At the end of spring quarter last year, Stanford Superfly — the women’s ultimate Frisbee club team — was both celebrating placing second at the USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships and saying goodbye to the six members of the team graduating. But unlike most other Stanford sports teams competing at the Division One level, Superfly is recruiting new members this fall quarter.

In fact, the majority of players that will eventually be placed onto the travel A-team, Superfly, or the less competitive B-team, will be completely new to the sport. According to Superfly co-captain Veronica Cruz ’16, this fall quarter is a “teaching season” to build the community.

In order to do so, the returning members of the team host open practices twice a week to teach strategy and skills to anyone interested in learning. Starting in late October, the practices will transition into tryout practices to place players onto the A or B team by mid-November.

Before doing so, however, the team has to get the word out to athletic students who may never have considered playing ultimate Frisbee.

According to Cruz, the team takes recruitment very seriously. Tactics range from fliers to approaching girls working out at the gym and asking them to throw around a disc.

“So the first step is just getting people to know about it, but it’s also really important for us to retain attendance,” Cruz said.

To keep girls coming back, the team pairs rookies with “veterans” at practice, follows up with newcomers after practices and invites them to hang out and be a part of the community.

“The most important things are a willingness to learn and work out and run around a lot,” Cruz said. “That was me my freshman year.”

Among this year’s freshmen are both players completely new to the sport and players like Hallie Dunham ’19 that have competed on the under-19 national team.  

Anna Verwillow ’19 said she decided to come out for the team because after playing soccer all her life she wanted to switch to a new physical activity.

“I’ve played a bit in the past, like tossing around a Frisbee at the beach,” Verwillow said. “The biggest change coming from soccer to ultimate is the atmosphere of the game…it seems a lot more about the honor of the sport.”

While the team goes around to freshmen dorms to recruit new members, upperclassmen are also welcome to try out for Superfly. Rookie Ash Ngu ’16 decided to try out after hearing friends who were on the team rave about the experience.

“After being invited the first time, I went and it was a whole bunch of fun,” Ngu said. “I just kept coming back.”

While Ngu and Verwillow don’t know which team they will end up on, both said they are excited for the tryout process and think playing on either team would be exciting.

Cruz also emphasized the importance of having a good community with the B-team.

“The hope is that the B-team becomes almost like a feeder,” Cruz said. “It’s really important for development of players, and it’s a really good community as well.”

Among both returning players and rookies just joining the team, the community consensus seems to be the more the merrier.

“It’s an amazing atmosphere,” Ngu said. “If you have the faintest inkling of wanting to join or even just wanting to learn to throw, you should try it.”

Contact Ada Throckmorton at adastat ‘at’ stanford.edu.