In winter, one of Lane’s lesser known clubs, the Ultimate Indians, occasionally has morning practices and workouts inside the school to prepare themselves for their season.

During the warmer months of the school year, they can be found outside on Lane’s lawn playing and practicing ultimate frisbee during lunch or after school.

Once spring begins, the club turns into a team, participating in a city-wide competition named the Chicago Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.

“Our team competes against other schools from the city and some surrounding suburbs,” said team captain Alexis Soule, Div. 574. “It goes on for a couple of months and at the end we have a tournament where all the schools compete for first place.”

It is not just the competition that the players are excited for, it is being able to play the sport in general. Ultimate frisbee is different from any typical school sport; there are 14 players on the field, seven from each team, and there is no referee. If disputes occur between players, they must settle it themselves, making sportsmanship a key role in the game.

“Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that doesn’t require a referee because most players have great sportsmanship which is something that should be [found] in every sport,” said team member Justin Trieu, Div. 676.

The differences between ultimate frisbee and other sports is what appeals to several students.

“It’s the only sport I know of where there are no referees and the players have to make their own calls which is a huge part of the game because it all has to do with sportsmanship and the spirit of the game, and the spirit of the game is what makes people so interested,” said Soule.

Not only are students interested in the sport, but teachers too. The club’s sponsor, Mr. McAdam, occasionally joins the club during practices and workouts.

“There has always been something liberating about chasing a disc down the field.  I also enjoyed the fact that ultimate frisbee is a self-refereed sport. The focus on the sport is not on beating your opponent so much as it is on self-improvement,” said McAdam. “I’ve always enjoyed playing the game, so given the looser structure of our practices, I often play with the members of the club as well.”

The club is looking forward to the warmer months, excited for more students, and potentially teachers, to participate in their games. Ultimate frisbee has recently rocketed into being one of the sports that students at Lane love and enjoy playing.

“Just looking around campus I can see far more frisbees being thrown around than I did last year,” said Soule. “I like to think that people watched the Ultimate Frisbee club practicing on the lawn and were inspired to try something new.”