In the midst of the end of this year’s winter sports season and the anticipated spring sports season lying ahead, a new team is taking over the playing field in hopes of breaking ground in about a month. An ultimate frisbee team will be open for both boys and girls of all grades for this year’s spring sports season.

Different from the already formed ultimate frisbee club that only met on Fridays, this team will be competitive and face teams from around the area, according to junior and original coordinator of the club, Kaden Wood.

“We will actually have coaches and scheduled practices,” Wood said. “We will actually go to tournaments and competitions and play against other schools.”

Due to the fact that it’s a new program for SHS, Wood had to go through a lengthy process, which included talking to many people in order to get the team approved. He contacted Jarod Brock, the ultimate frisbee coach at Perry Meridian, and the president of the Indiana Youth Ultimate Foundation, John Rempel, for advice and tips on how to get the program started. After that, he went to Assistant Principal AJ Martzall, who eventually approved it.

Wood also went through the process of searching for coaches for the new team. One of the coaches will be Wood’s Campus Life director, Brandon Fields. He later reached to Zach Zebarth, a semi-professional ultimate frisbee player on the Indy Alleycats, and pitched  the idea of the new team to him.

“I talked to (Zebarth) about becoming a coach and he said that he’d be willing to do that for us,” Wood said.

The team is sponsored by first year English teacher Rico Gonzalez. According to Gonzalez, when Wood and the other students approached him to ask to sponsor their Ultimate Frisbee team, he couldn’t refuse.

“They came and they had their little puppy dog faces,” Gonzalez said. “(Wood is) giving me his whole (proposal) about ultimate frisbee and I’m like, ‘You know what? Let’s do it.’”

Gonzalez thinks the team will be a fun way to stay active. Since he has never played ultimate frisbee, he hopes to learn from Wood and the rest of the team. Gonzalez also thinks that students shouldn’t be afraid to try something new if they are interested.

“If you like being outside, and you like playing catch and you like throwing frisbees, sign up,” Gonzalez said. “It’ll be a good time.”

Wood agrees that students shouldn’t be afraid to try the new sport out because of the benefit and skills provided from it.

“It’s really fun,” Wood said. “There’s a really great community around it. There’s a lot of new things you can learn and a lot of new friends you can find from being on the team.”

Students can sign up to save a spot for themselves by contacting Wood at his email address, [email protected], until Feb. 22. An official call out meeting will be held on Feb. 23.