Ultimate in Barrie

Welcome to the History of the Barrie Ultimate League

I started playing Ultimate in Barrie in 1993, one year after the Barrie Flying Disc Club was established by Chris Willinson. At that time, between 1993 and 1996, I played twice a week almost every week of the year, rain or snow. Back then, we knew nothing about strategy (such as a “stack” or a “cup”) and nobody knew how to throw a “flick”, let alone a “hammer.” But it was still extremely enjoyable.

It wasn’t until 1995 that Barrie sent an Ultimate team to a tournament, which was played in Newmarket. Now if you can picture this, we had a bunch of players whose first game is against a team called Zoyds. A couple of the male players on Zoyds show up wearing skirts. Not knowing the attitude of the game, we were really taken aback by this. And then when I saw my first hammer thrown my jaw dropped to the turf. We thought we had hit the big time. We lost by one point to a team wearing pink shirts and dresses. Not your ordinary competitive sports experience!

After that tournament, we went back to Barrie with a greater understanding and love for the game. With that enthusiasm in mind, Barrie’s first touring team, known as “Slipped Disc”, was formed in the fall of 1995. Mind you, it wasn’t until 1998 that we actually played in a tournament. At this point, the first Barrie North Collegiate Ultimate tournament was established. I had the honour of organizing the tournament with the help of Kevin Simms, a teacher at the school. The tournament is still going and growing.

One year after that – 1999 – Slipped Disc entered the Toronto Ultimate Tournament. This for me was a dream! I had always wanted to take a team to a tournament in another city. It meant a lot to me. We placed 12th out of 13 teams but my greatest reward was seeing my team play. At this point, the players on that team came back wanting to form a league with teams and strategies and to grow with what we had learned. This was actually a major turning point for Ultimate in Barrie because we disassociated ourselves from the Barrie Flying Disc Club to form the Barrie Ultimate League.

Round two of our dream (Scot White and myself) was to have an organized league. That year we only had two teams. The following year we added one more team and held the first Ultimate tournament in Barrie called No B.U.L. Personally, I would have to say that the 2000 season was the most competitive I’ve ever seen in Barrie. We now have four teams in our league and were privileged to host the third annual OFSAA tournament, which was held in Midhurst. There is no greater feeling than seeing somebody make what seems to be a seemingly impossible catch, except perhaps doing it myself! Layouts, hammers and flicks are some of things that keep me young.

Catch the spirit, play Ultimate!

Kevin Patterson (2001)