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12 | Commentary
r
A family that plays together
in the Ultimate game
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Around Town
Joe Earle is editor-at-large at Reporter Newspapers and has lived in metro Atlanta
for over 30 years. He can he reached atjoeearle@reportemewspapers.net
From left, Jacques and Fred Perivier.
JOE EARLE
After Fred Perivier graduated from
college in 1979, he bought a motorcy
cle and headed to Atlanta to visit some
friends and look for a job. He was sleep
ing on a couch in a house in Sandy
Springs, he said, when he decided to put
a personal ad in the daily paper seeking
others who played a Frisbee-based game
he’d learned at school.
It didn’t take long for someone to tell
him about a group that regularly got to
gether to play the sport then known as
Ultimate Frisbee and now simply as Ul
timate. They gathered at Piedmont Park
or at Emory. There weren’t many of
them. The game, having sprung up at a
New Jersey high school only about a de
cade earlier, was just too new.
“When I first moved to Atlanta, there
were about 40 players in town,” the
6l-year-old Perivier said recently. “Back
then, the community was very tight be
cause there were so few people. For me,
at least, some of my oldest friends are
guys are I played with, guys from the
’80s. We still have that bond.”
Perivier became a fixture in met
ro Atlanta’s Ulimate world, which pro
ponents of the sport say has grown to
about 3,000 players on a dozen club
teams, 30 high school teams and a doz
en college teams. In the early ’80s, he
played on Chain Lightning, an Ultimate
club team that represented Atlanta in
tournaments across the Southeast and
the country.
They traveled to matches in commu
nities spread from Florida to Wisconsin
and Boston to San Francisco. One year,
they played in 15 tournaments, he said.
“I remember one year, Delta [Air Lines]
had a big sale and you could go any
where in the country for 150 bucks,” he
said. “We all bought tickets to go to tour
naments.”
Perivier played an important role in
Ultimate’s growth off the field, too. He
helped create the Atlanta Flying Disc
Club and coached teams at Georgia Tech
and in local public schools. He no longer
plays the game, but still coaches Lake
side High’s team.
His entire family has grown roots
deep into the Ultimate world, as well. He
met his wife playing the game. His three
children - Jacques, 22, Laurence, 20, and
Marie, 18 - all play on Georgia college
teams, and Marie recently was named a
runner-up for the national Rookie of the
Year title.
Jacques, who plays for Georgia Col
lege and on the semi-pro team the At
lanta Hustle, said he’s been playing
the sport since he was in sixth grade.
His dad was his coach then. “I’ve been
around it my entire life,” he said over
a lunch with his dad recently. He grew
up in north DeKalb County. His fami
ly regularly tossed a Frisbee around the
cul-de-sac. He kept playing through high
school, college and plans to keep go
ing on post-college teams. “I love the ca
maraderie, just having a team,” Jacques
said. “I enjoy the community aspect.”
When Jacques was younger, he had
to choose between soccer and Ultimate.
He chose to stay with Ultimate because
he thought he'd could play the game lon
ger before he aged out, he said. After all,
his dad played on senior teams into his
fifties. “I can keep going in Ultimate,”
Jacques said. “With soccer, as an adult,
unless you’re really good, it’s all in ca
sual pick-up play. I like the competitive
aspects. I like to compete. You can still
compete in Ultimate at a high level.”
The Periviers also argue that unlike
many other American team sports, Ulti
mate has built into its very fabric a sense
of what can only be called honor. There
are no refs. Players call any fouls them
selves. They call it “Spirit of the Game,”
and it’s written into the rules. Perhaps
it’s a holdover from the sports early, tie-
dyed days, but players are charged with
being honest and telling the truth. “It
really works well,” Fred said, although
Jacques said he’d just as soon have refs
to help keep things under control.
They seem to agree that even though
their young sport is growing, the idea of
tossing a Frisbee up and down a field for
points still seems strange to a lot of fans
of other, more familiar games. Those
folks, they say, don’t show Ultimate any
respect. “You don’t get teased for playing
soccer,” Jacques said.
Ultimate, it appears, may still some
thing of a PR problem. In June, Jacques
and Marie were to play in an exhibition
at St. Pius X High School intended to
promote the game and to attract more
minority players.
“You ask nine out of 10 people what
Ultimate Frisbee is, they’ll say, ‘That’s
what the dogs do, isn’t it?’ Fred said.
“Some people ... say, ‘That’s not a
sport,” Jacques chimed in, “It’s just a
bunch of hippies out there.”
“That changes when once they see it,”
Fred said.
“I’m going to say, once they get out
there and try it,” Jacques said, the desire
for competition showing in his smile.
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