Ultimate Frisbee

Apparently BYU has an ultimate frisbee team and they are actually pretty good! Ranked #12.



https://ultiworld.com/2018/02/23/florida-warm-2018-tournament-recap

In case you were still on the fence, it’s official: #12 BYU CHI is good. Going 7-1 at Warm Up (in only two days!) is ridiculously hard to do. This may be CHI’s best tournament in program history. Their victories came over Wisconsin, Auburn, and Texas A&M, and their only loss of the weekend came to Minnesota, who was beating everybody on days one and two.



When you watch this team you don’t marvel at individual skill or innovative schematics. BYU has a bunch of skinny, tall-ish athletes who do all the little things right. These guys are on their details, and at Warm Up, that started with person-to-person defense.



“We don’t have that Nationals pedigree,” head coach Bryce Merrill said after a 13-11 win over Texas A&M. “So all we know how to do is some really simple stuff. I think the best thing you can do is play the best person D and that will get you out of a lot of jams.”



The thing is, BYU does the “simple stuff” really well. Defense was their strong suit all weekend. Not only on the D-line either; BYU is defensively-minded on all fronts. The games at Fowler fields were distinctly upwind-downwind. Rather than give Texas A&M a short field on a risky break throw or a high stall situation, BYU’s O-line would just jack it deep and play defense. They forced opposing D-lines to work long fields and that strategy paid off. CHI allowed no breaks against Northwestern and only one against Texas A&M.



“When it comes down to it,” Merrill said of BYU’s defense. “We’re just going to have to win those battles, so that’s where we spend our time in practice and it paid off here.”



For as faceless as Merrill’s team looks at times you couldn’t help but notice Matt Ricks, who was a beast for Brigham Young in Tampa. Ricks was recently moved from playing handler at Santa Barbara to cutter and he is thriving. He gets open to start the offense and has the skill to throw long goals to the next cut.

CHI stands for ”Competition, Humility, and Integrity” and these Utahns definitely take that mantra to heart. BYU has a strange team culture when compared to their peers in the men’s division. If you spend time on their sideline you will never a player say an ill word (or so much as a frustrated exhale) about a decision, a turnover, a teammate, or an opponent’s call. Ever. There’s not even any hat throwing after a missed block. They exude constant positivity.



The roster is a little older than their competitors (as Mormons often spend a few years abroad on faith-based missions before returning to school). Maybe that makes all the difference in maturity. To see a program that competes under some very difficult developmental constraints post a 7-1 record at the first elite regular season tournament of the spring—without the toxic ego that can accompany success —is impressive.



So how far could BYU have gone? Merrill’s team would have been headed straight to quarterfinals if they were allowed to play on Sunday. If their defense kept clicking and they didn’t have to play Carleton or Minnesota… you’d have a tough time picking against them to make the semifinals.



A lot of teams would kill to finish 7-1 at Florida Warm Up. This should be a deservedly memorable Warm Up for CHI.

-Our frisbee team needs more discipline

-Too many frisbee players are transferring away each off-season

-Frisbee has become irrelevant since going independent

-Our frisbee attendance is one of the highest in the west

-I'm not a fan of frisbee rejoining the MWC

-The frisbee team offense needs to see a lot of improvement

-Cosmo has done some awesome dances at frisbee games

-Be careful of wishing for a different frisbee coach

-Trump is going to create frisbee tariffs

-We should seriously consider passing some frisbee control laws

-Make sure to vote for our frisbee team in an online poll!