WHITEMARSH - It has all the ingredients of a professional sporting event, with people hanging out in the parking lot before the game, cheerleaders, and travel up and down the east coast. But it was not the Eagles and the Giants that took the field on Sunday afternoon at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School but the Philadelphia Spinners and the New York Rumble in Major League Ultimate action.
The professional ultimate Frisbee league is in its inaugural season after Broomall resident Jeff Snader founded the league, although the Spinners had previously played in a different league, according to General Manager Mark Evangelista.
"The level of play in this league is just leaps and bounds above where we were last year," he explained. "We're into bigger cities now. D.C. and Boston in addition to Philly on the east coast and we've got four teams on the west coast, too: Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and San Francisco."
For those unfamiliar with the sport, ultimate is something of a hybrid between soccer and football, only instead of a ball, flying plastic is used. Much like football, the object of ultimate is to pass the disc from teammate to teammate and cross the goal line. Additionally, if a pass is intercepted by an opposing player, the intercepting team retains possession. However, unlike football, players may not run with the disc and if a player drops a pass or the disc touches the ground for whatever reason, the team that was playing defense then gets control of the disc.
Much like soccer, ultimate is a very fast-moving game, as a player may only hold onto the disc for seven seconds. If a player hangs on to the disc for longer than seven seconds, the defensive team gets possession. Because of this, there are often rapid-fire passes to set up deep passes similar to a Hail Mary in football.
"The game is very easy to pick up. It's a very fast-paced game. It's very aerobic," said Evangelista. "A lot of big plays, a lot of exciting, fast-moving plays. A lot of highlight reel plays."
Although ultimate has been played on college campuses and in town parks for nearly half a century, professional teams have only recently begun to grab hold of the public's attention. According to Evangelista, last week's home opener drew approximately 1,000 fans and last season, while playing at Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania, the team averaged approximately 750 fans per game at their home games.
"We have an amazing staff of volunteers. We go out. We go to the King of Prussia Mall. We go to the Plymouth Meeting Mall and we pass out promotional information to get people out to the games," said Evangelista.
The effort put forth not just by the Spinners but by Major League Ultimate in general has already begun to pay off and draw attention to the league, as last week, a play was featured on the ESPN Sportscenter Top 10, coming in as the third best play of the day, according to the sports network.
The teams in MLU are made up predominantly of players that are local to the region in which the team is based and the Spinners are no different, with Norristown resident Jack Casey, Lansdale natives Mike and David Baer and Jonah Wisch from Glenside.
The MLU season began on April 20 and the regular season will end on June 22. During that time, the Spinners will host three more games at PW, including May 25 against the Boston Whitecaps, June 1 in a rematch against the Rumble, and in the regular season finale on June 22 against the Washington, D.C. Current.
For more information on the Spinners, visit www.PhiladelphiaSpinners.com or www.MLUltimate.com.
Follow Tony Fioriglio on Twitter @TheTonyFiorigli.