Combine soccer, football and a few other sports and you have what is known as Ultimate Frisbee, and Cloquet has one of the few leagues in northern Minnesota. The league is the brain child of Frank Bartsch and Josh Vopat of Cloquet. Bartsch is the parks and recreation director for Cloquet Community Education and the city of Cloquet and Vopat had coordinated pickup games for the past three years.
"Frank contacted me in late March and asked if I'd be interested in taking on a league and I, of course, said yes," mentioned Vopat. "The actual league has only been around this year, but we've been playing organized pickup games for three years now, and a few of us have even played before that."
The league consists of four teams with 17 players on a team. Usually, the game is played in a 7-on-7 format, but if a team is short on players they will mutually consent to play 5-on-5.
According to the Ultimate Players Association Web site, the object of the game is to score goals. A goal is scored when a player catches any legal pass in the end zone that player is attacking. A player may not run while holding the disc. The disc is advanced by passing it to other players and the disc may be passed in any direction. Any time a pass is incomplete, a turnover occurs, resulting in immediate change of the team in possession of the disc.
"In our league we play first team to score 15 points wins and we have a halftime break when a team reaches seven points," said Vopat. "This year, because it is our first, we have mostly college-age and high school kids in the league, but we would definitely like to see more age groups next year as everyone is welcome to play."
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Games are played on Saturday nights at 6 p.m. at Hilltop Park in Cloquet.
"It is intended to be competitive ... we are now fighting for the top seed in the playoffs," said Vopat. "It is also meant to be fun, as with any sport, I don't think people would still be here if they weren't having fun."
Fans are invited to come and watch the teams play at Hilltop where there is plenty of parking just off 14th Street.
