Warrnambool couple share Ultimate Frisbee experiences

The former Australian representatives have gained plenty since they took up Ultimate Frisbee.

The sport has taken them around the world and helped them develop in their profession.

It's given them friendships for life and it's also where they found each other.

"We actually met through Ultimate, we're both exercise physiologists and in 2012 we were both the sports trainers for the under 19s Australian worlds teams," Meehan said.

She was the women's trainer and Jones was the men's one.

"We met because Dallas was playing for Ballarat and my coach at that point was a Ballarat player so she's the one who said 'hey, I think you guys should meet and have a bit of a chat with you both being sports trainers and things like that'.

"And then we became pretty much best friends and then everything just went on from there."

The couple now have one-year-old, Hayden.

"And he'll be a future Ultimate Frisbee player," Meehan said with a laugh.

READ MORE:

Her relationship with the sport, which is much like a combination of netball and gridiron, started back in the United States.

Meehan, who hails from New Jersey, starting playing socially when at university in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 2000s.

She came to Australia in 2003 to do her post graduate degree in exercise physiology at Victoria University and got involved with Ultimate again.

"It was a really good social outlet because I didn't know anyone in Australia and instantly I made 50 to 60 friends," she said.

"It was social but you had the opportunity to compete at higher levels."

Jones, originally from Warrnambool, played his first uni games for University of Ballarat (Federation) in 2011.

Uni games is a chance for students to compete against other universities in various different sports.

"At the time it was the biggest sport at uni games, the most amount of numbers, the most amount of teams that went," Jones said.

He feels that was because the Ultimate community is tight-knit and everyone gets to know each other through playing on various teams.

"Rather than being rivals, you're really good friends off the field," he said.

"Uni games is really social, a lot of (players) keep coming back each year because you know who is going to be there."

While there's a great social side to the game, the couple got to play for the Aussie team in 2015 at open level.

They played in the Asia Oceanic Championships at Mong Kok stadium in Hong Kong.

Jones' men's team finished runner-up to Japan while Meehan's side, Quokkas, came fourth and won the spirit award.

While they have done a lot of interstate travel for Frisbee, there was something special about competing overseas for Meehan.

"I guess going to another country, they do that whole ceremony at the beginning and you walk out as a team you're holding your flag and just knowing that there's a select number of people who get to do that," she said.

Playing against people from different countries was one of her highlights.

"Even though we spoke different languages we all spoke the same language which was Ultimate," she said.

Hong Kong was just one of five overseas trips the couple made that year.

Jones also represented Australia at the Beach World Championships in Dubai and played a tournament in Hawaii for his Melbourne club team, Heads of State (HOS).

Jones and Meehan also competed at the Asia Oceanic Club Championship in 2017.

Among their Ultimate adventures they moved to Warrnambool in 2016.

The couple has been trying to grow the game in the south-west and Jones has been the Warrnambool Ultimate president for four years.

The most significant step was a Victorian Ultimate League tournament in Warrnambool a couple of years ago.

It was spread over three or four different weekends at Harris Street Reserve and the showgrounds.

"That was probably the first and only time we really sent a Warrnambool team to anything - it was mainly Warrnambool players."

He said there were many challenges to growing the game in the south-west, not just the wind.

"A lot of the inter-club competition is based in Melbourne," he said.

"In other sports, you might get a couple of players willing to travel to that but to get a whole team willing to travel for some interclub stuff is a bit challenging.

"I think we've got room to grow and develop good players as individuals that might be able to get on some teams - we have had them on the Victorian teams.

"I think it will take a bit to get it as a club that could represent at a Victorian level but that's not to say that we can't be a bit of a feeder club that sends players to Ballarat or Geelong.

"I would hope we could get a league at some point down here - to get eight teams that play in a league would be awesome."

Perhaps the biggest focus right now is just getting the word out there about Ultimate.

"It's just not known down in this area," Jones said.

"I don't think the Warrnambool uni has a team, in Ballarat and Geelong there's a uni team that drives a lot of those numbers and then from that you get into schools and bring kids through.

"We don't sort of have that here currently."

Jones believes there's plenty to be gained from the self-refereed sport - players from opposing teams discuss decisions such as fouls.

"It's really good for developing kids with the sportsmanship and conflict-resolution," he said.

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.