Holliston June 2020

June 2020 Holliston Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com Page 17
Sports
Holliston Ultimate Frisbee and The Season that Wasn’t
By Christopher Tremblay,
Staff Sports Writer
During their pre-season
meeting in February, Holliston
Ultimate Frisbee Coach Chris
Levasseur and his team were in
good spirits about the upcoming
season, despite having a somewhat
younger team. As a Coach,
Levasseur was psyched to get
onto the field and see what all the
new athletes could contribute to
the team this spring.
“I felt that last year was a
rebuilding season where we endured
a lot of growing pains,”
the Panther Coach said. “I was
really excited to see what the
season would hold, but when we
were told that the season was suspended,
I remained hopeful we’d
have at least a shortened season
at some point.”
As a teacher in another school
district, Levasseur didn’t get to
interact personally with his athletes.
All he could do was have
them continue working on their
running and possibly throwing
the disc around with a sibling or
parent. He made it crystal clear
to the captains that they could
not long hold practice until the
MIAA deemed it ok to do so.
“Team sports like ultimate
frisbee are hard to get ready on
your own outside of cross training,”
Levasseur said. “I eventually
told them to put some targets
around their yards and work on
their throwing techniques, like
they’d do if we were in practice
throwing to a teammate.”
As a first-year senior captain,
Ian Shaw was hoping that he
would be able to help the younger
athletes with their skills this coming
season. Unfortunately, he was
limited to communication only
through their Facebook group.
Prior to the restrictions set forth
by the MIAA the team was participating
in small pick up games,
honing their skills for the upcoming
season.
“The week before everything
went down, we were all working
out at captains’ practices and
feeling very excited about the season,”
Shaw said. “Then, within
a span of a week, we lost everything.
With the suspension of the
season, we knew that it was going
to be a short season with limited
games. We never thought we’d
lose the entire season.”
As things continued to progress
and no word was coming
from the Governor nor the
MIAA office, Levasseur was feeling
anxious about a season at all.
“It was not a good sign as
things went on,” the Holliston
Coach said. “Eventually Governor
Baker made the announcement
that no one wanted to hear,
that the spring seasons were
cancelled. It was obviously a big
disappointment, and I felt really
bad for the seniors.”
According to the Coach, a
couple of his athletes had spent
time attending the National Ultimate
Training Camp in Amherst
with Tiina Booth. Booth, the
UMASS Amherst Ultimate Frisbee
Coach, is considered one of
the Countries best coaches in the
sport. The athletes attending the
camp were excited to bring back
to Holliston what they learned
in Amherst and share it with the
team. Unfortunately, they never
got the chance.
“I was looking forward to the
seniors bringing in an institute of
knowledge to the newer younger
athletes, but that has all been lost
due to the situation at hand,”
Levasseur said.
In addition to Shaw, who the
Coach considered a vocal leader
that is willing to help anyone that
needed his help, Holliston also
had returning seniors in Nico
Doyle, Brendan Irons, Henry
Tate, and Matt Whiting. Senior
Jacob Maxwell was hoping to
play his first season on the ultimate
frisbee team this spring.
Last season, Doyle tore his
meniscus and was not able to
take to the field and help his
Panther teammates. Despite not
being able to play, he did attend
almost every single practice to
support the team. Early this year,
he found out he had to have another
surgery and would once
again be out for his senior campaign.
“Nico embraces the spirit of
the game and weas looking forward
to playing this season, but
with his injury he was going to
become our team manager,”
the Coach said. “Although he
Covid-19 put a kibosh on Holliston’s Ultimate Frisbee season this year, but athletes are making the best of it.
wouldn’t be able to play, he was
very excited about doing anything
that he could to help this
team become a more cohesive
unit. He would have been a huge
help had we had the season.”
While Levasseur is hoping
that some of his athletes go on
to play ultimate in college, he is
also hoping that all the new athletes
that signed up to take on the
challenge this year return to the
team next spring. Shaw, who is
going to attend the University of
Hartford, will continue to play
ultimate frisbee on a club team.
“Having lost the season means
I won’t be in the best of shape
when I get to college, but I’m
only going to be playing on a
club team,” he said. “I feel bad
for all the kids who are moving
on to play on the next level. I am
also hoping that all the young talent
that were going to play on the
team this year comes back next
year and works hard at returning
Holliston to a top team.”
While it hasn’t been set in
stone, Levasseur has heard that
Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance
(BUDA) is trying to put together
a fall season, but the Panther
Coach doesn’t see it being fruitful,
especially in Holliston where
a lot of athletes that play frisbee
play other sports, especially in the
fall.
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