Edwardsville High School Ultimate Frisbee Team Takes Home State Titles, Ranked Nationally

EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville High School’s ultimate frisbee team is making waves as one of the top nationally ranked teams in the country.

Coach Jason Zawitkowski and organizer Trevor Spohr couldn’t be prouder of the athletes who have turned the EHS ultimate frisbee club into a major school sport. This past year, they welcomed over 60 students in the program and started a girls’ team. The EHS club took home state in Illinois and second place in Missouri, and they were ranked number 22 in the country for high school ultimate frisbee programs.

“This year has been the most dedicated I’ve seen all of our players. They all really bought into the team,” Zawitkowski said. “Seeing the growth of the kids that I’ve seen the last few years since I’ve been associated with it has just been amazing. We’ve got some really stellar players that are going to go on to play in college. We have players playing all across the college level at several different colleges throughout the U.S.”

Several students started the ultimate frisbee club back in 2014. They approached Spohr, who was working at the Edwardsville YMCA, about starting a league at the YMCA. Spohr went on to become their high school coach, and the team now plays in the St. Louis League in Missouri and against a few schools in Illinois.

The club started with a dozen players; now, they’ve grown to over 60 participants. They hope to start a middle school team in the next year.

While ultimate frisbee is a lot of fun, Spohr also believes it goes a long way towards developing the athletes. He explained there are no referees or umpires. Instead, the students make their own calls. Even when they’re physically and emotionally drained, they must be able to have “honest and integrity-driven conversations” about each play.

“In my opinion, it’s one of the best sports for high school students to do because there are no officials that make calls or anything like that for any level of play for high school,” Spohr said. “Sometimes I think, having a referee, you can blame things, a loss, because of the referee. They call it a bad call. And for us, it’s like, no, you have to own your wins, you have to own your losses.”

Zawitkowski’s sons joined the program in 2019. When Spohr stepped away from coaching, Zawitkowski took on the responsibility alongside his son Jonathan, who plays ultimate frisbee at SIUE. He is proud to be a part of the club’s growth, and he noted that many athletes benefit from playing the sport.

“The impact it had on both of my kids, I just couldn't let the club fall apart,” Zawitkowski said. “I see a lot of kids come play ultimate because it’s different than other sports. A lot of the ones that come play ultimate that I’ve talked to that have played other sports talk about the culture in the other sports. That’s part of the reason why they came to ultimate, because they’ve heard that everyone is brought into this sport and there's no judgment in it. Everybody’s there. It’s a really inviting sport that kind of builds everybody up and doesn’t tear each other apart, like some of the other sports I’ve seen in the area.”

The season will start again in February and go through May, and Spohr and Zawitkowski look forward to another great year of ultimate frisbee. As they celebrate this season’s success, they hope to make it to the high school national invite next year and continue to grow the team going forward.

“The kids that are playing that are really bought-in, they want to grow it even more because of the impact that it’s had on their life,” Zawitkowski added. “People just love the sport and what it’s done for them.”

For more information about the EHS ultimate frisbee club, visit their official website at EdwardsvilleUltimate.com.