The team receives an invite to play against top players across the nation

Paige Anderson, Staff Reporter
Originally published June 12, 2019

Girls ultimate frisbee is preparing for nationals on June 7-8 where they’ll get the chance to play teams from all over the country. They received an invite from Ultiworld, a premier ultimate frisbee news site, where they ranked 15th in the nation.

Their league, the “High School Girls Division Power Rankings,” is built up of mostly Seattle teams since a lot of players in the area are highly ranked.

The team has played in a few other tournaments throughout the season, such as the Seattle Invite Tournament where they played teams from Oregon and Utah, placing fifth.

Since the team isn’t affiliated with the school and is considered a club, the players weren’t allowed to leave school early. Senior captain Margaret Tookey observed that this disadvantage caused the team to struggle with consistency.

“It’s hard when we have to make it to a game after school, we have to rush to our games and start playing right away,” Tookey said. “Everyone was always all over the place and stressed out after a long school day.

The difference between the regular season and nationals however is that the team will have time to prepare for their games physically and mentally.

“We play better at these types of tournaments because we have time to focus,” Tookey said. “It’s going to be easier for us to be in a good mindset.”

The team is viewing nationals as a fresh start from their 2-6 regular season.

“Our inconsistency is in the past, we’re ready to play our best,” Tookey said.

Sophomore captain Grey Colleran, who has been on the team for two years, doesn’t know what to expect at nationals.

“There’s some teams that we’re playing from Seattle but then there’s teams that we’ve never played before,” Colleran said. “It’s hard to tell what the level of playing will be but it will be a good experience.”

The team underwent a lot of changes such as gaining a new coaching staff, including head coach, Nicole Cramer and new underclassmen.

Freshman Quen Hansen, who is new to the team, noticed how strong the program and all of the potential in her team.

“We have a lot of talented players and we work really well together,” Hansen said. “Frisbee here in Seattle is very strong so we have a good program to help support our talent.”

Hansen is viewing nationals as a chance for the team to experience a new level of difficulty and improve.

“It’s going to be tough but it’s going to be a really good experience for everyone to play against teams outside of Seattle and play against higher competition,” Hansen said. “We’re definitely going to keep growing and keep ranking higher.”