The National Capital Region’s Ultimate Team: The D.C. Breeze
By • July 13, 2023 0 1405
Ultimate frisbee team D.C. Breeze is currently celebrating 10 years representing D.C. and the National Capital Region. The Breeze got their first post-season victories just three years after their establishment and have been getting better with each passing year. In fact, they’ve qualified for the playoffs in the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) for the last 7 years straight.
The D.C. Breeze. Courtesy D.C. Breeze.
In 2018, the D.C. Breeze won 23 out of their last 26 home games. The team is getting ready to round out their last few games of the season, the first being this Friday at 7 p.m. versus the Philadelphia Phoenix in Pennsylvania, and the final game is Friday July 21 versus the Toronto Rush at Catholic University’s Carlini Field.
The Breeze have added international stars of Ultimate to their roster. At only 18 years-old, Ben Oort, was a top player in the Netherlands before coming to D.C. “Andrew Roy made his Breeze debut this spring after spending the past two seasons with the Minnesota Wind Chills, where he racked up 44 assists,” according to WHSV 3 Fox News, New York.
Ultimate Frisbee, now called just “Ultimate,” is a non-contact team sport first developed in 1968 by Joel Silver of Maplewood, New Jersey. Ultimate resembles most traditional sports, but it is unique in the fact that its focus is on self-officiating. “Players are empowered to self-officiate using a framework governed by the principles of Spirit of the Game,” Ultimate’s official rules proclaim.
Due to “Frisbee” being a registered trademark of the “Wham-O” toy company, the sport is not formally using the “Frisbee” name anymore, but many still use the term Ultimate Frisbee in conversation.
Courtesy D.C. Breeze.
In Ultimate, each team is composed of 7 players. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone and other basic rules include players not taking steps while holding the disc, and interceptions, incomplete passes and passes out-of-bounds are turnovers.
As of 2012, there were just over five million Ultimate players in the U.S. The sport is gaining new players daily, particularly in recreational, school, club, professional and national teams at various age-levels and in women’s, mixed and open divisions.
The D.C. Breeze made it to fourth-place to defeat Boston and qualify for the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year. More information on the team can be found here.
