By Arisa Cox
The faint cloud of steam rising from Kathy Butler’s body disappears into the frigid night air as she sprints across the field to catch a speeding disc. She is in the middle of a game with her fall ultimate Frisbee team, the Cold Cuts. Despite the cold, Butler says, the positive attitude of the sport keeps her coming back, even though she has to regularly travel outside her community to play due to a lack of nearby local space.
Butler, a 31-year-old Centretown resident, began playing ultimate Frisbee eight years ago, and is now the women’s league co-ordinator. The relatively new sport mixes elements of many popular sports: a football-like format, some basketball rules and of course, a disc instead of a ball.
Since 1986, the popularity of the sport has grown dramatically in the national capital region, making the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association the largest league in the world, with approximately 2,600 players on 233 teams this summer. The highest density of players come from the Centretown area.
But, the sheer number of teams has made finding local field space difficult, especially in the evenings and on weekends for practice. Ultimate Frisbee has had to compete against traditional favourites like football, and a recent surge in soccer, for the use of neighbourhood fields.
Mike Harley, president of the local ultimate association, says that there were 36 fields in use each night during the summer, which made it hard for ultimate teams to find a place to play on the city of Ottawa’s facilities.
Brett Dark, director of leisure services for the City of Ottawa, says that sports fields are at a premium, and there has been an increasing need from sports like ultimate Frisbee.
Although enthusiasts has dubbed ultimate Frisbee the fastest growing sport in North America it’s still a relatively unknown sport. There are about 85 fields in Ottawa that have to be shared by many sports and Dark says longer-standing clients are usually more successful in getting space to practice and play within the city.
Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association field manager Nick Roberts says that municipalities should conduct a comprehensive review of recreational activities every five years. This way, the priority given to particular sports could be re-evaluated in order to fairly meet the needs of Ottawa’s changing demographics.
“One of the greatest embarrassments is that we have the largest league in the world, and there’s not one single dedicated ultimate field provided by our municipalities,” says Roberts. The league instead has had to use what has been available, from unsuitable baseball diamonds to cricket fields.
Butler says she believes that more recognition and aid will come with time.
“It’s still a little bit underground, and once it becomes a little bit better known, I think we’ll have an easier time, but for now it’s still rough going.”
The strain was so great the league had to look elsewhere for space. Two years ago they spent $657,000 on 100 acres of land near Manotick station, about 25 minutes south of Ottawa. Funded entirely by its own members, the association turned the land into 17 state-of-the-art manicured playing fields. But even that isn’t enough.
In the meantime, Butler will do whatever she can to continue playing, even if that means travelling across town to play.