A frisbee floats in the air, from one teammate to another. With mere inches to go before it reaches his hands, Anush Patel, a sophomore at Gunn, comes flying through the air, snatching it before it reaches its target. This is a common sight during practice sessions of a local ultimate frisbee team named Control.
Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed team sport played with a flying disc called a frisbee. Games are played between two sides of seven each. The aim of the game is to score points by catching the disc in the opponent’s end-zone. The field is approximately the length of a football field.
Control, formerly called Gunn Control, began in 2014, as a club started by Gunn High School seniors Victor Kao and Lucas Munro. The team received pushback from Gunn administrators, as it is not affiliated with the school, leading them to change their name two years ago.
“Gunn High School is not super crazy about us and it’s confusing for a lot of the players,” said Robert “Rob” Srinivasiah, a Control coach. “We wanted to be clear that other players from nearby schools can play.”
Before starting as a coach at Control in 2021, Srinivasiah was the coach for Palo Alto High School’s club Ultimate team along with Paly psychology teacher, Chris Farina. The team eventually disbanded due to low participation, and its remaining players started playing for Control.
The team won the state championship three times back-to-back from 2017 to 2019 after upsetting Berkeley High Coup.
Ultimate is a popular game, with over 60,000 registered players in 2019 in the US.
Because of the popularity of the sport, there are opportunities for these players to play in college and go on to play professional ultimate. However, professional ultimate isn’t very lucrative. Most players make very little, and the main benefit of playing professionally is that gear, grub and playing fields are free. Still, many players disregard the low pay and play for their love of the sport.
Noah Stone, a captain for Control, said more people should take note of Ultimate.
“It’s [ultimate] different from most other high school sports, because it’s not as serious,” said Stone. “It’s more laid back and more chill and really focuses on having fun and good sportsmanship.”