Dear DOG player. I played on the US Junior team at worlds. This year I'm a senior in high school, and am writing a book as one of my academic classes. My subject, ultimate of course. For one chapter I'm inclosing a series of interviews. I'd appreciate it if you could provide answers to the following questions. The more long winded the better. Thank you, and I greatly >appreciate this.

Ps. My advisor on this project is not on frisbee time, so the quicker the better, but not at the cost of quality.

Q. how old were you when you first began playing competitive ultimate?

Where did you live at the time?

What drew you to the game?

A. I began playing ultimate as a senior at Baldwin High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was 18 in 1983, and one of my good friends Lance Williams played occasionally with his older brother Todd on the Pittsburgh club team, which was known as the Slag at that time. (Pittsburgh was a big steel town, and slag is a hot molten waste left over from steel production, and would be dumped each night. I remember being able to see the red glare occasionally on a summer night.) Lance and I were on the track team, and we began playing pickup games after practice that year. Most players couldn't throw very well, but we really didn't realize that. My first tournament was that spring when we teamed up with a nearby high school to play in a tournament in Washington, DC, in a terrible rainstorm. That summer, the Slag decided to split into groups, recruit their friends, and form a summer league. My team, the Throbbers, was all from Baldwin, Classes of '75 and '83. The "old guys," as they were known, were about 25, and I remember thinking how cool it was that these guys could be so far along in life and yet still want to play such games. Now, I am nine years older than they were, but still have no plans to give it up.

I liked the speed of the game, and that I could do some things well. I caught a lot of goals, and was able to make some nice defensive plays in the air. I didn't really see my weaknesses. I liked the competition, I liked the partying afterwards, I liked being part of a team.

Q. What about being an experienced player changes the game in your eyes?

A. I unfortunately become intolerant of fundamental mistakes by players who have been in the game for years. Our team is often highly analytical about the game, and many have a good feel for always knowing what they should be doing. Other players haven't had the same environment. Maybe they were taught by some old-school throwbacks who thought it was just about running harder and throwing farther than the other guy and "you just gotta win." Maybe they haven't played field sports much where you have to develop a sense of where the other players are. But I'll see opponents fail to do something "obvious," and it irritates me on some childish level. An example of this is a player is being hopelessly beat on a long cut and his teammate fails to switch because "it's not my man."

Q. If you could say one thing about ultimate to high school players what would it be?

A. Enjoy yourself without being an immature jerk on the field.

Q. What has been the most rewarding aspect of the game?

A. Being an integral part of a group that has changed many aspects of the game. I know we didn't invent most of the things that we're famous for, but we did popularize them and make it acceptable to try to make it a thinking game.

Q. What national, world championships have you played in?

A. Nationals: every year from 1989-1998 except 1991. Worlds: World Club Championships in 1991, 1993, 1995. World Championships in 1996 and 1998.

Q. What person in the game do you look up to the most?

A. I admire certain aspects of many different players. Some of my teammates are just phenomenal. Steve Mooney, Billy Rodriguez, Jeremy Seeger, and Paul Greff all stand out. If I had to name one person, though, it would have to be Kenny Dobyns, for his fire and ability to lead a team, and later for his re-dedication to serving the game doing "public service" (Regional Coordinator, head of his area's frisbee club, etc.).

Q. Who taught you how to play the game?

A. I never really had a mentor. I learned through periods of evolution. In 1990-1991 with Earth Atomizer, and again in 1994 at the start of Death or Glory (DoG), the whole group I was with figured out how to play the game through an interactive process. We had some bright people who weren't afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom of the game, and we gradually weaned out the bad ideas and tweaked the good ones, and came up with some innovations.

Q. What drives you to be better? To win? To prove something to yourself?

A. It's the thrill of the chase. What it really comes down to is that it's fun to be personally involved in a big game and to lose all contact with the outside world. It's those few moments where your concentration is so intense that your total world consists only of those things that you need at that instant.

Q. What do you think is the most important aspect of the game?

A. Field sense. Knowing where to be and when and how to get there.

Q. What is the strongest part of your game?

A. I'm fast and I know how to use my speed on offense. I know defenders are eager to shut me down, so I try to play on that and get them to overreact to a fake, then take off in the other direction before they can recover.

Q. The weakest part of your game?

A. I have periods where I can't concentrate as well as I should. I become impulsive with the frisbee in my hands and throw it before I'm aware that I am doing so. Other times, I become caught in mental loops where I become aware that I'm not concentrating on the game, then start thinking about the fact that I'm not concentrating, then I start wondering how I got started on that track. Finally, I am always fighting to overcome on-field inactivity for fear of doing something wrong.

Q. What do you think Ultimate needs to do to become more recognized?

A. It needs to find itself and what it's supposed to be. There are a lot of great sports to play that are already well-known to the public. To differentiate itself, Ultimate has to offer some angle without it coming off as a gimmick. The sportsmanship aspect of the game is something worthwhile. Only golf among major sports places a premium on fair play above all else. We could do that, too.

On a more detailed level, Ultimate has to remove some of the pickup mentality from competitive play while retaining the spirit. To come off as a real sport, Ultimate can't have 5 minute arguments and 3 minute breaks between points and uncontrollable sociopaths doing what they want. I favor a system that allows the players to control the game, but that prohibits it from getting out of control.

Q. Do you think it should be more widely recognized?

A. Sure, it's my favorite game, and no one knows about it. I think it's growing and more and more people are becoming aware of its existence. We have to remember it's a big market out there. I often hear players say, "If synchronized swimming/team handball/snowboarding can be in the Olympics, why can't we?" But they fail to consider that each of those have hundreds or thousands of times the number of players that we have.

Q. What does ultimate mean to you?

A. It's a place I can establish my identity. It's where I vent my competitive side. It's where I can aspire to greatness, and test the limits of my inner strength. I learn to deal with other people, see their good points and bad points and try to account for them