Loyola is home to five recreational and athletic student organizations and soon may be home to a sixth as the ultimate Frisbee team awaits approval from the Student Government Association.

Finance sophomore co-founder and co-captain Kyle Montello is excited for the team’s potential approval from the SGA. “At this point we are just waiting to hear back from the SGA, and we are confident that we will be approved. We hope to hear back soon,” Montello said.

Montello and co-founder and co-captain Andy Williams, music education freshman, went through a process that included gauging the level of interest in the sport from the Loyola student body and developing a constitution in order to be considered for approval by the SGA.

The support of the Loyola faculty and staff is crucial to the SGA in deciding whether or not to approve a potential team, and luckily for the ultimate Frisbee team, Director of Admissions Keith Gramling provides just that. Gramling, who has been at Loyola since 1992, enjoys the competitive nature of ultimate Frisbee and is a key to the team’s formation.

If approved by the SGA, the Loyola ultimate Frisbee team will compete in the Gulf Coast Conference against schools from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. “The teams in the Gulf Coast Conference will be decided once rosters are turned in,” Montello said. The Loyola ultimate Frisbee team is currently composed of 10-15 members, both male and female.

Montello’s love for the sport did not begin when he arrived at Loyola in 2009; rather, it is something he has grown to love since a young age. “I picked up ultimate (Frisbee) in middle school when we used to play during gym class. I really did not start playing competitively until around (my) junior year of high school, but it was mostly just pickup games with kids I knew who also played ultimate (Frisbee),” Montello said.

Ultimate Frisbee’s appeal can be credited to how relatively easy it is to play and how there is no equipment needed besides a Frisbee disc. Once a player possesses the disc, he must stop running and pass the disc to a teammate. If the pass is blocked, intercepted, not caught, or goes out-of-bounds, possession transfers to the other team, which then becomes the offense.

Any student interested in playing ultimate Frisbee should contact team co-founders and co-captains Kyle Montello at [email protected] or Andy Williams at [email protected].

Richard Dempsey can be reached at [email protected]