Christian Sopkowiak/Winonan

Hans Hollander stood at the base of the pavilion, the sun shining as his arm snapped every time the pale Frisbee left his hand. The friend directly across from him caught the Frisbee and spun it back towards his Ultimate Frisbee captain, Hollander.

“We practice every day 4 to 6 at the pavilion. Then, this fall, we have four tournaments on the weekends,” Hollander said. “There are several pools of 32 teams, and if we win, we go on to different brackets.”

Hollander is a four-year veteran of the Winona State University Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. He has been a captain for the last two years. He has loved Ultimate for as long as he can remember.

“Ultimate is basically a combination of soccer, football, basketball and lacrosse,” Hollander said. “It is a seven-on-seven and the goal is to score in the end zone with the Frisbee. Usually games go to 13 or 15. You work the disc up the field, you can’t run the disc.”

Hollander and the 29 other members of the team will compete every weekend.

Because of the large size of their team, the team had decided to separate the players into two teams of ten and fifteen. There are seven starters and the rest are subs.

“Our usual tournament day goes nine to four. Also, there is a fall and spring season. The spring season is what really matters.” Hollander said.

Hollander also mentioned the diversity of the team with a handful of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen all on the team.

“It gives you this competitive environment. It is also a social group where you can really feel connected with a lot of different people.”

Hollander extended his invitation to all of the Winona community to come to their next tournament game in the last weekend of October.

It will take place at Jaycee’s Pavilion, and it will be Halloween themed, as the team will be wearing costumes.

For more information, search “Winona State Experience” on Facebook.

Contact Christian at [email protected]