This spring, for the first time in Fieldston history, the Ultimate Frisbee Team sent its newly created Girls squad to the 2014 USA Ultimate New York State Youth Championship Tournament. “The Sheagles,” as the team calls itself, was made up of nine female members of the B team as well as four recruits from the Varsity Softball, Lacrosse, Volleyball, and Track teams. Coached by Fieldston Physics teacher Mr. Ben Wearn and co-captained by Jessie Hamilton (IV) and Caroline Carty (V), the team won 2nd place in the tournament in addition the spirit award. The success of the girls’ team marks a rise in women’s ultimate. “I think that Ultimate will follow the trajectory of other sports,” says Mr. Wearn. “Outside of the high school level there are a lot of women’s teams and mixed teams and co-ed teams. There is talk of having the New York City B division league be mixed.”
It was clear that not many of the A teams at Staes had females. Mr. Wearn says that there are no girls on the Fieldston A team this year because “a league depending on individual schools’ policies is open to all genders but given that schools want to put the fastest possible team
together it is often the case that girls have trouble making the A team.” But many of the girls on Fieldston Ultimate don’t necessarily want to be the fastest and win the most. Amelia Geser (V) explains that her “favorite thing about Ultimate is that the environment is totally different from other sports. In ultimate, the atmosphere is less about competition and more of a learning environment where even the newest player feels comfortable asking questions and learning the game.” That is what makes Ultimate so unique.
Julia Rosenberg (IV) had her doubts regarding the success of the team, but was happy with the result. “My experience was very empowering. I feel like we came from a team where a lot of people didn’t take it seriously, both because of our gender and how little we had played together. It was a fun and rewarding experience.”
