The women’s side of the Marist FoxU ultimate frisbee team has emerged to play a pivotal role in the team’s co-ed competitions and leadership structure, but they are not fully satisfied just yet.
FoxU currently has around a half-dozen female members who partake in the team’s practices and co-ed competitions. Since the team ran the table in going 18-0 during their co-ed fall schedule, the men’s side is now eligible to participate in male-only competitions this spring while the women’s side still only has enough players to participate in co-ed games, which are less frequent this time of year.
While the men’s side of the team traveled to Middletown, NY over the past weekend for their first male-only tournament of the year, FoxU will host a co-ed tournament in early April and then play in co-ed tournaments at Westfield and Bard.
“Looking forward, I really hope to get more interest from female players. That has always been a struggle for us, to get women interested in playing,” wrote junior cutter and team president Riley Murphy in an email to Center Field. “I have not played female-only… Going forward, I really hope that we will be able to increase our female numbers as I would love to see more women-only games and events happen.”
Junior cutter and team captain Caitlin Camilleri echoed these sentiments; she feels that an increased female presence on the team gives FoxU a competitive advantage in co-ed play.
“I honestly feel like what some of the guys don’t realize is that having strong female players is a good way to win some games,” said Camilleri. “I feel like the male players are normally more evenly matched… You need a whole good team, not just relying on the fastest guy out there because if I’m fast and the girl on the other team isn’t, it helps.”
Like many who play ultimate frisbee, the leaders for the women’s side of the team did not initially become involved with the sport until later in their teenage years. Both Murphy and Camilleri did not play ultimate frisbee until arriving at Marist, yet they were each immediately drawn to the club team’s welcoming atmosphere at the school activity fair and tryouts.
“The girl’s captain at the time came up to me [at tryouts] and she was like, ‘Oh, let me show you how to throw a flick,” said Camilleri. “I hadn’t been there for 10 minutes and they were already teaching me new things about the sport.”
Murphy noted that when she joined during her freshman year, it was an exciting time for the team since COVID-19 restrictions had finally been lifted. With many on the team demonstrating enthusiasm at returning to play after a nearly two-year-long layoff, Murphy was sold.
“I decided to stick it out even after bearing the 80-degree weather during tryouts,” Murphy added. “I loved it so much that over the years I was able to convince my roommates to join.”
One player from the women’s side who did possess a bit more experience heading into college is sophomore handler Nora Samson, who is the other women’s captain alongside Camilleri. Samson stumbled upon the sport in high school; she and her friend originally intended to try out for the volleyball club, but Samson was away for the week of tryouts.
“My friend’s mom was like, ‘Well, you guys are going to do something. Here’s this thing called ultimate frisbee, give it a try,’ and I ended up loving it,” said Samson.
No matter the path taken to enter the world of ultimate frisbee or level of experience, players are immediately thrown into the gauntlet at tryouts. This was the case for Camilleri, who explained that tryouts are one, uniform process that are not split up by gender.
“I was with a group of a bunch of big guys. At one point, they were like, ‘Start running one-on-one,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, sure, no problem!’” said Camilleri. “This guy is two feet taller than me, but that’s okay.”
Camilleri touted this approach as central to the team’s operation; she believes that holding co-ed tryouts and practices is essential since the team ultimately does play together as one group in many of their competitions. Samson also expressed her appreciation for the team’s co-ed approach, as she feels it has afforded her additional opportunities to play the sport she loves.
“I do really like the fact that it is mixed because if it wasn’t, I don’t really know if I’d get a chance to play because girl numbers are so low,” said Samson. “But I like that we’re still very much involved even though there might not be the numbers.”
As Samson alluded to, the leaders of the women’s side take on key roles in facilitating the team’s logistics. The captains focus on on-field objectives, namely helping to run practices, while Murphy takes on less glamorous tasks as the team president. These include organizing practice and tournament schedules, as well as working with the athletic director for club sports.
The team’s commitment to the sport is evident in how they consistently still show up to practice despite having less-than-ideal practice time slots, an inevitable byproduct of being a club team at a Division I school with limited playing surfaces.
“We are given Sunday and Monday [nights to practice], which is so terrible,” said Camilleri. “I feel like frisbee is pretty low on the totem pole of getting turf space.”
Despite dealing with some inconvenient circumstances, the team’s dedication has unquestionably paid off, as evidenced by their 18-0 performance this fall. Camilleri mentioned how the team had hardly at all won during her freshman year, and although she missed the fall season due to studying abroad, she relished hearing about FoxU’s success from afar.
For Samson, she was right in the middle of things this fall as a handler on the offensive line. Her team’s triumph in the Westfield tournament back in October stuck out to her as the highlight of the season.
“It was a really cool experience being able to take something home, especially because some of the guys that have been on the team for their whole high school career, they said this is the first piece of metal or first trophy that FoxU has taken home in five years,” said Samson.
Moving forward, the goal is to continue adding female talent to the roster, as Samson hopes to one day see the team participate in women’s clinics, or possibly even a women’s league. For this to happen, Camerlli believes the women’s side would need to nearly double the number of members the team currently has to make things work.
“If we had around 14 people, even if we had 12, that would be great because then we’d basically have one line and almost enough subs to sub everyone out every few points,” said Camilleri.
Both Camilleri and Murphy conveyed their belief that while it can be nerve-wracking to try out for the team, taking that leap of faith has been worth it in their estimation.
“People are afraid to try new things, and that’s why sometimes we have a hard time getting more girls on the team,” said Camilleri.
“I was a little bit skeptical at first since I had never played, but it is honestly one of my best decisions since coming to Marist to join the team,” added Murphy. “As we like to tell potential members, it is a really easy sport to pick up.”
Edited by Ben Leeds and Aidan Lavin
Graphic by Cara Lacey; Photos from Riley Murphy and Caitlin Camilleri
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