February 12, 2008

Las Vegas, NV (UWIRE) -- The UNLV Ultimate Frisbee squad, Red Army, doesn't play for glory, fans or magnificent trophies - they're a team of blue-collared athletes who play for the simple pleasure of sleeping in the next day.

Saturday night was that kind of contest for the Red Army, which defeated the California Ultimate squad, Thug-Mo 13-9 at the Silver Bowl Complex as part of their weekend tournament "Trouble in Vegas."

As the game approached it's closing minutes, the sideline became electrified by the repercussion of the teams successful play - Red Army would not have to be back on the field until noon the next day.

"We had to show up at 8 o'clock this morning, that's a lot of lost sleep," said team captain Jason Owen. "That's three hours of sleep extra, and really, that's what drives our team. That, and the incentive that people can drink more tonight ... One might say [that's an underlying factor]."

The game, which was a close contest throughout the night, did not stop those on the sideline from drinking as kegs from the dozens of schools littered the field from the afternoon onward. Schools such as Duke, Notre Dame, Southern California, Washington, MIT, Colorado and Utah all came to take place in what is one of largest collegiate Ultimate tournaments in the U.S.

By tournament's end, Red Army was 5-4. Though UNLV has participated in tournaments in Logan, Utah, Irvine, Calif. and Los Angeles, this weekend's contest was their most successful according to Owen.

"We're a very young team, we're probably less than a mid-major right now. But we fared pretty well in this tournament."

Player-coach Ken Kriwanek explained that his passion for Ultimate has followed him throughout his collegiate career.

"I love playing Frisbee and the original reason I got into Frisbee was, when I was an undergrad I played Water Polo and my wife was a Division I-A softball player," Kriwanek said. "It was something we could do together."

"We actually practice here at the silver bowl, because it's free lights. It's a long drive for a lot of people, so getting people to make that commitment, show up at 8 a.m. on a tournament when most people have been out the night before, it's a challenge."

Ultimate began showing up on college campuses around 1970 where it was described as "the ultimate game experience." The game had the reputation of being a hippie sport with many people playing in bare feet and emphasizing fun before competitiveness. Ultimate is governed by its "spirit of the game," the principles of fair play, sportsmanship and joy of play.

The game is self officiated, something that proved to be a conflict in Red Army's game against Cal where Thug-Mo called fouls on many plays that didn't necessarily warrant penalties.

"Being self officiated leads to arguments," Kriwanek explained. "Most of the time, the games go very well, sometimes games get pretty argumentative. The only thing you can do at the end of the day is redo the play if you can't agree on what the result of the play was."

Kriwanek emphasized that the game has evolved a lot since its inception, and that the fun-loving nature of the sport has changed.

"There's been a professionalization of the sport over the past several years." he said. I think if you rolled the clock back 10 or 15 years it was essentially a hippie sport. The goal was to have a good time, not to win."

But for Red Army, the goals coincided Saturday night as the team had fun in its victorious performance.

Enjoy the extra sleep.

(C) 2008 The Rebel Yell via UWIRE