The Iowa City Wings ultimate frisbee team has made a mark at the school that leads, recruiting two students from the east side.

Ethan teDuits ‘18 and Joe Hoff ‘17 have recently joined the five time state champion and nationally ranked ultimate team that started on the west side.

“I always played Ultimate as more of a hobby than a sport,” teDuits said. “But when Worm [head coach] approached me and asked me if I wanted to take it a little more seriously, I thought I’d give it a try.”

The team holds two official practices a week, along with “pick up practices” throughout the week in the evening.

“We go out to the fields every Tuesday and Thursday night for our official practices where we work on our throws, defensive, and offensive plays,” teDuits said. “But occasionally a bunch of us will go out and get some throws in with each other every night just to make sure we’re not rusty the next time we play.”

Though the team mostly consists of players from West High, teDuits and Hoff say that the team chemistry is still strong throughout the team.

“We hang out a lot outside of school and practice so we’ve already developed a good friendship with each other,” Hoff said. “Although Ethan and I are new to the team and are from the rival school, the guys and the coaches have made us feel welcome and we’ve gotten a ton better because of that.”

The team has seen recent success, being put on the watch list for the Ultiworld High School Boys National Tournament on June 3rd and 4th in Rockford, Illinois.

“We [teDuits and Hoff] have only played in three tournaments for the team so I wouldn’t say we’ve played a big part in the bid,” Hoff said. “But the tournaments we attended were pretty competitive and it’s been beneficial to gain that experience if we do qualify for Nationals.”

teDuits and Hoff have described their experience with Wings as a fun and new experience and they hope to spread the Ultimate trend throughout City High as well and hopefully start up their own team sometime in future.

“Playing Ultimate has been such a good experience mostly because it’s one of those sports that isn’t really that popular and I’m glad I’ve gotten the opportunity to try something different,” teDuits said. “I’ve started to go out and play with my friends at City and they’re starting to get into it as well, hopefully City High can get their own team soon.”