This article originally appeared in the spring 1994 edition of Homespun, the triangle ultimate newsletter
UNC Ultimate. You haven't heard of us? Yes, UNC Ultimate was absent for several years but now it's alive and well as Darkside ultimate. And, if you've played pick up in Chapel Hill lately, you've probably played with some of us.
Last fall, I was excited to find out that some enterprising freshmen, Gene Hoffman, and Nash Foster, with help from sophmore Alan Hoyle, were forming a club at UNC. Stefan Gottschalk and I quickly volunteered our assistance. Our first practice had around 40 students, the majority of whom were new to the game. We had 3 practices a week and our biggest problem was finding enough field space for all the students we had coming out. We taught the new players how to throw, catch, cut, stack, and what the Spirit of the Game was all about. Within a few weeks we were a team. We were Darkside.
Early on we scrimmaged N.C. State and Duke, and attended some small tournaments and took our lumps. Wins were infrequent but much celebrated. Spirit and cheers were abundant as we all became addicted to ultimate. At club sectionals we came away with a win against an equally new UNC-Asheville squad and high hopes for the spring. Many Darksiders played in Winter League in addition to continuing Darkside pickup 2 or 3 times a week. We also spent the winter getting ready for the spring tournaments, especially Fools. (Stefan and I had shared the tales chronicled in these pages last year.) Karl Smith and Stefan put in Herculean efforts on our bid (as also shared in the last issue of this stately publication) and we were accepted for Fools.
This spring saw many of last fall's novices stepping into their own as they were able to combine their natural athleticism with a new found field sense. Early in the season we traveled to UVa. for a late February celebration of wind, cold, and zone. A few weeks later we scrimmaged, socialized with, and hosted the men and women of Princeton's Clockwork Orange as they took advantage of their spring break to take the long route to Ultimax. Like our trip to UVa, Ultimax provided several close games, lots of zone, and lots of fun. Shortly after Ultimax we were able to host another college team, McAllaster College as they traveled from College Easterns to a Fools tournament in Kansas.
Then came what we had waited for all spring, our trip to Fools. While we often found ourselves outclassed on the field, Fools didn't let us down. Our spirit and intensity were high as illustrated by Dave Hall's "out of the skirt" play. As he cut to the disc he realized something had snapped in his skirt and it was falling around his knees. After catching the disc, rather than disrupt our flow, he simply stepped out of the skirt, now around his ankles, and played on. The sidelines roared. Between games we watched some of the other games, especially Grits, and the evenings found our (underage) squad back at the hotel room putting together new cheers (based on popular nursery rhymes and songs) as well as funny self-depreciating signs which we wore in our games on Saturday and Sunday.
After Fools, we scrimmaged Huckzilla, the new area team, several times and attended sectionals, where we continued to improve including several players laying out (for hammers!) for the first time. Now most of the darksiders have gone home for the summer, but there are a few of us around, playing pickup on Mondays at 6 and Wednesdays at 7 at Carmichael fields at UNC (you're invited). But in the fall, we'll return and bring a new group of players into our ranks as we teach them all that it's more fun in the dark.
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