Frisbee Excels In Spite of Low Funds

The men’s club Ultimate Frisbee team emerged this semester as one of the best in New England. And it filled less than 2 percent of its $30,000 budget with money from Harvard.

The Red Line, as the team calls itself, had an impressive showing in its first two tournaments of the fall season. It finished first in tournaments at Bowdoin and Williams colleges, racking up a combined record of 13-0.

“It’s definitely been the best fall season we’ve had since I’ve been at Harvard,” said co-captain Phillip W. Roebuck ’08.

Red Line, like all club sports at Harvard, gets just $400 a year from the Athletic Department. The team’s competitors are club teams as well, but many of them receive greater levels of financial support, Roebuck said. Brown’s Ultimate team receives $15,000 in funding from the school’s administration, he said. (A captain of the Brown team did not return a request for comment.)

The Red Line must fund the rest of its $30,000 budget independently. The team receives some assistance from the Undergraduate Council—$1,391.68 last semester, according to UC Finance Committee Chair Randall S. Sarafa ’09. The team also raises money by selling T-shirts and Frisbees. Still, Roebuck said, a sizable gap remains between the money the team generates and the money necessary to travel to tournaments.

That gap is closed by the players, who wind up paying for most of their travel expenses out of their own pockets.

“I think [the lack of funding] drives some people away from the sport,” said George W, Stubbs ’11, a member of the team. “We have to pay for absolutely everything.”

Many of the biggest tournaments happen on the West Coast or in the South, so the Red Line’s limited resources prevent it from participating in those events, according to team member Andrew J. Vogt ’11.

“It affects the level of competition we can see on a regular basis,” Vogt said.

But the Red Line has still found success on the field, which team members attribute to the leadership of its captains, Roebuck, Christopher C. Stevens ’09, and David C. Lipson ’08.

“The captains devote a huge amount of time to the team, as much as a varsity captain would,” said Luke L. Sperduto ’11.

The team has also benefited from the strong freshman class of Stubbs, Vogt and Sperduto.

Stubbs, who hails from Atlanta, was a member of the U.S. team competing in the World Junior Ultimate Championships in 2006. His current teammate, Vogt, played in that tournament as well, representing his home country of Canada.

The talent and experience of the team’s youngest players has inspired the Red Line to adopt a more rigorous training regimen at a time when competition across the country is intensifying.

Harvard’s fall Frisbee season will wrap up in two weeks at the Brown tournament. The team will pick up training again with a volunteer coach in January.

The more competitive spring season will begin in February, when the Red Line will travel to Las Vegas to participate in the country’s largest ultimate Frisbee tournament. The team will also compete at Yale, in Texas and North Carolina over spring break, and at sectionals.

All of these tournaments are preludes to the regional tournament, which will determine whether Harvard will advance to the national tournament for the third time in four years. The team must place in the top two in the Northeast to move on to nationals. Last year, the Red Line finished fifth.

Despite the Red Line’s financial struggles, team members say they are confident that the new freshmen will help lead the team to prolonged success.

“We have a positive outlook not only for this year, but for future years as well,” Stevens said.