Traditions run deep at Harding, and one of the more heralded traditions is the men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. Harding Apocalypse has been a staple since its beginnings in 2003 and has enjoyed great success over the last 11 years. This year’s team, headed by seniors Luc Sutherland, Davis Pruett and Gregg Downing, looks to continue those traditions while also building camaraderie and friendships along the way.
“We’re a tight knit family,” Pruett said. “We do stuff together all the time. Frisbee isn’t necessarily the most intense sport, so just being able to be with your friends and playing a game you love is awesome.”
Harding Apocalypse is a part of USA Ultimate, a non-profit organization that serves as the governing body for Ultimate Frisbee within the United States. They sponsor several different sub-divisions of play, including the College Series, which Apocalypse plays in. One of the biggest challenges the team faces year in and year out is the fact that Ultimate Frisbee is not recognized as an official NCAA sport, so most of the time they are in charge of what they do.
“You could kind of compare us to a club sport,” Sutherland said. “We are self-governed and do most things on our own. We look up, sign up, pay for and provide transportation for tournaments ourselves.”
This fall, Apocalypse participated in several large tournaments in the southern U.S. as a part of their pre-season schedule, including the Missouri Loves Company Tournament sponsored by the University of Missouri and the Gulf Coast Warm Up at the University of Alabama. At tournaments like these, there is no telling who they could end up playing.
“Because we’re a smaller school, we play in Division III,” Sutherland said. “But oftentimes at tournaments like these, we end up playing much bigger schools. It gives us a good opportunity to see what we can do against teams like that.”
Seeing what the team can do has been one of the biggest parts of the pre-season for Apocalypse. They have spent a lot of time getting their new members ready for competition and also promoting to them the team’s core values: friendship and having fun.
“(The older members) have made a distinct effort this year to make sure the younger guys know that we’re their friends, not their superiors,” Sutherland said. “I think that really goes a long way towards building the culture we want here.”
Above everything else, Apocalypse wants to have fun and grow together to put a competitive squad on the field and carry on the legacy former members have left behind.
“We really are one big family,” Pruett said. “We know we have big shoes to fill both on and off the field, knowing some of the guys who have come before us.”
