Ever since watching their dads play when they were kids, Bailey Blum ’16, Maddox Hill ’16 and Mary Sullivan ’16 have always been interested in Ultimate Frisbee, a sport that combines the skills of football and soccer.

Blum, Hill, and Sullivan travel to Neuqua Valley High School to play for the NV Ultimate Frisbee Club. This highly competitive club consists of fall and winter intramurals and the varsity boy and girls teams playing in practice tournaments against college teams. Throughout the official high school season in the spring, the teams travel to weekend long tournaments all over the Midwest, Blum said.

Blum and Sullivan have been playing for Neuqua’s team since freshman year, whereas Hill started his sophomore year. They try to attend all the practices and intramural games, which are Monday through Thursdays, but because of the long commute to Naperville it is hard to attend all the practices, Hill said.

They became interested in the sport because all of their dads play for a 40+ Ultimate Frisbee club team for Western Springs. Sullivan’s dad knew the head coach of Neuqua Valleys Ultimate Frisbee club, which allowed them to have the opportunity to play for one of the best high school Ultimate Frisbee teams in the area, Sullivan said.

“I grew up watching [the dads] play and as I got older I began to play with them and ended up loving it,” Blum said.

All three athletes have hopes that the LT Ultimate Frisbee club will grow at LT and on a national level.

“I think that would be really cool if LT’s club expanded,” Sullivan said. “If we could get a bigger team here, or just the sport in general to increase in popularity, that would be great.”

Blum does not think that he would play for LT’s team if there were a sudden growth because of the status of Neuqua’s team and the amount of tournaments that they go to, all of which take time and an established club to attend.

“I like to win and [Neuqua] wins a lot, which is nice,” Hill said. “The big program and the [amount] of good players [allow us to win].”

NV Ultimate Frisbee club has about 200 active members ranging from fourth-12^th grade, Arnoush Javaherian who has been coaching for the Neuqua Valley club for eight years said . The club won its first championship in 2010, and has won the state championship in 2011, 2012, and 2013, according to the club’s website.

“The competition aspect of playing [is my favorite part], it’s something that everyone takes so seriously and gets super into,” Sullivan said. “It’s super fun to play for a team that takes it so seriously and that can go all over the place to play a game that we all really enjoy.”

All three play for the girls and boys varsity teams. Both are very similar in that they are both very competitive, although the boy’s team is much more physically intense, Sullivan said.

“[Bailey, Maddox and Mary] each work hard and most importantly have great attitudes,” Javaherian said. “They all get along great with our players and fit right in.”