25 YEARS APART: MICHELE PEZZOLI and ESTHER WARREN

In 1979 Michele Pezzoli’s lesser-known husband Tom Kennedy founded the UPA. Michele had been competing on the freestyle circuit when she met TK in 1976 at an Ultimate tournament in Santa Barbara. Other disc events like MTA, freestyle, Guts and the like were the main focus of most disc enthusiasts at the time but there was something about Ultimate that stayed with Pezzoli.

Esther Warren started playing in South Bend, Indiana nearly twenty-five years later. She learned of the sport in 8^th grade when her sister returned from college and introduced it to the family. Her father had been an early member of the International Frisbee Association, the IFA, but hadn’t played the game of Ultimate. Frisbee is in Esther’s roots and she could well be playing the game twenty-five years after she started. Who’s in for the revival of Women’s Masters in 2024?

Together Esther and Michele represent the growth, spirit and universality of Ultimate over the course of twenty-five years. What is Ultimate about? What was Ultimate about? Where will it go next?

"I don’t think Ultimate will ever get to the point where society at large will know it, and that’s good for the sport," says Warren. "I wouldn’t hope that Ultimate grows too much because there’s a great community of people involved right now. The people that play want to keep it intimate and keep it a community."

Michele (UPA number 679) started playing disc in the Bay Area in the mid 70s when Ultimate began to take hold. "Frisbee was a real hippie thing," she says, "The spirit of the game was the most important, coolest part of playing Ultimate. You should do your best and play hard and be fair–it was a different way from other sports, and it was part of that era."

But there’s more to Ultimate than just a social group of folks throwing the ‘bee in the park. For Michele and many women from the early years, Ultimate was a viable athletic outlet when there weren’t many opportunities for women.

"There were virtually no sports for women in high school in 1967. There was the GAA, the Girls Athletic Association that sponsored ‘play opportunities’ after school," says Pezzoli. "When I started playing Ultimate it was almost a discovery in some way. I really didn’t get to know my athletic ability until I started to play frisbee."

For Esther, growing up in the 90s was different. "It’s a common switch: I played soccer my freshman year but as Ultimate got bigger and bigger for me, then I stopped playing. I do believe my soccer skills helped me in my Ultimate game though," explains Esther.

Esther will have the chance to compete for a World Championship this summer when she heads to Finland with Team USA. "I’m really excited about Worlds. I also understand that I’m playing with some great women of my age and sometimes it’s difficult to understand these women athletically because they’re so talented."

"I may not be the best athlete, but I am very passionate about a few things and I’m very passionate about Ultimate," she says. "I love my forehand huck. Forehand anything really. The best feeling is seeing someone open downfield."

When Michele started playing there was no forehand throw. In addition to being one of the founders of the Lady Condors, Pezzoli, along with Suzanne Fields, Mary Louise Mahoney and Leslie Scott organized the Women’s division for the UPA in 1981. They got enough regions to make the competition for Nationals a worthy title. Later in the 80’s Michele was involved in coaching collegiate women players at UCSB and she found women who had athletic backgrounds from the 70s when Title IX had taken root. But they didn’t necessarily have the throws.

"Right after the women’s division formed we continued to play co-ed as much as we could for the lack of women’s teams. But TK and Tom Shepard had started intramurals at UCSB around this time and a lot of women who were playing intramurals came out to play with the Lady Condors. They were athletic women and they had more experience in sports than I had, but they did not have throwing skills. It took women a little longer to come along in the game."

"Playing co-ed was the only thing until the mid 80s. The guys would have a tendency to look to us to dump all the time. A couple of times we practiced playing men versus women and eventually those games became fun and competitive," says Pezzoli, "by that time there were fourteen of us on the Lady Condors and we were practicing four times a week."

Esther played co-ed for the 2002 Club Season and became a middle and handler for the South Bend team Blah Blah Blah that finished 12th at Nationals. Instead of guys looking for her to drop the disc back, Esther, the youngest player on the team, became the dump option.

"I think one of my favorite memories from Nationals was getting a dump swing from Jason Shear. I sent a nice forehand up the line to Mike Shiel who immediately sent a huck to the endzone to one of our woman players who caught it for a goal."

At the end of the day, it’s the people in the game that keep all of us playing: The humor, the spirit, the goofiness and the camraderie of Ultimate players.

"Now I love everything about the game," explains Esther. "Originally it was the people I appreciated and I still do. The people kept me in the game. The guys and girls from Notre Dame and Tiina Booth’s Ultimate camp. My sister’s boyfriend. I’ve gotten to play with a lot of people from Haverford to Amherst to South Bend and I’m still learning."

"There are so many great people in Ultimate," says Michele. "I made so many friendships out of that time we were winning nationals. There are something like 15 couples between the men and women Condor teams from that time and they are friends of mine for life. I feel lucky that I got to be part of it all."

In 1987 Michele Pezzoli retired from playing. The Lady Condors had won their fourth straight National Championship and the injuries were adding up. After an enormously fulfilling eleven year career she hung up her cleats. But Ultimate is not easy to give up.

"For a long time it was hard to watch Ultimate because I wasn’t playing. It hurt because I just loved playing," she says.

Twenty-five years from now the UPA will be still be active in helping women and men enjoy the game of Ultimate at the highest levels of competition and the most spirited levels of summer league. For now we celebrate the growth of Ultimate and all the things that have stayed the same, from the earliest days when the women’s division was founded with Michele’s help in 1981 to the 2004 World Championships where Esther will help the Junior Girls of Team USA vie for a medal.

This was written for the 25th anniversary of the UPA.

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