Photo credit: Jonathan Tick and Alexa DeRonde

By Steve Sears

Since the sport of frisbee had its start in Essex County in 1968, perhaps not much has changed – except the frisbee itself.

There’s another first in the Garden State. The West Orange High School Ultimate Frisbee Club has been chosen to test the new TOSY Flying Duo 360 LED Flying Disc & Patented Boomerang.

Jonathan Tick, who has been a mathematics teacher at the school for 13 years, is in his 10th year as the Ultimate Frisbee Club’s faculty advisor. “It started at Columbia High School,” Tick says. “The actual sport is called ‘Ultimate,’ and the disc – people usually call it a frisbee because that’s the original name that was created years ago.”

Tick and his club members were selected via a Facebook campaign by TOSY, who asked groups to apply online to sample the new, specialized disc. “We might be the only one in New Jersey,” says Tick, “but they have people around the world testing it now.”

The TOSY Flying Duo 360 LED Flying Disc & Patented Boomerang is much different from a regular frisbee. Tick explains. “The big difference is the light up part, but it’s the way they structured the frisbee that’s completely different from other light up frisbees. Some of the light up frisbees have a battery pack underneath and it’s very bulky, and it adds a lot of weight to the disc. But this one, it’s a very small, thin battery pack which is rechargeable. It still gives you the light up part, but it also maintains that actual, natural weight that you use for competitions.”

The Ultimate Frisbee Club is welcome to keep the unique disc for a period, continue to try it out, and there is a

discount for the disc should the club wish to purchase it. “We practice twice a week,” Tick says, “and we’re using the frisbee right now for a trial to test it out and see what works, what doesn’t work, and even provide feedback, but our ultimate goal was we wanted to use it when it started getting darker out so we could see better and keep practices going. Eventually, they might certify it, but right now it’s not going to be certified for competitions because it’s so new.”

Tick attended high school in Marlboro and played frisbee in gym class, and then while in college he and some classmates tried to start an Ultimate frisbee team. That attempt bore no fruit, but he and others still competed amongst themselves and had fun, and Tick continued to do so after college. Once at West Orange High School, a student approached him about being advisor, and he dove in.

“I joined the club because a friend said I should give it a try. I gave it a shot and I ended up really liking it. It is a lot of fun and there is never a dull moment,” says Alfred Jaeger, a captain of the team and a senior at West Orange High School.

Ultimate is a spring sport, but Tick’s team plays in the fall as an introductory season. Practice is held twice per week, and anywhere from 14 to 24 members attend depending on the day. But there are never less than 14.

“I honestly joined the club because it seemed fun and I had friends who did it,” says Ian Gustavson, a senior captain who, like Tick, learned to love the sport in high school. “After the first practice, I decided that I wanted to keep doing it. Between me finding people like me in the club and just how fun it is, I fell in love with it instantly.” 

His words are echoed by another senior captain, Yusuf Abouelnaja. “When I first joined the club, I was under the impression that it would just be me and a couple of my friends messing around. I had no idea how invested I would become later on. Now in my fourth and last year of high school, I am one of the captains of this club, and I can say it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

“The best thing about the Ultimate Frisbee Club are the students,” says their advisor. “They bring so much energy so much excitement to the club, it’s been spreading like wild fire.”

For more information about the West Orange High School Ultimate Frisbee Club, contact Jonathan Tick at jtick@westorangeschools.org, or visit the club’s Instagram site at @wohs_frisbee.