After a long season performing at halftime with the varsity dance team, Amelia Teare, a junior at the time, traded in her shiny red and white poms for a frisbee. Teare decided to fill up her newfound free time playing on the JV Ultimate Frisbee team. Except this time instead of cheering for the boys, Teare was playing with them.

Teare picked up Ultimate Frisbee from her older brother, Alex Teare, after practicing a little at her church but never seriously competed with the game until joining the team at Kirkwood.

This year Teare made varsity and is ready for the challenge of being the only girl on the team.

“It’s fun being the only girl because I get to play against all the guys,” Teare said. “But there’s definitely the obvious barrier of ‘Oh she’s a girl don’t take her too seriously’ so I just have to work harder to show everyone up.”

And work hard is exactly what Amelia has done. According to varsity coach, Buck Schneider, Amelia has great field sense, knows the game well and knows what cuts to make for the range of throws that her teammates have. Schneider also said that because of her hard work and determination, Teare was voted one of three members to represent their team at the All-Star game this year.

And it’s not just Amelia that is working hard. The 20 player team has practiced every week and according to varsity captain, Jack Huffman, the team went undefeated (8-0).

“Our team is thriving. We are only a tier two team but we have a state tournament coming up, and we’ve won all of our season games and played two of them against tier one teams, which are the more competitive teams,” Huffman said. “So right now, we are looking really awesome for the tournament.”

In addition to working hard on the field, the team also excels academically. Schneider said he guesses the average GPA of the Ultimate team is very high, at or near the top despite all of the bands, plays, dance performances and other sports the kids have on their plate. He also said how refreshing it is to coach a team that “gets it” quickly allowing him to move on with new plays to defeat their opponents.

“In the end Ultimate Frisbee is like a stress reliever for me, especially coming from such a demanding activity such as poms where we practice every day,” Teare said. “Obviously we care about winning but the majority of us are just out there to have a good time, but if you win anyways, it’s just a plus.”