Allegheny College is home to 21 varsity athletic teams. However, the college also fields a number of club sports teams that not only offer competitive opportunities for non-varsity athletes, but also provide a number of other additional opportunities.

Some of these club teams include cheerleading, ice hockey and rugby. One club sport gaining popularity at Allegheny is the ultimate frisbee team.

The ultimate frisbee club has both a men’s and women’s team as well as a coed team. Unlike many other club sports teams that encourage some form of prior experience, many students on the ultimate frisbee team have no prior experience.

Molly Nelson, ’21, joined the ultimate frisbee team the first semester of her first year at Allegheny, saying she “kind of went into it blind.”

Other players like Noah Goodwin-Bain, ’21, also had little experience playing ultimate frisbee before joining Allegheny’s.

“The first time I ever played ultimate frisbee or even knew about ultimate frisbee was at Allegheny,” Goodwin-Bain said.

One of the main differences between club sports and varsity sports is that club sports are completely student-organized, something many participants enjoy.

Eli Smith, 21, says playing at the club level “allows (him) to be more involved with the team and have more of a say and more of an influence on the direction the club is going.”

Goodwin-Bain enjoys the community that ultimate frisbee team has exposed him to.

“It’s a really nice community, we do a lot more stuff rather than just frisbee,” Goodwin-Bain said.

Despite the fact that ultimate frisbee at Allegheny is a club sport, both the men’s and women’s teams do some serious traveling for matches and tournaments.

“(The team) tries to stay within a five to four hour radius of (Allegheny),” Smith said.

Smith also enjoys the teams annual spring break trip to Myrtle Beach.

“One of my favorite tournaments is to Myrtle Beach,” Smith said. “(It’s) just a really fun one to relax during spring break.”

The ultimate frisbee club is among the many clubs students can join at Allegheny who are looking for an athletic experience outside of varsity sports.