Fox Chapel’s Ultimate Frisbee team looking to reload roster

By: George Guido
Sunday, August 14, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Previous Next

Fox Chapel senior Ben Evashavik is hoping more schoolmates join in on an “ultimately” fun time.

Evashavik is a senior captain for Fox Chapel’s Ultimate Frisbee team, a quasi-club sport operated mostly by students from various schools.

Several seniors that were members of the team have graduated, and current Fox Chapel team members are reaching out to get replacement players.

“We’re not looking for anyone with Frisbee experience or prior sports experience,” Evashavik said. “We’ll take someone and develop him into adequate Frisbee players.”

Fox Chapel teacher Greg Schubert is a faculty advisor and Greg Castelli is a coach not affiliated with the school district.

Evashavik started taking up Ultimate Frisbee in the third grade.

“Whenever I was throwing in my backyard with my dad, that’s where I learned to do some of the basic throws,” Evashavik said. “I went to summer camps at North Park and at Slippery Rock and developed my skills and enjoyed the game. Then I discovered my school had a team and I said I’ll try it out, and that was one of the best decisions I’ve made in high school.”

Ultimate Frisbee matches are played on fields 90 yards long and 40 yards wide. There are seven players on each team. There is a touchdown area 20 yards long and 40 yards wide. The first team to reach 15 points or have the lead after 90 minutes wins. Halftime occurs once a team reaches eight points.

A player can go anywhere on the field, but once a Frisbee is caught, a player can’t move and has to pass it to a teammate.

“The game is self-officiated,” Evashavik said. “There’s a good honor system.”

The other senior captain is Matthew Liu.

Fox Chapel also has a girls team, though some of the schools have a co-ed squad.

Other schools on the schedule include Pine-Richland, Mt. Lebanon and Hampton.

Christie Lawry is the executive director of Pittsburgh Ultimate, which oversees Frisbee at the high school level. Now with Pitt, Lawry formerly coached at Hampton.

As for now, Evashavik and his teammates are hoping to have it become an official club sport this year. The fall is set aside for practices and player development at Upper O’ Hara Elementary School near the high school campus. The team plays a spring schedule on the O’Hara field.

Successful teams advance to a state tournament.

After high school, Evashavik said he is looking for a college in the Delaware or North Carolina area.

About Frisbee

The first known recreational use of what we now call a Frisbee was by Walter Morrison and his future wife, Lucile. After Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1937, Walter and Lucile were tossing a popcorn lid on the beach near Los Angeles. Later, while tossing a cake pan, a nearby beachgoer offered Morrison 25 cents for his cake pan that cost a nickel — and Morrison quickly went into business.

Following World War II when Morrison served in the Army Air Force and was a prisoner of war for a time, he and a partner developed a plastic flying disc that was well-received by the general public.

After several design changes that resulted in the creation of the Pluto Platter, Morrison sold the rights to Wham-O toys in 1957. Later that year, Wham-O executives gave the disc the brand name “Frisbee.” Students from Yale University derived the name from Connecticut pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company that supplied pies to the Yale campus.

Competitive Frisbee dates to 1966 when Jared Kass and his fellow Amherst University students developed the basic of the modern game such as advancing the Frisbee and passing it over a goal line.

What’s the future of Ultimate Frisbee?

It is now recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and it could be included in the 2028 games in Los Angeles, just a few miles from where it all started.