DUBBO Ultimate Frisbee Federation (DUFF) president Tim Hosking has hailed the first High Schools Ultimate Gala Day as a success after seeing a big crowd turn out to play at South Dubbo Oval yesterday.
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The fun sport has a strong following in Dubbo and DUFF made sure younger players had the chance to learn the basics yesterday with a gala day involving Macquarie Anglican Grammar School (MAGS) and Narromine High School.
More than 50 kids were in attendance with boys and girls from years 7 to 11 taking part and Hosking was pleased with the turnout.
"We had two schools and five teams so there were about 50 kids and we held mixed matches and a skills session for the new players," Hosking said.
"The kids had fun, ultimate frisbee is now part of the PE curriculum so most of the kids had tried it but not in more of a competitive situation so it was good for them to be shown more skills and rules."
One of the Narromine High teams was crowned the winner on the day while a side from MAGS picked up the spirit of the game award.
With the senior competition growing every season at Dubbo, more than 100 players in six teams are currently registered, Hosking said it was important to get younger players involved in the game.
"Youth development is very important in ultimate frisbee, there's a strong university competition and post university but in high schools and primary schools it's still developing," he said.
"We've got a few high school players in our Monday night competition so hopefully they can get their own teams and then in a year or two we hope to send a team to the state titles run by Ultimate Frisbee NSW so this is a good step towards that."
Hosking admitted he was already thinking about running the gala day next year with the plan to have more schools and teams involved.
"We hope to have it in term four again so it doesn't clash with too many other sports but we're looking for more schools, a couple more were interested this year but just couldn't get here today," he said.
In other DUFF news the local representative side, the Meerkats, head to Temora this weekend for a regional NSW title. They will meet teams from Wagga, Canberra, Sydney and many other country areas and Hosking was hopeful the Meerkats can perform well and return home with the title.
