice on weekdays only.

Skoler said that in the first weeks of practice the team will work on the fundamentals of the game.

“At first what we are just going to do during practice is toss around the disc and see what people already know,” Skoler said. “I think we are going to go through each of the throws, and just basically get everybody on the same level of their knowledge of the game. So that’s what we’ll be doing at first and I guess we’ll go from there.”

The team has recruited Steve Lantos to be their coach, who, according to Clark and Skoler, has accepted this task. Lantos said his interest in the school’s ultimate frisbee teams stems from his prior involvement in the sport.

“I am a big supporter of ultimate frisbee,” Lantos said. “I played when I was a student here at Brookline High School in the late 70’s. 

Lantos said that, ultimately, his goal is to ensure that everyone who wants to play ultimate frisbee has the opportunity to play.

“My involvement here as advisor would be to help organize the team, see that they have transportation or drive the school van and just make sure that the play would be able to happen,” Lantos said.

Chris Bell can be contacted at [email protected]