The Commies canceled film night. Instead of reviewing tapes ofpast games, they ran extra windsprints.
Lady Godiva, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically demure. It's along season, the Godivas figure. As reigning champs, they plan tohusband their energies for big games in November.
As Ultimate Frisbee buffs know, the Commies are the best men'sFrisbee team in Boston. Lady Godiva, also of Boston, is the bestwomen's team in the country.
For the Commies and Lady Godiva, the 1992 Ultimate Frisbee seasonbegan yesterday with the start of a two-day tournament billed as theWimbledon of its sport.
On the greensward of Columbus Park in South Boston, 16 teams fromaround the country are engaging in one of the few tournaments on theFrisbee tour that awards prize money. At the conclusion of today'splay, the top teams in the men's and women's divisions will each beawarded $4,000.
For many Americans, Frisbee is a throwaway sport, a badmintonalternative that can be played with children or dogs.
To a small band of devotees, however, Frisbee is a far granderthing, an obsession worthy of career changes and cross-country moves,an avocation both costly and time-consuming.
'There are only two things we do -- work and play Frisbee,' saysGodiva player Robin Barney, a 31-year-old chemical engineer. 'Ourlives revolve around our sport.'
Barney's commitment is not unusual. Teammate Christine Dunlap,28, commutes to most of Godiva's four weekly practices from her homein Vermont, a 2 1/2 hour drive each way.
Social worker Anne Westcott, meanwhile, is hors de Frisbee.Honorably lamed in a July practice match, she hopes her surgicallyrepaired Achilles' tendon is fully healed before the Novemberchampionships.
On the practice fields of Wellesley and Newton, she watches on thesidelines as the team practices under the stern gaze of coach ChrisPhillips. 'They've got a lot of heart and stamina,' he says. 'Butthey can be a handful.'
Once an avid player, Phillips, 30, is on his third career. Whenmonitoring satellite signals in New Jersey got in the way of hissport, he decamped to the Hub to play for a top team. For the pastfew years, he has worked as a carpenter. Now training as a physicaltherapist, he's on sabbatical from active play.
As Phillips explains it, 'Ultimate Frisbee' synthesizes elementsof football, soccer and lacrosse.
On a football field, the offensive team scores a point when itpasses the Frisbee to a receiver in the end zone. Running with theFrisbee is not allowed; it can only be advanced by passing. Anincomplete pass results in a change of possession.
Teams field seven players at a time. Given the game's fast pace,there are frequent substitutions. Though elite players specialize incertain skills, anyone can throw or catch.
'In this game, anyone can be a quarterback,' says AndrewBorinstein, 31, a Time Inc. researcher and an acolyte to the PennState professor who tends the Frisbee archives.
If the history of Frisbee were made into a movie, the title mightbe 'The Revenge of the New Jersey Nerds.'
According to cherished lore, the Abner Doubledays of the sportwere student government leaders and school newspaper editors at ahigh school in Maplewood, N.J.
After inventing the game in the school parking lot in 1968, thesepioneers spread the word in a student government newsletter. Theyalso brought their sport with them when they attended colleges suchas Yale, Cornell, Columbia and Princeton.
'These guys were not athletes,' Borinstein says. 'They werestrait-laced suburban kids.'
As a home to many colleges, the Hub eventually emerged as aFrisbee hotbed. Katherine Rowe, 30, a Yale English professor whohelps run a Boston corporate Frisbee league, estimates that 80 teamsplay in the area.
That includes teams for Boston University, Tufts, Boston College,Harvard and MIT, says Steve Goodfriend, the regional coordinator forthe Ultimate Players Association, a national group of 10,000 memberswho pay annual dues of $25.
Club teams from the Northeast, such as the Commies and Godivas,are chock-a-block with young professionals -- money managers, goldtraders, Shakespearean scholars, computer software designers.
These zealots think nothing of shelling out $3,000 to $5,000 ayear to subsidize road trips. This season, the ultimate road tripwill be to San Diego, site of the national championship.
Because of its desirable demographics, Frisbee has attracted somecorporate sponsorship. The patron of the Boston tournament is JoseCuervo Tequila, which makes some uneasy.
As a spectator sport, Ultimate Frisbee is strictly ho-hum. Tomake it crowd-pleasing, Cuervo has brought in canine aerobaticsdemonstrations. It has also decreed a rule change that createssomething like basketball's three-point play.
But such corporate dog-and-Frisbee shows could queer the sport'spristine karma, fears Borinstein, the players associationapparatchik.
'When I started playing in Philadelphia, it was a renegade sport,almost a hippie sport,' says Godiva's Heather Morris, 31, a Bostonmoney manager. 'I liked that. No rules, no referees -- I liked thattoo. Now it's got to the point where people move to different citiesto play with a certain team.'
While purists fret, there is one consolation: Frisbee seemsconducive to romance. Many elite players date one other, and Frisbeemarriages are nearly as common as knee injuries.
Computer consultant Michael Terner is but one of many who can say,'I met my wife through Frisbee.'
'It's a tightly knit social circle,' agrees Adam Phillips, whosefiancee plays for Lady Godiva.
On flinging Frisbees and woo, he says, 'Ultimate players -- theyknow how to party.'
