From being a group of people with no title, the co-founders molded it into a school club and a part of the coed Ultimate Frisbee team.

“When we started last year, there were five or six of us with no coach, playing for fun,” Coppell senior Ethan Horng said. “Then, we decided, ‘you know what? Let’s start a team.’”

Horng and Coppell 2022 alum Sharan Sethi co-founded the current Coppell Ultimate Frisbee team last year based on their mutual love for the game.

“Everybody’s throwing a Frisbee at some point,” Horng said. “But most people have never put the time into actually learning the proper way to play.”

Despite the COVID pandemic, students all over the country have maintained their dedication to the Ultimate Frisbee league, including students from Coppell High School.

“COVID killed almost every team in the state a couple of years ago,” Horng said. “We had to rebuild every team that wanted to play again.”

Unlike Horng and Sethi, most of the members had less experience playing. Instead of falling behind, the more experienced players helped anyone who needed it.

“I never played Ultimate Frisbee before joining the team,” Coppell senior co-head captain Nandhini Parthipan said. “The [officers] and coaches were very supportive and created a positive environment where we could develop our skills.”

CHS senior Kaveen Patel serves as a co-head captain. The team practices three times per week, in addition to competing in tournaments and scrimmages.

The field is always dotted with athletic shirts every practice, filled with dedicated team members competing. Horng said 20 members is the ideal size for a frisbee team, as his Coppell team typically has about 14 players.

Along with weekly practices, the team competes across the state. The Coppell team plays many matches with organizations in the DFW area, including Plano, Flower Mound Marcus and Lake Highlands. The team participates in state and college tournaments.

“We recently played down in Waco and in Austin,” Horng said.“The whole team took three cars and everybody squeezed in there as we drove a couple hours.”

Despite being player officiated, the state competitions are organized by Texas Youth Ultimate and are bracket-style.

The coach’s job is unconventional; rather than being an active teacher, Coppell 2016 alum Aaron Thompson takes a more relaxed approach.

“His role is mainly to teach the newer guys proper technique,” Horng said. “Him and the more experienced members like myself and my brother are the ones that teach [newcomers] how to play the game.”

Because of his history on the Coppell Ultimate Frisbee team in his years of high school. Thompson has more reason to coach the team.

“Ultimate [Frisbee] is about more than just what happens on the field,” Thompson said. “I enjoy being able to facilitate this environment where the players can grow not just as athletes, but also as young adults.”

Being on the team means more to the players than just having a good time. For most, it provides a special community.

“When I first joined, I was new to the U.S. and didn’t have many friends,” Coppell senior social media manager Vivek Ghadicherla said. “They were some of the first ones I made here.”

From throwing a disc in their backyard, Horng has been able to play with his younger brother as peers rather than siblings.

“This is the only time I’ve been on the same team as Ethan for a sport,” Coppell sophomore Jadon Horng said. “I’m glad I get to be able to do it with him before he leaves for college.”

The team is focusing on getting more upperclassmen and underclassmen to join for the last semesters, a time of many activities.

“We are starting our major recruiting push for the spring season,” Horng said. “The more people we can recruit, now we can train them to play at state.”

In addition to the push to recruit players, the team’s priority is to make sure the Coppell Ultimate Frisbee team stays in the years to come.

“Being the youngest on the team, my role is to try to recruit people from my age for next year,” Jadon Horng said. “We’ll grow in size, but we’ll also grow to be better teammates and to play together better.”

Everyone is free to join, no matter how interested you are. But, the team believes each person will quickly learn to love the sport.

“If you introduce somebody to the Ultimate Frisbee, it’s very rare that they’ll play for a while and then stop,” Horng said.

Follow Maya (@mvpalovalley) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.