‘Goot Times’ team seeking new Ultimate players

Interested in Ultimate Frisbee and maybe making a few new friends? The Goot Times Ultimate team in Camas would like to meet you. "It's definitely a fun sport and we're in need of new players," said Curtis Bedont, of Camas. Bedont has been meeting up with other Ultimate fans every weekend for the past eight years. "When Mike Forsyth moved to Camas in 2014 with his wife and four kids, he wanted to make some new friends. On a whim, he decided to start up a group to play Ultimate on Saturday mornings," Bedont recalled. Forsyth recruited a few people -- including Bedont -- from his local Church of latter-day Saints and started a Meetup group to let other Ultimate enthusiasts know they could join a pick-up Ultimate game any given Saturday morning in Camas. Soon, the Saturday players joined with Doug Brumfield's Sunday Ultimate Frisbee group and many players from both groups began playing Ultimate on Saturday mornings as well as Sunday afternoons. At first, the players went to Cardon Field or used the soccer fields at nearby Camas High School, but that proved problematic, Bedont said. "We would occasionally get kicked off the soccer field so that soccer teams could play. Imagine that! So, the Sunday group recommended playing where they played -- at Goot Park in Camas," Bedont said. "In 2016, the location was officially moved to Goot Park, and Goot Times Ultimate was created." Forsyth would send weekly reminders and get the field set up for games until he decided, in 2017, to spend more time with his family on the weekends, Bedont said. "He handed the reins of the group over to me, since I had been playing with (Forsyth) from the inception of his Saturday morning Ultimate games in Camas." The Goot Times Ultimate group now gathers at Goot Park (303 S.E. Zenith St., Camas) from 8:15 to 10 a.m. every Saturday morning, rain or shine -- or even snow, Bedont said. "One of the great things about Ultimate is that people of all ages can play together," Bedont, who may be better known as the head of the Camas-based Bedont Orthodontics, said. "Goot Times Ultimate has had boys and girls start playing at 6 to 7 years old, and also has several people playing in their 50s. We welcome new players of all ages and skill levels." Bedont described Ultimate Frisbee as "a team sport, which mixes elements of football, basketball and rugby, substituting both the ball with a flying disc (Frisbee) and the referee with spirit of the game." "It's the most popular team sport among those played with a flying disc," Bedont added. "The game originated in New Jersey in 1968 at Columbia High School. Four years later, the first college Ultimate game was played between Rutgers and Princeton. Today, Ultimate is played around the world and may end up as an Olympic sport in the 2028 Olympics." Want to learn more about the sport? Bedont said usaultimate.org has good resources online, or people can watch pickup games throughout the Portland-Vancouver metro area. In fact, he said, the Portland area even has two pro teams -- the men's Portland Nitro and women's Oregon Onyx -- as well as several youth and adult leagues. For those interested in joining the Goot Times Ultimate group on Saturday mornings, Bedont said newbies are welcome to show up -- preferably wearing cleats or, if they don't have cleats, then sturdy sneakers --- and practice with more experienced Ultimate players. "The majority of the people who play (with us) are in their 20s and 30s," Bedont, 50, said. "But we've had older and younger players." With many of their younger players having recently graduated from high school or college, Bedont said the Goot Times team is in need of some new additions. "Ideally, we want a team of 14, to play seven on seven," Bedont said, "but we can play with a minimum of four on four and up to 10 on 10. When we get more players, we use two fields." Bedont said he has met new friends at the Saturday games and even ran the Hood to Coast relay race with one of his Ultimate friends in 2021. "It's fun. It's challenging. And it's a good workout," Bedont said of the sport. "Last year, I logged 200 miles just playing Ultimate." To learn more about the Goot Times Ultimate team, visit facebook.com/groups/goot.times.ultimate or, as Bedont put it: "if you are ready to get out and play Ultimate, join us next Saturday morning at Goot Park."

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