Tron, the men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, is fresh off the road from a tournament the team competed in over the weekend, the club’s first weekend of travel for competition.
Their team intended for their participation in this year’s Maine tournament to be purely focused on player development. According to team member Benji Kemper ’19, the team played members who would benefit from experiencing game play.
Since the club sport is all-inclusive, the team rosters two separate flights, an A roster and a B roster. “We used [the tournament] to give everyone more experience, especially those in between the A and B rosters,” Kemper said. Presumably, these would be the players who would be influential to the future of the program.
With rain falling and winds reaching 30 miles per hour, the players faced adverse conditions in the squad’s opening tournament of the fall season. “It was really fun,” Kemper noted. “We worked through rain. We worked through wind.”
Unfortunately, the club team could not secure any game wins, according to Kemper. The developing players featured on the tournament’s roster for Tron, however, saw heavy competition from other teams, who all chose to play their starting line-ups.
Maine is just one stop of many for the team, though. In the past year, the A roster travelled to South Carolina to compete in Easterns, Kemper elaborated. The team would also travel for sections, regionals and, if they make it there, nationals.
On the schedule, the USA Ultimate Division III College Championships national tournament falls a few weeks after the spring semester. Every year for the past four years, Tron has qualified for the national tournament, filling one of only 16 spots in the tournament, according to Kemper.
Brandeis’ team has made strong showings at the national tournament in recent years, placing second for the past two years. In 2015, Tron fell to Franciscan University, a recently established team. The 2016 national tournament brought the Brandeis men’s Ultimate Frisbee team to North Carolina. After making an undefeated run to the finals of the tournament, the team dropped the title to Georgia College.
The team has made it one of their goals to return to nationals this year to have another chance at competing for the title.
“I think another goal is to become as close to each other as we already are,” Kemper added, “so just being close, and making strides to being a nice team, a very welcoming team.” Though the team splits the players into two rosters, they pride themselves on being unified and working together.
Tron practices four times a week, including a scrimmage every Friday against the women’s Ultimate team, Banshee. The team’s main season occurs in the spring, and since they do not play scheduled dual matches, the team values spring tournaments. The results from these tournaments determine the eligibility for nationals.
Tron’s coaching staff includes Andrew Pillsbury and Henry Frost, nationally competitive Frisbee players who once played for Wildcard, one of the top mixed ultimate teams in the country, according to Kemper.
Their biggest rivals for this year’s season are Bryant University, Middlebury College and, of course, Franciscan University and Georgia College, all competitive Ultimate Frisbee teams. Last year’s national tournament had Bryant seeded in the number-one spot.
Bryant took the first spot in the New England region for Division III in the most recent rankings. Brandeis holds the second spot right behind the Rhode Island team.
