It's Ultimate Frisbee, and it has taken flight in Prince George.
Ultimate is a co-ed, non-contact team sport played by passing a flying disc down a rectangular field. Points are scored by catching the disc in the opposing team's end zone.
Ultimate brings together elements of several different sports and that's part of what makes it fun, said Greg Jonuk, executive director of Prince George Disc Sports.
"It combines the athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing of football and the breakout action of basketball," Jonuk said.
"Also, there are only 10 rules so that is a definite bonus as well. It's simple to learn, however it's difficult to master because it involves a Frisbee, and a Frisbee doesn't behave like a ball.
"There are different ways to learn how to throw a Frisbee that are a lot more complex than throwing a ball or even taking a shot in hockey, because the Frisbee plays in the wind so much."
Five teams signed up to play in a local spring league, which held its first games earlier this month at the Prince George secondary school fields. Spring league games - intended for beginning and novice players - will be held every Thursday night until June 30. As well, a competitive league is off the ground.
Those contests unfold at D.P. Todd secondary on Tuesday evenings and will continue until June 28. Prince George even has a representative team that attended a tournament in Kelowna in early May.
"There are other tournaments in B.C. and also in Alberta," Jonuk said. "There's also a men's tournament in Vancouver that a team is planning to go to as well."
One of the upcoming events Jonuk is excited about is the second annual Great Canadian Ultimate Game charity event, June 17 to 18.
"It's essentially played all across Canada, so it starts on the West Coast [in the Lower Mainland] and the teams down there play for an hour," he said. "Then it sweeps across the country east, and then back west, so there's about 27 communities all told, and they each play an hour and the cumulative score adds up. How they did it last year, and how they will do it this year, is to split the teams into two."
This year, the Red Team and the White Team is each associated with a different charity - the Boys and Girls Club and Ultimate Peace will benefit this year, said Jonuk.
The winning team gets 60 per cent of the donations that players and spectators are expected to contribute, and the losing charity gets 40 per cent.
"It's kind of unique," he said.
Close to $8,000 was raised nationally last year with Prince George pitching in $200 to the overall pot.
Ultimate traces its origins back to 1968 in the United States and started to find a foothold in Prince George in the 1990s. Locally, the game gained momentum in the early new millennium and now has a well-established core of players.
"We're quite happy with where it is now," Jonuk said. "For example, in the winter, if we had any more than four teams in our winter league [based at the Northern Sport Centre fieldhouse] it would add greater complexity because it would have to be scheduled - different shifts on the field. And similar with our spring league. It would be nice if we had one more team so we'd have an even amount of teams but even that adds a greater level of complexity as well."
A tournament is planned for June 25 at the PGSS fields. New players are welcome to participate.
For more information, see the league's website: www.pgultimate.bc.ca.
