Vancouver Island ultimate frisbee team reaching for the top at nationals

An ultimate Frisbee team from Vancouver Island University will be trying to win it all at its first-ever nationals later this month.

The VIU Ultimate Club will be headed to Ultimate Canada's Canadian University Ultimate Championships at Brampton, Ont., at Creditview Sandalwood Park from Oct. 18-20.

Kaita Heydemann, VIU Ultimate Club president, tried forming a club last year, to no avail, but was able to put together a team this year with a "great group of people." VIU will enter the co-ed five-on-five division.

"Usually at bigger tournaments, you'll see universities put together an all-women's team or an all-guys' team, but because we don't have as many people this year, just because it's our first year, we wanted to set the bar a bit lower and go for fives at nationals. I'm really excited. We have a team of about 16 people coming."

With the first-year team going to nationals for the first time, Heydemann said she doesn't know what to expect.

"I think our goal is to just have as much fun as possible, take this as a learning experience for next year, because this is our first year," she said. "So it's a lot of experimenting and seeing how things work and what our expectations are going to be going forward."

While the VIU club is only open to students, people interested in joining a league can find out more information at http://nanaimoultimate.ca.

For more information on nationals, visit http://canadianultimate.com/en_ca/p/2024-cuuc-tournament-central.