VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — You have to see it through their eyes.
The gym at Cooke Elementary School on Wednesday, May 25th is not full of fellow students, parents and administrators. That gym is full of spectators here to watch the ultimate frisbee players in the arena showcase their gifts. Red and blue penny's are no longer reusable PE outfits, but rather competitive divisions, colors that transform classmates into teammates. SOL's may have taken over the classrooms at Cooke, but ultimate frisbee has taken over the gym for the 4th and 5th graders.
"For the first time we invited teachers and parents, it really upped the level of play. With eyes on them, they wanted to be their best. It really took it to the next level, and started turning it into a game rather than just another practice," says Logan Berns, founder of the Ultimate Frisbee Club and a teacher here at Cooke.
Despite the competitive spirit, the screeches of victory and squeaks of shoes across the gym floor, there is not a single face without a smile. Players in opposite colored penny's exchange high fives as much as those on the same team. Competitors desperately try to prevent the frisbee from reaching their opponents, but when it does they congratulate rather than snarl. The final day of the 2022 version of Ultimate Frisbee Club may feel like the Super Bowl to the kids playing, but their reactions hardly reflect a game with high stakes.
Ask those grade school competitors what they enjoy most, and they eschew any version of sporting immaturity that you thought they might have. Relationships, bonds, the unique nature of frisbee golf, teamwork; those are them themes that emerge.
That's exactly how "Mr. Berns" wanted it to be when he started the Ultimate Frisbee Club here three years ago. He originally fell in love with the sport himself after finding a "great group of teammates" in college. It's the common ground the sport provides to players of all backgrounds that makes ultimate frisbee such a draw.
The roaring crowds (of students, parents and administrators) on a Wednesday in Virginia Beach are an added bonus.