A league of their own

What started off six years ago as a small church group that got together to play Ultimate Frisbee has morphed into Bradenton Sarasota Ultimate Frisbee, a group that reaches several hundred people in the area.

Organizer Abby Toole-Plummer, a Braden River High School teacher, didn’t have much playing experience before a couple at church invited her to play Frisbee. Now, she understands the technical parts of the game and is the organizer of Bradenton Sarasota Ultimate Frisbee.

“I would say the skill level has improved a lot, mostly from just having better players come out and teach us the game,” Toole-Plummer said. “When I first started I didn’t know about forcing the flick side or that on club teams there are certain people who handle the disc and other more defensive players.”

About a year ago, Toole-Plummer played in a tournament with a team out of Orlando — an experience she said was great for teaching her more about the game.

“It helped me understand the game better, and hopefully I can kind of help beginners if they come out,” she said.

The group, which plays on Tuesday nights, Saturday mornings and occasional Thursdays at the Lakewood Ranch High recreational fields, has members such as Dan Myhrberg, who has years of experience and also plays with a club in Tampa, but participants vary in their skill sets. The group likes the pickup games to be competitive, but members also like having new people who are interested in learning about the sport.

“We try to keep it laidback, for the most part, and help any new people who come out to learn,” Myhrberg said. “We try to help people along the way to make it an enjoyable environment so people want to come back and play with us.

“Speaking from playing with the club in Tampa, it can get really competitive,” Myrhberg said. “As a new player, it can be kind of overwhelming going into that environment. It’s nice here. You can be a good player and come out and have fun. It’s still competitive. That’s what’s cool about it.”

Toole-Plummer started a Facebook page for the group as a way to attract new players, and she has also gotten her husband, Mike Plummer, into the sport.

“I met Abby (in 2010), and she brought me out here, and I’ve been playing ever since,” Plummer said. “This group has elevated and become a little higher level than just a casual group. It’s picked up. A lot of these guys have played competitively.”

Ultimate Frisbee has become a major part of the couple’s life.

“It’s awesome (being able to play with Mike) because it’s really probably why this has lasted so long. We make this a priority for us,” Toole-Plummer said. “We don’t make plans on Tuesday nights or Saturday mornings. For the most part, even if we have something on a weekend, we’ll play Frisbee first and do that after.”

When the group of players first started, it had a set number of participants who played weekly. But because some players have moved to different areas, Toole-Plummer now uses Facebook to organize games through the “Bradenton Sarasota Ultimate Frisbee” group, which, at press time, had 262 members.

She said it’s normal to see at least one new player in the group each week.

“We get a lot of people who are visitors from up north,” Plummer said. “They will come down in the winter, have family here and play for a week or two. Then, they leave and maybe come back the next year.”

With more than 200 players to draw from, it can be difficult to know how many people will show up at the usual Tuesday night and Saturday morning sessions.

Toole-Plummer jokes that she lives so close to the fields, if nobody showed up she’d get her exercise by running home, although she makes a consistent effort to post to Facebook and send out text messages as game reminders.

“As an organizer, that’s what you have to do or people won’t come out. You have to have that consistency,” Toole-Plummer said.

“I have to give credit to the couple (that introduced me to the sport),” she added. “I didn’t realize it would turn into something that I would love to do. It’s something I look forward to every week.”

WANT TO JOIN?
Find the group on Facebook by searching “Bradenton Sarasota Ultimate Frisbee.”