Missoula Flycoons take off with spirit

The Missoula Flycoons have spirit.

Missoula’s Ultimate Frisbee Club is advancing to the Ultimate Players Association Regional Tournament in North Burlington, Wash., for the third year in a row, and is vying for its second consecutive national tournament berth.

The Flycoons, who hosted this weekend’s Big Sky Sectional Tournament, posted a 5-0 tournament record, beating Salt Lake City’s Golden Spike in Sunday morning’s championship. Backed by a festive crowd and a welcoming environment at Fort Missoula, this weekend’s Big Sky Tournament was the latest installment of a sport that has exploded in the community in recent years.

“This was a great weekend,” said Skyla Sisco, a member of the Flycoons and a former Lady Griz guard. “The atmosphere was incredible, it shows how fun Ultimate really is.”

The Flycoons’ membership in the UPA allows the club a taste of national competition in a sport that is historically geared toward park pick-up games. Founded in 1979, Boulder, Colo.-based UPA is a nonprofit organization that sponsors the expansion of Ultimate Frisbee nationwide. At almost 25,000 players and volunteers strong, the UPA is founded on the emphasis of a player-run network, a league in which good-natured competition separates Ultimate from the conventional sporting world. From an Ultimate Frisbee standpoint, the “Spirit of the Game” punctuates the sport’s self-governed nature, where sportsmanship and respectful competition lie above winning and losing. This concept is also the reason why Ultimate has never adopted officiating into competition. The preface of the UPA rulebook captures the games virtue: “The integrity of Ultimate depends on each player’s responsibility to uphold the ‘Spirit of the Game,’ and this responsibility should remain paramount.”

Four years after the inception of the UPA, Ultimate fever in Missoula began to set in, and in 1983 Dave Goodhart formed the Mental Toss Flycoons club team, which represented Missoula’s most competitive Ultimate team. While the club has carried a strong presence in Missoula’s Ultimate scene since 1983, the early part of this decade saw the Flycoons beginning to compete at the national level. The team has been part of the Northwest regional field the past three years, including an appearance at the National UPA Tournament in Sarasota, Fla., last year. The Flycoons finished 11th out of a 16-team field, marking the best run in club history.
“It’s huge for our club to compete nationally,” said Mark Aagenes, the Big Sky Sectional coordinator. “Hopefully we can do better than last year’s finish.”

Aagenes, 32, has been playing Ultimate since 1988. Since his boyhood Frisbee days, Aagenes has not only witnessed the sport’s surge in popularity in Missoula, but also the evolution of its athletes.

“When I was young, the game was a lot different, almost completely different than now,” he said. “The speed, competition and athletes have changed ultimate. Athletes like Skyla Sisco are a great example of that.”

Sisco, the former Lady Griz basketball standout and WNBA player, began playing Ultimate four years ago. Sisco has never turned back, becoming an Ultimate regular with both the Flycoons and the sporting community.

“I just really enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a really cool sport that keeps me in shape and allows you to compete. The best part of being on the Flycoons is that I love being with my teammates playing a sport that has spirit like Ultimate.”

With competitive nature intact, the Flycoons’ successful run in recent years has also been credited to the development of their players, which Aagenes refers to as the team’s “farm system.”

While the Flycoons only take a balanced 28-member roster, they field two other affiliated teams, Mbube and Shuttlecock, both of which were in action this weekend at the Big Sky Sectional. Although both teams failed to advance to the Regional Tournament, they play a vital role in the Missoula scene, as well as the Flycoons’ future success.

“It’s great that we have three teams, because everyone can play and learn the game,” Aagenes said. “From a competitive standpoint, it’s great for the Flycoons because there is always support to field a great team every year.”

In addition, UM has two teams per year, which have also supplied the club with youth and energy.

Above competition in Ultimate, however, is the spirit of the game. The concept of spirit has driven Ultimate into a hot nationwide commodity, a sport where individuals, officials and even athletiscm fall secondary. Splice in the festive atmosphere, and you have Missoula’s most lovable sport. Just ask Sisco. 

“Yeah, I use my athleticism out there, because it is an athletically demanding sport,” she said. “But Ultimate isn’t about individuals, it’s about being together and playing as a team.  Anything other than that would wreck the spirit of the game.”