Smith’s ultimate frisbee team, LunaDisc, is open to all students regardless of ability or experience level. The organization operates as a single team socially, but they are split up into two teams for competition: Luna is the “A” team or the team for more experienced players, while Sola (short for solar eclipse) is a more developmental league that provides hands-on support and practice for newer players. Each team has two captains: Al Torrens-Martin ’25 and Sophia Jerome ’27 lead Luna, while Ginger Silverman ’26 and Syd Pichette ’27 lead Sola.
Both teams are coached by volunteers from the community who teach the groups new skills and provide feedback. The captains explained that the ultimate frisbee community in Northampton is strong, and local players are eager to assist the club and share their expertise.
LunaDisc is rapidly expanding, gaining 89 new members from the involvement fair this year and welcoming back many veterans.
“We have a really good number of the team that have either never played frisbee before or have never played a club sport before and they are just trying to get active […] The social part of it is a big draw for them,” Jerome said.
With this large influx of new players, the Sola captains aim to create a comfortable environment to counter the challenge of learning a new and complex sport. They emphasize dedication and positivity over perfection.
“Our goal is to create the best learning environment and the safest learning environment to teach frisbee and to grow as a team,” Pichette said. “A big part of it is being extra positive every single day and just showing up and being committed, not only to the sport, but to each other.”
Even for the more competitive Luna branch, the captains echoed this focus on fun and community.
“Making athleticism as fun as it can be and as chill and supportive of a community as it can be is a big goal for us.” Torrens-Martin said. “And for me personally, joining Luna after playing other sports in high school or being on an ultra-competitive frisbee team, I was really happy to be in a new energy and a new culture where actually the emphasis is on being around amazing people and getting to know people.”
“The social side and the athletic side work well together in really nice ways where you’re benefiting from both at the same time,” they continued.
The team competes year-round, participating in themed tournaments in the fall, including the Lobster Pot tournament in Portland, Maine and their own Huck-a-Lantern tournament in celebration of Halloween. The spring season features more formal competitions, including sectionals and regionals that would allow them to qualify for the Division III National Championship in the future.
The two sides of the team split practices twice a week to accommodate the different levels, but strive to keep training as collaboratively as possible. The team lifts together and scrimmages as a full group every Thursday. This practice is known as “Big Game Day,” where players dress up in costumes to build camaraderie while still offering the chance to implement their skills in real competitions.
The team maintains a social and interactive atmosphere throughout practice. LunaDisc begins each session with a grounding circle, where they practice stillness and self-reflection and acknowledge each other and the land they practice on. They then begin warm-ups, where captains encourage player interaction while completing dynamic drills. After splitting off into Luna and Sola for skills practice and smaller-scale scrimmages, the full team regroups for conditioning, cooling down and group stretching to share announcements and reflections about the session.
LunaDisc’s team-building approach extends beyond formal practices. “As a whole team, we have a lot of events,” Silverman said. “We have board game nights, we have sib week coming up so similar to how houses do sib week, we have big frisbee sibs and little frisbee sibs for all the new people so that [new players] have a little friend on the team.”
The captains agreed that the team’s main goal for this year is to foster a strong community and team chemistry in an attempt to maintain high attendance and commitment to ensure the future of the organization.
“We work really hard to make sure that everything on the social side of the team is really welcoming, and we put a lot of our energy, I think, into that experience for new players,” Torrens-Martin said.
“We want to keep coming back each year,” they said, “because that is very important, keeping the team culture alive over the years as new leadership changes and people graduate.”
The captains also spoke about LunaDisc’s unique position as a club sport, which allows them to create a welcoming and open environment.
“We may not get as much funding as varsity teams, but we’re delighted to be a club sport,” Silverman said. Torrens-Martin added, “Being a club sport gives us a certain element of freedom where there might not be as rigid guidelines” and allows Luna to “go against the grain of the rest of sports culture” that might be intimidating for some people just looking to find community and get active.
Looking ahead, the team is preparing for their home Huck-a-Lantern tournament on Oct. 27. They will host seven other teams on the athletic fields and invite Smith students and LunaDisc alumnae to come show support.
