2023 Club Season: Deep Dish Discs
Since entering the Scottish ultimate frisbee scene several years ago, Deep Dish Discs (DDD) has continued to grow, and is making a name for itself across the UK. Whilst it is no longer Scotland’s newest ultimate frisbee club, it’s still exciting to see how it continues to develop. Steven McLaughlin and Gemma Milne gave us a summary of what happened for the club in 2023:
Deep Dish Discs started five years ago in Glasgow as a mixed pick-up team that wanted to enter tournaments together. The first tournament the club went to was Ultimate Resolution in Newcastle where we sent two teams with the main goal of having fun and partying, plus playing some frisbee on the side. Following the success of this tournament, the founders (Nick Byrne, Steven McLaughlin, Gemma Milne and Johnny Tofalis) all decided to legitimise the club and see how far they could take it.
Over the last five years, we have created a committee under a constitution with 13 committee members. The club identified gaps in the Glasgow ultimate scene and focuses on competitive indoor, beach, and development outdoor ultimate. We enter almost exclusively mixed tournaments considering we are primarily a mixed-gender club. Throughout the indoor season, we aim to run regular indoor training sessions, and enter teams into competitive tournaments. In the outdoor season, the focus is on developing members by growing their skills and understanding of the sport. Finally, in the beach season the focus is on sending a high-level Scottish team to beach nationals with the goal of qualifying for the European or World Championships.
It wasn’t too long ago that the club ultimate scene saw us as just a fun, casual team. Cut to 2023, where we took our place on the podium at a range of tournaments. The first of these was winning bronze at Mixed Indoor Club Qualifiers and grabbing a spot at nationals after a competitive game against our second team. This demonstrated the amazing depth of talent in our club, and coming 3rd and 4th was an amazing feat. The club’s main competitive focus this year was beach, after we noticed a lack of Scottish representation at UK events. We took bronze at Beach Nationals and gold at Tartan Tour: Surf’s Up. Surf’s Up was the first beach event ran in Edinburgh by Deep Dish Discs, and hopefully the first of many!
In the outdoor season, we focused on development and had teams representing us at every Tartan Tour event. Our development team also did well at Stirling Tune Up, returning as reigning champions, and took bronze at Rookie Rumble. Many of our development recruits are from Glasgow and Strathclyde university teams, who love the general vibe of the club due to our inclusivity and social scene, and are well integrated within DDD.
We finished off the year at the event where it all started, Ultimate Resolution. We entered 2 teams, and both had a great tournament. Our first team placed 5th for the second year in a row – a highlight was giving the winning team (made up largely of GB players) their most competitive game of the tournament. It was an amazing way to end the year; being the extremely fun, competitive and welcoming club that we always strive to be.
On all surfaces, we pride ourselves on being a fun, fully-open and inclusive club that welcomes people of all backgrounds and skill levels. We might like to play frisbee, but we are also a club that knows how to party! There is lots to get involved in, with monthly socials for all club members – including legendary socials such as St. Paddy’s Day, the World Games flat crawl and the ‘Famous Frat Party’.
In 2024, the club’s aim will continue to be growth. We have entered teams into Open, Women and Mixed Indoor Club Qualifiers (DDD placed 5th, 2nd, 11th and respectively). We plan to send our outdoor development team to the UK tours, using these as opportunities to develop the Scottish club scene and recruit more keen and competitive players. The beach season will continue to be highly competitive, with trials for our team scheduled for April/ May this year.
As you can see, there is plenty to get involved in! Whether you’re looking for competition, wanting to improve your frisbee ability, or just looking for a fun social community, DDD is the club for you.
Find Deep Dish Discs on Facebook or Instagram at @deepdishdiscs and drop us a message to get involved!
Photos:
(First and final photos) Ultimate Paparazzo @ultimatepaparazzo